Tag Archives: Draft to Digital

Are you a New Author?

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DID YOU KNOW?


Writers Beware is one of the first websites all new authors need to read before they look for a publisher or at self-publishing. Along with this you should read ‘The Ultimate Author Checklist.’ an great PDF full of information from an excellent Marketing website.

Both websites are excellent resources for authors. Writers Beware informs and keeps us updated of things we need to be aware of. It lists Vanity Press and all the ongoing scams which are ripping us off due to writers not doing their research correctly. It is also continually updated. What a lot of writers do is Google publishing or ask in writing groups we belong to. The problem is Vanity Press know how to use SEO’s to their advantage and Writing Groups get a lot of Scammers in them or people who say they know what they’re doing when they don’t.

The Checklist is more about setting yourself up as an Author, getting social media working for you, making or paying for a website and so much more. We give this PDF out to our clients no matter how far along they are in their journey.

SEO’s (just in case you don’t know what they are.)

Search Engine Optimization. Part of this is keywords businesses use to get their sites and adverts in the top spots on Google and other types of search engines. Because it is at the top, you are more than likely to go and click on them, and they have you… unless you know the ropes of what they are offering, which is why research is important part of life.

Many of you will use your own keywords during your publishing and marketing days to help readers find and buy your books. Publisher Rocket is great for finding good Keywords for your genre. (It was formerly known as KDP Rocket.)

Costs

The first thing you need to be aware of is the cost of publishing. Many say it is FREE!  It isn’t. Uploading a manuscript and book cover to KDP and other distribution websites is generally FREE, though some do charge fees. (Ingram Spark and Lulu). All Vanity Press businesses will charge you large amounts of money. Not only that, they also charge BEFORE they do any work on your manuscript. You will also be asked to sign a contract which you need to read and understand. A lot of these contracts give them copyright of your manuscript in all types of publishing, be it eBook, paperback or hardback. Each one will cost you more money to produce. If you wish to get out of the contract, they can take ninety days or more to hand back copyright. You will need the associated paperwork to prove to distributors like KDP that the copyright has reverted back to you.

Vanity Press

The main worry about Vanity Press is they don’t do the work they promise. They don’t pay out the royalty; they charge you for storage of books they print, some expect you to buy copies in their hundreds and of course you pay for freight, which they charge more for than they should. I know of one person who did their own freight, and it came out $400 cheaper… This is why WRITERS BEWARE is a must read.

Another thing you all need to remember… When you have work done in your home, building a deck, car maintenance etc… You don’t pay them until they have finished the work. You pay AFTER the work is finished. NEVER pay a contractor in the writing world until you have approved the work they’ve done for you, unless it is a deposit, which many businesses use these days, so they don’t get scammed by clients. Sadly, this does happen and has happened to my business.

Research

Research every contractor you work with. Seek out the details you need by asking the right questions. Get to know what those questions are by reading blogs. Ask for sample edits from various editors and find which one you feel more comfortable working with. Do the same with graphic designers and illustrators for book covers and images you may wish to use. There are certain things contractors need to know to do their job correctly.

This is a post I wrote a while back about Fiverr and Graphic Designers...after all you get what you pay for!

Editing

Do they edit in the English Language you use—British, American, Canadian, Australian, etc?

Do they edit in your genre?

What type of editing do they offer?

Line Editing, Copy Editing, Beta Reading, Proofreading?

How much experience do they have?

Do they have qualifications, or have they learnt on the job?

Do they have good reviews (ten or more good ones)

Graphic Design

Do they buy stock photos?

What DPI do they work with?

What type of file do they save too?

Are the fonts they use for commercial usage?

Proof of purchase of any fonts and stock photos?

You can use photos you have taken as long as you can prove they are yours.

Reverse check any sample images they give you. (some lie or steal other peoples work)

Ask other Authors and check out their covers.

Check reviews (ten or more good ones)

The last thing you want is to be sued by a photographer or font designer for copyright infringement.

Formatting or Interior Book Designer

As well as being an Author Consultant, bringing contractors together to build books, I also work as a formatter, and turn manuscripts into a professional files to upload on KDP and other distribution websites. There are many formatting apps around now, though many are not as professional as people seem to think. Pick up a paperback printed by a traditional publisher, and you will see what I mean. Look at how it is set out, how tidy it is. If you are contracting out for formatting, you will be paying more than $10 to get a professional finish. Note the differences between eBooks and print books. There are quite a few, including page numbers- which don’t start on the first page of the manuscript, header and footers, endnotes/footnotes, images and in eBooks Alt Text for images so people who are sight impaired can read the image.

Technology Growth

Technology is advancing in leaps and bounds, changes and updates happening all the time. If you’re not a techy person, then you do need to research every detail about producing a book. It is hard work if you want a professional outcome.

Always remember paperbacks and hardbacks need to be justified with a line spacing of 1.15 cm at the most. Indents shouldn’t be more than 0.5 cm. Learn how to use STYLES in WORD if you write in WORD. If you use an app, you still need to make sure these things are correct. This means you need to learn to use the app correctly, watch the videos, or talk to someone who knows what they’re doing. Keep yourself updated with the changes.

Websites and Social Media

Most authors have websites, though these only work if you use them, share the posts, and have a marketing plan. You need to know about SEO’s and keep your website relevant. Post at least once a week. Talk about your books and yourself, about your writing, how your muse helps or hinders you. There are plenty of ideas out there which you can write about.

Social media also seems to be slipping to the wayside, especially Facebook with all their rules and regulations, people getting banned for weeks or months. I’ve noted a lot now use Instagram and TikTok, if you’re not camera shy like I am. You can get Book Trailers made for YouTube or you could read one of your books on video and share the links.

Marketing

An excellent resource for Marketing is ‘The Ultimate Author Check List.’ It is brilliant, and even I still need to finish reading the document and put things into place. Marketing will cost more money and this should be the only one going cost with your books. If you are a techy person, you maybe able to make Teasers and Adverts to use, remembering each social media website has criteria your advert needs to fit.

Once again, be careful of scammers, especially from those who approach you! Most are dubious. I like to work with people who have reached out to me or have read a review. Word of mouth is a wonderful thing. Don’t forget to leave your contractor a review, especially if they fulfilled all the criteria of the contract.

We welcome questions in the comments area. We are happy to help new authors find the right way to go for their needs. Meanwhile, be careful out there.

Update from Draft to Digital Print!

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Supply Chain Delays May Impact D2D Print

As a user of our D2D Print service, we wanted to inform you of the potential for delays for print on demand services that may arise in the coming months.

Our print partner has informed us that they are preparing for disruptions to various aspects of the print industry, including labor and supply shortages, as well as transportation issues.

Manufacturing supply shortages and labor shortages for the transport of goods are all factors that impact print on demand as an industry and these are unfortunately outside of the control of our print partner. 

Our print partner is implementing steps to reduce the impact of these shortages, such as warehousing materials and working closely with their shipping partners.

We wanted to offer a couple of recommendations to help you prepare and perhaps avoid delays with your D2D Print books: 

Order early—If you will need printed books for an event or any other reason, place your orders as early as possible to allow for enough time to fulfill the order even if supplies are delayed.

List early—If you have any current or future books you will want to be available during the holiday season, we encourage you to get them loaded into our print program so they are available for sale or as a preorder. With the rush we are anticipating in the later months of the year it is likely processing the books and getting them into  the system will take longer than usual.

While printing and shipping delays are a nuisance, we and our print partners are exploring every way possible to reduce the impact. We appreciate your patience as we work through this.

We will keep you updated on any developments.

The Draft2Digital Team

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2021

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Happy New Year to all our followers and friends. It has been a wow of a year with many of us working from home. The toll on the human race is still growing though with vaccines, perhaps we can beat this virus and the many strains. Please be safe and take care of each other so we can grow and help each other. We are lucky to be based in New Zealand, where though we are on level one, our lives are closer to normal than it is for many other countries around the world. Be careful out there.

Thank you for continuing to be with us over 2020 and on into 2012. We look forward to sharing your work, books, interviews, educational articles and helping out clients – past, present and future. Let’s get those manuscripts built into books and uploaded to distribution platforms.

We have a great team here at Plaisted Publishing, our contractor list just keeps growing. If you know a small business contractor who works in Editing, Graphic Design or Marketing, please contact us. We’d love to help you help our clients and grow each others businesses. 

This year we will be introducing you to our contractors, each with their own expertise in a certain area of publishing. You will get to know them and what they can do for you if you are planning to publish a book. We do Interior Book Design in house and have over six years experience in Fiction, Non-fiction, Anthologies, Memoirs, Poetry, Children’s Picture Books and Family History Books/Family Reunion Books.

We also off help with Family History Research and have twenty years experience gathering information for various books we’ve made over the years for reunions and birthday celebrations. If you’d like to talk to us about Family History, please contact us here or email at plaistedpublishinghouse@gmail.com

We are also looking for Content Writers within the publishing world. If you write educational material for Independent Authors, please contact us, we’d be delighted to hear from you. It is important for us all to continue to learn and grow in the publishing world with the ever changing technology we use.

We will also be opening a page to favourite weblinks for educational purposes. If you know of a great website please email us the link and we’ll check it out prior to posting the link on the page.

At present we are updating out website. We will have a library of all the books we’ve assisted with over the last six years along with a list of Author Names. Eventually we hope to also add a profile of each author as well and send those links out to each client so they can share and celebrate each others work.

Our magazine has been on hold for the just over two years now. We hope to re-establish the magazine with a new title, new and easier layout with less formatting work involved. We hope this magazine will be every two months. Here is hoping all this scheduling will work. By the end of this year, we may need a PA…

Distribution Platforms we use
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
Lulu
Ingram Spark
Smashwords
Draft to Digital

Looking into using
Kobo
Barnes and Noble (Nook)

Here is hoping for a wonderful year. Take care and be safe. 

Claire Plaisted
Business Owner

Print on Demand – Publishing a Book!

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As a Publishing House, we watch technology to see how it changes relevant to Self Publishing. We are now getting more and more choices for Print on Demand Books.

Here are some distributors who can help you self publish your book. Do remember there is a lot of work involved after you’ve finished writing. Plaisted Publishing House has an Author Assist Program to help you get your manuscript in the best shape for Publishing with any of the companies below. You can find the Submission Guidelines HERE

Distributors of Print on Demand

One of the most popular was Createspace which closed it’s doors and re-opened as KDP Print. Fair enough they still do Print on Demand, though it seems there are still a lot of hassles for KDP Print to get it right. This seems strange considering how good Createspace used to be. I’d like to know how they’ve messed it up so much. It is one I now choose not to use as a Print on Demand Distributor, though we still use KDP for eBooks.

Then we have LULU. They also do Print on Demand and eBooks. It takes a while to learn all the ins and outs, not quite as simple as KDP Print. However, they print on cream paper…YAY, They have LIVE CHAT along with up to 50% Discounts.  The only downer to many Independent Authors is you have to buy a proof before they will distribute WIDE whereas with KDP Print you can approve with a digital file at no cost. 

SMASHWORDS only do eBooks and it is still tricky. The layout for uploading is pretty easy to use, however, to get the document ready for their site is another matter. They are probably the fussiest of all distributors. The ebook cover has to be a certain size. For the uninitiated, it can be a nightmare of complications. On top of this, your manuscript has to be saved as Doc 97 which very few use anymore. We’ve been waiting for them to update for years.

Ingram Spark is a distributor of Print on Demand. We use this company with several of our clients. They do cost so it is up to the author if they wish to have an account with them.  On top of this, they also do Book Covers differently. Instead of RGB colours, they use the CMYK which you use at home with your printer. You also need to download their templates for the book cover size and make sure you add the 5mm on the top, bottom and the unbound edge of the cover and the interior. Make sure you use margins or your file can be rejected.

Draft to Digital is a great distributor for ebooks. They have templates you can use, however, I’m not overly keen on them when I see the files. Some looked pushed up and without the correct spacing. To us this is annoying. They do a good royalty share.  Today they ran out their Beta Print Book for testing Print on Demand for Authors to try out. We may well try. We’ve already heard about issues…They don’t do wrap covers…yet. We also noted in the email we received that the royalty share was 40% of the list price and they still take off print cost.  Where does the other 60% go?  We haven’t seen or read about this yet and will keep our eyes peeled to find this information. Confused? We are too.

These are the Print on Demand distributors most of us know about. However, Europe is digging in their heels with their own companies. Do you want your Self Published Book for sale in Europe? One site we were introduced to also do translations on a royalty share scheme. I suppose this would be a bit like with ACX and Audiobooks.

There you go…Information on ‘How to Self Publish a Book.’ Don’t forget we are here to help you. 

Thanks for Reading. Please SHARE

Uploading your Self-Published eBook to Lulu

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Welcome to the world of LULU Uploading.  As promised here is the second installment about UPLOADING…This time it’s for eBOOKS.

WE start with picking what we wish to publish, of course this time it is the ebook we wish to do. So follow the images and I’ll explain what is what as you scroll through them.

You picked the ebook now it is time to think about if you wish to do this for FREE or need to ask for help.  This of course depends on how proficient you are at formatting and if you can format the way LULU need you to. 

One think I have noticed with ebook distribution sites, they all have their own styles of formatting. Some are easier than others. Once in the know…it becomes easy.

This blog is about how to publish your book for FREE and we would hit ‘MAKE YOUR EBOOK’ Tab to continue.  

Meanwhile. If you need any assistance and a guiding hand you can ask for some professional support  from LULU – who will handle the heavy lifting for you.

The choice is made and you are starting a NEW PROJECT. It’s time for the TITLE and AUTHOR NAME.  It also asks what you wish to do with your project. Most people want to sell their books and this is the recommended route to take. After your choices are made click save and continue.

Next you get to choose your ISBN for your book.  You can pick the FREE LULU ISBN which can only be used on books you distribute via LULU. 

If you are uploading to another site, it is likely they will offer their own FREE ISBN.  If you have already purchased a set of ISBN then use them.  There is a link on the below image on how to purchase your own numbers. 

If you don’t wish to use an ISBN then you WON’T be able to distribute through LULU retail channels.

Below is shows the FREE ISBN for my book which they will email to me.  Since you haven’t yet uploaded your manuscript, now is the time to add the ISBN to your copyright page and save it again.

DO NOT UPLOAD YOUR MANUSCRIPT UNTIL YOU HAVE SET UP YOUR CHAPTER HEADINGS IN ACCORDANCE WITH LULU RULES.  YOU CAN ALSO DELETE YOUR CONTENTS PAGE HYPERLINKS…LULU WILL MAKE THIS FOR YOU.

Choose you manuscript and upload. You will see the BAR below turn and orange-yellow.

Once it has uploaded it will show the document as below.  If you have to make amendments later make sure you delete this file first on the X

Remember back to when you organised the HEADINGS in your manuscript.  Well this is what LULU do. They show you the list for your contents table which you can adjust by changing the headings.  When you do the HEADINGS you can use HEADING 1 – 3 ONLY You will also need to change the style to what you wish to see, making sure you embed the fonts as well.

Most Authors will also have their own BOOK COVERS by this stage in the process. If you do then you will need to upload the cover during this next stage.  Having your own BOOK COVER means you can use any Theme, they are technically irrelevant though you still need to choose one.  As you can see I stayed with the gold one with my name in the bottom right corner.

Click onto Backgrounds & Pictures. You can see where you can change the colour and edit the image.  If you have a BOOK COVER already made you will need to EDIT the IMAGE. If you need to build your own you can ask for professional help from a LULU Cover Designer.

Once again LULU have a criteria for the BOOK COVER.  This is where you will USE A DIFFERENT FILE – as shown below. Or you can accept this image and proceed to building your own cover.

Since you have clicked ‘Use a different file’ this new box will appear asking you to either upload your cover from your computer or browse the LULU GALLERY.  When you upload your own file make sure the sizing is correct or….

Before the ‘OR’   The file will upload the same way as the manuscript did…One the bar has finished loading you will be asked to ACCEPT or TRY AGAIN due to sizing requirements.

As show here…The first time I uploaded my BOOK COVER the requirements weren’t met, meaning they rejected my file asking me to alter it and upload it again.

Once the BOOK COVER file meets their criteria you will see the image – like shown below. Now you can ACCEPT the file and move on to the next stage.

Now you can see your cover you will need to click on TEXT. If you have a ready-made cover you will need to take out the TITLE and AUTHOR information as shown below.

If you have built your cover here then you can now edit your TITLE & AUTHOR name, give them the font, size and colour you wish them to have.

Once you have done, click SAVE and CONTINUE to go to the next stage.

You’ve nearly finished now. Unlike Kindle, Createspace & Draft to Digital where you describe your project at the beginning. With LULU you do this towards the end

Fill in the blanks. On my children’s book this is what I choose to go with. You can change this at any stage.

My children’s story is all about adventures in the Insect world in a Country Garden. It is suitable for ages 3 upwards though parents, grandparents, siblings etc would need to read to the younger children.

Fill in the description which you would usually find on the back of a PRINT Book. This will show on your AUTHOR PAGE and in the LULU Shop. I choose the Standard Copyright License though there are quite a few you can look through and choose from.

YES YOU MADE IT…IT’S TIME TO REVIEW, DOWNLOAD THE INTERIOR, CHECK THE FORMATTING, SEE IF IT ALL WORKS CORRECTLY. IF NOT THEN YOU HAVE SOME WORK TO DO, OTHERWISE IT IS TIME TO PRICE YOUR BOOK

DISTRIBUTION TIME – PLEASE REMEMBER IF YOU HAVE UPLOADED YOUR EBOOK ELSEWHERE THEN UN-TICK IT HERE.  ALSO REMEMBER YOU CAN GET YOUR BOOKS DISTRIBUTED VIA INGRAM SPARK WITH LULU

Make sure your LULU website is in the country where you live. Then pick the price and how much royalty you wish to make. Tick the boxes you need and hit REVIEW PROJECT. 

Next is the eBook Distribution Terms and Condition. Read them and ACCEPT if you wish to publish.

The next slide shows your REVENUE excl taxes. Once you are satisfied you have what you wish go to the last TAB – SAVE and FINISH.

CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE PUBLISHED

 

This is all from me for now. I hope it helps.  I will be making a post on how the HEADINGS work next week. Meanwhile enjoy the read and please SHARE.

GO WIDE WITH REVIEWS – Amazon Reviews

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This blog post is from Anne R Allen and dated 22nd April 2018.  It is all about Reviews, what is happening with the end suggesting we go WIDE with our REVIEWS.

To me it makes perfect sense. Here is her link so you can find more informative posts.

http://annerallen.com/2018/04/amazon-paid-reviews/

Authors Beware: Amazon Gets Medieval on Paid and Traded Reviews

by Anne R. Allen

 

 Amazon’s paid review crackdown may have punished “over a million” innocent customers.

My inbox has been bursting with unsolicited emails for the past few weeks. I must be on a new list of “easy prey” circulating in the the author-scamming community.

Several sleazy guys with dodgy language skills have hit me with nasty ones. They use the classic “negging” approach perfected by the “how to pick up girls with low self-esteem” folks that hang out in the rape-y sub-basements of Reddit and 4Chan.

These emails will “analyze” the Amazon buy page of one of my books—always assuming I’ve only written the one—mansplaining how I’m too stupid to know it’s overpriced, too short, has a bad cover, a bad sales rank (even when it’s a bestseller) and of course, has an insufficient number of reviews.

(BTW, for those who don’t believe me when I say books are getting shorter, Porter Anderson and Hugh Howey both gave my “shorter books” post a nice mention at Writer Unboxed this week.)

The emailing creeps have no idea I’m with a small press, and they’re actually dissing my publisher. But I can imagine this approach is pretty effective on self-publishers, especially relative newbies. Some judgey stranger offering unpleasant criticism in your morning email can shake an author’s confidence.

And they’re counting on that. Once you’re feeling vulnerable, they pitch bogus or wildly overpriced services, “break into Hollywood” scams, worthless interviews, and that old warhorse, paid Amazon reviews.

In May, I’ll address the problems of the overpriced interviews and other scams.

But when I started to research the paid review business this week, I ran into a bunch of new dramas and draconian changes. So I decided to devote this post to the latest Amazon review horrors.

DO NOT Pay for Amazon Customer Reviews!

One email notified me that I’d failed to get “enough” reviews on my new Author Blog Book. But I could get 25 Amazon reviews from him for only $900!

Dude, here’s the reason many of us “fail” to get tons of Amazon reviews anymore: scammy review-sellers like you.

This is because Amazon fights paid review violations with robots, which are wrong more often than not. And they’re scaring off real reviewers.

In 2016, the Zon changed their TOS to require reviewers to be Amazon customers and forbid any payment—including free products or gift cards—to reviewers of anything other than books. (Book reviewers can review free books as long as they disclose.) This was supposed to crack down on the rampant gaming of Amazon’s review system. For more, see my 2016 post on Amazon’s New Review Rules. 

But many innocents lost reviews too. Some long-time reviewers decided to review only on their own blogs. There’s a lovely review of my Author Blog book on Mark Tilbury’s blog the “negging” guys won’t see, but it gets Tweeted a lot.

A review on a blog is useful, and can be quoted in Amazon’s “editorial review” section, which often has more clout with readers.

But Amazon has recently made more draconian changes. The guidelines have been modified again, and so have the punishments.

It used to be that customers violating Amazon’s TOS were banned from SELLING on Amazon, but the new policy bans them from BUYING.

Your account will be deleted. No warning. No explanations.

If you feel the need to buy reviews, the legit ones (like Kirkus) may be valuable to you as “editorial reviews” and can provide quotes for advertising, but paid reviews in the “customer review” thread are a very bad idea. No matter what the “neg” guys say.

Amazon’s Review Police-Bots Deleted “Over a Million” Innocent Customers’ Accounts this Month.

Amazon’s latest police-bots are out for blood: if they even suspect you of breaking the rules, your account gets deleted with no warning.

Suddenly Fire TVs don’t work. Alexa is silent. Books you’re in the middle of reading…gone. No Amazon streaming TV. Your account no longer exists. No refunds. No apologies.

In late March, these mindless thug-bots deleted innocent customers’ accounts by the 1000s (“over a million,” according to some.)

There’s a rumor this came from a hack designed to discredit Amazon as a part of recent political attacks the company, but Amazon hasn’t acknowledged a hack.

The victims got this explanation:

“The account has been deleted for one or both of the following reasons.

  • Your reviews were posted in exchange for compensation, such as gift cards to purchase the product, product refunds, review swaps, or free or discounted products, and/or
  • Your account was used for commercial purposes.”

Digital Trends investigated.  Amazon’s explanation:  “Amazon has taken action against bad actors and those who have violated our community rules.”

You can read victims’ laments in the Twitter thread  #AmazonClosed. They don’t sound like “bad actors” to me:

“My account was closed…but I quit reviewing last year when Amazon changed their TOS!”

“Amazon closed my account after 15 years. Prime member, Kindle books, gift card balance. Need answers.”

“RUDE reps, supervisors and all sticking to the same script.”

“No apology for a month of lies and customer service failures.”

“student couldn’t use an audiobook she needed for her history class.”

“Closed my account, but are still charging my card for Prime.”

Some accounts have reappeared. But plenty have not.

Facebook groups have formed to file class action suits, so this drama will unfold in the courts. You can read more at Business Insider, and EdSurge. But for some reason, this hasn’t made the major news outlets.

Amazon’s Robots Do a Lousy Job of Policing Paid Reviews, but Don’t Put Yourself in Their Crosshairs

Nobody knows if any of these 1000s of people actually traded or bought reviews. Or if they’d ever reviewed anything.

But we can be pretty sure that if you DO trade or buy reviews and you’re caught, your career—as well as your shopping—is over on Amazon.

So don’t listen to the negging and send those review-sellers to spam. Even if they seem legit. ANY compensation for an Amazon review—no matter how “fair”—can get you the boot.

Amazon’s Escalating Scam Problem.

The paid review problem isn’t the only scam-policing that Amazon’s robots have got wrong.

Real Reviewers Are Leaving Amazon.

The most recent crackdown doesn’t only involve draconian punishments for suspected paid reviewers.

Amazon is also banning reviewers from posting in more than one Amazon store. It used to be reviews could be posted in the US Amazon store as well as Canada, UK, Australia, etc., so a UK reviewer could also post a review on Amazon.com, where it had a potential to increase a book’s sales and get it into Bookbub and other newsletters.

But since overseas review farms have been abusing this practice, Amazon is now requiring that reviewers spend the equivalent of $50 per year in eachAmazon store, every year. (That’s a big change from requiring a one-time purchase of $50 or more from any one Amazon store, which was the rule instituted in 2016.)

So honest reviewers, who are working for free, are now supposed to pay to play. And pay a lot.  According to reviewer Barb Taub, “In the name of discouraging ‘fake’ reviews, [Amazon’s] new policy requires reviewers like me to spend $50 on Amazon’s US site and even more, £40 on Amazon UK. before I can share my review.”

Book reviewers like Barb Taub have had enough. The comment thread on her post shows exactly why it’s so hard to get real Amazon reviews these days.

Some examples:

“After trying multiple times to submit it, only to be rejected without explanation, I have given up.”

“If it’s too hard to post reviews on Amazon, I’ll just post them on my own blog and call it a day.”

“I can’t help thinking this policy change wasn’t well thought out. It just sort of appeared with very little fanfare.”

“I’ve been a loyal Amazon reviewer since 1998 (it’s tells you when you became a customer) and yet they decided to pull all my reviews….When I emailed them on the matter they quite rudely told me they didn’t need to answer my questions, it was final.

“Meanwhile, the fake reviews carry on getting posted……”

Driving away real reviewers just opens up the market for the fake review farms where neg-guy hangs out.

It’s Time for Reviews to “Go Wide.” 

Read the Rest HERE

by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) April 22, 2018

Book Reviews with Amazon…Yeah Right!

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Why oh why is Amazon making it even harder to put up reviews for authors.  First they curtail your reviews because you supposedly know the author or you publish the author or help them publish.  Now Amazon is telling you to spend over $50 to actually put a review in place. That would be a years worth of books to me.

WHAT….  Yep you head me right. It seems they don’t want Indie Authors to be reviewed. If this really is the case then why are we all still selling through them?  Why aren’t we using Lulu or Ingram Spark. Why aren’t we using Draft to Digital or Smashwords…they both do Mobi aka Kindle files. I’ve not seen or heard of Barnes & Noble or Kobo refusing your reviews so why is Amazon? What is their problem?

I have heard about biased reviews – nope I won’t give one to anyone let along an author I would call a friend.  In fact I’m more inclined to be harsher on them than someone I don’t know. I’ve heard about paid reviews and farmed reviews. I wouldn’t use either. So coming down on people who are in the same social media group, chat on the odd occasion doesn’t mean they are great friends, after all social media is all about making connections. I mean you chat with your fans don’t you?

HERE IS THE ELIGIBILITY

Eligibility

To contribute to Customer features (for example, Customer Reviews, Customer Answers, Idea Lists) or to follow other contributors, you must have spent at least $50 on Amazon.com using a valid credit or debit card in the past 12 months. Promotional discounts don’t qualify towards the $50 minimum. In addition, to contribute to Spark you must also have a paid Prime subscription (free Prime trials do not qualify). You do not need to meet this requirement to read content posted by other contributors or post Customer Questions, or create or modify Profile pages, Shopping Lists, Wish Lists or Registries.

Maybe it is time we all left reviews about Amazon
and how bad they are getting!

 

Createspace – Closing their Professional Services. Is this another step to closing their business?

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WE all know I don’t like Createspace anymore due to their Customer Service debacle and how they treat their customers. They are so not with it. I’m glad to get out now rather than when they close their business down for good…To me this is what it looks like and I’ll tell you why.

I have worked in several businesses which have closed down and slowly but surely they get rid of things they no longer need. If your observant enough…you notice and it makes you wonder. Are they closing? Is this why customer service is so bad? Do they really want to work with Indie Authors or are they just money hungry and we’re not bring in enough profit for them anymore?  

If I follow my instinct the first thing Amazon rolled out was print on KDP!  Why did they do this?  Createspace was excellent at the time and I loved using their website.  From authors around the world I heard scathing comments about KDP Print and how bad they were, rejecting book covers continually. One author had her cover rejected 37 times where as on Createspace it was accepted straight away.  I decided to stay away. I hated the thought of even trying to use them at that stage.

Then suddenly I was having issues with Createspace. Their customer service was all over the place, moving from one to another person, not reading emails, getting things wrong…totally incompetent. In my company they would be reprimanded and given training to upgrade their skill set.  Then it was the turn of the ordering area of Createspace.  Books disappearing, Tracking number telling authors their books were going somewhere else. They couldn’t even tell the difference between the Northern and Southern hemisphere. Astounding mess. Though this one incident had a happy conclusion in the end nearly five months later. I know for a fact this author won’t order though Createspace again.  

Next it ws Copyright Permission. Their policies stated you’re only allowed to upload documents you own or have copyright permission of.  Yes there have been a hell of a lot of stolen manuscripts out there, however there are many ways this is done and most have nothing to do with Createspace.  So here they are demanding proof…Something new they’d never asked before.  If you know your business law (mine was New Zealand) then you can’t share private and confidential information with another party without permission from the person it involves.  I never have and never will share contracts, emails or anything else without permission.  Saying no to Createspace turned them into …well i’m not sure what. On top of this the book was published as an ebook and is for sale on Amazon, but they wouldn’t publish the paperback.  Guess who went to LULU.  They’ve been excellent by the way.

What else can happen?  Oh yes PERMA FREE.  Due to all the fuss I stopped uploading to KDP and started to use Pronoun – who we all know closed this month.  With Pronoun you could make a book FREE and no problems.  I wish they hadn’t closed.  Then Draft to Digital had distribution rights to send to Amazon, however, in their deal you couldn’t mark a book as FREE.  So I did the usual request and the second time they said no because it wasn’t uploaded to KDP only distributed. (They accepted the first…meaning they can’t even get this right)  They told me to contact D2D and get them to send a request. I’m sure this is more work which D2D don’t really want!  Much to my joy they did so but, I can still see a price on it on Amazon.  Though this could be me having a New Zealand Account.

Now the reason for this blog.  Createspace are no longer going to be offering professional services to authors.  They don’t wish to work one on one with you. No Book Cover Design, No Marketing and No Editing (I didn’t know they offered Editing.)  This info comes from a friend I sometimes work with. The original blog was from Book Baby who like me offer all the service to Indie Authors. They found the information in a newspaper in the USA/

ARE THEY CLOSING DOWN?  WHAT DO YOU THINK?

If you do need services for Editing, Cover Design, Formatting and some Marketing (I’m looking at taking a course in Marketing this year) Then please consider using Plaisted Publishing House. We love working one on one.

KDP & Permafree

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When you wish to have an ebook FREE forever on Amazon you have to ask and show proof that your ebook is already FREE with other distributers.  Well if you are publishing through KDP then use the APPLE links (worldwide) when you contact them.  Of course they will never guarentee they will make it FREE…after all they love to rock the boat and make your life as difficult as possible.

Now what happens if you wish to have Permafree but you publish with another distributer?  Good question and one they keep changing their minds on.  As you may have noticed in the past Pronoun used to distribute to Amazon and you could have the book up for FREE from the word go.  Bloody brilliant…except Pronoun have closed down.  Just when you thought it was all over Draft to Digital started to distribute to Amazon…Sadly it was for miminum price.  Their deal for some reason won’t do FREE like they did with Pronoun.  As yet I have no idea why.

Now in October Plaisted Publishing House released it’s sevenths Anthology called Ghostly Writes Anthology 2017.  WE distributed via Draft to Digital, thinking it would be easy to sort out.  It took several emails to get them to do Permafree.  YAY I thought…until we released our next Anthology ‘A Treasure Chest of Children’s Tales.’

Nope they won’t make it free because they are not the publisher even though they did the Ghostly Writes one.  I protested and they won’t budge coz we used Draft to Digital. Even when I told them about the deal they made with Draft to Digital won’t let ebooks be free from the word go…still sorry no go. They told me to ask Draft to Digital to contact Amazon to ask for Perma FREE.  Fine more hoops to jump through now I wonder if D2D will assist. 

I have emailed Draft to Digital and hope they can help.  I just wish KDP would simplify things for themselves and their clients.  They have certainly put me off publishing via them. Meanwhile, a book which should be free…isn’t..well only if you buy off Amazon.  All the other distributers including Apple where you can download all our Anthologies for FREE.