By Bill Walker, on July 1st, 2011
Today I am embarking on a new project with my friend, Michele Valencia. We are going to track our social media activity for the next 6 months to see if our online presence increases with consistent, focused effort.
We have developed a social media plan. We are also going to be posting a lot of video. In fact I’ll be posting a video that I did a few days ago of me describing how to use a pen. I know that has nothing to do with what I do but it is fun and shows that it’s not necessary to put up professional video to get exposure.
To begin I am going to list below my current “stats” on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube & Klout. As well as the result of a search of my name on Google, Yahoo and Bing. Finally is my current Alexa ranking for my site http://billwalker.com.
Continue reading Social Media Project: Day 1
By Bill Walker, on January 4th, 2011
Many aspiring novelists, begin the writing process without really thinking about what his/her publishing objectives are. They don’t think about questions such as: Why do I want to write a book in the first place? How will this book be published? For whom am I writing this book? Who is my target market? Do I want to make money from the sales of this book? How am I going to market my book?
These are questions that should be answered prior to writing your book. Here are a few things to consider:
What are your goals and objectives?
- Why do you want to publish a book? (What is your Big “Why”?)
- Is this a hobby or do you want to earn a living as a writer?
- Are you going to print just a few copies for friends and family or do you want worldwide distribution?
- Do you want to become a household name?
- Who is your target market?
- Are you passionate about your writing?
How do you envision your writing career?
- Hobby – A favorite leisure time activity or occupation.
- Job – A paid or unpaid position of employment.
- Career – A life’s work or journey.
Continue reading Define Your Publishing Objective
By Bill Walker, on December 28th, 2010
E-books are potentially very lucrative for authors. And the best part is that they require little money to produce. My uncle forwarded me a link to an article on DailyFinance called How E-books Are Changing the Economics of Writing by Karen Dionne I thought I would share a portion of it with you:
In November, The New York Times reported that approximately 9 million electronic reading devices are in use in the U.S. When holiday purchases are tallied, that number will most certainly go up. While there are many different kinds of e-readers, they share one thing in common: They need to be filled with books.
Two years ago, e-books constituted 1% of total book sales, a figure that’s now closer to 10%. As electronic media accounts for a larger and larger portion of the book business, consumers are benefiting from lower prices for books, and manufacturers are enjoying massive sales. But how is the e-book revolution affecting authors?
A Boon for Self-Publishers
For an author under contract with a major publisher, not much has changed. Most publishers still insist on acquiring electronic rights along with print at the royalty rate that’s been in place for years: 25% of net profits. Amazon (AMZN), on the other hand, offers authors a whopping 70% of net profits for e-books sold in the U.S. Admittedly, the online retailer carries a large number of caveats, most notably that the book must be priced between $2.99 and $9.99. Barnes & Noble (BKS) and Apple (AAPL) offer similar royalty rates.
This raises the question of whether an author can really make money with a book priced so low. J. A. Konrath, author of the traditionally published Jack Daniels mysteries and nearly a dozen self-published e-books, offers an interesting perspective on the numbers behind the e-book/traditional publishing dilemma.
“I have an acquaintance who is a New York Timesbestseller,” he notes. “She got a great advance. But I’m on track to earn $200,000 this year on e-books alone, and the e-book market is still in its infancy. If she’d kept the rights and self-published her e-book, I bet she would have earned more money in three years on her own than she will with her publisher.”
Konrath offers a breakdown: “Her Kindle book is priced at $9.99, which earns her $1.75 per sale. I’m pricing books at $2.99, and making $2.09 per book. Currently, I have seven self-published e-novels earning more than $24,000 a year each. I wish I had more novels that I couldn’t sell [to traditional publishers], because I’m making a nice chunk of change with them on Kindle.”
See full article from DailyFinance: http://su.pr/1z6gwf
While it is important to have your books available on the Kindle and iBookstore you should also have them available for purchase on your own website. It’s not that hard to set up a simple web page where your fans can purchase and download your book directly from your site. One benefit of this is that instead of getting only 50%-70% per copy you receive 100% less per transaction fees (PayPal charges 2.9% + $.30 a transaction). Therefore if you have an e-book that you sell for $4.99 from your site your net profit from each sale would be $4.55 (4.99 – 2.9% – .30).
Now for the disclaimer: Just because you have an e-book does not guarantee success. It’s still up to you to market it. But if you are willing to develop an online presence and market your e-book, the opportunity to make money selling your e-book is real.
I hope this information motivates you to take advantage of the tremendous income opportunity that e-books provide.
By Bill Walker, on December 16th, 2010
It seems everyone has an opinion these days on the future of publishing and the imminent death of the book business. What do you think? I personally don’t see the death and subsequent obsolescence of printed books. However, I do see a radical change in the production and delivery of books to readers and I think the changes are great! These changes may bring down the mega chain bookstores and large New York publishers and that doesn’t bother me at all.
I came across an article in the Huffington Post today - The Last Country House Party? E-Books and Publishing’s Phony War by Peter Ginna. Read what Peter has to say. If you want to read the entire article please click on the link above.
From what I can gather around town, major trade publishers have been having a pretty good year — a surprisingly good year, given a lingering recession and the widespread predictions of the death of the book business. And it seems pretty clear a primary reason, perhaps the reason, for our good results is the explosive growth of e-book sales…Even for houses where gross sales have declined, profits may well have increased. And many of us in the industry expect a bonanza after Christmas, when everyone who has just opened their gift Kindles and iPads loads them up with new e-titles to read. We could see a surge in e-book sales that makes the year look triumphant for book publishers.
Right now e-book sales are, not exactly gravy for publishers, but a profitable layer on top of print sales that have yet to fall off drastically…As the e-book trend continues, more bookstores are going to close–both independents and chain locations. Both B&N and Borders have been closing superstores and also devoting more space to non-book items, further reducing shelf space and inevitably book sales.
I don’t know when it will happen, but we’re likely to see bookstore sales go from “declining” to “plunging” in the near future…
If you have not already done so, now is the time to really begin to build your brand online and create celebrity for yourself and your book. Don’t rely on major bookstores and traditional publishers to market and sell your book. Why? Because, it’s just not going to happen. Take control of your writing career. Your fans want to buy your book from you and support your writing career.
Awesome opportunities await you!
By Bill Walker, on December 3rd, 2010
I posted these once before and thought now would be a good time to re-post them. I don’t who the original author of these commandments is so if you do please let me know so I can give the author appropriate credit.
As you set your writing goals for the new year, stop and think about this list of commandments for writers. Which one(s) do you need to work on?
- Thou shalt think like a professional, starting now.
- Thou shalt begin and keep going till you’re through.
- Thou shalt take your efforts and desires seriously.
- Thou shalt call it work.
- Thou shalt write for yourself, not the market.
- Thou shalt not wait for visits from the muse.
- Thou shalt not ask whether you are good enough.
- Thou shalt not intimidate yourself by comparing your writing with a published and polished work.
- Thou shalt not worry whether your idea is new enough.
- Thou shalt not talk your idea away.
- Thou shalt not self-censor at all during the first draft.
- Thou shalt not risk writer’s paralysis by looking for the precise word or being afraid of sounding dumb.
- Thou shalt not believe that if writing is hard, you must be no good.
- Thou shalt not set yourself up for failure with impossible goals.
- Thou shalt not believe in writer’s block.
I hope you find these useful as you pursue your writing. There has never been a better time to pursue your dream to be a published. Your fans are waiting to read your next book.
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