Keep your blogs and books in the public eye by establing a presence on the Kindle Discussion Forums. I'm not telling you to do any spamming. But make it a point to respond to discussions in the general Kindle forums and in any community forums that interest you, and just have your book or blog titles hotlinked in your signature.
(and make sure you distinguish between books or blogs, so people know what they're clicking on before they click on it!)
Friday, July 30, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
Blog Publishing: My Success Keeps on Succeeding!
For various reasons I still haven't been able to get back to my book project, but soon, very soon.
Meantime, I'm very pleased with how the Rush Limbaugh Report blog is doing. I continue to get what I estimate to be at least 5 subs a day. Of course my job must be tempered with the knowledge that while I know approximately how many people are subscribing, I won't know how many people subsequently unsubscribe for another 20 days. The next report won't come out until August 10 or so.
The "daily" report continues to annoy me. Sometimes it will be updated every day, then after 3 or 4 days it will lie un-updated for several days. Just doesn't make any sense why it is so inconsistent. I know it doesn't matter, that the info there is at least 30 days out of date, but it still is annoying.
Meantime, I'm very pleased with how the Rush Limbaugh Report blog is doing. I continue to get what I estimate to be at least 5 subs a day. Of course my job must be tempered with the knowledge that while I know approximately how many people are subscribing, I won't know how many people subsequently unsubscribe for another 20 days. The next report won't come out until August 10 or so.
The "daily" report continues to annoy me. Sometimes it will be updated every day, then after 3 or 4 days it will lie un-updated for several days. Just doesn't make any sense why it is so inconsistent. I know it doesn't matter, that the info there is at least 30 days out of date, but it still is annoying.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Blog Publishing: One Success, One Failure
A few days ago I started the Rush Limbaugh Report blog. As far as I can tell, it's been a success. I dont' trust the daily Blog info, which tells me I have 10 subscriptions after seven days or so, as I know that runs behind for some reason. But I'm keeping track of the numbers at its Amazon page and there's proof there that I'm getting subscriptions on a regular basis.
I won't know for absolute certainty just how successful it is until August 10th or so, when the report for July's blogs will come out.
But, I'm calling it a qualitative success.
Contrast that to my newest blog, which I'm about to pull the plug on, Barack Obama Day by Day. That has had no subscriptions.
So I'd be curious to know. Why are people looking up blogs featuring Rush Limbaugh, and subscribing to them, yet no one is interested in the doings of Obama? (There's a blog by an Obama supporter, Today With President Barack Obama, that does what I'd intended to do with my blog, and no one subscribes to it, either.....)
So are my Rush Limbaugh Report readers supporters of Limbaugh, or opponents of Limbaugh? The blog itself is pro-Limbaugh.
I won't find out until the middle of August, when I see how many people actually did subscribe, vs how many unsubscribed...
I so wish the Daily Report could be trusted to be accurate, it would help my decision making if I had real time data and didn't have to wait another 30 days to figure out if the Limbaugh Report really is the success I think it is...
But it's that anticipation and hope that keeps all bloggers going!
I won't know for absolute certainty just how successful it is until August 10th or so, when the report for July's blogs will come out.
But, I'm calling it a qualitative success.
Contrast that to my newest blog, which I'm about to pull the plug on, Barack Obama Day by Day. That has had no subscriptions.
So I'd be curious to know. Why are people looking up blogs featuring Rush Limbaugh, and subscribing to them, yet no one is interested in the doings of Obama? (There's a blog by an Obama supporter, Today With President Barack Obama, that does what I'd intended to do with my blog, and no one subscribes to it, either.....)
So are my Rush Limbaugh Report readers supporters of Limbaugh, or opponents of Limbaugh? The blog itself is pro-Limbaugh.
I won't find out until the middle of August, when I see how many people actually did subscribe, vs how many unsubscribed...
I so wish the Daily Report could be trusted to be accurate, it would help my decision making if I had real time data and didn't have to wait another 30 days to figure out if the Limbaugh Report really is the success I think it is...
But it's that anticipation and hope that keeps all bloggers going!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Blog Publisher Tips: Keep Records and Backups of Blogs
I had a question about something that has happened on one of my blogs - the "search ribbon" at the top has disappeared and I can't figure out how to get it back - so I went to Blogger's help forums to ask about it.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger?hl=en
Because I use blogger for all my blogs.
After asking my questions, I browsed around other people's questions, and came across someone frantically trying to figure out why their blog had been deleted without warning, without explanation.
This struck a chord with me, because I used to have a Google Adsense account. I'd had it for three or four years. And for three or four years I was gradually increasing my income, so that last year - when the events I'm relating happened - I was actually making some good money with Adsense and beginning to believe I could make a living online with my websites, because of it.
Then one day I tried to sign on to my account...couldn't do it. Without warning,my account had been terminated. I desperately tried to find out what had happened, and why, but never could do it. I never violated TOS, and I emailed them and told them so, but never got a response.
So that was four years of hard work down the toilet. That was my income, down the toilet! I was pretty depressed after that for several months, I can tell you.
Not to mention furious. I had not broken TOS. Even if I had broken TOS, they had my email. Why couldn't they email me, say, "You're doing this against TOS, clean it up or we'll have to suspend your account." Instead, nothing. No reason, no explanation, no appeal.
Well, after that rant let me get back to the purpose of this post.
Turns out, Blogger will do the same thing to your blog account. If they see something they don't like, they will suspend your account without warning! You have to submit a request to "review blog" and while you're waiting for them to review it, if they ever do, your blog is down.
Of course for most people that's not a concern - we dont break TOS, we follow the rules... but if my experience with AdSense is any judge - sometimes that just doesn't help you.
So, my advice is that if you use blogger, or indeed, any free blogging software, like Wordpress, and you compose your blog entries onlie, as I do, neverthleess make sure you post a copy of your blog into a word document and save it on your computer. And go back into your archives and save all those entries as well.
Just to be on the safe side.
In addition, depending on what your blog is about, I'd recommend keepig an Excel file with title and topic and date posted, for all your blogs. It will help you go back in and find a certain blog (if you've got hundreds and hundreds of entries) and there's always a use for it!
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger?hl=en
Because I use blogger for all my blogs.
After asking my questions, I browsed around other people's questions, and came across someone frantically trying to figure out why their blog had been deleted without warning, without explanation.
This struck a chord with me, because I used to have a Google Adsense account. I'd had it for three or four years. And for three or four years I was gradually increasing my income, so that last year - when the events I'm relating happened - I was actually making some good money with Adsense and beginning to believe I could make a living online with my websites, because of it.
Then one day I tried to sign on to my account...couldn't do it. Without warning,my account had been terminated. I desperately tried to find out what had happened, and why, but never could do it. I never violated TOS, and I emailed them and told them so, but never got a response.
So that was four years of hard work down the toilet. That was my income, down the toilet! I was pretty depressed after that for several months, I can tell you.
Not to mention furious. I had not broken TOS. Even if I had broken TOS, they had my email. Why couldn't they email me, say, "You're doing this against TOS, clean it up or we'll have to suspend your account." Instead, nothing. No reason, no explanation, no appeal.
Well, after that rant let me get back to the purpose of this post.
Turns out, Blogger will do the same thing to your blog account. If they see something they don't like, they will suspend your account without warning! You have to submit a request to "review blog" and while you're waiting for them to review it, if they ever do, your blog is down.
Of course for most people that's not a concern - we dont break TOS, we follow the rules... but if my experience with AdSense is any judge - sometimes that just doesn't help you.
So, my advice is that if you use blogger, or indeed, any free blogging software, like Wordpress, and you compose your blog entries onlie, as I do, neverthleess make sure you post a copy of your blog into a word document and save it on your computer. And go back into your archives and save all those entries as well.
Just to be on the safe side.
In addition, depending on what your blog is about, I'd recommend keepig an Excel file with title and topic and date posted, for all your blogs. It will help you go back in and find a certain blog (if you've got hundreds and hundreds of entries) and there's always a use for it!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Do You Blog? Turn Your Blog Into A Book
I write a variety of blogs. Some are just of ephemeral interest, others contain material that will always be relevant.
I'm being paid by Amazon once, for subscriptions to my blog.
And I want to be paid by them again, for books published from those blogs.
In the same way that authors who write essays for magazines will then have those essays collected into book form. (Isaac Asimov was the grand master of this. Wrote over 300 essays for the magazine of fantasy and science fiction, and every year from 1960 to the day of his death, Doubleday would put those 12 essays into book form and he'd get paid for them again.
I've spent the last several entries talking about blogging, tomorrow I'll talk about the digital press - book publishing aspect.
I'm being paid by Amazon once, for subscriptions to my blog.
And I want to be paid by them again, for books published from those blogs.
In the same way that authors who write essays for magazines will then have those essays collected into book form. (Isaac Asimov was the grand master of this. Wrote over 300 essays for the magazine of fantasy and science fiction, and every year from 1960 to the day of his death, Doubleday would put those 12 essays into book form and he'd get paid for them again.
I've spent the last several entries talking about blogging, tomorrow I'll talk about the digital press - book publishing aspect.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Blog Publishing: New Blog
A couple of days ago I started a new blog, which I called the Rush Limbaugh Report. My intent is to discuss each day's news, and compare that with what is covered on Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly.
Well, not each and every one every day...I'd love to do that but it would be way too time-consuming. (On the other hand if this blog takes off I may sub-contract out the writing of it - www.elance.com is a good place to go for that ).
In order to get a popular blog there are a few formulas. You need to talk about a popular subject - the New York Yankees will sell better than the Seattle Mariners, unfortunately (oh, my poor Mariners), controversy like Rush Limbaugh sells better than no controversy...like ...well, I can't think of a single Liberal radio host.... but then, I don't listen to liberal radio...
Anyway, so I am gambling that a blog that talks about political controversy, with Limbaugh as the focal point, will draw a lot of readers. Of course, I am pro-Limbaugh for the most part -- I believe in American exceptionalism, and the American way, and embracing immigrants but rejecting illegal immigrants, but I'm also an atheist, a feminist, pro-abortion, pro-gay right to marriage, an environmentalist of sorts...
So, we'll see how it goes.
But here's the thing. I put the blog up for subscription yesterday, and it was available to subscribers today. At 12.30 (EST), I purchased the first subscription. (I'll unsubscribe tomorrow. I just wanted to get the ball rolling as regards subscription numbers, so people who visit the blog will see that someone has subscribed!)
At 2.30 pm (EST), I've got my ranking. #21,545.
Now I'm pretty sure that's from just one subscription - I doubt if anyone else has subscribed to it in the last two hours.
So now the watching game begins. Will its rank go higher and higher, into the 100,000s which means no one else is subscribing, or will it go lower, which is what I'd really like to see.
But the point I'm making is, an initial ranking, even one as good as #21,545, means nothing. I'm assuming that perhaps on this particular day, 21,545 blog subscriptions have been purchased...and that's about all it means. Or does it mean, 21, 545 blogs in the three topic areas I chose - politics, arts and entertainment, and ...science.
Well, not each and every one every day...I'd love to do that but it would be way too time-consuming. (On the other hand if this blog takes off I may sub-contract out the writing of it - www.elance.com is a good place to go for that ).
In order to get a popular blog there are a few formulas. You need to talk about a popular subject - the New York Yankees will sell better than the Seattle Mariners, unfortunately (oh, my poor Mariners), controversy like Rush Limbaugh sells better than no controversy...like ...well, I can't think of a single Liberal radio host.... but then, I don't listen to liberal radio...
Anyway, so I am gambling that a blog that talks about political controversy, with Limbaugh as the focal point, will draw a lot of readers. Of course, I am pro-Limbaugh for the most part -- I believe in American exceptionalism, and the American way, and embracing immigrants but rejecting illegal immigrants, but I'm also an atheist, a feminist, pro-abortion, pro-gay right to marriage, an environmentalist of sorts...
So, we'll see how it goes.
But here's the thing. I put the blog up for subscription yesterday, and it was available to subscribers today. At 12.30 (EST), I purchased the first subscription. (I'll unsubscribe tomorrow. I just wanted to get the ball rolling as regards subscription numbers, so people who visit the blog will see that someone has subscribed!)
At 2.30 pm (EST), I've got my ranking. #21,545.
Now I'm pretty sure that's from just one subscription - I doubt if anyone else has subscribed to it in the last two hours.
So now the watching game begins. Will its rank go higher and higher, into the 100,000s which means no one else is subscribing, or will it go lower, which is what I'd really like to see.
But the point I'm making is, an initial ranking, even one as good as #21,545, means nothing. I'm assuming that perhaps on this particular day, 21,545 blog subscriptions have been purchased...and that's about all it means. Or does it mean, 21, 545 blogs in the three topic areas I chose - politics, arts and entertainment, and ...science.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Blog report for June has arrived.
Blog Publishing on Amazon
The monthly report for blog publishing is available on or about the 11th of the month.
The monthly report for digital book publishing is available on the 15th of every month.
I received my monthly blog report today, the one that told me how many subscriptios I had during the complete month of June, and how much I was going to get paid --around July 28 ---for the month of June.
And it was a bit of a shock.
In the sense that I now have it confirmed that the Kindle subscriptions shown on the daily Blog Report (that sometimes updates daily, sometimes every two weeks!) is at least two weeks behind the times.
Each of my blogs - the blogs I have that sell! - had over 50 more subscriptions by the end of June than is shown in that daily report.
So while I have one blog that now says I have 67 subscriptions, according to my report by the end of June that blog had 128 subscriptions. (100 of which were in the two weeks free period). And since there were only 2 "unsubscriptions" listed, I'm going to assume that now I actually have at least 128 paying subscriptions. And since this is a $1.99 blog, that makes $76 a month from them (for July, to be paid in August).
I'm still not sure, however, whether the numbers on the actual Amazon pages themselves are current, or also two weeks or more behind the times. In the past I have purchased a subscription for one of my blogs, and then unsubscribed (just to get it into the numbered realm rather than to leave it blank) and the number would appear after an hour or so, so I always assumed those numbers were "real time."
Whether they are or not, they do provide a bit of a guideline to see how active your blogs are.
I have several blogs, only 2 of which have respectable numbers of subscriptions. However, I enjoy writing the others - one on oceanography, one on space exploration - and so I will continue to do so even though they have only a couple of subscriptions each.
And that is the main thing about putting blogs up for subscription on Kindle. You must enjoy writing your blog anyway, and not look to get rich on Kindle - it's gravy if that happens.
But if you do start a blog, you must not get discouraged if there are no numbers on Amazon showing that people are subscribing. They will, if you give them time. But many's the time I've subscribed to a blog, to review in my Kindle Blog Report (one of my best selling blogs) to find that it hasn't been posted in for over a month. Sometimes the author has changed his blog URL and never bothered to update the blog feed.
The monthly report for blog publishing is available on or about the 11th of the month.
The monthly report for digital book publishing is available on the 15th of every month.
I received my monthly blog report today, the one that told me how many subscriptios I had during the complete month of June, and how much I was going to get paid --around July 28 ---for the month of June.
And it was a bit of a shock.
In the sense that I now have it confirmed that the Kindle subscriptions shown on the daily Blog Report (that sometimes updates daily, sometimes every two weeks!) is at least two weeks behind the times.
Each of my blogs - the blogs I have that sell! - had over 50 more subscriptions by the end of June than is shown in that daily report.
So while I have one blog that now says I have 67 subscriptions, according to my report by the end of June that blog had 128 subscriptions. (100 of which were in the two weeks free period). And since there were only 2 "unsubscriptions" listed, I'm going to assume that now I actually have at least 128 paying subscriptions. And since this is a $1.99 blog, that makes $76 a month from them (for July, to be paid in August).
I'm still not sure, however, whether the numbers on the actual Amazon pages themselves are current, or also two weeks or more behind the times. In the past I have purchased a subscription for one of my blogs, and then unsubscribed (just to get it into the numbered realm rather than to leave it blank) and the number would appear after an hour or so, so I always assumed those numbers were "real time."
Whether they are or not, they do provide a bit of a guideline to see how active your blogs are.
I have several blogs, only 2 of which have respectable numbers of subscriptions. However, I enjoy writing the others - one on oceanography, one on space exploration - and so I will continue to do so even though they have only a couple of subscriptions each.
And that is the main thing about putting blogs up for subscription on Kindle. You must enjoy writing your blog anyway, and not look to get rich on Kindle - it's gravy if that happens.
But if you do start a blog, you must not get discouraged if there are no numbers on Amazon showing that people are subscribing. They will, if you give them time. But many's the time I've subscribed to a blog, to review in my Kindle Blog Report (one of my best selling blogs) to find that it hasn't been posted in for over a month. Sometimes the author has changed his blog URL and never bothered to update the blog feed.
Here's a blog that interviews Kindle authors
http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/
In preparing my blog entry yesterday about ways to advertise your Kindle book, I went to the Amazon message boards and found a thread begun by an author who has a Kindle blog where he interviews Kindle authors. Something I'd intended to do, but he beat me to it.
There's room for two or more such blogs, of course - there are a lot of authors out there - but I've decided the niche for The Kindle Publisher will focus only on writing skills and publishing do's and don'ts. Interviews with authors may remain the domain of others.
Here's how to get an interview. I take the liberty of posting a paragraph from his thread.
I'm a Kindle author myself and I've started a new blog. I'm looking to interview authors who have self-published on Kindle.
The interviews will be published on my blog with links back to your Kindle book on Amazon and to your author website.
In preparing my blog entry yesterday about ways to advertise your Kindle book, I went to the Amazon message boards and found a thread begun by an author who has a Kindle blog where he interviews Kindle authors. Something I'd intended to do, but he beat me to it.
There's room for two or more such blogs, of course - there are a lot of authors out there - but I've decided the niche for The Kindle Publisher will focus only on writing skills and publishing do's and don'ts. Interviews with authors may remain the domain of others.
Here's how to get an interview. I take the liberty of posting a paragraph from his thread.
I'm a Kindle author myself and I've started a new blog. I'm looking to interview authors who have self-published on Kindle.
The interviews will be published on my blog with links back to your Kindle book on Amazon and to your author website.
If you're interested, please email me at David_Wisehart@hotmail.com (subject line: "Kindle Author") with a link to your Kindle book. I'll send you a short list of interview questions about your book and your experience as a Kindle author. Send me back your answers, and I'll post them to my blog, with links to your Kindle ebook.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Clarification on the Goals of this Blog
This blog will discuss two of the three forms of publishing on Amazon currently available to the average person.
1. Publishing blogs
2. Publishing ebooks
(The third way is to publish print books and have them for sale on Amazon. The people who do this are Amazon Advantage members. A fourth way is to place advertisements for other people's books on your website. These are Amazon Associate members. I am an Amazon Associate, as well as an e-book publisher and a blog publisher.)
If you want to publish your blog - or as many of your blogs as you like - on Kindle, here is the URL to get started:
https://kindlepublishing.amazon.com/gp/vendor/members/kindlepubs/common/landing-page?originatingURI=/gp/vendor/members/kindlepubs/blogs
If you want to publish your own ebooks on Amazon for the Kindle, here's the URL you'll need:
https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin
From now on, at the top of each of my posts, I'll indicate if the post is intended for bloggers or ebook publishers... or both.
1. Publishing blogs
2. Publishing ebooks
(The third way is to publish print books and have them for sale on Amazon. The people who do this are Amazon Advantage members. A fourth way is to place advertisements for other people's books on your website. These are Amazon Associate members. I am an Amazon Associate, as well as an e-book publisher and a blog publisher.)
If you want to publish your blog - or as many of your blogs as you like - on Kindle, here is the URL to get started:
https://kindlepublishing.amazon.com/gp/vendor/members/kindlepubs/common/landing-page?originatingURI=/gp/vendor/members/kindlepubs/blogs
If you want to publish your own ebooks on Amazon for the Kindle, here's the URL you'll need:
https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin
From now on, at the top of each of my posts, I'll indicate if the post is intended for bloggers or ebook publishers... or both.
Advertising Your New Kindle Book
If you've published a book on Kindle, you may be wondering where you can advertise it.
Typically, the New York Times, the Minneapolis Tribune, et al, are not going to review a book published on the Kindle - or any e-reader - unless it is also published as a print book as well.
But Kindle readers have taken care of that themselves.
If you're going to publish books on the Kindle, you must become a presence on the Kindle message boards. However - you mustn't spam, that just annoys people. Take what they give you.
There are two Kindle message boards.
One is actually a website:
http://www.kindleboards.com/
The other are the message boards on Amazon itself.
http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum/ref=sv_kinc_6
There are several threads for authors to advertise their new books - just find one in the right category.
Of course - make sure your book is properly formatted before you put it up for sale.
I'll discuss formatting books for the Kindle tomorrow.
Typically, the New York Times, the Minneapolis Tribune, et al, are not going to review a book published on the Kindle - or any e-reader - unless it is also published as a print book as well.
But Kindle readers have taken care of that themselves.
If you're going to publish books on the Kindle, you must become a presence on the Kindle message boards. However - you mustn't spam, that just annoys people. Take what they give you.
There are two Kindle message boards.
One is actually a website:
http://www.kindleboards.com/
The other are the message boards on Amazon itself.
http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum/ref=sv_kinc_6
There are several threads for authors to advertise their new books - just find one in the right category.
Of course - make sure your book is properly formatted before you put it up for sale.
I'll discuss formatting books for the Kindle tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Importance of Descriptions on Amazon
When you first upload your blog or book to Amazon, it may appear within a couple of days, but the description of it always takes a few days more - an idiosyncrasy that I find annoying.
But eventually that description will show up, but it's not going to do you any good if its not a good description.
I've found this problem mostly with books in the public domain, but I've seen it with a few others - those self-published.
In your description, you need to throw in everything, and the kitchen sink. A table of contents, a list of characters perhaps, at the very least a synopsis of the plot!
And like everything else you write, after you've written your description, let it "set" for a day or so, then come back to it, and if it still sounds good, then use it.
Whenever you write something that's going to go for sale to someone else, or is going to advertise something you have for sale, you need to ensure that there are no spelling or grammar errors, and that it says exactly what you want it to say.
But eventually that description will show up, but it's not going to do you any good if its not a good description.
I've found this problem mostly with books in the public domain, but I've seen it with a few others - those self-published.
In your description, you need to throw in everything, and the kitchen sink. A table of contents, a list of characters perhaps, at the very least a synopsis of the plot!
And like everything else you write, after you've written your description, let it "set" for a day or so, then come back to it, and if it still sounds good, then use it.
Whenever you write something that's going to go for sale to someone else, or is going to advertise something you have for sale, you need to ensure that there are no spelling or grammar errors, and that it says exactly what you want it to say.
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