How To Sell Fiction On Kindle. Marketing Your Ebook In Amazon's Ecosystem: A Guide For Kindle Publishing Authors.
Michael Alvear - 2013
I’m going to show you examples, rock solid proof, that unknown authors used the keyword phrases in this book to rank higher than superstar authors like J.A. Konrath or Barry Eisler. You can start getting visibility today because...This Book Marketing Guide Answers The Most Critical Question You Face As A Fiction Writer:What keyword phrases should I use for my novel? I’m not going to show you how to find them. I’m going to tell you what they are. This Kindle selling book is quite literally an encyclopedia of keyword phrases that buyers type into Amazon’s search engine when they try to find books in your genre. It’s your biggest challenge answered: Discoverability.Writing a Young Adult novel? Click on the “Young Adult” link in this Kindle selling book and it’ll take you to a list of keyword phrases people use to find YA books. Writing a thriller? A romance? Same thing. My team of researchers pulled the keyword phrases directly out of Amazon’s “Leading Indicators.” Special Bonus! They include Amazon’s “Relative Importance” ranking, which shows you which keyword phrases are more likely to lead to a sale. Get excited! This is your ticket to huge sales! Inside This Kindle Publishing Guide You Will Find The Most Effective Keyword Phrases For Books In: • Romance- Christian- Contemporary- Fantasy & Futuristic- Historical Romance- Paranormal- Romantic Suspense- Time Travel- Vampires- Westerns • Fantasy- Alternative History- Contemporary- Dark Fantasy- Epic- Historical- Paranormal- Urban • Mystery & Thrillers- Crime- Mystery- Police Procedurals- Thrillers• Horror- Dark Fantasies- Occult- Ghosts• And...- Science Fiction- Action Adventure- Contemporary Fiction- Erotica- Literary Fiction- Historical Fiction- Christian Fiction- Gay & Lesbian- Medical- Men’s Adventure- Sea Adventures- Sports- War How To Sell More Books On Amazon, Part Two. Every book buyer goes through nine decision points on their way to a purchase. Will they click on your cover? Read your book description? Click on “Look Inside? Wince at your price? Read your reviews? I’m going to show you how you can influence each of the nine decision points so they result in a sale. This includes how to:• Come up with clever, must-click titles.• Create mesmerizing covers.• Write a book description that ignites click lust. • Use HTML to format your book description.• Use the “look inside!” Feature to clinch the sale.• Set the right price for your book.• Get reviews that jump-starts sales.About Michael AlvearWhen I published my first books on Kindle, I’d check my anemic sales and let out a string of cuss words that made my dog blush. Then I developed my Attract•Engage•Convert strategy and sales took off.
Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
Mignon Fogarty - 2008
Grammar Girl, is determined to wipe out bad grammar—but she's also determined to make the process as painless as possible. A couple of years ago, she created a weekly podcast to tackle some of the most common mistakes people make while communicating. The podcasts have now been downloaded more than twenty million times, and Mignon has dispensed grammar tips on Oprah and appeared on the pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.Written with the wit, warmth, and accessibility that the podcasts are known for, Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing covers the grammar rules and word-choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers. From "between vs. among" and "although vs. while" to comma splices and misplaced modifiers, Mignon offers memory tricks and clear explanations that will help readers recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules. Chock-full of tips on style, business writing, and effective e-mailing, Grammar Girl's print debut deserves a spot on every communicator's desk.
The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile
Noah Lukeman - 2000
If an editor or agent (or reader) loses interest after a page or two, you've lost him or her completely, even if the middle of your novel is brilliant and the ending phenomenal. Noah Lukeman, an agent in Manhattan, has taken this advice and created a book that examines just what this means, and I have to tell you, it's one of the best I've read. I've written (and seen published) pretty close to a dozen novels in as many years -- some are still to be published and will be out shortly; others are already out of print after four years. But I wish I had read Lukeman's book, The First Five Pages, when I began writing fiction. I'm glad I did now. It has helped, immediately. I'm already embarrassed about some of the goofs I made in my writing -- and I've been revising recent prose with his advice in mind. First off, Lukeman is a literary agent who once was an editor, and his editorial eye is sharp. If every novelist and short story writer in this country had Lukeman as an editor, we'd have a lot more readable prose out there. He writes: Many writers spend the majority of their time devising their plot. What they don't seem to understand is that if their execution -- if their prose -- isn't up to par, their plot may not even be considered.This bears repeating, because in all the books I've read on writing, this is an element that is most often forgotten in the rush to come up with snappy ideas and sharp plot progressions. You can always send a hero on a journey, after all, but if no reader wants to follow him, you've wasted your time. In a tone that can be a bit professorial at times, Lukeman brings what prose is -- and how it reads to others -- into sharp focus. He deals with dialogue, style, and, most importantly, sound. Sound. How does prose sound? It must have rhythm, its own kind of music, in order to draw the reader into the fictive dream. Lukeman's tips and pointers are genuinely helpful, and even important with regard to the sound of the prose itself. Lukeman also brings in on-target exercises for writers of prose and the wonderful advice for novelists to read poetry -- and often. Those first five pages are crucial, for all concerned. But forget the editor and agent and reader. They are important for you, the writer, because they determine the sharpness of your focus, the completeness of your vision, the confidence you, as a writer, need to plunge into a three- or four- or five-hundred-page story. The First Five Pages should be on every writer's shelf. This is the real thing.P#151;Douglas Clegg Douglas Clegg is the author of numerous novels and stories, including The Halloween Man and the collection The Nightmare Chronicles. In addition, Clegg is the author of the world's first publisher-sponsored Internet email novel, Naomi.
Getting Started as a Freelance Writer
Robert W. Bly - 2005
The book is useful to writers, at every stage of their career.
Untitled
Blaine Hogan - 2011
The blank page.It has so much power.Some days it's terrifying, sometimes thrilling, but mostly it's just plain old scary.It is the reason many people never finish that novel, or complete that project, or follow through with that one thing they used to dream about.Sadly, it is the reason many people never even begin.Blaine Hogan's manifesto, UNTITLED: Thoughts on the Creative Process is here to change all that.As an artist who has designed t-shirts, made light fixtures, created performance art in alleyways, performed on big and small stages all across the country, acted on network television, and is now a creative director at one of the largest churches in North America, Blaine walks you through the creative process of attacking the blank page, executing vision, finding the importance of contemplation, fighting the battle with resistance, and learning from your failures.Blank pages be gone!Read UNTITLED and get ready to fill those suckers with good and meaningful work.
Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives
Tim Harford - 2016
His liberating message: you'll be more successful if you stop struggling so hard to plan or control your success. Messy is a deeply researched, endlessly eye-opening adventure in the life-changing magic of not tidying up' Oliver BurkemanThe urge to tidiness seems to be rooted deep in the human psyche. Many of us feel threatened by anything that is vague, unplanned, scattered around or hard to describe. We find comfort in having a script to rely on, a system to follow, in being able to categorise and file away.We all benefit from tidy organisation - up to a point. A large library needs a reference system. Global trade needs the shipping container. Scientific collaboration needs measurement units. But the forces of tidiness have marched too far. Corporate middle managers and government bureaucrats have long tended to insist that everything must have a label, a number and a logical place in a logical system. Now that they are armed with computers and serial numbers, there is little to hold this tidy-mindedness in check. It's even spilling into our personal lives, as we corral our children into sanitised play areas or entrust our quest for love to the soulless algorithms of dating websites. Order is imposed when chaos would be more productive. Or if not chaos, then . . . messiness.The trouble with tidiness is that, in excess, it becomes rigid, fragile and sterile. In Messy, Tim Harford reveals how qualities we value more than ever - responsiveness, resilience and creativity - simply cannot be disentangled from the messy soil that produces them. This, then, is a book about the benefits of being messy: messy in our private lives; messy in the office, with piles of paper on the desk and unread spreadsheets; messy in the recording studio, the laboratory or in preparing for an important presentation; and messy in our approach to business, politics and economics, leaving things vague, diverse and uncomfortably made-up-on-the-spot. It's time to rediscover the benefits of a little mess.
For Love or Money
Susan Kaye Quinn - 2015
But what if the stories you love to write aren’t the kind that are selling like ice water in July? How do you create a career in writing that you both love and hits the financial success you need to justify the hours spent at the keyboard? For Love or Money talks about writing for love (and how to sell that) as well as writing for money (and how to love it). It contains serious strategies about making money with your books, living the freedom of indie publishing, and stretching yourself creatively in your career. For authors willing to take a hard look at themselves and the market, this book will lay out the necessary steps to create your dream writing career. For Love or Money is meant to be used in tandem with The Indie Author Survival Guide (Second Edition), the first book in the Crafting a Self-Publishing Career series. Together, these two books will set you on a path of turning your love for storytelling into a career. **JOIN THE FOR LOVE OR MONEY FACEBOOK GROUP** Connect with your fellow self-published authors and share information about writing and publishing. Susan hosts monthly consultation giveaways and shares updates on the constantly evolving publishing landscape. JOIN HERE: http://smarturl.it/LoveOrMoneyGroup **Table of Contents** Author's Note Crafting Your Dream Writer Life 1.1 Choosing Your Mountain 1.2 Park Your Biases At The Curb 1.3 Embrace Your Freedom 1.4 My Journey 1.5 Decide For Yourself 1.6 Bite-Sized Summary Writing For Love 2.1 Writing Challenges Me 2.2 Forget About Readers 2.3 Joyful Writing 2.4 Take Your Craft Up A Level 2.5 It Will Always Be Hard 2.6 Bite-Sized Summary Turning Love Into Money 3.1 Don't Give Up Too Soon 3.2 All The Marketing Tricks 3.3 Making What You Love More Commercial 3.4 My Biggest Failure/Learning Experience 3.5 Why Isn't My Book Selling 3.6 Build Your Backlist 3.7 Bite-Sized Summary Writing For Money 4.1 Writing What Sells 4.2 What's In Your Wheelhouse 4.3 Don't Try This At Home 4.4 Bite-Sized Summary Balancing Writing And Life 5.1 Staying Sane in a Crazy (Indie Publishing) World Managing Your Career Appendix: Your Self-Publishing Toolkit
Publish on Amazon Kindle with Kindle Direct Publishing
Kindle Direct Publishing - 2010
KDP is a fast and easy self-publishing tool that lets anyone upload and format their titles for sale in the Kindle Store.
Writing Better Lyrics
Pat Pattison - 1995
Songwriters will examine 17 extraordinary songs and learn the distinct elements that make them so effective. Pattison then presents more than 30 lyric-writing exercises designed to achieve the same results. From generating lyric ideas and managing repetition to developing verses, it's all here. Songwriters will: find warm-up exercises that revolutionize songwriting imagery; use a rhyming dictionary and a thesaurus to generate ideas and find snappy rhyme; create meaningful metaphors and similes while avoiding cliches; develop verses by using or breaking conventional rules; experiment with point of view in every lyric to make a song stand out
The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know
Shawn Coyne - 2015
It's like a CT Scan that takes a photo of the global story and tells the editor or writer what is working, what is not, and what must be done to make what works better and fix what's not. The Story Grid breaks down the component parts of stories to identify the problems. And finding the problems in a story is almost as difficult as the writing of the story itself (maybe even more difficult.) The Story Grid is a tool with many applications: 1. It will tell a writer if a Story "works" or "doesn't work." 2. It pinpoints story problems but does not emotionally abuse the writer, revealing exactly where a Story (not the person creating the Story...the Story) has failed. 3. It will tell the writer the specific work necessary to fix that Story's problems. 4. It is a tool to re-envision and resuscitate a seemingly irredeemable pile of paper stuck in an attic drawer. 5. It is a tool that can inspire an original creation. Shawn Coyne is a twenty-five year book-publishing veteran. He's acquired, edited, published or represented works from James Bamford, John Brenkus, James Lee Burke, Barbara Bush, Dick Butkus, Harlan Coben, Nellie Connally, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Ben Crenshaw, Catherine Crier, Brett Favre, David Feherty, John Feinstein, Tyler Florence, Jim Gant, Col. David H. Hackworth, Jamie Harrison, Mo Hayder, William Hjortsberg, Stephen Graham Jones, Jon Krakauer, David Leadbetter, Alan Lomax, David Mamet, Troon McAllister, Robert McKee, Matthew Modine, Bill Murray, Joe Namath, John J. Nance, Jack Olsen, Scott Patterson, Steven Pressfield, Matthew Quirk, Anita Raghavan, Ian Rankin, Ruth Rendell, Jerry Rice, Giora Romm, Tim Rosaforte, William Safire, Dava Sobel, Michael Thomas, Nick Tosches, Ann Scott Tyson, Minette Walters, Betty White, Randy Wayne White, Steven White, and Don Winslow among many others. During his years as an editor at the Big Five publishing houses, as an independent publisher, as a literary agent both at a major Hollywood talent agency and as head of Genre Management Inc., and as a bestselling co-writer and ghostwriter, Coyne created a methodology called The Story Grid to teach the editing craft.
Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - 2019
Of course, he has given us glimpses in his aphorisms, short essays, articles, and speeches. But, never before has an entire book been devoted to Kurt Vonnegut, the teacher. Here is pretty much everything Vonnegut ever said or wrote having to do with the art and craft of writing - Plus - a wonderful, healing/nourishing expedition, of which McConnell has outfitted us for the journey, and in these 37 chapters, covers the waterfront of how one American writer brought himself to the pinnacle of the writing art; and the result only serves to benefit us.Kurt Vonnegut was one of the few grandmasters of American literature, whose novels continue to influence new generations about the ways in which our imaginations can help us to live. Few aspects of his contribution have not been plumbed - 14 novels, collections of his speeches, his essays, his letters, his plays - so this fresh view of him, written by a former student, is a bonanza for writers, readers, listeners and Vonnegut fans everywhere.©2019 Trust u/w of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (P)2019 Highbridge, a division of Recorded Books
Writing Monsters: How to Craft Believably Terrifying Creatures to Enhance Your Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction
Philip Athans - 2014
Monsters are lurking in the woods, beneath the waves, and within our favorite books, films, and games--and there are good reasons why they appear so often. Monsters are manifestations of our fears and symbols of our society--not to mention they're a lot of fun--but each should serve a purpose and enhance the themes and tension in your fiction. In Writing Monsters, best-selling author Philip Athans uses classic examples from books, films, and the world around us to explore what makes monsters memorable--and terrifying. You'll learn what monsters can (and should) represent in your story and how to create monsters from the ground up. Writing Monsters includes: In-depth discussions of where monsters come from, what they symbolize, and how to best portray them in fiction Informative overviews of famous monsters, archetypes, and legendary creatures A Monster Creation Form to help you create your monster from scratch An annotated version of H.P. Lovecraft's chilling story "The Unnamable" Whether you write fantasy, science fiction, or horror, your vampires, ghouls, aliens, and trolls need to be both compelling and meaningful. With Writing Monsters, you can craft creatures that will wreak havoc in your stories and haunt your readers' imaginations--and nightmares.
1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts
Ryan Andrew Kinder - 2014
I can call you friend because we've just built up a rapport with my rhetorical questions. This is a book chock full of writing prompts. These are little things that will help you along to writing some amazing stuff that spills out of your mind. You're wondering: "But what kind of prompts are they? I've seen writing prompts before, but they're all lame." That's a good thing to be wondering, friend. I've crafted and homebrewed only the finest of prompts for your pleasure. You won't be confined to any one genre, you'll find a limitless amount of prompts ranging from comedy to serious to horror. I say limitless, but I meant 1,000 prompts precisely. I said 1,000 precisely, but there's slightly more if you count the introduction. Listen, friend, I promise not to fib from this point on. The book is split into a few sections: Beginners Writing Prompts (it's a super short section, don't worry); Constrained Writing (that's where you are forced into absolutely specific criteria for the prompt); Flash Fiction (either a word count or a time count is imposed upon you); Ripper Prompts (you are given a list of items for "Random Item Prompts"); and the bulk of the book ends with basic writing prompts with which you can write as much as you please with no tricks! If you're still reading this description, allow me to tell you more uses for this book: Creative writing classes! Yes, teachers, I've done the work for you. I'll even let you lie and say the prompts were crafted in your mind. Corporate synergy teams! That's right, group building exercise makers, you can relax in your fine leather chair and state that you know just how to get the company working together. Present some of these writing prompts and you'll be a hit. Temporarily disenfranchised millionaire authors in waiting! Your hit novel is contained in one of these prompts, I'm certain of it! Use this book for scripts, for blogs, for journals, for impressing potential clients. Sorry it's not a physical book, otherwise I am sure it would make an attractive door wedge! Have I used enough exclamation marks to convince you? No? Read the free preview then and be dazzled! Section Information: Section 1: Beginners Writing Prompts (20 Prompts) Section 2: Flash Fiction Prompts (80 Prompts) Section 3: Random Items Prompts AKA Rippers (20 Prompts - List of 26 random items) Section 4: Constrained Writing (30 Prompts) Section 5: Writing Prompts (850 Prompts)
The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
Ken Robinson - 2009
When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. "The Element" draws on the stories of a wide range of people, from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons"; from Meg Ryan to Gillian Lynne, who choreographed the Broadway productions of "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera"; and from writer Arianna Huffington to renowned physicist Richard Feynman and others, including business leaders and athletes. It explores the components of this new paradigm: The diversity of intelligence, the power of imagination and creativity, and the importance of commitment to our own capabilities. With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the element and those that stifle that possibility. He shows that age and occupation are no barrier, and that once we have found our path we can help others to do so as well. "The Element" shows the vital need to enhance creativity and innovation by thinking differently about human resources and imagination. It is also an essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities to meet the challenges of living and succeeding in the twenty-first century.
Writing and Enjoying Haiku: A Hands-On Guide
Jane Reichhold - 2002
Haiku are clearly shown to be a means of discovering and recording the miracles of the world, from the humorous to the tragic. This is one of the major themes underlying Writing and Enjoying Haiku-that haiku can provide a way to a better life.After looking at why the reading and writing of haiku is important from a spiritual point of view, the book shows, as has never been done before, the techniques of writing-the when and the where, punctuation and capitalization, choice of words, figures of speech, sharing haiku, and much, much more.Having come this far, having learned to read and write haiku with a discerning mind, the reader will never again look upon the world in quite the same way.