Another publisher bites the dust.

Robert Hale, after 80 years in publishing, has closed. Ten people are now looking for new employment. Crowood Press is taking over its imprints and lists. 

As the dominoes fall, a whole new world opens up to authors and the publishers if they can float along with the slipstream. It's going to get fast and furious and ugly. The stream will take no prisoners.

Those publishers that can't or won't adapt will fall no matter how big no matter how small.

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/robert-hale-publishers-close-317841

Amazon removes titles due to key words.

Amazon removed many (unsure how many) books from their kindle site. The books that were removed were due to three keywords on the title's information page. "Free, Bestseller and Kindle. It didn't matter if you book was free, an Amazon bestseller, or a Kindle ebook. Authors were notified and given five days to remove these words. If they didn't comply, their book was removed.

The author's could upload a new version if they chose to and use different key words.

Amazon sues reviewers for hire.

I've just read an article about Amazon suing reviewers for hire on Fiverr.com. It can be tempting to go that path when it only costs a fiver to hire someone to post a review when you are struggling to get some reviews on your ebook. 

Don't do it. Amazon will pull your paid positive reviews and may unlist your book and you can't do a thing about it.

These Fiverr reviewers don't even write the review. You are asked to provide a review for them to post. This starts to make all reviews suspect and people will start to disregard reviews. 

Amazon doesn't want that to happen as a certain percentage of books sold are because of the number of positive reviews that book has.

Amazon is the biggest book market on the web so keep anything you do on the web: keep it clean and keep it legal.

However, the big boys in publishing have been providing free books for reviews for a very long time. 

The question is will Amazon dare remove any reviews from authors the big boys represent?

Here's the link to the article:

http://consumerist.com/2015/10/16/amazon-sues-1114-individual-reviewers-for-hire/

New subscription models for Kindle Unlimited

Hi

I've just come across the interesting post by Hugh Howey.

http://www.hughhowey.com/subscription-models-literature/

The below is copied and pasted from his blog.

"

KU 1.0 Compared to KU 2.0

Here’s some math from the brilliant author Susan Kaye Quinn. It compares the old payment system to the new system.

Under KU 1.0:

98k novel = 414 pages* = $1.34 per borrow = 0.0033 pennies/pg
15k novella = 51 pages* = $1.34 per borrow = 2.6 pennies/pg
*the number on the product description pg

Under KU 2.0 (Assuming 100% page read):

98k novel = 553 pages** = 0.6 pennies-per-pg*** = $3.32 per 100% read
15k novella = 85 pages** = 0.6 pennies-per-pg*** = $0.51 per 100% read
**KENPC page count
***estimate from June

Under KU 1.0, most indies were making more for a borrow of a short story than for a sale (the exceptions are those able to charge $2.99 or higher for the sale of a 15k story). I haven’t seen a good argument to defend this part of the old system, or the fact that KU 1.0 was paying a third of a penny per KENPC page (which would be more like .0017 per print page).

Under KU 2.0, we can see what Amazon is trying to do with their per-page calculation. They’re trying to reward KDP Select authors for a borrow by paying the same amount as a sale. Holy crap. Really? Actually, the prices on my works are lower than average, and these borrow rates would pay me more than I currently make for a sale. But as someone else pointed out, these borrow payout rates are very close to what Amazon’s pricing tool recommends for works of this length.

That is, Amazon is funding their KU payout pool to simulate a paid sale for every borrow.

This is what it appeared they were doing under KU 1.0. The first borrow rates were coming in close to $2.00. That number slid over time, even as Amazon piled on more money. Why? Because authors realized they could maximize their income by splitting up novels and by concentrating on short stories. Kris Rusch and others (myself among them) have referred to this as “gaming the system.” That creates outrage among those who game the system. Guess, what? I game Amazon’s system every day. I do it with permafree, which exploits Amazon’s price-matching policy to get more free days than they want to hand out (only 5 per 90 day KDP Select period). And I’ve been serializing novels since before it was a thing. I’ve also been putting short stories into KU and profiting from it.

I guess the difference is that I’ve expected from the beginning that KU was broken and would be fixed. Someone dug up an interview I did ten months ago, when KU was only two months old, and I predicted Amazon would move to a per-page remuneration system. The old model was broken. The people who profited from that should be glad Amazon waited so long to fix it. Those who love to write short stories still should. May I suggest a bit of back matter? Or some constructive ways for us to help authors without screwing consumers?"

Why is my book not selling?

What You Are Selling is Never as Important as THE REASON SOMEONE IS BUYING IT.

Let's look at how people choose a book?
a) Cover
b) blurb
c) reviews
d) Preview
e) Sympathy & friendship
f) Cheap/free



a) Cover:
Is your cover enticing?
Does it whisper at what's inside?
Does it create a feeling for the prospective reader?
Is your title easy to read?
Unless you're a graphic designer, book designer, I would suggest that you don't spend your time doing what will take time away from editing your book. Let an expert do what they do best. Give them a brief of what you like in covers which will cut down their time and cost you less.

Cover these points and you have passed the first hurdle.

b) Blurb:
Next hurdle:
Have your told your story in a nutshell without giving away the ending?
Have you made it sound thrilling?
Its a good idea to ask your writing friends to read your blurb and suggest any changes to make it better.
Also, look at key words in your blurb. This helps when readers are searching certain key words such as #thriller, #crime, #fantasy, #romance #ScienceFiction.

c) Reviews:
Gaining reviews is the bane of every author.
Gift your book to people and ask for an honest review (and I mean honest).
If you get an honest review from someone you gifted your book to. Take note and make any changes to make your book better.
There is no limit to the number of times you can tweek your book on Amazon.
If it's a substantial edit, then you can notify Amazon and they'll notify all customers who have previously purchased your book about an update.
If you have no reviews, then buyers are hesitant to take a risk on your book unless it's on sale. Therefore, do not price it too high. Usually, $2.99 is a good price point.

d) Preview:
I took out the Table of Contents in my book because it meant that in my book preview on Amazon I got a couple of extra pages when a reader clicked on the preview of my book. However, for non-fiction you will need that TOC so this won't work for you.
Post a longer preview on your blog or web site. Tweet that they can find the longer preview there.

e) Sympathy & friendship.
Now some people may wonder about this point.
Put simply, it means that someone you know will buy your book because they don't like to offend you or feel sorry for you.
But a sale is a sale and helps lift your rating on Amazon.

Those of you who constantly post buy my book in the writers Facebook groups? Does it really work? For the most part, this only gets annoying and turns people away. So initially these authors gain sales, then people turn off every time they see the post or start deleting it.

f) Cheap/free
Your book is on sale or free your rating goes up.
Some readers buy a cheap book because it's on sale but they don't read it and don't leave a review. Amazon knows if said book has been read and what percentage it's read with is reflected in its rating.
This works for the short term but long term you want reviews and word of mouth recommendations.

How do you get these?
Writing the best book you can.
Having said book edited and getting a great cover made. If you're unsure about your blurb, ask your writing friends to look it over and suggest what you can do to make it better.

Some authors will say that cheap/free works or free for them. However, you can't put money in the bank with free.

Once you have a small amount of reviews (say 10), you can experiment with pricing and put you book at a higher price and see if your sales fall. If they do, you can lower the price. Or you can lower your price on certain days and see what happens. Make it fun and make it work for you.


Promote your book on as many sites you can. No one knows of your book and your book is but a drop in the ocean of books.
Use social media to do this.
If you don't know how to do this. Just start with twitter and start following people.
Remember, your twitter profile is your public face. Likewise your web page, blog, etc.
Have pictures of your book there. Include links to your book on twitter,  your website and anywhere else readers can buy your book.
P.S. Don't forget to tweet regularly. Also, follow those that follow you. You ignore followers at your peril. 

Is censoring holding you back?

Do you spend time worrying what your friends will think about your writing? Does that fear paralyze  what you really want to write? When you told a friend, did they look at you as if you'd grown another head.

Don't take any criticism personally or it will cripple you.

To be a great writer you need to write whatever it takes to make the story work. Let it all hang out. Its got to be real, its got to be passionate, its got to move your reader and connect with them.

Don't imagine that your first draft will do this but each draft will come closer. It needs to resonate with you and the reader. You need to own this shit. It's your story and you need to tell it your way.

So many writers worry that their mother or father will pick up their book and be shocked. Stop destroying your creativity and stop that voice in your head telling you that you can't write this or that. This is life as you imagine it, warts and all. Be honest, be genuine and readers will love that.

Sure there are risks you can't please all readers all of the time. Sometimes you will get negative comments from strangers or friends. You'll need to grow a tough outer skin and brush these off.

Enjoy what you do. When you create it's an exhilarating experience which is hard to beat.

How to become a best selling author

Self-Publishing Success Stories: The Anatomy of a Kindle Bestseller

January 21, 2013 by Joanna Penn 36 Comments

Writing for writing’s sake is absolutely brilliant, but many of us have ambitions to be #1 on the Amazon charts, selling hundreds of thousands of books and raking in the cash!

There’s nothing wrong with ambition, especially when others have walked the path before us. Today, #1 Amazon UK bestselling author Mark Edwardsexamines some of the characteristics of what goes into a Kindle bestseller.

As self-published authors we are all inspired by the sight of other indie writers tearing up the bestseller lists, rolling in royalty checks, getting big bucks movie and book deals, and achieving all the things we fantasise about in those misty moments when we raise our heads from our keyboards and allow ourselves to dream.

Personal experience

I was one of those fortunate writers who has achieved self-publishing success. In 2011, my writing partner Louise Voss and I hit No.1 on Amazon.co.uk and sold just under 100,000 ebooks.

This wasn’t dumb luck, but the result of a strategy, based on years of marketing experience. I have identified seven factors that can propel a book onto the bestseller lists if you can get them all lined up and firing.  But before talking about me, I want to look at another self-published success story.

Amazon UK recently released a list of the ten biggest-selling self-published books of 2012. At No.2 was Only the Innocent, a mystery novel by Rachel Abbott, which had hogged the top spot on Amazon for a month early in the year, selling 100,000 copies at a price that earned Rachel the 70% royalty rate. She has now teamed up with Amazon who are publishing Only the Innocent in the US while Rachel remains independent in the UK.

 How Rachel Abbott hit #1 on Amazon

Rachel is refreshingly open about how she did it – and the first part of that was about getting the basics right: a gripping book with a strong concept; an evocative and professional-looking cover; and an excellent book description that makes you want to read the book.

Next, Rachel did something very simple but vital: she wrote a marketing plan. Then she carried that plan out. This does not sound remarkable but you’d be amazed how few writers – and publishers, it has to be said – bother to do this. But if you are serious about success, you need a plan and you need to stick to it. Or rather, you need to follow your plan, doing more of the things that work, and less of the things that don’t. (That’s the secret of marketing, by the way.)

What were some of the things that worked for Rachel?

Selling ebooks is all about exposure – it isn’t true that good books will naturally rise to the top. You have to get them noticed. So Rachel focused on getting her book seen, and to do this she did two things.

Firstly, she used Twitter to get word of her books out there. She didn’t just set up a Twitter account and start banging out links (because that’s a waste of time). Instead, she used tools and services like Tweet Adder and Triberr to increase her exposure. Triberr is interesting because it’s like a club where Twitter users get together to retweet each other’s posts, thus greatly increasing exposure.

Her approach to getting reviews was professional and clever. She identified the blogs and sites that she thought might review her book, then created a template that she sent to the review sites clearly and politely requesting a review. I am sure that if you run such a site, and are inundated with amateur requests, receiving something that looks professional and sane will stand out. It’s like receiving a great covering letter and resumé from a job candidate.

The effect of the social activity and picking up reviews was to slowly build sales – with the aim of getting noticed by Amazon. This tallies with my own experience. I realized very early on that the best way to sell books was to get onto the ‘also bought’ bars of popular books. Short of getting into the Daily Deals or being chosen by Amazon for a featured list, the ‘also bought’ bars are the most important pieces of real estate on the site. If you can get among the first books on the ‘also bought’ bar of a top ten book, your book will also follow it up the chart. Guaranteed.

It’s like pushing a boulder up a hill.

All the effort goes into the ascent – the slow, tortuous climb to the top, one step at a time. Every sale takes you a little further up that hill, and more likely to get picked up by the magic algorithms. Then, if you have done everything else right – the cover, the description, garnered good reviews – the boulder will grow lighter and easy to push. Then – when you get picked up by the algorithms and gain exposure – you can let go of the boulder and let Amazon do all the work for you!

My strategy was very similar to Rachel’s, except I didn’t use Twitter to reach readers (I used it, as I still do, to network with potential influencers, the bloggers and journalists and other writers who can help you gain exposure).

Using blogging to get noticed

My strategy was to set up a blog – IndieIQ.com – on which I interviewed the most popular self-published authors I could find. My belief was that if I interviewed someone with a large following, those followers would come to my blog to read about their favourite author, and maybe check out my books as a result. I also did everything I could to get onto other blogs and sites.

I made sure that Killing Cupid and Catch Your Death both had strong, eye-catching covers and great descriptions, and emailed everyone I could think of who might give the books a mention. One day, after doing this for months, sales suddenly took off – because the algorithms had kicked in. At that point, I tweaked the description of Killing Cupid and sales doubled immediately.

So what are the lessons that self-published writers can learn from my and Rachel’s experience?

Here are my 7 take-home tips.

1. Design a cover that tells the reader exactly what kind of book this is and that looks professional.
2. Write a book description that makes the reader desperate to read it.
3. Write a marketing plan and carry it out – adapting it as you go along to do more of the stuff that’s worthwhile and none of the stuff that isn’t.
4. Instead of sending out endless links to your own followers on Twitter, try to get retweets – reach your audience’s audience.
5. Contact, in a friendly and professional way, every single person and website you can think of who might want to give you exposure – and give them a good reason for doing so.
6. Associate with successful writers – learn from them and get in front of their fans.
7. Be prepared to work damn hard!

You can download my free guide to writing a sizzling book description from IndieIQ – and I am currently accepting new clients. I can write a great book description for you or critique your current one.  Contact me for full details.

* Listen to an audio interview with Mark Edwards here on secrets of Amazon meta-data

* Listen to an audio interview with Rachel Abbott here on how she used reviews and social media to get to the top of the Amazon charts

What questions do you have for Mark in terms of how he and Rachel hit the top spot on Amazon? Please do leave them in the comments.

Mark Edwards is the co-author, with Louise Voss, of thrillers Killing Cupid and Catch Your Death, which were originally huge hits when self-published in 2011, leading to a deal with HarperCollins.

Their third novel, All Fall Down, has just been published. Having worked in marketing for years, Mark also runs IndieIQ.com and offers services to writers including writing book descriptions. He can be found on Twitter @mredwards.

Rachel Abbott is re-releasing Only The Innocent in Feb 2013.

To read more about this duo click on the link below....

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/01/21/self-publishing-success-kindle-bestseller/

Writing Great Short Stories

Writing unstoppable fiction:

I came across this...

Short fiction is the "garage band" of science fiction, claims Tor Books editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden, so it's time to step on that fuzzbox and thrash as hard as you can without knocking over your mom's weed-trimmer. Actually, I think Nielsen Hayden was referring to the fact that you can try more crazy experiments in short SF than in novels, because of the shorter time commitment of both writer and reader. But how can you become a super-master of the challenging form of short fiction? Here are a few suggestions.

I wouldn't claim to be an expert on short fiction writing, but I have written over a hundred of the little fuckers, a large proportion of which have been science fiction-y. Here are a bunch of do's and don'ts, that I discovered the hardest way possible.

World-building should be quick and merciless. In a novel, you can spend ten pages explaining how the 29th Galactic Congress established a Peacekeeping Force to regulate the use of interstitial jumpgates, and this Peacekeeping Force evolved over the course of a century to include A.I.s in its command structure, etc. etc. In a short story, you really need to hang your scenery as fast as possible. My friend and mentor d.g.k. goldberg always cited the Heinlein line: "The door dilated," which tells you a lot about the surroundings in three words. Little oblique references to stuff your characters take for granted can go a long way.

Make us believe there's a world beyond your characters' surroundings. Even though you can't spend tons of time on world-building, you have to include enough little touches to make us believe there's stuff we're not seeing. It's like the difference between the fake house-fronts in a cowboy movie and actual houses. We should glimpse little bits of your universe, that don't necessarily relate to your characters' obsessions.

Fuck your characters up. A little. Just like with worldbuilding, you can't necessarily devote pages to your characters' childhoods and what kind of underwear they wear under their boiler suits. Unless your story is really a character study with a bit of a science fiction plot. I used to have a worksheet that included spaces to fill in in info about each character's favorite music, hatiest color, etc. etc. Never filled those out. If I'd tried to force myself to come up with a favorite color for every character, I would have given up writing. But do try to spend a bit of time giving all of your characters some baggage, just enough to make them interesting. Most science fiction readers are interested in characters who solve problems and think positively, but that doesn't mean they can't have some damage.

Dive right in — but don't sign-post your plot in big letters. When I started writing stories, my early efforts meandered around for pages before something happened to one of the characters to make him/her freak out. And then the rest of the story would be the character(s) dealing with that problem. And then, as I got more practiced, I found the foolproof map to awesome storytelling: introduce whatever it was that was freaking out my characters in the very first sentence of the story! And then the story could be about them dealing with that problem, until they solved it in the very end. It was so perfect, how could it fail? It took me another year or two to realize that plunging the characters into the story's main conflict right away was just as boring, in its own way, as the ten pages of wandering in circles. The best short stories I've read are ones which start in the thick of things, but still keep you guessing and let you get to know the characters before you fully comprehend the trouble they're in.

Experiment with form. Short fiction isn't one form, it's a whole bunch of forms jammed together according to their length. Short stories include your standard 3,000 word mini-odyssey thru the psyche. But they also include flash fiction (sometimes defined as under 100 words, sometimes under 500 or even under 1,000.) And those wacky list things that McSweeney's runs sometimes. In fact, for a while there, postmodern short fiction was all about the list, or the footnotes, or the krazy monologue, or the story told in office memos. Try writing super-short stories of only 10 words, or mutant essay-stories written by a fictional person. Also, if you always write third person, try first person. Or if you're always doing first person, try third.

Think beyond genre. Often the best genre fiction is the stuff that cross-germinates. Pretend you're actually writing your story for the New Yorker, and try to channel George Saunders or even Alice Munro. See how far you can go towards writing a pure lit piece while still including some elements of speculation. Or try writing your story as a romance. Or a mystery. Imagine it as a Sundancey indy movie.

Don't confuse your gimmick with your plot. You may have a great idea for a piece of future technology, or some amazing mutation that turns a whole bunch of people into musicvores who survive by eating your memories of rock concerts. Maybe you have the most original basic premise evar — but that's not your plot. Your plot is how your new widget changes the people in your story, and how it affects their lives. Or what decisions your people make as a result of this new technological breakthrough.

Don't fall into the character-based/plot-based dichotomy. People, especially in writing groups and workshops, will try to categorize stories as based on either plot or character. This is a poisonous idea that will turn you into a cannibalistic freak wearing a belt made out of human spinal cords. There's no such thing as a character-based story or a plot-based story, because every story has both. Even the most incident-free Ploughshares romp or the most twisty thumpy space opera tale. If you start thinking that stories can be categorized into either pile, you'll end up writing either eventless character studies or plot-hammer symphonies starring one-dimensional nothings.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1xesN8/+lyNiP+6:qUcWrlid/io9.com/366707/8-unstoppable-rules-for-writing-killer-short-stories?tag=writing-advice

Wool by Hugh Howey Review.

I can give this book 4 stars.

The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was the author's propensity for drawn out descriptions of settings and/or characters' actions and some of the characters which I thought would carry through to the end were killed off early in the story.

I've never read anything by this author before and I found the writing excellent and  the plot compelling with well-developed believable characters.

Claustrophobia and dread permeates the opening chapters and you can sense the oppression and the subjugation. This is a society without free will; people are just worker drones going about their daily routine with no questions asked. If they dare ask questions about going outside, they are suited up and send outside into the toxic atmosphere to clean the lenses and end up dying almost immediately after they finish the cleaning.

The fact that even though the silo-144 stories deep into the earth connected by a long spiral staircase-has advanced technology, it lacked an elevator. This at first, was hard to get my head around but when I realised that this was a device designed to keep people in their place be it below ground where all the workers existed, or above ground where the hierarchy lived it made sense.

The people live and die trapped inside this silo. They are told the atmosphere is toxic and the land is ruined. The small community is separated, with the farmers and mechanics in the lower third,  information-technology workers in the heart of the structure and the leaders and law makers in the upper level. All wear color-coded uniforms. Everyone must abide by rigid sets of rules from the number of children to the number and kinds of pets they are allowed.

I did like Juliette, the main character, though I would have liked it if the author introduced her sooner in the story, and followed her struggles to the ending which wasn't an ending at all as you need to read the next two books to find out what happens.

If you enjoy downbeat sci fi and dystopian with a touch of steam punk, then Wool is for you.

Review by O. N. Stefan. Author of The Deadly Caress.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/review/RJG05PSDA88R2/ref=cm_cr_pr_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00873GRU4

Show, Don't Tell, on Twitter

I just found this and though I should share:

Show, Don’t Tell, on Twitter

Posted by 

≈ 

From blackberryczech.cz

I have often mentioned the “show, don’t tell” rule in my blog. MMJaye, a regular around here and a great supporter of Indies in her own blog, kindly wrote this guest post for me, tackling the rule from a novel perspective: how to use it when tweeting. Enjoy her excellent post, which, I admit, was an eye-opener for me.

“Show not Tell” on Twitter: a guide to “clickable” tweets

The “show don’t tell” rule has been drummed into every writer’s head. Traditional publishers and editors swear by it. Some Indie authors are less than enthusiastic about it, but, no matter how much you use or respect the rule, you have to admit that it does invest your writing with one major attribute: it becomes evocative.

What surprises me, however, is the fact that although writers accept that “show don’t tell” leads to evocative writing and therefore elicits a reaction from the reader, they totally disregard this rule in their promotional tweeting. Sure, 140 characters won’t allow for much but, still, there are ways.

Tweets that tell

Here’s a list of common tweets that “tell” rather than “show”:

• “The most exciting thriller ever!”
• “Another 5-star review for (title)!”
• “You won’t be able to put (title) down!”
• “Read (title) on Wattpad!”
• “Don’t miss out! (title) only 99c!!”

Now if you’ve used these tweets yourselves and keep track of your Twitter statistics, you’ve probably noticed they got tons of retweets. Indeed, if you use the right hashtags, have a retweeting service, you are a member of a group or especially if you campaign through Thunderclap, any tweet you hash out (pun intended) will probably be shared with a potential outreach in the tens of thousands.

But what’s your ultimate goal? To get tons of RTs and FAVs or have people actually click on your link and go to your site?

The problem with the tweet templates above is that they’re so overused that what sticks with people is the enthusiasm of the writer. They’ll want to share, to help the author out, but this is not enough to make them leave Twitter and go check out a link. So how do you get tweeps to become more involved and go the extra flick of the wrist to click on a url?

Tweets that “show”

Think “show don’t tell”. Let’s try this on the examples above.

Example 1

Telling tweet: “The most exciting thriller ever!”

Says you. Show me why. “International espionage, exotic locations, action-packed scenes” might do the trick, but why not go all the way and add an actual snippet that will draw a reaction from me?

Showing tweet: “A thick clod of dread thudded onto the pit of his stomach.” The acclaimed new thriller by @JohnnyWho (+link)

Now, you have me! Alliterations, puns, original analogies, evocative words … surely you have those in your book. Don’t tell them … show them off!

I know for a fact that I sold a copy of Fate Accompli, my newly-published debut novel,  through the snippet I have included in my scheduled tweets:

“Staying is a mistake.”
“Why don’t I feel it?”
“You don’t know what’s coming next.”

I chose a sexually charged moment as I’m trying to sell a contemporary romance. That said, try to use actual snippets of your book, even if you need to edit some words out to make them fit. Don’t make them up. Inventive, yes, a fraud, no.

Example 2

Telling tweet: “Another 5-star review!”

Now that’s a bit trickier, but going down the same route, choose a snippet of the review that “shows”. Avoid generic attributes such as “exciting”, “amazing”, “wonderful”. They, too, fall under the “telling” category. I have but a few reviews so far (I expect quite a number in January, yay!), but only a couple of days ago, I received a great review by a book blogger that I wanted to share like gangbusters. That’s the excerpt I chose:

Showing tweet: #FateAccompli
“Gut-wrenching pain, hilarious humor and #romance, neatly packaged against the beauty of Greece.”
ow.ly/FTUCe

That tweet created actual engagement and a lot of reactions. I did have sales the next day but, frankly, there’s no way to know for sure if these were a direct result of the showing tweet. Knowing I did my best, though, makes me feel good!

Example 3

I recently reviewed Rayne Hall’s myth-busting “Why Does My Book Not Sell? 20 Easy Fixes.” What I did for my review tweet was to use an eye-catching phrase from the book itself:

Showing tweet: “An authors’ guide to identifying “the plugs that block sales from gushing”.
Why Does My Book Not Sell?”
http://ow.ly/FKMon  by @RayneHall

That’s a great way to catch the attention of an author that matters to you.You show that you cared enough to be creative about their work.

Example 4: Wattpad tweeting

Wattpad is a good way to make your work visible to readers. Many readers of my genre (romance) find authors through this platform, and I often see writers tweet about adding extra chapters of their books there. But it seems that all they do is notify:

Telling tweet: “Another chapter of (title) on #Wattpad!”

When I first posted the first three chapters of Fate Accompli on Wattpad, I tweeted about it by writing a mini summary of what goes on:

Showing tweet: “4 Chapters of #Fate Accompli on #wattpad!
Why is Monica obsessed with working for Alex, hiding who she is?
ow.ly/ExZDN #romance”

That tweet got tons of RTs, and my uploaded work on Wattpad reached 1,000 views in just under a week. The effect of a well-phrased, intriguing pitch on Twitter was further proven when I uploaded the fourth chapter and tweeted about that exclusively:

“Chapter 4 of #FateAccompli on #Wattpad!
Monica revisits her past, featuring Alex and a ton of humiliation!
ow.ly/Fveiz #romance”

Maybe it was the concept of humiliation that drew attention, but that chapter had many more views compared to Chapter 3, which didn’t receive special attention.

Bottom line: we have shed blood, sweat and tears to hone our craft, and we have the right tools under our belt (no pun intended this time!). Why not use them on every form of writing, not least our platform building through which readers will get to know us first?

Example 5

Rachel Thompson (@RachelintheOC) has been using this technique even before publishing Broken Places, the follow-up to her bestselling Broken Pieces.

Showing tweet: “It’s only in the quiet spaces between our stars that I feel you now” ~ Night (Broken Places) out soon http://ow.ly/FSh3I”

And where can a link of unpublished work take the reader? To Rachel’s Poetry Pinterest board with even more quotes of the upcoming book. There’s an idea!

Example 6

When Nicholas told me that he wanted to tweet about Runaway Smile, I suggested the following:

“An unshared smile is a wasted smile: read Runaway Smile, my #free children’s #book, on http://bit.ly/1xqb4Jv”

I’m delighted to see he is now smoothly employing this technique in his tweets about his heartwarming children’s story!

Thank you for reading and special thanks to Nicholas for hosting me today!

Who is MMJaye?

MM Jaye is the pen name of Maria Messini, a bilingual Greek native.  She is a certified translator and has been teaching the art of translation for over fifteen years. Writing was Maria’s idea of therapy when, back in 2009, her spirits had temporarily nosedived. Fate Accompli  is her debut contemporary romance, the first book in the Aegean Lovers series, available in two heat versions: Clean & Spicy. She lives in Athens, Greece with her husband, daughter and Kindle.

Maria blogs at MM Jaye writes. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter andPinterest.

Thank you, Maria, for your eye-opening post. Readers, I just read her book,Fate Accompli, and I’m amazed at her skill. I found myself skimming through the book in order to find out what happens next, laughing out loud and moaning with frustration with her heroine – and I’m not even a romance reader! You can read my review on Amazon.