#amazon beta-testing #ebook #cover Generator

If you’re planning to self-publish an ebook, and don’t have the skills, you’re in luck. Amazon’s experimenting with an automated ebook cover generator (on the lines of CreateSpace’s cover generator. And it’ll be free.) About time, I say.

The Digital Reader has more details on this.

Literary #agents Reinventing Themselves

With so many (inexpensive) options available to authors who are not traditionally published (and even those who are), literary agents are having to reinvent themselves. An interesting post from The Passive Voice.

Add #SendToKindle Button on Your Site

From MediaBistro:
Readers often encounter news articles, blog posts and other content on the web that they want to read but don’t have time to do so immediately. The Send to Kindle Button lets people easily send that content to their Kindle so they can it read later. Just send once and read everywhere on any Kindle device or free reading app. No more hunting around for that website or blog that caught your eye – just open your Kindle and all the content you sent is right there. The Send to Kindle Button is also great for readers who want to collect content from the web to use in work projects, school assignments, or hobbies.

Click here for the link to generate the button on Amazon.

Click here for the article in MediaBistro.

 

How To Sell Your Book on Amazon Canada

Apparently your book could be on Amazon, but not on their Canadian site. KW McCabe takes you through the steps. Click here for her tutorial.

KOBO Ups Royalties for The Self-Published

Kobo, the Japanese counterpart to Amazon, is running a limited time promotion. Between September 1 and November 30 all ebooks priced between $1.99 and $12.99 will earn their authors 80 percent royalty (vs. Amazon’s 70%).

If the book is priced outside of this range, the author will earn 45% royalties (vs. Amazon’s 35%).

Kobo, anyone? kobobooks.com/KoboWritingLife

Buy My Book, Be My Beta-Reader?

There’s an interesting post on a wordpress blog by someone who calls herself VacuousMinx, on rushing to publish. She talks about an author who’s been engaging her reviewers, making changes to her book based on reader suggestions and re-uploading, if there’s such a word, to Amazon. At what point do you cross the line from engaging readers of your books, to using them as your beta readers?

Apparently another author made changes to her book based on reader feedback (the 1 star ones), and i now sells both versions online; f she gets complaints about the ending, she suggests the reader buy the other copy as well.

What do you think about this?

Konrath on Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing

Joe Konrath, kind of self-publishing, has a blog post on why self-publishing is beneficial for authors. Of course, this model might not work for everyone, but he makes an interesting case for it. Click here for details.

 

Ebook Millionaires: How Are Paperback Sales?

Everyone knows that John Locke sold a million copies of his 99cent ebooks. Based on this, he signed a pretty lucrative deal Simon & Schuster. But his paperbacks haven’t been doing quite as well.

Amanda Hocking, on the other hand, who signed with St. Martin’s Press, is selling very well.

More on this story here.

Autographing ebooks

With the rise in popularity of ebooks comes the need for electronic autographs. Kindlegraph’s been around for a bit, but only now do I see enough people using it. For a primer on Kindlegraph, click here.

Amazon: Support International Authors!

Sarah Billington from Melbourne, Australia is petitioning Amazon.com to pay international authors by PayPal instead of international cheques (checks in American English) because the banking fees are cutting into royalties. She’s shooting for 10,000 signatures, has about 292. Help her (and us) out – share this on FaceBook, your blogs, tweet.  And sign her petition. Click here for details.