Check your PayPal buttons!

As you know, SynergEbooks uses PayPal for their merchant account.  I personally have never had a problem using PayPal... and since eBay bought them out, PayPal has been given a huge leg up in terms of respectability and notariety. 

But recently I have hit a small snag.  Apparently, PayPal doesn't expect one to need SO MANY PayPal buttons.  And it seems that SynergEbooks has reached it's limit, so some of the Buy Now buttons may not be working.  If you don't mind, I'm asking all of you to go through and check to make sure that your Buy Now button for your title(s) is/are working.  Simply click on the Buy Now button for your book(s) and make sure it lists the correct title and price and that it does not give you an error message.

PayPal is working with me to get this problem solved.  It's going to take a lot of time to get it completely fixed, but in the meantime, I want to make sure that none of you loose out on sales if your Buy Now buttons aren't working....so those who email me to let me know there are errors will obviously be put at the top of my update list. 

The main area there is a problem seems to be SynergE's PAPERBACKS link on the main page.  http://www.synergebooks.com/paperbacks.html   Most of the buttons are working just fine, but some of them have the wrong title and/or price.  This is the page I will be working to fix first, obviously, so please do not panic if those buttons aren't working correctly.  I do know about it and should have all of the buttons working fine by the end of this week.

I thank you in advance for checking your book listings.

KINDLE's new KDP Select

I'm sure many of you have heard of this new deal from Amazon Kindle called KDP Select.  If not, here is the link: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect  Basically, what Kindle is doing is setting out to make sure that digital books are given to them exclusively for 90 days, promising that an author's portion of their lending library money will be distributed to them during this time. 

What's the catch?  Well, the fact that Amazon will effectively be the only place that your book will be listed for those 90 days.  So an author's book, if it is a new release, will no longer be able to be marketed as a new release at the other online retail sites once it's free to be sold elsewhere.  And you're depending on there being sales during those 3 months... and it's very possible there won't be.  And for those who already have their book listed in a myriad of other online retail sites, you're facing the task of having to go through and take down all of those listings... and then put them all back up 90 days later.  (And for those retail sites that only pay on a quarterly basis, this could mean that you won't receive any royalties for a half a year or more.)

Now, if you are an author who has only a few titles to deal with, and one or more of your books haven't been selling for a while, this may seem like a unique and advantageous opportunity.  But if you are an author with a ton of published titles - or worse yet, a small press publisher who has a few hundred or more - this represents an incredible amount of time and effort.  Consider how much time (and money) it takes a publisher to convert and upload all of the titles on their Book Title List (backlist or otherwise) to up to a dozen different retail sites.... and all the time it will take for that publisher (or author) to take each title off of all of those sites.... and then go back and put it back on to all those sites again once the 90-day period is over. 

Amazon is trying to completely corner the market on digital sales at the detriment of small press publishers and authors alike.  The large amount of money they are listing that they'll be using makes it all sound very exciting, but it's really just a form of lottery system, with no guarantee that your title(s) will be part of the distribution of that money.

So... as a publisher of nearly 400 titles myself, I will only agree to listing a title at Amazon Kindle with this option if it is a NEW TITLE that has yet to be converted and uploaded to the other online retail sites.  Keep in mind that there is no guarantee that your title will make sales during this time, and you will not have the added advantage of a myriad of other retail sites that your book will be listed on - such as at Barnes & Noble for those of you who have a Nook - so you may be missing out on a lot of sales from those other sites as well. 

Your comments are, of course, welcome.  I look forward to hearing from any of you who are doing this on your own or has a publisher who is doing it once the first 90 days are over.

Royalties and more...

Is it December already?  Where did this year go? 

As most of you know, SynergEbooks sends out royalties on a monthly basis.  If you have made at least one sale, you will receive an email stating that fact, but you will not receive a royalty statement unless your title has made 2 or more sales in any given month.  If you have made 2 or more sales, you will receive your ROYALTY STATEMENT in Word format via your more recent email.  (NOTE:  Please let me know if your email address has changed recently so I can update my records).  If you are going to receive a royalty payment, you will not receive your Royalty Statement via email - it will be mailed to you along with you check.  Of course, you will receive your Royalty Statement via email if your payment is being sent via PayPal.

As I stated earlier, due to the fact that SynergEbooks has changed bank accounts and I have to wait for the new bank to be confirmed with PayPal, I will not be sending any royalties to you that way.  If you prefer to wait until the bank account is confirmed, I can hold off on sending your payment (so far only one author has opted for this).  So look for an email from me asking for your preference if this will be a first-time payment.

Please give me 2-3 days to complete the royalties this month, as each quarter (every 3 months) I receive royalty payments from nearly all of my retailers, which means it'll take more time for me to gather all of the reports to disburse the royalties accordingly. 

NOTE:  Most royalites are from sales made 2-3 months prior, so if you know that you've had a large number of sales this month, those sales most likely will not show up on your royalty statement until this coming February or March.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news, I have updated the SALES STATISTICS page in the Author's Backroom, as well as the PRODUCTION SCHEDULE, and added a link to the blog in the Backroom for your convenience.   Check those out as soon as you can. 



Back to work for me!

HOLIDAY SALES

Please do not forget to market your book(s) for the holiday season.  You can let me know if you'd like your book(s) to be offered at a special rate at Amazon Kindle or at Barnes & Noble for a limited time, or even at SynergEbooks.  You can order CDs that can be given as gifts - perfect for stocking stuffers or Secret Santa gifts! - or given away for contests.  If you'd like me to create an ORDER FORM for you that you can print out, I'd be happy to do that.  Create business cards or bookmarks that you can slip into other books or place at your local bookstores and other retail establishments.  Some of the local gift shops, novelty or hobby stores might be the perfect place to see if they'll sell your paperbacks or CDs.  There are tons of ways to take advantage of the holiday buying blitz. 

And don't forget to purchase books from your fellow authors! 

CYBER MONDAY!

AUTHORS, don't forget to check out the various retail sites where your ebooks are listed to see what type of deals they are carrying for CYBER MONDAY!  Today - and even all this week - can be a great marketing opportunity for all of you!

http://amazon.com/

http://barnesandnoble.com/

http://www.fictionwise.com/

EPICon 2012

ATTENTION ALL AUTHORS, WRITERS and DIGITAL PUBLISHERS! 

Don't forget to sign up for next year's EPICon Conference in Texas!
http://www.epicorg.com/epicon-2012.html

Why should you come?

• Cruise the beautiful San Antonio River.
• Meet booklovers and make new fans at eFiesta!
• Solve a mystery at the gala eBook Awards Banquet.
• Enjoy fabulous food!
• Attend workshops providing useful information for the ePublishing professional.
• Have more fun than any human being should be allowed to have.

For more information and the registration form, click on the link above.

And please, let me know if you are attending!  There's a 50% chance I will be attending as well.  If I do, I will need at least one roommate to share hotel expenses with.

NEED REVIEWS!

Now may not be the best time to request this, but I still do have need of reviews for various titles.  So I'm going to list the first 20 titles that need reviews.  The first 2 who reply on each will recieve a FREE eBOOK.  But please, do not volunteer to do this unless you have the time in the next week or two to read the book(s) you request. 

Send me an email (synergebooks@aol.com or synergedeb@yahoo.com) with the list of titles you would like to review.  I will only send one eBook at a time.  Once you have sent in the review, I will send out the next book on your list.  For series books, you are not required to read the entire series, but you are welcome to do so.

NOTE:  Please limit your review(s) to no more than 300 words, and make sure not to give away any of the plot.


88 Keys by Jerry W. Lennon (Fantasy)

Abbie by John Blandly (Fiction)

The Torment Series:  Blasphemous, Descendent and Abyssal by Will Molinar (Horror)

Adios Desperada by Sharon Kull (Western)

The Adventures of Joe MacIntosh by Bryant Arnold (Sci-fi)

Affinity & Trust by Ross Richdale (Historical Fiction)

Ancient Canada by Clinton Festa (Fantasy)

Angels Among Us by C.E. Barret (Sci-fi)

Anger Mis-Management by Chuck Bordell (Humor)

Another Man's Castaway by Sharon Kull (Romance)

Baby Love by Kristi Stokes (Fiction)

Banana Patch by Michael David (New Age)

The Bear and the Bull by Harvey Mendex (Young Adult)

Beethoven's Immortal by Jeff Fuell (Romance/Fantasy)

Beyond Infinity by Ross Richdale (Sci-fi)

Bone Dry by J.J. and Bette Golden Lamb (Fiction/Medical)

Breach of Worlds by Aubrie Dionne (Fantasy/Young Adult)

Candy Conoisseur's Encyclopedia by Lisa Scordino and Andrea Miminas


NOTE:  I also have tons of children's titles that need reviews.  Please do not ask to review this book if you do not have at least one child you can read it to to get their reaction(s).