HEY YOU GUYS! I just noticed I have on hundred followers here on my blog!
I'm celebrating by:
1. Handing out virtual champagne - have a glass
2. Handing out virtual canapés and caviar - grab a plate
3. Giving away a free copy of my trilogy - THE NIGHT WATCHMAN EXPRESS
So, about that last one - here's the deal. I have the entire trilogy up in one Kindle download at this point, but soon that's going to change. It's all about word count, you see: my trilogy approaches 150K words (for you non-writers, that means a Buttload) and it's too expensive to print as one book.
Therefore, I have to split it up into two parts to print, and so I'll be splitting it into two Kindle downloads. The current trilogy is a bit raw - it's gone through subsequent edits and formats, but the story hasn't changed a bit.
(Lesson learned - write in printable chunks.)
In any case, leave a comment here, and I'll randomly select one person to receive a copy of my trilogy. Hey, it's a good summer read, and a LONG one, as we now know.
finally - I want to send out a heartfelt Thank You to all my followers. You truly are the best.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Amazon SEO Part Two: Ranking, Tags and Lists, by Claire Chilton
(Claire is the author of Whatever Became of the Squishies.)
After some great feedback from David Powers King and Johanna Garth I decided it was time to finish off my Amazon research in terms of SEO. So here's a full run down of my SEO discoveries inside the mighty Amazon machine:
Some of these methods are newly discovered and some of this is common knowledge. Amazon is a big animal with lots of hidden marketing possibilities.
So here's the rough guide to explain and manipulate the Amazon ranking results.
TAGS
The first section I'll look at are tags. So what is a tag in Amazon? A tag is a keyword or phrase that is tagged to a book by visitors. You'll often see authors in tag parties, trying to improve their search results in Amazon ranking.
*****
You can read the rest of this blog here
And you can find part one here
After some great feedback from David Powers King and Johanna Garth I decided it was time to finish off my Amazon research in terms of SEO. So here's a full run down of my SEO discoveries inside the mighty Amazon machine:
Some of these methods are newly discovered and some of this is common knowledge. Amazon is a big animal with lots of hidden marketing possibilities.
So here's the rough guide to explain and manipulate the Amazon ranking results.
TAGS
The first section I'll look at are tags. So what is a tag in Amazon? A tag is a keyword or phrase that is tagged to a book by visitors. You'll often see authors in tag parties, trying to improve their search results in Amazon ranking.
*****
You can read the rest of this blog here
And you can find part one here
Monday, June 20, 2011
Am I Weird?
Yes.
No surprise there, but I really wonder about myself sometimes. Lately I've been seeing a lot of covers for romance novels, and they always feature a gorgeous, bosomy creature in the arms of a tall, muscular, virile male. Usually that male is bare chested.
I gotta tell you - this does nothing for me. I can appreciate the subjects as art objects, but I'm not very interested in their romance. I got far more interested in the results of the Harry Potter (thin, bespectacled, wears a sweater) and Ginny (thin, ginger hair, wears a sweater.) My heart positively pounded over the results of the Hermione (out of control hair, super intelligent, wears a sweater) and Ron romance (ginger hair, quite a dweeb, wears ugly Dress Robes.)
And there are others - the love story in The Accidental Tourist between Macon and Muriel (Muriel - Not Amber, not Bethenny) had me enthralled. Muriel is described as having eyes the size of sesame seeds and legs as skinny as matchsticks. Macon (not Rafe Savage, not Jude Lawless) sunburns easily and gets lost in a city he's known all his life.
Those characters are real to me. And there have been successful romance books that have hooked my interest - where the hero has a drinking problem, or where the heroine wears glasses. They're out there, but they're hard to find.
So, I suppose I'm looking for those characters with flaws, both physical and emotional. I can relate to them. I can care about those guys.
Again, I'll admit that I'm weird. Maybe most readers want those specimens of male and female perfection in their stories. I just have to say that they leave me cold.
No surprise there, but I really wonder about myself sometimes. Lately I've been seeing a lot of covers for romance novels, and they always feature a gorgeous, bosomy creature in the arms of a tall, muscular, virile male. Usually that male is bare chested.
I gotta tell you - this does nothing for me. I can appreciate the subjects as art objects, but I'm not very interested in their romance. I got far more interested in the results of the Harry Potter (thin, bespectacled, wears a sweater) and Ginny (thin, ginger hair, wears a sweater.) My heart positively pounded over the results of the Hermione (out of control hair, super intelligent, wears a sweater) and Ron romance (ginger hair, quite a dweeb, wears ugly Dress Robes.)
And there are others - the love story in The Accidental Tourist between Macon and Muriel (Muriel - Not Amber, not Bethenny) had me enthralled. Muriel is described as having eyes the size of sesame seeds and legs as skinny as matchsticks. Macon (not Rafe Savage, not Jude Lawless) sunburns easily and gets lost in a city he's known all his life.
Those characters are real to me. And there have been successful romance books that have hooked my interest - where the hero has a drinking problem, or where the heroine wears glasses. They're out there, but they're hard to find.
So, I suppose I'm looking for those characters with flaws, both physical and emotional. I can relate to them. I can care about those guys.
Again, I'll admit that I'm weird. Maybe most readers want those specimens of male and female perfection in their stories. I just have to say that they leave me cold.
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