Monthly Archives: November 2012

EBooks Online Monopoly

Posted on by

By Denise Turney

Monopolizing ebooks online may be becoming more the norm than not. It seems that just as book authors are leaping over stigmas attached to self-publishing their written works, another challenge rears its head. This new challenge surfaced in April 2012. It came in the form of a Department of Justice lawsuit made against seven book publishers, namely Apple, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Pearson, Penguin, Macmillan and Hachette.

Goliath as an Ebooks Online Retailer

As reported in ARS Technica’sJuly 18, 2012 “Senator Says Apple E-Book Suit ‘Could Wipe Out the Publishing Industry’” article, the lawsuit charges the aforementioned seven companies with fixing ebook prices. If the DOJ prevails in its arguments, Amazon.com could be left holding the reins to more than half of the ebook market.

Oddly, Amazon.com gained a stronghold on the ebooks online market using the same strategy that worked for WalMart when it opened its first stores in the 1960s – sell products at a lower price than competitors. Today some Amazon.com self-published authors even offer their books for free, at times landing on Amazon.com’s bestseller list. So far no one in the book industry is questioning the validity of a bestseller list that includes books that are given away for free.

But that’s another matter.

When it comes to ebook pricing several publishers and non-book publishing companies (e.g. Apple) selling digital books use the agency model to set their prices. With the agency model publishers set the price on digital books sold to resellers (e.g. Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble). Resellers then set the price consumers must pay to purchase the books from them. To increase book sales it’s not uncommon for resellers to sell books below the cost set by book publishers.

Appealing to EBooks Online Readers thru Pricing

If a reseller lowers their prices to such a degree that ebook readers shift their buying habits, opting to buy solely from lower priced resellers than book publishers . . . well, you can see what a financial challenge that would present to ebook publishers. At this point we can only go with assumptions as to why some ebooks online publishers raised the prices on their digital books, assuming perhaps that they did so to gain more profit on the ebooks they sold direct to consumers.

What may not be under assumption (or need be) is the thought that monopolizing the ebook industry is good business. As Senator Charles Schumer said, “As our economy transitions to digital platforms, we should be celebrating and supporting industries that find ways to adapt and grow. By developing a pricing model that made e-book sales work for them, publishers did just that.”

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! 

Sources:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/senator-says-apple-e-books-suit-could-wipe-out-the-publishing-industry (ARS Technica: Senator Says Apple E-Book Suit “Could Wipe Out the Publishing Industry”)

Why Is Life Like a Rollercoaster?

Posted on by

By Denise Turney

Like a rollercoaster, life seems to vacillate, going up and down. It took me several years to figure this out.

When I was a kid, my major concern was continuing to find fun things to do to fill up my day. That concern was swept away like water running off a counter edge as I played with neighbors, my sister and my brothers. Having fun was so easy then. It was my only job, the only thing I had to do. Over the years, my life (as I’m sure yours has to) has filled up with work, family responsibilities and other projects, daily responsibilities that, over time, can easily find life in this world feeling like a rollercoaster.

Riding the Life Rollercoaster

The days seem to be gone when each day seemed the same as the day before, except for the new and exciting trick, game or other fun activity my siblings, friends and I engaged in. Gone are the days when the only thing that made life in this world feel like a rollercoaster to me were major changes in the weather. I can still see myself sitting close to my family’s living room window on Dow Street watching rain streak slowly down the glass pane. I’d look out at the rain and wish it would go away. Forget the fact that rain watered plants, trees and crop, filling the earth with color and food. I wanted to go outside and play.

Then I started school (not my choice) and I started dealing with feeling propelled (pushed might be a better word) to do things that I didn’t want to do. Discovered teachers had rules, some that I questioned. Then it was off to college (of course, so I could earn more money at a job). Like you may have, I worked while I went to college, had a work/study job in the college traffic ticket office. After college it was off to a full-time job and that’s when life started taking on more of a rollercoaster effect.


My days were no longer filled with just having fun. In fact, when I started paying bills all by myself, days swung up higher and down further, intensifying the rollercoaster effect. After awhile, I no longer felt as if I could predict how my upcoming days would go, thinking they would only consist of fun-fun-fun. When you think about it, this might be a good thing. After all, do we really want to know how our days are going to go before they happen upon us? I’d think that would be a bit boring. But, then again, we’d also probably feel more in control of our lives.

Well, friends, fact is life in this world is like a rollercoaster. We hit high notes and then may have experiences that we feel will knock the wind right out of us. We’re all in this together, having different individual experiences that have common themes to them. As Raymond Clarke and his friends do in the new book, Love Pour Over Me, we can take the edge off the ups and downs by supporting each other. We can also get back to having more fun.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/Love-Pour-Over-Me-ebook/dp/B007MC0Z2C

Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-pour-over-me-denise-turney/1109600654

You’re Too Close to Your Life Goals to Quit Now

Posted on by

By Denise Turney

As soon as we become aware of our life goals, we may feel excited, absolutely exhilarated with the idea that we have a specific function to fulfill. Let our life goals cause us to be placed at the center of attention, and we can become that much more enthused and inspired. It’s easy to understand why we experience those gushing, positive feelings. After all, we’ve just received a message as to what our life goals are. However, we haven’t taken steps to fulfill those goals yet.

Fulfilling Life Goals Doesn’t Always Feel Easy

We haven’t faced any opposition yet. We’ve simply received a dream filled with promise. Our imaginations go to work, telling us it’s going to be easy fulfilling our life goals. If we’re keen on organization, we might even sit down and create a setting life goals worksheet. Reading quotes about life and personal life goals examples that are written by leaders who put in the work and achieved their personal goals may become part of our daily practice. It’s this passion Raymond Clarke feels as a track and field star in the new book, Love Pour Over Me.

Then we take steps to actually move toward the fulfillment of our life goals. For example, if we want to be a New York Times bestselling author, we may take the time to discover that we’ll likely have to sell at least 250,000 copies of one of our books to hit that bestselling book list. Because we’ve never spent hours marketing and promoting our books, we may read a blog or article where another writer expressed how doing a few radio interviews, developing a website and using search engine optimized keywords in book press releases made selling thousands of copies of his novels effortless.

Of course, we don’t question the accuracy or honesty of what the author shared. Instead, we assume the author shared honest facts. So, off we go, creating accounts at every major social media network, writing one press release after another, hiring a web designer to create a search engine optimized website for us, scheduling radio and blog tour interviews and paying to sell our books at vending events.

It’s Always Too Early to Quit on Your Authentic Life Goals

Weeks then months pass. When we go to count how many books we’ve sold, we find that we haven’t even sold 100 copies of our books yet. Frustration starts to creep in. We may even wonder if we have the right life goals. Some of us will change our life goals, thinking that simply switching a personal goal will make fulfilling the goal easier. After the same cycle repeats itself, we might even start to think there’s something wrong with us. What’s wrong is our expectation, our belief that people who achieve success have an easy road to travel.

Yet, if we truly love what we do, if we really love what we’re going after, we won’t quit. Love itself will call us back. If we don’t quit pursuing life goals that are our function to fulfill, we’ll produce a good result. We won’t quit. We’ll do what it takes to move closer and closer to fulfilling our life goals. We’ll be and stay open to change (after all, who gets it all right the first time).

If this has been you – if you’ve been taking the steps to fulfill your life goals for a long time, take heart. You might be right at the edge of a breakthrough. You might be on the cusps of life changing events. You might be almost there. My friend, you just might be too close to your life goals to quit now. Raymond had to learn this in Love Pour Over Me; it might be time for you to learn this life lesson too.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/Love-Pour-Over-Me-ebook/dp/B007MC0Z2C

Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-pour-over-me-denise-turney/1109600654

How to Sell Profitable Ebooks Online

Posted on by

By Denise Turney

Although writing and publishing ebooks is an achievement that may leave you feeling hopeful and excited, if you plan on selling your ebooks online you’re going to have to learn how to market and promote your titles. To do this you can start taking steps to find and connect with your book’s target audience online, people who enjoy reading the types of fictional or nonfiction books you write. Some authors use the Internet to help sell a million or more copies of their ebooks.

Write Quality Ebook Material

Write a quality e-book. To do this consider working with a professional editor to review and make changes to your book to improve features such as character dialogue, setting, pacing, plot and character development. You can also get your book edited to ensure the grammar and sentence structure is accurate.

The Association of Authors Representatives, Poets and Writers and the Literary Market Place are some resources you can use to find reputable book editors. Do your homework. Ask editors for references of other book authors they’ve worked with. Follow up with these book authors, asking them how satisfied they were with the book editors’ work. Also, ensure that you create an intriguing title and cover image for your ebooks online. If you write your book from a different angle, you can also cause your book to stand out. This is what happened with the classic book, Portia.

Market Ebooks Online Using Social Media

Sign up for social media network accounts and post an image of your e-books on the main pages of your accounts. Provide a brief overview of each of your e-books and a URL where visitors to your social media accounts can purchase your books. Also post items like book reviews, upcoming interviews where you’ll discuss your ebooks online, ebook blog tour dates and press releases about your e-books at your accounts. Major social media networks include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, Pinterest, Floost and ScoopIt. The more you market, the more book sales you might notice you’re receiving, so get out here!

creating bestselling ebooks

Blog About Your Ebooks Online

Create a blog for your books and for yourself. Include search engine optimization (SEO) keywords in your ebooks blog posts to increase the numbers of visitors you receive at your blog from search engines. On your blog’s main page include items like your books’ covers, links to your ebooks related videos and links to your social media network accounts so visitors to your blog can follow you at other online locations, like your social media networks. Free, easy-to-follow blog platforms include WordPress, Blogger and Posterous.

bestselling ebooks

Media Outlets and Ebooks Online

Write press releases about your ebooks online and distribute them to media outlets like newspapers and magazines. For example, you could write and distribute a press release about an upcoming writer’s conference you are speaking at. When writing press releases mention the title of your ebooks and where readers can purchase or learn more about the books online. You can also schedule online radio interviews with talk show hosts and book blog tour hosts to discuss your e-books.

Ebooks Online Giveaways

Giveaway copies of your ebooks as a part of a contest or quiz. Announce ebook giveaways in press releases and at your social media networks. If you go on a book blog tour you can also giveaway copies of your e-books to readers who participate in your blog tours. To get the word out about your ebooks so you sell more copies, also consider giving away copies of your e-books to online book reviewers and book club presidents.

Build an Ebook Website

Build an ebook website that includes features like your biography, ebook synopsis or overview, book cover, free excerpts from your e-books, book reviews and a book order page. You can also include a photo of yourself and a cover image of each of your e-books at your website. Consider setting up accounts with companies like PayPal or you can direct readers to purchase your books directly from resellers like Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, Google Books and iTunes. Promote your website in search engines and book directories.

Use Video to Promote  Ebooks Online                                                                                                         

Set up an account with online video companies. Upload videos of you reading excerpts from you e-books and/or conducting interviews about your e-books with members of the media. Also consider creating a trailer for your book. If you do not have experience creating book trailers, you can work with marketing companies that develop trailers for authors. To get the word out about your videos, add links from your videos to your social media accounts. In addition ask your family and friends to tell people they know to view your videos. Be sure to include the title of your e-books and the URL where people can purchase your books on each online video.  

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-arogundade/10-steps-to-ebook-success_b_1571095.html (Huffington Post: 10 Steps to Ebook Success)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/john-locke-donovan-creed-_n_1317237.html (Huffington Post: John Locke, Donovan Creed, Author, on Selling a Million Ebooks)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/06/become-an-ebook-superstar (The Guardian: How to Become an EBook Superstar)