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Amazon Recommends The Messiah Matrix
Ray Bradbury’s 7 Rules for Writers
1. Write with gusto.
2. In quickness is truth.
3.Write who you are.
4. Don’t write for money or fame.
5. Feed the muse daily.
6. Don’t be afraid to explore the attic.
7. Surprise yourself.
Bonus Rule: Do the work you were born to do — and no one else’s. Towards the end of Zen in the Art of Writing, Bradbury includes a series of poems about creativity. One of them is entitled, “What I Do Is Me, For That I Came.” In it, he writes:
Be not another. Be the self I signed you in your blood…
I leave you gifts of Fate most secret; find no other’s Fate,
For if you do, no grave is deep enough for your despair
No country far enough to hide your loss.
Ray Bradbury comments on his career and his sources of inspiration.
The Messiah Matrix Excerpt - Featured Title on BookDaily!
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Yoga Gives Back "The Rise for Women Challenge"
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Half of Amazon Book Sales are Planned Purchases
The Media Briefing’s Digital Media Strategies conference is going on in London this week. Although I couldn’t go, I’ve been able to follow along via Twitter and a couple of tweets have really stood out.
The speaker was Douglas McCabe, COO of Enders Analysis, who had other interesting points to make yesterday about the use of data, online market demographics and measuring success. But this single statistic, that nearly half of Amazon’s book sales come from people who already know what they want and are simply using Amazon as a way to get it, has huge implications.
After conducting more than 250,000 interviews about reading behavior since 2004, Codex has found that a major shift has taken place in discovery in the past two years, as digital books have become a significant part of the book world.
Two years ago, 35% of book purchases were made because readers found out about a book in bricks-and-mortar bookstores, the single-largest site of discovery. This year, that figure has dropped to 17%, a reflection both of the closing of Borders and the rise of e-readers. In the same period, personal recommendations grew the most, to 22% from 14%. Some three-quarters of personal recommendations are made in person, while the rest come by e-mail (8%), phone (7%), Facebook (4%) and other social networks (3%).
Even though it’s not news that more and more readers are becoming “hybrid” readers, meaning they read and learn about books both online and off, the Codex study shows us that despite the hubbub, digital discovery does not carry as much weight as personal recommendations.
I’d recommend reading both links for more details on the Codex Group report that I, sadly, don’t have access to. They makes for fascinating reading!
It’s well known that book lovers are quite happy to spend time in a bricks-and-mortar bookshop to see what sort of interesting titles they find and then go home to buy on Amazon where the prices are often cheaper. Indeed, it’s been identified as such a significant problem that HarperCollins CEO Victoria Barnsley recently made the interesting suggestion that bookshops ought to charge people to come in and browse, an idea that has had a somewhat chilly reception.
48 percent of Amazon book choices are pre-planned
Self-publishers often think themselves unaffected by ‘planned search and purchase’, not least because for most of us the idea of having our books in a bookshop feels like a distant dream. The assumption that self-publishers work to is that the key to cracking Amazon is to rank highly in their recommendation algorithm and many pixels are spilt by self-publishing bloggers telling us how to do exactly that.
But McCabe’s statistics show that only a piddling 10 percent of Amazon book choices are made because of its ‘bought this/also bought’ recommendation engine. Bestseller and top 100 lists influence 17 percent of book choices, with 12 percent down to promotions, deals, or low prices. Only 3 percent came through browsing categories. Planned search by author or topic, however, makes up a whopping 48 percent of all book choices.
The title of McCabe’s slide is “Amazon – only the end of the funnel, so far?”, and it’s an important point for self-publishers to take to heart. Amazon is a destination for purchase, the place you funnel your fans to, not a discovery mechanism in and of itself. People are simply not browsing for books based on Amazon’s recommendations, not in any significant numbers.
Self-published authors have limited resources for promotion and these figures show that you should focus not on trying to woo Amazon’s algorithm, but on building awareness outside of Amazon. Rather than hoping to gain traction within that 10 percent of people who pay attention to Amazon’s recommendations, or trying to crowbar your title into bestseller or top 100 lists, you should be focusing on building an independent fan base. No one can search for your books if they don’t know you exist.
I’ve written before about how self-publishers, and traditional publishers for that matter, should refocus on direct sales in order to collect valuable customer data. These stats bolster that position — if the majority of Amazon’s sales come from planned search, that indicates a clear intention to buy on the part of the searcher. That intention has been formed outside of Amazon, perhaps due to reviews, social media or word of mouth. And once your readers have formed an intention to buy, you can take action to funnel them to your own shop. For those of a rebellious nature who’d like to give Amazon the two fingers, that’s reassuring.
http://www.forbes.com
Book Review: “Dead Peasants” by Larry D. Thompson
Larry D. Thompson in his new book, “
Dead Peasants” published by Thomas Dunne Books brings us into the life of Jack Bryant.Synopsis:
Lawyer Jack Bryant retires early to Fort Worth to kick back, relax and watch his son play football at TCU. Bored with retirement he opens a pro bono office in his RV. When Jack finds an elderly widow at his doorstep, clutching a check for life insurance proceeds on her husband but payable to his former employer, Jack files a civil suit to collect the benefits rightfully due the widow. A seemingly accidental death of his client’s husband thrusts Jack into a vortex of serial killings. He and his new love interest find themselves targets in the same murder for hire scheme. To stop the killings Jack must unravel what in their past makes certain people worth more dead than alive.Somehow the term, dead peasants and legal thriller do not seem to go hand in hand. Dead Peasants seems to lend itself to a tale of knights and kings and feudal society don’t you agree? It seems that dead peasants is a legal insurance term for when an employer takes out an insurance policy on his employees and continues to pay the premiums even after the employee’s dismissal or retirement. The employer hopes to collect the benefits upon that person’s death. This practice has been deemed illegal in most states. Jack Bryant is brought into the case when he finds that the former employer of June Davis’ deceased husband had a very large life-insurance policy, a dead peasant policy, on her husband, which made the employer the beneficiary. Now as Jack goes to court to collect the benefits rightfully due June he also has to battle to stay alive as he has walked into a murder mine field. This is one exciting book. An action, adventure, mystery, courtroom thriller as Jack’s life is in deadly danger. I do not recommend you drink coffee while reading this book as there is more than enough excitement to keep you going. Give yourself plenty of time to enjoy this book as you will want to finish it before going to bed. “Dead Peasants” is an exciting adventure from start to finish.
http://vicsmediaroom.wordpress.com/
Honored To Be A Sponsor of Yoga Gives Back Sister Aid
Filmed in November 2012, this 7 minute video tells inspiring stories of YGB fund recipients, as well shedding light on the harsh reality they live in. YGB's direct funding program "Sister Aid" is making a positive impact on so many mothers and daughters in India.
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