03.28.07
Posted in Articles, Book Related at 12:42 am by jon yang
Here’s a fun little article from Publisher’s Weekly about authors that blog. Actually, I barely know any authors who don’t blog. Most authors are trying to find a place to show their works to the public, and a blog is an easy and cost-effective way to do it. I guess, hypothetically, if you were too big for your britches, you wouldn’t need a blog; but for everyone else, I’d recommend it.
Blogs can provide insight to an author’s work or process. They can be used as mini-sites to complement a book (like this blog). The downside of having a blog? Losing thirty minutes a day posting an entry or two? It’s not a huge investment for something that allows you to build and maintain your fan base.
Heck, without blogging, I wouldn’t even be an author! So of course I encourage blogging for authors — and everyone — alike.
“But the big question, of course, is, do blogs sell books? On that, everyone agrees that the answer is yes, though no one can point to any numbers, at least not yet. ‘Saleswise, I’m not necessarily expecting to see a post-for-post, purchase-for-purchase correlation,’ said Julie Strauss-Gabel, who edits Green at Dutton. ‘Blogging is a long-term endeavor, one that builds and sustains a loyal fan base over a career.’
[Meg] Cabot says that after she started blogging, visits to her Web site soared. Dessen used her blog to count down the days to her pub date for Just Listen, and readers stormed bookstores looking for their copy. ‘I had a lot of girls go to stores on the first day and when the book wasn’t on display, they had someone go into the back and made them open a box,’ she recalled. ‘I really liked hearing that.’
Building excitement online about upcoming appearances definitely makes a difference, says Elizabeth Eulberg, publicity director at Little, Brown. Meyer cultivated fans of her vampire-themed novels with Web updates and with regular participation on fan-generated sites devoted to her books. Those readers turned out in droves for her appearances for New Moon. ‘A lot of them will greet her with their screen names—’Hi, I’m edwardlover!’—and what amazes me is that Stephenie remembers most of them!’ Eulberg said.”
-To Blog or Not to Blog?-
Permalink
03.21.07
Posted in Articles, News at 6:01 pm by jon yang
At this year’s SXSW conference, blogger and science fiction writer Bruce Sterling told a crowd that blogging would be dead within ten years. Blogging, dead? Just like Captain America?
Well, what Sterling was talking about was that blogging in its current iteration would no longer be around. Online journals would just be an integrated part of life, not really “gone.” Blogging is dead just sounds much more exciting but really, do you think that once everyone gets their hands on tools that help them post words, photos, audio, video online that it’ll go away? Nope. Blogging will just become part of the fabric of our culture and never go away, just like the Captain — even if he is momentarily knocked out of service.
Permalink
03.14.07
Posted in Book Related at 1:54 am by jon yang
As an author with a book on Amazon you suddenly start to check your book’s page as often as a child checks MySpace. The number you’re addicted to? The “Amazon.com Sales Rank.” As an avid Amazon shopper, this number used to never concern me; I just looked at a book’s price to see of it would help me qualify for free shipping. But now the only number I look at is the Sales Ranking. I study it like I would a stock I invested all my savings into.
What does the Amazon Sales Rank mean anyway? Amazingly, nobody really knows. Sure, if you’ve got a book in the top ten (the lower the number the better), that means you’re making bank, but what if your book is say, ranked #47,743? Well, first things first.
The ranks are correlated to how many books you’ve sold through Amazon, but not directly. It’s a relative rank that is recalculated periodically — typically every day. So, if you’re selling five copies a day for a week straight, your rank could still fluctuate up and down based upon how other books are selling that day. Here’s the short explanation of how Amazon Sales Rank works; and here’s a long explanation.
Suffice to say, when you’re wondering how your book is doing, Amazon can provide only a partial answer.
I’ve been using this cool online tracking tool called Title-Z to track my book’s Amazon Ranking. I’m usually in the #50,000 range and once in awhile I’ll get really close to breaking the #10,000 barrier (I’ve been as high as #3,000 on Amazon UK). A ranking of #10,000 or better roughly translates to 2 copies of the book sold every five days. We can do better than that right? I live for the day the book breaks the five digits barrier. To 9,999 and beyond!
Additonally, if you are an avid reader, feel free to join goodreads, which was discovered by Lilly and is a sort of Friendster for book lovers. Hit me up, we can be book buddies!
Originally posted on www.jonyang.org
Permalink
03.09.07
Posted in Articles, Blogs / Sites at 5:01 pm by jon yang
MSNBC has this article titled “Should You Start a Business Blog?” The article says that if you have a small business, starting a blog is not only a wise move, but perhaps, essential.
“In a recent survey of business technology marketing executives by research firm MarketingSherpa, blogs were voted the No. 4 tool for generating sales leads.”
Having a blog not only allows you to communicate with your customers, you can use it to increase your legitimacy as a company and to add a face to your business. Check out this quick Forbes Small Business blurb too. As for my word of advice on small-business blogging: “Blog often, don’t let it just sit there with no fresh content. Blog blog blog!”
Here’s a few good sites to use when marketing your blog:
(1) Instant Domain Search allows you to quickly get an idea of what domain names are available among the .com/.net/.org addresses. Once you find one you like, head over to GoDaddy to bu your new web address.
(2) 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog
(3) Creating Flagship Content
Permalink
03.06.07
Posted in Blogs / Sites, Tools & Resources at 1:55 pm by jon yang
There’s a lot of sites out there designed to help your blog achieve success. One of the best? Copyblogger. Don’t take it from me, Copyblogger was named the “best blog for writers” and I’d agree. Brian Clark is an Internet marketing strategist and his words of advice are essential for enhancing your current blog’s ability to gain traffic, subscribers, and links. Here’s Brian’s “Why Copywriting is the Key to Successful Online Marketing.”
Copyblogger has great titles for its posts — “The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging,” “Ernest Hemingway’s Top 5 Tips for Writing Well,” “The Ultimate Guide to Attracting Links and Increasing Web Traffic” — so even at the very worst, follow Brian’s example and make a clean site with catchy titles, well executed content, and watch your hits grow!
Permalink
