#Triberr, #Amazon & Other Things Ellie Wants to talk about.

Last week I joined Triberr. The web based site which helps people form ‘tribes’ of like minded bloggers – making it easier to find each other and promote each other. Thanks to D’Elen McClain I was able to join a great group: Steamy Sexy Sensual Romance.

For newbies, here is my suggestions on what to do when you first join:

– If you have more than one blog, you’ll need to select ONE of your blogs to link to your account, along with one of your twitter names. (again, some writers have multiple names/blogs)- After you’ve done the sign up, BEFORE you do anything else, go to the button on the top called ‘bonfires’. That’s where people post comments as well as listings asking for ‘tribe mates’.- The whole process centers around ‘tribes’ – groups of people with similar blog categories, who cross promote each other on twitter. The easiest thing to do is find an existing tribe which has people of similar interest, etc. To do that go to bonfires.

– Once you click on bonfires you’ll notice a category list on the side. The ‘looking for tribes’ list has both people looking for a tribe AND tribes who need people. Scroll through and see if there’s anyone who is looking who you’re a good fit for. Leave a message for tribes which look like a good fit.

– AFTER you join a tribe when you click on the ‘home’ button, the blog posts which are from members of your tribe will show up as a list.

– Before you start approving posts, etc, go to your settings, under your name. Once you are on the setting page, click on ‘content’ settings. There you will see an option on *HOW OFTEN* you want the tweets from your tribe sent out. Say there are 10 posts from your tribe, you might want to space them out so you have something posting every hour. Or there are 25 posts, you might want to space them out every 30 minutes. You’ll need to decide. The default is every 20 mins, which can also keep.

Okay, back to the home button.

– When you click home, after you’ve joined a tribe, there’s a box with four sub tabs. The default is TRIBAL STREAM, this is the blog posts you’ll then tweet about.

ONE: IGNORE THE SOCIAL BUTTONS ON THE BOTTOM.
TWO: Use the gear thing on the upper right corner if you need to change the title of a post, I put RT in front of all of mine, other people handle it in other ways. Some people have really *undescriptive* titles (Six Sentence Sunday #38!) which could be from anyone, including me!, so that’s why I do the RT thing.
THREE: once the title of the post is how you want it, THEN click approve to tweet it. Also hit the thumbs up button below that.

Each tribe will have rules about how often you have to retweet the posts. Do be sure to read them!!

There are many sites and even books which go into lots on how to get the most out of the medium, I’ve just posting what I’ve learned in my first week.
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Now on to Amazon.
GINNY’S CAPTURE IS NOW ON AMAZON!! 🙂
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Other news, my blog tour is over. Still waiting to hear from KGBabbles about who won, I’ll be sure to contact the poster as soon as I hear. I also did NOT receive an email from Cupids Literary Connections. Best of luck to all those who made it past the first round! I love the site and the hostess, I’ll definitely be back for another shot.

Hmm, wonder why I’m waiting for edits. :-)

So, I’m still waiting for my edits. Not unexpected, I’ve been told Noble frequently sends them out 14 days before publication.

Plus, I know my editor is a little busy. Her release for the LvsZ line is coming out Monday.  With all the promotion authors do themselves these days, I’m thinking she’s just a *little* busy. 🙂

Her cover:

 

Happy to be patient. Or happy to *try* to be patient!

 

Reading about self e-publishing while waiting for edits

Still plugging away at my paranormal / urban fantasy novel while waiting for my edits.

Frequently getting side tracked by articles and blog posts about writers who have self published and their stories of how well they’ve done. Or not.

A year ago I would have said (and did say) self e-publishing, are you freaking kidding me? And, being an avid kindle user I can tell you, I’ve read a lot of stuff which should never have crossed over to publication, poor editing aside.

However, in the past year, self e-publishing has turned a corner. Yes, there are still plenty of vanity pieces – by that I mean ones which the author is publishing with little or no critiquing and/or editing, simply putting it out there in what might be considered a ‘rough’ or unpolished form. But there are more and more people who are putting out ‘professional’ grade stories. Ones which they’ve had an editor help them revise, a ebook formatter help them correctly set up their book for each reader, and a cover artist create a unique and high quality cover for. I’ve even seen writers who hire PR personnel to help with promotion.

In other words, they are hiring independently many of the ‘tools’ traditional publishers have in their stable for their signed authors to polish and present their writing(s).

And it seems to have paid off. From this group of independent professional authors have arisen some of the larger earners and ‘breakouts’ in the self e-published world.

This new business model has a draw back, there is definitely an up front cost to the author. Along the lines of an advance which a traditional published might pay, the author is in the red to start out and will can only recoup their money through sales. And while there are verbose authors who have followed this path and done well, I’m sure there are less verbose authors who have followed his path and are still waiting to break even. (which basically means I’ve seen/read more from the authors who have been successful than those who have not)

And, did I mention?, one side effect of the touting and success of the independent professional author route is a cottage industry of editors, formatters and cover artists has arisen. Hmm, wonder if absolute write will have a new category just for editors.

Interesting times, that’s for sure!

 

No longer waiting :BIG_GRIN:

YAHOO!

It’s official. I got a contract offer from Noble Romance Publishing for my LvsZ (that’s Lesbians vs Zombies) submission currently titled Ginny’s Capture.

To celebrate, a zombie co-ed. Not quite like in my piece, but not dissimilar either. You’ll have to read it to find out. 🙂

…still waiting…

Ah, a little birdie told me the publisher likes to batch approve (or not) stories for theme lines. So, I’m guessing the wait is due, in part, because more subs need to come in before she’ll go over what is already there, including mine. As the birdie put it, could be hours, could be a month.

I guess the good news is at least that is *still* faster than traditional paper publication venues. Seriously shorter time. Going ‘glass half full’ here. 🙂

So, more realistically, it’ll be a good week or more before I hear one way or the other. Good thing I have other irons in the fire.

Wonderful interview of Amber Green by KevaD

Great interview by KevaD of Amber Green. Love her stuff! Be sure to click on the link for the full interview.

If Amber Green wrote bistro menus, each would convey a variety of suspense and intrigue within light pastry folds of premières, quick wit.

She is the living definition of wordsmith and undoubtedly rivals the CIA in her knowledge of people, cultures, and traditions.

A born and bred Southern girl, she continues to make her home in the Deep South. Only the sun can match the size and warmth of her heart and on any day, numbers of friends and relatives can be found milling about her home enjoying her hospitality and home cooking. Most stray animals in the area wind up on her porch for a free meal, a warm bed, and a bath. She is a woman devoted to family.

Andrew Burton @Critters on trends in Ebook sales

Over at Critters Writers Workshop Andrew Burton crunches some numbers and looks at the upward trend of e-book sales.

He starts with:

I noticed in the WSJ that Stephen King says he now reads about half digitally.

This lead to a question about hard data on ebook sales, so I found that the Association of American Publishers reports ebooks are now over 9% of sales. They also present a chart showing their annual growth data from 2002, in dollars and percent of sales. It very much looks like the left/early side of a classic adoption S-curve.

Read the entire article by clicking on the Critter Workshop link.

Yet another timely article on Social Networking

From Publishers Weekly:

It’s All About the Social Network.

Quote:

Nearly 80 publishing professionals tuned in to a BISG-sponsored webcast, “Marketing ‘Books’ in a Digital World,” on Wednesday. The hour-long discussion covered a range of tactics publishers are taking to get their books into readers’ hands, but the topic that loomed largest was social networking.

Click the link to read more!

 

“Traditional” E-pub vs Self E-pub

Over at Some Write it Hot, Evanne Lorraine shares some thoughts on going the ‘traditional’ e-publishing route vs. self e-publishing.

In the full interests of disclaimers: I am always, always leery of people who *first* go the self epub route. Personally, I don’t recommend it. If your stories are continually getting rejected that’s usually a sign your writing still needs work. I say ‘stories’ because I simply can’t imagine some jumping on the self epub band wagon based on one story’s rejection, that, to me is the height of self delusion.

Obviously there will be exceptions to any rule,  but for the vast majority of writers, unfortunately the harsh truth is they are getting rejected because their writing is not of the caliber they think it is.

That said, I am far less leery of someone who has run the gauntlet of getting pubbed, particularly if they are multi-book pubbed, going the self epub route. As Evanne says, there types and genres of stories which epubs look for and when you have something which cannot be conveniently slotted, well, you are stuck.

I hope her venture into self e-publishing goes well.  A Scarlet Past, is scheduled for release this November direct to Kindle via Amazon’s digital platform. I’m certain she’ll update us!
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