Spotlight On: LitNuts!

Are you nuts about books? Then LitNuts is for you!

What is LitNuts? LitNuts is a woman-owned, family-run business founded by Kathleen Meyer and her father, Mike O'Mary, who share a love of literature and reading. Kathleen is an avid reader with 10 years of marketing experience, including with Dream of Things, a small press founded by Mike in 2009. During its 10-year history, Dream of Things published three New York Times Bestsellers, three winners of the Hoffer Award, and one book that has been optioned for a film. Kathleen and Mike drew upon their experience of publishing and marketing books on a shoestring budget to create LitNuts, in the hope of helping other indie presses achieve success. 

For readers: So, LitNuts brings you books of short stories, essays, or poetry that many other newsletters refuse to include (because collections don’t sell as well as novels). LitNuts also features new releases and award-winning books that other newsletters exclude because of price. (Many newsletters feature ONLY ebooks priced at $2.99 or less, which is fine – but not all great books are $2.99 or less!).

For authors, you'll be happy to hear that LitNuts founders Mike O’Mary and Kathleen Meyer handled publishing and marketing for an indie press for more than 10 years. This is important because that means they understand the challenge of getting your books in front of readers. 

For Authors: LitNuts is an affordable vehicle that focuses on indie books and has engaged subscribers. Their goal is to help authors increase their book’s sales rank with online retailers, generate more reader reviews, and create positive word-of-mouth. 

Toward that end, they are building a subscriber base of booklovers who want to hear from indie presses. And they are focused on keeping things simple and flexible for authors. They offer a flat price of $25, so it’s simple. No tiered pricing or convoluted advertising offers to analyze.

At the same time, they give authors the flexibility to advertise short story, essay and poetry collections, to link to your website so book lovers can purchase directly from you, and to set the price of your e-book according to your needs.

Subscribe now to their great newsletter and also follow on Twitter and Facebook by visiting https://litnuts.com/.

 

Last Days of 12 Authors of Christmas KidLit Giveaway!

Just a quick reminder there are only a couple of days left to get these amazing books FREE!

 

Need some suggestions? Julie-Ann Grasso's Cardamom series will appeal to kids of all ages (including the ones that haven't quite grown up yet!). Here are my reviews of the first two books in this exciting off-world fantasy for kids.

 

Escape from the Forbidden Planet: Meet Caramel Cinnamon, an elf who lives in Cardeville on the planet Cardamom. Caramel’s bad accident when she was little has left her with a gammy leg, but that doesn’t stop her doing all kinds of things an elf of her age would do—such as spending two weeks visiting her friend Jemm Jasmine in the tree canopy village and having loads of fun. But treachery and tragedy lie in store for the unsuspecting inhabitants of Cardamom. The villainous Alexander222, an off-world explorer, along with his sidekick clone, Lex, arrive from the

planet Isqwartz. His planet resource is crystal, but supplies are dwindling. They need a renewable resource to trade with other members of the Intergalactic Council. Cardamom is just perfect, especially when the properties of this amazing plant become evident. Alexander222 is desperate to impress the Clone Council and get back into favor. The elves are betrayed by someone close to them, and things turn ugly. Caramel’s grandparents (the King and Queen of Cardamom) are kidnapped and Caramel recognizes their attacker. Before she can make trouble for him, Alexander222 dumps Caramel and her parents on the forbidden planet (Earth) that the Alexanders desperately try to avoid after a bad incident there (Roswell!). Although Earth isn’t as technologically advanced as Cardamom, Caramel and her parents make plans to rescue the King and Queen … until things go horribly awry! Now it’s up to Caramel to do it all on her own, with some help from her new Earth friends.

This is an enchanting fantasy tale to delight readers of all ages. Cardamom’s elves are not your ordinary fairy-tale elves. Science and technology rub shoulders comfortably with a twist of fantasy in this magical world. These elves have telepathic skills as well as healing talents. Caramel is not just an elf, she’s a princess, and she rises to meet the responsibilities thrust upon her with new-found inner strength and determination. Author Julie Anne Grasso has woven a wonderful story with all the elements to intrigue young readers and keep them turning those pages. There’s danger, a test of our heroine’s courage and resourcefulness, intergalactic travel, super-science, geek talk, and a mission to accomplish. Caramel is a lovely, real character, and touches such as her limp emphasize the importance of believing in yourself and being … well, yourself! Family relationships and friendships are also precious to the elves. There are some humorous touches parents will enjoy such as references to modern culture. Mentions of delicious food abound and one wonders why the author did NOT include the recipe for sticky date and chocolate cake with caramel cardamom syrup. (Pass the pudding please!)

And the adventure continues in Return to Cardamom! Instead of life returning to sleepy normal on Cardamom, the planet is now experiencing loads of activity. Cardamom Crystal is in huge demand as a power source for intergalactic technology. Caramel develops her skills in tree tending and healer classes and is keen to get better at computer control. The dangers of Alexander222 are over … or are they? Disaster strikes when the entire cardamom crop drops before due

time, the plants are traumatized, and Caramel has to accompany her mother to the tree canopy to find out what is going on. If Cardamom does not meet its quota, Alexander222 and his sidekick Lex will put forward the new biosynthetic hybrid, Cardocryst, to the Intergalactic Council. This is something the inhabitants of Cardamom cannot afford to see happen because they will lose their livelihood.

Once at the tree canopy, Caramel discovers she has the ability to understand the plants and also to soothe them. She manages to encourage them to start producing a new crop. The planet might just make the quota after all, if the elves can keep the plants safe. Amazingly, the plants give her a clue: they were unable to smell the identity of the saboteur, meaning he or she is an elf!  Caramel’s ideas on what happened to the plants—Alexander 222 and her Aunt Isabel are at the bottom of this—are dismissed as conspiracy theories, but once her mom, Arianna, is kidnapped, it’s up to Caramel and her friends to save the day … again!

Author Julie Anne Grasso knows how to keep the action and the energy going as Caramel and her mates plot and then execute a rescue plan. In between all the Cardamom-based science and techno talk, are the real themes of life that readers are beginning to understand. Doing the right thing, being loyal to friends and family, trying even when you might not succeed, believing in yourself, and consciousness of environmental issues are themes that should be instilled in kids at an early age. Caramel’s courage and principles help young readers to understand what it means to jump into the fray and do your very best. Wonderful revelations at the end of the book restore Caramel’s (and readers) faith in justice and make for a beautiful ending. I loved the first two books and can’t wait to read what the author and Caramel have in store in the final installment of this captivating trilogy.

 

 

How to Sell eBooks Directly to Readers

Great sales = success . However, finding readers and selling directly to them seems to be as easy as searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. However, thanks to Penny Sansevieri and her great newsletter, I have uncovered some new leads to benefit indie authors.

 

This article explains how to sell your eBook directly to readers without using an online reseller such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, or Kobo. Readers can get your book and revisions immediately, and you can make as much money as possible on each sale. However, this is too perfect a picture, so keep two factors in mind.

 

1. First, somehow you need to get the eBook to your customers and their money to you. This can entail website hosting, fulfillment, payment processing, shipping, and customer service.
2. Second, this method only works if you have the ability to expose your readers to your offering.

   

   While people might stumble upon your book on Amazon, iBookstore, Nook, Google Play, and Kobo because of internal recommendation engines and large amounts of traffic, this isn't going to happen with this type of sale.

 

Gumroad
Gumroad charges $0.25 per download plus 5 percent of the sale for hosting and selling your file. For example, if you sell a PDF for $3, Gumroad keeps $0.40 ($0.25 + 5 percent of $3) and you'd get $2.60. This is more than you'd get from Kindle Direct Publishing for the same transaction. Gumroad also offers a "$0+" option. This means that people can pay whatever they want to-including nothing.

I used Gumroad to distribute a PDF of What the Plus! Unfortunately, I didn't track results when I varied the price from $2.99 to as low as "pay what you want." Over the course of a month, 26,717 people clicked on the link, and 1,632 people downloaded it.

Most people paid $0, but the donations amounted to $803.23, so the average amount paid was approximately $0.50 per copy. This was four months after the introduction of the book. By that time, I had given away approximately 15,000 copies and sold 15,000 copies.

People cannot pay with PayPal because Gumroad only accepts credit cards. Also, Gumroad asks for a minimal amount of personal information, so it cannot provide information about where your customers live. Someday you may need this information to charge sales tax or value-added tax for digital content.

Gumroad requires a preexisting and loyal audience that will click on a link that you provide. As a first-time author, this may be difficult, but you'll learn how to build your "platform" in the next section of the book, "Entrepreneur." If you can make this work, there are two big benefits: retention of more of the selling price and access to the e-mail addresses of everyone who has bought the file.

E-Junkie
E-Junkie is another way to sell your book directly. Unlike Gumroad's per-copy flat fee and percentage, E-Junkie charges according to the number of files and storage space that you use. The number of downloads is unlimited.

A collection of ten files totaling less than fifty megabytes costs $5 per month. Therefore, if you had one book that is less than fifty megabytes (which is a huge size for a book), you'd only pay $5 per month, and you could sell an unlimited number of copies.

Unlike Gumroad, customers can use PayPal, Google Checkout, TrialPay, and Authorize.net but not credit cards. Finally, also unlike Gumroad, E-Junkie can calculate sales tax and VAT charges because it knows where your customers reside.

ClickBank
ClickBank is a third way to sell ebooks directly. You create an account, upload your file, price it, and sell it. There is a $49.95 activation fee to get started. Customers can use credit cards or PayPal.

A key difference between ClickBank and the other two services is ClickBank's affiliate program. The scenario ClickBank paints is that people discover great books in the ClickBank marketplace. Then they join the ClickBank affiliate program, get an affiliate link to their favorite books, and promote the link on their blog and through social media.

The company says that it has 100,000 affiliates in 200 countries. It claims to have paid more than $1.8 billion to affiliates and vendors (the people who upload files) and to process 30,000 transactions per day.

The revenue split with ClickBank is different from the other direct-sales sites. ClickBank operates on a wholesale price/retail price model, which means you set a wholesale price (the price at which ClickBank and other affiliates buy the book from you) and a retail price (the price customers see and pay). Your revenue is the wholesale price, since you are selling to ClickBank, and they are the seller of record to customers.

Ganxy
Ganxy is an interesting start-up in this segment. It enables you create a "showcase" for your eBook and sell it in EPUB, MOBI, and PDF format. Ganxy provides payment functionality, file hosting, and customer service.

Ganxy charges 10 percent of net sales, where net sales is the selling price of the eBook less a payment-processing fee. Think of it as a website like Gumroad, E-Junkie, and ClickBank that is dedicated to selling eBooks.

Caveats
If you can convince people to buy your book from these services, you can make more money per book. Nathan Barry's App Design Handbook is an example. Barry has a concentrated market of app programmers, and these programmers are willing to pay his book's price of $39.

For these programmers, the book isn't a $2.99 Gothic-romance whim. Designing apps is their livelihood, so a $39 price point for a book that can help them succeed isn't a problem. Barry makes approximately $38.20 per book, so if he sold 2,000 copies, he could buy a Porsche.

On the other hand, online eBook resellers such as Amazon and Apple pay less per copy, but they may sell more copies. Also, direct sales do not count toward sales rankings for bestseller lists, and books on these lists tend to sell more because they are visible.

If your customers are not price sensitive and you have a way to reach them, then selling direct can work. If these conditions do not exist, then it may be better to make less money per copy but sell more copies using online resellers and bookstores.

PayPal
If you're wondering about using PayPal to sell eBooks, it's not applicable to most self-publishers because this would require creating a website where your readers have an account, and you control access to your eBook's file. Essentially, you'd have to become your own E-Junkie and manage an ecommerce site.

PayPal provides payment collection, and when someone pays, it tells your website to grant access-for example, if someone buys more weapons in an online game. Credit cards such as MasterCard and Visa work in similar ways. However, these companies do not act as your store by hosting your eBook and selling it.

So your customers can pay with PayPal and credit cards, but on Gumroad, E-Junkie, and ClickBank, not directly to you.

This fantastic information comes from Guy Kawasaki, who has written 12 books, 10 of which were

traditionally published. His newest book is APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur - How to Publish a Book, which helps people understand how and why to self-publish.

APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur - How to Publish a Book, by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch, is available as an eBook ($9.99) and in paperback ($24.99). Visit

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.

by Fiona Ingram