Let’s start with the reader:

Easy Purchasing

You can purchase books online through Amazon or any other worldwide bookstore, 24/7. You don’t depend on opening hours and availability or if the book is in stock or not.

We here at ‘Simple Story’ purchase books that are not available in Israel and the digital media enable us to get them from anywhere in the world.

Quick Book Reception

From the moment of purchase, the book is in your possession in mere minutes. We live in an impatient generation; we don’t like to delay gratifications. You have decided that you like a certain book and you want it here & now, with a digital book that is what you’ll get.

Ease of Reading, Carrying & Storage

No more packing up 5 books for a week vacation abroad & pay for over-weight to the airline company. One electronic device (Kindle, Tablet, smartphone) stores hundreds of books.  Of course, you also clear up your home from storing bookshelves of dozens of books you read once and don’t have anything to do with it anymore. You’ve earned room for wall art & décor. Beyond that, you are able to control the font size, background shade, and even the font type.
I find it very easy to control visually and the ease of flipping through the pages & chapters is very convenient. Most devices also ‘remember’ what page you were last reading, and on your next reading, you will reach the exact same page. There’s also a possibility for bookmarks if there is more than one reader for the book.

The Price

The majority of digital books is significantly cheaper than printed books. It makes sense as you don’t need papers, printer, transportation, distributors & a store to profit from it. with the low cost of digital books, you can buy more books on the budget.

The Environment

For environmentalists, digital books bring major satisfaction; fewer trees are cut down for paper, less wood delivered by ships and tracks to printer shops & stores, this is a major energy saving process. Books packaging are spared from recycling cans & plastic bags and, of course, you need fewer storages to store the tens of thousands of printed by not selling books.

After reading the first part of this post the reader is already convinced, he should move on to digital books, now let me explain to you, the writer, what are your advantages in the digital sector. Most of what is written here is for the independent writer, the unfamiliar author, but the principals apply also to well-known published authors who have yet to transform their book into digital books:

You are Independent!!!

As a writer, publishing digital books online, you are your own boss. You decide where to publish when to publish & at what price, how the cover should look like, how to promote it etc.

Unlike a book issued by a publisher, where you have limited impact, here you call the shots! When you write & publish your own book no one would reject it or tell you that your book is not adequate enough or all kinds of more or less polite answers book publishing gives out.

Immortality for Your Book

Printed books arrive in stores and stay on the shelves for weeks or maybe months. After that, they move on to storage and aired out on special sales.

When you publish a digital book it has an immortal life as long as the internet exists, clients have a chance to get to it at any hour of the day from anywhere in the world.

Costs Savings

Assuming that all writing expenses including the writing, paging, cover & more are identical, we still have a distinct costs gap during the distribution stage.

A printed book needs printing, publishers demand mostly at least 1,000 copies to distribute to as many shops as possible, a cost of about 15,000 NIS (depends on the book of course). You have to pay a distributor to transport and place your book in stores, bookstores want to earn proceeds it makes sense, and they should. The overall of expenses sum up to around 25,000 NIS with no guarantee or knowing that the book will be successful and sell well, many times you will get back hundreds of printed copies that you will need to store.

Royalties

Due to the major expenses mentioned in the previous paragraph, you, the writer don’t have anything left. The writers’ law is trying to minimize that problem, but with relatively less success. The ‘4 books in 100 NIS’ sales and the likes continue and leaving you with pennies.

With a digital book, Amazon pays you 35% or 70% royalties of the book price (which is set by you). Other online digital books websites pay high royalties; some even 100% of the revenue after an initial payment to the website.

It is important for me to emphasize that I do recommend anyone to give readers who wish to buy a printed copy of this opportunity upon order. Amazon has an internal system of ‘Print on Demand’.  There are also local Israeli printer shops, that we work with, who can give you a solution for printing out 100 and 200 copies in reasonable prices. It is also important to proudly present a copy of our book to friends, colleagues & family members.

In conclusion, the digital books market is constantly growing, but the printed books market is still larger & popular so it is not recommended to overlook it. It is recommended to find a solution of print by demand and mainly give our readers the digital available version for him to read through easily & in high availability.

The post Why have a Digital Book? appeared first on Simple Story.

I am constantly amazed when I visit Amazon. I find an interesting book with an excellent title, read the description, it sounds intriguing and then when I want to know:

Who wrote that book?

I Scroll down and reach an empty author page…

Make sense? Not at all and even silly & does harm for this writer.

An author page has many advantages, among them:

1. It is the place to tell your readers who you are, what your mission is and why you bother writing books in the first place. Don’t be modest! This is the place to celebrate, praise & promote yourself. Even more, it is the place to convince the reader in buying your book.
   Perhaps, due to a personal experience or by events prior to the book (for example grandchildren stories in a children’s book), and perhaps due to public recognition earned and more, readers’ likes to know who wrote the book – let them know.
2. You can endorse yourself, let readers know what else you can give them, refer them to a Facebook page or your website, give them access & closeness to you along with a feeling that an actual human being is there behind the book.
3. A link to your own books catalog.

If you don’t have a website or an English advertisement platform, your author page link is an excellent way to refer your readers to.

Why? Because it leads your readers straight to the list of all your published books and to your story about yourself; as writers, we want a reader to buy not only one of our books but as many as possible. As soon as I refer them to my author page, they will be exposed to my entire books catalog on Amazon.

Technically, on each Amazon website (Com, De, UK etc.) you need to open a new author page and that is opposed to the books themselves that Amazon makes sure to publish on all websites.

So, don’t be lazy, invest some thoughts on words, images, and make sure all is written well and publish an author page with links to all of your books.

Actions will progress you to results. 

Good luck on your next book publishing, we here at ‘Simple Story’ will be happy to help you to become an international author.

Amit

The post Where is the Right Place Not to Be Modest? appeared first on Simple Story.

Whether it is a printed or a digital book, you are the writer responsible for the promotion of your book. From our experience at ‘Simple Story’ publishing, if you don’t take responsibility and get involved in the promotion for your book, your sales would drop dramatically.

You need to remember that we, as publishers specializing in Amazon, aim to market books internationally, not just locally, and for that the book needs to be distributed in multiple languages.  And even if the word ‘promotion’ leaves you a little nauseated and think of yourself as a salesperson seems shocking to you, you will soon realize that the actions needed are not so complicated and you might even enjoy doing it.

So on to some marketing work!

1. Your Website

   Many authors have a website related to their writing niche and their writing is about their career or hobby. I am constantly amazed to see how many of them did not mention their book on their website. In a remarkably easy way, you can link payment options button to the book’s page, create an impressive landing page and within an hour, you have created another marketing channel, that also gives you some respect and a professional authority.

   You can see an example on Amit Eshet’s website, where you can find his digital books and his diverse languages print books.
   Sigalit Eshet’s books are linked directly to the Amazon website for direct purchase. she didn’t even have to link any payment options.

   In conclusion, use your website as a promotion channel and at 0 costs you have another exposure for your book.

2. Emails – Distribution List
   

   It is very important to know who your readers are & to stay in touch with them. The most common way is a mailing list. There are many diverse ways to obtain readers email info, no matter what way you chose to collect them, use your readers’ audience to promote your book.

   Even if you don’t have a mailing list, use you contacts list. Email them with every notice of a new book published, a new creation or accessories you have created based on your book and ask them to share, pass on to their friends & perhaps even purchase from you.

   In conclusion, despite the massive use of social medias & smartphones, emails are still the most powerful way to send targeted messages to your audience.

3. There are many social media platforms available, each one is a bit different than the other. As you spread the news about your book in as many platforms you can, you will increase the number of your readers.I will describe here several options, there are a lot more & more pops up every day. The important thing is the principal & understanding the process. Each one can choose where he is present:Facebook – start a fan page for your book & invite your friends to follow it, and you should definitely join authors groups worldwide and spread your word.

   Twitter – up to 140 characters with a hashtag (#) about you & your book does the work, more tweets and followers the more potential readers.

   Pinterest – pin your book cover or any images and illustrations you may have, clients’ comments & anything that could create an interest for pinning and sharing your work.

   LinkedIn – a very popular network and considered of a high standard. Share your book information and let them assist you to spread the word.

   In conclusion to the social media subject, and I only reviewed part of it, there is a distribution level of tens of thousands of people every keyboard type. The only investment is your time. Make sure to spend a few hours a week on it, it will help you help your book with a wide international exposure.

4. Conventions & Launch Nights

   In each field, there are gatherings, discussions & lectures. For professional guides’ writers, there are professional conventions, and poetry nights for poets & prose writers, authors’ talks and more. Lately, there are more & new digital conventions and webinar lectures where the viewers listen to from their home.
   People want to hear your story, talk to them.

   In conclusion, the more you expose yourself to new circles & events, the more people will get to know you and your book, you can generate more discussions about it and sales will go up. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in a way of lectures, gatherings or digital platforms – your presence is important.

5. Media Exposure
   

   By media exposure, I refer to TV, Radio & press on one hand, on the other to your ability to start your own YouTube channel and advertise your book there.
   A newspaper article or an item on one of the TV channels gives you huge amount of exposure. It is not always easy to get, and the truth is you will need great connections and some elbows, but don’t let it stop you.

   In conclusion, sometimes a newspaper story or a 2 min. item on TV are more valuable than spending hours on another activity, don’t give up on that marketing net.

6. Articles & Blogs

   There are thousands of international article-based websites; you can write a story and publish it there with a referral to your website or your book. On any subject and for every single idea there are blogs, find the right blog for your area of expertise and ask for a review on your book, if they’ll love it they will publish it.

   In conclusion, the written word is your strength. Use this strength not only for writing but also for promotion with bloggers and websites.

In this article, I brought to you, in a nutshell, several options & ideas where you, the author, can help yourself with promoting your book.

We here at ‘Simple Story’ help authors with some of these actions because we care about your success. Even if you don’t feel that promotion & marketing is something you like to do, read this post again and find the actions you can relate to.

Share your book with the world, reveal it, this is not the time to be modest.

The post The Secrets of Successful Marketing for Your Book appeared first on Simple Story.

Why should I give away by book free anyway?

These questions & others come to mind of each author when launching a new book.

In this essay I will express my opinion and what I see as being done around the world. It’s important to emphasize that there is no right or wrong here.

In Amazon there are a lot of trial & error phases, also the book subject can influence on the right strategy, plus, in Amazon they constantly change the inner promotional algorithms, meaning what’s right today might not be in 4 months from now.

It’s time to start with the question: Why should I give away my book for free?

This question is true & depends on 2 things:

1. Is this your first book?
2. Do you have any other way to promote your book & make Amazon readers aware of it?

If this is your first book, second or perhaps fifth so far & you still didn’t make the best seller’s list by now, then we recommend having free days promotion. Yes, Amazon enables you, the independent writer, to expose your book to their millions of readers, those who always seek for free offers. Everyone likes free gifts.

With proper work on your book, you can make hundred & thousands of readers to download it, following that Amazon’s search engines identify an interest in the new book and will help to further promote it by emailing their booklovers. On the other hand, if you already have several successful book lists on Amazon and you have built your readers’ mailing list you might not need the free days’ promotion. Perhaps an email to your mailing list with a price offer of $0.99 for several days will be enough for the initial marketing process.

You can also use the Countdown as initial marketing for your book.

We at ‘Simple Story’ love making use of the free days’ platforms.

Now, supposedly if we have decided to use the free days’ platforms, the question is:
for how long? For those of you who forgot, Amazon allows 5 free days every 90 days.

Should I choose one day, two or five?

Here, opinions divide, also among the groups of authors we are linked to and consult with. We will show here the two leading opinions.

One opinion says that with proper work on your book 3 free days are enough.

The other say let’s give all 5 free days during the initial launch, so as many people as possible would enjoy the book.

We at ‘Simple Story’ think it depends on the downloads performance during the campaign days, if a book is highly successful during the first 3 days, there’s no need or point to continue giving it for free and move on to sell it by our set price.

If the book is not visible enough, you cannot reach an interested audience, you should continue to ‘make some noise’ about your book on social media platforms, mailing lists and any other way you can to make sure the book is exposed to as many readers as possible and capitalize on Amazon’s maximum free days offer.

Moving on to the last troubling question, at the end of the book initial launch what price should I offer: high or low?

Here also, opinions divide. Some say it’s best to end a launch in the middle of the last free day (you can end it by pressing a button), offer even an expensive book by $0.99 and make a lot of sales. Amazon likes it when your book is paid for, more than the free loans, then Amazon will have more reasons to future promote you.

On the other hand, some say that it is best to come out of the launch with a maximum price per book (each book by its genre), to make more money now and use the momentum of a successful launch.

What do we say? As such who want to look at books as a long-term business, we prefer to come out with a low price and make a lot of sales have a good sale history on Amazon.

But, as I mentioned before, it is not scientific knowledge, we don’t actually have a proof that this strategy works best.

In conclusion, publishing a book requires a lot of preparations towards launching it (reviews, mailing lists data, social networks etc.). These actions are the key to success, anyone chooses his own strategy for each book.

We wish you a successful launch, for every new book as well as the revival of older ones.

Amit

The post Launching a Book on Amazon Strategy appeared first on Simple Story.