Tagging ebooks on Kindle is just another attempt to get noticed. The theory is: the more tags you have, the more visibility you have in your genre/category. There has been a pretty successful tag exchange running on Kindleboards for a while now. Another has been created, this time for the Kindle store in the UK. It's kind of a good idea to get stuck in now while it is all so new and shiny. There are plenty of websites and places that take part in tag exchanges but Kindleboards has the best ones going. :)
Just to note, tag exchanges are based on the themes/genres/categories of a book. They in no way represent the quality of the book and as such are not similar to review exchanges. Tagging is above board imo. If you're interested in tagging, take a look at the following links:
Tag Exchange - Amazon.com
Tag Exchange - Amazon.co.uk
Saturday, August 7, 2010
News of the Week
It seems like the momentum is suddenly picking up on the ebook market and changes within the industry. Between Amazon releasing a cheap ass Kindle and opening up a UK Kindle Store, they are cementing themselves in the foreground of the ebook market.on an international level. They'll also encourage sales of Kindles and ebooks in Europe. People are only really beginning to notice ebooks here in Ireland but that's mostly because nobody has provided cheap ereaders. My Sony ereader was expensive and it can't hold too many books. I cannot wait to get me aKindle. The only way Amazon are really going wrong (as far as I can see) is not expanding into a variety of file types. If they took the lead from Smashwords and offered ebooks with a choice of file type, they might open up their customer base even further.
Smashwords announced a new distribution deal this week. This time with Diesel ebooks. They're also reporting record traffic, customers and sales. Things can be a little slow over there but they are constantly working to improve and expand. The next shipment to the Diesel ebook store is on the 9th of August but some books have already been shipped.
Interesting news - Dorechester Publishing have announced their decision to cut out mass production of print copies and concentrate on ebooks instead. They will be using a POD service when necessary. They aren't the only company who will be forced to go down this route because of poor sales. To me, POD makes a hell of a lot more sense than mass production anyway. We all have to adjust to change, Dorchester's adaptability may keep them afloat.
Smashwords announced a new distribution deal this week. This time with Diesel ebooks. They're also reporting record traffic, customers and sales. Things can be a little slow over there but they are constantly working to improve and expand. The next shipment to the Diesel ebook store is on the 9th of August but some books have already been shipped.
Interesting news - Dorechester Publishing have announced their decision to cut out mass production of print copies and concentrate on ebooks instead. They will be using a POD service when necessary. They aren't the only company who will be forced to go down this route because of poor sales. To me, POD makes a hell of a lot more sense than mass production anyway. We all have to adjust to change, Dorchester's adaptability may keep them afloat.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Open for Business
The UK Kindle store seems to have opened on Amazon. I thought it wasn't supposed to officially open until later in the month. My books are available to buy for 75p. I don't seem to have an author page and my books aren't linked together in any way. My reviews haven't carried over from the US Kindle site. I'm still scoping it out.
Funnily enough, I thought the new UK Kindlestore would be a more European oriented deal. I can't buy books there, I still have to use Amazon.com. I'm not complaining, just surprised. I assumed I'd have to scoot over to the UK site once it opened.
Eclipse is topping the paid bestseller list, priced at £3.14.
ETA: The DTP has been slowly updating. You can now view your book in either the US or UK Kindle Stores and you can also start viewing separate sales reports for either store.
Funnily enough, I thought the new UK Kindlestore would be a more European oriented deal. I can't buy books there, I still have to use Amazon.com. I'm not complaining, just surprised. I assumed I'd have to scoot over to the UK site once it opened.
Eclipse is topping the paid bestseller list, priced at £3.14.
ETA: The DTP has been slowly updating. You can now view your book in either the US or UK Kindle Stores and you can also start viewing separate sales reports for either store.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Finding Your Books in the iBookstore
Smashwords posted on their site updates recently about how to see your book in Apple's iBookstore if you don't own an Apple product that allows you to view the application. It's been really annoying not knowing if your book has appeared or not. I noticed on my latest sales report on Smashwords that I had some sales from Apple but I also wanted to check ratings. Working from the Smashwords method, here is the link to my free short story. (People do not like it. LOL)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781452306254
The link is made up of the address to itunes, the country (in this case US but adjust it for other countries, Canada is CA, UK is GB, France is FR and Germany is DE.), followed by the word book and lastly the ISBN of my story. You can find your own ISBN on your Dashboard on Smashwords, just click on the ISBN manager, copy the ISBN, get rid of the dashes and add it on the end of the address.
Just take my link and replace the ISBN with your own, go to the page and bookmark it for easy reference. If it doesn't load up then recheck the link. If it looks valid then it might mean your book isn't on Apple yet.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781452306254
The link is made up of the address to itunes, the country (in this case US but adjust it for other countries, Canada is CA, UK is GB, France is FR and Germany is DE.), followed by the word book and lastly the ISBN of my story. You can find your own ISBN on your Dashboard on Smashwords, just click on the ISBN manager, copy the ISBN, get rid of the dashes and add it on the end of the address.
Just take my link and replace the ISBN with your own, go to the page and bookmark it for easy reference. If it doesn't load up then recheck the link. If it looks valid then it might mean your book isn't on Apple yet.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Advertise Your Books (and What I've Been Reading)
Another two useful links today. Books on the Knob is another book review site accepting ebooks and indie authors. A brand new site has been set up to advertise urban fantasy and paranormal type books. They accept young adult versions. Indie Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance are looking for book reviewers and bloggers to help make this site a success. ETA: Just spotted this link on Kindleboards for a site called Blazing Trailers. They advertise book trailers if that's your thing.
I haven't been reading much since I had the baby, I can't concentrate on anything for long but the following are some books I read before her arrival. Not sure what I'm going to read next, way too many choices out there right now. Recommendations please! I started rereading a Charlaine Harris Southern Vampire book while I was in hospital but still haven't finished it. I had forgotten how meh I was about it in the first place. Anyway, the last bunch of books I read are:
A Peculiar Collection
Coombe's Wood (set this aside before but gave it another try after reading the short story collection above by the same author and really liked it.)
The Lake & Other Stories
Waiting for Spring (have to mention: this one never appealed to me by description but I really, really enjoyed it.)
Last Days and Times
Bobby's Trace
I haven't been reading much since I had the baby, I can't concentrate on anything for long but the following are some books I read before her arrival. Not sure what I'm going to read next, way too many choices out there right now. Recommendations please! I started rereading a Charlaine Harris Southern Vampire book while I was in hospital but still haven't finished it. I had forgotten how meh I was about it in the first place. Anyway, the last bunch of books I read are:
A Peculiar Collection
Coombe's Wood (set this aside before but gave it another try after reading the short story collection above by the same author and really liked it.)
The Lake & Other Stories
Waiting for Spring (have to mention: this one never appealed to me by description but I really, really enjoyed it.)
Last Days and Times
Bobby's Trace
Monday, August 2, 2010
Indie Author Blog Carnival - Sign Up Now
Chris over on the Dun Scaith blog is arranging a blog carnival for Indie authors. Blog carnivals tend to be lots of link love on similar subjects so are always handy to get involved in. This one is the first I've noticed specifically for Indie writers who publish on Smashwords. The theme this time is why you decided to publish your work independently rather than using the traditional route of agents, queries and publishers, oh my.
If you want to take part in this carnival, go to the post on blog carnivals for more information. You can leave a comment stating your interest over there. Basically, you write a blog post on the aforementioned topic on the 19th of August and make sure to link to Dun Scaith, the host blog. On the 20th, Chris checks all of the participating blogs and creates his own post, including links to all contributers. All of the bloggers can link to each other too but I believe that is an optional courtesy. You're kind of expected to visit the other bloggers involved - the whole point is to connect and increase visibility through a group effort so it is wise to leave comments on the other posts on the topic.
Blog carnivals are (in my experience) highly useful for gaining extra traffic and connecting with similar bloggers. They also expand pretty quickly and have the potential to turn into something huge so head on over to Dun Scaith and sign up for a blog carnival just for indies. Feel free to spread the word through blogs/forums/facebook/twitter.
If you want to take part in this carnival, go to the post on blog carnivals for more information. You can leave a comment stating your interest over there. Basically, you write a blog post on the aforementioned topic on the 19th of August and make sure to link to Dun Scaith, the host blog. On the 20th, Chris checks all of the participating blogs and creates his own post, including links to all contributers. All of the bloggers can link to each other too but I believe that is an optional courtesy. You're kind of expected to visit the other bloggers involved - the whole point is to connect and increase visibility through a group effort so it is wise to leave comments on the other posts on the topic.
Blog carnivals are (in my experience) highly useful for gaining extra traffic and connecting with similar bloggers. They also expand pretty quickly and have the potential to turn into something huge so head on over to Dun Scaith and sign up for a blog carnival just for indies. Feel free to spread the word through blogs/forums/facebook/twitter.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Advertising Ebooks on Blogs
It's August already. And time for me to start getting back to work. I've been attempting to edit in the two weeks since the birth of my beautiful little girl but I haven't been well (yesterday I passed out a couple of times - ick) so it's been slow moving. (I just used the word been three times in the one sentence - you can imagine just how much editing my writing requires!) I'm determined to work hard this month. I'm behind on the blog, updating links, twitter and even just commenting on other blogs and forums. I've been more of a lurker which doesn't really help when you need to develop a web presence.
I've been meaning to post links to blogs which advertise indie ebooks. If you're a reader looking for something new to read or a writer searching for exposure, there are now plenty of places to go. There are always reviewers like Red Adept but there are also blogs which list ebooks (impartially) for free such as the Indie Books Blog and Spalding's Racket. There are also paid advertising options such as the Kindle Nation Daily blog which advertises free ebooks on Kindle, Kindle updates and paid sponsorships by indie writers. I've heard indies have seen surges in sales after advertising there.
There are more, I'll post the links as I find them. New ones are popping up more frequently now, as well as genre specific ones so they are pretty useful and worth checking out.
I'm going to (finally) update my blog and website links in the sidebars so if you have a useful blog or author website and want to be linked here just comment or send me an email. Don't forget to find me on facebook/twitter/goodreads too.
I've been meaning to post links to blogs which advertise indie ebooks. If you're a reader looking for something new to read or a writer searching for exposure, there are now plenty of places to go. There are always reviewers like Red Adept but there are also blogs which list ebooks (impartially) for free such as the Indie Books Blog and Spalding's Racket. There are also paid advertising options such as the Kindle Nation Daily blog which advertises free ebooks on Kindle, Kindle updates and paid sponsorships by indie writers. I've heard indies have seen surges in sales after advertising there.
There are more, I'll post the links as I find them. New ones are popping up more frequently now, as well as genre specific ones so they are pretty useful and worth checking out.
I'm going to (finally) update my blog and website links in the sidebars so if you have a useful blog or author website and want to be linked here just comment or send me an email. Don't forget to find me on facebook/twitter/goodreads too.
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