I’m pleased to announced the launch of Novelocity.net. This new site highlights easy-to-use Internet promotion strategies for writers. Learn how to boost your name recognition, find readers and sell more books using the popularity and inexpensive nature of the Internet.

The traditional publishing world is struggling with the increasing popularity of electronic books. Their profit margins are shrinking. That means less money for the promotion of mid-list and first-time author books. Without promotion, book sales will be dismal and the writer’s career as an author, short-lived.

To survive and thrive as a writer these days, you need to do your own promotion to get your books noticed and increase sales.

Enter the Internet – the world-wide information net that is now the go-to location when you want to find out anything.

Like what book you should read next.

Writers can take advantage of the Internet’s far reach:

• to locate readers that may never walk into a bookstore
• to find readers for great books that maybe didn’t get a huge publicity campaign from the publisher
• to find fans who will buy, love and rave about their books to other readers

And using the Internet for promotion is super inexpensive compared to other forms of advertising. That’s good news for writers who don’t have a lot of money to spend on promotion.

At Novelocity you’ll:

• get tips on using your website effectively to impress editors and readers
• learn how to use social media to find and build relationships with readers
• discover the secrets of successful strategies that other authors have used to increase their readership and sell a lot more books
• learn how to put together a marketing plan that fits you and your book

There are 1,733,993,741 people on the Internet (as of September 2009 – probably lots more now).

That’s a lot of potential readers.

Let’s go find them.

I added a new post over on Saturday Writers about the Best Author Response EVER to a negative review.

If you’re published or nearly so, check out Carla Cassidy’s response to a less-than-flattering review of one of her books. We could all learn a lesson from her. And sell more books in the process!

Holly Lisle posted about the True Fans model on her blog and started a thread on it in her Think Sideways forum.

Basically, the idea is that for creative people, you don’t need to be super popular with a million fans (though wouldn’t that be nice?). What you need are 1000 True Fans who will buy anything you put out and support you in your creative career. If you have 1000 True Fans that each buy $100 of stuff from you each year, you’ll make $100,000. (I could sure live on that.)

The initial idea of 1000 True Fans came from Kevin Kelly and you can read his post here.

I was thinking about how to apply this to a writer and shared these notes in the forum. I’m posting them here too because I think this is a valuable discussion for writers. Publishing is changing with the accessibility of information on the Internet. Writers need to be prepared to take advantage of the changes as they come.

My thoughts on how the concept of 1000 True Fans can be used by published authors:

1. You first need to qualify a person as a True Fan. (You can’t give of yourself to everybody or soon you have nothing left for your writing.) The entry barrier needs to be financial. If a person isn’t willing to spend money on Author’s product, service, etc., the person isn’t a True Fan. People value what they have to pay for.

• Person buys e-book from Author (or more than one, indicating continuing interest in Author’s work)
• Person donates money to Author through website – micro-investing in Author’s future work
• Person signs up for serial story subscription from Author (new chapter released in electronic format each month, minimal cost of $2-3 per month for subscription, so total equals cost of hardcover book, with total file available as full e-book at end of subscription). Author could use out-of-print novels or first, unpublished novels (but only if great quality – novels may need to be revised to author’s current writing skill/style) for serial subscription. (Bruce Holland Rogers has done something similar with short stories sent out each month for $5/month subscription.)
• Person purchases other merchandise from Author
• Person purchases True Fan status aka access to Author via Inner Circle membership (This may be the best qualifier of all. If I like an Author’s work so much that I’m willing to pay for increased access to the Author and his/her work, then I’m a True Fan.)

2. Offer increased communication between True Fan and Author with an “Inner Circle”. Provides an “in” feeling to the fan of having special access. Must be invitation-only or it loses its specialness.

• Yahoo Group – free to setup, all members can ask questions, author can answer and all members see responses, community feeling
• Special email address for only True Fans to use to contact Author, free to setup (using gmail, etc.), but could be time-intensive for Author and loses benefit of all members being able to see questions and answers
• Membership site with forum (similar to Think Sideways) – cost to set up, all members can ask questions and see answers, community feeling, less time-intensive for Author, but requires some technical skill or a skilled friend/family member to help
• Autoresponder broadcasts – similar to email list, but is one-way communication (Author to True Fans), does not allow for members to ask questions or get to know each other

3. Offer special gifts/bonuses to True Fans.

• Free exclusive short stories or novellas (digital formats to reduce cost for creation, storage and delivery)
• Free wallpaper of cover art (if allowed) or similar downloads
• Info/postings on current WIP – “behind-the-scenes” look at what the Author’s currently working on
• Discounts on selected merchandise available through Author’s website – t-shirts, coffee mugs, bookmarks, signed book copies, ARCs
• Giveaways of items noted above
• Sneak peek at pre-release chapters of new book

There are technical and logistical issues with much of the above, but I believe they could be worked out so there is a balance between the True Fan’s desire for access to the Author and the Author’s need for time and isolation to keep producing books for the True Fan.

The main idea is to develop a community or tribe (using Seth Godin’s word) of people that support and are loyal to the Author. Communities are about interaction, so anything the Author can do to promote and encourage interaction among his/her fans is in his/her best interests.

I’m still thinking about how unpublished writers could develop a True Fan following.

What are you thoughts about this? Does 1000 True Fans seem more possible than having a bestseller? Do you have other ideas for how a published writer could interact with their True Fans? Or how unpublished writers could begin their own True Fan following?

Twitter allows you to have more than one account, unlike Facebook which limits you to only one per person. The benefit on Twitter is that you can set up an account for each writing name you use (your own or a pseudonym) and also an account for your personal use. This allows you to keep your writing and personal tweets separate. You may even want to keep your personal account private for only your friends and family. You can also shape your writer account to represent your brand as a writer.

For more information on why you might want to use multiple Twitter accounts, read How Many Twitter Accounts Should You Have? by David Risley.

About a week ago I presented a workshop for the Iowa Romance Novelists group on using Twitter. Many of the ladies had heard of Twitter, but didn’t know what you do with it. They had lots of good questions and many signed up for Twitter that day.

Once you get started on Twitter, the question quickly arises… what do you “tweet”? If you’re using Twitter as a means to find readers interested in the genre that you write in, here are some tips about what to tweet.

1. Tweet about your writing and your progress on your novel. You don’t have to give away your plot, but share details on your process.
2. Limit very “personal” tweets. It’s okay to share commentary or opinions, but most of your followers will not care that you just had oatmeal and orange juice for breakfast.
3. Tweet about other writer’s books – what you’re reading, what you liked, new releases, especially if they are in your genre.
4. Followers want information and entertainment. Be interesting and entertaining, not totally self-focused.
5. Reply to all Direct Messages and @Replies sent to you. It’s polite and builds relationships.

What tips do you have for writers on using Twitter?

I read an interesting article today by Michel Fortin about Twitter and the debate over auto-following people who follow you. Some folks say that it is polite to do so. Others say that it is nonsensical–you wouldn’t give out your telephone number to a complete stranger, so why would you give a stranger the ability to Direct Message (DM) you, just because they “said” they were interested in you by following you.

Regardless of which camp you fall in, I think there is an important thing to note here for writers. We are all quite aware of the state of publishing today and how hard it is to get published. And the even harder task a published author has in finding and keeping enough readers to make his book sales look good to a publisher. Especially given the general lack of money and support that a publisher will put forth for a book in the midlist.

Two Jobs

For authors in the midlist, they have twin tasks now–writing a great book AND finding enough readers to buy it. I believe that an author’s promotional activities will continue to be of increasing importance if they want to remain a published author.

Twitter is one of the ways that a writer can seek out and find potential readers for her books. And that gets us back to the debate at hand on auto-following. Writers want the largest following possible because each follower represents a potential book sale, right? But can you really equate follower numbers with sales? I don’t think so.

If you spend your time auto-following every person who follows you, what kind of connection do you have with that person? They are essentially a stranger to you, unless you’ve taken the time to open up a conversation and get to know the person behind the tweets. And let’s not forget, how often have you bought something because a complete stranger recommended it? Not often, I think.

On the other hand, how likely are you to purchase something that a friend has recommended to you? In the case of a book, a friend’s recommendation is the #1 reason a person will buy a book that wasn’t on their radar previously. (I’m paraphrasing this a bit from the informal survey that JA Konrath did a while back, which I can’t find now.)

If you have a friend or someone you like and trust who just happens to be a writer with a book coming out, how likely are you to purchase it as a show of support? I buy books written by my friends for that reason. And also because I love the books they write.

Collect Friends, Not Faceless Crowds

The key to Twitter seems to be not how many followers you can accummulate, but rather how many new friends you can make. Real friends, people you like and want to talk with. For a writer, I can’t think of a better way to increase the potential for book sales, then by reaching out to other people to start conversations and get to know them. Twitter is one way to do that… one person at a time.

As a follow-up to my post on creating your own ebook, I want to touch on some alternate forms for an ebook that you may want to pursue.

A PDF document is great for printing or reading on your computer, because it is a “fixed layout” format. However, it is lousy for reading on a cellphone, PDA, or ebook reader like the Kindle or Sony Reader. To reach people using these kind of devices you need to reformat your ebook in a different way, as a “reflowable” format. This allows the page to be displayed nicely on different sizes of screens, like portable devices. All of these formats listed below are reflowable formats, so they’re great for your mobile readers.

MOBI

This is short for Mobipocket. Mobipocket products support most Windows, Symbian, BlackBerry and Palm operating systems, but not Linux or Macintosh.

To create a file in this format, you need to download the Mobipocket Creator. It’s free to download. If your document is already in Word or RTF format, you can easily import it into the Creator and create the .mobi file.

Microsoft LIT

LIT files can only be read by the Microsoft Reader program, so a person would need to download Microsoft Reader to view them. To create a .lit file you use “Read in Microsoft Reader”. It’s an add-on, available from Microsoft, that can be used in conjunction with Microsoft Word (versions 2000, 2002 and 2003) to create .LIT extension e-books. It is not compatible with Office 2007, though.

eReader

This is a freeware program for viewing Pam Digital Media electronic books. Versions are available for PalmOS, iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile Pocket PC/Smartphone, desktop Windows, and Macintosh. The reader shows text one page at a time as paper books do. eReader supports embedded hyperlinks and images (a nice touch!). Additionally the Stanza application for the iPhone and iPod Touch can read both encrypted and unencrypted eReader files. eReader.com offers two Windows/MacOS programs for producing ebooks: the free Dropbook and the paid-for eBook Studio.

In Summary

If you’re going to be creating a large number of ebooks for your audience or fans, you may want to consider investing some time in creating these alternate formats. It will give your fans many more ways to enjoy your writing.

*Much of the info here is taken from Wikipedia.org — a great resource when you need to know something.

There are a lot of opinions in the publishing world about the future of print books. Some feel that print books will be around forever. Others think that we’re slowly moving to all electronic reading. Whichever side of the discussion you fall on, it is true that ebooks are gaining popularity.

March 8-14 is Read an Ebook Week. It is a week set aside to inform the public about the pleasures and advantages of reading electronically.

For a writer, ebooks open up more avenues for getting your work published. It can be easier and cheaper to set up as a digital publisher than a new print publisher. More publishers mean more possibilities to get published. And some print publishers are adding digital delivery to their formats. The more formats that are available, the more chances you have as a writer to find readers.

How Can I Get In On the Ebook Craze?

The easiest way for you to “cash in” on the popularity of ebooks is by publishing some of your own work as ebooks. I don’t mean just self-publishing your novels, though many writers choose to go that route. Instead, some authors are writing short stories or novellas to accompany their books in print. They make them available for free to their fans to enjoy. Lynn Viehl has done this regularly for the last few years and her fans love the new, original stories she puts out.

Why Do I Want to Make an Ebook?

You want to offer short stories for free download on your website (or through a document hosting site like Scribd) for two main reasons:

1. It provides a “reward” to your current fans by giving them more stories in a fictional world they like or starring characters they’re already familiar with. Short stories can be a great boost for your readers during the long intervals between book releases.

2. It provides a chance for non-fans to discover you and get hooked on your writing or your story worlds without making the larger commitment of buying a book.

Writers need readers and this can be a very low-cost (just requires your time) way to put your words in front of more people.

How Can I Create My Own Ebook?

It’s simple and easy to create your own Ebook to give away on your website.

1. Create the original document. Make sure it has good margins (at least 1″ all the way around) and line spacing (double-spacing is best) and choose a font that is clear and large, like Times New Roman 12. You want your story to be easy for people to read.

2. Next, save the doc in the PDF format. (I recommend you don’t save it as a “doc” type. That makes it a little too easy for someone to grab and copy your story.)

If you use Microsoft Office 2007, the ability to save a file as a PDF is already built in. Just do a File, Save As, and choose PDF as the type.

If your word processing software doesn’t have PDF functionality built in, there are several free PDF converters available for download or online. Keep in mind, some of the free converters will place a footer or a watermark on your document advertising their converter. If you don’t want that, keep looking around until you find one that doesn’t have that feature.

• doPDF – PDF converter that you can download.
• PDF converter – For this one, you upload your document to their site. It converts the doc to a PDF and emails it to you.
• PDF995 – This free version displays a sponsor page in your web browser each time you run the software.
• CutePDF Writer – A PDF converter to download.

3. Upload the new PDF file to your website. If you don’t have your own website, you can sign up for a free account on Scribd and upload it there.

4. Notify your friends and fans that you have a new story available for them to read and send them the link.

Places to Find Ebooks to Read

If you’re looking for some good material to read yourself (always important for writers to keep reading!) check out the Ebookweek website for links to free ebook sites.

And check out these sources:

ebookguru.org

Online Novels

Most of us writers would prefer to spend all of our time writing and zero time promoting our books. However, in the new Web 2.0 world, time spent promoting or marketing our books is nearly essential. Unless you want to be like this poor fellow…

What methods have you used or seen used to promote books on the web?

Introverts. They have it tough at times in our “always on”, Bluetooth-Borg kind of world. So much talking, so many people. And writers who are introverts have it even worse. How do you promote yourself and your book when the thought of talking to people just drains the life out of you?

(And to clarify, introverted doesn’t mean shy. It means that you draw energy from inside yourself. Extroverts draw energy from other people. Which are you? When you’re mentally tired, how do you recharge–by being alone or by being with other people?)

There’s a website dedicated to helping introverted writers with marketing themselves and their books — Shrinking Violet Promotions. It’s run by Robin LeFever and Mary Hershey. The best part about their site for me is simply the validation that comes from being with other introverts.

You should definitely check out some of their posts:

Introvert Abuse and Marketing Avoidance Profile

Writing Blurbs or How To Make Your Head Explode

Rerun: Pimpin’

Controlling What We Can