E-Book Contest Might Increase Authors' Visibility, Crediblity!

Just thought SharingwithWriters visitors and subscribers would might want to know about this contest.  It's relatively new--the fourth annual. You know how important I think winning a contest is for the visibility of books.  You can find some of my favorites on my Web site's Resources for Writers Contests page.

 

Registration Page:

http://form.jotformpro.com/form/42462687642967

 

PROCESS--HOW YOU WILL BE JUDGED:

1. Books will be pre-screened by KBR staff and our amazing review team. We will initially read the "Look Inside" sample (90% of your score) and Amazon book description (10% of score). We're looking for books with a compelling book description, but more importantly, books that "grab us from the beginning" and make us want to read more. The screening process is an indication of your potential buyers experience with your book, as subjective as that is. Book covers will only be judged to settle a tie.
2. Your sample is enough for us to get a feel for the quality of writing and professionalism, and to get us excited to read on. Your book description should be compelling with zero typos. We recommend that you fix any typos on your book page and book file before submitting. 
3. If your book passes "pre-screening" it will become a "Semifinalist" (20 max per category) and one of our top reviewers who love your genre will read the manuscript in its entirety. 

CATEGORIES: The Following Genres and Related Sub-genres are Welcome.

1. Mystery/Thriller
2. Romance
3. Y/A
4. Sci-fi/Fantasy
5. Literary Fiction
6. Horror/Suspense
7. Non-Fiction

AWARDS: 7 category Winners will Receive $350 cash, and $900+ in promotion & tools.

1. $350 Cash to Each Category Winner [Compliments of The Kindle Book Review ($200), Digital Book Today ($100), and bookdesigntemplates.com ($50)].
2. $200 in Free Promotion from The Kindle Book Review.
3. $150 in Free Promotion from Digital Book Today.
4. $50 in Free "Group" Promotion from Digital Book Today.
5. $50 in Free Promotion from KBoards.com.
6. $448 in tools and training from Author Marketing Club [FREE 1-year Premium Membership ($149 value), and FREE ticket to a "Virtual Event" ($299 value) at authormarketingclub.com.
7. A FREE book template (Awesome Print Templates starting at $37) compliments of "The Book Designer", Joel Friedlander, via bookdesigntemplates.com
8. All Semi-finalists, Top-5 Finalists, and Winners will receive a Contest Badge.

HOW MANY BOOKS CAN I SUBMIT?: Authors can submit up to 2 titles max.

IMPORTANT DATES (Mark on your Calendar & watch your email/spam):

1. Submissions Accepted: Feb. 1, 2015
2. End Submissions: May 1, 2015
3. Announce Category Semi-finalists: July 1
4. Announce Top-5 Category Finalists: Sept. 1
5. Announce 7 Winners: Oct. 1

LANGUAGE: All books must be written in the English language. 

FORMAT:

All submissions must be in "mobi" format. This is the most commonly accepted Kindle format. You can get your mobi copy from your KDP account. Simply login to your KDP account, click "Bookshelf", and then click on your book. Next, scroll down to "7. Preview Your Book" and click on the "Download Preview Book File" link. Or you can go to draft2digital.com and get your MS Word doc professionally formatted to mobi for FREE. You do not have to publish at draft2digital.com to take advantage of their free formatting service. I highly recommend this site; their customer service is excellent. Please do not contact us regarding book formatting; we're going to be too busy reading to help you with this. If you have questions, contact KDP Customer Service, or draft2digital.com.

 

If you did not get a notification with complete rules from Kindle in your e-mail box you can subscribe here.

If you would like to subscribe to this blog's companion newsletter, go here. You'll find the subscription box in the upper right corner of most every page on the blog.  To see back issues of Sharing with Writers, click here.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Selling Your Book The Way People Want to Buy It

Or Your Per Book Net Profit and What You Can Do About It

Stop Whining!

You know, about how much money you make per book.

If you self-published and your margin is too small to accommodate the profit margins of bookstore or Amazon sales it's your own fault. You didn't do your homework upfront. So swallow hard and console yourself. You've learned a valuable lesson for the next time you publish.

Ditto for subsidy- or partner-published books. Your publisher doesn't give you enough royalties? Next time negotiate better or choose another publisher or, better still, self-publish (yes, a new learning curve for you but you'll have more control over your profitability).

If you're traditionally published, you made the tradeoff! You hoped for fame. And you hoped for big sales. You may have gotten one, both or neither. You knew there were no guarantees. And didn't you know, too, that the publisher was taking the financial risks and therefore needed to take a bigger share of the pie to pay for his or her expenses and to make a profit to stay in business? If you didn't, maybe you should have taken a Business 101, Basic Economics or The Essentials of Capitalism course before you embarked on what, after all, is a business. In fact, an industry!

So the fact remains, you're boo-hooing because you don't make enough per book, right? Well be comforted because volume counts for something, too. So, roll up your sleeves and go for more sales. Promote like crazy. To do that, you'll want to be able to write a picture-perfect query letter so you can:

 Pitch your next book to a publisher or agent who can be a partner in increasing your profits.

 You'll want to know how to query appropriately for feature stories on you or the content of your book.

 You'll want to know how to write a presentable cover letter to contest judges so you can win some awards to make your book stand out.

 You'll want your query to entice radio and TV producers so they'll want you on their show. To do that, get controversial -- yes, even in the query!

 You'll want to query magazine and e-zine editors to publish your articles and/or excerpts so you can build credibility for your book and more easily sell the next one. And you do that by -- you guessed it -- doing your homework. Buy a book that tells you how to do that.

By the way, The Frugal Editor is a good start on all of the above!)

And then get a few good books on promotion. You need to understand what the different kinds of editors need. And you need to know how to offer them what they want in a way that makes it supremely easy for them to pick you.

You want to sell your book any old way your customer wants to buy them. Many people prefer to buy from Amazon so why would you try to force them to buy direct from your site? What if it doesn't work and they buy somebody else's book from Amazon instead. You know, they may be at Amazon spending their money and be interested in a book like yours. Lots of people are. They may need one more book to make the minimum to get free shipping. Or they may not want to pay sales tax. Or they may not want to take the time to make two purchases, one with credit card, one with Paypal. Or they may just get ticked because you're trying to make them buy your book YOUR way, they won't buy your book regardless.

What if they like to read e-books or need a book instantly and your book isn't available that way? Yep, they'll buy somebody else's! Loyalty only extends so far.

Ditto for Kindle!

What if they long for a signed book? Do you offer a way for them to get your treasured signature? With a label sent directly to them. Your autograph is one way to entice readers to buy directly from you if you prefer that.

Many authors rely solely on online bookstore sales. Authors can avoid some or our industry problems by selling their books that way. But what about customers who prefer to buy from bookstores? You should have at least made the effort to assure that your book can be ordered for customers who request them at B&N and Borders or at your local independents.

And here's a last idea for boosting your profitability. It's especially useful for authors who have only one book. Sell another book with yours at book fairs and your speaking engagements. It helps if the second or third books are related to yours but don't duplicate it so closely that a reader wouldn't need or want both. You can offer a little gift with purchase if a customer buys both. Authors' Coalition does that at their booth at the LA Times Festival of Books.

To make something like this work, of course, the second book must be purchased in quantity and marked up. Here are some ways to do that:
 You can cross-promote with an author friend.
 Or you can contact an author, tell them your plans and ask for a bookstore discount if you buy, say, six of his or her books.
 Or you can sell The Complete Writers' Journal which was designed with this purposed in mind and is available at discounts in quantity. Find it at www.redenginepress.com.

I guess it comes down to this. We all make mistakes. But we don't benefit from them if we don't own up. Hoist up your panties, do what you can to rectify the mistake this time around and avoid making it again.

And keep learning. You do that by reading, reading, reading. Add evaluating to that list. Not all resources are born equal. Listen but don't swallow whole anything you hear or read. (I'm sure you've noticed that there is a lot of griping-to-no-purpose going around the Web!)

Once you've been around the industry a little while, it will be easier to tell if what you hear is right for you. You'll know what to adopt and what to discard. Hooray for you. Now you're a real author. An author who knows the industry you're in and how to make it work for you. The school of hard knocks isn't all bad.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THIS IS THE PLACE; HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED; TRACINGS, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T; and THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.
Her other blogs include TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.