If learning and managing all the intricacies of Amazon’s advertising engine in order to promote your book/s seems just too hard, perhaps you might consider hiring a consultant through the outsourcing websites Fiverr and Upwork. You can check reviews of each consultant’s work in order to see if any of them might be a good fit. Packages start at quite low rates, so you could experiment without committing huge amounts of money.
Bush Tragedies
Author Bill Poulos has been getting plenty of press for his excellent new book Bush Tragedies. Bill has been using Facebook and Instagram to good effect and tapping into his community connections.
https://arr.news/2023/09/01/new-release-bush-tragedies/
https://www.nswcountryandpicnicracing.com.au/former-racing-writer-launches-new-book/
https://www.netimes.com.au/2023/08/20/new-crime-book-from-moree-author-accidental/
The Science of Filenames....
Sent to me by a client…
My own experience is that adding “final” to a filename is an invitation to create at least twenty more versions….
Frank Burkett, The O'Connor Protocol and author websites
Author Frank Burkett has set up a simple, effective long-scrolling author wordpress website. The site includes a blurb, book thumbnail, author bio, an order form and some local context, and a comments capability. A navigation bar to go to different sections of the page abd back to the top would have been helpful, but perhaps was not an option for this build of WordPress.
Frank’s biography reads as follows:
Frank Burkett lives in tropical Queensland, which is the setting of his second novel, The O’Connor Protocol. His previous novel, View from the Clock Tower, was shortlisted in 2006 for the British Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger award. Although raised in Queensland, Frank has travelled extensively, including three years in the United Kingdom where he studied at the University of London for a Diploma in Dramatic Art. He spent three years in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where he worked in the field of land conservation. In 1980, back home, he completed a journalism major at the University of Queensland. Following a successful career in news media, he wrote and published The Tropical Son, a biography of country music singer Graeme Connors. Frank is now retired and working on his third book in which, once again, sugar cane, rainforests and coral reefs provide an exotic setting.
Available here and direct from the author. Published by Sid Harta Publishers.
AIs Move into Audiobooks...
A well voiced audiobook is a thing of beauty indeed — an exciting, immersive experience. And a very human one. But narrators are about to feel the cold digital breath of AIs trained to narrate with naturalistic, believable voices.
Risks abound:
“But despite the positive impact AI voice generation can make, the technology is associated with numerous risks as well. Some of them include misuse, fraud, impersonation, and even voice theft, which especially affects professional voice actors.”
No doubt the initial results for multi-narrator audiobooks will be fairly primitive, but they will improve, and probably with startling speed. AI music is already flooding the streaming world, and real-life musicians aren’t getting much income out of that. Hollywood actors won some restrictions on the use of AI in their industry, but voice actors may not have quite as much clout.
Reedsy has a cheery article on optimal ways to use AI narrators. According to the writer:
“Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that the listener will get used to an AI voice after a few minutes and start accepting it as a real voice.”
Choosing Amazon Book Categories
Uploading your book to Kindle Direct Publishing / Amazon is the beginning of a process rather than the end. The next task is to optimise your metadata for visibility / search. Reedsy is offering a free course on the basics of Amazon advertising.
“In this article, we’ll reveal the importance of choosing the right categories and provide you some practical steps to perfectly place your book on Amazon’s bulging shelves. ”
K-Lytics
If you are serious about optimising your online presence as an author, K-Lytics is worth checking out. Their site asks the following rhetorical question:
“Do you want to sell more books, face less competition, and achieve a higher return on your publishing investments?”
Their paid market reports burrow into the details of hundreds of genres and micro-genres. Seeing the maths underneath the book markets is a bit disconcerting, but in a world governed by algorithms and visibility, these insights are essential. The specificity of some of the genres and sub-genres is almost comic: Scottish Romance (what about Scottish Time Travelling Romance?); Cosy Mystery; Urban Fantasy, etc.
“You do not have to be afraid of numbers. We will help you to understand and use them to your advantage.”
Learn about Amazon Algorithms for Free
“Amazon is more than just a retailer: it is a search engine as well as a book discoverability website. In fact, it’s the world’s leading search engine for books, where the majority of buyers go to find their next read.”
Reedsy is offering a short, free introductory course for those interested in using Amazon advertising for their books. The course covers the following topics:
The fundamentals of how the algorithms work
How to optimize your product page for the algorithm
How to pick the right categories and keywords
How to ascend the various lists on the Kindle store
The right way to launch your book
DragGAN Drops
Another ‘AI is functionally equivalent to magic’ post. DragGAN is an experimental AI App that allows for extensive intuitive photo editing on the fly, including changing perspective, facial features, hair colour and length.
“the results are mesmeric. DragGAN is an interactive way of editing photos or works of art by tagging points on an image and just… dragging. The AI does all the hard work.”
Manuscript to Market: the life cycle of getting your book into print
by Susan Pierotti, writer, editor and proofreader.
Does a burning desire to write a book light a fire in your belly? Have you already begun to write but self-doubts have conquered your self-confidence? Do you have all the material ready to write but don’t know how to assemble it together?
I wrote Manuscript to Market to answer these very questions and more. I’m an editor who polished others’ books for publication. I never in a million years thought that I would write a book, yet I’ve now published four. I know what it feels like to write and then hand over my hours of inspiration (and perspiration) to someone else to get feedback from. Will they like it? Will they loathe it?
I wrote Manuscript to Market in response to a number of prompts.
The first came from a business colleague. He said if I was going into business as a book editor, I’d better write a book to show I knew what I was talking about. So, for all you businesspeople out there, let me tell you – writing a book is a business card on steroids! I have sold so many of my books to prospective authors and they now think I’m an expert.
Am I the only book editor around, or even the best? No, but I’m the only one they have met who can tell them what they need to know. This adds to my credibility and their reassurance. So, if you’re in business and want a product that does the marketing work for you, write a book. (How do you do that? Read mine!)
The second prompt came from my first-time author clients. They had great stories, engaging characters and dramatic plotlines, but few knew how to construct a good story arc with an appropriate pace, many didn’t know who they were writing for, and marketing ... well, isn’t that what the publisher does? Knowing how little some of these authors know about the book publishing world about understanding how they feel about their work motivated me to help them.
Every author I have worked with regards their book (rightly) as if it were their baby – precious, delicate, valuable. This gave me the structure for my book. From the birth of your baby (where the idea is in the head) to going to school (finding your editor) to dressing up (cover design, layout) and graduating (publishing), Manuscript to Market is a step-by-step guide to getting the idea in your head to a book in the hand.
Available at Susan’s website.
Australian Society of Authors Guide to the Australian Book Industry
The Australian Society of Authors (ASP) has just released their 2023-24 Guide to the Australian Book Industry. The book contains the following elements:
Industry organisations
Industry newsletters
Literary magazines and journals
Literary podcasts
Reading communities
Sensitivity readers
Literary agents
Trade publishers
International book fairs
Literary festivals
Funding your work
Grants
Residencies and fellowships
Competitions
Literary Prizes
Publicising your work
Book publicists
Book review services
Bookshops for events
Speaker agencies
Understanding self-publishing
Self-publishing service providers
Custom publishers
Print book distributors
Printers
The book is free with an ASA membership, which is not cheap, but certainly worth considering if you are serious about your writing life. Another ASA title available in Kindle format is the Guide to Getting Published: Understanding and navigating Australia's book industry, available from Amazon.
Manuscript Assessment Agency
If you have completed a first draft of your manuscript, but are unsure of the next step and need experienced guidance, the services of the Manuscript Appraisal Agency are worth considering. Their menu consists of the following:
In the highly competitive world of publishing, getting your manuscript read, assessed and/or edited can be the first step to finding success. The Manuscript Appraisal Agency can help you take those first publishing steps, getting your manuscript ready for agents, traditional publishers, and self-publishing.
We offer:
Manuscript Appraisals (assessments)
Editing (structural editing, copy editing and proof reading)
The MAA is an ethical service, not an entry point to a vanity press.
Book cover designs and drafts April 2023
Australian Newsletter for Independent Authors
Thorpe-Bowker publishes an interesting newsletter on the independent publishing scene. Free subscription link here.
Introducing Euan Mitchell, Editor...
We highly recommend the experienced services of Euan Mitchell, an editor with a wealth of experience in large publishing houses and with independent authors. In the words of one of his author clients:
““Working with Dr Euan Mitchell was a wonderful experience. His knowledge and excellent advice have guided me to where I am now, with a growing number of readers. Some of the most positive feedback has been how well-edited, flawless and easy-to-read my novel is. This helped my readers to focus on enjoying the story and, for that, I cannot thank Euan enough. If you want someone to bring the best out of your work at a reasonable price, I highly recommend Dr Mitchell.””
It's a Material World
Material Design 3 is the sophisticated underlying design scheme / language / science that underlies Google’s massive presence on the web. It deals with typefaces, colour schemes, icons, accessibility, navigation and more, and has a very large number of moving parts, including an interesting new colour model.
“Material is an adaptable system of guidelines, components, and tools that support the best practices of user interface design. Backed by open-source code, Material streamlines collaboration between designers and developers, and helps teams quickly build beautiful products.”
How a Browser Works
Ever wondered how your browser really works (or doesn’t, in some cases)? The Chrome-focused article linked here dives pretty deep into the underlying processes that keep your window to the Internet open.
DIY renders of 3D book covers (free)
Boxshot invites users to upload their book cover and spine, then fiddle with a variety of controls to arrive at a striking 3D rendering of said cover. The basic offering is free, with a paid version offering more bells and whistles.
“This 3D book cover generator is constantly rendering a realistic book model with the pictures you loaded. Every time you move the camera or change a parameter — the rendering starts from the beginning. It may take some time for the noise to come away and you get a nice and clear 3D image.”
Angela Dawson Reports on Promotional Activities
Author of Red, Angela Dawson reports on her recent promotional activities and opportunities:
ABC Radio Melbourne: Angela Dawson publishes her novel Red - ABC
Plus, as well as Readings bookstores, I managed to get books into Dymocks, Camberwell after being part of a panel of authors presenting to a packed audience at Rivoli Cinemas, Camberwell, for their 'First Tuesday Book Club'. Catherine Deveny was one of them! Fun, but quite nerve racking! I got to speak for 15 mins, and afterwards we all sat in the foyer for book signings, like real authors!
I've entered lots of competitions, and so far have managed to get short listed in the Santa Fe Writers Project 2022 Literary Awards (27 selected out of 2000!)
This was their feedback:
Thank you for participating in the 2022 Literary Awards Program and, again, congrats on making it into the finalist lists! You beat out nearly 2000 manuscripts to get where you are.
While you did not make the winners' circle, your manuscript showed strong promise and shined through a rigorous judging process. Congratulations!
I'm still waiting for a few more comp results, some of which come out at the end of the year.
I have a few things I want to pursue - I've joined this FB page, which might help with getting some online traffic:
I even wrote a short blog today, after a massive hiatus!
There are definitely some great opportunities out there for writers to get their work critiqued. I found a few legitimate sites, including an American one which frequently has competitions with no entry fees - usually for short essays, poems. I'm on their monthly list for the newsletter. Their site states they are, 'One of the Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers'.
Winning Writers, Inc.
351 Pleasant Street Suite B PMB 222
Northampton, MA 01060-3998
USA
Her website can be found here.
Working with a book cover designer
Author and traveller Jacqueline Hodder describes the process she went through in choosing a book cover designer (spoiler alert: she used WorkingType Design).
