As if it wasn’t difficult enough for us to keep up with our social media accounts, emails and writing — the authors’ life also calls for us to stay on top of ever-changing technology.

We were just getting the hang of Smashwords when Amazon rolled out their new pride and joy (and their charming mea culpa for withholding a huge chunk of author’s eBook profits for so long), Kindle Direct Publishing.

KDP and its more devout sibling, KDP Select, offer a bevy of new options and promises for the modern day author — higher royalties, exclusive promotional opportunities and access to the Kindle Lending Library, among them.

But these bonuses come with one pretty heavy stipulation. Authors participating in the KDP Select program cannot sell their eBooks through any other website (Barnes & Noble, Apple, Smashwords, etc.) during their 90 day sign-up with Amazon.

So the question becomes: Is it worth it?

I decided to take the plunge and submit my debut novel to KDP Select during the holiday season.Continue Reading

The following is part two of a guest post by Tracy R. Atkins. Be sure to read Part 1 first!

The “Twice Method”

To ensure you get enough exposure to matter, or reach critical mass for growth, follow the simple “Twice Method” as the bare minimum:

• Tweet something compelling twice per day.
• Social network something unique twice a day.
• Add unique content to your hub twice a week.
• Guest contribute unique content to a major outpost twice a month.
• Release/publish a new and unique major product twice a year.

After a year, you will have:

• Tweeted 730 compelling or interesting tweets. (Twitter, duh!)
• Posted 730 pieces of valuable social commentary. (Facebook, Genre Forum, etc)
• Built your blog “hub” to include 104 notable articles that are all your own. (Your Author Blog)
• Shared your expertise 24 times at major outpost locations across the web. (Blogs, Squidoo, etc)
• Published 2 novels, novellas, guides, etc that can make you money. (Amazon, B&N, Apple, etc)

That’s 1,590 ways that you are exposed to the public, in a positive way, in just one year. Your footprint will be quite large with a minimal effort. At the end of year two, it will be double that!

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Have you ever been totally sidelined by (what should be) a simple sickness?

You know the ones I’m talking about: that cold or flu that just won’t quit! I don’t get sick often, but, over the past week, I’ve been kept offline by the nastiest cold I can remember.

Wanna hear a secret?

Aside from the general ickiness I felt (exacerbated by taking care of my also-sick family)…I kind of liked it.

Even though I’m still having problems tasting food (coffee, I miss you!), I found spending time in the “real world” to be quite refreshing — and it brought to mind an important book marketing lesson.

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