Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Smashwords and Flipkart to End Distribution Relationship - Amazon Scores Victory

Smashwords and Flipkart are ending their distribution agreement first announced in August, 2013.

The unfortunate news effectively hands the market for indie ebooks in India to Amazon.

A few weeks ago, I notified Flipkart that Smashwords was placing its distribution agreement with Flipkart under review.

I provided Flipkart a deadline by which Flipkart was asked to repair certain problems related to the listing and removal of Smashwords titles, and to provide Smashwords an acceptable plan to prevent such issues from recurring in the future.

I informed Flipkart that if these requirements were not met that Smashwords would request the immediate removal of all Smashwords titles.  The deadline was missed and an acceptable plan was not presented.

This morning Smashwords received word from Flipkart that after careful consideration, Flipkart determined their systems are not yet capable of supporting the dynamic nature of the Smashwords catalog.  As a result they will begin winding down the relationship with Smashwords and remove our titles.

Under the distribution agreement with Smashwords signed in 2013, Flipkart - like all Smashwords retailers - is contractually obligated to process new title deliveries, metadata updates and book removals in timely fashion upon notification from Smashwords.  In recent months, Flipkart has not reliably met these requirements. In recent weeks the delays worsened.

Unlike the print book market of yesteryear where books were relatively static objects and changed little over time, ebooks are dynamic living creatures.  Ebooks evolve over time.  At Smashwords, we give our 100,000+ authors and publishers the ability to change any aspect of their book, from metadata updates such as pricing and book descriptions to changing book contents, covers and publishing rights.  Every month, Smashwords is shipping out thousands of new books and hundreds of thousands of metadata updates to existing books.  To process this deluge of dynamic data, our retailers work in partnership with Smashwords to build sophisticated automated content ingestion systems.  These systems - even at the largest retailers - are prone to intermittent error or delay.

The Hand of Amazon KDP Select


Our primary concern was Flipkart's delays associated with the removal of Smashwords titles that had been unpublished. Most of these titles were removed because the Smashwords author or publisher made the decision to enroll their book in KDP Select, an ebook self publishing option offered by Amazon that requires authors to make their books exclusive to Amazon.

Once authors enroll a title in KDP Select, Amazon requires the author to immediately remove the book from all competing retailers otherwise the book is removed from the KDP Select program and the author is warned that repeated offenses could lead to the termination of their entire KDP account.

As you might imagine, these fire-and-brimstone emails from Amazon are unnerving to authors.  Here's an email one Smashwords author received from Amazon after removing their book from all retailers worldwide to make it exclusive in KDP Select.  Their book was being dropped from KDP Select because it was still lingering at Flipkart:

As we emailed to you earlier, KDP Select Terms and Conditions require that books enrolled in KDP Select be exclusive to Amazon in digital format. As the following book(s) is not exclusive, it has been removed from KDP Select, but remains live in the Kindle Store. It is no longer eligible to earn a share of the KDP Select fund, however you will be paid for any borrows that your book accrued prior to its removal from the program.

{Title redacted} (ASIN: redacted) is available on: http://www.flipkart.com/redacted

Once you’ve confirmed your book(s) is no longer available elsewhere, you may re-enroll it into KDP Select. Please always confirm your books are exclusive to Amazon at the time of enrollment as repeated violations of KDP Select Terms and Conditions may result in permanent loss of KDP Select benefits for all books, as well as termination of your KDP account.
___

At Smashwords, we expect our retail partners to honor the rights of our authors and publishers.  These rights are articulated in every contract with every Smashwords retail partner.  If a Smashwords author wants their book unpublished and removed from a retailer for any reason, our retailers are required to remove the book without delay. At Smashwords, the author is the publisher and we fully support and respect their decisions to manage their rights as they see fit. The reason for removal does not matter to us, thus our insistence that Flipkart process all updates in a timely manner.

That said, I am not a fan of KDP Select.  Ever since the launch of KDP Select in December 2011, I and hundreds of other like-minded indies have spoken out against it.   From my perspective, the publishing industry and media don't yet grok how KDP Select is undermining every large publisher, every indie author and every ebook retailer.  In the process, they're also undermining the future of book culture by limiting the availability of books.

Many indies don't understand the long term implications of KDP Select.  The million or so books enrolled in KDP Select are almost entirely provided by the indie author community. Amazon coerces authors to enroll their books my making KDP Select books more discoverable and more desirable to Kindle customers, while making non-exclusive books less visible and less desirable.   The message is quite simple:  If you want to sell more books at the world's largest ebook retailer, you must be exclusive.

I don't blame indies for their difficult decision.  I met with one indie author a few weeks ago at a conference who told me words to the effect of, "I hate the exclusivity of KDP Select, yet I'm in it because I have a mortgage to pay.  Books in KDP Select sell better than non-exclusive books."  If you want to hear more of my thoughts on how Amazon constructs its policies to prey upon authors, check my recent  interview with the Writer 2.0 podcast:  http://acfuller.com/smashwords-founder-mark-coker-episode-53-august-13-2015-2/

Publishers are suffering too.  This past weekend I met with a publisher in New York whose books were being made less visible in Amazon searches.  Readers search on the publisher's author or title and they're presented with multiple irrelevant search results pointing to alternate books which are exclusive books.

I believe KDP Select is toxic to the future of indie publishing because it forces authors to abandon competing retailers and become more dependent upon Amazon.  When competing retailers lose access to this important inventory of indie titles, they can't compete.

Amazon wields its dominant market share like a club to bludgeon authors who don't fall into compliance with Amazon's exclusivity or pricing requirements, even when the lack of compliance is not the author's fault.  No other ebook retailer practices such draconian punishment of authors.

Amazon has engaged in these heavy-handed tactics for several years, most typically through automatic price-matching which robs authors of their royalties.

Amazon knows the problem is not the author's fault.  Several years ago at BEA I met with a top Amazon Kindle executive and requested that they stop punishing our authors when one of our retailers makes an error or has a delay.  I suggested during that meeting Amazon should enforce based on author intent.  I suggested Smashwords could provide Amazon a direct pricing feed so Amazon could judge the author based on the author's intent rather than price-matching against retailers supplied by Smashwords.  Although he acknowledged it would be a fairer method and sounded reasonable, nothing came of it.  Amazon only stepped up their punishments.

Ten days ago, in response to media reports of a letter Jeff Bezos sent Amazon employees, I wrote my first ever email to Mr. Bezos to express my concern about Amazon's bullying tactics against authors.  The full text of that email is pasted below this post.  I did not receive a reply.

My decision to put Flipkart on notice was not an easy one, and followed months of good-faith effort on Smashwords' part to help Flipkart improve their systems.  To Flipkart's credit, they tried in good faith to meet our demands but in the end acknowledged they're not yet prepared to handle a dynamic catalog of our scale.

To be clear, the termination of our agreement with Flipkart is not Amazon's fault.  However, Amazon was a catalyst because the harm they're causing our shared authors made it impossible for us to give Flipkart the runway they needed to improve their systems.

Although Flipkart is a small ebook retailer and the financial impact on Smashwords authors will be negligible, I'm more concerned by what this signals for the future of ebook retailing around the world.

Amazon's tactics make it extremely difficult for even large well-funded companies like Flipkart to support indie authors (Flipkart has received $550 million in funding and is valued at $15 billion - http://www.wsj.com/articles/flipkart-valued-at-15-billion-after-latest-funding-1432021294).

Amazon's tactics have a chilling effect on the formation of future ebook retailing startups by discouraging indie authors from working with other retailers.  Imagine how difficult it will be for smaller retailers across the global to build regional ebook stores when the bar for entry is the ability to process millions of dynamic books with 100% accuracy and no margin for error?  Amazon doesn't just punish the author in that local market, it punishes the author worldwide.  Why would an indie author want to put their entire Amazon earnings in jeopardy simply to reach a small market at a single small retailer when Amazon allows no margin for error or delay?

Flipkart will lose access to over 200,000 indie ebooks.  Other than Flipkart and maybe Google, Amazon has no viable competitor for ebooks in India. iBooks has not entered India yet.

Amazon is now being rewarded for their draconian policies enforced against indie authors, and their KDP Select program will only grow stronger as a result.

The nascent indie author community in India will have only one viable option to reach their home market, and that's Amazon. Amazon pays indie authors only 35% list for their ebook sales in India, and requires authors to become exclusive if they want to earn 70% list.  Smashwords paid authors and publishers 60% list for Flipkart sales and we've never required exclusivity.

We wish our friends at Flipkart well.  If the day comes when they're able to build more robust ingestion systems on par with our partners iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and others, we'll welcome the opportunity to reengage with them to serve the Indian readers and authors.


My letter to Jeff Bezos follows....

Mark Coker Letter to Jeff Bezos 


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Empathy / Smashwords
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2015 13:29:13 -0700
From: Mark Coker <*****>
To: Jeff Bezos <*****>

Dear Jeff,

We've never had the opportunity to communicate.

In your employee letter reprinted by Forbes, you speak out against callous management practices and state how you have no tolerance for lack of empathy.

Do these principles apply to how you treat your KDP authors?  If so, I can only assume you're not familiar with the draconian punishment Amazon has been meting out against thousands of KDP authors since 2010 through price matching. You've robbed thousands of authors of their royalties though this practice.

Case in point:
http://www.nickspalding.com/2013/05/why-self-publishing-aint-necessarily.html
When Barnes & Noble experienced technical problems through no fault of Smashwords, you price-matched this author's book to free and caused him (by his estimation) over £1,000 in lost earnings.  The author informed Amazon that the pricing error was not his fault, yet Amazon continued to punish him and refused to return his book to the normal price. The author eventually removed his book from distribution rather
than face the wrath of Amazon.

I think you're the smartest guy in this business.  All of us in the business owe you and Amazon a great debt of gratitude for catalyzing the ebook revolution.  However, I cannot respect the tactics you use to browbeat and intimidate our shared authors.  You hurt innocent people, and this hurt cannot be rationalized away by your many good deeds.

I'm not opposed to price matching.  I'm opposed to how you punish our shared authors when their book prices are out of alignment through no fault or intent of their own.

In recent weeks I've heard from authors who received threatening emails from Amazon regarding their status in KDP Select due to Flipkart in India failing to remove their books in a timely manner.  The authors tell me that Amazon is threatening to kick their books out of KDP-S worldwide simply because this tiny Indian retailer is having difficulty removing titles in a timely manner.

The message you're sending authors is that they risk the wrath and punishment of Amazon if they allow Amazon's competitors to carry their books. Maybe that's the point. If so, your plan is brilliant. But the plan has one fundamental flaw - you're building resentment in the author community.  People will bend to coercion and intimidation if they feel they have no choice.  But if given a choice in the future, they will turn on you.

Might I suggest a kinder, gentler approach?  If you want to price match a Smashwords author, we can provide you an automated pricing feed, because the price at Smashwords reflects the author's true real-time intent.  You could use this instead of price matching against our retailers.

mark

--
Mark Coker
Founder
Smashwords
Twitter:  http://twitter.com/markcoker
Blog:  http://blog.smashwords.com
FAQ: https://www.smashwords.com/about/supportfaq
---

As of today, I have not heard a response.  I realize he's been extra busy lately.








Sunday, August 23, 2015

How to Price Kindle Books to FREE without Exclusivity

Amazon professes a commitment to offering customers rock-bottom prices, yet Amazon is the only ebook retailer to restrict the ability of authors and publishers to price at FREE.

The only officially sanctioned method of pricing an ebook to free in the Kindle store is for authors to enroll their books in KDP Select, an optional program that requires exclusivity.  Exclusivity is great for Amazon, but it's not so great for indie authors who want to maintain their independence and build a diversified revenue stream and readership across all retailers.

Amazon allows KDP Select books to be priced at free for only five days per quarter.  That's not enough time for authors to take full advantage of the amazing promotional magic of free.

Every month I meet writers who think the only way to take advantage of free at Amazon is to enroll in KDP Select.  Not true.  If you know writers operating under this mistaken belief, please share this post with them.


There's another, better option, and it doesn't require exclusivity. Smashwords and our retail partners can help.

In this post, I'll teach you a trick veteran indie authors have been using for several years to do free and perma-free ebooks at Amazon without exclusivity.  It's a way to turn Amazon's price-matching robots against Amazon.

As you'll learn below, authors who avoid KDP Select can make greater use of free than those who are trapped in KDP Select.

It's a simple process.  Here are the steps:

1.  At your Amazon KDP dashboard, price your book to $.99.

2.  At Smashwords, price your book to free.

3.  Within hours, iBooks will reflect the new price of free, and B&N and Kobo will follow within 1-2 business days.  Next, visit your book page at Amazon and click the link under the "Product Details" box labeled, "tell us about a lower price."  There, you or a friend can click the button beside "Website (Online)" and report that your book is available for free at another retailer.  In that form, provide Amazon a direct hyperlink to one of the Smashwords retailers.  A link to Apple or B&N is a good bet.   I don't think they'll price match against the Smashwords store.  See the screen shot below.

Notes on the above:  A.  If your book is priced $2.99 or over and enrolled in the 70% royalty rate and you price at free elsewhere, Amazon will send you one of their lovely fire-and-brimstone emails where they'll threaten to kick you out of KDP for your transgression (the 70% royalty rate requires you not price your book lower elsewhere). But books enrolled in the 35% royalty rate (automatic for 99 cent books) don't get the nastygram because price parity elsewhere is not a requirement.  B.  Some authors ask friends or fans to report their books. I don't know if it makes a difference.  C.  Note that Amazon operates about 13 different stores, so you may want to report the book separately at their largest English-language stores (US, UK, Canada, Australia) to encourage price matching in each store.  D.  Amazon will often price match even if you don't do the self-reporting.  E.  Sometimes Amazon will not price match, even if you or a reader report the lower price elsewhere. They know indie authors use this trick to gain better control over their pricing.

WHY SHOULD YOU PRICE AT FREE?

Every author is well-served to experiment with free - either with temporary free promotions or with permanently free (aka perma-free).  Why?  Because free builds readership, and some of those readers will fall in love with your writing and purchase your other books.

Free turbocharges your readership by eliminating the financial risk a reader takes on an unknown, untrusted author (and that's you until they know and trust you!).  Free allows the reader to read you risk-free, and gives your writing a chance to earn the reader's trust and admiration.

I've been promoting the use of free ever since we launched Smashwords in 2008.  Smart use of free has catapulted many Smashwords authors to the bestseller lists. 

At iBooks, free books get 41 times more downloads on average than books at any other price.

If you write series, definitely price your series starter at perma-free.  Why?  Because series with free series starters earn more overall sales than series without free series starters.

About 65% of our top 100 bestselling series over the last 12 months have a free series starter.  Here's more data on the effectiveness of free series starters:  For the Smashwords 2015 Survey, we added up the sales of our top 100 series with free series starters and then compared that to the aggregated sales of our top 100 series that don't have a free series starter.  The group with free series starters earned an average 66% more than the the group with priced series starters.  I also looked at the median increase to rule out the possibility that a couple mega bestsellers might have skewed the numbers.  The median was also 66% higher for series with free series starters.  Exactly the same.

Free series starters also open up the possibility of earning merchandising features at the retailers, particularly at iBooks.  iBooks does more to promote free than any other retailer with their regular "First in Series Free" promotions.  Last week, iBooks launched a "Rising Stars in Romance" feature in their Australia and New Zealand stores featuring the free series starters of Australian and New Zealand authors.

Even authors who only publish standalone books can benefit from free.  For many first-time authors, one of your biggest challenges is to get your first readers and your first reviews at retailers.  Free builds readership and can help you establish your first reviews at the major retailers.  Or, if your book has been out a long time and sales have dwindled, try a temporary free promotion to rev up readership, reviews and word of mouth.

If you have a standalone book on preorder, you can price another standalone book at free to drive up readership, and then use the backmatter of that free book to advertise your preorder (at the end of every book, you should provide a listing of your other books).

Free is not a guarantee of readership.  A few weeks ago I received an email from a Smashwords author who priced his books at free yet he was still struggling to attract readers.  The reason: there's a lot of competition out there.  Smashwords authors and publishers publish over 55,000 books at free.  Although free is a powerful catalyst for building readership, free works best if your book is a super-awesome WOW book that turns the reader into a evangelist. WOW books average 4.5 to 5 stars out of 5.  Just because a book is free doesn't mean the reader will read it or finish it.  On the contrary, they're probably less likely to finish a free book if it doesn't hold their attention on every page.

Bottom line, if you want to turn a free downloader into a paid reader, you must earn the reader's awareness and trust.  It's classic PR 101.  First build awareness, then build perception.  Free helps the reader become aware of your writing.  Perception is formed based on the true merits of the product.

Beyond the power of free to get readers to take a chance on you, there's a lot more you can do under the umbrella of best practices (free is only one of many best practices).  To learn more about best practices, check out my presentation deck, How to Publish Ebooks, or download my free ebook, The Secrets to Ebook Publihsing Success.  Also check out my recent blog posts, Ebook Publishing Gets More Difficult from Here - Here's How to Succeed for additional ideas on how to reach more readers.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Como publicar os ebooks - um seminário sobre a publicação dos ebooks por Mark Coker


The blog post below is written in Portuguese.  It's a one-time post to accompany the publication of our first-ever Portuguese translation of the Smashwords Style Guide which went live earlier today (yay!!!).  We also translated the How to Publish Ebooks seminar presentation which originally appeared here in English on July 21.

With over 210 million native speakers, Portuguese is one of the world’s most widely spoken and written languages.  To put this large number in perspective, almost as many people speak Portuguese as speak German (89 million), French (74 million) and Italian (59 million) combined. 

When I founded Smashwords in 2008, I wanted to democratize publishing for the world’s writers.  I wanted to make it fast, free and easy for any writer, anywhere in the world, to self-publish and distribute an ebook.  The indie author revolution took root first with English-language writers.  Now I want to help spread the revolution to more corners of the globe.

Portuguese writers boast a rich literary tradition going back centuries.  With this completely self-contained blog post, I hope to welcome thousands of new writers to the global indie author movement. 
Several thousand Portuguese-language books are already published at Smashwords and distributed worldwide.  In Brazil, the largest market for Portuguese books, approximately 300,000 Smashwords-distributed books are available at iBooks Brazil, Livraria Cultura (powered by Kobo) and from the Smashwords Store. 

My thanks to Matthew Teplitz on the Smashwords team for translating the Style Guide, the PowerPoint presentation and this blog post!  Thanks also to my Brazilian friends Carlo Carrenho, Claudio Soares and Newton Neto for educating me about the Brazilian market and encouraging me to do more to support Portuguese-language authors.

Como publicar os ebooks

Este post de blog e a apresentação acompanhada do Guia de estilo do Smashwords lhe ensinará como publicar um ebook com orgulho, profissionalismo e sucesso.

Como um autor da língua portuguesa, agora tem a oportunidade de publicar o seu livro a uma audiência mundial utilizando as ferramentas do Smashwords, o distribuidor mais grande dos ebooks autopublicados. 

No entanto, não precisa ser um autor no Smashwords para beneficiar das orientações dadas nestes recursos.

Eu montei dois recursos grandes para ajudar-lhe na sua viagem da publicação dos ebooks:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/569841
1.  O Guia de estilo do Smashwords, traduzido pela primeira vez no português! Descarregá-lo aqui!
2.  Como publicar os ebooks - um seminário sobre a publicação dos ebooks
A apresentação incorporada abaixo foi derivado duma série de seminários de seis horas e quatro partes sobre a publicação dos ebooks que apresentei no mês passado na conferência de Autores do Noroeste do Pacífico em Seattle. Os seminários foram apresentados numa ordem lógica e projetados para levar os escritores desde iniciantes a especialistas durantes as seis horas.

Agora, pela primeira vez, compartilho estas apresentações traduzidas no português.

Para facilitar a visualização, eu consolidei as quatro apresentações numa única apresentação incorporada abaixo. A apresentação ensinam os escritores como autopublicar os ebooks com mais orgulho, profissionalismo e sucesso.

Se você conhece um escritor que está avaliando as suas opções enquanto se preparam autopublicar seu primeiro livro, o já autopublicou mas ainda está lutando atingir os leitores e pode beneficiar de algumas novas ideias, por favor compartilhe-a com eles. Se um escritor quer publicar independentemente, tradicionalmente, ou numa forma híbrida, aqui há algo para todos. A apresentação também será útil para os pequenos editores independentes que publicam os livros no português. No Smashwords, trabalhamos com mais de 100 milhares de autores e pequenos editores independentes em todo o mundo.

Como publicar os ebooks

um seminário sobre a publicação dos ebooks por Mark Coker

^^Por favor partilhe esta apresentação com um amigo por clicar a seta no canto esquerdo inferior!

Como publicar os ebooks - um seminário sobre a publicação dos ebooks
A apresentação está dividida nas seguintes quatro seções:

  1. Introdução à publicação dos ebooks - um curso introdutório. Isto fornece o conhecimento fundamental que cada escritor precisa para começar sua viagem de autopublicação. Explica os fundamentos, como as cinco tendências mais importantes que estão acionando o mercado do ebook; os fatores que contribuem ao surgimento do movimento dos autores independentes; as vantagens de autoria independente; e contem uma lista de verificação abrangente da publicação dos ebooks que explica conceitos importantes como a formatação, conversão do ebook, os ISBN, estratégias do estilo da capa, metadados, direitos autorais, a pirateria, estratégia de preços, marketing, distribuição e pré-encomendas.
  2. As melhores práticas da publicação do ebook - 16 segredos dos autores independentes mais vendidos. Isto é provavelmente minha apresentação mais popular. Tenho feito isto por alguns anos e foi um companheiro ao meu livro grátis sobre as melhores práticas, Os segredos da publicação dos ebooks sucedidos. Eu compartilho 16 dicas, truques e estratégias que são comuns entre muitos dos autores mais vendidos. Esta apresentação lhe ensina como tornar seu livro mais detectável e desejável para os leitores. Inclui uma seção expandida sobre o desenho da capa com vários casos práticos que demonstra o que funciona e o que não funciona. Também ensinará técnicas da construção de plataforma importantes. Os autores independentes  veteranos ainda obterão uma nova ideia ou duas aqui. Começa a partir do slide 89.
  3. O merchandising no iBooks - como vender mais livros na segunda maior loja do ebook no mundo. Os leitores deste blog sabe que eu sou um amado grande do iBooks. Simplesmente por distribuir seus livros ao iBooks, serão acessível para quase um bilhão dos usuários de dispositivos Apple. O Smashwords tem sido um agregador mundial autorizado servindo a loja iBooks desde que a fundação da loja no abril de 2010. No tempo desde que o estabelecimento desta parceria, tive o prazer de colaborar diretamente à equipe do merchandising mundial fantástica no iBooks. Nesta apresentação, introduzirei os autores à loja iBooks e compartilharei dicas sobre como os autores podem aumentar sua visibilidade, vendas, e oportunidades promocionais na loja. Como aprenderá, desde uma visão de alto nível, tem dois tipos de oportunidades do merchandising na loja. A primeira é automatizada - os inúmeros benefícios de descoberta que você receberá automaticamente simplesmente por distribuir através do iBooks. A segunda oportunidade é criada manualmente onde os profissionais do merchandising no iBooks escolhem uma pequena quantidade de livros para promoção. Você aprenderá que as decisões do merchadising deles são com base no mérito, e a maioria do mérito é merecido por a construção de vendas e revisões boas entres seus clientes no iBooks. Se os clientes no iBooks gostam dos seus livros, também aumentará suas oportunidades do merchandising. Alguns autores podem sentir desmotivados que se enfrentam um problema da galinha e do ovo - “Sem o merchandising, não posso atingir os leitores, mas sem mais leitores não posso provar que os meus livros merecem o merchandising.” Não se preocupe. Eu vou lhe mostrar como maximizar suas oportunidades promocionais na loja, mas também o trabalho intenso e empenho de largo plazo são necessários (se foi fácil, todas as pessoas no mundo seriam escritores mais vendidos!). Também saiba que centenas, se não milhares dos autores no Smashwords alcançam várias formas do merchandising no iBooks, então é possível. Tudo gira em torno da implementação das melhores práticas nas apresentações, como uma boa qualidade de escritora (nada é mais importante do seu livro!), uma imagem da capa fantástica, a distribuição completa e sem interrupções, e o uso inteligente dos metadados melhorados, como a Gerente das Séries do Smashwords. Embora esta apresentação se focaliza no iBooks, os mesmos conceitos do mérito aplicam às decisões do merchandising nas outras varejistas. Começa a partir do slide 179.
  4. Como alcançar as listas bestseller com as pré-encomendas do ebook - Como os antigos leitores deste blog já sabem, tenho celebrado os benefícios das pré-encomendas do ebook por mais de dois anos. Uma pré-encomenda do ebook é provavelmente a ferramenta da lançamento de livro mais poderosa nos últimos sete anos. A conclusão é que os livros nasceram como pré-encomendas venderão mais cópias que os livros que são simplesmente carregados no dia da divulgação. Se você quer atingir mais leitores, precisa aprender como usar as pré-encomendas para o efeito máximo. No mês passado, anunciamos uma nova característica das pré-encomendas chamada “pré-encomendas sem espólios” que lhe permite establecer sua pré-encomenda até 12 meses em avanço, incluindo se ainda não está pronto com o seu livro. As pré-encomendas permite marketing prévio dos livros mais eficaz, e nas varejistas iBooks e Kobo, as pré-encomendas lhe dará uma vantagem grande com respeito à posição de cópias vendidas no dia que o seu livro está publicado. Esta apresentação identifica cinco benefícios das pré-encomendas e depois compartilha os métodos provados para planejar e executar um lançamento bem sucedido. Começa a partir do slide 230.
Espero que você gostará do Guia de estilo do Smashwords e minha apresentação sobre Como publicar os ebooks.
Como qualquer autor independente pode dizer-lhe, não é fácil vender os livros. Não existe uma única bala mágica para alcançar o estado bestseller. Tudo do sucesso na autopublicação é a paciência, perserverança, e as melhores práticas. As mais melhores práticas que você aplica com sucesso, aumentará as suas possibilidades de atingir os leitores.
O sucesso na autopublicação também é sobre os seus valores e mentalidade. Como já mencionei no Manifesto dos autores independentes abaixo, é importante lembrar que o seu sucesso como um autor independente não pode ser medido por somente as vendas. Se você encontra alegria na viagem e a expressão criativa da escritura e publicação, você já descobriu a medida de sucesso mais rica e plenamente realizada. Siga escrevendo!


Manifesto do autore independente