Oh, big playful Leo -- how the last couple of years have been dramatic (and often less than kind) for you! There's little doubt that whatever you've gone through in the last year, the uppers have fueled your inherent charm and lovability, and the downers have gotten a little ignored. That's one of the problems with being a Leo: you can be so sunny that no one notices the rainy days. Mars in your sign this spring is going to give you newfound energy and motivation to really get things done your way, and the summer will bring new opportunities to express yourself.
The challenges will be slowly changing from big drama to smaller, more manageable issues. You've probably been too busy taking care of others to really take care of yourself lately, but 2010 marks a new direction in taking yourself seriously, and taking care of yourself with the due diligence and concern you usually reserve for others. Don't think of it as becoming inwardly-focused; think of it as doing the necessary maintenance on yourself so you can do a better job of letting your light shine for others.
Life is going to be taking a turn for the philosophical in the next year. All of the noise and confusion of the last year may have made you neglect your Higher Self; that too should be a part of your personal care regimen. This year is going to provide ample opportunities for you to get caught up on your spiritual homework. And, unlike regular homework, you'll probably feel like there's a point to doing it!
____
Would you like to see yours? http://shine.yahoo.com/page/2010-horoscope
Bekki
http://bekkilynn.net
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Gene Pitney - A Legend
I was watching a Time Life program on Pop Memories of the 60's and it brought back so many memories. I love music and so much of the older stuff is simply wonderful in so many ways. Included in the clips was Gene Pitney and I will admit, I shed tears. This man is and was so wonderful. He spoke to me through his music, we had many conversations via the internet, because a DJ had seen a post of mine and hooked us up. It wasn't anything new or special. Gene loved his fans and loved talking with them. And he had many all over the world. And I was fortunate enough to see him in concert a few years before he passed away.
I popped on youtube and searched for him. I found these concert clips and it was like being back at that concert.
I first learned of Gene when I was a young girl. I was going through a box of record albums, many with no covers, which were purchased from an auction or rummage sale. I loved the song titles on a few of them and shut myself in my bedroom to check them out in private. I was so hooked on his voice, his music that I nearly wore the album out. Over time, 'It Hurts To Be In Love' could only be played if you put a nickle on the arm over the needle.
Over the years and again via the internet, I've managed to collect almost all of his albums and I treasure them even more now.
Gene Pitney died April 5, 2006 in Wales. He was 65. If you go here, you can read his bio.
I hope you enjoyed my little tribute to a great muscian.
Bekki
http://bekkilynn.net
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Balancing Pros & Cons of E-Publishing vs Traditional
I have a list of blogs I check in with and The Writer's Edge is one of them. Last night, I read this particular post and was sent in all directions of thought.
http://writersedgeinfo.blogspot.com/2009/10/bookcoach-can-better-market-your-book.html
What caught my attention was the fact that books have 3 month shelf life in bookstores. Another was that they order 2-3 books at a time due to limited shelf space.
So, I'm wondering what the odds are that they'll reorder the book when new books are available? Unless of course, you're a bestseller or someone with mega track record.
I looked deeper and found I could talk myself right out of going the traditional route. Even deeper and I'm right back there.
If you take the number of bookstores, grocery stores, pharmacies which I can think of a total of 20 in the city and my little community combined, and add about five more if you write Inspirational, and say you're lucky enough to land in each of them once - in a three month period that's a total of 60-75 books sold. For many e-authors, that would be heaven, but chances are you won't land in all the stores. Especially if you write erotic. And what are the odds all the brick & mortar bookstores will choose your book out of the million in their distributor and wholeseller listings.
So, if you look at just erotic authors --
Well, it doesn't really seem worth the long-term hurry up and wait to try to obtain an agent and go the traditional route, does it?
On the surface, it seems to me, brick & mortar has no real use but to give you bragging rights. That's why my husband wants to see my books there. He can take people in there and point at it -- see, that's my wife. And that's only if those three books haven't already been sold. If they have, chances are - that's the end of your stint for that store. Whoopy, 3 books sold - I might have made .90 total . An ebook for most sell more than that in one day and the author made at least that per copy. And what if no one buys your book from the bookstore, because they don't know you? You have to admit, most who shop the bookstore on foot buy the same authors all the time. Your books can be returned to the distributor/wholesaler and back to the publisher - after a number of these, why would the publisher want to put out your next book?
In my area, I have Barnes & Noble and Borders -- everything else is grocery store, pharmacy, christian and Walmart, none of which will stock erotic, unless it's under the guise of Harlequin - not that I consider Blaze erotic.
As of May 2009 there are 777 brick & mortar Barnes & Noble
From the Borders site -- 515 Borders superstores in the U.S.; approximately 377 stores in the Waldenbooks Specialty Retail segment, including Waldenbooks, Borders Express, Borders airport stores, and Borders Outlet. Borders Group owns London-based Paperchase Products Limited, a retailer of stationery, cards and gifts with 124 locations outside the U.S., including stand-alone stores and concessions. There are also 337 Paperchase shops located within U.S. [[ of course the Waldonbooks number are off as many stores are closing, including ours Which I thought had closed years ago.]]
Books-a-Million - over 200 stores in the US.
These are the top three stores in the country.
And so -- after calculating numbers on the typical mass market book -- well, this is where I can talk myself right back into it.
While sales numbers are promising at over six thousand books per book, if you can get into all of the stores and each copy sells. The thing to remember is that it's most likely going to be a one time sale for that book without a reorder. If the book is listed at 4.99, you're cut might be .30 a book. Still, for most, that is more than is made in a year on a ebook. 6618x.30. And it doesn't include online orders. If the book does well and stores reorder, the publisher might do another run.
The options for e-sale growth is constant. And the opportunity to have mulitple books out a year ups your overall sales figures where you can top the mass market route, eventually - maybe.
It's a dilema for some.
It's a dilema for me. My thinking is why not try both? Put out the ebooks while trying to land a traditional deal. I can see issues down the line with that as well. Deadlines set by the agent/publishers overlapping with what comes along in the e-world. You can find yourself in quite a fix.
I don't know. I am my own worst enemy at times. It's all daunting. I just thought those two things were interesting.
Bekki
http://bekkilynn.net/
http://writersedgeinfo.blogspot.com/2009/10/bookcoach-can-better-market-your-book.html
What caught my attention was the fact that books have 3 month shelf life in bookstores. Another was that they order 2-3 books at a time due to limited shelf space.
So, I'm wondering what the odds are that they'll reorder the book when new books are available? Unless of course, you're a bestseller or someone with mega track record.
I looked deeper and found I could talk myself right out of going the traditional route. Even deeper and I'm right back there.
If you take the number of bookstores, grocery stores, pharmacies which I can think of a total of 20 in the city and my little community combined, and add about five more if you write Inspirational, and say you're lucky enough to land in each of them once - in a three month period that's a total of 60-75 books sold. For many e-authors, that would be heaven, but chances are you won't land in all the stores. Especially if you write erotic. And what are the odds all the brick & mortar bookstores will choose your book out of the million in their distributor and wholeseller listings.
So, if you look at just erotic authors --
Well, it doesn't really seem worth the long-term hurry up and wait to try to obtain an agent and go the traditional route, does it?
On the surface, it seems to me, brick & mortar has no real use but to give you bragging rights. That's why my husband wants to see my books there. He can take people in there and point at it -- see, that's my wife. And that's only if those three books haven't already been sold. If they have, chances are - that's the end of your stint for that store. Whoopy, 3 books sold - I might have made .90 total . An ebook for most sell more than that in one day and the author made at least that per copy. And what if no one buys your book from the bookstore, because they don't know you? You have to admit, most who shop the bookstore on foot buy the same authors all the time. Your books can be returned to the distributor/wholesaler and back to the publisher - after a number of these, why would the publisher want to put out your next book?
In my area, I have Barnes & Noble and Borders -- everything else is grocery store, pharmacy, christian and Walmart, none of which will stock erotic, unless it's under the guise of Harlequin - not that I consider Blaze erotic.
As of May 2009 there are 777 brick & mortar Barnes & Noble
From the Borders site -- 515 Borders superstores in the U.S.; approximately 377 stores in the Waldenbooks Specialty Retail segment, including Waldenbooks, Borders Express, Borders airport stores, and Borders Outlet. Borders Group owns London-based Paperchase Products Limited, a retailer of stationery, cards and gifts with 124 locations outside the U.S., including stand-alone stores and concessions. There are also 337 Paperchase shops located within U.S. [[ of course the Waldonbooks number are off as many stores are closing, including ours Which I thought had closed years ago.]]
Books-a-Million - over 200 stores in the US.
These are the top three stores in the country.
And so -- after calculating numbers on the typical mass market book -- well, this is where I can talk myself right back into it.
While sales numbers are promising at over six thousand books per book, if you can get into all of the stores and each copy sells. The thing to remember is that it's most likely going to be a one time sale for that book without a reorder. If the book is listed at 4.99, you're cut might be .30 a book. Still, for most, that is more than is made in a year on a ebook. 6618x.30. And it doesn't include online orders. If the book does well and stores reorder, the publisher might do another run.
The options for e-sale growth is constant. And the opportunity to have mulitple books out a year ups your overall sales figures where you can top the mass market route, eventually - maybe.
It's a dilema for some.
It's a dilema for me. My thinking is why not try both? Put out the ebooks while trying to land a traditional deal. I can see issues down the line with that as well. Deadlines set by the agent/publishers overlapping with what comes along in the e-world. You can find yourself in quite a fix.
I don't know. I am my own worst enemy at times. It's all daunting. I just thought those two things were interesting.
Bekki
http://bekkilynn.net/
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Are You In Promo Hell
It’s never ending, isn’t it? Like you don’t have enough to do, right?
Book Promotion and Author Promotion is what I’m getting to.
Our time constraints don’t allow for us to do what professionals in the field can do, because it’s their job. Honestly, who can afford to not only sit down with someone and explain what we do and what we need, but pay for the service that may or may not bring in the readership we need. This is especially important for e-authors, since so much of the marketing is still geared toward traditional print.
I receive a newsletter and sometimes there is nothing that peaks my interest, other times, it’s like, oh, yeah, perfect timing. If you don’t subscribe to The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter, I recommend it. You can subscribe by emailing: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Their website is: http://www.amarketingexpert.com
In their November 27, 2009 issue #208 – my mind was set afloat with excitement. 10 Ways to Rock on Social Media and Still Have a Life and further down is The Publishing Insiders Show contains a link Insider Tips for Publishing Success – this goes to http://www.blogtalkradio which I will discuss in an upcoming post.
10 Ways to Rock on Social Media and Still Have a Life gives tips on how to not spend all day on the internet hitting all the various groups, blogs and websites to not only promote yourself, but your books.
Skim is the first order of business – don’t read every single thing posted. By skimming, you’ll save time. If you see something of interest, then stop and read. I do this with digests, twitter and group messages.
Do you subscribe to every blog or website that has a RSS feed? Stop it. Seriously, do you read all of them? Probably not, so only subscribe to those you do read religiously. I bookmark blogs I love to check in with, I list them on my blog. Some are author sites, some are agent/editor sites.
Have you ever gotten caught up with reading blogs, sending emails and posting promos to the extent you look up at the clock and realize you’d been at for four hours? I know I have. Facebook alone can eat your day away. I used to spend two hours every morning, hitting every single yahoo group that allowed excerpt posts – guess what, it didn’t bring in a lot of sales. Not with hundreds of other authors doing the same thing. Seriously, most of the members belong to all the same groups, or a few of the same groups. It’s a case of, if you’ve seen it once, you’re not going to look again. On the other hand, I’ve had better success with posting fewer, more timely excerpts. I post them three times a week, promos twice a week. I don’t often hit the larger groups, but I’ll hit smaller groups. With these smaller groups, their digests might take a day to appear in email accounts. This is when I see the most sale activity. And holidays – not many get online and post on holidays, so there is fewer choices which gives your book a better chance to sale. And don’t forget most of the US are just getting online when it’s seven in the evening central time. Save some of your posts for evening. It’s those that will more often then not be read before the mornings posts.
Luckily, there are people who know how addictive the internet can be. To help us, they’ve set up ways to minimize our time wasting. Ping.fm – is a place I recently learned about and started using. You simply sign up, add the places you need to keep updated and it becomes your one-stop-shop type of thing. You post your message once – just once and it will appear on all of the post sites you’ve set up. There are so many ways to do this. Twitterfeed is one they mentioned as well as Constant Contact.
And this should probably be the first thing you do – set up a daily schedule, a routine that works for you. Use a timer for things that you get lost in doing such as socializing on the internet. I know I need it. I get lost in Facebook, research. I get lost with animal entertainment.
A couple things mentioned and I think very wise. Know what you’re going to do when you get online. Don’t do things because everyone else is doing them. Look at yourself, what you need, your time constraints. Socializing is a great way to win over or lose a reader base. Less is more – the quality of yourself is what will attract. Set that schedule and keep it as much as you can. If you blog, you don’t need to do several, when two or three will suffice. Build your base, stay there and they will come to you. What have you done that works for you?
Bekki
http://bekkilynn.net
Book Promotion and Author Promotion is what I’m getting to.
Our time constraints don’t allow for us to do what professionals in the field can do, because it’s their job. Honestly, who can afford to not only sit down with someone and explain what we do and what we need, but pay for the service that may or may not bring in the readership we need. This is especially important for e-authors, since so much of the marketing is still geared toward traditional print.
I receive a newsletter and sometimes there is nothing that peaks my interest, other times, it’s like, oh, yeah, perfect timing. If you don’t subscribe to The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter, I recommend it. You can subscribe by emailing: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Their website is: http://www.amarketingexpert.com
In their November 27, 2009 issue #208 – my mind was set afloat with excitement. 10 Ways to Rock on Social Media and Still Have a Life and further down is The Publishing Insiders Show contains a link Insider Tips for Publishing Success – this goes to http://www.blogtalkradio which I will discuss in an upcoming post.
10 Ways to Rock on Social Media and Still Have a Life gives tips on how to not spend all day on the internet hitting all the various groups, blogs and websites to not only promote yourself, but your books.
Skim is the first order of business – don’t read every single thing posted. By skimming, you’ll save time. If you see something of interest, then stop and read. I do this with digests, twitter and group messages.
Do you subscribe to every blog or website that has a RSS feed? Stop it. Seriously, do you read all of them? Probably not, so only subscribe to those you do read religiously. I bookmark blogs I love to check in with, I list them on my blog. Some are author sites, some are agent/editor sites.
Have you ever gotten caught up with reading blogs, sending emails and posting promos to the extent you look up at the clock and realize you’d been at for four hours? I know I have. Facebook alone can eat your day away. I used to spend two hours every morning, hitting every single yahoo group that allowed excerpt posts – guess what, it didn’t bring in a lot of sales. Not with hundreds of other authors doing the same thing. Seriously, most of the members belong to all the same groups, or a few of the same groups. It’s a case of, if you’ve seen it once, you’re not going to look again. On the other hand, I’ve had better success with posting fewer, more timely excerpts. I post them three times a week, promos twice a week. I don’t often hit the larger groups, but I’ll hit smaller groups. With these smaller groups, their digests might take a day to appear in email accounts. This is when I see the most sale activity. And holidays – not many get online and post on holidays, so there is fewer choices which gives your book a better chance to sale. And don’t forget most of the US are just getting online when it’s seven in the evening central time. Save some of your posts for evening. It’s those that will more often then not be read before the mornings posts.
Luckily, there are people who know how addictive the internet can be. To help us, they’ve set up ways to minimize our time wasting. Ping.fm – is a place I recently learned about and started using. You simply sign up, add the places you need to keep updated and it becomes your one-stop-shop type of thing. You post your message once – just once and it will appear on all of the post sites you’ve set up. There are so many ways to do this. Twitterfeed is one they mentioned as well as Constant Contact.
And this should probably be the first thing you do – set up a daily schedule, a routine that works for you. Use a timer for things that you get lost in doing such as socializing on the internet. I know I need it. I get lost in Facebook, research. I get lost with animal entertainment.
A couple things mentioned and I think very wise. Know what you’re going to do when you get online. Don’t do things because everyone else is doing them. Look at yourself, what you need, your time constraints. Socializing is a great way to win over or lose a reader base. Less is more – the quality of yourself is what will attract. Set that schedule and keep it as much as you can. If you blog, you don’t need to do several, when two or three will suffice. Build your base, stay there and they will come to you. What have you done that works for you?
Bekki
http://bekkilynn.net
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)