Publishing Your E-book the Easiest and Quickest Way Possible--New Book Tells You How!

Many authors are daunted by the process of self-publishing and think it's too much to learn.  Month after month they put off publishing and selling their e-book on the world's largest online bookstore--Amazon.
I took the plunge a year ago and along the way I took notes on everything I learned through the process of self-publishing.  A friend of mine, Louisa J. Dang, and I put our notes together and published an e-book titled "Publishing and Selling Your Ebook on Kindle." 
We cover all of the main problems you may stumble upon when editing, formatting, converting, publishing, and marketing your e-book on Kindle.
It's a book that I'm very proud of.  The information in this book will speed up the learning process for those looking to self-publish their e-book quickly.  I hope you'll give it a try and if you like it, please leave a review or tell your friends about it.  Thanks!
Note:  In this book, we cover the process of publishing online from beginning to end.  This book mainly focuses on publishing via Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, so if you're looking for a book that focuses on other publishing platforms, then you may want to wait for additional books from us or check out others.
Here's the link to our book http://amzn.to/17QAspk

What is SEO? And can SEO help your ebook sales?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a group of marketing and technical techniques used to bring Internet taffic to your web page or blog.  Websites are ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users.  So the first page of search results are the most relevant to the search word or phrase that you typed in Google.  Basically, the whole idea of SEO is to get on those first two pages of search results.  Most people never go past those first two pages.  The way to get your site noticed?  There are so many.  I'm only going to give a very brief overview of the concept in this blog article and expand in more detail in later posts. 
SEO can improve your site's exposure by the strategic use of keywords or key phrases.  These are the words people search for in their Google searches.  They could also use Yahoo or Bing, but for the sake of brevity I'm just saying Google. 
Keywords can be sprinkled throughout your web content, but don't overdo this.  Keyword "stuffing" will get your site flagged and plus it just reads badly; not to mention it looks unprofessional.  You want to shoot for 5 percent (5%) keyword saturation throughout your copy, nothing more.  Keywords can also be placed in metadata such as HTML tags.  More on this in a future blog posting.
Are you noticing through tracking that your visitors are leaving your website quickly?  They aren't hanging around to read?  That's called a "bounce" visit.  You don't want that.  If this happens to you, then you really need to examine the quality of your web content.  People want to learn something from articles they read; not shallow, thin "fluff" pieces that waste their time.
I'll give more details later about how to control your "bounce" factor in your copy.  SEO covers such a wide range of information.  Treating it all in one blog post would be impossible.
The bounce factor leads to another major factor that draws search engine bots to crawl your site as well as visitors--Quality Content.  Without this your website or blog is merely a fluff site where visitors leave feeling deceived and cheated.  Time is valuable to everyone and time is money for many, so don't waste your readers' time.
Links are important in driving traffic to your site.  Make friends with other bloggers who blog within your field of interest.  This is a way to get backlinks which help improve your rankings.

Last Day to Download HOUSE OF MIRRORS for FREE!

This weekend I've been running a free promo via Amazon's Kindle Select program.  It's gone much better than the first three times.  In fact, there's been a noticeable difference in the download numbers and in the best seller list ranking for the book.  House of Mirrors now sits at #2 on Amazon's best seller list for free in the genre of Ghosts and #3 in the genre of Occult.
If Kindle Select does anything, it gives you a little motivation to keep finishing what you're currently working on.  Right now, I'm working on a suspense thriller that's set partially at my favorite place of all time--the beach.  I'll give more info as I get closer to completion.
Please feel free to check out my FREE novel this weekend.  This is the last day it will be on sale for free.
You can find House of Mirrors on the Amazon Kindle Store here.

"House of Mirrors" FREE downloads this WEEKEND on Amazon!

HOUSE OF MIRRORS will be available for free downloads on Amazon this weekend April 27 & 28 (Saturday & Sunday) Here's the link http://ow.ly/kqz5k for Saturday & Sunday! #kindle #ebooks

HOUSE OF MIRRORS is a paranormal thriller about a woman who buys antique mirrors from an eccentric antique dealer; only to discover she has brought entities into the house attached to the mirrors. The uninvited guests cause a bit of a stir for the distraught woman who is mourning the loss of her little girl to a recent drowning. Her husband hires a psychiatrist and family friend to exorcise Eleanor’s personal demons, but Dr. Kelso discovers that the mysterious mirrors hold more secrets—a few that he isn’t comfortable having aired. 
“House of Mirrors” taps into the universal hope and desire we all have of contacting loved ones who have died, but sometimes it’s better to leave the dead at rest.

New book cover for "House of Mirrors" thanks to Jeanine Henning!

I've given HOUSE OF MIRRORS a book cover makeover.  I tried to make a homemade cover to begin with but decided it's better to go with a design professional like Jeanine Henning of J.H. Illustration.  If you're looking for a professional book cover artist, please check out Jeanine's work at J. H. Illustration or her website.
Here's my new book cover for HOUSE OF MIRRORS:

Building Suspense One Delay at a Time

So many ways to build suspense …

The suspense genre is different from the mystery genre in that the reader already knows how the murder or heist went down in the beginning.  The rest of the story is the protagonist trying to solve the murder or run from the murder and eventually answer the question or defeat the enemy.  Suspense really is delaying the answer to a question posed at the beginning of the novel.  For instance, look at any Alfred Hitchcock movie and you’ll see perfect examples of suspense at work.  Hitchcock is the one who penned the famous quote about the “suspense bomb” and showing the difference between surprise and suspense.  If you haven’t heard about this quote, here it is:
Hitchcock said “There is a distinct difference between "suspense" and "surprise," and yet many pictures continually confuse the two. I'll explain what I mean.
          We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let's suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, ‘Boom!’ There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene.           The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: ‘You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb beneath you and it is about to explode!’
          In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.”
          I’m sure most people have seen Rear Window starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly.  In the beginning we along with Jimmy Stewart watch as the neighbor/murderer does away with his wife---at least he leaves an awful lot of clues for us to believe that.  So the question then is will Jimmy Stewart gather enough evidence and the ear of the police department to arrest the murdering neighbor.  That answer is delayed throughout the movie.  The police don’t believe him.  His colleague from work makes him feel like he’s crazy.  Grace Kelly is pawing him and trying to avert his attention to herself and their relationship.  Finally he wins Grace and a nurse over to his side when they too notice something peculiar about the neighbor and his apartment whose window backs up their window.  You can see how it all ends if you haven’t already seen Rear Window, but of course I’ll tell you that the answer finally gets answered at the end.
          Novelists and screenwriters use several devices and techniques to stir up suspense.  Here are a few of the old tried and true ones…
          *Use story structure to build suspense—You can tell a story from two different points in time.  You can tell a story through different switching points of view.  Both of these techniques delay the answer to the problem and creates suspense, and maybe a little frustration, too.  Also, chapter endings are great places to plant cliff-hangers or new developments in a story.  Just don’t go over-kill with this because then a reader could tire of too many and now predictable cliff-hangers.  Remember, always use a little moderation with everything. 
          *Use threat to build suspense—If the protagonist isn’t in danger or something that means so much to them is not at stake, then what do they have to lose?  Where’s the suspense?  Make sure you have a perilous journey ahead for your protagonist.  Feel free to give us a bit of the antagonist’s POV, so we’ll know what the protagonist is up against.
          *Use the urgency of time to build suspense—You know how you feel if you’re running late for an important event—transfer that same anxiety into your readers throughout the story.  Remember Hitchcock’s aphorism about the two people eating breakfast while a bomb ticks beneath the table?  There’s an urgency of time in that scene he’s created.
          *Use worry to build suspense—For a suspense to be really good, the reader needs to be worried about the person and the outcome of the story.  They’re wondering how in the world will this work out for the protagonist?  They’re up against so many obstacles.  When the reader really wants something to happen and it’s not yet happening…that’s good suspense.  By making the reader worry, you’re keeping the reader engaged, curious, and invested in the outcome of the story.
          When I look for a new suspense book to read, I look for these things and most of the time they appear in the story, but when they don’t it proves to be an unsatisfying reading experience.  And that’s probably because the writer hasn’t taken the time to understand what makes suspense tick and what draws readers to this genre.  Instead of asking what do my readers want to happen, maybe ask what do my readers not want to happen…just yet. 

--Lisa M. Logan is author of HOUSE OF MIRRORS

Why should you use Goodreads?

I learned about Goodreads by looking for book recommendations on Twitter about a month ago.  Little did I know, I’d be hooked a month later.  I check my Goodreads account for updates now more often than I do Facebook, and that’s a lot. 

Basically, Goodreads.com is the essential go-to website for bookaholics, bibliophiles, book worms, book lovers, book addicts, whatever you’d like to call us. 
For those of you unfamiliar with Goodreads, here are some features that I love about this site:
It keeps a tally of the books you’ve read and reviewed as well as those of the friends you make on Goodreads.  It’s great for getting recommendations by people you’ve chosen to “friend” on Goodreads.  For instance, I could friend or follow a person who loves The Shining by Stephen King which I absolutely think is one of the best books of all time, and then I can look at that person’s profile and see what else they’ve read and liked.  Also, people recommend books to their friends and that’s helpful. 
One of the greatest features about this site is the groups section.  They have groups that are genre-focused like Paranormal mystery books, Horror books, Mystery aficionados, etc.  I love that I can peruse these forums for likeminded questions I have about the genre or books.  Some of these groups serve as online book clubs, so if you like assigned reading and sharing your thoughts with a group, this is an excellent place for you to check out.
If you’re an author, Goodreads is a wonderful opportunity for you to meet readers who enjoy the genre in which you write.  For instance, my author profile Lisa M. Logan on Goodreads can be found simply by typing in my name in the search field or my novel’s title “House ofMirrors.”  You’ll see a bio and they can even feature your Facebook and blog links on this profile page.  They also keep a tally of your reviews on Goodreads.  It’s not, however, a place where you should spam book lovers about your book.  But if you’re an author like me who also adores books and reading, you’ve found the right place at Goodreads.com.  Another note for authors who want to use Goodreads to help promote their book:  There are numerous groups of writers on goodreads.com which are specifically geared toward promoting and help one another.  I encourage both readers and writers to check out this site!

House of Mirrors now on Amazon!

House of Mirrors hits the Amazon Kindle store today.  I love a good ghost story, and that's what I set out to write when I started working on House of Mirrors years ago.  It was a project that I worked on during my lunch hour and evenings.  I hope you'll enjoy reading it, and please leave a review on Amazon if you have time.  I'd love to hear what you think.

Before and After: Cover makeover

Here's what my homemade book cover looked like before the book cover makeover:
BEFORE

AFTER

The book cover artist who created my NEW book cover is Jeanine Henning. Look her up on Twitter at @JenVinci  I'm hoping to hire her again for another book I have in the works. 

Ebook publishing sensation Hugh Howey and Kindle Select

Remember all of those rejection letters from print publishers to which you sent manuscripts? Many unpublished writers can now thumb their noses at the big NYC publishers and do it themselves through digital self-publishing.  In fact, many are making on average $10,000 a year and then there are some raking in only $500.  But the world of digital self-publishing has many new superstars in its ranks--namely Hugh Howey, 37-year-old author of a popular dystopian series "Wool."  A recent article on CNN's website reported that Howey earns on average $150,000 per month.  October 2012 he sold 20,000 copies of "Wool" in one day!  Guess what he used to get his digital publishing career started?  That's right the Kindle Select program.  I'll post more details about the Kindle Select program and how it works.

I found a book cover designer!

It didn't take long. I found a terrific book cover designer named Jeanine Henning!  I'll post an update later along with the new cover once it's completed.  There are many great book cover artists out there.  In one of my future posts, I'd love to post a list of top book cover artists for e-books.  Jeanine's work is outstanding.  You can check out her work at http://jhillustration.wordpress.com/
I'm so excited about changing my cover!

What is an ASIN number on Amazon.com Kindle Direct Publishing?

If you’d like to promote your book on your website or blog, you’ll definitely want to insert some links to your book on the Amazon.com store if that’s where it’s published.

Amazon.com won’t allow you to put their trademarks on your website or blog, but you can link to the Amazon.com page that gives the details of your book.

Use the following URLS, but replace “ASIN” with the 10-digit ASIN or Amazon Standard Identification Number that’s listed on your book’s detail page on Amazon.com.  You’ll see it near the publisher and ISBN number area.

For example, here’s how the link to my book on Amazon looks:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MJG0KI

See the number at the end?  That’s my ASIN number.  You’ll see it on the page when you go there.

For Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/dp/ASIN

For Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004LX069M

For Amazon.de
http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004LX069M

Don't use tabs for Smashwords.com ebook

I uploaded my book Death by Clogging recently on Smashwords.com and I received a message from Smashwords.com that I needed to get rid of the tab formatting in my document.  By the way, I should have read their Smashwords free style guide before doing anything.
I've learned that Smashwords.com doesn't allow tabs to be used in ebooks.  Don't panic if your novel is full of tabs created by hitting the "tab" key in Microsoft Word.  This is how you fix it in a few easy steps.
In MS Word:
Hit the "Ctrl" and "h" keys.  This will bring up the Find & Replace box.  You can also do this by going to the "Edit" dropdown menu and clicking "Replace"
Now in the find box type "^t" without the quotatation marks.
In the replace box type nothing.  Just leave it blank.
Click "Ok"
Voila!  Your .doc is rid of tab formatting and is ready to be uploaded.

Death by Clogging can be found on Smashwords.com at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/91641
Death by Clogging can be found on Kindle at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MJG0KI

Conversion complete!

Okay, finally I figured it out.  I didn't have to use Mobipocket Creator to do it either.  I pasted my short story collection into a brand new Microsoft Word document.  I made sure the font was 12 Times & Romans, and I placed page breaks after each section that I wanted separated.  If you're doing this for a novel, you would Insert Page Break after each chapter of your book.  That wasy it makes it easy for readers to differentiate between chapters as they read your novel on Kindle. 
If you have any questions, go ahead and send it to me in the comments section.

I might try Mobipocket Creator anyway just to see if it works better.
Remember when you upload your Microsoft Word document to Kindle Direct Publishing, make sure you do NOT save it as .DOCX.  Use .DOC instead.  The .DOC is for Word 97 and .DOCX is Word 2007. 

Remember .DOCX and .PDF files do not transfer well to Kindle at all.  I've already tried both. 
Right now, .DOC is best.

Format problems when converting novel to Kindle ebook

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) allows for various formatted documents; however, some formats convert better than others.  According to KDP's page on Amazon, the best formats to use are DOC (.doc) and PRC (.prc). 
MOBI or PRC is created using the free Mobipocket Creator.  Here's the link to this software:
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/productdetailscreator.asp
I'll give it a try with my short story collectin "Death By Clogging" which I uploaded the other day to Amazon.com.  It's actually easy to upload your book to KDP, but the resulting look is what needs tweaking.
I used Portable Document Format (.PDF) and the result was irregular page breaks and inconsistent text flow.  Perhaps Mobicreator will resolve this.  I'll let you know soon!
-Lisa Logan

Getting Started with Kindle Direct Publishing

Here's the first step:  Create an Amazon.com account for Kindle Direct Publishing.
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin

Next, make sure that your novel is in a format that will conver to Amazon Kindle.  Here is a list of acceptable formats:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2GF0UFHIYG9VQ

Next, format your book for Kindle.  Here are the instructions from Kindle Direct Publishing:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2RYO17TIRUIVI

I'll go into more detail about how to format your book for Kindle once I figure it out myself.  I'm in the process of doing just that.  I'll post an update as soon as I figure it out, then we can go onto the next stage of actually publishing your book on Kindle.