SMASHWORDS

[zoe]

Btw, my hubby, a hardcore high-tech man, had a surge of panic when he rushed to buy my book on the Smashwords, to be the first , and discovered how easily it can be downloaded into his compy to be simply copy-pasted after you buy it.
So now he is all for Kindle and against Smash, saying I should be broadcasting only the Amazon link, as it can't be stolen as simply, being useful only for a particular reading device.

What do you think?

[Lily]

Ebooks aren't subject to any more piracy than print books, when you stop to think about it. People will distribute both around after they've finished reading them. There are even sites which quite openly offer free ebook downloads. I was amazed to find a couple of my titles there.

[Lily]

BTW, (and for what it's worth :-) I'm getting more sales on Kindle than on Smashwords. It'll be interesting to see if that's your experience too, Zoe.

[zoe]

I will be thrilled to be able to share such experience - cough-nothing-so-far-cough (it had been a day and a half since publishing but who is counting? Amazon says it takes them 48 hours to update since every sell... )

On the serious note, I'm sure I have to figure out how to begin with an aggressive marketing and such. I will appreciate any advice

[Lily]

For your marketing needs, Zoe, check out some of the threads in the Resources board. Richard added a couple yesterday, which look informative. Good luck.

[zoe]

Thanks, I most certainly will!
This forum gave me MINES of information so far (yesterday I went through the list of the indie reviewers, you posted. So amazingly helpful!!! Thank you)

[Lily]

I converted my Smashwords and Kindle titles into PDF (ebooks) and sent them out for review that way. It looks more professional. There are free sites you can go to that will do this in a matter of minutes.

docupub.com/pdfconvert/
www.freepdfconvert.com/

[Lily]

Re your promotion campaign, Zoe. As well as doing all the usual things, why not target Native American forums, etc.? As your book is about the history of their culture, I'm sure they'd be interested and receptive to your message. Here are a few links that look promising.

www.firstnations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1606
www.native-american-online.org/
forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=140

[zoe]

Thank you, Lily. It's a great idea!
So far I kept well away, as, through my research years, I've encountered not a few unenthusiastic responses. Some people were not thrilled with a foreigner digging into their historical roots (rightfully so; as much as I'm trying, I may interpret this or that event wrongly, being raised in an utterly different background). And I really didn't want to offend the descendants of the people/nations I cared so much about:))

But maybe now I really should care more for the product
Thank you for the great idea

[Lily]

Innovation is the key when you're marketing and promoting your own book. Advertising on writing forums only gets the message out there to other writers. This may not be too effective.

I think we have to look for other forums and venues that fit in with the topic of the book. In other words, target non writers, who might be more receptive.

If the book is about flying, for instance, then go to the aviation forums, etc. And be sure to have a clickable banner ad to your book that you can display all over the place.

No need to hire an artist to design the banner, just convert the cover to size in MS Paint, or a similar program. You don't want to spend a dime you don't have to when you're self marketing. Just not worth it.

[zoe]

Good point!
Lily, thank you so much for all your advice. I appreciate it so!!!

[julieh]

Formatting tips for Smashwords, when all else fails, at my blog, created by the insistence of Mark Coker from Smashwords.

jules57.blogspot.com/

At the moment, I'm helping a previously-published print author (who is a tech dinosaur) to get her backlist ready for epublication. Her paperbacks are optically scanned, text appears in a frame in the rtf file and every line has a soft return. So I'll be working on another blog with tips for this type of conversion and all the formatting issues encountered.

[Lily]

Thank you, Julieh and welcome. This is most helpful.

[julieh]

Thanks Lily. I worked in electronic publishing for 15 years, so may as well share what I've learned and discovered along the way.

[Richard]

Julieh, I looked at your blog, and look forward to other information on formatting.

I just don't have the gumption right now to sit down and do it; convert my pdf to Word that is.
Trying to save my pdf as another document just doesn't transfer well.

BTW, Welcome!