Member Blog

It’s free to join SPR and blog about your writing experiences. Read the latest blog entries from our community

ADAP Offers Ebook Advertisement Money for Authors

BookIM is announcing the launch of ADAP, eBook Advertising for Authors and Independent Publishers. ADAP is a new ebook advertisement program that is sensitive to the needs of authors and readers while creating new revenue opportunities for authors. Being an author, I know that the thought of adding ebook advertisements to a novel is anathema to most authors. Mention ebook advertisements to any author and you’ll receive in return an out pouring of emotional vitriol about the subject. However; convergence continues to hammer book publishers and authors are facing some serious diminishing returns when they inspect their royalty checks. And […]

2013-03-17T09:25:04+02:00March 17th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog, Resources|

Barnes & Noble Weighs Its E-Reader Investment

Could this be the end of the Nook? Via the New York Times:

Even for a company with a lot of bad news lately, the bulletin from Barnes & Noble this month had an ominous feel.

Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest book chain, warned that when it reports fiscal 2013 third-quarter results on Thursday, losses in its Nook Media division — which includes sales of e-books and devices — will be greater than the year before and that the unit’s revenue for all of fiscal 2013 would be far below projections it gave of $3 billion.

The problem

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2013-02-26T02:36:25+02:00February 26th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog, News|

Taopix to Collaborate for Self-Publishing with FastPencil

The UK photo book software developer, Taopix, has announced its new collaboration with Silicon Valley’s on-line self-publishing engine, FastPencil. This will offer an opportunity to picture book self-published authors to have a real choice about illustrations in their books instead of the difficult price sacrifices needed on the mainstream suppliers, such as Amazon’s Createspace.

Self-publishing involves a three-way partnership between the author, the e-commerce/publishing company and the actual book manufacturer. In this instance, the digital print company – the Taopix customer – will be able to offer photo book manufacturing services to authors and FastPencil will provide the […]

2017-03-24T09:09:46+02:00February 20th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|

Founder of Santa Barbara Writers Conference, Barnaby Conrad, Dies Aged 90

 

When I started research on my book about the morals of bullfighting I traveled to Seville, the capital of Andalusia in Spain, where I met a wonderful American self-published author, Kitty Witwer. She wrote a book about being a female bullfighting fan, “Divine Addiction“, which is basically hailed as the “Almost Famous” of the taurine literary world, journaling her trips to Central and South America and her beloved Spain, following handsome bullfighters, then treated like rockstars, across country in trains, planes and automobiles – whatever you think of bullfighting this book is a great “road […]

2013-02-14T07:40:28+02:00February 14th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|

Why One-Star Reviews Matter

The most trusted form of criticism for consumers on the internet is now the consumer review. Hailed as SEO gold by Google, these reviews are popping up all over the joint due to rich snippets, which I will explain in my next post in more detail.

In fact, 63% of consumers now buy products not based on the review, but on the rating. Which is scary news for us self-publishers.

consumer ratings

However, I am thinking Amazon, Google, Goodreads, Kindleboards and all the rest of them need to be reviewing their reviewers. With one-star reviews being added to books due to […]

2019-02-03T09:28:57+02:00February 13th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|Tags: , , , |

Why Amazon Just Doesn’t Play Fair With Formatting

Self-published author Catherine Tosko on why Amazon should write a story of their own before publishing other people’s.

Someone I know has just published their second book on Amazon and due to formatting issues has completely given up on selling any more books due to bad reviews, not about the book but about the formatting.

Then the same day, a friend, a well known self-publisher had the exact same problem with Kindle Fire formatting that I had six months ago when I published my book and is probably tearing his hair out as I write.

Why? Because you can’t even […]

2013-02-10T10:01:59+02:00February 9th, 2013|Categories: Features, Member Blog|Tags: |

But Don’t Obsess . . . .

Recently in this space, I came down pretty hard with the advice that you should make sure your writing is as smooth and error free as possible before you publish it. Now that I’ve made that point, I want to add the corollary: Don’t obsess. Well, maybe obsess a little, but not too much. The fear of a misplaced comma, or a subject and a verb that are having relationship problems, can be almost as much an obstacle to creativity as the fear of what your mother will think when she reads your book. (And if your mother happens […]

2013-02-08T14:45:05+02:00February 8th, 2013|Categories: Features, Member Blog|Tags: |

The end of traditional publishing occurred in 2008……apparently

When I was thirteen I bought a lot of CD’s. I would spend hours flicking through the alphabetically lined racks on the hunt for Madonna, Guns and Roses, or the soundtrack for “Days of Thunder.” I would turn it over and take in the pictures. I would pull out the little booklet and pray that the lyrics had been printed inside so I could learn them and prove that I was a real fan by singing along when it came on the radio. I loved the whole process of CD buying. I still love music, but yet I haven’t bought […]

2013-02-08T14:14:02+02:00February 8th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog|
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