Walk Forward is #1

Walk Forward is #1 today and has been #1 in its category for a few days. Free downloads last Thursday and Friday moved the book to #1 and it has remained at #1 over the weekend.

Creating a paperback version has not significantly added readers when considering the book has been downloaded by more than 700 persons during its short life of almost two months as of this November 25, 2012, having been first published in ebook format on September 25, 2012.

The paperback version is available on two platforms, Amazon.com and CreateSpace a separate, but wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.

Although CreateSpace is owned by Amazon, the web interfaces for an author or reader differ from that of Amazon.com.

It may be of interest to information professionals and readers, that book titles are not searchable in CreateSpace as they are on Amazon.com. If I find a way to search a title on CreateSpace, as one would have to if one did not have the CreateSpace identification number for a book, I will post herein.

CreateSpace has some nice features including the option of setting up discount codes for a book. Up to 3 discount codes may be set up for a book, but not being searchable and not being able to search for a discount code, makes the feature useless to anyone, but authors of the book who discount copies to family and friends. An author has to give a potential reader the discount code and the URL (address) of the book on the CreateSpace website.

It was actually easier to create a paperback copy of the book on CreateSpace than it was to create the ebook on Amazon Kindle Select, because CreateSpace requires a PDF of the book (which Open Office is great in creating)!

Marketing Your Book: Part 5, Updating

I published my book, Walk Forward, about the ongoing search for my lost sister, Eugenia Chimowicz, on Amazon Kindle Select. In choosing the "Select" program, I agreed that the book will be an exclusive on Amazon Kindle for the next 90 days.

One reason I chose Amazon as in the publishing directions, it appeared easy to revise a book.  When the book was a week old, a newly found cousin in Israel read the book and emailed me that my grandmother had a brother, and that brother was a twin of one of my grandmother's sisters. This was new information for my book which could lead to new information about my lost sister. Since my grandmother's brother had offspring, it was important to include their male ancestor in the book as it identifies not only how they are related to me, but to my lost sister.

Those who purchased the book, tried to purchase the updated copy, only to find out that this is not possible. Amazon only allows an individual to purchase one copy of a book, even if the book is updated.

Herein is a reply which I received from Amazon this morning in response to my question as to how the 24 readers that purchased the first, original version of my book might obtain the updated version:

Email from Amazon this morning:

Regarding your inquiry about notifying your customers, we have received your request to provide updated content to customers who purchased your book. Thanks for providing specific details about the changes made. We’ll perform a review of the changes to determine the most appropriate way to describe the updates to your customers. This review will be complete within four weeks, and the possible results of our review listed below.

1. If the changes made to your content are considered critical, we’ll send an email to all customers who own the book to notify them of the update and improvements made. These customers will be able to choose to opt in to receive the update through the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon.com.  www.amazon.com/gp/digital/fiona/manage
2. If the changes made to your content are considered minor, we won’t be able to notify all customers by email, but we will activate their ability to update the content through the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon.com.
3. If the changes made to your content have caused unexpected critical issues with the book content, we’ll temporarily remove your book from sale. We’ll notify of you the issues found so you can fix them. Once the improvements are made, just let us know and we’ll then email customers as in case 1. Once our review is complete, we’ll email you to share the results and action taken.

Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

I am publishing this in my blog herein, for any authors needing information per updating a book on Amazon Kindle. 

Article to be Published in 2010

Look for my article in the January-February, 2010 issue of the APCJ: Asia Pacific Coatings Journal! The article should be online at the end of February.