We remember sitting at the kitchen table after dinner working on homework with a volume of The Encyclopaedia Britannica open in front of us. Those days are long past and The Encyclopaedia Britannica will no longer be in print. The last edition was in 2010 and is still available… all 44 million words in 32 volumes. All this information will be online but it is still a sad bit of history that has passed us by.
Even a book by a bestselling author won’t sell if it’s poorly edited. Self published books are no different. When you self publish you already have more work to do without the support of a publisher so it becomes even more important to have your book edited professionally. Kirkus Reviews has launched an editing division for self published authors but there are many other options available if you search online.
42 Rules is proud to announce the release of “42 Rules for Applying Google Analytics“. If you are an author or publisher you already have a website and you may use Google Analytics. 42 Rules for Applying Google Analytics is understanding a visitor’s journey through your website then applying that measurement, collection and analysis of data for the main purpose of adequately optimizing and improving website performance. This includes learning where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site or measuring key drivers and conversions such as which web pages encourage people to react by calling, emailing or purchasing a product. You can learn more here.
The New York Journal of Books is an online repository of book reviews. If you are an author or publisher you can submit your book for review. They do want the book four weeks before publication so this is not an opportunity for already published books. To read the guidelines click here.
My Shelf is a popular book review site looking for current books to review. Submit your favorite 42Rules title Your review request will be circulated to volunteer reviewers and if someone is interested they will contact you. You can find out more at My Shelf.
The 16th annual Independent Publisher Book Awards, honoring the year’s best independently published titles, is now accepting entries until March 15th, 2012 for books with 2011 and 2012 copyrights or that are released in 2011 or early 2012.
42Rules are submitting the following titles for consideration –42 Rules for a Web Presence that Wins and 42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role.
The “IPPY” Awards were conceived as a broad-based, unaffiliated awards program open to all members of the independent publishing industry, and are open to authors and publishers worldwide who produce books written in English and intended for the North American market. We define “independent” as 1) independently owned and operated; 2) operated by a foundation or university; or 3) long-time independents that became incorporated but operate autonomously and publish fewer than 50 titles a year. To learn more click here.
Amazon.com entered the publishing industry by purchasing a self publishing company and allowing authors to publish their titles on-demand with them. Due to changes in agreements Amazon.com has with other publishers Barnes & Nobles announced in February, 2012 that it will only carry Amazon.com published titles online and not in their brick stores. How this decision will affect Barnes& Noble’s sales remains to be seen. What effect, if any, will this have on your purchasing decisions?
Publishers Weekly has a great article “Looking for the 50{6d2d557e9d00bd0668d81f1c684edf6bee4f94716c136688ced4e9a613f7f134} Solution” that covers the impact the digital revolution in books is going to affect publishing houses. Independent publishers are typically more prepared to cope with this change but the large publishing houses have to prepare in advance. To find out what executives from nine publishers have to say read the article here.
More important to us is….What do you think?
Is such a bold claim true? We at 42Rules don’t know for sure but it does seem like many of our colleagues and friends are toting around the Kindle’s they received for the holidays! What we do know for sure is that all of the 42Rules books come in a version for Kindle and all of the other e-readers as well. However, if you want an e-reader to read your 42Rules books and you love the Amazon.com catalog then you should consider a Kindle!
A popular phrase in marketing is “Return On Investment” or ROI. We always want to know the ROI of the marketing tactics we use and this is sometimes easy to determine. Where it gets murky is when it comes to social media. There isn’t a way to monitor social media impact at present because social media is not meant to be a marketing or sales channel. Social media is the opportunity to build relationships with present and future customers, build your brand and create a positive reputation. Most of this can’t be quantified.
In my opinion the best practices in social media include:
1. Build relationships. Tweeting a couple of times a week or posting to your Facebook profile or Fan Page once in a while isn’t going to build relationships. You need to monitor your accounts for visitor response at least twice a week if you’re just starting out and more often when you become more experienced. Answer questions, “like” responses and thank people for commenting. If you have the time check out the profile of your most vocal fans and follow them as well.
2. Don’t start a flame war. Build your reputation by responding positively and constructively to criticism. Show enthusiasm for suggestions even if they aren’t spot on. Move potentially destructive conversations off social media and on to e-mail or telephone. Do feel free to remove comments that are spammy or inappropriate and report people who continuously spam you. Building your reputation doesn’t mean you have to be a doormat and you have the right to protect your brand.
3. Monitor conversations about you or your book. People may be talking about you in a positive or negative manner on their own social media accounts so it’s important that you search for mentions of your book title and respond appropriately. You can setup Google Alerts to monitor some of this but you must also manually search social media sites proactively. You’ll be surprised at what you learn and much of it will be positive.
4. Use social media to promote but not sell. No one wants to follow someone on Twitter just to hear over and over again “Buy my book. Buy my book. Buy my book.” It is permissible, however, to mention a product discreetly.
If you get frustrated with the time you spend on social media remind yourself that you are building relationships and no one can put a price on that!
