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The KND Kindle Chronicles Interview: Len Edgerly Interviews Paul Slack, author of Social Rules: A Common Sense Guide to Social Media Marketing

Len Edgerly

(Editor’s Note: In case you missed it Saturday’s return issue of the Kindle Nation WEEKENDER, it’s a great pleasure to introduce friend, colleague and college classmate Len Edgerly as a contributing editor here at the Kindle Nation Weekender. Len, at right, will be writing a weekly column for us based on his always interesting interviews at the Kindle Chronicles podcast. Welcome, Len! While it’s likely that the majority of his columns will be pretty Kindle-focused, Len understands well how closely related the Kindlesphere is to this week’s topic, the explosion and uses of social media marketing. We’re certainly paying close attention here at Kindle Nation! -S.W.)

By LEN EDGERLY

Contributing Editor

Paul Slack, a co-founder of the Dallas-based Splash Media, has written a 319-page manual for entrepreneurs and small-business owners who are ready to graduate from buzzwords and get serious about social media. During an in-person interview with Paul at Splash’s state-of-the-art media studio on May 3rd, I learned these lessons about social media marketing:

  1. In social media, there are no quick fixes. Unlike search engine optimization, where Google is the only gorilla, a social-media plan must coordinate multiple sites with multiple purposes.  For starters, those sites are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and your blog. “If you’re going to start today,” Paul tells new clients, “in terms of return on investment—if you’re counting return on investment as leads and sales for your business—you shouldn’t even consider that for the first six months.”
  2. To succeed in social media marketing, you need to build new habits for sustained building of community. Otherwise, your initial enthusiasm will lead to nothing more than a social-media ghost town, as in the Facebook page that no one has updated for six months.
  3. Because “people do business with people,” a business using social media must be transparent and let potential customers sense the presence of a real person on the Twitter or Facebook account.
  4. That doesn’t mean tweeting about what you had for lunch. The test of all shared content, Paul advises, is that it can benefit the people following you.

Although this new book about social media is aimed at entrepreneurs and business owners, it may also interest readers who have a more general curiosity about these powerful tools. For example, I asked Paul how social media can serve as a way to curate the torrent of new eBooks published every month, perhaps filling the void that would be left if the eBook revolution overthrows the unquestioned authority of traditional publishers to decide which books are good enough to present to readers and which ones are not.

Paul Slack

“I do believe that social media plays an interesting role just in media consumption in general,” Paul replied, “and I would say that books and eBooks would fall into that.” The reason social media qualifies as a revolution, he said, is that we have all become micro-publishers and critics, adding: “In the old days—five years ago—you would do a search on Google to find something relevant, but you had no context. It was what Google told you was relevant.” By comparison, he said, today you can rely on what someone in your personal network has to say about which eBooks might be relevant to you.

Social Rules! went live this week at the Kindle Store for 99 cents a copy. It is also available for free borrowing at the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, if you have an Amazon Prime membership. The bargain price is part of Splash Media’s strategy of sharing practical social-media tips with as wide an audience as possible.  In the past they have presented free social media boot camps all over the country, and now the medium is a full-length book. You can even buy it on paper, for $16.95.

“I’m not a technical person,” Paul told me. “I’m much more of a marketer. And so I wanted to write a book that an entrepreneur or a small-business owner could read and go, ‘Oh, I finally get what Twitter’s all about.’ Or:  ‘I finally get how social media works together and can help me do something within my business.’”

At the end of our conversation, I invited Paul to step into a time machine and envision, decades hence, a time when social media itself will be the tired, old medium that the next media revolution will replace. What might that look like?

“The one thing that I know that seems to hold true,” he replied, “is that technology is going to continue to lend a hand in things, that the fundamental truths will never go away—that people do love to connect with one another, they do love to associate with one another, they love to share their thoughts and opinions, that we hate to be sold but we love to buy things—and so whatever’s going to happen in the future is going to facilitate that and make it easier and easier.”

Meanwhile, if you have a business—or even a book or a podcast—that could benefit from a disciplined, patient, no-nonsense engagement with potential customers through social media, you might want to download a copy of Social Rules! and get started.

Len Edgerly blogs at The Kindle Chronicles where you can hear his interview with Paul Slack in its entirety at 21:39 of this week’s Kindle Chronicles podcast episode 199. Click here for video of the interview.

 

Publetariat Dispatch: Amazon vs. Small Indie Booksellers

Publetariat: For People Who Publish!

In today’s Publetariat Dispatch, we offer a roundup of opinion on Amazon’s moves into publishing and its sometimes aggressive moves in the marketplace.

There’s been much commentary about Amazon’s new KDP Select program, as well as about its one-day price comparison app promotion, some of which we’ve been sharing here on Publetariat. The debate rages on, and now branches out into the question of the impact programs like this and mega-bookseller Amazon have on small, independent booksellers. Surprisingly, there are well-considered arguments on both sides.

Independent Bookseller Bob Spear quotes from an open letter American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher, written in response to Amazon’s one-day, bricks-and-mortar price comparison app promotion:

Despite your company’s recent pledge to be a better corporate citizen  and to obey the law and collect sales tax, you created a price-check  app that allows shoppers to browse Main Street stores that do collect  sales tax, scan a product, ask for expertise, and walk out empty-handed  in order to buy on Amazon. We suppose we should be flattered that an  online sales behemoth needs a Main Street retail showroom.

Forgive us if we’re not.

We could call your $5 bounty to app-users a cheesy marketing move and  leave it at that. In fact, it is the latest in a series of steps to  expand your market at the expense of cities and towns nationwide,  stripping them of their unique character and the financial wherewithal  to pay for essential needs like schools, fire and police departments,  and libraries.

 

Over on Slate, Farhad Manjoo  takes the controversial position that buying books on Amazon is better  for authors, better for the economy, and better for you, because (in his  opinion) small, local booksellers aren’t really doing consumers much of  a service by comparison:

…I was primed to nod in vigorous agreement when I saw novelist Richard Russo’s New York Times op-ed   taking on Amazon’s thuggish ways. But as I waded into Russo’s   piece—which was widely passed around on Tuesday—I realized that he’d   made a critical and common mistake in his argument. Rather than focus on   the ways that Amazon’s promotion would harm businesses whose demise   might actually be a cause for alarm (like a big-box electronics store   that hires hundreds of local residents), Russo hangs his tirade on some   of the least efficient, least user-friendly, and most mistakenly   mythologized local establishments you can find: independent bookstores.   Russo and his novelist friends take for granted that sustaining these   cultish, moldering institutions is the only way to foster a “real-life   literary culture,” as writer Tom Perrotta puts it. Russo claims that   Amazon, unlike the bookstore down the street, “doesn’t care about the   larger bookselling universe” and has no interest in fostering “literary   culture.”

That’s simply bogus. As much as I despise some of its recent tactics,   no company in recent years has done more than Amazon to ignite a   national passion for buying, reading, and even writing new books.

 

In a rebuttal to Manjoo, on Flavorwire, Judy Berman explains why she feels he’s giving small booksellers short shrift:

I find it sad, actually, that Manjoo — a generally sharp and smart   technology writer — finds clicking around on Amazon to be more fun than   browsing the shelves of a real-life bookstore where (gasp!) one might   actually interact with other book lovers. It also seems specious to   argue that Amazon customer reviews are more useful than the advice of an   independent bookstore employee or owner, who presumably has more   knowledge of and enthusiasm for literature than your average unknown   dude typing angrily in his parents’ basement. A bookseller, for example,   would probably not opine that Jane Eyre is “a longer story of 456 pages in which really could have been written well in half the length.”

 

Mark Coker believes the KDP Select program is wholly predatory, and bad for authors, publishers, and booksellers alike. As he writes in his blog post on the matter:

Impact on authors:

  • Forces  the author to remove the book from sale from the Apple iBookstore,  Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Smashwords and others, thereby causing  the author to lose out on sales from competing retailers.
  • By  unpublishing a title from any retailer, the author destroys any accrued  sales rank, making their book less visible and less discoverable when  and if they reactivate distribution to competing retailers
  • Makes  the author more dependent upon Amazon for sales.  Do you want to become  a tenant farmer, 100% dependent upon a single retailer?  As some of you  history buffs may know, tenant farming, and the abuses of power by  landlords, was a primary contributor behind the great Irish potato famine.

 

Author LJ Sellers, on the other hand, feels her decision to offer some of her work through KDP Select was merely a formality since most of her sales come through Amazon anyway:

…I don’t want to see Amazon become a monopoly or have it be the only  place my books are available. I want readers to have choices. Still, to  survive financially, I may have to climb on board the Amazon train and  let go of the idea that I’m an independent author.

Two issues are on deck for me right now. First, is the lending library that everyone’s buzzing about and some are calling predatory. Amazon called me two weeks ago to pitch KDP Select  to me personally. Surprised by the contact, I assume it’s because I  have ten books on the market and sold quite a few on Kindle last year.

My only concern was the exclusivity issue, but in the end, I decided  to enroll two of my standalone thrillers. Which means I had to pull  those books from all other e-readers. I wasn’t making enough money on  them from any other sources for it to be a financial decision. My  hesitation was based only on my commitment to give readers full access  to my books.

But the promotional opportunity Amazon offered—a five-day giveaway of  the books—was hard to resist. The exposure could be invaluable. Right  now, The Suicide Effect  is being downloaded in record numbers. Because I have nine other books  for new readers to buy, this could turn out well for me. I’ll know in  the next month or so.

Bookavore examines the corporate culture and business practices of Amazon, as they trickle down to readers:

At this point I am thinking one or all of the following must be true:

  1. The company culture at Amazon is in some part developed on the  back of a scrappy underdog mentality that can only, given their current  dominance, be furthered by deliberate business decisions that allow the  company to feel like a misunderstood victim
  2. The marketing department has hard data showing that given the  general miasma of free market exhortation in modern political discourse,  consumers respond enthusiastically to offers that deliberately and  overtly screw over competition, in large enough numbers to make any  negative press a moot point
  3. This is all part of an elaborate campaign to make decisions that  compel Amazon’s competition and detractors to come out in numbers ruing  their predatory and unethical practices, which given the reactive nature  of the Internet will give Amazon’s defenders endless chances to label  the detractors as old-fashioned, elitists, nostalgia-hounds, and/or  Luddites, further cementing the “Amazon vs. the world” brand story
  4. Amazon has studied the possibility that they could make more money  long-term by gaining the loyalty of customers who would be swayed by  more ethical business practices, but has also realized it wouldn’t be  worth the investment

 

 

 

Kindle Fire, Musicians, Movies, and Change at the Speed of Sound: How Amazon is Transforming Itself Into a Marketplace for the Mind, with the Kindle as Its Primary Portal

Here’s a fun infographic from (of all places) Staples, via Nate at The Digital Reader

I took Betty and Danny out for dinner Friday evening before the three of us caught a couple of terrific live performances by Ernie Halter and Javier Colon at the Berklee Performance Center, and along the way we ran into a 20-something rocking her Kindle Fire at one of my favorite Boston bookstores, the Trident Bookseller Cafe. Conversation ensued.

Well, we didn’t actually “run into” her. She was sitting there minding her own business and reading on her Kindle Fire and after we finished a sumptuous meal (Trident is the rare bookstore-cafe combo that truly excels at both functions), I passed the time while Betty was in the loo by interrupting the poor woman’s reading and peppering her with questions about how she uses her Kindle Fire. I explained my interest to her in terms of my job here at KND, as if. She was co-operative, although I suspect she was relieved when I allowed her to go back to her reading.

What I learned:

  • The Fire is her first Kindle. (Which to me is important. There will be millions for whom the Fire will be their first Kindle, and for all those people they are a lot less likely to miss the lovely eInk display that I love so much because, er, they never had it. She raved about the way the Fire allowed her to change font sizes and color schemes while reading.)
  • She reads on the Fire. She really likes books, but not having to carry them is great.
  • She has also enjoyed watching movies, listening to music, and checking email and the web.

None of this, on an individual level, is earthshaking. In fact it is totally consistent with the answers that we are getting from hundreds of you who have been participating in the Winter 2012 Kindle Nation Daily Citizen Survey (Click here to participate, and after you participate you’ll find a link to the live results.)

But taken together, what jumps out from our survey results and other information such as that included in the nifty infographic (above right) is that the world of shared culture — books, movies, music, the web, our social networks and more — is changing at lightning speed. If that world was changing at 100 mph in the first year of the eInk Kindle back in 2008, the velocity of change has now surpassed the speed of sound, and those 82 million tablet users in 2015 may mean that we are ultimately on the way, figuratively speaking of course, to … what shall we say? The speed of light? The speed of thought? Whatever it’s going to be, it’s not your father’s dial-up.

What am I saying? Am I just stringing words together to get to the end of the paragraph? In 2008 it took only 30,000 copies sold to make our first Complete User’s Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle the absolute number one bestselling ebook in the world for the entire year, and neither authors nor publishers were particularly enthusiastic about the future of ebooks. Now there are a dozen or so authors who have sold over a million Kindle copies, and there are growing legions of authors who are making a very nice living with a publishing approach in which print publishing and all of the gatekeeping silliness that goes with it is, at most, an afterthought.

And of course it’s not just books, because a big part of what all that change is about is that, when you take price and functionality together, the Kindle Fire is the greatest content delivery system ever for the mind, and it has allowed Amazon to continue to transform itself into so much more than a bookstore. Amazon is becoming a marketplace for the mind, with the Kindle as its primary portal

While our survey shows that Kindle Fire owners spend more time reading than enjoying movies and music and apps and audiobooks on their Fire tablets, that’s partly a matter of how we invest our time generally and partly a natural consequence of the fact that we have spent the past four years here building a community of the greatest readers in the world. As more and more of our readers become Kindle Fire owners and more and more of you devote energy to seeking out the sweet spot between quality and price in the world of music, movies, apps, audiobooks, and more, it will be incumbent for us here at Kindle Nation Daily to find interesting, helpful, and non-intrusive ways to build a community that includes the greatest movie viewers in the world, the greatest music listeners, and so forth. Indeed, in the next few days we will get that party started at a new subdomain of our Kindle Nation Daily website, and if you would like an invitation to the party just drop an email to kindlenation+fire@gmail.com.

It won’t be all about us. It will be up the smart people in the worlds of movies and music and books and other arts and forms of expression and information-sharing to figure out how to maintain and enhance their relevance in a changing world.

We’ll continue to hear a certain amount of whining from some — including booksellers, publishers, authors, musicians, etc. — who are unwilling to invest the necessary energy to imagine and realize their roles in that changing world, as if the toothpaste of change can be forced back into the tube, to slow things down again velocity-wise.

But meanwhile there will be plenty who can make it work.

Trident Booksellers and Cafe

There will be booksellers like Bernie Flynn of Trident Booksellers whose passion for what they do will help them find ways to keep their stores thriving as competitors close their doors blaming the Kindle, the chains, Amazon’s used book business, or the latest bogey man du jour.

There will be venues like the Berklee Performance Center that continue to find the real world sweet spots where working indie musicians like Ernie Halter can connect with a loving, and growing, digital music audience that is more interested in music of distinction than the music of superstars.

And there will be artists like Halter, who make the kind of authentic investment in such connections that allows them to keep making a nice living pursuing their passions.

Which reminds me of a story Ernie Halter told onstage Friday night….

At some point a year or so ago, while on tour, he got a call that came … of course … from his mom. Ernie’s mom claimed that she had just seen something on the web about Justin Bieber covering Halter’s song “Come Home to Me.” In Hong Kong. As if you can ever prove what happens in Hong Kong.

“Sure, Mom.”

Ernie Halter with Selena Gomez and the Biebs
Ernie Halter with Selena Gomez and the Biebs

But it turned out…. Well, it turned out a few months later that Ernie had a gig at La Cave in Costa Mesa, CA., and the room was packed, and right there, at the best table in the club, well, there was nobody sitting there … until early in the show, a couple sat down: Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber. Yes, Bieber had covered the song, and that night he joined Ernie on stage and they performed the song as a duet — here’s the Youtube video.

Sweet, but of course I had a question, and after Ernie’s set Friday night I had a nice conversation with him. After I told him that I thought he had a terrific stage presence, I told him I just had one question: “Did you get paid?”

“Well, not directly,” Ernie said. Which I think is exactly the right answer in today’s fast changing world, from somebody who showed me Friday evening that he understands what’s important — and what probably never changes — about connecting with audience, and with other artists.

 

Publetariat Dispatch: Amazon Kindle The Fire. Ebooks Go Mainstream.

Publetariat: For People Who Publish!

In today’s Publetariat Dispatch, author and publishing consultant Joanna Penn posits that ebooks have finally gone mainstream.

Ebook sales have been steadily growing over the last 2 years and those of us readers who converted early are almost entirely ebook consumers now.

For authors, the global ebook sales market has meant we can sell direct to customers and every month receive a cheque from Amazon. We can log on and see our sales by the hour. It has been life changing for me and so many others.

But ebooks have been far from mainstream. Until now.

 

These new Kindle devices change everything.

Amazon has unveiled a new family of Kindles  including one at the magic price of $79. This is what happened with the  iPod when the price came down low enough that it was a no-brainer  purchase. Those people who had been on the fence about new-fangled  digital music went out and got one, just to see what the fuss was about.  I was one of those people (with the ipod) and it hasn’t left my side  since.When did you switch to digital music?

 

Kindle sales growth almost vertical (Image source: Business Insider)

I was one of the first people in Australia to buy the Kindle when it  (finally) become available. I converted to 90% ebook reading within  weeks and the number of books I bought at least trebled. I am  unashamedly an Amazon fan but this is a massively exciting development  for any author who can see what’s round the corner.

These new Kindles will ship in October and November.  There will be many of them in Christmas stockings and ebook sales go up  over Christmas because people have time to read, and of course, play  with their new gadgets.

So what does this mean for you?

  • If you don’t have a Kindle yet and you are a writer or want to be. Get off the fence and buy one of these (affiliate). Experience for yourself what the digital revolution means.  Even if you still love the smell of a new book, there are millions of  people converting to ebooks and you want to sell to them. You are not  your market. You have to see this to believe it.
  • If you are a traditionally published author and your publisher has  not put your book on the Kindle with global rights, then go see an IP  lawyer and see what you can do to get the rights back or ask the  publisher to get your books up there. It’s not rocket science.

Trust the market

People want to read. They want to find books that will inspire them,  entertain them, educate them, take them out of their world for just a  few minutes. These book lovers are people like me. I devour Kindle  books. I download samples several times a day. My biggest entertainment  expense is ebooks. I love reading. Chances are, so do you, and so do  millions of readers. Maybe they will like your book. But they won’t find  it unless it’s on the Kindle platform.

I’m sure there will be the usual lamentation that this attitude will  flood the market with more self-published books of bad quality, but I trust the market. I am a heavy Kindle user. I am  the market. I always download a sample unless I trust the author. I  always delete the sample and don’t buy if the formatting is bad or if  the book is not enjoyable or useful. I only buy books that pass this  sample test. I go by reader recommendations and how many stars there  are. I buy based on recommendations from my friends on twitter. Crap  books with crap covers do not sell. They don’t rank on the bestseller  list. They do not get recommendations.

Stop with the excuses about why you think ebooks will fail, or how they are destroying publishing. Enough already.

This is no longer the future. This is right now. You need to act.

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

Publetariat Dispatch: Have You Bashed Your Indie Author Today?

Publetariat: For People Who Publish!

In today’s Publetariat Dispatch, we share a post from Dani Amore which originally appeared on her Goodreads blog on 9/21/11 and was reprinted on Publetariat in its entirety with the author’s permission.

If you read the headline above, you may think I’m going to launch into a rousing defense of indie authors everywhere.

I’m not.  Frankly, I think there are a lot of bad indie books, but I  also feel there are a lot of bad books put out by the established  publishing industry.  I also think there are a lot of fabulous indie  books, as well as amazing traditionally published books.

[Editor’s note: this post contains strong language]

So why write this post?

Well, I recently read a thread on which indie authors giving their  books away for free, or pricing them cheaply, were compared to street  corner prostitutes with syphilis, metaphorically willing to service  clients orally for pocket change.

Being a person with a sarcastic and often caustic sense of humor, I  laughed initially.  But then I thought about it.  And I thought of some  of the bestselling novelists who are giving away, or have given away,  their books away for free.

Lisa Gardner, for instance, offered her novel ALONE for free.   Andrew Gross offered one of his novels for free.  Currently, Ted Dekker  has a short story/prequel for free on Kindle.

I don’t hear anyone referring to Ms. Gardner, Mr. Gross or Mr. Dekker as cheap whores.

So what do I make of this?

Well, I work in advertising.  So I’ve experienced firsthand the  meeting of brands with the marketplace.  I’ve sat through many, many  focus groups.  The result?

I believe good products survive.  There are always critics.  Some  with sound, astute comments.   Others, sheer nutjobs.  Like the lady in a  focus group who raved with great eloquence about my television  commercial, then proceeded to talk about having sex with aliens in the  Everglades.  (True story.)

So what do I think of the glee and vitriol that seems to accompany the skewering of indie authors?

Couple things.

No fear of retribution.

I think it’s a lot easier for someone, let’s call him Wannabe Writer  William, to bash an indie author than it is for him to trash a  bestselling novelist.

Why?

Well, the bestselling novelist, let’s call her Bestselling Betty,  has clout within the industry.  She’s with a big publishing house and  probably a big literary agency.

(Who knows, maybe Wannabe William has submitted his unpublished  novel to both and is hoping to hear some good news – he wouldn’t want to  jeopardize anything.) Bestselling Betty also writes dynamite blurbs and  the occasional book review.  If William ever sells his book, he might  be asking Betty for a blurb.

Does he want to piss her off?

Hell no.

But what about bashing Two Jobs Ted?  Ted’s a grocery store manager  and a part-time reporter for his local paper.  He’s married, with three  kids.  He’s also an indie author who just published his first book.   It’s good.  He didn’t have money to hire an editor, but he had friends  he respects read the book, as well as proofread it.  It’s a little rough  around the edges, a few typos slipped by, but overall, it’s a good  story.

Wannabe William reads it.  He catches the typos.  Maybe there’s a  small plot twist that doesn’t make sense.  Wannabe William decides to  bash Two Jobs Ted.  This is just the kind of thing these indie authors  are putting out while his book sits in the corner, garnering no  interest.  So William tees off on Ted.  He’s not afraid of Mr. Two Jobs –  what’s he going to do, send William some day old bread from the grocery  store?  Write an unflattering story about William in his paper, the  East Bumfuck Bugle?

The Power of the Asterisk

You all know the guy or gal.  If they ever lose a game, or their  favorite team gets knocked out of the playoffs, they have a knack for  creating what I call the Asterisk Excuse.  It usually goes something  like this:  “Well of course my team lost, three of our starters were out  with Indonesian Malaria, and the waterboy spilled Ecstasy into the team  Gatorade.”

You get the idea.

Wannabe Writer William has yet to sell his novel.  And it pisses him  off to see indie authors selling books, getting reviews, maybe even  making it on to a few bestseller lists.  But what really chaps his ass  is when they refer to themselves as “authors.”  It infuriates William!

Each rejection letter from an agent, editor or publisher makes William feel worse, and fuels his anger.

What would make him feel better?

To point out that books from indie authors all have asterisks.   They’re not “real” books or authors.  Want proof?  Look at Two Jobs Ted?   He sucks!  In fact, ALL indie authors blow!

There, now William feels better.

My response…So what?

Sorry, that’s my take on everything I just said.  So fucking what.

The marketplace is cold and cruel.  Yes, there are hidden agendas.   Yes, there are mean spirited people who love to rip others to shreds.

Again, so what?

Raymond Chandler, when asked about the dead body in the trunk of a  car in his timeless classic THE BIG SLEEP, replied “Oh, I guess I forgot  about that.”

In Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe has his hero take off all of his  clothes, swim out to the wreck, then immediately begin stuffing food  into his pockets.

Oops.

I was just reading a new thriller by a New York Times bestseller.   The hero of the book, who is supposed to be incredibly intelligent and  street-smart, was obviously being duped.  I had a basketball coach who  if he felt you telegraphed a pass would scream at you, “I saw that one  coming from Cincinnati!”  Well, I’m guessing every reader saw that plot  twist coming from Cincinnati.  I stopped reading the book.

Again.  So what?

If you want to write a book, write it.  Tell your story.  If you’ve  got the money, hire a reputable editor, proofreader, and ebook designer.

If you don’t have the money, do the best you can.

Just know that when you go out with your book, the headhunters will show up sooner or later, looking to crack your skull.

Do what I do.  Read their reviews.  Hear them out.  Honestly ask  yourself if they have a point.  Use the good feedback to make yourself a  better writer.  Do a better job with each book.

If their take on your book is as bloody as all 120 minutes of The Passion of the Christ, that’s okay, too.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

As both a person.

And a writer.

Hey, if you get kicked in the crotch seven times,  say “fuck you” eight times.

And then get back to work.

 

 

Publetariat Dispatch: An Author’s Field Guide To Internet Trolls

Publetariat: For People Who Publish!

In today’s Publetariat Dispatch, author, and founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat April L. Hamilton takes a tongue-in-cheek look at internet trolls.

‘Author Platform’ is the buzzphrase of the moment. If you’re doing a good job of creating and maintaining that all-important communication channel between yourself and the public, it’s only a matter of time before the web trolls descend upon you to ruin things for everyone.

Herewith, I present a relevant excerpt from Ms. Gertrude Strumpf-Hollingsworth’s “Encyclopedia of Annoyances, Bothers and Frustrations”, which provides a valuable natural history lesson in the identification and management of the species most likely to darken an author’s virtual doorstep.

Introduction

The Internet Troll (webicus infuriatum) is a hardy, highly adaptable family of parasites with established populations all over the web. Most leading Techno-Naturalists classify it as a viral organism due the fact that it reproduces by infecting members of targeted populations. Once exposed to webicus, susceptible individuals soon display the aggression, vitriol and boorishness which are the identifying hallmarks of all Trolls.

Hiding behind a pseudonym, webicus will quickly become the dominant element in any online ecosystem which provides it with a steady supply of attention and argument. In fact, webicus is so skilled in monopolizing these resources that it frequently drives off larger, but more peaceable, local populations. While all Trolls are destructive, there are perhaps none so pernicious as the subspecies which target author websites and online writer communities. Armed with a voluble nature and much larger vocabularies than other Trolls, these are particularly troublesome.

The Queen Bee/King Drone (lordicus cliqueium)

Behavior: Lordicus begins by befriending charter members and site owner/administrators alike with its initial friendliness and offers of assistance. With favors banked and loyalties established, lordicus reveals its true nature when another community member voices a dissenting view, or becomes as well-liked as lordicus. In either case, lordicus and its followers close ranks to attack or freeze out the other member, claiming to speak on behalf of the entire community.

Control: The only effective method of lordicus control is a strongly-worded email from the site owner or administrator. Lordicus’ response is invariably a dramatic, martyred leave-taking from the site, after which it will continue to lurk and foment dissention among other members via off-site communications.

Identifying Call: A shrill, “Who do you think you are?”, sometimes followed by a low-pitched, “Nobody cares what you think, anyway.”

The Puffed Pedant (self-importantia verbosia)

Behavior: Self-importantia is known for its lengthy, patronizing deconstructions of other members’ writing, in which it takes great pleasure in pointing out every broken rule of grammar, plotting, characterization and the like, regardless of whether or not said rules were broken intentionally, as a stylistic choice. Given that s.i. is never a published author in its own right, one might expect other community members to routinely disregard its remarks. However, s.i. posts with such smug conviction that it effects a sort of Jedi Mind Trick on the least experienced and most gullible members of the community.

Control: Since s.i. doesn’t technically overstep a site’s Terms of Service, there’s little the site owner/admin can do to put a stop to its antics. It was once thought that exposing the Pedant to the works of Kurt Vonnegut or Anthony Burgess would humble and silence the creature, but field studies have proven it will merely label such works “the exception that proves the rule” and emerge both unscathed and uneducated by the experience. Depriving s.i. of the attention, argument, and writing samples it craves usually proves more effective.

Identifying Call: A repetitive, clucking, “Do your homework.”

The Prickly Recluse (hypersensitivium rex)

Behavior: This species is known for its uncanny ability to incorrectly interpret the tone or meaning of any other member posts, regardless of how innocuous those posts may be, invariably choosing the most negative or insulting meaning possible and taking that meaning entirely personally. From there, hypersensitivium will repeat and repost its incorrect interpretation in an effort to rally support and sympathy for itself.

Control: First-time victims generally interpret the Recluse’s behavior as innocent misunderstanding, and will usually attempt to resolve the matter with an apologetic, clarifying post. However, since hypersensitivium will misinterpret the palliative post as well, such efforts are destined to fail. A warning post or email from the site administrator will generate one last, self-pitying post from the Recluse, followed by several weeks of absence from the site. It is from this latter behavior that the Recluse gets its name.

Identifying Call: A sharp, striking, “How dare you!”

The PubPro Mimic (wannabeum knowitallia)

Behavior: This type of Troll masquerades as a publishing industry professional with many years of relevant experience, yet never offers any proof of its claims and simply ignores all requests for such. Nevertheless, using its supposed trove of expertise as bait, wannabeum easily attracts a cadre of insecure writers looking for a “secret handshake” or other insider knowledge that might give them an edge in getting published.

Since wannabeum lacks the expertise to which it lays claim, its haughty assertions about writing, getting an agent, publishing and bookselling are largely false. Even so, any attempt to correct the Mimic directly, or even to merely post an alternative viewpoint, will backfire in a firestorm of belittling recriminations from the Mimic, which will rely on its claimed expertise as all the support or proof its posts require.

Control: Catching wannabeum in a resumé lie will cause it to immediately vacate a site, but this is nearly impossible since wannabeum never posts under its real name and is careful to keep the identifying details of its claimed career experience vague.

Identifying Call: “If you’d worked in the publishing business for as many years as I have, you’d know how ridiculous you sound.”

The Equalizer (evenus stevenus)

Behavior: Evenus is the self-appointed score keeper and referee of any community it inhabits. Evenus keeps constant track of who has shared good or bad news, who has posted congratulations or sympathy, and whether or not such congratulations or sympathies are adequately effusive and timely. Anyone failing to pass the Equalizer’s test is subjected to the same kind of freeze-out favored by the Queen Bee / King Drone, but unlike that species, the Equalizer keeps the impetus behind its attack secret for as long as possible. Often, Evenus deprives its victims of this information for so long that another member of Evenus’ circle is ultimately the one to reveal it.

Control: As with the Puffed Pedant, since Evenus doesn’t technically break any site’s Terms of Service, little can be done to discourage it. One can either ignore Evenus or strive to steer clear of it.

Identifying Call: frosty silence.

The Sock Puppet Master (bittera duplicator)

Behavior: Perhaps the most pathetic of all the Troll species which favor author communities and websites, bittera creates its own support network by setting up multiple user accounts. It uses these accounts to create negative or attacking posts about others and their work, then uses its other accounts to second its own opinions in a masturbatory fashion.

Control: No specific action is necessary. Bittera will eventually reveal itself as a fraud by losing track of its various aliases, posting in the tone or style of one persona while logged in as another. Once exposed, this Troll will immediately delete all of its past posts, close its many accounts and move on to a new site. It may reappear months later to set up a new collection of accounts and aliases, but only when it’s sure its past activities have been forgotten.

Identifying Call: mockingbird-like repetition of, and agreement with, anything posted under any of its many aliases.

The Fake Friendly (condescendiosa passive-aggressivium)

Behavior: This Troll openly attacks and insults authors and their work, and when called to account for its unacceptable behavior, claims its remarks have been misinterpreted and it meant no offense.

For example, in a thread about the merits of giving away free ebook copies as a promotional gambit, following the post of a member extolling the virtues of free ebook copies, it may post, “If your book was any good, you wouldn’t have to give it away.” When the other member responds with understandable anger and offense, the Fake Friendly will defend itself by retreating behind a response along the lines of, “I didn’t say your book actually is no good, I’m just saying that you deserve to be paid for quality work.”

Condescendiosa can keep this back-and-forth dance of insults and re-interpretation going indefinitely, but its most maddening behavior is its penchant for claiming the moral high ground by recasting its abuse as simple, well-meaning honesty, which it says others can’t tolerate on account of being overly sensitive.

Control: Much like the Sock Puppet Master, this type of Troll is always the cause of its own undoing. As it slashes and burns its way through the community, systematically training its disingenuous focus on member after member, condescendiosa eventually finds it has more enemies than cohorts and vacates the premises.

Identifying Call: “You’ll never make it as a writer if you don’t develop a thicker skin,” and “I don’t know what you’re so upset about.”

 

April L. Hamilton is an author and the founder of Publetariat. This is a cross-posting of an entry from her Indie Author blog, dated 6/8/09.

Publetariat Dispatch: Indie Author Discrimination

Publetariat: For People Who Publish!

In today’s Publetariat Dispatch, author Melissa Conway addresses the bias against self-published authors and books.

I thought I’d write about some of the issues that led to the creation of my popular video The Indie-Author Lament. By “popular,” I don’t mean viral or anything, I just mean it hit a nerve with a lot of self-published authors like myself – you know that nerve in your elbow when you bonk it that hurts like hell but makes you laugh helplessly like a loon? Yeah, that one.

From the feedback I got on the video, it’s pretty clear that just about every self-published author out there has a story similar to mine. I decided to write the song after two weeks of intensive marketing that left me feeling like a dog that couldn’t quite catch its tail. The video was never overtly intended as a marketing tool, even though I did have it in the back of my mind that almost anything that gets me attention can be used to direct people to my product. So in that respect, I accidently stumbled upon a unique marketing tool in itself. People have asked whether the song is true; it mostly is, but I exaggerated some parts to make it funnier – and to make a point. The song is a composite of what the average indie-author goes through.

For those of you who aren’t writers, you may be wondering what all the fuss is about.

There are two roads to getting a book published these days, the long road and the shortcut. A simplistic description of the long road is that it’s the traditional route where your book has to pass muster with first an agent and then an editor at a publishing house. The shortcut, referred to by its detractors as “vanity publishing” is where writers self-publish their manuscripts. Usually they attempted to take the traditional route, but roadblocks and detours prevented them from reaching their destination. So they chose to self-publish, which on the surface might appear to be a smart move to shave off time in their journey, but more often, like many promising shortcuts, leads them through alligator-infested swamps.

I know I’m pushing the metaphors, but in the war against bad books, agents have traditionally held the front line. They function as the roadblocks; well-armed with opinions on what the reading public wants, and they only allow a chosen few books to get past them. Those that do, must detour on to another set of roadblocks set up by the editor. In this way, books that eventually reach the public are supposed to be error-free and high-quality.

The books that don’t get past the agent are a mixed bag. Some are good, some are bad, some are very bad – but some are excellent, because agents aren’t perfect and sometimes they reject based on what’s hot in the market at the moment, etcetera. There’re a lot of subjective reasons why an excellent novel wouldn’t get traditionally published, but on the other hand, there’s no vetting system in place to prevent the very bad self-published books from stinking up the shelves. Anyone who wants to publish a book can do so, but the bad books erode public perception of indies as a whole. If someone reads a traditionally published author’s book and hates it, they aren’t likely to give that author’s next book a chance, but they probably won’t boycott the publisher. If someone reads a badly written or poorly edited self-published book, there’s a danger that they will lump all indie-authors into the same category and avoid them altogether.

The marketing advice most indie-authors are given is twofold: establish an internet presence in forums and on social networking sites, and solicit book bloggers to review their book. So whereas publishing houses can provide advertising and obtain reviews from professional book reviewers for their stable of authors, indie authors are on their own – and unfortunately, some do a piss poor job of promoting themselves.

In a certain subset of self-published authors, I’ll refer to them as the Spammers (because that’s what they are), there’s a decided lack of professionalism as far as marketing is concerned. Spammers are not subtle. They are the ones who tweet the link to their book every hour on the hour. They are the ones with seventeen links in their signature line. They dive-bomb forum threads, comment off-topic on blog posts and generally make a nuisance of themselves – and a bad name for indie authors in general.

While the forum and book blogger advice has worked in some cases really well for authors who didn’t abuse it in the past, there’s been a recent backlash. Some forum administrators purportedly fielded so many complaints about spam that they were forced to create separate groups within the forums, effectively segregating self-published authors – who can now spam each other to their hearts’ content – because you can bet readers won’t venture to the back of the bus. Amazon UK, in a move they have yet to explain to their customers, has just banned indie promotion on their forums altogether.

Major book review publications like the New York Times actually have policies in place that exclude self-published books. Whether this is a result of pressure from publishing conglomerates who advertise with them or an unwillingness to dedicate the manpower necessary to sift through the chaff: they won’t touch them. So indie-authors are forced to seek out alternative ways to get reviews, which are essential to sales. Indie-authors’ family, friends and peers often volunteer, but what they need most in order to avoid the appearance of dishonesty is unbiased opinions, and that’s where book bloggers come in.

The majority of book bloggers don’t accept self-published books, but those that do have unwittingly taken on the road-blocking role of agent. They get the exact same kind of queries agents do and perform the same basic function of filtering out poorly written or badly edited books. This is ironic to the author given that taking the shortcut to publication was supposed to bypass these sorts of roadblocks in the first place. Book bloggers have popped up everywhere and some have become extremely popular: they weather a steady deluge of requests from indie-authors. Many are backlogged several months or even years, so even if they agree to read your book, it won’t be any time soon. Many also have a policy of only posting reviews on books they liked. Some do that because they don’t like negativism, but in others it’s a defense mechanism to avoid confrontations with disgruntled authors. There have been cases of self-published authors engaging in very public and embarrassing flame-wars with reviewers.

So you can see how the aggressive, unrelenting actions of a few have severely curtailed the already limited marketing options of the many.

This anti-indie shift is understandable, but very very frustrating for most of us. My song was a spoof – it didn’t offer advice on how avoid these minefields because even though in general indie-authors stick together and support each other, at the end of the day, marketing is a very personal commitment. Each of us has to budget our time and resources as best we can and something that works for one won’t necessarily work for the other. But just because things look dire right now for indies doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Public opinion swings back and forth, and indie-authors themselves are scrambling to think up unique ways to market themselves and their books. The majority of us keep tight rein on our marketing efforts so we don’t humiliate ourselves or compromise our integrity. It’s not hopeless, just another challenge. Until someone comes up with a viable solution to the lack of a cost-free, unbiased vetting system for self-published books, the best defense is to have a solid product and to maintain decorum. And it looks like the best offense in today’s climate is to think up a unique, non-spam generating marketing platform to wow your potential audience.

This post, from indie author Melissa Conway, originally appeared on her Whimsilly blog and is reprinted here with her permission.