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FOCUS ON WHAT REALLY MATTERS AND LEAVE THE ALGORITHMS TO OTHERS!

Geri Clouston
At The Media Briefing's Digital Media Strategies conference in London recently, it was reported that less than 3% of book sales on Amazon came from buyers who were simply browsing, and only 10% were derived from their "bought this/also bought" recommendations. These pale in comparison to 48% of sales from buyers who already knew the author or book they wanted, and were simply buying it online.The obvious conclusion is that most indie authors spend entirely too much time trying to get their title ranked higher by Amazon's algorithm! Instead, authors should focus on gaining name recognition. How? By connecting with their target audience: by reaching out to the people who are interested in their genre - bloggers, genre-specific websites and Facebook pages, as well as other relevant social media forums.Another interesting fact cited in London was that 17% of book sales were influenced by a book being listed on "Bestseller" or "Top 100" lists. For those indie authors who are fortunate enough to have their book placed on such a list, but find it near the bottom, another way to stand out is by having an appealing cover. This is true even if the book is only available as an…

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How To (Really) Sell Your Novel – The Shocking Truth

Geri Clouston
Re posted with permission of John YeomanOriginally posted on The Wicked Writing BlogFriday, April 5, 2013 Under: Libels & Wickedness   How do you sell a novel? That's the number one problem for every self-publishing author and it probably accounts for all the other numbers too. Unless your novel sells, you may well be a writer but you're not a novelist. Here are four ways that don't work. 1. Banner ads don't work. Many sites will sell you a banner, in a choice of sizes, to promote your book and each at a fancy price. None will yield a profit. You might not even get a single click-through. Why? The average click-through rate for banner ads is just three tenths of one per cent or 0.3%. That's the industry average according to imedia connections.com. So only three in 1000 people who see your banner ad will click on it. And only about 4% of those people will buy your book. (That's the average conversion-to-sale ratio at Amazon.) So you'll make just one sale for every 10,000 people who see your banner. How much will you be charged for that banner? Anything between $100 and $1000. Result: you'll lose your shirt.…

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Happy 1st Anniversary indieBRAG!

Geri Clouston
  It is hard to believe that we launched indieBRAG and the B.R.A.G.Medallion one year ago! We will continue to shine a light on worthy books and tell the reading world that if they want a good book worth their time and money, to pick one with the B.R.A.G.Medallion. Our reading team now numbers 100 and live in 10 countries. We would not have been able to honor the books we have without all their dedication and support. They have considered nearly 1000 books and chosen 100 to carry our medallion. What a great job! Thank you all for joining our team. It is our great pleasure to be working with such a talented and hard working group – both authors and readers. I personally can say that I consider them my friends. All of us on the indieBRAG Team will continue to bring attention to our honored books and we have some new plans for the coming year which we hope will bring even more attention to these gems in the avalanche of self-published books. We all look forward to a successful and exciting 2013- Geri and the entire indieBRAG Team

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Bloody Mary – The Dack Brothers

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: The Dack Brothers I would like to introduce Authors Christopher & Michael Dack (The Dack Brothers), winners of the BRAG Medallion for the book, "Bloody Mary."Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.com Stephanie: Christopher and Michael, congrats on winning the BRAG Medallion! Please tell me about your book, "Bloody Mary." Michael: The story centers around Carakas, an alcoholic vampire. He's constantly in search of heavy drinkers to bite in order to maintain his pickled state. He falls in with Rudt, a corrupt and opportunistic police officer who wishes to rise through the ranks by eliminating those who stand in his way and who sees Carakas as the perfect, if unwitting, accomplice to help him. Despite his best intentions to simply have a good time, Carakas constantly makes trouble for himself and his friends. His antics bring unwanted attention from Mantis, a beautiful but vicious fellow vampire who carries a special loathing for Carakas and from Vanessa, a mysterious hunter who comes to town suddenly and who has motives all her own. Stephanie: What an interesting premise for your story. What inspired you to write this story? Michael: What we find interesting is to click together disparate elements to come up…

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Authors' Chat

Letters from Wishing Rock – Pam Stucky

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Pam Stucky I would like to introduce Author Pam Stucky, winner of the BRAG Medallion.  Pam, congrats on winning the Medallion! What an honor! Please tell me about your book; Letters from Wishing Rock.Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.com Pam: Thank you! I'm so delighted and honored. In self-publishing we don't have the nod of approval one gets automatically by being one of the 'chosen ones'. It's so affirming to hear that someone else thinks my books are great, too! Letters from Wishing Rock (a novel with recipes) ("LfWR") is the first in the Wishing Rock series. (I just published the third and final book in the series in March 2013!) These books are about the happenings in the small made-up town of Wishing Rock, Washington, an island town where everyone lives in the same building. I was inspired by the format of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society to write my own books (this first series, anyway) in e-mail format. Letters amongst the characters and their friends and families chronicle the twists and turns of the characters' daily lives. The first story mostly focuses on Ruby Parker, a 35-year-old woman who at the beginning of…

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Authors' Chat

Line by Line – Barbara Hacha

Stephanie Hopkins
Author Interview: Barbara Hacha I would like to introduce Authors Barbara Hacha, winners of the BRAG Medallion for the book, "Line by Line."Read the entire interview at: www.layeredpages.com Barbara, congrats on winning the BRAG Medallion! I've heard wonderful things about, "Line by Line." Please tell me about your book and what inspired you to write this story. Barbara: Thank you! I feel very honored that my book was awarded the BRAG Medallion. Line by Line is a story of Maddy Skobel, a young woman growing up in central Ohio during the Great Depression.  Her family is disintegrating right along with the economy, and when her home life becomes impossible, she decides to leave town–by freight train–and try to survive on her own terms. She becomes a hobo, and as she faces hardship, danger, and violence, she must discover her own resourcefulness and strengths. My inspiration actually came out of a garage sale find!  I picked up a copy of a video called Riding the Rails at a sale and brought it home, thinking it might be like a PBS Great Train Trips adventure. But it turned out to be a documentary about people who rode the rails in the Great Depression, and much to my…

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Authors' Chat

A conversation with Bestselling Author Colleen Hoover

Geri Clouston
COLLEEN HOOVER Colleen lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys. She released her debut novel, SLAMMED, in January 2012 and the follow-up novel, POINT OF RETREAT, in February, 2012. Both books have been optioned for film as of October, 2012. Her bestselling Romance novel Hopeless has been on the New York Times E-Book Best Sellers list for 20 weeks! indieBRAG: Thank you, Colleen, for spending this time with us. Colleen Hoover: Thank you so much for having me. iB: You have written three very successful books in the Romance genre. I wonder if an author sets out to write in a specific genre or do they just write the book that is in them? In your case, did you choose the genre first and then create the book, or was the story already in your mind and it just happened to fit that genre? CH: When I began writing SLAMMED, I didn't even think about where it might fit if I tried to sell it. I wrote the book thinking I was going to be the only one to read it besides a few family members. Once the book was complete and I decided to upload it…

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A great shout out of thanks to all of our fans and friends!

Geri Clouston
As we approach our first anniversary, the B.R.A.G.Medallion has become recognized as a symbol of great reading. Our reading team now numbers more than 100, representing 10 countries around the world. These dedicated men and women read tirelessly on our behalf, in our search through the rapidly expanding inventory of self-published books, to find those that are worth a reader's time and money. The number of authors seeking to be honored with the B.R.A.G.Medallion has grown so large, and so robust, that we have decided to close unsolicited nominations temporarily. This will allow us to ensure that the books on our reading list get the full attention they deserve. We are proud of the fact that by the first anniversary of our launch on April 4, 2013, we will have honored our 100th book! Congratulations to all our medallion-honored authors - we will continue to do all we can to bring attention to your wonderful work! The indieBRAG Team Find a book that is worth your time and money!

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Bob Mayer, bestselling author, talks audio books-

Geri Clouston
Bob Mayer is a West Point Graduate, Former Green Beret, CEO of Cool Gus Publishing and a NY Times Bestselling Author. He has had over 50 books published. He has sold over four million books, and is in demand as a team-building, life-changing, and leadership speaker and consultant for his Who Dares Wins: The Green Beret Way concept, which he translated into Write It Forward: a holistic program teaching writers how to be authors. He is also the Co-Creator of Cool Gus Publishing, which does both eBooks and Print On Demand, so he has experience in both traditional and non-traditional publishing. Thank you so much Bob for giving us some of your experience and wisdom on audio books. The latest sales figures tell us that ebooks significantly out number print books and that the latest trend is to have audio books. You have stated that this has been quite successful for you. We really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with us and answer some questions. 1. Why do an audio book? It can be rather costly.I use the ACX program, which is a really well run system. I've invested over $50,000 in producing 30 audio books…

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