Purple Prose:
Amazon

Hi, guys! *waves* Thanks to Stina for letting me be here today! We were talking about my new book, The Truth About Letting Go (link), and instead of another promotional post, Stina asked if I'd write something educational about publishing. Well, I had no idea what I might know that you guys wouldn't... I'm no Susan K. Quinn (link)!

Then I mentioned Amazon's Author Central (link), and that did it. I did know something!

Okay, so people have different opinions of Amazon, but Author Central is one of those things they get right. Any author can use it--traditional or independent. Once you have one book published on their website, you go here and log in: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/home They use your Amazon account if you're a customer, and on this site, you can edit the information about your books, add review info, add back and inside flap information, check your sales and ranking against other Amazon authors... And most importantly, create your author profile! It's basically a short description of you or what you're up to, But! You can also add links to your blog, Twitter, and Facebook page... And! it collects all your books in one spot on Amazon, using one URL that automatically updates as you release more books! Is that cool or what? Here's the link to my author page (link); and you can visit any of your favorite authors' pages by clicking on their name right under the title of their books on Amazon! Some have funny profiles, some sound like a block of wood and need to update... (Haha! just kidding!) But seriously, it is a fantastic tool, it's super-simple to use, and I encourage all authors to jump in and add it. In closing, *kicks the dirt* here's the info about my new book, and I hope you'll, yanno, check it out!

On Amazon * Barnes & Noble* Kobo * iTunes

Thanks again to Stina for having me here today! And happy reading~

Thanks Leigh. LOVE the cover (hence why I included it twice. lol). TTALG is next on my pile!!!! (It jumped the line since I loved The Truth About Faking.)

Thanks to book review websites like Goodreads and Amazon, a reader can decide if they want to read a book or if they should skip it because of the reviews and ratings.

Last month, I posted about a poorly edited book* I had read that ended up with some surprisingly high ratings on both Goodreads and Amazon. Since that post, I’ve noticed an unexpected finding. The way people rate self-published books is different to how they rate traditionally published ones. I’m consistently finding that the overall ratings for self-published books are higher than the ones for books that are traditionally published.

One reason for this is because we may be tougher on traditionally published books due to their cost. When a self-published novel costs only $1.99, we tend to be more forgiving. We’re less forgiving when we shell out $10 for a book. And watch up if we pay significantly higher than that, which is the case for hardcover books. It doesn’t mean the self-published books are better. It just means we’re dealing with a whole new level of subjectivity.

Do you find you are tougher when you rate traditionally published books verses self-published ones? Do you think this inequality in how books are reviewed is fair to authors and readers alike?

* I'm currently reading Hopeless. It's not the book I was referring to.

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And the winner of the book Social Media Just For Writers is:

Michael Di Gesu

Congrats, Michael!

My CP and I discovered a cool feature over Christmas. You can lend your Kindle books to friends and family. So I thought I’d share some tips we discovered, some the hard way (see #4).

1. Not all Kindle books can be loaned out. To find out if the one you want to loan can be loaded out, look on its Amazon page and scroll down the Product Description. Next to ‘Lending,’ it needs to say ‘Enabled’.

2. You can only loan out the book ONCE. So save that special book for that special person. Of course, if you’re sending a book on how to be a better person to someone you consider to be a major jerk, loan away.

3. How many times have you lent a book to someone and never saw it again? *raises hand* Not a problem with the Kindle lending system. The person who borrows the book from you only gets it for FOURTEEN DAYS, before it vanishes from their Kindle or Kindle app. How cool is that?

4. DO NOT lend a book you are still reading, especially if it’s at a good part (like a very steamy make out scene). Like with a real book, when you loan it out, it’s no longer in your possession. You can’t open it on your Kindle until the loan period is over or the borrower sends it back to you. Wait until you’ve read the book BEFORE you loan it to your friend.

5. If you want to loan the book to a friend, check with them first to make sure they have time to read it now. Nothing is worse than getting to the climax and having the book vanished because your fourteen days is up.

Has anyone else tried the lending system through Kindle? Do you lend your books to friends and family (ebooks or hardcopies)?

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I forgot to mention in my final Cool Links Post last week that The Adventures in YA & Children’s Publishing blog has brought back the popular weekly links post. It is now on Saturdays. They always have great links.

And because I can’t totally abandoned the great links I find, I will be tweeting them on Twitter during the week. You can find them at @StinaLL.