Notes From the Self-Publishing World

From a book author’s perspective:

I love being a self-published author and being able to take control of my own books. But on the downside of this power comes having to deal with the non-book tasks.

For example, this week I once again had to get in phone contact with Amazon Author Central because the LOOK INSIDE feature of my women’s friendship novel MRS. LIEUTENANT continues to show the old cover instead of the new cover. While I was assured in a phone call weeks ago that this would be taken care of promptly, this has not been the case.

Note to other authors: Do you check your LOOK INSIDE feature on Amazon to ensure that the correct information is inside?

Today I had to get in phone contact with CreateSpace (owned by Amazon) about the new uploaded cover for my book FOUR COMEDY SCREENPLAYS. Although, when creating this cover, Yael was very careful to leave ample space on either side of the title (so as not to touch the edges of the picture), I got an email rejecting the upload because the title on the cover is supposedly too close to the edges. (Clearly this is not the case as you can see from the above image.)

UPDATE: A few hours later I got an email from CreateSpace saying my book was approved — no explanation of why I got the previous erroneous email.

Then I checked on the marketing opportunity for which I paid to have MRS. LIEUTENANT included at Book Expo America. Click here to see this promotion now.

And from a book consultant’s perspective:

An author emailed me about my company’s social media consulting services, adding that up to now the author had not thought social media important. Requested to look at the long online sales page for the book, I was struck by one glaring absence:

Even if authors are not currently participating in social media (and why not?), they should be aware of how social media has impacted the expectation of prospective readers of our books. The VERY LONG sales letter (from my skimming) appeared to have no author picture and no information on the author.

Even if I missed the information buried somewhere in the long sales piece, today’s social media participants expect information on the author to appear front and center.

If you are an author and have not yet joined in the vast online opportunities to connect with potential readers, you would be wise to consider how those potential readers may have expectations about the promotion of your book.

Goodreads giveaway: You can find me at www.goodreads.com/pzmiller — and if you are a Goodreads member and would like the opportunity to win a copy of the paperback edition of MRS. LIEUTENANT, click on the widget to the right of this blog post to be taken to the Goodreads sign up.

And click here to check out my May book marketing post at Joylene Butler’s blog.

P.S. A big shoutout to FreeBookDude — While I cannot prove it, I am fairly sure that the inclusion on this site on May 6th of the free days for cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE made a big difference in the total number of free downloads for that book (as well as the subsequent sales after the free days ended).

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com