20 Ways to Help Authors in 2021
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January 12, 2021

Pre-order. You might be surprised to learn that pre-ordering a book is critical to the launch of a book. Publishers may make decisions about how much marketing support to provide a new release based on the volume of pre-orders. Some even determine the size of a first print run using those numbers. If a book has strong pre-order sales, reviewers are more likely to review it,… [Read More]

Indies Over Amazon
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December 10, 2019

As gift-giving season draws closer, publishers look to retailers to stock up for the holidays, but this season, one of the largest retailers, Amazon, decided to drastically cut book orders to publishers. The cuts are due to space issues in Amazon’s warehouses as they make room for “bigger-ticket items for Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” Publisher’s Weekly suggests. This choice to cut orders has a… [Read More]

Authors Guild offers channel for author complaints with Amazon
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August 21, 2018

What do you do when a review of your book appears on Amazon that is fake or abusive? Or when you find copies of your book being sold on Amazon that infringe on your copyright? Worried someone has pirated your book? Have a problem with your product listing? Third-party sellers set as the default setting to buy your book? You discover someone selling Advance Review… [Read More]

GoodReads Begins Charging for Giveaways
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February 6, 2018

On January 9, 2018, the social media site for readers, GoodReads.com, changed its policy regarding Giveaways. What used to be an inexpensive and clever marketing tool for books is now a new revenue stream for GoodReads, which is owned by Amazon. GoodReads, established in 2007, had more than 65 million members registered in 2017. Until Amazon purchased GoodReads in 2013, it was a rival to… [Read More]

How to Handle Negative Reviews
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February 7, 2017

Not every book gets a starred review from Kirkus. Whether it’s a review from a literary critic or the crank on Amazon, negative reviews hurt. They hurt a lot more than you’d think and in ways you can’t always imagine.  But how do you react to the pain inflicted from a negative assessment of your book? What do you do with your feelings? It’s increasingly… [Read More]

The Battle with Monopsony: Amazon v. Books
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June 27, 2014
Using Citation Machine - Project Gutenberg Image

There is a war raging in book publishing. Amazon v. Authors, Books, Bookstores, Publishers, and Readers. There has been a long buildup to this conflict. It’s recently heated up over the pricing of ebooks with Hatchette. To bring in reinforcements, Hachette announced a three way deal. It intends to purchase Perseus Books and sell off distribution services to Ingram. Germany launches an investigation of Amazon… [Read More]

One in three book reviews is a fake
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September 24, 2013

Biu Ling, a data-mining expert at the New York Times, estimates one in three book reviews is a fake. More than a year ago, the New York Times reported on the best book reviews money can buy. Further investigations into how authors buy their way onto bestselling book lists resulted in the Wall Street Journal publishing a news report earlier this year on how the… [Read More]

Enter “Nook Press”, Barnes & Nobels’ Self-Publishing Platform
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April 30, 2013
Nook Press, Barnes and Nobels newest self-publication platform, offers tools for easy self publication.

Not content to let Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing be the powerhouse of the self-publishing world, Nook Media (a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble) is rolling out Nook Press, its own self-publishing platform for eBooks. What completely sets Nook Press apart from Kindle Direct Publishing is the integrated feature of composing, editing and formatting your book within the platform instead of uploading and converting a file… [Read More]

Comparative Title Analysis for your Book Proposal: The “How-To”
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January 29, 2013

Last week here, I spelled out the reasons why a comparative title analysis is so important to a book proposal. Today, the “how to” complete your research on the competition in the marketplace of ideas will be presented. This step-by-step process involves research, reading, and a critical market assessment. 1. Identify the genre, even the sub-genre, of books you will be searching for in your… [Read More]

A Matchmaking Tool: Publisher’s Marketplace
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July 17, 2011

Swenson Book Development, LLC works to match an author’s project with an agent or publisher. Our success in doing so makes many people wonder how we do it. Drawing back the curtain on the Wizards of Bookery, we reveal one of the methods employed in our toolkit to serve our clients’ objectives. Publisher’s Marketplace is the largest online network of publishing professionals. Our professional subscription… [Read More]