Author: RJ Crayton

RJ Crayton is a former journalist turned novelist. By day, she writes thrillers with a touch of romance. By night, she practices the art of ninja mom. To learn more about her or her books, visit her website or her Author Central page.

Trying Amazon’s New Print Book Options

Amazon.comLate last year, Amazon began offering authors the option of publishing both their eBooks and paperbacks through Amazon. Previously, authors wanting to publish paperbacks had to use CreateSpace, an Amazon-owned company that required a separate login and tax information. Today, we’ll look at how that process works, so you can decide if it’s something you want to try.

While I’m always a bit leery of new things, I was really excited about the idea of seeing both paperback and eBook sales on the same dashboard. I decided to give Amazon’s paperback publishing a try with one of my recent titles, Prophecy of Light-Foretold. Here, I’ll give you the breakdown of the process. Continue reading “Trying Amazon’s New Print Book Options”

Newsletter Swapping Service Offers Authors a Free Way to Connect, Advertise

newsletter swap logoIf you’re an author who doesn’t have a ton of money to spend on advertising, but would like to be seen, newsletter swapping is something you might want to consider. The basic principle is simple: Author A and Author B write in similar genres and each one has a newsletter. When Author A sends out his newsletter, he includes Author B’s book and vice versa. With newsletter swapping, each author gets exposure to potential new readers while exposing their own readers to books they might enjoy.

In the past, in order to do this, two authors would tend to have to know each other, have talked about their lists, and then decide they want to swap. The first newsletter swaps I’ve done occurred this way (once I swapped with an author who has a 20k+ list). When a swap goes well, it’s great to see an uptick in sales or free downloads as a result. But the pool of most authors’ knowledge/friendships with other authors is limited.

However, a service I discovered in December is making newsletter swapping easy, providing lists of authors with similar genres and spots available in their newsletters. Continue reading “Newsletter Swapping Service Offers Authors a Free Way to Connect, Advertise”

Lack Book Reviews, but Want to Advertise? This Article Is for You!

NoCustomerReviewsWhile most authors want to advertise their books, it’s often difficult to find sites that will accept books that have few or no reviews. Well, fear not. Today, we’re going to list a few sites that have specific advertising geared at new releases that don’t have reviews, or generally accept books with few or no reviews.

We’ll start with new release advertising. Let’s say your book is just out and you want to advertise it, or the book is on pre-order and you want to schedule some ads for release week. Many of the advertising sites that perform well have a minimum number of reviews they require before they will even consider your submission. A book just released, or one that is on pre-order, is unlikely to have reviews. The good news is, you can schedule some “new release” advertising. (Please note, most sites do not accept pre-order advertising, but will allow you to input the pre-order link to schedule an ad for a date after the book’s release.) Continue reading “Lack Book Reviews, but Want to Advertise? This Article Is for You!”

Amazon’s New Pre-Order Policies Give Authors More Flexibility

Amazon pre-orderAmazon recently made some changes to their pre-order process that give authors more flexibility.

Back in 2014, in what was considered a great leap forward for self-published authors, Amazon provided the ability to offer books for pre-order. Previously, only big publishers had that option on Amazon. While this was a great move, the pre-order process on Amazon had some strict requirements. Book files had to be uploaded ten days prior to the book’s on-sale date, and if you missed the deadline (either because you failed to finish the book or because you simply forgot to check the box saying it was the final copy of your book), Amazon canceled your pre-order and you were banned from doing preorders for an entire year. Continue reading “Amazon’s New Pre-Order Policies Give Authors More Flexibility”