Writers Websites Wednesday - Superhero Nation

 

Super Hero Nation offers writing tips, insights and advice. It's a fun site that posts short videos such as movie trailers as well. Check it out, peruse the site and let me know what you think.  I enjoyed my tour. 

Writers Websites Wednesday - Mashable Tools for Writers

Are you a writer who makes full use of technology and the social media?  Then you just might want to visit Mashable fairly frequently and keep ahead of the curve on pretty much everything techie and web. Lots of cheap yet valuable tools for writers. Lots of info - but don't get lost in this vast sea of information.

Writers Websites Wednesday - The Writer's Resource Directory

The Writer's Resource Directory is just that ~ a resource.  Now I'm not going to say it offers everything, but it does offer a bit of everything.  Information on writing, conferences, associations, articles, agents and more.  Definitely a Resource worth exploring.

Easy Book Selling

Okay, that title might be a little reversed - what I actually want to say is writers, you need to make it easy for readers to buy your books.  And make your bookselling chore a little easier.

Things are a lot different these days as we rush forward into the digital age.

Many writers could well think, "I AM making it easy, I tweet, I have a facebook page, I have an author's page on Amazon and my book is published there in addition to Barnes and Noble and Smashwords...."  and on and on. 

No doubt all of that has been done.  Writers are generally an industrious and informed lot.

But the devil is in the details as the old saying goes. As a writer you may think you're making it easy to purchase your books when in actuality you aren't.

Now don't get insulted.  It can be tricky.

Here's the thing. You have to make it not just 'easy' but super easy.  Hardly anyone these days has time to play detective.  Have a social site where you have a promo for your book? - something like, "for a great read get..." and then there's a one click link to the Amazon product page - good job so far, but that's not where to stop. 

Amazon is a giant, true, but it isn't the be all/end all. Don't stop there and sell yourself short. What if your readers, your audience is hanging out at Barnes & Noble with a Nook?

There are other places out there.  Nook lovers buy from Barnes & Noble. Then there's the Smashwords pages where you can find many great books in a number of formats. Don't get too scattered about it, but hit the big ones for sure. Amazon, B & N and Smashwords.

Give your reading audience links to them all, maybe not all at once, but in different places at different times - or all at once if you have the space to do it. Keep the promo going.  A person with a Nook who sees a book available on Kindle will probably move on and not do the 'research' to discover it really is available on Nook as well.  You don't want that! Let them know! Give them links.

Make it easy for readers to buy your book.

Here's another thing.  If you have a facebook page and put your cover up to promote your book don't forget a link to where your reading fans can buy it!  Again, your readers are going to be totally turned off if you expect them to be detectives and unearth the information to buy your book themselves. Use social media to inform your followers of your books.  Don't try to cram it down their throats with over the top promotion, but don't make it hard for them either. Tweet a link to your book, sometimes the Amazon link, sometimes another.  Keep your website up to date and make sure a link to buy your book either directly or from the sales site is listed, prominently displayed and active. . Facebook?  Don't forget the link!  Goodreads? Set up your author page and keep the information flowing.

Think of it from the reader's side - no doubt you're an avid reader if you are a writer.  Would YOU want to waste a lot of time rummaging around the net trying to find a link to purchase a book who's cover just caught your fancy?  doubtful.  You'd move on, right? 

Don't let that happen to YOU, the writer.  Make it easy for readers to buy your published or self-published book. 

And don't forget iPad folks.

So, here's my book, Stormrider at Barnes & Noble, Kindle, Smashwords and iBooks 

Now, wasn't that easy?

Why Think About The Writing Rights You've Sold?

Word from Fictionworks.com is that my very first published book (Blown To Hell, a western first published by Doubleday), will be released in large print very soon.  Pretty firm, some time in April.  I'm pretty excited.  It's great to have an earlier creation return to print again.  Great for the ego and for the pocketbook.  Blown to Hell is already available in trade paperback through Amazon as well as a Kindle Edition and a Trade paperback Edition.

So, aside from my own ego being fed and exposing this reprint to folks who read, what other point may I have here? 

Simple - writers, take my advice and negotiate contracts carefully.  Keep all the rights you can, or have specific dates when the rights you've sold expire and they revert to you so you can once again determine if and where and when your written creation may be produced again, perhaps in another format. 

Writers are so frequently focused on getting a book published - in print - that they forget about important things that may lurk in a contract.  Things that could prevent the originator of the work (that's YOU, the writer) from selling rights to reprint in Ebook format, in audio book format, in Large Print, Paperback, Hardback, perhaps even be considered as movie material. 

Contracts should have a timeframe, if they don't watch out.  Hesitate, consider before signing.  There are times when you, as the writer, will have to swallow some things that you don't particularly like, but others when simply questioning a paragraph can get big changes.  If you have an agent he or she should be looking out for you, but question anyway, there's more to your writing career than getting one book published right now, today.  If you don't have an agent, read the contract very carefully yourself and if you don't understand something, ask for intent and clarification.  You can also locate an attorney who specializes in creative arts contracts.  It could well be money well spent to have such a person look the contract over after you've read it.

Have some contracts already - a few years old?  Book sales have slowed to a trickle?  Then read them again.  Look for expirations or paragraphs that would allow you to exit the contract.  Once you comply with whatever requirements the publisher has put forth to get out of a stalled contract you can seek publication elsewhere or perhaps submit to audio publishers or send the idea to production companies.  Writers must train themselves to be business people in addition to their creativity - that is if they hope to make any worthwhile money from their writing.

Take my advice, set up a tracking system for everything you write and follow those expiration dates.  Doesn't matter if it's articles, novels or some other 'for pay' writing.  Know what's required of you and your rights and think creatively in the business world to make the most of anything you create.

Meanwhile I have To Hell And Back, published by Fictionworks as an Ebook and am definitely open to having ti go to paperback or Large Print.  Have to check into that.  Another western.  I love them and love to get them out there.  Stormrider, a great fantasy, deserves to see multiple venues as well.  It's in Ebook format now; I'll be looking into others

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