First, the most obvious benefit of a $2.99 list price falls in the hands of the author. Kindle (KDP) allows you to earn a 70% royalty but the minimum price must be at least $2.99.

I decided to do a search on Amazon in the Kindle category for “99 cents” just to see what would come up first.  Surprisingly, it was a free book called Falling Star by Diana Dempsey, normally priced at 99 cents but currently free probably from a KDP promo. It has 146 reviews and was published in paperback and mass market by Onyx in 2002. The author is listed as the publisher of the Kindle version (2011). It currently ranks #7 in Contemporary fiction as of this post. But I also discovered “99 cents” and “99 cents kindle” in its tags on Amazon.

My search was followed by two more 99 cent books, a $2.99 book – also tagged with “99 cents,” two more 99 cents titles, and then a $3.99 priced book – surprisingly not tagged “99 cents.” An array of other 99 cents titles finished out the first two pages of the search, some tagged with 99 cents and some not.

When I searched “$2.99,” the first four books that came up in the search were priced accordingly. None of them were titles published this year.  The first three were not even on any best seller lists. The fourth was #35 in Contemporary Romance. The fifth was…you guess it…priced at 99 cents, but also not on any bestseller list, and not even tagged 99 cents.

You can probably chalk most of this up to the random beauty of Amazon.com’s highly stylized search function.  I could probably perform the same searches tomorrow and discover completely different books.  But this is also the beauty of Amazon searching anyway.  Each search is unique and different, catering to your preferences based on your previous searches, likes, reviews, and even your purchases.  Yep, Big Brother Amazon is watching, and collecting your information too.  But even a Google search for an image to use with this post retrieved several Ebook pics and posts as well.

So, should indie authors consider pricing their books at 99 cents to gain readership?  Based on my findings so far, I’d say probably not.  I got bored of viewing my 99 cent search after just about the first two or three pages because every cover looked like something that was either a mystery, a romance, or something put out through Publish America. Let’s just say clip art websites are really profiting from these titles, not the authors!  As a shopper, while I can appreciate how far a buck can go, I’m still willing to pay more for a good quality buck.  I paid $11.99 for a new release Ebook earlier this week – which was more than the discounted paperback, but I would have paid more than the Ebook price after shipping.

I say don’t sell yourself short. Don’t be afraid of pricing your Ebook at at least $2.99 so you can at least benefit from the 70% royalty. If you are exclusive to Amazon in order to meet their KDP lending guidelines, then don’t be afraid of a $3.99 or $4.99 price. Since Kindle allows you to change your price practically overnight, don’t be afraid to adjust your price to coincide with marketing specials.  Run a big campaign on your blog, Facebook, and Twitter announcing that your book will be available for 99 cents for just one day. Don’t forget to use appropriate hash tags on Twitter while doing so.  Record your sales before and during the campaign to see how well it worked.  And don’t forget to change your price back once the campaign is over.

If you are Kindle exclusive, don’t forget you have 5 days in which you can run a FREE promotion for your book every 90 days. I have had much success utilizing this feature by running 1 or 2 free promo days at a time.  My latest book maintains a Kindle price of $2.99 and I received 80+ firm sales after the promo wrapped up. At a 70% royalty for those sales, I ended up with a nice little bank by the end of the month that I was quite proud of.

My point here is you shouldn’t rely on bargain pricing to sell your book for you.  If pricing is a quality issue to readers out there, don’t be afraid of raising your Ebook price a few bucks.  Give yourself plenty of room to fluctuate if needed, and be proactive about it. Save the 99 cent option for special marketing days only which you should promote aggressively. And if you are KDP exclusive, don’t spend all of your 5 promo days at once. Break them up, record and study the results, and again, promote aggressively.

Hi Gabriella! Start by telling us about Edit For Indies.

Edit for Indies (http://editforindies.com) is my freelance editing business, launched last year, and aimed especially at indie authors who intend to put their books on Smashwords and Kindle. (I’m a self-pubbed indie author myself!)

What services do you offer?

I offer polished, thorough copyediting/proofreading services with a fast turnaround (within 10 days).

What can an author expect when they get their manuscript back from you?

They can expect to see my corrections in Microsoft Word’s Track Changes, and there will probably be many more corrections per page than they think! I will be fixing grammatical errors, issues with dialogue, and typographical errors. I want authors to feel they’re in good hands when they send their manuscripts to me, so I try to maintain consistency in the ms.

How should an author format their manuscript before sending it to you?

Just formatted as a Microsoft Word doc with double-spaced Times Roman 12 font is fine.

Is there any type of manuscript or any genre that you will not edit?

I’ve never had to turn one down yet, but an excessively violent serial-killer mystery would be a turn-off, or a pseudo-Incest book. I’m very open to erotica and fantasy, as well as books by queer/women authors.

I don’t content-edit, though, so if someone needs help with major plot changes or character development, I’m not the person to pick.

What kind of payment methods do you accept and does the author need to pay the whole balance up front?

I actually invoice by PayPal when I complete the manuscript, so the author can wait to see what I’ve done before sending payment.

What are your qualifications?

I have a BA in English and an MA in Creative Writing. I’ve been a freelance editor in Northern California for almost 10 years now; I’ve proofread copy at alternative weeklies like S.F. Weekly, the Pacific Sun, and Metro Newspapers and I’ve worked on books for publishers like New World Library and No Starch Press.

What are some common mistakes you see over and over again in indie manuscripts?

Sometimes a character’s name is wrong in the text, and I’m happy when I catch those. It’s very common to find errors in formatting titles, like not italicizing names of movies, books, or newspapers. I find quoted speech can be tricky for writers, too–double quotes, single quotes, when to capitalize parts of speech. That kind of thing And of course there are the homophones like bear/bare, waist/waste, etc. Or serial commas, whether to use them or not. It’s not that indie authors are any sloppier than “traditional” authors, I hasten to add. In fact, I really enjoy the diversity of material in indie authors’ manuscripts.

Any advice for authors seeking editorial services?

I’d advise any author to go with someone who will not charge him/her an arm and a leg, but who is not cut-rate, either. It can seem tempting to pay someone $100, but that really isn’t worth it. Keep in mind that most manuscripts take at least 15 hours to edit. I personally don’t think it should cost over $500 per ms., though, unless there is some really serious content editing going on. Bottom line: I’m lucky to have found clients so far who don’t view my editorial changes in a defensive way and seem pleased with my work and pricing, and grateful when I return the ms to them.

Contact Gabriella or visit Edit for Indies at their website, or follow them on Twitter!

I’m not talking about authors writing to fulfill the need in a genre, or to satisfy the popularity of what’s driving the market in hopes of getting attention and gaining sales. Case in point: How many vampire or werewolf books have been self published ever since Twilight first came out?

Take into consideration Amazon’s KDP Select program that went into effect in December. Amazon dedicated $6 million dollars to the program for 2012, enticing authors to make their books available to Prime Members in the Lending Library which allows those members to check out books for free each month.  Obviously, authors gained no commission from the lending of their books prior to this, which meant authors probably weren’t making their books available.

But, with the Select program, money allotted to each month is divided up by how many ever books were lent that month.  December’s pot was $500,000 which equated to $1.70 in commission every time your book was lent.  Yep, do the math and that’s just over 294,000 books that were lent. The program was apparently so popular that Amazon increased January’s pot to $700,000. February was announced a few days ago as being $600,000.

So, readers enjoy the perks of their Prime membership by having a large array of free books to choose from, and authors benefit by still earning some amount of commission from those free downloads. Everybody’s happy!

Amazon also threw in another perk for authors by giving them the option to promote their book by making it available to everyone – not just Prime members - for free for up to 5 days.  Within a 90 day time period, you can divide up the days however you like or run all 5 days consecutively.

I decided to take advantage of the 5 day free promotion with my second book, Stealing Wishes, by making it free from January 29th to February 2nd. Regular visitors to LLBR might remember this is the book I chronicled in my POD Diary back in 2009. The book was a semi-finalist in the very first Amazon ABNA contest in 2008 and also a semi-finalist for a Lambda Literary award in 2009.

While the book has enjoyed very minor success, I still see a handful of sales each month at the current Kindle price of $2.99.  It had earned 14 reviews at Amazon, but with the last one being posted 14 months ago, prior to the promotion.  Since it was the one book of my three with the most reviews,  it was an easy choice for the 5 day promo.  It’s also been labeled a “light romantic comedy” so I thought kicking off February with the promotion would be a nice touch.

Last week, I decided to visit the Amazon Forums in hopes of doing some light promotion and to spark interest in the book.  I first started participating in the forums in 2008 because the ABNA contest was very forum driven (and it still is), and it’s a nice way to connect with authors and readers.  Over the years, as the forums grew in various subjects, self-promotion was quickly frowned upon and Amazon created a MOA (Meet Our Authors) forum that is more open to self-promotion.

Though you have the option to opt out of following a discussion, anyone who has followed a thread in one of the forums knows that it can get pretty lively, and Amazon will email you every time someone replies.  So, unfortunately, your in-box can feel up quickly with LOL’s and smiley faces, leaving you searching for a needle in a haystack.  It often reminds me of the ole AOL chatrooms I use to troll back in the day.

While reacquainting myself with the forums and searching out the best places to plant a promo seed, I came across this forum about authors replying to one star reviews. It started from someone pointing out how author Ken Foster had replied to some of his negative reviews on his book, The Dogs Who Found Me. He apparently felt the need to defend himself against the reviewers who didn’t like the book, and he even points out some of their errors in the way they interpreted his book.

While I don’t condone Mr. Foster’s behavior, I chimed in and pointed out that I thought it was okay to comment on “good” reviews and mentioned that I had thanked reviewers for their reviews before.  A barrage of comments came in from forum followers, checking my facts by looking up my own books, who mostly disagreed with me and even said “authors should keep their mouths shut” and that “reviews were for readers.”  While I quickly stumbled to the old windmill to avoid the angry mob, I bowed out and immediately stopped following the forum.

Later this same day, I received an email from a fellow author who had just finished reading my 3rd book.  She asked if I was okay with her posting a review of it at Amazon.  She then pointed out that she only asked this because apparently “review swapping” amongst authors was frowned upon in the forums and would get you a lynching for sure! I told her I didn’t care what the forums said and if she wanted to post a review of my book at Amazon, I’d be happy to have it.  In the meantime, this just added more fuel to my fire which is the main reason I’m writing this post. But more about that later.

Two days later, Stealing Wishes goes Free on Kindle as planned. I sent out some Tweets and some Facebook posts.  I announced it on my author website,  and that was about it for day one. To my surprise, the book was downloaded over 400 times just the first day! Mostly thanks to a website called Kinlib.com that I had never heard of before. According to the forums, it’s a website that automatically highlights all the Kindle freebies each day.  I checked it, and indeed my book was there.  (Authors, no need to worry about getting your book on Kinlib if you do the free promotion – it should happen automatically.)

But I had not given up on those forums just yet.  With a quick search I found the MOA forums where self-promotion smoking was allowed. I put on my kids’ mittens and replied to a few, specifically this one about the KDP Free Promotion where other authors were sharing their success stories.  This led me to another forum devoted each day to FREE books that become available on that day.  After a bit of friendly post swapping with a few folks, I ended Monday with downloads almost doubled from the first day.

I decided to keep quiet on Day 3 (the day I’m actually writing most of this article.) but downloads still reached 957 in the U.S.  and I picked up almost another 79 downloads from the UK and Amazon’s other international sites. I started Day 4 by checking out the UK Forums, the only international site with forums available.  I posted in a couple of the MOA discussions there and then returned to the U.S. forums to hit a few of the MOA forums again to remind readers they still had two days left to get my book for free.  Let’s not forget Tweets and Facebook posts again.

I also greeted Day 4 with 2 new reviews.  Both were brief. One was a 5 star and the other was a 3 star.  I frowned at first at the 3 star review, but the more I thought about it, I was happy to even get it.  It meant that people were actually reading my book and not just being one of those free loaders filling up their Kindle device with freebies they will probably never get around to reading.

On Day 4, my author friend that I mentioned earlier also emailed to inform me she’d posted her review over at Amazon of my 3rd book. She mentioned that she too once liked to say thanks to reviewers, but the angry mobsters forced her to delete her thank you notes and choose never to do it again.  Another poster also didn’t approve of a self-promotion post she made about her first book, but chose to review it anyway and gave her a somewhat negative review.  The same poster went on to review her second book and made personal, somewhat attacking, comments about her and even questioned her expertise on the subject matter of her book (of which she had 20 years experience)!

I was honestly appalled by this!  Would a forum ogre really buy and read your book and purposely give you a negative review just because they disapproved of a comment you made in the forums to promote your book? Apparently there are such vindictive minds out there! And they stalk you, waiting on your next book, just so they can attack again.

But as Day 4 came to a close for me, I had only 1 dismal download in the UK despite a few last minute plees I posted in the (proper) forums.  I hit the forums again early on Day 5 announcing that it was the last day.  Tweeted it. Facebooked it. And quickly saw my downloads rise above 50 in the U.S. with only a handful in the UK.  And my 3 star review that I mentioned earlier mysteriously disappeared, but not before I noticed three people had “disliked” it and marked it as not helpful. I’m not pointing fingers here, but it wasn’t me.

Going back to the subject of authors keeping their mouths shut, I really thought that forum comment was a bit harsh. Would you not ogle at the chance to meet your favorite best selling author face to face?  Let’s say Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer, J.K. Rowling…just to name a few.  And what if, as you stood there getting a copy of their latest book signed while clamoring over yourself with slobber and admiration, they simply looked at you with a cold eye (two cold eyes even) and never said a word – all because they knew you were the one behind the forum comment that said authors should shut up?

Sure, if you don’t want us playing Big Brother by commenting on your reviews, that’s fine.  I can respect that. There are plenty of other opportunities for me to thank my readers and reviewers by tweeting about it or posting it on my own website.  I’m guilty of that and will continue to do it off in my own little authordom. But don’t expect me to “like” your comments over on Facebook when you post how much you liked the book.  Like, like, like…look at me and like what I’m doing, like what I’m reading, like me!  Oh, and don’t even think we are going to be friends on Facebook! N’uh! And if you comment on a post on my website, don’t be surprised if I don’t approve it.  How do you like them apples now you, you, you forum muggle!

As for Day 5 of my Free Promo, I tweeted.  I Facebooked.  I hit just a few forums on Amazon for a last call.  And it paid off.  I got 117 downloads in the U.S. on the last day, and 7 in the U.K.  And even though that 3 star review disappeared, another 4 star review was posted on the last day.  So, 2 new reviews during the 5 day promo! And that brings my grand total of downloads over the 5 free days to 1,074 in the U.S. and 86 in the U.K. and other international Amazon sites.  More than I would have ever imagined, so I would call this promotion a success!

What do I hope to gain from it now?  Well, here’s hoping all the free loaders might read and review the book.  I’d love to gain just even another 3 reviews, maybe even a new review in the U.K. But most of all, I’d love for sales of my other 2 books to pick up.  But if not, I’m still already contemplating another free promo later in the year for one of them.

As for the forum fodder and angry authors and no thank you notes on reviews… Readers, you need authors to write more books!  Authors, we need readers to buy them! Can’t we all just get along?

Last week, I posted an inquiry on Facebook asking other authors if they knew yet how much our books were worth for the first month of Amazon’s new lending library fund.  I expected to get a bunch of “Duh!” comments, but thankfully didn’t get a one.  I guess no one else knew either, or they were avoiding the chance to shame me and just didn’t answer.

For those that don’t know, as an incentive to get you to make your books available for free on Kindle so that they can be “lent” to Prime members, Amazon set up a fund which sets aside so much money per month to be divided up by how many books were lent that month.  December’s fund was $500,000 dollars.  $6 million is the total dedicated to this project for all of 2012.  There’s more information available about it here.

Well, Jeff Bezos or some other Amazon behind-the-scenes person must have heard my cry.  An email went out yesterday announcing the results of December:

Hello from KDP!

We are excited to share with you that the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL) is off to a great start! Customers borrowed 295,000 KDP Select titles in December alone, and with the $500,000 December fund, you have earned $1.70 per borrow.

Enrolled authors and publishers, such as yourself, on average received 26% more money in December for their KDP-Select enrolled titles on top of their royalties from paid sales for the same titles. Also, our early results show that paid sales of enrolled titles are growing even faster than other KDP titles.

After reading this, of course, I immediately went to my dashboard to see how many times my books had been borrowed, did the math, and figured out how much I had earned total for December. Not too shabby!  Then the email went on to say this:

It gets better – because of the popularity of KOLL, fueled by seasonal use of new Kindles, and your strong participation in KDP Select to date, we are adding a $200,000 bonus to the January fund, raising the total from $500,000 to $700,000! See the press release for this here:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1647593&highlight

As a reminder, your KDP Select December royalty information will be available on your December royalty report in mid-January.

That’s right!  They raised the fund total for January!

I usually have a pretty good idea of how much I’m making per month by Kindle sales.  I check my dashboard almost everyday and record each week’s total on my calendar.  I wish there was something on the dashboard showing us a daily total of what our “lending” titles are worth, like a large jackpot sign representing that month’s fund that constantly changes with each book lent.  Somehow, I don’t see that happening.  Unless, of course… Mr. Bezos, sir, are you out there reading this?

This information was collected from Amazon’s website, and is offered to help review the new Kindle Fire.

Connectivity: Wi-Fi Supports public and private Wi-Fi networks or hotspots that use 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, or enterprise networks with support for WEP, WPA and WPA2 security using password authentication; does not support connecting to ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) Wi-Fi networks.

Content: 18 million movies, TV shows, apps, games, songs, books, newspapers, audiobooks, magazines, and docs.

System Requirements: None, because it’s wireless and doesn’t require a computer.

Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8.

Web: Amazon Silk cloud-accelerated browser

Display: 7″ multi-touch display with IPS (in-plane switching) technology and anti-reflective treatment, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors.

Battery Life: 8 hours continuous reading or 7.5 hours video playback

Charge Time: Fully charges in approximately 4 hours via included U.S. power adapter. Also supports charging from your computer via USB.

Storage: 8GB on device for 80 apps plus either 10 movies or 800 songs or 6000 books. Plus free cloud storage for all Amazon content so you never have to worry about running out of space.

Dimensions: 7” x 4.7” x 0.45”

Weight: 14.6 ounces

Interface: multi-touch

USB Port: USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)

Audio: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, top-mounted stereo speakers.

Amazon Prime: Amazon Prime is an annual membership program that offers customers unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items, instant streaming of more than 10,000 movies and TV shows and access to borrow a Kindle book every month, including New York Times Bestsellers, with no due dates — all for just $79 a year. Eligible customers who purchase a Kindle Fire will be given a free month of Amazon Prime.

I received the Kindle Fire in the mail a couple of days ago and have been playing with it ever since. This is the first tablet that I’ve ever owned; my previous Ereader was the second edition Kindle. There was nothing wrong with current Ereader, but there were some features that the Fire owned that I could greatly benefit from. So I took the leap in technology and decided to upgrade. I’ll go through each aspect of the Fire in order from the list above that was provided from amazon.

Connectivity: The Fire fell a little short in this areaL. Amazon has dropped the 3G capability on the Fire, and only allows Wi-Fi connectivity. I understand why they did this. Wi-Fi is faster than 3G, and with their new Cloud storage, it gives you the ability to stream items from their internet-based storage. By eliminating the 3G, they also eliminated any problems of TV and movies that were streamed having poor quality, choppy reception, or frozen vids. I think that they have room for improvement here. Mainly, I believe that they could bring back the 3G, but make the items that they are worried about unavailable on the 3G network. This would enable the customer to continue to shop, browse the internet, and access apps while away from home or hotspots.

Content: There is more than enough content to keep anyone entertained and busy for hours on endJ. I will mainly use the Fire to read Ebooks, and that feature works great. I have downloaded one movie and the quality is awesome. Also I have fiddled with a few of the apps, which just like everything else, the apps are endless. I already used the Cloud for my music downloads before I purchased the Fire, so all of my music was already accessible as soon as the Fire was set up with my account information. Then there is the ability to read all kinds of docs, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

System Requirements: Amazon claims that the Fire does not require a computer. I’m sure that would be true if you didn’t need to transfer documents over to it. There is a small catch with this. Make sure that the Fire is powered on before plugging it into your computer, or your computer will not think that it exists. Also, you’re going to have to purchase the cord that connects it to your computer (not includedL).

Content Formats Supported: It speaks for itselfJ: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8. This is just awesome, and it is the #1 reason that I decided to upgrade. The ability for the Fire to read all of these documents is phenomenal for me. I write reviews, and sometimes an author doesn’t have their book available for sell yet, but they have it as a PDF or DOC. I want to read their book, but now I’m forced to sit in front of my computer to read it, and that is only when I have time. Being able to read these documents on the go now makes me give the Fire a huge thumbs up. I transferred two books that I received as PDFs, and I was really impressed. They opened and interacted no differently than any of my purchased Kindle Ebooks. This is something that I am very happy with, and also something that some of the other tablets need to work on from what I hear.

Web: Amazon invented their own web browser call the Amazon Silk cloud-accelerated browser. Although they say that it is accelerated, I really didn’t see much difference between it, and Google Chrome, which is what I use on my home computer. There is nothing wrong with it, but it is a slight disappointment after being told that it’s accelerated. It works… it’s a web browser… I’m happy with itJ.

Display: Amazon had to let go of their claim being able to read their products in the sun. The consumer wanted a touch screen LCD, and that is what they gotJ. I read some online complaints that the reaction time is slow, but personally I have not had any problems. I did buy an antiglare screen protector for it though.

Battery Life and Charge Time: My previous Ereader had a very long battery life, the Fire is only 8 hours. That is mainly due to all the features and the LCD screen. I’ve charged it since I’ve gotten it, and have been playing with it off and on, and I still have more than 50% of the battery left. I’ve never messed with any other tablets so I can’t really compare how much juice it sucks, but I’m impressed. I thought I would have to charge it every day. Apparently I don’t mess with it as much as I thought it would, or my perceptions of batteries are offJ.

Storage: 8GB would be puny in the way of storage for a tablet, if the Fire didn’t also come with the Cloud storage. The Cloud – for some of you that don’t know – is an unlimited online storage data base for all of your content. The Fire enables you to stream your downloads from the Cloud, and never even download it to your device, in return saving you that space for other items. You can also download your items from the Cloud to your Fire’s memory, so that you can view those items when you are not connected to a Wi-Fi network, delete them at any time to save internal storage, and download it again later if you want. The Cloud is a secure backup for all of your contentJ.

Dimensions, Weight, and Interface: The fire is actually smaller than my second generation Kindle. The screen is larger and it does weigh more, bit it fairly compact compared to some of the other tablets that I have seen. I guess it’s a matter of personal preference on screen size for the customer. I like it. Even with it in a case, it’s about the same size as a small bookJ.

USB Port: This was almost a show stopper at my houseL. If you buy a Fire, you will open the box and find the tablet, and the power cord… that’s it. My previous Kindle came with the adaptor cord and a nifty little attachment that plugged into the USB to convert it into a wall charger. People that own an iPhone (or other electronics) will know what I’m talking about. The Fire does not have this. If you plan on transferring docs to your Fire, you need to buy this cord; it is not included with it. Luckily my previous adapter worked. Also remember, that the Fire has to be powered on in order for your computer to recognize it when you plug it in.

Audio: I set up the Fire to play my favorite movie that I downloaded (Fight Club) in my kitchen, and then went about fixing supper. Here is another area that I think could use improvements. I found that over the noise that I was making, that I had to turn the volume all the way up. So in a noisy area, headphones might be recommended. Also, there are not external buttons to turn the volume up or down, you have to use the touch screen panel to adjust the volumeL.

Amazon Prime: Amazon gives you one month of Amazon Prime free for purchasing the Fire. At first glance, I want to jump all over this. The free 2-day shipping for one year on products purchased from them alone is enough to make me squeal, but on looking at it further, I’m not so sure if it would be worth it for me. For some people this may be a dream come true. With the Amazon Prime yearly package – which cost $79 year – you’re able to stream 10,000 TV shows and movies, and borrow one book a month for free. It sounded pretty tempting until I investigated further. The TV shows and movies that they offer for free are much older, and they only offer the free books from about 5,000 titles. That seems like a lot of books, but if you consider that Amazon boosts that they house millions of books, it’s really just a drop in the bucket. Free books, movies, and TV shows do nothing for me if they aren’t something that I want to watch and read. I’m sure that this is something that each person would have to investigate on their own to decide whether it is right for them. I personally would have to still have to pay for: Fight Club (movie), American Horror Story (TV episodes), and Frostbite by David Wellington (Ebook). And after looking at my purchase history, I would be cheaper paying the shipping charges on items that I purchased. Remember, the free shipping is for items purchased through Amazon, not the 3^rd party merchants that supply a lot of items that are sold on Amazon.

With all of these cool features, Amazon almost forgets to mention their Whispersync technology. This is the ability to drop what you are reading on one device, and pick up in the same spot on another. For someone like me – that has the Kindle app on my phone – this is great. I can read a book at home and take off for an appointment, find out that I’ll be sitting in a waiting room a while, pull out my phone and pick up exactly where I left off. Then when I get back home to my tablet, it is synced up to spot where I stopped on my phone.

Overall I’m impressed with the Fire, and the pros more than outweighed the cons for me. My main purpose was to use it as an Ereader, and with its ability to read all kinds of docs, it has surpassed my expectations. On the tablet side of the device, there are areas that could use some improvement. In another words – I don’t regret spending the money on it, and I hope that it serves its purpose well over the years, just as my old second generation Kindle has.

• 12 voters (55%) said they post reviews at Amazon, B&N, GoodReads, and other blogs.
• 5 voters (23%) said they post at Amazon.com only.
• 2 voters (9%) said they post at book blogs and their own personal site only.
• 2 voters (9%) said they post at GoodReads.com only.
• 1 voter said they do not post reviews at all.

Since this is a review site that supports indie authors, I can pretty much guess that the 11 voters who join me in cross posting reviews across the board are more than likely authors themselves.  I certainly wasn’t shocked to find “Amazon only” in second place.  I used to be one of those Amazon only reviewers myself.  Now, I post to Amazon, LLBR, GoodReads, and often my own personal site depending on the book. I do not post to B&N.

Why the reason for this poll anyway, you ask?

I was recently reviewing my book reviews over at Amazon.com for all three of my books, balancing out how many came from people I know vs. people I don’t know vs. reviews I solicited vs. blind reviews I didn’t expect at all.  Sounds fun, doesn’t it? Eh, it’s what indie authors do sometimes. Here’s a breakdown by book for those interested:

My 2nd book Stealing Wishes has the most reviews at 14.  Nine of those came from people I know (mostly fellow authors or from online), only one of which I’ve actually met in person. The latest review was posted November 2010.

My latest book, Are You Sitting Down?, has 7 reviews.  Six of those came from people I know, and again, only one of which I’ve actually met in person. Its latest review was posted October 7th, 2011. Before that, July 21st was the latest review.

My first book, The Other Side of What, also has 7 reviews. Five of those are people I know, and out of that two are reviewers I’ve actually met in person. Its latest review was posted October 11, 2011. Before that, July 2010 was the latest.

Going back to Stealing Wishes which has not had one review posted for it this year, I’ve sold 55 ebook copies of it via Kindle this year.  The most were in January with 12 sold and then 10 sold in May. But not one review posted! And that’s the main purpose for writing this article.  I have pretty much come to the conclusion that Kindle users don’t post reviews.

And it completely makes sense.  Have you ever used the key pad on a Kindle? Typing out a review wouldn’t be very easy, and would be very time consuming.  While I myself use the Kindle app on an iPad, I still return to the keyboard and desktop to write my reviews.  I think its safe to assume that most other ebook readers do not.

With 5% of our poll voters posting at Amazon only, you’d think that a sale of 55 ebooks over the course of 10 months would earn at least 3 reviews perhaps?  But nope.  Not a one. I am taking into consideration that maybe some of those buyers haven’t read my book yet, but I’d like to think that the majority have read it.  Or maybe all 55 buyers read the book, hated it, and are just sparing me the humiliation of a bad review?  I hope not!  Although I do tend not to post reviews of books which I’d rate two stars or less.

But still the question of “Why no reviews?” goes unanswered.

I decided to explore other “review avenues” to see if the voters hold true, mainly B&N.com and GoodReads.com. At GoodReads my first book, The Other Side of What, has only one review which was cross posted to Amazon. Stealing Wishes has three reviews, and all three were cross posted to Amazon. And lastly, Are You Sitting Down? has 9 reviews (2 more than at Amazon) and of those, six of them are cross posted to Amazon.  I’d like to point out that 3 of the reviews on GoodReads came from winners of a giveaway I held on the site in which I gave away 10 copies of the book. 900 people entered the give away, and of that, 158 people added the book to their to-read list. Of the 10 I gave away, I earned just the 3 reviews and not one of those is cross posted to Amazon.

Over at B&N.com, my first book has no reviews. Stealing Wishes has three reviews – and of those three all of them are also cross posted to Amazon and GoodReads. Are You Sitting Down? has only one review and that one is cross posted to Amazon only.  I have never really cared much about the number of reviews I have at B&N.com.  I don’t shop there, and the reviews I do have there were posted out of the kindness of the readers.

Now, I know what you are thinking.  People probably just don’t review indie books or lesser known titles, right?  That could be true.  And at 55 ebook copies sold on Kindle alone to date in 2011, I should be content with the number of reviews I do have and just move along.

Well, let’s have some fun by taking a look at the Number 1 best selling English language novel of the 21st century just to put this into some perspective.  That book being The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. According to Wikipedia, it sold 80 million copies as of 2009. Not taking into consideration that I’m sure it has sold a few more million in the past two years, as of me writing this article The Da Vinci Code has 4,009 reviews on Amazon and 3,336 on B&N.  Yep. Quite a bit.

Again, not considering any number of sales from the past two years, given its 80 million copy status as of 2009 and the current number of reviews on both sites, that means 1 review was posted for every 19,955 in sales at Amazon and 1 review for every 23,980 in sales at B&N. Since we know that it has definitely sold more since 2009, those averages are realistically quite bigger.

Now, going back to my 2nd book, Stealing Wishes, with its 14 reviews at Amazon, if we do the same math (although I have not gotten any reviews this year) with the 55 ebook sales, I’ve averaged 1 review per almost every 4 sales.

So, what have I learned from this? I need to write a book more like Dan Brown.  Sure, more sales = more reviews. That’s obvious. And while reviews might help sales, they aren’t always a direct indicator of how well a book is selling.

Reviews are also somewhat of a privilege and authors indeed have to work for them.  Thanks to the Ereader popularity, like Kindle, we might be able to earn more readers but that doesn’t always mean we can get them to review us.  And while Amazon is the industry standard of places we’d like to see reviews posted, we shouldn’t forget about all the other places (B&N, GoodReads, LLBR, etc.) where reviews can be found too.

A follow up to this argument may be, “Are reviews helpful to readers or do they even read them?”  I know I do, but I don’t always let them persuade my decision on whether or not I want to read a book, although I usually go straight to the one and two star reviews and read those first if there are any.

Earlier this year when LLBR reached its 3 year anniversary, I told our readers that we would be posting more reviews going forward, and we’ve done just that!  We also cross post our reviews to Amazon and other sites because we know how important they are to authors, because we are authors and we enjoy getting reviews just as much as the next guy.  I think we’ve even become a review site for authors, more so than for readers themselves. So, I close by asking for your opinion.  What’s an author gotta do to get a review around here?

Over at Amazon it’s advertised as providing “web, movies, apps, games, reading, and more.” Notice “reading” is last on that list.

Here’s a bigger breakdown of its features:

• Stunning Color Touchscreen
• Magazines in Rich Color
• 100,000 Movies and TV Shows
• Fast Dual-Core Processor
• Your Favorite Apps and Games
• Ultra Fast Web Browsing (Amazon Silk?)
• Millions of Books
• Free Cloud Storage
• Your Favorite Children’s Books
• 17 Million Songs
• Easy to Hold in One Hand
• Extra Durable Display
• Email
• Amazon Whispersync
• Free Month of Amazon Prime (um, would there even be a shipping charge if you are buying apps and ebooks?)
• Read Your Documents

Obviously, its a given that Angry Birds stands to make a fortune off this thing.  And it’s probably safe to say as the ereader in general gets better and better, we tend to stop using it for what it was intended for – ereading!  I know from experience.  I have the Kindle app and iBooks on my iPad but am easily distracted by all my other apps as notifications pop up or I decide to just check in at Facebook to see what everyone else is doing.

But, from an author’s view point, I’m glad that Kindle is constantly improving and that it’s finally going to be colorized.  I hope to see improvements to its interface in due time as well.  iBooks definitely has it beat with the look of the pages and the way they actually turn instead of Kindle’s flat document PDF style. 

And with the release of a new Kindle comes new e-buyers which will hopefully mean new “e” readers (new e-sales!) despite all the other things this Fire can do. So, here are a few simple tips to get your Kindle ebook ready for November 15th!

1. Now that Kindle will be colorized, take a look at your book’s cover again.  Is it appealing? Does it contain sharp images? Is the lettering bold and displayed clearly?
2. Consider reducing the price through the holidays.  Shoppers love bargains.  If your book is at least $2.99, you can still earn a 70% commission from sales.
3. Does your book’s page on Kindle contain proper tags to help readers find your book?  You can add tags yourself and get friends to tag as well to help increase visibility in generic searches.
4. Consider making your Table of Contents into hyperlinks that take the reader directly to each chapter. In old black and white Kindle, if you had hyperlinks they are just underlined and readers have to use the keyboard to navigate down the list of links (if they even know the links were there). Now that Kindle Fire is colorized, your hyperlinked information should appear in bright blue and can be accessed quickly with the touch of a finger. Read about hyperlinks in Ebooks here.
5. Freshen up your book description and make sure it contains no spelling or grammatical errors. Can’t think of enough to say?  Consider adding quotes from readers or reviewers and be sure to cite them. Shorter descriptions with breaks work best in the E-world.
6. If you don’t own a Kindle device, consider downloading the Kindle app to your desktop just to read your own book and get a feel for it.  This will help you with the formatting process and show you what your book looks like to readers.
7. While you are reading your book in the Kindle app, consider doing some sharing and highlighting.  This makes the book interactive and other readers can see your highlights. This will reflect in Step 8.
8. If you haven’t done it already, sign up for kindle.amazon.com.  You can interact with other readers and authors, see each other’s highlights, create reading lists, make public notes, and more. It’s like Facebook for Kindle!
9. Don’t leave it up to Amazon to sell your book!  Need I say more?  Facebook, MySpace, Twitter… you know the drill.  But also consider becoming a GoodReads author. There are lots of reviewers there who don’t always share over at Amazon.  Also consider making your book available at Smashwords.  They offer Kindle as one of their download options.
10. Get involved in the Kindle forums or Kindle Board community sites.  There’s lots of good advice out there, and lots of readers to connect with.   We are becoming an E-world, as I’ve said, so why not become a citizen and learn the language?

And what does this mean for authors, particularly those who have self-published their work only on Kindle?  Well…new readers, new exposure, and new sales we hope. But what about new reviews?

To date, my own three books have a total of 26 reviews combined.  The latest was posted 2 months ago. I’ve sold 25 books via Kindle this month, and sold a total of 78 last month. In other words, sales via Kindle have been steady so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they’ll stay that way with the release of these new models. 

However, despite the steady flow of sales via Kindle, I’m not getting any reviews.  I’ve come to accept that I just don’t think Kindle owners review books!  I wanted to write a post about this, but thought I’d do a bit of research first – starting with a poll to find out if people review books in general. 

Just check out the poll over on the right side of the site and cast your vote today!  All I want to know is if you review books you read, and if so, where do you post those reviews.  Thanks for voting!

However, not a lot of authors know about this capability or have explored it.  I recently gifted one of my own books to my iPad just to test it out.  I have recently requested books for our reviewers to be sent to their Kindles and found that some authors are not aware how to do this, so that’s the reason for today’s post.

It’s super easy.  All you need is the email address associated with the Kindle that belongs to the person you are sending it to.  Please be sure your reviewer or recipient provides you with the email address associated with their Kindle, as some people may have more than one email address.

You start by going to Amazon.com to your book’s Kindle page.  Now, look to the far right for the box pictured above.  Click on the “Gift as a Gift” button and you will be taken to a screen where you can enter the recipient’s email address along with a personal message. Enter the information, send your gift, and you are done!  It’s that easy.

The recipient receives an email from Amazon that includes a link to where they can “open their gift” and even choose which device they want it sent to.  In my case, I don’t have an actual Kindle device, but I do have the Kindle app on my iPad, Computer Desk Top, and on my Windows Phone.  I general accept the gifts to my iPad.

So, what are the benefits of gifting your book to reviewers who have a Kindle?

First, it delivers your book to them free via the way you intended it to be read.  Forwarding the PDF file these days just doesn’t cut it for me, and I’m sure other reviewers feel the same way.  Plus, it’s not super easy to convert that PDF to your reading device. Second, little effort is needed to send or to retrieve your book.  No E-reading coupons to  generate and send and then enter!

Yes, you do have to pay for the purchase.  There is no way to send it free via your Author DTP page, but the perk is you will still earn back a commission from this sale and the purchase affects your book’s sales rank. I often preached about how authors should be willing to invest in copies of their own book, mainly to be able to send to reviewers.  So, don’t be afraid of having to purchase your own book in order to gift it via Kindle.

In closing, gifting your book via Kindle is super simple and super fast and benefits both the author and the reviewer in the end!

I’d say I’ve probably only had a cell phone for a year or two.  They still don’t interest me, and I certainly don’t feel the need to trade up to a newer model every time one with more bells and whistles hits the market.  My roommate, however, changes cell phones and plans about every other week.  He likes cells.  He knows cells.  And that’s fine.

Me, however?  I know books. I read them. I write them. I review them. I got a Kindle for Christmas last year and traded up shortly after for an iPad.  And while its been a few months since I’ve read a book on my iPad (May actually), I’d still say I’m pretty tuned into the market and its a topic that holds my attention.

Recently, while riding in the car, I don’t know why but I took out my phone and downloaded the free Amazon Kindle App. I’m surprised I even had the phone with me.  Most of the time I forget to even carry it. Within minutes, I was reading one of my books which I’m going to review later this month, and I was thinking to myself, “Wow!  This is neat!  I’ll now have my ebooks with me wherever I go even when I don’t have my iPad!”  And then I thought, “Oh shit!  What have I become?”  I’m one of those people now who read books on their phone.

Sure, I still like physical books.  I LOVE physical books, especially the used Stephen King hardcovers I’ve been collecting lately and getting for free from Bookmooch.com.  That’s my stack of them in the background of the photo, behind my phone with an ebook on it, the phone that contradicts that stack of paper and cardboard behind it.  The little digital thingy that the books are cursing like they were dinosaurs raising their fist at a comet.  The neat little convenient piece of technology that I actually took into the gym with me so I could read a book while on the stationary bike.

I’m looking at those books now as I type this and yeah, I owe them an apology.  I’m sorry babies.  I still love you.  I will read you.  Some day. They are probably wondering the same thing…what have I become?

Sure, the e-generation is fun.  It’s fast.  It’s exciting.  It’s fast forward to the future.  It’s making self-published authors rich.  It’s cutting out the middle man.  It’s giving readers cheap books, and giving it to them fast and efficiently.  On the go. And yet I wonder, is this good for my eyes?  I feel like I’m reading fast, but heck, I’m only reading a fifth of a full paperback page, right?  It’ll take forever to read a book on this thing!  But at least now I can do it!

I jumped on the Kindle bandwagon right at day one.  My books are on the Nook.  They’re on Smashwords.  I’m even putting the ebooks on GoodReads if you read my post from a few days ago.  And eventually I’ll research all that Google ereader stuff too, or wait for some other author to do the homework for me.  But today? I’m reading ebooks on my cell phone.  That’s right.  Me!  The most old style, land-line, non-texting, non-cellular person there probably is at my age in this day and age.  OMG! That’s right!  I’m reading books on my phone, baby.

Where are you reading ebooks these days?  Besides the Kindle, the Nook, the Kobo, or any other tablet….tell us what you have become.