tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76665467086415801732024-03-17T20:03:01.672-07:00Adventures in ePublishingChronicling a self-published author's efforts in epublishingDerek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.comBlogger153125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-19295209322312420902014-02-04T14:34:00.001-08:002014-02-04T14:34:27.257-08:00Where have I gone?It's been a very long time since I've done any posting. I'm guessing most of you thought I'd fallen off the planet. Truth is, back in 2012 my day job got very busy and very stressful, and it drained all my fiction writing juices.<br />
<br />
On top of that, I started a second job designing board games.<br />
<br />
So, I haven't had much time or energy to work on my novels. I definitely want to get back to it, but I'm not sure when that will be.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, my first board game just launched today on Kickstarter. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/frogthewhatgames/slaughterball">Click here to go see it</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOkGOWtYmFacyqE8mfPaGlX7ik-4l1suq2cfvEseRCaqEi14rvIb0YsxA_BxVcWqlSAjBHcO8W7emMoAsG8mGlh8wHPyRnG9PCNUNA2M5mbGLXB5xcmTrkl7htywgv6WyGpo7aXCqVeAw/s1600/Box3dRender.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOkGOWtYmFacyqE8mfPaGlX7ik-4l1suq2cfvEseRCaqEi14rvIb0YsxA_BxVcWqlSAjBHcO8W7emMoAsG8mGlh8wHPyRnG9PCNUNA2M5mbGLXB5xcmTrkl7htywgv6WyGpo7aXCqVeAw/s1600/Box3dRender.png" height="256" width="320" /></a><br />
<br />
The game is called Slaughterball! It's a competitive board game simulating a ferocious future sport where 2-4 teams of genetically-engineered super-athletes clash in a remorseless steel pit. You roll dice, play cards, and move plastic athletes around a very cool thematic board.<br />
<br />
And did I mention it's set in the same universe as Dead Dwarves Don't Dance? Yep, it is. There will even be an exclusive piece for Kickstarter backers depicting none other than Noose.<br />
<br />
If you like board games, or just want to see what I've been working on for the last few years in secret, you should go check out the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/frogthewhatgames/slaughterball">Slaughterball Kickstarter page</a>.<br />
<br />Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com81tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-63493603144370897892012-12-31T14:06:00.000-08:002012-12-31T14:06:09.107-08:00Twelve Worlds charity donation for 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U3v7EafZt5A/Tvo_kwkkZ3I/AAAAAAAAAMk/F8DOKVIcgJE/s1600/twcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U3v7EafZt5A/Tvo_kwkkZ3I/AAAAAAAAAMk/F8DOKVIcgJE/s320/twcover.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Between Nov 1, 2011 and Nov 1st, 2012, the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004WT7OSQ/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004WT7OSQ">Twelve Worlds</a> anthology has sold approximately 120 copies, resulting in author royalties of just about $225 (author royalties are paid out 2 months later). I've decided to bump up the donation to $500, which I’ve donated to <a href="http://www.rif.org/">Reading is Fundamental</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">In case you didn’t know, the author royalties from Twelve Worlds go to <a href="http://www.rif.org/">Reading is Fundamental</a>, the nation’s largest nonprofit children’s literacy organization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">So, if you want to read 14 speculative fiction and fantasy stories from new authors, you should <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004WT7OSQ/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004WT7OSQ">pick up a copy of this book</a>. It’s only $2.99, and about $2 of that goes to charity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-61472275292145947892012-10-08T18:59:00.001-07:002012-10-08T18:59:55.291-07:00Halloween Riddles!
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZS76xNzj_EjejAUESfxQmRoZKg2bqa_kQy4wwxOEAM_l9xm1Qed4Yp4x-7UpFNM3ZYpGe1B_9ap9Estvc-mek74ADdA5x5H6P89K3SN9rVPEA7PTwdYNSgX06CGI9xmpZwm-SYvDMg4/s1600/CoverBlog.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZS76xNzj_EjejAUESfxQmRoZKg2bqa_kQy4wwxOEAM_l9xm1Qed4Yp4x-7UpFNM3ZYpGe1B_9ap9Estvc-mek74ADdA5x5H6P89K3SN9rVPEA7PTwdYNSgX06CGI9xmpZwm-SYvDMg4/s320/CoverBlog.png" width="212" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Boo!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">It's
October and time for some Halloween Riddles! I just published my fourth riddle
book, and you can get it <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009MZW1O2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B009MZW1O2&linkCode=as2&tag=derjcan-20"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>
for just 99 cents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Sixty
more rhyming riddles are in this book, and each one has something to do with
Halloween.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Why
not keep the book by the door and give a double candy serving to the
trick-or-treaters who correctly answer a riddle?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Or, why
not have a riddle contest after you've snagged your candy haul? Every correct
answer lets you pick a piece of candy from your friend's sack!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Or,
keep the riddles handy for your Halloween party! I'm sure you can come up with
some appropriate prizes for that!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Here
are just a few examples of the riddles you'll find in this book:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Riddle
#2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">You
hide behind it while in plain sight<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">To
fool your friends and give a fright<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Riddle
#41<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Skinny
as a stick<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">With
straw in my skirt<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I’m a
witch's ally<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">But
the enemy of dirt<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Riddle
#51<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Filling
corners, spanning gaps<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">We're
lethal and beautiful traps<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Wispy
yet strong, we really stick around<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Hanging
lifeless our victims are found<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">A
patchwork of people<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Sewn
up tight<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Lumbering
about<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Causing
a fright<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Born
of lightning<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">To a
madman's delight<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">So
many scars<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">He's
an imposing sight<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Returned
from death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Full
of fury and might<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Misunderstood
and despised<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Suffering
the outcast's plight<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Rousing
villagers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Wielding
torches alight<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">You
can find the answers in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009MZW1O2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B009MZW1O2&linkCode=as2&tag=derjcan-20"><span style="color: blue;">Halloween
Riddles – Rhyming Riddles #4</span></a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">The cover art was created by Jay Brant over at <a href="http://headsupstudios.deviantart.com/">Headsup Studios</a>. He's got some great stuff, and you should check him out. He's working on updating my Christmas Riddle book cover next and I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.</span></div>
Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-389074837090893312012-07-29T10:16:00.000-07:002012-07-29T10:16:34.595-07:00Final Kickstarter project report<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Unfortunately,
my <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=live">Kickstarter</a> project to help fund the cover art for the sequel to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">DeadDwarves Don't Dance</a> was not a success. I did get 14 fine folks out there to
pledge $301, but that wasn't enough to meet my goal of $1350.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Don’t
worry, though. I'll still publish the book, hopefully later this year in time
for Christmas. But, I won't be able to print up any cool posters of the cover
art. Too bad. I was looking forward to sending out Igor's great artwork to the
suppporters.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">(If you'd still like to help, the best way to do that is to post reviews of my books on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dead-dwarves-dont-dance-derek-j-canyon/1100144247?ean=2940014435444">Barnes and Noble</a>, <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/35419">Smashwords</a>, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10191328-dead-dwarves-don-t-dance">Goodreads</a>, and so on.)</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Anyway,
I had some very good suggestions on how to create a better Kickstarter project,
which you can read in the comments for this previous post.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">One
side effect of the project as that I was able to sell several copies of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">DeadDwarves Don't Dance</a> to people who read my Kickstarter project. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">The
project ran from June 2 to July 2, and I used Amazon Associates links back to
my Dead Dwarves Don't Dance book page in the project page. Based on the Associates
report, I earned $5.21 in advertising fees over that period and also sold 9
copies of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">Dead Dwarves Don't Dance</a>. That's the best free advertising I ever
experienced.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">So,
even though I didn’t raise the money, I hopefully did get a few more fans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Now,
for those authors out there who are considering Kickstarter, here are some
things I learned:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Successful projects seem to
have more updates. So update at least once a week to keep people's interest. I
didn't do this, and it probably hurt me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Build a larger community before
you setup your project. I have 172 followers here on my blog, 77 twitter
followers, and 53 Facebook friends. There is probably a bunch of overlap
between all these. But, still,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>172
followers were not enough to garner enough pledges. So, if you're an author
with fewer than a couple hundred people in your hardcore fan base, I wouldn't
expect to earn more than $500, so set your Kickstarter goal appropriately.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">If
any other writer out there has setup a Kickstarter project and has differing
opinions, go ahead and comment below! I'm just one person with one project
under my belt, so I could be very wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-43495088050381799942012-06-19T17:25:00.002-07:002012-06-19T17:25:46.063-07:00How much do e-authors make per hour/word?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Obviously,
the answer to the question varies by the success of the author. But, I thought
I'd relate my own experiences as a less than mid-level
author with just a few novels published. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I
started my self-publishing efforts back in September 2010. Back then, I planned
to commit to 5 years of writing before deciding whether or not it could become
my actual career. By late 2015, I hope to have 10 novels in print. The sales of
those ten novels should give me a good idea if I'm successful enough to quit my
day job and become a full-time novelist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">It's
still a long time to 2015, but how am I doing now? Am I making good money?
Could I survive on just writing novels? Not yet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">In
about 20 months, I've published 3 full-length novels, 2 short story
anthologies, 2 DIY books, and 3 riddle books. I've sold a total of around 15,200
units , earned gross revenue of about $15,200, with net expenses of about
$7,000, resulting in about $8,000 profit (or about $400 a month).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Definitely
not enough to earn a living, but it is enough to take a nice vacation each
year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">But
another data point you should know is how many hours I work on my novels. I do
not have exact numbers for all my books, but I did keep track of my hours at
the keyboard for a couple of them and I spend about 200 hours actually
writing/editing per novel. This does not include thinking about the plot or
outlining. I bet that adds at least another 50 hours.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">So I'm
going to assume 250 hours to finish each novel. How much does that earn me per
hour?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">For my
best-selling novel, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU"><span style="color: blue;">Dead
Dwarves Don't Dance</span></a>, I've earned a profit of about $4,300. So I'm getting
paid about $17 per hour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">But
that number does not count how much time I spend on marketing (blogs, facebook,
twitter, forums, advertising, etc.). I have no idea how much time I spend on
that, and it is spread out across all my books. So, let's say that $17/hour is
the maximum I'm earning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU"><span style="color: blue;">Dead
Dwarves Don't Dance</span></a> is about 74,000 words long, so it's earned me about 5.8
cents a word. Certainly not a king's ransom, but within the range of what you
can get for writing for magazines and so on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Unfortunately,
not all my books sell as well as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU"><span style="color: blue;">Dead
Dwarves Don't Dance</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">The
story is not as good for my other two novels (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W82OWS/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004W82OWS"><span style="color: blue;">The
Elemental Odyssey</span></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006Y4O91M/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B006Y4O91M"><span style="color: blue;">Where
Magic Reigns</span></a>). These are young adult adventure novels full of magical
aliens and fun action. But while I think this series has lots of potential and the
books are getting good reviews, they have not yet found a large audience. My
profit on those two books is actually a loss of $4000. Fortunately, ebooks are
forever and I have no more large expenses for these two books. So that loss
will decline over the years, and hopefully become profitable at some point. All
it takes is one person of influence to find it and mention it to some friends,
and the series might skyrocket. (That's what I'm hoping for, anyway.;)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">On the
other hand, my DIY book (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HAKGJG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007HAKGJG"><span style="color: blue;">Format
Your eBook for Kindle in One Hour</span></a>) has sold very well and had very little
in the way of expenses (about $7,400 profit). So, let's average all my books
together and see what my totals look like.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Out of
all my books, I've earned about $8,000 in profit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">With
three novels and seven other shorter books, I figure I've spent at least 1,000
hours working on them, for a maximum of $8/hour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Not
enough to live on, alas. But, the good news is there's room for improvement. ;)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Now,
what can YOU expect to earn? Absolutely no way to tell. You could might earn
more than me or you might earn less. It depends on how good your books are.
But, even more, it depends on how much luck you have. Based on the success and failure
of other books I've read, luck seems to be the overriding factor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">If you
have a terrible cover or blurb, or you write like a 2<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup>-grader, or
your story is pathetic, you probably won't succeed. But if all of that is
polished to an acceptable quality, your success hinges pretty much on luck. It
all depends on getting discovered, and in the overcrowded ebook market, getting
discovered is just luck or thousands of dollars in advertising. Not many of us
have $$$$$ to spend on ads, so we rely on luck.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">In
almost all careers, you have to commit time and earn your way to the upper
echelons. Sweat out the low pay early years hoping to improve your results in
the long run. Fortunately, I have another career that can support me while I
write novels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">My
advice to anyone else is, don't quit your day job. Write diligently and in
several years you might start earning a wage large enough to support you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Or, you
might be lucky and have a blockbuster on your first try. If that's the case,
congratulations! It's kind of like winning the lottery but at least you earned
it by writing a book!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">If
you're an author, do you have any guesses as to how much you're making per
hour/word? Put it in the comments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-46649650130085103012012-06-14T08:53:00.001-07:002012-06-14T08:53:19.667-07:00Crowdfunding meetups - learning about local Kickstarter projects<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Last
night I attend a crowdfunding meetup where nearly 20 attendees discussed their
<a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/">Kickstarter</a> projects, experiences, or just watched and decided whether or not
to back them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">The
event was hosted by Melody Brown of <a href="http://www.atomicchimp.com/"><span style="color: blue;">Atomic
Chimp</span></a> games, and you can read about the meetup <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Crowdfunding-Seattle/"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>. There are meetings in Seattle and the Eastside highlighting local projects. It was quite
informative and lots of advice was available. If you ever get a chance to
attend such a gathering, I encourage you to do so! I'd like to thank Melody for inviting me and running these events. I found it very helpful.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I
thought I'd give some plugs to the Kickstarter projects that were presented:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1258631995/gaslamp-social-games-cafe-0?ref=live"><span style="color: blue;">Gaslamp
Social Games Café</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Ever
want a café where you could also play games, then if you like the game you can
buy it? That's the idea behind the Gaslamp Social Games Café, which will be
located somewhere in the Bellevue/Redmond area (Eastside of Seattle area). You should
definitely watch the video to get a better look at this if you live in the area
and want a place to play games, sip coffee, etc!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1926477884/the-tesseract?ref=live"><span style="color: blue;">Tesseract</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">A 15
foot cubic piece of art that lets you interactively control 216 balls of
flame!!! This is a piece of art that will be at Burning Man. So, if you you're
going to attend Burning Man and want to firebend, you should definitely check
out this project!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=live"><span style="color: blue;">Dead
Dwarves Don't Dance novel sequel</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">This
is me! And you likely know all about this one already. If not, check it out. Looks like I got some additional pledges based on the meetup last night, so woot! One person at the event said he'd download Dead Dwarves Don't Dance, so I even got a sale! That's a 5% conversion rate, which is really good. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ttstam/openbeam-an-open-source-miniature-construction-sys?ref=live"><span style="color: blue;">OpenBeam
miniature construction system</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Kind
of like a tinkertoy system for big kids. If you're an engineer you'll probably
love this! The project was successful, earning triple its goal. But you should
still check it out to see if you'd like to place orders Terence Tam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Unfortunately,
I missed a couple prospective project presentations because I had to leave. I
hope to plug those when they go live.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I
foresee crowdfunding having a significant impact on all sorts of
entrepreneurial activity, manufacturing, and jobs. I think it's a great thing.
If you've never checked it out before, why not do so now? You might find some
project that you really like!<o:p></o:p></span></div>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-67346355227361393852012-06-12T20:30:00.002-07:002012-06-12T21:07:05.428-07:00Getting readers to help promote your books<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.davidfarland.net/writing_tips/?a=86"><span style="color: blue;">David Farland has written an article about "teaching fans to shout".</span></a> (Thanks to <a href="http://www.thepassivevoice.com/06/2012/teaching-your-fans-to-shout/"><span style="color: blue;">The Passive Voice</span></a> for linking to it.)</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">I've been doing something like this in my ebooks, and I thought I'd provide some similar boilerplate content that you can use in your ebooks.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Independent authors need ways to promote. I agree with David that word of mouth is the best path for us indies. This might be off-putting to some, or even sound like begging. But publishing is changing and we must adapt and persevere. Am I ashamed to ask readers for help getting the word out about my books? Not at all! And you shouldn't be either. In fact, if enough of us indies start asking, we might instill a new default behavior in readership to write reviews at a much higher rate than they do now (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">Dead Dwarves Don't Dance</a> has sold about 8,000 copies and gotten 37 reviews, or about a .4% review rate).</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">So, feel free to use the following boilerplate in your books (I put it at the end of my books). Use it as is, edit it, take snippets, add to it. Whatever. You'll probably want to change a few bits to align with your own genre/books.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Want to read the sequels sooner?</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">If you loved this book (or any other book) the best thing that you can do for the author is to help promote it. </span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">The vast majority of independent authors also have full time jobs and earn only a few thousand dollars a year from our novels. Unfortunately, we do not have enough time to promote nor enough money to advertise. We just write our books, publish them, and then hope readers find and hopefully buy them. For most of us, that doesn't mean a lot of money unless we get lucky and sell 50,000 or more books (most of us don't sell anywhere near that).</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">So, the best advertising for us is our fans telling their friends and family about the books. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For us, word of mouth is the best advertising. In the age of the internet, word of mouth includes reader reviews, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, forums, and so on.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Writers don't have the time to find and frequent each forum, blog, review site, and so on. But, collectively, our fans might know about a many such sites. And if you love a book, it's a great idea to mention it in one of those places.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">But, why should readers shoulder the burden of promoting? Isn't that the job of the author?</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Yes, it is.</span> </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">But posting on forums, updating blogs, sending out emails, trying to get interviews and reviews on big websites, and so on takes a LOT of time. Every hour of promotion is one less precious hour the author has for writing the next book in the series you love.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">An indie author's promotion efforts actually make it take longer for the next book to get into your hands.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Would you like the next book sooner?</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Again, the very best way to help make that happen is to promote the book yourself. I'm not talking about being militant and getting into anyone's face, commanding them to buy the book. But there are a few simple things that can really help, and if enough readers do it, other people might be convinced to buy the book:</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Write a review for the book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or wherever you bought it. Reviews don't have to be long, but you should mention a few things that you especially liked about the book so people who read your review can get a better idea of what it's like. You might say: "I really loved how this book merged magic and aliens into an exciting adventure story." See? Simple and short and it says something about the book.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Mention the book on your Facebook page with a link to an appropriate website. Quick and simple like: "I read this exciting book. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Check it out: www.talesofzura.com."</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Rate the book or post your review on Goodreads or similar sites (such as librarything.com, shelfari.com, books.google.com, anobii.com, weread.com, chapters.indigo.ca, revish.com, reader2.com).</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Mention the book on appropriate forums where you are a member. You wouldn't post about a spy novel on a gardening forum, but you could post about a kid's outdoor adventure book on a Scout forum, for example.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Post your review on your own private blog. Sure, you might only have a dozen readers, but you could be the pebble that starts the avalanche of interest that would eventually help the author sell enough books to quit their day job (or maybe even turn it into a movie).</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Tweet about the book.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">I bet you're thinking "Sheesh! That sounds like a lot of work! I'm not going to do that!"</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">And, of course, you don't have to.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">But if you don't, the book you love might not sell well. For us independent authors who don't get any advances or have publishers backing us, we have to pay attention to sales. Most of us aren't rich. If a book doesn't sell well, the author probably won't write any more like it. Instead, the author will write a different storyline or genre to see if those sell better. Or the author might stop writing books.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">If there are a lot of sales of a book, an author is encouraged to write more like it.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">So, if you love a book and have some spare time, write a review. And if you have more time, tweet or blog or like or Facebook or chat or whatever you feel comfortable with.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Who knows? If enough readers do that, authors might be able to quit their day jobs and write novels full time. You could get the next novel in your favorite series two to three times sooner!</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Let me know what you think of this, and if you use it. And if it works!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">PS: Don't forget about <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=home_location">my Kickstarter project</a> where you can get a signed poster of the cover to Dead Dwarves Don't Dance!</span>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-12259436313602909912012-06-09T11:24:00.001-07:002012-06-09T11:24:20.517-07:00Amazon sales rank = how many books sold?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">The
Passive Guy over at the <a href="http://www.thepassivevoice.com/06/2012/amazon-sales-rank-vs-author-earnings/">Passive Voice</a> asked some questions, including these:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: rgb(248, 233, 204);">
<span style="color: #3b2821; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">So, here’s question #1: Is this a fair way of evaluating how
well an ebook-only or mostly-ebook publisher performs for authors?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: rgb(248, 233, 204);">
<span style="color: #3b2821; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Question #2: While we’re discussing Amazon Best Sellers Rank,
has anyone seen any credible discussions concerning how sales rank translates
into dollars for indie authors? If you’re at 20,000 with a $2.99 ebook, are you
making $500 per month from that book?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: rgb(248, 233, 204);">
<span style="color: #3b2821; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Or is Amazon’s algorithm too volatile to make it a useful gauge
of the dollars coming in the door?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: rgb(248, 233, 204);">
<span style="color: #3b2821; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Question #3: Everybody knows that lots of ebooks have
experienced sales spikes immediately after Christmas as new ereaders and
tablets are packed with ebooks. What about other sales patterns? For example,
do sales go up on the weekend when many people have more leisure time to read?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I've
never had a publisher, so I don’t have any information to answer the first
question. However, I do have 18 months of daily sales and rank data to address
the second two questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">So,
first off, how many books sold does a given Amazon sales rank indicate?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Unfortunately,
due to the hourly fluctuation of Amazon sales rank, we can't pin it down
precisely. But I have enough data to make some generalizations for ranks
between #333 and #100,000.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">All
the following data is for Amazon US sales rank only. Also, Amazon changes the
ranking algorithms, so my results from six months or a year ago might not
equate to what is happening today. I don't sell enough books in other markets
or through B&N to have a sufficient data set.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Here's
a chart of my Amazon Sales rank for my best selling novel, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">Dead Dwarves Don'tDance</a>:</span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOq8c1u6DO7b6LJNcA0uOmAZMAkPo2SE3uKK7jwFxROgdWEeegZ2NbjOiVtNts2dB-SF8ccZ-2uZEPNiLNHvHQW2IeKUU_lQak0jCCD4HoHYTOgWPzwdmQLPggQijKbln_WUvydKW8Ato/s1600/DanceRankGraph.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOq8c1u6DO7b6LJNcA0uOmAZMAkPo2SE3uKK7jwFxROgdWEeegZ2NbjOiVtNts2dB-SF8ccZ-2uZEPNiLNHvHQW2IeKUU_lQak0jCCD4HoHYTOgWPzwdmQLPggQijKbln_WUvydKW8Ato/s320/DanceRankGraph.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">And
here's a spreadsheet with sales and rank data for each month:</span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUp_KXig96Ozl9bE39K6L3lgxefmblm24ftJNHRtKuzAD-U3z7i0TStL_MXS8cCmrWC-OA_fZOQO1V7FC1KHiqzyvnMwsj4n4PGlwaBCmKC8qOEvLeVvoAbGrc3ge5fHAaq6W-vMbqeow/s1600/DanceRanktoSales.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUp_KXig96Ozl9bE39K6L3lgxefmblm24ftJNHRtKuzAD-U3z7i0TStL_MXS8cCmrWC-OA_fZOQO1V7FC1KHiqzyvnMwsj4n4PGlwaBCmKC8qOEvLeVvoAbGrc3ge5fHAaq6W-vMbqeow/s320/DanceRanktoSales.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">What
can we determine from this data? Here's a table with some guesses:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQYDPf9fDL7DnA_Ap-1r3vAwMjjk03rBqVOFjFUgQzlLPaM1ol6oFSBJI-Yo8fTqLoh1r8ft8-EcnbYDZpgr5R_M4GiUpCElsWoeRBCH724AAhPSdrHyceGc5coA29yeuElSw-G6GkFSA/s1600/PossibleRoyalbyRank.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="61" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQYDPf9fDL7DnA_Ap-1r3vAwMjjk03rBqVOFjFUgQzlLPaM1ol6oFSBJI-Yo8fTqLoh1r8ft8-EcnbYDZpgr5R_M4GiUpCElsWoeRBCH724AAhPSdrHyceGc5coA29yeuElSw-G6GkFSA/s320/PossibleRoyalbyRank.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Again,
this is based on historical data over the last 18 months. Other author's
results might be different.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Also,
the estimates for months that showed a lot of fluctuation aren't as reliable as
my months where my rank range was smaller.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">As for
Passive Guy's 3<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup> question about sales patterns, I have not detected
any daily patterns. The only yearly pattern I've seen is better sales around
Christmas and a slump in Summer. I have not been able to identify any sales
increases from any paid or free advertising, such as reviews, articles, and
such.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do my
numbers align with yours? Do you have any other information about rank to sales
and patterns?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Comment below if you do!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">PS:
And don't forget my <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=home_location">Kickstarter project</a>. If you want a signed poster of the cover
of Dead Dwarves Don't Dance, <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=home_location">please check it out</a>. You'll be helping me
commission another great cover for the sequel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiigMlFTjGCdmP7Lr-_sIjHUze0hvSxNlFArx_j-Htg75IGhwdzRljPfinvacuV2Z260_wqehtIK9LAyujbCZ6ga6T1_Yj8VpzedjvJvPQdVqHCBeOlrLBFevRt9c3qXs6AJuzuAc8hzpY/s1600/dancecover300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiigMlFTjGCdmP7Lr-_sIjHUze0hvSxNlFArx_j-Htg75IGhwdzRljPfinvacuV2Z260_wqehtIK9LAyujbCZ6ga6T1_Yj8VpzedjvJvPQdVqHCBeOlrLBFevRt9c3qXs6AJuzuAc8hzpY/s320/dancecover300.jpg" width="258" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-24618466446384599522012-06-02T12:10:00.000-07:002012-06-02T12:10:26.291-07:00Kickstarter experiment to fund cover for sequel: poster for you<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">One of the biggest hurdles for a self-publishing author is the initial monetary investment to get an ebook published. I’m talking about cover art and editing. Costs for these range from $50 to $2,000 or more. But you can often tell the difference between the cheap path and the expensive path.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">My costs are $500 for cover and about $1000 for editing. That's $1500 per book up front, and it can take months to recoup that (at least for me).</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">One of the best things about getting a publisher is that they foot those bills instead of the author.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">But what about us self-publishing authors? What if we don't have a couple grand laying around. That means we have to cut corners, and maybe settle for a cover that we don't really like.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Well, I'm going to conduct an experiment for my next book. I just started a <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=live">Kickstarter project</a> for the sequel to my cyberpunk novel, Dead Dwarves Don't Dance. I want to see if Kickstarter is an effective way to get some upfront funding without having a publisher.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">The goal of the campaign is to raise $1,350 to get the cover art for the sequel. That amount includes $500 for the cover and $850 for the reward fulfillment. Any pledges above the goal go toward paying for the editing. If there's even more than that, I'll try some advertising maybe.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Anyone who <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=live">pledges </a>$1 or more will get a reward. There are different rewards for different pledge levels, including $1, $5, $10, $25, $30, $50, $100, and $200. Each reward level includes the rewards from the lower reward levels.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The primary reward in my <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=live">project</a> is at the $25 and is for a signed poster of the cover of Dead Dwarves Don't Dance. If the <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=live">project</a> succeeds, I'll get 250 of these printed up. That'll most likely leave me with a bunch to use at any conventions I go to.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi91cRVYk-aD5qiW5i3GjIAf1b6blUFHyXKDlPAFGZAi53myNvclnh49KrBmQVYiMSBlpjte8K3lex9UzvDVblP8zbeu4anJs15bQRnavV01C41PN5cBZo-vFjuBXHSVG25CJYJZ-S3FQs/s1600/kickstarter.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi91cRVYk-aD5qiW5i3GjIAf1b6blUFHyXKDlPAFGZAi53myNvclnh49KrBmQVYiMSBlpjte8K3lex9UzvDVblP8zbeu4anJs15bQRnavV01C41PN5cBZo-vFjuBXHSVG25CJYJZ-S3FQs/s320/kickstarter.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">But there are several more rewards available.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">$1 - Computer wallpaper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">$5 - Your name in the sequel's acknowledgments</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">$10 - 8.5"x11" signed print of Dead Dwarves Don't Dance cover</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">$25 - 19"x27" signed poster of Dead Dwarves Don't Dance cover</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">$30 - Nook or Kindle version of sequel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">$50 - Signed paperback of sequel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">$100 - Your name in the sequel's dedication page</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">$200 - Your name used as the name of a character in the sequel</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Each reward includes all the previous rewards.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">If 54 people pledge $25, the project is a success!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">You can get more details on my <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=live">Kickstarter project page</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">This project lasts until July 2, and you'll only be charged if it is 100% funded. IF the total pledges do not meet or exceed the $1,350 goal, then no one is charged and I receive no money.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">So, if you're interested in Noose the genetically engineered dwarf mercenary, cyberpunk, science fiction, or this Kickstarter experiment, you should <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=live">go check it out</a>!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Click<a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=live"> here to visit my Kickstarter page</a>, see a video of me and some of the rewards, and maybe even make a pledge!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">And I certainly won't mind if you retweet or link to this blog or my <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=live">Kickstarter project page</a>. I'll need all the help I can get to make sure this is a success. Thanks!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">After the project is over I'll blog about the results.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">ABOUT <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=live">KICKSTARTER</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">If you haven't heard about Kickstarter, it's a crowd-sourcing service for almost any kind of project. There are projects for music videos, films, board games, video games, festivals, and all sorts of other products like (lucid dreaming masks, made in America underwear, wine racks, wristwatch ipod controllers, etc.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">There have been some really amazing success stories on Kickstarter., for example:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The Pebble, a wristwatch to control your iPad/Pod, had a goal of $100,000. But so many people loved the idea that it raised over $10 million from 68,929 backers!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The </span>Flint and Tinder men's underwear project, which promises to product made in America quality underwear, and create 1 new job for every 1000 pair they sell a month, they hire an additional factory worker (they asked for $30k and got over $290k in pledges from 5,578 backers).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The Shadowrun Returns turn based video game, which I unfortunately missed out supporting. They asked for $400,000 and got $1.8 million from 32,276 backers.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Lots of successes up there on Kickstarter. So much, in fact, that I foresee crowd-sourcing services like it will have a significant impact on product development and manufacturing in the future. Entrepreneurs and inventors won't have to go find some rich person or company to fund their project. Instead, they'll get thousands of ordinary folk to pledge money.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">A Kickstarter project is an all or nothing deal. That is, each project has a monetary goal (mine is $1,350). If the total pledges do not equal or exceed that goal by the deadline (usually a month or so), then no pledge money is given, no money is charged, and the project owner gets nothing. It's either 0% funded or 100%+ funded.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">That's right. The pledges can exceed the goal, and for most projects this unlocks stretch goals or additional rewards.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">But what do you get if you pledge money and back a project?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">All projects have "rewards" that will receive based on how much you pledge. Higher pledges usually get you better rewards.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">If this sounds like a cool deal to you, please <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087460025/cyberpunk-novel-dead-dwarves-dont-dance-sequel?ref=live">check out my project</a>, especially if you want a signed poster of the cover of Dead Dwarves Don't Dance. And, tell all your friends! I just need 54 people to pledge $25, and with your help I can reach that.</span></div>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-73064073736850757212012-05-21T08:09:00.001-07:002012-05-21T08:09:11.603-07:00April sales report<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">April was my 19th month selling ebooks. I haven't posted a sales report in a few months. Work has been very busy, and I've been trying to concentrate on writing more. Plus, my sales declining quite a bit, which doesn't make reporting on them any fun. ;)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">As you can see from the graphs below, my sales are dropping down to about the same level as February of last year. What's causing this decline? It might be my infrequent publishing schedule, a different Amazon ranking algorithm, increased competition, or some other cause. Whatever the case, I'm hoping that it turns around when I publish the sequel to Dead Dwarves Don't Dance later this year. Until then, I expect to have a pretty lean year, as sales will probably decline even more during the summer months.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">How about you? How are your sales doing compared to last year? Am I the only one seeing these declines? Let me know in the comments.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaaPqtjPRX1lbgaGybygG7SamMvfbHSXswGniFT0m2kwS_KKCuD8azZHjWNa4-AIgT3eQDk0TBmmy3WalbUouPPjB2ZAcwSV_Dvvn4Hq-IRL-x4LAOEZaf60Pf_pp6luXo58FYGj-dbw8/s1600/2012_04_AprSales.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaaPqtjPRX1lbgaGybygG7SamMvfbHSXswGniFT0m2kwS_KKCuD8azZHjWNa4-AIgT3eQDk0TBmmy3WalbUouPPjB2ZAcwSV_Dvvn4Hq-IRL-x4LAOEZaf60Pf_pp6luXo58FYGj-dbw8/s320/2012_04_AprSales.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg07Vw87ek4gK0VSOueaOj-bJg5Mk4na8zICLcj6gbicdFWKWMvaDaCfuTZrkQ4rI89aD-dt9qrOlIRVC5iZ__jc4aS63EqB1HyZk2JGS00rAP_-OpDUOkH1R5i0pKSdK5jQjRsoJLA9uE/s1600/2012_04_AprRoyalties.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg07Vw87ek4gK0VSOueaOj-bJg5Mk4na8zICLcj6gbicdFWKWMvaDaCfuTZrkQ4rI89aD-dt9qrOlIRVC5iZ__jc4aS63EqB1HyZk2JGS00rAP_-OpDUOkH1R5i0pKSdK5jQjRsoJLA9uE/s320/2012_04_AprRoyalties.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl1dYhnkFWm7oZajNfE49F2W6cOv6Sg5akO7nQnlnyqiOfxmUUCULIbXIQJBfj-58D_wRyV2o7PoajMruNfPEbEr_l44p25xkxXBrCOHaAYj6Kh9I-NGB7Aq7pGHvNtr0pX31KnnQ_qbI/s1600/2012_04_AprDailyUnits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl1dYhnkFWm7oZajNfE49F2W6cOv6Sg5akO7nQnlnyqiOfxmUUCULIbXIQJBfj-58D_wRyV2o7PoajMruNfPEbEr_l44p25xkxXBrCOHaAYj6Kh9I-NGB7Aq7pGHvNtr0pX31KnnQ_qbI/s320/2012_04_AprDailyUnits.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwXAQ0Cht1zycKr7RDBsZ8awrX73OGAQH81CkMZXViGc5gWQORIJRyUZlP0EYhKKTjPwaO4XeSesLemckTPPtCx0DY-P5H3aqijbbt4glllr6yyp4kmgkKr8wRbZIP17_44K-XtF-teE4/s1600/2012_04_AprDailyRoyalties.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwXAQ0Cht1zycKr7RDBsZ8awrX73OGAQH81CkMZXViGc5gWQORIJRyUZlP0EYhKKTjPwaO4XeSesLemckTPPtCx0DY-P5H3aqijbbt4glllr6yyp4kmgkKr8wRbZIP17_44K-XtF-teE4/s320/2012_04_AprDailyRoyalties.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-71445104920973172852012-05-16T21:22:00.001-07:002012-05-16T21:22:48.668-07:00Dead Dwarves Don't Dance now available in paperback<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Want a paperback edition of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_il_tl?ie=UTF8&keywords=1475274505%20&tag=derjcan-20&index=aps&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325">Dead Dwarves Don't Dance</a>? Just click <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_il_tl?ie=UTF8&keywords=1475274505%20&tag=derjcan-20&index=aps&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325">here</a> for the $9.99 trade paperback!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NdlBUYXNbkaEqkQee6L70A70z1fTV9-DjEBQG060_twe4q7Hihi-xbLumWz6cJsUjgYDxl-B7jMWvH4yxVxuvRSX0oUQ0ftunqyt-pSX27C7V01czjFOGk0DMeJ2YHUfa48N1NW-ZYI/s1600/dancecover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NdlBUYXNbkaEqkQee6L70A70z1fTV9-DjEBQG060_twe4q7Hihi-xbLumWz6cJsUjgYDxl-B7jMWvH4yxVxuvRSX0oUQ0ftunqyt-pSX27C7V01czjFOGk0DMeJ2YHUfa48N1NW-ZYI/s320/dancecover.jpg" width="218" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Noose, a genetically engineered dwarf mercenary, barely survives a terrorist attack on a neohuman dance club. Injured and alone, he embarks on a brutal quest for vengeance into the squalid underbelly of the Regional Atlanta Metroplex, through the desert wasteland of the not-so-pristine wilderness, and to the peerless towers of elite society.<br /><br />The year is 2134. The nations of previous centuries are gone, consumed by the United Globe government. Citizens are confined to vast metroplexes while the rest of Earth is restored to wilderness. Neohumans are grown in vats, each type genetically engineered to serve humanity – flawless pleasers for gratification and ecstasy, hulking goons for war and violence, accidental psykers wreaking havoc, and more of any shape and size imaginable.<br /><br />An action-packed, hard-boiled science fiction novel of redemption and revenge.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Praise for Dead Dwarves Don't Dance:</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"cyberpunk action worth reading"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Louis L'Amour meets Philip K. Dick"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"of the style of a Schwarzenegger or Stallone movie"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"excellent characters in a riveting world"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"difficult to put down"</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"very fun and quick read"</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Fantastic action!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Action at it's best"</span>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-89269253581445226852012-05-14T20:24:00.003-07:002012-05-14T20:24:40.123-07:00Where Magic Reigns now in paperback!<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Where Magic Reigns, book 2 of the <a href="http://www.talesofzura.com/">Tales of Zura</a> is now available in paperback!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">You can buy it <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_il_tl?ie=UTF8&keywords=1475295871%20&tag=derjcan-20&index=aps&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325">here</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggeQbrM7nUcRgzuUd4hUNkeOGSccAOLtj_is_9-5rT2HENmmhJnJM_oyH7AMpCn0fudW7yvaz5K3bSsB_Gmem11ILNOOf2S-57ZeARoCLYA0gjgP7zMG8HR3GU27aIp5Tvv1tL_Z1nyZE/s1600/WMRCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggeQbrM7nUcRgzuUd4hUNkeOGSccAOLtj_is_9-5rT2HENmmhJnJM_oyH7AMpCn0fudW7yvaz5K3bSsB_Gmem11ILNOOf2S-57ZeARoCLYA0gjgP7zMG8HR3GU27aIp5Tvv1tL_Z1nyZE/s320/WMRCover.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">After their harrowing adventures in The Elemental Odyssey, four twelve-year-olds find themselves on a strange alien world. No grown-ups, no park rangers, no policemen, no soldiers. They are utterly alone and at the mercy of the furious perils that teem in the jungles of Zura.<br /><br />As they flee across soaring islands in the sky, Kyle Morgan, Jürgen Schmidt, Susie Five Eagles, and Veeksha Das meet several different kinds of Zurans. But these aren’t the familiar and furry creatures that invaded Earth. These are scaly reptiles, small and large, but all hungry.<br /><br />Unfortunately for the kids, on Zura humans are made out of food.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"></span></div>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-16281677315647138132012-05-06T20:55:00.002-07:002012-05-06T20:55:35.634-07:00Dead Dwarves sequel writing report<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Despite getting a cold today, I managed to write another 10,000 words on the sequel to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">Dead Dwarves Don't Dance</a> this weekend. Looks like I'm finally back in the groove.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Hopefully, I can get 1,000 words each day after work, and around 10,000 on the weekends. Maybe I can get a first draft done in a month or two.</span>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-64553147848817378762012-05-03T12:26:00.000-07:002012-05-03T12:35:19.924-07:00Expendables 2 trailer = WOW!<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">2012 is going to get a whole fistful of the 1980s!!!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.onlinemovieshut.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/the-expendables-2-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.onlinemovieshut.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/the-expendables-2-poster.jpg" width="217" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I'm a huge 80s action film fan, and this Expendables 2 trailer is, to quote Margaret Thatcher, "HOLY FREAKING AWESOME!"</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=89861">http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=89861</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Stallone</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Schwarzenegger</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Willis</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Norris</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Van Damme</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Lundgren</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Statham</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Li</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Crews</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Couture</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Hemsworth</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">August 17</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Be there!</span>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-4466134469913285212012-05-02T22:06:00.002-07:002012-05-02T22:09:00.003-07:00Where Magic Reigns paperback cover<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here's the cover design for the paperback version of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006Y4O91M/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B006Y4O91M">Where Magic Reigns</a>. It'll be available on Amazon in a few weeks.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmsea-rAQmDoGthZj1iuQtNk3yhfd0hRIhc3ShgV5cRA9FuekkmiIGlhM6VaN1HSiRmWNN_XlJINk6zj-jeeg9au033zuu-AHpjKmUldMmGqUB56MOR4rXSNQDn9ABk9VWykIsmklNG2s/s1600/CoverSample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" mea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmsea-rAQmDoGthZj1iuQtNk3yhfd0hRIhc3ShgV5cRA9FuekkmiIGlhM6VaN1HSiRmWNN_XlJINk6zj-jeeg9au033zuu-AHpjKmUldMmGqUB56MOR4rXSNQDn9ABk9VWykIsmklNG2s/s320/CoverSample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">What do you think?</span>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-79252229580712897222012-05-01T22:38:00.003-07:002012-05-01T22:38:55.602-07:00Dead Dwarves Don't Dance paperback cover<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I just finished the cover design for the paperback version of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">Dead Dwarves Don't Dance</a>. What do you think?</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh48ON5XquFUl0JJSGoc3toSxG6cKxcIk2d1ebLYrXWocad3K2EFOfBAFhQskgOLTMt7jiYFIUL6eFbvcrLTTF74aG85d3gJy6nY6YlbVz5l3PzF5r8a1O4biOa7ORxby04-DR5OOUmPdE/s1600/CoverSample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" mea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh48ON5XquFUl0JJSGoc3toSxG6cKxcIk2d1ebLYrXWocad3K2EFOfBAFhQskgOLTMt7jiYFIUL6eFbvcrLTTF74aG85d3gJy6nY6YlbVz5l3PzF5r8a1O4biOa7ORxby04-DR5OOUmPdE/s320/CoverSample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Paperback version should be available in a few weeks.</span>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-61292425458475842692012-04-27T23:14:00.002-07:002012-04-30T10:52:35.958-07:00Dead Dwarves Don't Dance computer wallpaper<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
I just created a <a href="http://derekjcanyon.deviantart.com/">deviantart account</a> and uploaded some of Igor's artwork, including a 1600x999 wallpaper of the cover of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">Dead Dwarves Don't Dance</a>. Check it out <a href="http://derekjcanyon.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4xwhcb">here</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxCO5x_PKbA_PzYGsHZ9FF6vaEJUwONFIQXvWa6aJ2AKdo0RtpcACQNvA0S1du_QZc3P3hNiMn_pF8S3oNMcOdyYchVam518v63-XxsG2Nfgy8Ezi0nL8966z1ngauHTfjrZj9OgnY4W4/s1600/wpsample.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxCO5x_PKbA_PzYGsHZ9FF6vaEJUwONFIQXvWa6aJ2AKdo0RtpcACQNvA0S1du_QZc3P3hNiMn_pF8S3oNMcOdyYchVam518v63-XxsG2Nfgy8Ezi0nL8966z1ngauHTfjrZj9OgnY4W4/s320/wpsample.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
</span>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-37865427203750758252012-04-05T18:18:00.000-07:002012-04-06T10:16:22.427-07:00The keys to epublishing success 2012<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><a href="http://derekjcanyon.blogspot.com/2011/01/keys-to-epublishing-success.html"><span style="color: blue;">Last
year I blogged about the keys to epublishing success</span></a> and there was lots of interest
in my analysis. So, I thought I do another post about it this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">This
time, my data consists of 78 epublishing authors who have sold more than 50,000
ebooks. This accounts for more than 16 million ebook sales (claimed by the authors).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Selling 50,000 ebooks can give you a nice income, depending on your cover price. If you sell at $2.99, your 70% royalty would get you over $100,000. That's some real dough!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I based this data on the list created over on <a href="http://selfpublishingsuccessstories.blogspot.com/2012/03/self-publishing-success-stories_27.html"><span style="color: blue;">Self-Publishing
Success Stories</span></a>, a blog which frequently has interesting and enlightening
posts. You should check them out. I also researched the authors' Kindle books
on Amazon to come up with the following data points:</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Number
of ebooks sold (as claimed by the author)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Number
of etitles available (as listed on the author's Kindle page)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Average
sales per title (calculated)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Primary
genre (as estimated by me)<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I then
put all this data into a nifty Excel spreadsheet and generated some charts and graphs.
Which you can see below.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Disclaimers:
This data is not complete. I only have data for authors who have publicly
claimed 50,000+ sales. There are no doubt more authors who have that
many sales but don't publicize it. So, consider this analysis a subset of the
actual data. As such, my analysis should be taken with a grain of salt.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Also,
these sales numbers are as claimed by the author. I have no way to verify these
numbers.</span></div>
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<br />
*****UPDATED WITH SOME GENRE CORRECTIONS FOR AUTHORS*******</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMPEaEosppdS7kzKGZvCQRVtQBhzIImCo-q72BtXiUZjzAwZw7EHLtnZ4wqTRZ4ovwj1RFg8xsToFF1EnRMfIitverLfnyPJCP5rIFNBlMNS7NKI64yLPQnsZHiscwkWagr2I2lbW0_qs/s1600/2012KeysGenres.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMPEaEosppdS7kzKGZvCQRVtQBhzIImCo-q72BtXiUZjzAwZw7EHLtnZ4wqTRZ4ovwj1RFg8xsToFF1EnRMfIitverLfnyPJCP5rIFNBlMNS7NKI64yLPQnsZHiscwkWagr2I2lbW0_qs/s320/2012KeysGenres.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Anything
interesting in this chart? Well, first of all, romance has eaten up a larger
piece of the pie, going from 16% last year to 31% this year. Thrillers went
from 12% to 23%. That's 54% of the pie for those two genres!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Even
so, the top sellers pretty much remained the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">2011
Top 5 - Romance, Paranormal, Thriller, Mystery, Fantasy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">2012
Top 5 – Romance, Thriller, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young adult.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">But
what's more telling (though not surprising) is that number of titles is even more important for the
50,000 club.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOWiHc0yd9DAlnM12cZF8aC2uhRzVHkJAKXY18IC0tAzCnWfmwwVutuyQxZoGvrcSVUXaYvVeqZvf7hrcslIYTJQMkYGVY2VcUM8dMtYpYBFpub8twZl7TkLr2jNhp5CWH2cXGX295iPE/s1600/2012KeysTitles.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOWiHc0yd9DAlnM12cZF8aC2uhRzVHkJAKXY18IC0tAzCnWfmwwVutuyQxZoGvrcSVUXaYvVeqZvf7hrcslIYTJQMkYGVY2VcUM8dMtYpYBFpub8twZl7TkLr2jNhp5CWH2cXGX295iPE/s320/2012KeysTitles.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">75% of
the 78 authors who have sold more than 50,000 ebooks have 6 or more titles
available.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Only
12% of those authors have only 1 or 2 titles available.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">So,
once again, the same as last year, it seems that the keys to epublishing success
are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">More titles, more titles, more
titles<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Write in romance or thriller
genres.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> S</o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">o,
get to writing, authors! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Another interesting chart:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4eEtPfcl4paectydk5lgpQ79nxNR4ih2auWvkVjoLOtzqNdxGBXh-FAZi8SzkBqnuYVgGBsaAOg8z8hMgXIgvxqXhf9BM6L9djka-MPJ-uJwsegQnfu8Y8AF1iGh2qRwnwK-BsaPydCQ/s1600/2012KeysYear.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4eEtPfcl4paectydk5lgpQ79nxNR4ih2auWvkVjoLOtzqNdxGBXh-FAZi8SzkBqnuYVgGBsaAOg8z8hMgXIgvxqXhf9BM6L9djka-MPJ-uJwsegQnfu8Y8AF1iGh2qRwnwK-BsaPydCQ/s320/2012KeysYear.JPG" width="315" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As you can see in the chart, of the 78 authors who have sold 50,000 or more ebooks, 71% started their ebook publishing in 2010 or later. Obviously, epublishing opportunities are flourishing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9fg5SqdCFoH3e8bRNkbS7n6Qr3062YnA-4MTSLdlg50KQdJxDPvfXV6yhfRxavCEmquDkuFMTzpdLC1m14Q6IOU2hoFfIuJ9l3MbFlgXnYxmpBus5fhCl9CeQcGMz_9ZHsXwb5jSOM_A/s1600/2012KeysTable.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9fg5SqdCFoH3e8bRNkbS7n6Qr3062YnA-4MTSLdlg50KQdJxDPvfXV6yhfRxavCEmquDkuFMTzpdLC1m14Q6IOU2hoFfIuJ9l3MbFlgXnYxmpBus5fhCl9CeQcGMz_9ZHsXwb5jSOM_A/s320/2012KeysTable.JPG" width="165" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> In case you didn't notice, the table above shows that some of these authors have an average of as low as 1100 sales per ebook. It's just that they ahve so many titles that it all adds up. This should be very heartening to any aspiring authors out there with any books selling 1000 or more copies.</o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p>For example, one of my novels, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">Dead Dwarves Don't Dance</a>, has sold nearly 8000 copies in 17 months (about 5600 a year). I'm looking forward to the day when I have 10 such novels out there. I should be able to sell around 50,000 books a year and make enough to be a full-time novelist!</o:p></span></div>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-43526021419121807962012-04-04T20:31:00.004-07:002012-04-05T11:36:30.545-07:00Emerald City Comicon 2012<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">My wife and I went to the Emerald City Comicon this past weekend in Seattle. I commissioned a few sketches of Bozabrozy, from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W82OWS/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004W82OWS">The Elemental Odyssey</a>, by some cool artists. We saw a lot of nerds (like me) and quite a few costumes. The 501st were there, of course, and a trooper arrested Shari, as you can see below.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">We also got autographs from a few celebrities (Wil Wheaton, Christopher Judge, Jason Momoa, James & Oliver Phelps, and Eddie McClintock), who were all most kind and gracious. Eddie McClintock from Warehouse 13 was totally into the event, wooting at other celebs' entrances and working to make sure everyone had a good time. He did a short Farnsworth message for someone's Farnsworth emulator on their smartphone. How cool is that? And he designed his own W13 tshirt!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here are some images:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlfr_nqKAJJMM9W1ioKc4pjC5wSY3WYIRy1mPRDOKu6ctSeAYgON-ZbwGnBZej9bJQyogVom-Tu564cadZsGT0eFP1Z7uLBUAJXkRE3kY2ER7aQy1LyAPIJWknI7kFOLjFPwSViMJnF6U/s1600/SCN_0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlfr_nqKAJJMM9W1ioKc4pjC5wSY3WYIRy1mPRDOKu6ctSeAYgON-ZbwGnBZej9bJQyogVom-Tu564cadZsGT0eFP1Z7uLBUAJXkRE3kY2ER7aQy1LyAPIJWknI7kFOLjFPwSViMJnF6U/s320/SCN_0003.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Bozabrozy - a quick sketch by <a href="http://fanboy71.deviantart.com/">Tony Dela Cruz</a> of <a href="http://thesketchcrew.deviantart.com/">The Sketch Crew</a>. Tony is a local Seattle comic book artist. He created this sketch of Bozabrozy in less than an hour. Awesome work!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB01LuNU3IsEjRJyQlI97Qg7hC1ooFjoCoQlm0VCwiOQ3v5bttgZldQW0_lx09Q34KfR0WD_FfIzlrJOLKJ8P8wqqSz7aT1BWwR5MfF5D9P6M8rJaNfRau1LxmT7lm6DeEtN4QtqBWtSY/s1600/artist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB01LuNU3IsEjRJyQlI97Qg7hC1ooFjoCoQlm0VCwiOQ3v5bttgZldQW0_lx09Q34KfR0WD_FfIzlrJOLKJ8P8wqqSz7aT1BWwR5MfF5D9P6M8rJaNfRau1LxmT7lm6DeEtN4QtqBWtSY/s320/artist.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here's </span><a href="http://fanboy71.deviantart.com/"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Tony Dela Cruz</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> himself.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB8YcK_YspEScrsuZ61WKGAJ6vTWcMd5V1pVUL9apXVdbqFgl5LfFpV7BPUvdl3yHSI6uvhyphenhyphenU6mSM5iaAgzA5rIYtmjUPOI3kMgR_nfp6DMuQaAY3axUGn88OyHlee_GjOPuc26-STrJE/s1600/SCN_0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB8YcK_YspEScrsuZ61WKGAJ6vTWcMd5V1pVUL9apXVdbqFgl5LfFpV7BPUvdl3yHSI6uvhyphenhyphenU6mSM5iaAgzA5rIYtmjUPOI3kMgR_nfp6DMuQaAY3axUGn88OyHlee_GjOPuc26-STrJE/s320/SCN_0002.jpg" width="275" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">A bit more aggressive Bozabrozy by <a href="http://darkkenjie.deviantart.com/">DJ Welch</a>. DJ does some really cool work!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlm-k6fG4BBxSkrHgCHE-O-3HkrpnsXbW9QDO70DpF6wHkKCVIimwdJ21xvsAiFf6EqnGVRA5ctoUhNkZ03fS6dk6Cg4ZtwWLhJxOY9UUh0JXszthhuABknlOcE3lFttaz2TTo-bbDOos/s1600/SCN_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlm-k6fG4BBxSkrHgCHE-O-3HkrpnsXbW9QDO70DpF6wHkKCVIimwdJ21xvsAiFf6EqnGVRA5ctoUhNkZ03fS6dk6Cg4ZtwWLhJxOY9UUh0JXszthhuABknlOcE3lFttaz2TTo-bbDOos/s320/SCN_0001.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">A quick sketch by <a href="http://www.beanleafpress.com/">Travis Hanson</a> that he did literally in 1 minute. And for free! Travis writes a cool webcomic called <a href="http://www.beanleafpress.com/">The Bean</a>, about a kid who finds a sick sword that he seeks to cure. I really like the artwork and he's won some awards for it. You should check it out (sample below:)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJ8em_8l-5xuqFt5-67VQ84x9GNeTrpngoQy61J4efZUgQaF08MAP00x9QAZSerouVJCBdweV1jn6DxGdGaDYZhUvOqNmRbGmEkD1hEDubc3pfAqtk5txMILJ01aMGQjPQBATqHTqZI8/s1600/bean.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJ8em_8l-5xuqFt5-67VQ84x9GNeTrpngoQy61J4efZUgQaF08MAP00x9QAZSerouVJCBdweV1jn6DxGdGaDYZhUvOqNmRbGmEkD1hEDubc3pfAqtk5txMILJ01aMGQjPQBATqHTqZI8/s320/bean.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCDs_3HxcGFL-dXzck07FfBmz863VIuuU5WNS4QQtnzAztUdmDzjLZKpVEfsQDMx6HTVEHt3f_-rJ8MJ8dCpWXCESq6j50pojccJUBRpzebERhyphenhyphen5WJFVxyEPHUVEXuxLpG8pfK6kvvWU/s1600/Jason+and+Christopher+and+Erik+and+Shari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCDs_3HxcGFL-dXzck07FfBmz863VIuuU5WNS4QQtnzAztUdmDzjLZKpVEfsQDMx6HTVEHt3f_-rJ8MJ8dCpWXCESq6j50pojccJUBRpzebERhyphenhyphen5WJFVxyEPHUVEXuxLpG8pfK6kvvWU/s320/Jason+and+Christopher+and+Erik+and+Shari.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Shari and I with Jason Momoa (Conan, Ronon Dex from Stargate Atlantis) and Christopher Judge (Teal'c from Stargate SG1).</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi83UwlsPhb_NoO2kZgLm8uOariS12Wq-YyBA99S5VE_rz-vw1saLbRT7gnEL75fIffmDQURTsq5Zm3kou1cPoxZSfDQ4scKPKArLzH1jHKtZJftGs0D5LCeFvdoUwjccCEVDmN-7HFA4E/s1600/TrooperShari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi83UwlsPhb_NoO2kZgLm8uOariS12Wq-YyBA99S5VE_rz-vw1saLbRT7gnEL75fIffmDQURTsq5Zm3kou1cPoxZSfDQ4scKPKArLzH1jHKtZJftGs0D5LCeFvdoUwjccCEVDmN-7HFA4E/s320/TrooperShari.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Shari is apprehended by a trooper.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2wBlkZgpjP9ut1igIojS1tCZYNU7YNdCSEpZ67qzHvPq9Nfqt044vx2rqqXLezioFnNLCDwL-HNMwheGvt75NTHF8_d61UtFp435KQVB9REMCtA_weC0nNhX58nv9unrYRiILVIrs42k/s1600/microtrooper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2wBlkZgpjP9ut1igIojS1tCZYNU7YNdCSEpZ67qzHvPq9Nfqt044vx2rqqXLezioFnNLCDwL-HNMwheGvt75NTHF8_d61UtFp435KQVB9REMCtA_weC0nNhX58nv9unrYRiILVIrs42k/s320/microtrooper.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Empire is recruiting from daycare, apparently.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiliqrG6Ey2pvaxt2UgeqpPv2zx3I-K3r3T2RUeuvD0hZL3bAgdAvhBjvf7I0pr7-22xfoz3cXT712Rgq0Tt99Ndc5xzRiePZgNBUjonnVhpGqf37xlYAPfVK0VjGxXjqaCS5QzpkOa4zc/s1600/starwars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiliqrG6Ey2pvaxt2UgeqpPv2zx3I-K3r3T2RUeuvD0hZL3bAgdAvhBjvf7I0pr7-22xfoz3cXT712Rgq0Tt99Ndc5xzRiePZgNBUjonnVhpGqf37xlYAPfVK0VjGxXjqaCS5QzpkOa4zc/s320/starwars.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">A mob of Mandalorians.</span></div>
<br />Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-38528924555438790512012-03-25T08:52:00.002-07:002012-03-25T08:54:34.400-07:00John Carter: great movie!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.ramascreen.com/wp-content/uploads/John-Carter20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.ramascreen.com/wp-content/uploads/John-Carter20.jpg" width="219" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">My
wife and I saw John Carter at the Crossroads theater on Friday. We both thought
it was an excellent movie. The special effects were great, action was great,
right amount of humor. We'd love to see a sequel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">And,
thankfully, there is no shaky cam, rapid zoom, or lens flare. Plus, the fight
sequences are not chopped into quarter-second shots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Unfortunately,
John Carter isn't doing too well at the box office. We can't figure out why. There's
no reason all the Star Wars fans wouldn't like this movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Anyway,
if you like aliens, special effects, extraterrestrial vistas and cities, action,
and cool sky ships, you should go see this movie!<o:p></o:p></span></div>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-42056953187957221382012-03-15T18:16:00.001-07:002012-03-16T10:25:23.114-07:00NOOK formatting guide now available!!<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">If you liked my <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HAKGJG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007HAKGJG">Kindle formatting book</a>, you should check out my new Nook formatting book:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007KLAXEK/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007KLAXEK">Format Your eBook for Nook in Four Hours</a></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLxz3NN_2euGoL40MC5gGK3yXg3AtX0EAwgpeDBKs6NZOTwUuNsBhvrBBljT4a41pdAwUwhfOE8zupu5gSQOn7QR1LS2Jljf2koH9vXxYWEMM1oETKvqEdO4lLwPwKbGleJ7DudXV2ixg/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLxz3NN_2euGoL40MC5gGK3yXg3AtX0EAwgpeDBKs6NZOTwUuNsBhvrBBljT4a41pdAwUwhfOE8zupu5gSQOn7QR1LS2Jljf2koH9vXxYWEMM1oETKvqEdO4lLwPwKbGleJ7DudXV2ixg/s320/cover.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007KLAXEK/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007KLAXEK">BUY IT NOW!</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">73 chapters and 4 appendices! Check out the full table of contents below.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Yep, it takes a lot longer than formatting for Kindle, and is much more annoying. But if you've got the guts you can do it yourself and save $75-$150 that you might otherwise spend on professional formatting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Plus, the intermediate NovelCleanup.docx file that you create in this guide is compatible with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HAKGJG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007HAKGJG">Format Your eBook for Kindle in One Hour 2012 Edition</a>. So, you can do a bunch of work once that works for each platform. Of course, there is more work that you must do for each.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007KLAXEK/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007KLAXEK">guidebook</a> includes a link to a zip file that contains a bunch of template files for the following ePUB files:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">\OEBPS\ChapterTemplate.html</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">\OEBPS\CoverPage.html</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">\OEBPS\stylesheet.css</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">\OEBPS\TableofContents.html</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">\OEBPS\TitlePage.html</span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">\OEBPS\toc.ncx</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">With the debut of this new guide, I've also created a forum where you can ask questions about each of my formatting books: <a href="http://www.derekjcanyon.com/phpBB3/index.php"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.derekjcanyon.com/phpBB3/index.php</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007KLAXEK/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007KLAXEK">Format Your eBook for Nook in Four Hours</a> is currently available on Kindle. I'll be publishing it for Nook within a couple weeks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">One annoying thing about the conversion tools for Nook is that they often mess up the page breaks. My <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007KLAXEK/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007KLAXEK">formatting book</a> fixes that problem. Each one of your chapters will start on a fresh new page with nice white space above the title. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">If you use <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007KLAXEK/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007KLAXEK">this guide</a>, your novel will be formatted for Nook like my novels, The Elemental Odyssey and Where Magic Reigns.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Here's what your pages will look like:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxod7_qUHVnkPslFk666ZYodsqkJrHOLgGhQgrB8QHUkbNtYefJopkxwfkzRFD7cNitc_hOErtNHYVbrE-hprY4v_nYZ6p6KdNeRdJCAlcbXodd3Fv0A5ELBow00ein3yZPtFhjM1aIcY/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxod7_qUHVnkPslFk666ZYodsqkJrHOLgGhQgrB8QHUkbNtYefJopkxwfkzRFD7cNitc_hOErtNHYVbrE-hprY4v_nYZ6p6KdNeRdJCAlcbXodd3Fv0A5ELBow00ein3yZPtFhjM1aIcY/s320/cover.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Here's the table of contents:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 1: Do not buy this book if...</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 2: Why you should buy this book</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 3: Introduction</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 4: Isn’t this book the same as Derek’s other formatting book?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 5: Why not just sell both sets of instructions in one guidebook?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 6: Contacting Derek</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 7: What your book will look like</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 8: How long will this really take?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 9: Tools and files you’ll need</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 10: What else you’ll need – patience!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 11: Instructions and conventions</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 12: Overview of the entire process</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 13: Show file extensions in Windows Explorer</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 14: Overview of the ePUB file structure</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 15: Download the template files to your computer</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 16: Save your novel file to the working folder</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 17: Save your cover image</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 18: Overview of the OPF file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 19: Update the <metadata> section of the OPF file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 20: Update the ID line of the <metadata> section of the OPF file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 21: Update the <manifest> section of the OPF file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 22: Optional: Add more images to the OPF file manifest section</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 23: Update the <spine> section of the OPF file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 24: Done editing the OPF file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 25: Overview of the NCX file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 26: Update the <head> section of the NCX file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 27: Update the title and author sections of the NCX file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 28: Overview of the <navMap> section of the NCX file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 29: Delete extra chapters from the <navMap> section of the NCX file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 30: Add extra chapters to the <navMap> section of the NCX file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 31: Fix the end matter sections in the <navPoint> sections of the NCX file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 32: Edit chapter titles in the <navMap> section of the NCX file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 33: Done editing the NCX file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 34: Take a break!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 35: Overview of updating the front matter files</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 36: Edit the cover page</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 37: Edit the title page</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 38: Edit the dedication page</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 39: Edit the table of contents page</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 40: Overview of cleaning up your Word document</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 41: Delete the front matter from your Word document</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 42: Remove double spaces from your Word document</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 43: Remove blank lines from your Word document</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 44: Clean up italics leaking between paragraphs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 45: Clean up bold text leaking between paragraphs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 46: Clean up underlined text leaking between paragraphs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 47: Overview of replacing Word formatting with code tags</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 48: Replace the & (ampersand) character with XML code</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 49: Replace greater than and less than characters with code in your Word document</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 50: Add paragraph tags to your Word document</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 51: Fix problems with bulleted lists</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 52: Fix problems with numbered lists</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 53: Tell Word to use straight quotes instead of curly quotes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 54: Fix lonely paragraph close tags in your Word document</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 55: Delete extra paragraph tags from your Word document</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 56: Add code for centered paragraphs in your Word document</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 57: Optional: Add carriage returns</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 58: Add tags for all the italic text in your Word document</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 59: Add tags for all the bold text in your Word document</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 60: Add tags for all the underlined text in your Word document</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 61: Replace other special characters with code</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 62: Optional: Add more images to your novel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 63: Tell Word to go back to using curly quotes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 64: Done editing the Word doc</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 65: Copy chapters from Word document into HTML files</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 66: Edit Acknowledgments page</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 67: Edit the About the Author page</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 68: Create the Books By page</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 69: Done formatting your ebook!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 70: Compress your source files into an ePUB file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 71: Validate your EPUB file</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 72: Fix validation errors</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Chapter 73: Review your novel in PubIt’s review window and Publish!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Appendix A: Efficiency shortcuts in Windows</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Appendix B: Efficiency shortcuts in Word</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Appendix C: Troubleshooting</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">Appendix D: Nook formatting resources on the web</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif";">So, don't wait! Go see what all the excitement is about!<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007KLAXEK/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007KLAXEK"> Buy Format Your eBook for Nook in Four Hours</a> now and get your novel up on Barnes and Noble!</span></div>
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<br /></div>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-36746756444364668182012-03-05T14:46:00.000-08:002012-03-05T15:01:03.087-08:002012 edition of Format Your eBook for Kindle in One Hour now available!<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I have
written a new edition of my do-it-yourself guide <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HAKGJG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007HAKGJG">Format Your eBook for Kindle in One Hour</a>. You can <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HAKGJG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007HAKGJG">buy it for just $2.99</a>.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzzdI-Yk546gpC10ajM19QRF8APILwytcQH71cSXOyQcnMShoqU7SssgqDn4Ht_vCZeMJYi5QMCLUo8iM8EEN4a17km07OPyshGDuBZN3ECd_-CF3u17sgG02BpyxKp9DYnY_DpAR29Ck/s1600/cover2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzzdI-Yk546gpC10ajM19QRF8APILwytcQH71cSXOyQcnMShoqU7SssgqDn4Ht_vCZeMJYi5QMCLUo8iM8EEN4a17km07OPyshGDuBZN3ECd_-CF3u17sgG02BpyxKp9DYnY_DpAR29Ck/s320/cover2012.jpg" width="243" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">It
includes the following improvements from the previous version:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Restructured
chapters are in bite-sized chunks, making it easier for you to stop when you
need to.</span>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Compatible
with my upcoming guide, Format Your eBook for Nook in Four Hours. You can clean
up and tag your novel in Word, then use that Word file in both the Kindle
process and the Nook process. It will save you some time this way if you want
to publish on both devices.</span>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Italics,
bold, and underlined text support. Instructions on how to do a global find and
replace to add appropriate code to all italics, bold, or underlined text in
your novel. It's now easy to convert such text to the code required by Kindle!</span>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Template
code for cover page, title page, table of contents, dedication page, chapter
title pages, acknowledgments page, about the author page, and books by the author
page.</span>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Cover
image and other images. Instructions on how to add the cover image to your
novel. And also how to add other images to the rest of your novel.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Link to dedicated forums for all the formatting books! <a href="http://www.derekjcanyon.com/phpBB3/index.php">Formatting Forums!</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Here's
what the formatting of your enovel will look like after using this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HAKGJG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007HAKGJG">guidebook</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Full
table of contents of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HAKGJG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007HAKGJG">2012 edition</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
1: Do not buy this book if...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
2: Why you should buy this book<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
3: Introduction<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
4: Why are there other editions of this guide?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
5: Isn’t this book the same as Derek’s other formatting book?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
6: Why not just sell both sets of instructions in one guidebook?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
7: Contacting Derek<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
8: What your book will look like<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
9: How long will this really take?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
10: Tools and files you’ll need<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
11: What else you’ll need – patience!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
12: Instructions and conventions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
13: Overview of the entire process<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
14: Show file extensions in Windows Explorer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
15: Download the template HTML file<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
16: Save your novel files to the working folder<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
17: Replace the placeholder text in the template<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
18: Include a dedication page (or not)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
19: Include a clickable table of contents (or not)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
20: Overview of cleaning up your Word document<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
21: Delete the front matter from your Word document<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
22: Remove double spaces from your Word document<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
23: Remove blank lines from your Word document<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
24: Clean up italics leaking between paragraphs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
25: Clean up bold text leaking between paragraphs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
26: Clean up underlined text leaking between paragraphs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
27: Overview of replacing Word formatting with code tags<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
28: Replace the & (ampersand) character with XML code<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
29: Replace greater than and less than characters with code in your Word
document<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
30: Add paragraph tags to your Word document<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
31: Fix problems with bulleted lists<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
32: Fix problems with numbered lists<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
33: Tell Word to use straight quotes instead of curly quotes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
34: Fix lonely paragraph close tags in your Word document<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
35: Delete extra paragraph tags from your Word document<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
36: Add code for centered paragraphs <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
37: Optional: Add carriage returns<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
38: Add tags for all the italic text<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
39: Add tags for all the bold text<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
40: Add tags for all the underlined text<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
41: Replace other special characters with code<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
42: Optional: Add more images to your novel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
43: Tell Word to go back to using curly quotes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
44: Done editing the Word doc<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
45: Copy chapters from Word document into the HTML file<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
46: Replace chapter titles with formatted chapter titles<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
47: Paste your acknowledgements into the HTML file<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
48: Paste the about the author section into the HTML file<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
49: Edit the Books By This Author page<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
50: Optional: Add page breaks<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
51: Done formatting your ebook!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Chapter
52: Compress your book files into a zip format for upload to Kindle KDP<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Appendix
A: Efficiency shortcuts in Windows<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Appendix
B: Efficiency shortcuts in Word<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Appendix
C: Troubleshooting<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Appendix
D: Kindle formatting resources<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Before
buying the new guidebook, you might want to consider the following reasons NOT
to buy it:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do
not buy this book if you are happy with the automated conversion provide by the
Kindle Direct Publishing site. If you like the results you get from the
conversion tools, you don’t need this book. I found that the conversion tools
resulted in some strange formatting behavior with page breaks and line breaks,
among other things, which is why I prefer to use the method explained in this
book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do
not buy this book if you already own Format Your eBook for Kindle in One Hour
2011 Edition. If your copy of the book does not indicate an edition, then you
have the 2011 edition. The 2011 edition still works, but the 2012 edition has
instructions on a few more things, and is compatible with my other book Format
Your eBook for Nook in Four Hours. So, if you're happy with the 2011 edition
and don't want to worry about Nook, then don't buy this book. If you want to
put your book on both Kindle and Nook, then you should get this book and the
Nook book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do
not buy this book if you want a comprehensive explanation of Kindle formatting.
This book is a precise, <u>non-comprehensive</u> step-by-step guide to format
your ebook for Nook in <u>ONE</u> way. This book does not tell you every detail
of Kindle formatting, nor does it explain why things are done. This is not a
classroom textbook. This is a rigid method for formatting your ebook in ONE
way. If you pay attention and know a bit about coding, you could figure out
additional options, but that is not the purpose of this book. The purpose of
this book is to get your ebook formatted as quickly as possible with very few
decisions to make on your part.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do
not buy this book if you don’t want your future ebook to be formatted like my
novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Elemental Odyssey</i>. I used
these instructions to format that novel. So, go download a free sample from Amazon
and see if you like the page, paragraph, and text formatting enough to have
your book look the same. If you don’t, then don’t buy this book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do
not buy this book if your novel has tables or lots of lists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This book explains how to format novels with
basic text (including normal, italics, bold, and underlined). This guide also
tells you how to format numbered and bulleted lists, but it is a laborious
process, so if you have lots of lists it’s probably not a good idea to use this
guide. This guide does not include instructions on how to format tables. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do
not buy this book if you only use Mac. This book does not explain how to do
anything on the Apple Mac or any other operating system besides Windows. If you
only have a Mac, do not buy this book. I’m a PC user, and so this book does not
support Mac. If you don’t feel comfortable self-converting these instructions
from PC to Mac, do not buy this book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do
not buy this book if you are not comfortable using Microsoft Word. These
instructions assume you are using Word. If you aren’t, you’ll need to know how
to do the same things in your word processor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do
not buy this book if you are not comfortable renaming, copying, and moving
files in Windows Explorer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do
not buy this book if you are not comfortable doing Find and Replace in a text
editor (such as Notepad or Microsoft Expression).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do
not buy this book if you can’t follow step-by-step instructions, in order.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do
not buy this book if you are easily frustrated by complicated, boring work.
Manually formatting your book is a chore. If you put a quotation mark in the
wrong place, it could mess things up. If you are easily frustrated by
computers, coding, debugging, or boring repetitive formatting tasks, do not buy
this book. Instead, you should use the conversion tools or hire a professional
to do the work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Do
not buy this book if you only want to upload your book to your own personal Kindle.
This book tells you how to publish your book to Kindle for other people to buy
from the Amazon website. If you just want to upload your book to your own Kindle,
you don’t need this book. Check your Kindle user’s guide to learn what is
possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Does the old edition still work?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Yes, the 2011 edition of the guide still works. So, if you like it, you don't need to buy the new edition. But, you get a lot of new options in the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HAKGJG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007HAKGJG">new edition</a>, so you might like it better.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">If your copy of the guide doesn't indicate what edition it is, then it is the 2011 edition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">PS:
Format Your eBook for Nook in Four Hours will hopefully be published within a
few weeks. It will be available at an introductory price of $6.99, because it was so difficult to write. ;)</span></div>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-70661148872386286502012-02-10T08:02:00.000-08:002012-02-10T14:55:33.313-08:00Guest post: Successful author says be prepared for change<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Here’s another guest post from another author, Ty
Johnson. He’s a step up from the likes of aspiring authors like me: he’s
actually earning enough to work full-time as a novelist! Congrats, Ty! I’m
guessing all my readers are looking forward to that day. I know I am.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Fantasy
author Ty Johnston is touring the blogosphere this month to promote his new
e-book novel, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00735JVOG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00735JVOG">DemonChains</a><i>. His novels include </i>City of Rogues, Bayne’s Climb<i> and </i>Ghosts
of the Asylum<i>, all of which are available for the </i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ty-Johnston/e/B002MCBQRU/"><span style="color: navy;">Kindle</span></a><i>, the </i><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/ty-johnston"><span style="color: navy;">Nook</span></a><i> and online at </i><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/darkbow"><span style="color: navy;">Smashwords</span></a><i>. To
learn more about Ty and his writing, follow him at his blog </i><a href="http://tyjohnston.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: navy;">tyjohnston.blogspot.com</span></a><i>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7gmkYp224A7frmhVavji_uqyOLqquRd5pwPfCEkZC7UO4TsHedmQu9t4wUcfVn-JCvHrBjyMcqGCb614F_1VXhU-JFnX_pwcPGm2WkrXAPe5ym4hbhsitVLclV8i_Z6aU-Z0f0ijDCZw/s1600/DemonChains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7gmkYp224A7frmhVavji_uqyOLqquRd5pwPfCEkZC7UO4TsHedmQu9t4wUcfVn-JCvHrBjyMcqGCb614F_1VXhU-JFnX_pwcPGm2WkrXAPe5ym4hbhsitVLclV8i_Z6aU-Z0f0ijDCZw/s320/DemonChains.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I’ve
been writing fiction for more than two decades and I’ve been an indie writer
for going on three years, which is a longer time than some. None of that makes
me an expert or a guru, nor does it mean I’m rich and famous. You won’t see my
name listed among the stars of indie publishing. But this is how I make my
living nowadays, which makes the wife happy because the bills are paid and I
get to stay home instead of going to an office somewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Still,
I’ve been around long enough and feel I’m experienced enough, that I can offer
some little advice to fellow indie authors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">One
piece of advice I feel today’s fiction writers need to hear is, “Always stay on
your toes.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">What
does that mean? That writers need to be prepared for change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">There
has long been a tradition that fiction writers can write and that that’s all
they have to do. That tradition is a lie. Even before digital publishing,
writers had lots of work besides simply writing. There were editing and
formatting, then query letters to be written, contracts to be considered,
literary agents and publishers and editors and sometimes intellectual property
attorneys who needed attention. There were conventions to attend, anthologies
to edit for editor pals, communications with fans, slush to read for a friend’s
magazine. It could go on and on. And again, all that was before digital
publishing came along.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Today,
indie writers are just as busy as traditionally-published writers, maybe even
more so. I won’t go into the lengthy laundry list of things that can
legitimately take up an indie author’s time, but let’s just say there is a lot
to do other than writing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Which
brings me back to my point: Writers need to be prepared for anything. Part of
this means writers can’t stick their head in the sand and ignore the rest of
the world, especially the publishing world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Everything
is in flux in this business, especially in this day and age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Writers
who think they are immune are fooling themselves. Digital technology combined
with today’s economy are bringing about daily changes in book publishing, both
in the traditional business and for indie publishers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">An
independent who ignores those changes will soon find him- or herself not only
behind the times, but backpedaling to retain their readers, to be published, to
be <i>noticed</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I’ve
been vague so far, but what kind of changes am I talking about?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Well,
for instance, there’s the new KDP Select program that allows Amazon Kindle
authors to give away their e-books for free up to five days during a
three-month period. To some this might not seem like that big a deal, but KDP
Select is already bringing about change in the publishing industry. If nothing
else, all those free e-books have brought some upheaval to the Amazon rankings,
not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. Another thing KDP Select has done is
it has caused many authors to pull their books from other digital publishing
sites because Amazon demands exclusivity for the months an e-book is enrolled
in the program. That means thousands upon thousands of e-books are temporarily
not available for e-reading devices other than the Kindle. There are both good
and bad arguments for all this, and here I’m not voicing an opinion, but let it
be said this is the kind of change I’m talking about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">KDP
Select is just one example, and the most noticeable recently, of developments
that can affect indie authors. Technology, legislation, the market, all can
have an effect. If we don’t keep up, we risk losing out. We could lose sales,
readers, fans ... and possibly a career.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I
don’t mean to scare anyone. I don’t mean to sound all doom and gloom. But indie
authors need to pay attention nowadays. We are not just artists, but also
entrepreneurs. We need to watch our world as it spins, or it will spin away
from us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Derek:
Thanks a lot, Ty! And good luck with the latest book!</span></div>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-18793294622837249172012-02-07T08:15:00.000-08:002012-02-07T08:19:27.904-08:00Is 99 cents the best price for your ebook?<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Over the past year
I’ve been doing some experiments with pricing for my ebooks. I’ve collected
about 15 months of data on it and I thought I’d share it with you.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I have priced my
cyberpunk novel, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">Dead Dwarves Don’t Dance</a> at 99 cents, $2.99, and $3.99 (that's about 35 cents, $2.00, and $2.70 in royalties, respectively). The
chart below shows the daily royalties at each price since the 11/23/2010
publish date.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmww2iOtyI6Vd_Yieig8gqbEXDDT7hXHyYDUjQimuUSJAIzE-lGG_KZbYFp-7Vv5K6B1EZWbdsHw_HJcm1Ep0qP3TUxTFyW0N6-cwzhJNOeRFQZ9QBBGODab7y70P4Abo-d0vCMMQ47Qo/s1600/DDDDPriceCompare.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmww2iOtyI6Vd_Yieig8gqbEXDDT7hXHyYDUjQimuUSJAIzE-lGG_KZbYFp-7Vv5K6B1EZWbdsHw_HJcm1Ep0qP3TUxTFyW0N6-cwzhJNOeRFQZ9QBBGODab7y70P4Abo-d0vCMMQ47Qo/s320/DDDDPriceCompare.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">As you can see there
is some significant fluctuation.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I priced the book out
of the gate at $2.99 (about a $2.00 royalty), and it slowly built up sales to 9
copies a day, or $18.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">After a few weeks of
that peak, I decided to experiment with dropping the price and see if I could
improve my Amazon sales rank. I dropped the price to 99 cents in late February
2011. You can see the significant drop off in royalties.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">However, the lower
price did result in a stead and steep increase in number of units sold. On
April 25, I hit a record daily sales of 126 units, earning $44. At this point, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">Dead Dwarves Don’t Dance</a> hit #333 in the Amazon Best Sellers rankings, and I
was in the top #10 of a couple genre lists.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I decided it was time
to raise the price and see if I could benefit from that good rank. I raised the
price back to $2.99 and you can see the stratospheric increase in royalties on
May 27 to $140! Excellent! My plan was working.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">The increased sales
continued through May (I earned $2,289 for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">Dead Dwarves Don’t Dance</a> in May).<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">However, the Amazon
Sales genre rankings worsened, and the book dropped out of the top 20 lists. I
decided to lower my price again to try to stay in the genre top 20 lists.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I dropped the price
back down to 99 cents on June 9. You can see the deep decrease in royalties.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Unfortunately, my plan
did not work. The novel continued to decline in sales. I was at a loss to
explain this. Was it a Summer slump, altered Amazon ranking algorithms, the
Amazon $2.99 sales? Whatever the cause, my sales never recovered.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I kept the 99 cent
price for the rest of 2011, hoping to see a resurgence. But that was to no avail.
Even Christmas sales didn’t help much.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">So, I decided to raise
the price up to $3.99 in January 2012. As you can see in the chart, royalties
jumped up quite a bit. For the 33 days before the price increase, I made an average of $2.12 per day. For the 33 days after the price increase, I've made an average of $6.07 per day.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">So, what’s the best
price?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I think 99 cents might
sometimes be a good price to help you improve your sales rank so that when you
subsequently increase your price you can sell more units.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">But I don’t think 99
cents is always the best price. You have to play around with it. If it’s
helping your rankings, it might be a good idea. But if not, raise that price!</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">You should also go over to Lindsay Buroker's blog and read her recent post on this exact same issue: Ebook pricing: <a href="http://www.lindsayburoker.com/e-publishing/ebook-pricing-why-99-cents-might-be-a-mistake-for-you/">Why 99 cents might be a mistake for you</a>.</span>Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7666546708641580173.post-8220775440156825182012-02-06T08:19:00.000-08:002012-02-06T11:29:04.308-08:00January 2012 sales reportJanuary was my 16th month
selling ebooks. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
I sold 484 copies of 8
different titles. Without counting the freebies, my sales volume decreased by
about 17% from December.<o:p></o:p><br />
<u1:p></u1:p>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoevGPFeGWV1aUCwV1STKA9LTVMGBsP69cI_tPsQBoA0qUyj8cdSrwGTsZIHsRryCzPBmsqm3fNr0a2hBt54xvEvZxqaGCxdtTCMQfE31kIqH4PtEPTorkOdKpsfaICgDmGU-fBycqseM/s1600/2012_01_JanSales.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoevGPFeGWV1aUCwV1STKA9LTVMGBsP69cI_tPsQBoA0qUyj8cdSrwGTsZIHsRryCzPBmsqm3fNr0a2hBt54xvEvZxqaGCxdtTCMQfE31kIqH4PtEPTorkOdKpsfaICgDmGU-fBycqseM/s320/2012_01_JanSales.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
On the other hand, my
royalties increased by 28% from $721 to $925. This is mostly due to a 168%
royalty increase for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCB3HU?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004DCB3HU">Dead Dwarves Don’t Dance</a>. I raised the price from 99 cents
to $3.99 and I’m making a lot more money. I’ll talk about that later this week.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizYJciIDFBryb6lmjHeTsSHmt-4YAAioDfMVihOdOi6SjUaOLQzdqGagzGWPPUW2agcj_Pir4G9b9stWokaoR5Oy5Gq7y0PurQNYxg3XK3YXRL_3pZeKmGt_FNNARfZgW6-N7JZB5X_Sw/s1600/2012_01_JanRoyalties.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizYJciIDFBryb6lmjHeTsSHmt-4YAAioDfMVihOdOi6SjUaOLQzdqGagzGWPPUW2agcj_Pir4G9b9stWokaoR5Oy5Gq7y0PurQNYxg3XK3YXRL_3pZeKmGt_FNNARfZgW6-N7JZB5X_Sw/s320/2012_01_JanRoyalties.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Average sales per day
decreased from 18.3 (not counting freebies) to 15.6. Average daily royalties
went from $23 to $30.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxPnbqJKTjUgJz90pKG3rhjHNW5W-fs1kPwspSs-rOeGYRbCoQi6EgYKslAY00LGAR5lGCFFTodGan2xPPEOvVRIoDuNioxOrHbUYmTC9_qxwTQdFDKb89mhddlF6I3Ug3rF51N1Ph-6s/s1600/2012_01_JanDailyUnits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxPnbqJKTjUgJz90pKG3rhjHNW5W-fs1kPwspSs-rOeGYRbCoQi6EgYKslAY00LGAR5lGCFFTodGan2xPPEOvVRIoDuNioxOrHbUYmTC9_qxwTQdFDKb89mhddlF6I3Ug3rF51N1Ph-6s/s320/2012_01_JanDailyUnits.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaZVp3SeCpVsaHWwFeTaq22DdYBNv2ahlstP9g13eb-W0XuHe9ljucd8192HwkuiKr0bfETL2OH_pLqyZwxqbePStjOvxmNt_dH0ue_OTeyduHKTN6eLfMjFTGrFdVZIuPGSeRfVwsoBE/s1600/2012_01_JanDailyRoyalties.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaZVp3SeCpVsaHWwFeTaq22DdYBNv2ahlstP9g13eb-W0XuHe9ljucd8192HwkuiKr0bfETL2OH_pLqyZwxqbePStjOvxmNt_dH0ue_OTeyduHKTN6eLfMjFTGrFdVZIuPGSeRfVwsoBE/s320/2012_01_JanDailyRoyalties.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p><br />
<br />
I also have some data on
the KDP Select program. I put <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HZX7W2?ie=UTF8&tag=derjcan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004HZX7W2">Format Your eBook for Kindle in One Hour</a> in the
program and I’ll report on it later.Derek J. Canyonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08071753685946640237noreply@blogger.com4