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Old 03-14-2012, 10:26 AM   #76
Steven Lyle Jordan
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Originally Posted by mr ploppy View Post
The first paragraph is good, and will appeal to your target audience. But the second paragraph makes you sound like a hack writer. I think it's mainly the "banging them out on a smart phone" that's at fault here. Other writer types will understand what you mean by that, but readers will see it completely different.
Thanks, that's something I can address.

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As the Mirror Cracks looks interesting, I've downloaded a sample of that. It's also encouraging that you got away with using a superhero called Zenith when there's already one with the same name that's trademarked, that gives me hope for my Humpty Dumpty story.
Is there? I didn't actually look, so I had no idea. Of course, if I was called on it, I'd have no problem changing the name, as it's not vital to the story. I guess we'll see how long it takes before I get that legal notice...
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Old 03-14-2012, 04:27 PM   #77
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I'll play: Here's my Amazon page:
http://www.amazon.com/Steven-Lyle-Jo...qid=1331731157

And while we're at it, my homepage:
http://www.RightBrane.com/StevenLyleJordan

All comments (not related to dentistry) are welcome.
First off, thank you so much for the all who have provided helpful input on my author page. Keep it coming please, I love collecting this valuable data.

Now for Mr. Jordan:

I think your profile picture and your author bio is well done with one exception. There is a mention in there of something to the effect of "before he gets too old". I would remove any self-depricating references to age. You want to convey expereince and prestige and this was my impression just before reading that sentence.

On to the product descriptions: I am not an expert on SF and F but I do know that world building can always be a challenge. Your product descriptions lead off with a good deal of specialized terminology such as the names of dynasties, political systems, unique technologies. I didn't percieve these to be allusions which other fans of this genre would understand. If they don't buy the book, they'll never figure out what these words mean. So, in that sense they may be wasted words.

I'd consider giving a more, dumbed-down, high level summary of each of the books. (Hmmm. This was the same complaint someone had about my product descriptions...)

Also, if any of these books can be considered as part of a series you could exploit this in their titles Title X (book 1 of Y series) and also I think Amazon has some functionality on their control panel. (People love series nowadays. If there's any connection: a world, a technology, a character, I say go for it.)
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Old 03-14-2012, 11:06 PM   #78
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I'm about to go offline for a couple of days (moving houses! OMG EXCITING AND SCARY!!), but if anyone wants to take a crack at mine, I'd have *smilies* in my no-internet-connection-for-a-week-because-AT&T-hates-you-but-have-fun-reading-the-internet-on-your-Smartphone world.

http://www.acaciamoonpublishing.com/...s/ana-mardoll/
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Old 03-15-2012, 07:59 PM   #79
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Ana,

I went to the website. No real issues came up for me there. Then I went to Amazon. I'd recommend setting up an Amazon Author profile through Author Central. Then I'd recommend posting a headshot: both on the website and on your Amazon Author profile. If we're going to spend several hundred pages reading your book, we want to see you. I know some will disagree with this but this is an opinion.

The way the book is set-up, there is a lot of material to work through before we get to the writing sample. You can create the ebook file to start right at the beginning or a couple pages above.

Regarding the product description of Pulchritude, the first couple sentences are a little difficult to get through because they are packed with so much information. This information could be rewritten to be spread over maybe three or four sentences.

You could also add a few tags to your amazon page to help potential readers find your stuff.
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Old 03-24-2012, 10:49 AM   #80
Steven Lyle Jordan
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I have been having increased viewership--possibly corresponding to an increase in sales--on my TechCatcher blog (I'd give you the link, but I'm sure the mods would just yank it, so, it's the Commentary link on my books site), thanks to

A) a number of blog posts that were more "popular" in nature, and

B) a more thorough use of tagging those items.

I've discovered that viewers aren't so interested in everything I post, so I'm endeavoring to select more popular subjects. I haven't decided if I'll curb some of my opinions away from the more controversial arguments yet. At any rate, the strategy seems to be working.

It may, however, be a temporary aberration... time will tell.
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Old 03-24-2012, 02:29 PM   #81
davidwfleming
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Steven,

I think you may be onto something in that Tech is a hot topic that's always changing. Of course you could always put the link to your blog in your autosignature line, like I've done .

I want to do a quick post with all the links I've found online that have helpful secrets:

Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Required reading. Read as much of this as you can...
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

Savvy Self-Publishing (podcast): MobileRead's own Lindsay Buroker tells her journey of publishing trials and tribulations in her own words. Recommended. Insightful!
http://www.savvyselfpublishing.com/category/podcast

BookMarket.com: John Kremer, one of THE book marketing experts, has all kinds of useful links and free resources on this page.
http://www.bookmarket.com/

Irene Watson's Author Access: A near comprehensive compendium of author information!
http://www.authorsaccess.com/categor...s/irene-watson

Hubspot.TV: Hubspot in general is a great jumping-off point for developing your social media and web presence skills
http://www.hubspot.tv/marketing-cast/
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Old 04-01-2012, 10:23 PM   #82
Steven Lyle Jordan
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In case anyone's interested: I've got a new photo up. I like this one much better than the last.
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Old 04-03-2012, 03:10 PM   #83
sbroome
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan View Post
I have been having increased viewership--possibly corresponding to an increase in sales--on my TechCatcher blog (I'd give you the link, but I'm sure the mods would just yank it, so, it's the Commentary link on my books site), thanks to

A) a number of blog posts that were more "popular" in nature, and

B) a more thorough use of tagging those items.

I've discovered that viewers aren't so interested in everything I post, so I'm endeavoring to select more popular subjects. I haven't decided if I'll curb some of my opinions away from the more controversial arguments yet. At any rate, the strategy seems to be working.

It may, however, be a temporary aberration... time will tell.
Graphic artists are often told to do images of popular figures (Star Wars characters, etc.) in order to drive traffic to their blogs which they use to promote their own work. If I gave a crap about those properties I'd do it but it's sad how often something other than the work is needed to draw attention to the work.
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Old 04-03-2012, 06:52 PM   #84
davidwfleming
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It's good. It seems credible.
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Old 04-03-2012, 09:37 PM   #85
teh603
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sbroome View Post
Graphic artists are often told to do images of popular figures (Star Wars characters, etc.) in order to drive traffic to their blogs which they use to promote their own work. If I gave a crap about those properties I'd do it but it's sad how often something other than the work is needed to draw attention to the work.
That's the old argument about fanworks. One fanwork lawsuit can permanently and a creative artist's career, but on the other hand you're expected to do fanwork to build an audience and only then consider doing your own settings. Me, I'd rather do original fiction and not have to worry than be constantly worrying about one's fanworks getting them in trouble.

Of course, that also depends on the publishing industry's willingness to file takedowns and suits. For all the hoopla about piracy, they've been hypocritically lax about going after fanworks.
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Old 04-04-2012, 06:32 AM   #86
mr ploppy
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I've seen a slight upswing since I put links to the "click to look inside" Amazon preview on my blog. I've always had the ebook covers down the right hand side of every post, but before they used to just link to my own website for previews.
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Old 04-04-2012, 06:05 PM   #87
davidwfleming
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I just went to your site and I have to say that I love the idea of putting up the "look inside" links. I also like the way you have your sidelinks structured. It seems to me that sidelinks such as book previews and links to popular posts are a very important aspect of creating an interesting, niche and navigable blog. I'm not too keen on the use of tag clouds as a blog navigation option. They look messy to me.
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Old 04-06-2012, 12:21 PM   #88
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I've seen a slight upswing since I put links to the "click to look inside" Amazon preview on my blog. I've always had the ebook covers down the right hand side of every post, but before they used to just link to my own website for previews.
Where do you get the widget for that?
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Old 04-06-2012, 12:34 PM   #89
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Where do you get the widget for that?
They're just the url for the images with a link to the preview. You get those from right clicking on the Amazon picture and paste them into your blog control panel thing.
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Old 04-06-2012, 12:36 PM   #90
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They're just the url for the images with a link to the preview. You get those from right clicking on the Amazon picture and paste them into your blog control panel thing.
Oh, I see what you mean.

I saw someone the other day actually embed the "look inside this book" feature on their site, so the reader could flip-flip-flip-read the Amazon sample right there, without leaving the page. I thought you meant that.

I'd like to know how to do that -- it was cool looking.
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