I was reading a post over at The Digital Reader today which came down heavily on Barnes and Noble’s support response to a few of the writer’s issues with their products and services.

I personally have never dealt much with Barnes and Noble’s remote customer support. My experience with Barnes and Noble has been limited to the retail stores and the agents therein. As usual, the merit of each agent’s response to my requests has always been evaluated on the basis of the individual encounters and not on the overall experience of a Barnes and Noble retail store. As a result, I can’t really comment on the remote customer service quality in the detail that this particular writer has.

Conversely, I can comment on the customer service at Amazon, because I have been dealing with them for over 10 years and prior to the advent of eBooks and the eReader.

Some companies place a huge emphasis on customer support, and sometimes to the detriment of other aspects of the business. In Amazon’s case, they have spent a great deal of time and effort on [ more ]]]>

I was reading a post over at The Digital Reader today which came down heavily on Barnes and Noble’s support response to a few of the writer’s issues with their products and services.

I personally have never dealt much with Barnes and Noble’s remote customer support. My experience with Barnes and Noble has been limited to the retail stores and the agents therein. As usual, the merit of each agent’s response to my requests has always been evaluated on the basis of the individual encounters and not on the overall experience of a Barnes and Noble retail store. As a result, I can’t really comment on the remote customer service quality in the detail that this particular writer has.

Conversely, I can comment on the customer service at Amazon, because I have been dealing with them for over 10 years and prior to the advent of eBooks and the eReader.

Some companies place a huge emphasis on customer support, and sometimes to the detriment of other aspects of the business. In Amazon’s case, they have spent a great deal of time and effort on the customer and less on a retail or local presence. The complaints about Amazon in the old days of book purchasing was that there is no store to walk into for help if you found you needed it. In fact, there isn’t even a 1-800 number you can call. You can email them with your complaint, and they were sure to respond. In my case, those responses were always friendly and favorable.

I remember I once purchased a book that was scheduled to arrive on a particular date. When it had not arrived a week later, I wrote in with the issue, and with no questions asked, I was told that a replacement item was on its way. There was no mention of course of action if I ended up with two copies, so I wrote in again and asked: “What should I do if the original book turns up later on?” The response was: “Keep it, or share it with a friend. This is on us.”

That kind of customer service gives you a warm fuzzy feeling – as if you are trusted, and that you are their number one priority – over and above everything and everybody else. Once you get past feeling warm and fuzzy, however, it is easy to see how that kind of approach is guaranteed to not only keep your patronage, but to gain as many others as you have friends who also purchase goods and items online.

So my question to you is this: what portion of your loyalty to a company, service, or product would you say hinges on how good their customer service is?

Today, I had the unexpected opportunity to speak to two indie authors about using social media to build buzz for their latest titles. I realized this morning that I had this conversation before and here I was having it again. It is no surprise that a lot of independent authors want to know how they can use social media to market their eBook[s].

Independent authors need to feel empowered and be knowledgeable when it comes to social media and how to use it. Self-publishing demands that you wear a lot of hats; one of those hats is marketing and one of the best ways of an independent author to brand themselves and market their eBook is with social media. It is relatively inexpensive to use. As a matter of fact most of the time it cost you nothing. What it takes is your time, persistence and due diligence.

We Learn From Nature We all remember the story of the birds and the bees, right? Take a lesson from the bees. They’re flying from flower to flower and doing what they do best, collecting [ more ]]]>

Today, I had the unexpected opportunity to speak to two indie authors about using social media to build buzz for their latest titles. I realized this morning that I had this conversation before and here I was having it again. It is no surprise that a lot of independent authors want to know how they can use social media to market their eBook[s].

Independent authors need to feel empowered and be knowledgeable when it comes to social media and how to use it. Self-publishing demands that you wear a lot of hats; one of those hats is marketing and one of the best ways of an independent author to brand themselves and market their eBook is with social media. It is relatively inexpensive to use. As a matter of fact most of the time it cost you nothing. What it takes is your time, persistence and due diligence.

We Learn From Nature

We all remember the story of the birds and the bees, right? Take a lesson from the bees. They’re flying from flower to flower and doing what they do best, collecting and pollinating. Elvis would say, they’re ‘taking care of business’ for their hive and the world. Adding value at every stop they make.

As a self-publishing author you’re the bee and using social media sites Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, your own WordPress blog you’re creating buzz and taking care of business. Adding value by writing interesting posts about your eBook, interesting post about your writing style or topics, joining groups, giving advice, sharing writing tips, answering questions and so much more. By doing all of this you’ll brand yourself as an expert writer and fans will begin to seek you out and want to read your eBook[s].

So to create a dynamic buzz and promote yourself as an independent author, remember the lesson the bees have shared, get out, pollinate and take care of business!

What are you going to do to start pollinating today?

Forbes published an article just yesterday which reported that pirating camcorder copies of the hit movie The Avengers which debuted last week didn’t seem to hurt moviegoer numbers any. They maintain that the movie-going experience is one that very few people compromise on for the big ones such as The Avengers.

I had a discussion with classmates and an course facilitator a few weeks ago on the issue that Forbes highlighted too: piracy of movies and music is not just about stealing what is available for purchase, and if The Avengers numbers are anything to go by, piracy of movies has more to do with accessibility than anything else.

There is a difference with eBooks, however. Presumably, accessibility of eBooks is of far less of an issue than platform and price-point. As editor here at Free-eBooks.net, I’ve heard from many a reader who’s primary electronic reader is not either of the big boys – i.e. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, or Kobo. For them, it’s not so much that [ more ]]]> The real issue with piracy is a hot topic this week, it seems.

Forbes published an article just yesterday which reported that pirating camcorder copies of the hit movie The Avengers which debuted last week didn’t seem to hurt moviegoer numbers any. They maintain that the movie-going experience is one that very few people compromise on for the big ones such as The Avengers.

I had a discussion with classmates and an course facilitator a few weeks ago on the issue that Forbes highlighted too: piracy of movies and music is not just about stealing what is available for purchase, and if The Avengers numbers are anything to go by, piracy of movies has more to do with accessibility than anything else.

There is a difference with eBooks, however. Presumably, accessibility of eBooks is of far less of an issue than platform and price-point. As editor here at Free-eBooks.net, I’ve heard from many a reader who’s primary electronic reader is not either of the big boys – i.e. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, or Kobo. For them, it’s not so much that the price or the availability is an issue, but rather the inability to access eBooks for their platform.

Indeed, Smashwords published results of a price study that showed people will buy eBooks at what seems to be a “sweet spot” price between $2 and $3. Books sold at this sweet spot price sold “6.2 times more units than books sold at $10″ (Smashwords blog, April 25, 2012). Like Free-eBooks.net, Smashwords.com is an independent eBook publisher who caters to indie authors. And here at Free-eBooks.net, our own experimentation with a price-point showed much the same results with the unit priced at $2.99 selling just about 6 times more than the other 2 price-points in our study ($0.99 and $4.25). 

If you look at statistics and number crunching with as much difficulty as I sometimes do, you are probably asking yourself what this really means for you. I can tell what it means to me: it means that people will buy eBooks. The debate has always been that people won’t buy where they can get it for free. The statistics tell us that this is not necessarily the whole truth and that there is an optimal price at which people will be willing to purchase over and above other prices points.

I can’t deny that this topic has aroused my curiosity about Amazon’s statistics. I wonder what effect the agency model has had on eBook sales for them? I wonder what their statistics show their sweet-spot price point to be?  Amazon notoriously keeps their numbers close to their chests, so reports on the details of their sales and price points is not something we can know at this point in time. Though it would be interesting see, wouldn’t you say?

As Editor, I have come across a few reviews on our eBooks that indicate some of you would like to see some of our eBooks set to Hollywood. This has made me wonder what it is you think makes for a good candidate for a movie-making story.

I am biased, as I am sure regular readers of this blog may have been able to determine already, towards the thrilling, action-packed, whodunit type of stories. I like a movie that keeps me guessing and surprises me at the end with a heroic win.  This makes my inclinations towards stories that are mysteries, murder-mysteries, and so on.

This isn’t about me, however, this is about you, our readers.

Suzanne Coleman writes: “This kept me on the edge of my seat! I could see it turned into a hit movie someday” on Ken Merrell’s The Landlord.

David Swinders states: “A very sad story. Excellant [sic] read, but upsetting, a must read book. This Author has had a very sad but interesting childhood in the care system. Would make a brilliant movie.” on Kevin Slater’s autobiographical story Looking Back [ more ]]]>

As Editor, I have come across a few reviews on our eBooks that indicate some of you would like to see some of our eBooks set to Hollywood. This has made me wonder what it is you think makes for a good candidate for a movie-making story.

I am biased, as I am sure regular readers of this blog may have been able to determine already, towards the thrilling, action-packed, whodunit type of stories. I like a movie that keeps me guessing and surprises me at the end with a heroic win.  This makes my inclinations towards stories that are mysteries, murder-mysteries, and so on.

This isn’t about me, however, this is about you, our readers.

Suzanne Coleman writes: “This kept me on the edge of my seat! I could see it turned into a hit movie someday” on Ken Merrell’s The Landlord.

David Swinders states: “A very sad story. Excellant [sic] read, but upsetting, a must read book. This Author has had a very sad but interesting childhood in the care system. Would make a brilliant movie.” on Kevin Slater’s autobiographical story Looking Back in Time.

What about you? What have you read from our library recently that you’d like to see in a movie?

For one, back in April, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a suit against Apple and five of the top U.S. publishing houses for what they term “colluding to set eBook prices and sales models”. This was in response to an agreement formed between Apple and those 5 publishers to set eBook prices as per what is known as “the agency model”. This enabled the publishers to set their prices at the level they wanted to set, and dictate to the eBook distributors what the price ought to be. The U.S. department of justice think this is behavior that violates the antitrust laws. Apple and the “big five” maintain that their decision to sign such an agreement was to prevent Amazon.com from building and strengthening a monopolistic hold on the eBook sales market.

While I agree that a retailer shouldn’t have the autonomous decision to set eBook prices, I have to maintain my objection to the trend that publishers have taken in pricing eBooks over and above the cost of [ more ]]]> You may have noticed that there is a lot going on in the eBook industry lately.

For one, back in April, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a suit against Apple and five of the top U.S. publishing houses for what they term “colluding to set eBook prices and sales models”. This was in response to an agreement formed between Apple and those 5 publishers to set eBook prices as per what is known as “the agency model”. This enabled the publishers to set their prices at the level they wanted to set, and dictate to the eBook distributors what the price ought to be. The U.S. department of justice think this is behavior that violates the antitrust laws. Apple and the “big five” maintain that their decision to sign such an agreement was to prevent Amazon.com from building and strengthening a monopolistic hold on the eBook sales market.

While I agree that a retailer shouldn’t have the autonomous decision to set eBook prices, I have to maintain my objection to the trend that publishers have taken in pricing eBooks over and above the cost of a physical book. Whether the matter is that physical book prices have been artificially low all these years, or that publishers are artificially inflating eBook prices now is neither here or there to me. What I need to see is that anomaly addressed in some manner. If that can be addressed satisfactorily within the scope of an agency model for eBook pricing, then I am all for it. The fact is that writing is hard work, and those who contribute to the end result of me being able to read a book on my eReader should be paid according to their efforts.

In other news, Microsoft has invested some $300 million dollars in Barnes and Noble’s Nook business in a bid to challenge Amazon’s hold on the eBook market. This is startling news for us who have been watching the eBook industry.

Some of you may know that Microsoft was the one to save Apple in the years when they were buckling under the pressure of the personal computer business. And it was with that investment in Apple by Microsoft that Steve Jobs was able to turn around and create the monolith that Apple is today.

With that in mind, think of what Microsoft’s investment could then do to the Nook ecosphere. With enough vision and direction, Nook could end up clobbering the Kindle in the eReader market.

I maintain that the Kindle ecosphere is robust and truly innovative and the Nook falls behind in being truly free from being tethered to a computer. The Kindle is truly wireless: no matter where it is in my house, I can browse the Free-eBooks.net library from any computer of mobile device and send an eBook that strikes my fancy to my Kindle for later reading. I can’t do that with my Nook. And that makes the Nook a non-option for me and for many others. I think the first thing that Microsoft needs to tackle is setting the Nook free from its USB cable.

Whether their investment makes any kind of a dent in the eBook world remains to be seen – and we all eagerly wait to see what the numbers show at the end of the fight.

Whatever happens, with the D.O.J. going after Apple and 5 of the 6 big U.S. publishers, and Microsoft investing in Nook – the eBook industry is definitely in for a wild ride in the coming months. I predict we will see some exciting times.

Digital Rights Management – DRM – is how publishers ensure that the book you buy from them is only readable on the eReader it is bought for. The Kindle and Nook platforms are the biggest users of DRM since Amazon and Barnes and Noble can tie a particular copy of a book directly to a specific eReader.

The idea behind DRM was to ensure that eBooks bought were not easily reproducible on other platforms for sale and was a stringent measure against piracy. The problem with DRM is that it is easily removable with the right know-how and tools. The most dedicated of pirates found no stumbling block in DRM.

According to the Guardian Books article, one science fiction author John Scalzi, made one of the most profoundly intelligent [ more ]]]> Last week, the world’s biggest science fiction publisher – Tor – announced that they were going to be dropping DRM from their entire list of books published. This is big news because ever since eBooks made an appearance on the market, most notably on the Kindle Store, Digital Rights Management has been part of the process.

Digital Rights Management – DRM – is how publishers ensure that the book you buy from them is only readable on the eReader it is bought for. The Kindle and Nook platforms are the biggest users of DRM since Amazon and Barnes and Noble can tie a particular copy of a book directly to a specific eReader.

The idea behind DRM was to ensure that eBooks bought were not easily reproducible on other platforms for sale and was a stringent measure against piracy. The problem with DRM is that it is easily removable with the right know-how and tools. The most dedicated of pirates found no stumbling block in DRM.

According to the Guardian Books article, one science fiction author John Scalzi, made one of the most profoundly intelligent comments regarding the practice of DRM that I have heard in a long time: “DRM hasn’t stopped my books from being out there on the dark side of the internet … Meanwhile, the people who do spend money to support me and my writing have been penalised for playing by the rules.”

Copyright infringement is no laughing matter, however. Free-eBooks.net has its own battle with would-be pirates and we fight an ongoing battle with those who would steal from our dedicated and loyal authors. As is seen with DRM, even the most stringent of preventative measures is of little help against the insistent pirate.

I admit, it feels a little like knowing that a burglar is going to break into your house and take your 40″ HDTV whether you have burglar bars, security systems, and electric fences in place. It’s demoralizing, but we are not giving up.

What’s your opinion on piracy and DRM-free books? Do you think there is anyway to keep the miscreants from stealing what is not theirs?

If you have ever struggled with the concept of “Send to Kindle” or transferring books to your Kindle via USB, it all got easier with Amazon’s latest release: the “Send to Kindle” app that sits on your desktop computer (Windows OR Mac) and is synchronized with your Amazon.com account. Anything you upload with the desktop app is archived to “the cloud” and accessible from any Kindle app or reader.

As your trusty resident technophile, I downloaded the app under both Mac OS X and Windows so I could tell you exactly how it works.

Let’s start with the Windows version since most of you use Windows anyway.

The first thing you should do is download the installation file from the Amazon “Send to Kindle” page here: http://amazon.com/sendtokindle. If you are like me and naturally suspicious of links, try searching for “amazon send to kindle” – it should be the top result returned.

Download the installer and run it. It doesn’t ask for anything in [ more ]]]> And, enter a brand new way to send eBooks – especially ours – to your Kindle.

If you have ever struggled with the concept of “Send to Kindle” or transferring books to your Kindle via USB, it all got easier with Amazon’s latest release: the “Send to Kindle” app that sits on your desktop computer (Windows OR Mac) and is synchronized with your Amazon.com account. Anything you upload with the desktop app is archived to “the cloud” and accessible from any Kindle app or reader.

As your trusty resident technophile, I downloaded the app under both Mac OS X and Windows so I could tell you exactly how it works.

Let’s start with the Windows version since most of you use Windows anyway.

The first thing you should do is download the installation file from the Amazon “Send to Kindle” page here: http://amazon.com/sendtokindle. If you are like me and naturally suspicious of links, try searching for “amazon send to kindle” – it should be the top result returned.

Download the installer and run it. It doesn’t ask for anything in particular, except permission to be installed. Once installed, it automatically opens up the setup screen which looks like this:

Once you enter your amazon account credentials, you get a second screen congratulating you on setting up the “send to kindle” application.

There are 2 ways to interact with the application on Windows – through your typical right-click menu (Mac document right click menu here):

Or The Print Menu from within a document (Mac document print image here):

Whether you choose to send via the right-click menu or the print menu, this is what you see next:

If you own a kindle device or have the reader app on a mobile device, their names will show up in the “Deliver to:” box.

The one drawback of this new service is that you have to have at least one of the mobile devices or readers in order to access your documents after you upload them. A Kindle reader for iOS, Android, Kindle, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle Touch, or Kindle Fire will do just fine here. If you sent your document directly to your kindle device by selecting it above, when you power up your Kindle the document will be immediately available. Otherwise you will have to check your archived items and download it.

Let us know if this makes it easier for you to use your Kindle with our website or not in the comments on our Facebook wall.

Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of detective novels and a screenplay writer. He created one of the most well-known fictional detectives of the 30′s, Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon.

Hammett gave himself permission to write. He believed in himself, his creativity and his story enough to tell it. The questions is, do you believe in yourself, your creativity and your story? If you do, write. Write everyday. Tell yourself you’re going to write five or 10 pages every morning no matter what! Rain, sun, wind, hail, snow, it doesn’t matter. Promise yourself you’ll write and stick to your promise. Write. Sit down with pen and paper or at the keyboard and write. Let it flow. Get up an hour early. Not a morning person. Fine. Stay up an hour later.

You can always erase [trash] the pages the following day if you want to. You haven’t lost anything [ more ]]]> “If you have a story that seems worth telling, and you think you can tell it worthily, then the thing for you to do is to tell it.”
~ Dashiell Hammett

Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of detective novels and a screenplay writer. He created one of the most well-known fictional detectives of the 30′s, Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon.

Hammett gave himself permission to write. He believed in himself, his creativity and his story enough to tell it. The questions is, do you believe in yourself, your creativity and your story? If you do, write. Write everyday. Tell yourself you’re going to write five or 10 pages every morning no matter what! Rain, sun, wind, hail, snow, it doesn’t matter. Promise yourself you’ll write and stick to your promise. Write. Sit down with pen and paper or at the keyboard and write. Let it flow. Get up an hour early. Not a morning person. Fine. Stay up an hour later.

You can always erase [trash] the pages the following day if you want to. You haven’t lost anything from the exercise and from where you’re standing right now you don’t have anything to lose ~ do you?

Actually, you’ve gained from the exercise even if you erase or trash the pages. You’ve gained confidence in yourself and momentum. You’ve kept your promise to yourself and you’ve taken a baby step towards a dream, a new journey that can take you anywhere you’d like to go.

Make that promise to yourself. Write. Start today. Check back often. I’ll have more inspiring writing tips for you.

In the meantime, enjoy your journey …

If you’ve ever looked at the details page for eBooks on our website, you might have noticed that there are ad slots located in strategic and unobtrusive spots on the page. Well, now we’ve dedicated those ad slots to the authors whose books are displayed on those pages.

The ads are purely contextual and are chosen and displayed based on the content of the page you are on. All it takes is a click, nothing else, and Google donates a small commission to the author.

So the next time you see an advertisement on an eBook details page and had the thought that it seemed as if we were reading your mind, remember that a click will help support your favorite author too.

]]> Great news for our writers who share with us on Free-eBooks.net.

If you’ve ever looked at the details page for eBooks on our website, you might have noticed that there are ad slots located in strategic and unobtrusive spots on the page. Well, now we’ve dedicated those ad slots to the authors whose books are displayed on those pages.

The ads are purely contextual and are chosen and displayed based on the content of the page you are on. All it takes is a click, nothing else, and Google donates a small commission to the author.

So the next time you see an advertisement on an eBook details page and had the thought that it seemed as if we were reading your mind, remember that a click will help support your favorite author too.

]]> http://www.ebookenvy.com/author-rewards-for-your-clicks/feed/ 0 http://www.ebookenvy.com/uploading-to-your-ereader-via-usb/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=uploading-to-your-ereader-via-usb http://www.ebookenvy.com/uploading-to-your-ereader-via-usb/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:28:37 +0000 camille http://www.ebookenvy.com/?p=1065 I have been spending some time with our helpdesk issues and noticed that one of the most often asked for advice is how to upload our eBooks to eReaders – from Kindle to [insert no-name reader here] – and today I thought I’d connect up a Nook SimpleTouch and write some step-by-step instructions.

The first thing I did was to plug the Nook into the computer. Our generic steps say that the eReader should be recognized as a separate removable drive; that didn’t happen for me. I got a device driver failure notification. A quick web search determined that I was not the only one with this problem.

Then I noticed that the Nook screen had a message stating that the Nook battery was too low to power on the device and that I should wait 15 minutes. In 15 minutes, the Nook powered up on its own and appeared in my device listing.

Sure enough, there was the Nook in the directory listing and I could browse to it without doing a thing.

more ]]]> I have been spending some time with our helpdesk issues and noticed that one of the most often asked for advice is how to upload our eBooks to eReaders – from Kindle to [insert no-name reader here] – and today I thought I’d connect up a Nook SimpleTouch and write some step-by-step instructions.

The first thing I did was to plug the Nook into the computer. Our generic steps say that the eReader should be recognized as a separate removable drive; that didn’t happen for me. I got a device driver failure notification. A quick web search determined that I was not the only one with this problem.

Then I noticed that the Nook screen had a message stating that the Nook battery was too low to power on the device and that I should wait 15 minutes. In 15 minutes, the Nook powered up on its own and appeared in my device listing.

Sure enough, there was the Nook in the directory listing and I could browse to it without doing a thing.

I then opened my browser to the eBook details page for Jay Alfred’s Dark Earth and downloaded the ePub version to my downloads folder.

From here, it was a simple matter to drag the Dark-Earth.epub to my Nook directory.

I ejected my nook by right-clicking on the drive labeled “Nook” in the directory listing and selecting “Eject” and checked my Nook’s library to see this:

I hope these directions help clarify the process for you – even if you don’t have a Nook.

]]> http://www.ebookenvy.com/uploading-to-your-ereader-via-usb/feed/ 2