Books Can’t Be Free

Books, E-books, Free Speech, Publishing, Writing No Responses »
May 242010

Amazon.com has plans to split their bestseller list into two, one for free titles and one for paid books. This will likely please authors and publishers and add a tenth of a basis point or so to Amazon’s bottom line.

 It also points out that “free” isn’t the price point for delivery of content. Authors, publishers, and retailers need to make money if readers are going to have a robust selection of informational and entertainment material available to us at any price.

 Just a write thought.

Posted by Stephen Blake Mettee at 8:18 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

Can You Buy Your Way into Being a Published Author?

Books, Promotion, Publishing, Writing 3 Responses »
May 132010

Yesterday an elderly gentleman was in my office asking what he should do with his fourth book. He’d paid a “publisher” out of Southern California $25,000 to publish his first book and $5,000 to publish his second. The publisher published the third for free. None of them sold any copies to speak of even though the publisher said he sent out a bunch of review copies.

To make matters worse, my visitor had heard that millions of books were sold on the Internet so he paid to be included on a book-selling website that told him he would “earn consistent income from the site selling 4,000 to 5,000 books a month.” He sold 21 copies. He thinks friends bought most of them.

A member of the hope-springs-eternal crowd (as we all are), he was there to ask if he could pay me to publish his book.

If you are an author, and you are paying to get published or for services that guarantee to sell your books, chances are you will have a bad experience. Is this always the case? Almost. What can you do about it? Learn the industry—learn what works and what doesn’t—before you open your checkbook.

Just a write thought.

Posted by Stephen Blake Mettee at 10:22 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

With Kobo, Borders Enters the E-Reader Fray

Writing 1 Response »
May 082010

Kobo joins Kindle, Sony, iPad, and Nook

Borders, the nation’s second largest bookstore chain today jumped into the fight for the e-reading public with a new e-reader from a Canadian company Kobo, Inc (used to be Shortcovers). Borders owns a significant portion of Kobo, Inc.

The big advantage over Amazon’s Kindle, the Sony E-reader, Barnes and Noble’s Nook, and Apple’s iPad is price. Kobo retails for $150. The big disadvantage is that you have to download a book to a computer then transfer it to your Kobo via cable. The others all use 3G or WiFi technology allowing the user to download material directly to the device. The Kobo supports only the e-Pub and PDF formats which is somewhat limiting.

The Kobo, which has been available in Canada for a few weeks, comes preloaded with 100 classic titles.

Here’s a short video introducing the device:

Will your favorite book be available on a Kobo?

Borders says it will offer over 1 million books in its e-book store which it plans to open in June. The Kobo people say there are millions of books currently available for the Kobo from various sources, including 1.8 million free books from Kobobooks.com.

Eventually nearly all books will be available for each mobile device, so make your choice by considering the device features you like and its price point.

Just a write thought.

Posted by Stephen Blake Mettee at 11:46 am

Something to Shoot for when You Make Your Book Trailer

Book Marketing, Books No Responses »
May 062010

I’ve been researching do-it-yourself video for a presentation I’m giving later this month at the Independent Book Publishers Association’s Publishing University.

This is hardly an example of what most indie publishers will attain, but it is an example of what you can do with clever people, a home studio, a somewhat hefty budget, and two minutes and ten seconds.

 Much of the actual videotaping is quite professional and may be beyond most publisher’s expertise, but many devices used in this video, like the simple title cards (some on masking tape!), the replaying of parts of scenes, and the sound effects (most available free on the Internet—Google “free sound effects”) could be used pretty easily.

It is inspiring, does give us a target to shoot for and besides, it’s fun to watch.

Just a write thought.

Posted by Stephen Blake Mettee at 8:26 am Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
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