Amazon Prime Members Can Borrow My eBooks with Kindle Owners' Lending Library

Did you know that if you have a Prime membership on Amazon and live in the USA or UK, you can borrow one ebook a month via the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

You can choose from 180,000+ ebooks FREE, including over 100 New York Times bestsellers. And there are no due dates.

A Prime membership has other advantages too. For only $79/year or £49/year, you'll also receive free 2-day shipping on millions of items on Amazon, plus unlimited streaming of over 25,000 movies and TV shows. There are other perks too. You can learn more about Prime here.

You can borrow directly from your Kindle (e-ink versions and Fire):

1. On e-ink devices (regular Kindles & Touch), click on "See all categories" then scroll down to "Kindle Owners' Lending Library" to view titles. Find a book and click on it to either buy or borrow for free.

2. On Kindle Fire devices, the Lending Library is located in the bookstore. Browse books and look for Prime badge. Click on a title and you'll have the option to either buy or borrow for free.

3. You can also borrow and read on an app for your desktop, iPad and more. Download your borrowed books directly from Amazon.com by looking for titles that show the Amazon Prime icon.

Remember, as a US or UK Prime member, you're entitled to 1 free borrow a month. That's 12 free books each year.

Don't own a Kindle? Get yours now. If you're not a US Prime member, start your one month free trial today. If you live in the UK, start your one month free trial of Prime here.


Borrow Cheryl Kaye Tardif books! Look for the Prime icon.

How important is ebook pricing?

In today's economy, the answer to the above question is easy to answer: ebook pricing is vital to the sales and success of your book. Price them too high and people may skip your book and go for something less expensive, especially if you are not a "big name author". Price your books too low (with the exception of a special sale) and readers may think you're a hobbyist and not very good.

There has been a lot of discussion of what the perfect price point is for an ebook. The answer? You may have to play with the prices if you've published your own ebooks to determine where the best price lies.

A strong proponent of $0.99 and $1.99 ebooks, author JA Konrath, held those views up until last year, when Amazon raised the royalty level to 70% for ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99. Konrath took the plunge and raised his prices and has reported that this hasn't hurt his sales in the least. In fact, he reports he made over $100K last year on his ebooks, across multiple retailers. Not bad income for an author who is self-publishing his own books now, after being published by the big guys for years.

This past week, I've been asked by three authors to advise them as to why their ebooks aren't selling. The first thing I did was head over to their Amazon page, where I discovered ebook prices all over $9. And these are authors with only a couple of books. One only had a single title. You can bet they probably aren't widely known--compared to names like Konrath, Hocking, etc.

Along with high ebook prices, I noted that one author had overly busy book covers. I believe that will hamper his sales. Another author had a poorly worded description. The major problem is that all three authors are published by midstream traditional publishers and this means they don't have much--if any-- say in the pricing, covers or description.

My advice to all three: try to get your ebook rights back and publish these ebooks on your own. Or at least find an ebook publisher (like Imajin Books) that will work with you, price your ebook lower, update your covers and description if needed and give you a higher percentage of royalties. Because without getting that price lowered, you won't have much of a chance selling more ebooks.

In Konrath's latest blog post, he talks about an author who reached the NYT bestsellers list multiple times, who was just offered a $200K two-book deal. After Konrath crunched the numbers and pointed out that her ebooks would be priced higher, it appears this author would be better off publishing these on her own--especially since she obviously already has a platform and a built-in fan base from her existing titles--and setting lower prices.

Kindle Nation Daily conducted a recent survey. Here are some of the results.

"Kindle owners are buying ebooks with ever-increasing frequency, with 13% buying 60 or more paid ebooks a year, 22% buying 30 to 60, and 33% buying 15 to 30."

"A general Kindle reader "buys 4.9 print books and 46.6 ebooks a year. Slightly over half of her ebook acquisitions are free or priced at less 99 cents."

From the survey, here are the top 4 defining factors in purchasing an ebook:

1. ebook is by a favorite author

2. ebook is significantly cheaper than hardcover or paperback edition

3. ebook is priced at $3.99 or LESS

4. ebook comes highly recommended by someone you trust

For great deals on Kindle ebooks, check out Kindle Nation Daily and subscribe to their blog on your Kindle, so you'll receive alerts on exciting new releases, sales and more.

In the end, the pricing issue really boils down to one thing. Publishers and authors should give readers what they want, and they want less expensive ebooks.

Promotional Tools for Authors in an Ereader World

Thank you for dropping by this blog during my Cherish the Romance Virtual Book Tour. I hope you'll check out all my stops. Don't forget to leave a comment with your email address so you'll be entered in my daily draws. Grand prize: a Kobo ereader.

Over the years I've worked with many authors during multi-author events and I've coached authors on all areas of marketing, and one of the most common questions I get is, "What should I buy for promotional tools?" I used to have no problem answering that question, but now we're heading into an ereader world, where the usual promotional tools may not be as effective.

Many of my author friends have gone all out, spending thousands of dollars on t-shirts, mugs, fliers, bookmarks, business cards, coasters, calendars, pens, baseball caps, and many other items. I wonder how many of those items were either thrown away, given away or never used.

More importantly, most authors only make a dollar or two per book--sometimes less--so it's important to weigh the cost of such items and ask yourself if it's worth buying these kinds of promotional tools. I've tried many different things over the years; I don't mind experimenting. Most of the items I mentioned above are just too expensive.

My favorite promotional tool has been bookmarks. They're useful. Or they were until ereaders became so popular. Two-sided bookmarks were excellent promotional tools. You can get a lot of info on one, including book covers, where to buy and website URL. They're the easiest thing to give out when at a book signing or special event. They're also more affordable than most of the other promo tools listed above. I suspect bookmarks won't be as effective in the future as more and more people turn to ereaders.

Business cards are great to give out during conferences or when meeting an agent or publisher, but they're not so good for readers. Most will bury them in their purse or wallet or toss them. T-shirts, mugs and even pens are just too expensive, though they're a great gift or prize, if used to encourage sales first.

With ereaders, there is less demand for authors to tour bookstores and do book signings. I mean, it's not that easy signing an ebook on a Kobo or a Kindle. :-) So I'm looking for new promotional tools, things I can give out when I meet people. Something with some value so that people don't throw it away. Something that will bring people to my website or maybe give them a sample of my work.

I've designed a different kind of business card. It's more like a coupon. On one side I can add a brief description of a book and the cover. On the other side I give them the URL to a sample online. Or the second side has a special coupon code that allows them to read one of my works for free. The entire ebook. I'll even autograph the card if someone wants me to.

I plan to give out a lot of these cards over the next few months and I'll be taking a stack of them with me when I go on a Mexican Riviera cruise in February. I bet I'll see a lot of people relaxing by the pool--with a Kindle or Kobo or Sony or iPad in hand. Stay tuned for another Random Acts of Divineness, and if you happen to be on that cruise, come find me and I'll sign your Kindle or Kobo. ;-)

Lancelot's Lady ~ A Bahamas holiday from dying billionaire JT Lance, a man with a dark secret, leads palliative nurse Rhianna McLeod to Jonathan, a man with his own troubled past, and Rhianna finds herself drawn to the handsome recluse, while unbeknownst to her, someone with a horrific plan is hunting her down.

Lancelot's Lady is available in ebook edition at KoboBooks, Amazon's Kindle Store, Smashwords and other ebook retailers. Help me celebrate by picking up a copy today and "Cherish the romance..."

You can learn more about Lancelot's Lady and Cherish D'Angelo (aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif) at http://www.cherylktardif.com and http://www.cherylktardif.blogspot.com. Follow Cherish from September 27 to October 10 on her Cherish the Romance Virtual Book Tour and win prizes.

Would you ask your favorite author to sign the back of your ereader? If so, who would that be?

Leave a comment here, with email address, to be entered into the prize draws. You're guaranteed to receive at least 1 free ebook just for doing so. Plus you'll be entered to win a Kobo ereader. Winners will be announced after October 10th.

Should writers pursue print publication or publish their own ebooks?

The above question came up in a forum recently, and while everyone has to determine what's right for them as it is a very personal decision, I gave them my thoughts on the topic.

I say go for both--print and ebooks. If you have a traditional publisher for your print, all the better. But don't let that stop you from publishing your own ebooks, especially the ones your agent and publisher aren't interested in. You definitely don't want to overlook the ebook market. That's where the money is right now for authors, if you publish the ebooks yourself.

As a self-published and traditionally published print author, I've seen the pros and cons to both sides.

If you have a backlist of titles that your publisher is finished with, get them up on Amazon Kindle, KoboBooks and Smashwords right away. Sales of ebooks are on the rise, and they won't be stopping or slowing any time too soon.

Other ideas for ebooks: publish a collection of short stories or an anthology with other authors, publish a novella or novelette, publish a how-to book or a book of poetry.

I have 4 ebooks coming out between April 1, 2010 and Sept 27, 2010. :-) There's only one thing better than promoting your books, and that's writing them!

My agent is holding 2 thrillers. I'm considering taking one back and publishing it as an ebook next spring.

The key is this: you want to build momentum, then try to keep that momentum going. And the only way to do this is to keep releasing books under some semblance of regularity.

With Amazon's recent royalty raise to 70% for qualifying ebooks, it's possible for authors to now make more money selling less expensive ebooks than selling traditionally published print books. But in the end, it depends on the personal goals of each writer.

NovelRank creator Mario Lurig dishes on Amazon sales rank, Kindle and more

Many author I know have used various Amazon sales rank tracking systems online so they can see how their books are selling on Amazon, so today I'm interviewing Mario Lurig, the creator of NovelRank. Mario, welcome to The Write Type! ~Cheryl Kaye Tardif

CKT: As the creator of NovelRank, please tell us what led to the creation of such a program.

ML: I'm a self-publishing author myself, and that means marketing my book is a one-man team. The problem was that Amazon sales info is delayed about 6 months from my publisher, Lulu. Therefore, it's hard to know what is working and what is not as not every purchase happens where you want it to happen. I tried other sales rank tracking websites, and was not satisfied with any of them.

I then remembered, "Oh wait, I can write code." So I started tracking sales rank on my own, then realized that other authors probably could use the same thing; I'm not the only author selling less than 15 copies a month. So, I've put in 200+ hours of work and NovelRank was released to the public.

CKT: Who uses NovelRank, and why?

ML: A few publishers, definitely a large collection of self-promoting authors, and I suppose for the same reasons I do: To get some feedback on how well your book is selling on Amazon without having to obsessively visit Amazon.com, trying to figure out if the book's sales rank has gone up or down, and what that means. Authors are busy enough!

CKT: How does NovelRank work? And why is it important to authors like me?

ML: It's a pretty simple concept: Every hour, get the sales rank of your book on all Amazon domains that carry the book that you choose to track. Then, based on trends and changes, estimate the number of sales that occur. Is it important to know the sales at any one moment? No, unless you are actively promoting it. The key to good marketing is good feedback, and that is what NovelRank provides for authors like you.

CKT: Can I only track my sales rank from Amazon.com?

ML: Other sites only track Amazon.com and some track Amazon.co.uk. NovelRank tracks all Amazon domains, including US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan.

CKT: I've used TitleZ in the past to track my sales ranks and at one time could track my Kindle sales rank too, but then TitleZ removed this feature. Can I use NovelRank to track Kindle editions of my work?

ML: Yes! It's a bit of a long story, but the quick version is that every site that exists to track sales rank uses Amazon's API (efficient way to get information from a service or site). Months ago, Amazon removed the ability to get any information about Kindle Edition books, and after some persistence from myself and a few others in their forums, they finally stated that this was deliberate and permanent. Everyone's source of information was lost, including NovelRank.

I wasn't satisfied with that option, so I found another way to get the information from Amazon that was 20% of the API's efficiency. Without this new method, it would have been only 4%, which just isn't a feasible amount to get the data in a timely manner. Now NovelRank allows you to add Kindle Edition books for tracking, and still get hourly results, including sales estimates, exclusively.

CKT: On TitleZ I could track a list of items and see them on one page. This was great for comparing ranks for my 3 novels. It was also useful if I wanted to track a comparative title and compare to one of mine. Can I track more than one item and compare their stats easily using NovelRank?

ML: You can definitely track more than one item, and you can even share the book's page with others without them needing to create an account, just share the URL of the page. However, this is the one place NovelRank lags behind others, the ability to have an account and track everything on one page. It's coming, let me be clear, but I opted to reduce the barrier to entry, because I really dislike having to login or make an account everywhere.

So, I made it really simple to add a book, track it, and share that with others or integrate it with your regular life with things like RSS feeds. I'll be keeping the spirit the same however, because you won't be creating an account, but simply logging in through one of 6 services you already have an account with, such as Google, LiveJournal, Facebook, and Twitter. Just like the current book details page, you will have an 'account' page accessible by URL so you won't need to login to see everything on one page, only to make changes to your settings or lists.

CKT: Are there any features (current or future) that really make NovelRank stand out?

ML: Kindle tracking is the standout feature right now, as nobody else supports it. Nobody.

CKT: Do you charge for this tracking service?

ML: I like to think that the second best thing about NovelRank is that there are no advertisements, never will be, and it has the best price: Free.

CKT: On the home page of NovelRank, you feature 3 lists? Tell us about them. Are there any others, and what do they track?

ML: It actually features about 10 lists, because every hour the 3 featured on the home page change, as they are randomly selected from all of the Top 10 lists available. It always shows Recent Additions on either Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, as the most popular Amazon domains, and then 2 other lists.

Most lists are obvious, showing books that were recently added, top sellers, top Lulu sellers, etc. However, my favorite lists are called Diamonds in the Rough, which represent books that have sold a copy recently, but have been on a dry streak in the last couple of days. In other words, books that are valuable enough to garner your attention and your dollars, but probably not top sellers.

CKT: Do you have anything else to add?

ML: Being an author is hard, even for those of us doing it part-time, but it's incredibly rewarding. If NovelRank can bring value to an author who is taking their book's sales and marketing into their own hands, it has succeeded. Like my book, NovelRank suffers from the same fate: I'm its biggest fan, and everything else is gravy.

Authors: you can now promote your book on NovelRank. Just send Mario a copy for his once a month book draw. http://www.novelrank.com/blog/donate-novel-authors-monthly-promotion-and-giveaway/

Thank you for dropping by The Write Type, Mario, and for sharing this valuable service. I've tried NovelRank and it's simple and easy. All the best in success with NovelRank.

Authors: promote your books on NovelRank, Kobo, Kindle and litHouse

Authors: here are some great promotional links you may want to check out:

NOVELRANK:

If you haven't heard of NovelRank yet, it's because they're new. If you've used TitleZ in the past to track books and sales ranks of Amazon, you'll know Amazon recently removed Kindle version tracking. www.NovelRank.com is a similar tracking service and best of all it's free. While you can't compare book sales side by side (like TZ), there are extra stats I know you'll love--like the Twitter search and sales data. I really recommend you check it out. Also, check out Mario's blog for NovelRank. He'll promote you if you're willing to donate a book for one of his monthly draws. http://www.novelrank.com/blog/donate-novel-authors-monthly-promotion-and-giveaway/

KOBO:

Kobo is the new name for Shortcovers, an e-book retailer in Canada that offers e-books on a variety of platforms and devices. Shortcovers originated as a side-business of Indigo Books & Music, but recently broke away, found major investors and renamed to KOBO. Authors can sell short stories, collections of stories and books. Readers can read on PCs, laptops or smart phones. www.KoboBooks.com 

KINDLE:

Authors in Canada can now sell their e-books through Amazon's Kindle. It's not the easiest to figure out how to get started so here's the link: https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin 

You must have an ISBN to sell your books at most online retailers, and in Canada you can register for ISBNs free at: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ciss-ssci/app/index.php?fuseaction=priv.registration (In the US, I believe you pay $50.)

LITHOUSE:

If you offer writing, publishing or marketing services, you can promote your business by posting a free ad at www.lithouse.com

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif