How to Post a Review on Amazon

When you want to get the word out about your newly published book you have more people who want to help you than you think. Your friends and family want your book to be successful and will gladly support you if you tell them how. One of the most important ways they can help is by posting honest reviews of the book on Amazon.com, Goodreads, and other online review sites. Plenty of good reviews will get your book off to a flying start. But, when you ask people to review your book they say they don’t know how to post a review on Amazon. Here’s a simple guide explaining How to Post a Review on Amazon to offer them.

Posted on: 10 November 2021 | 2:44 pm

5 Effective Ways to Market Your Indie Book

You have finished your book and it is being published. Congratulations! Now you need to let readers know why they will love it. You need a marketing strategy. Here are five things you can do (mostly for free) that will help you get the word out about your newly published book.

Posted on: 3 June 2021 | 3:00 pm

How to Spot (and Avoid) a Vanity Press

It used to be easy to recognize a vanity press. An author who could not find a traditional publisher for his book took it to a company, paid a high fee to have it published, and was required to purchase a substantial number of books from the company. We’ve all heard the horror stories of authors who published with a vanity press and wound up with a couple of hundred books in their garage. Things have changed a lot as the publishing world has evolved and digital publishing has made print-on-demand possible. Self-publishing has become a viable option for authors. But, vanity presses have evolved along with the rest of the publishing world. Let’s look at how to spot (and avoid) a vanity press.

Posted on: 1 July 2020 | 1:13 pm

All Family History Books Don’t Have to Be the Same

Family history books are usually of a piece. They are organized chronologically by family line. The emphasis is on providing a report of the lives of ancestors, sometimes as an ongoing narrative, others with individual biographical sketches. There are pedigree charts and family photos. With the help of a good professional book designer, they are beautiful books, often family heirlooms. But a family history book doesn’t have to fit this blueprint. We have recently worked with several authors who have created unique and wonderful family histories that are very different from their more conventional cousins. Let’s take a look at some of these alternative approaches to writing about family history.

Posted on: 1 July 2020 | 12:35 pm

HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR BOOK LAUNCH TEAM

When you market your book, you have more people who want to help you than you think. Your friends and family want your book to be successful and will gladly support you if you tell them how. One of the best ways you can capitalize on these potential supporters is to organize a launch team for your book. Here’s how to organize your team.

Posted on: 27 April 2020 | 6:48 pm

Want to Build Your Business? Write a Book

How many times have you heard someone say, “You should write a book?” It turns out that if you are building a business they were right. Forbes reported that in a study of business book authors titled The Business Impact of Writing a Book released by The RAIN Group of Wellesley, Massachusetts found that: · 49% of authors said that publishing a business book affected their business positively 47% of authors said that publishing a business book affected their business extremely positively

Posted on: 22 June 2019 | 9:08 am

Can an Indie Bookseller Save Barnes & Noble?

James Daunt is a man with a plan. The owner of nine independent bookstores in London, Daunt took over the failing UK bookstore chain Waterstones in 2011 and returned it to sustained profitability in 2015. Its current profits are, said Daunt, “pretty much at historic levels.” Last week equity firm Elliott Management purchased the 627-store Barnes & Noble and installed Daunt as CEO with a mandate to produce a similar turnaround which would save the bookseller from Amazon’s retail apocalypse. "We as booksellers have a duty to create excitement about books,” said Daunt. “If we do so, we'll continue to have customers come through the doors." How does Daunt propose to do it?

Posted on: 10 June 2019 | 1:46 pm

DNA Testing Is the Beginning, Not the End of the Search for Your Family History

Last Christmas my brother-in-law’s twenty something sons gave him a 23 & Me DNA test kit. They weren’t alone. Wired reported that Ancestry.com sold 1.5 million DNA test kits during the Christmas shopping season and 23 & Me, while not releasing total sales figures, was one of the top five best selling items on Black Friday. When I came across the figures, I wondered what happened with those test kits.

Posted on: 11 April 2019 | 5:12 pm

Why We Don’t Go to RootsTech Anymore

We love to work with genealogists and family historians to create beautiful family history books. That said, you might have expected us to be at RootsTech, “the world’s largest family history conference,” which was held last weekend in Salt Lake City, but we weren’t there. RootsTech is a wonderful event. We have certainly enjoyed it over the several years we attended and presented at the conference. So why don’t we go to RootsTech anymore? We decided Stories To Tell was simply not a good fit with the conference’s goals. The reasons for our decision are worth examining.

Posted on: 7 March 2019 | 10:20 pm

A Lesson for Authors from the Shut Down of Create Space

It’s been almost six months since Amazon announced that CreateSpace, its print on demand service, would be merged into Kindle Direct Publishing. There’s an important lesson for independent authors in the death of CreateSpace.Most of the discussion of the merger has been focused on the less than seamless transition. Bumps in the road for authors have included delayed royalty payments, problems using the KDP website, subtitles accepted on CreateSpace rejected by KDP, a requirement to list on Amazon to get extended distribution, KDP copies that don’t look like those printed on CreateSpace, and the replacement of CreateSpace’s telephone customer service with an online ticket system with KDP. But there’s a more important take-away for authors from the merger.Publishing a book does not lend itself to mass production.That was a problem for what Amazon envisioned when it bought Book Surge and renamed it CreateSpace. Amazon had already dramatically changed the way books were sold. New technology had transformed the publishing landscape, and a rapidly growing number of authors were using it to self-publish. By offering print-on-demand services through CreateSpace Amazon planned to tap a new revenue stream and provide a new load of titles for its digital bookshelves. However, not all authors who wanted to use CreateSpace had fully edited or designed manuscripts.  The result was some embarrassingly bad books. As authors learned the importance of professional editing and book design to their book’s bottom line (see our post How to Earn 1/3 More on Your Self-Published Book), they sought help. CreateSpace offered authors editing and design. It was a one-stop shopping center.The system worked fine for some authors. CreateSpace outsourced both author services like editing and design along with its customer service and technical support to meet the flood of authors who flocked to the service, but the results were uneven. A growing number of online posts expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of both author and technical services. Many of the complaints focused on the inability of the authors to get in touch with a person who could or would help them. They wanted one-on-one contact with a real person. Its absence shouldn’t have been surprising with a business designed to publish books in huge volume with what was essentially a production line process that was impersonal by its very nature.Amazon tacitly acknowledged that the system wasn’t working when it discontinued CreateSpace’s editing and design services in April, 2018. Then, in August, 2018, Amazon shuttered CreateSpace merging its services into KDP. What happened? Production lines are a very efficient way to turn out a high volume of products that are all exactly the same. Every book is unique. That is a problem. The author is not just another customer purchasing a one-size-fits-all service, he or she is a creative participant in the process of publishing a book. Editing a book is a collaborative endeavor which requires dialogue between the author and editor. Authors often have a vision of their book’s cover and the appearance of its layout. A professional book designer brings both experience and technical skill to the design. Working together to help create a book that reflects the author’s sensibilities and at the same time is a state of the art design requires an on-going back-and-forth conversation between author and designer. Authors have differing levels of technical skills. Some require a good deal of tech support in using software tools used in creating a book. Providing the kind of personalization required to give each author the things he or she needs to publish the best possible book is not an easy task for a behemoth like Amazon. At Stories To Tell we operate on a more human scale. (see How We’re Different on our website) Creating a book with us is a collaborative process involving ongoing dialogue which helps us develop a personal relationship with our authors. We strongly believe that is the way independent self-publishing should work.

Posted on: 6 February 2019 | 9:23 am

Looking for a Good Book?

Are you looking for a good book? And, what reader or writer isn’t? Today we want to highlight one of our favorite places to find one – LitHub.com.

Posted on: 9 November 2018 | 4:17 pm

4 Questions to Help Your Nonfiction Book Succeed

Readers devour nonfiction books. Statista put total purchases at over 240 million in 2017. Author Earnings reported that more than a quarter of those sales belonged to independent or self-publishing authors. It’s no wonder that authors want to tap the nonfiction market. If you are an indie author planning to self-publish a book, before you begin banging away at your keyboard here are four things you should consider.

Posted on: 17 October 2018 | 1:35 pm

How to Earn 1/3 More on Your Self-Published Book

There are many factors that contribute to the success of an independently self-published book, but there is one that is indisputable: quality matters. A study of self-publishing authors recently published by Forbes online quantifies quality’s impact.

Posted on: 6 May 2018 | 3:06 pm

Take One Step at a Time in Creating Your Family History Book

Family history books are complicated. They often contain not only text, but endnotes, appendices, a bibliography of sources, charts, and images. Family historians who want to self-publish often find this complexity overwhelming. We get it. The problem is that many people try to do too many things at once. Let's look at how to do it one step at a time.

Posted on: 5 April 2018 | 10:33 am

Why Reviews Are So Important and 9 Ways to Get Them

If you want to find a good movie to see or a good restaurant, asking a friend gives you tried and true advice you can depend on. The same thing is true with books. A recommendation from a friend makes you confident that a book is one you’ll enjoy reading. What authors need to understand is that today 3 of 4 potential readers trust online book reviews as much as personal recommendations. We'll look at how to find quality and reviews. and nine top sources for reviewers.

Posted on: 9 March 2018 | 2:32 pm

4 Ways to Save Money Publishing Your Short-Run Book

Not so long ago publishing a book intended for a limited audience of family members and friends was an expensive proposition. Today, technological changes in the world of printing and the evolution of the publishing industry have given authors an opportunity to dramatically reduce the cost of publishing books like family histories and memoirs. Here are four ways to save money when publishing your book.

Posted on: 19 February 2018 | 2:18 pm

Can I Use That Image in My Book?

Acquiring just the right images to illustrate your family history book or memoir can be tricky. Completing the detective work to find a photo that’s perfect is just the beginning of the process. There are two hurdles to get over before you’re ready to use it. The first is to make sure that you have an image of appropriate quality to use in book printing. The second is making sure that you have the right to use the image. Let’s take a look at how to do both.

Posted on: 5 February 2018 | 7:00 pm

Best Locations to Find Resources for Black Genealogy and Family History

“African American genealogical research has always been challenging, but not impossible.” Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society As we begin African American History Month we want to offer some assistance to our readers who have taken up that challenge. We have helped a number of African American authors to publish family history books. To a person they have told us how difficult it can be to find the resources to document the lives of their ancestors. To help aspiring genealogists and family historians we have created a list of the best places online to find those resources. Each site has its own list of additional resources. We hope you find them useful.

Posted on: 1 February 2018 | 1:14 pm

Four Tips to Help You Find the Right Illustrator for Your Children’s Book

Illustrations can make or break a children’s book, even one that has an excellent story. If you are working with a traditional they will choose the illustrator. An indie author who wants to self-publish a children’s book, however, has to find and hire the illustrator for her book. Here are four tips to help you find the right person to illustrate your book.

Posted on: 29 January 2018 | 6:42 pm

5 Questions You Should Ask Your Publisher

If you are an independent author who wants to self-publish a book there are plenty of companies out there to help you. The problem is how to decide which one you should choose. There are two important areas to explore: Who will own the rights to your book? Which arrangement will allow you to earn the maximum return on your book? Here are five questions to guide you in this exploration.

Posted on: 21 January 2018 | 6:03 pm