By Maureen Stewart

They may be absorbed in their own little world of toys and playmates right now but years from now, as they brush with maturity, your kids are going to be interested in the life you have led. They will want to know how your upbringing and the stories therein compare to theirs. They will want a closer look at the real you. As they discover themselves and their abilities they will begin to look closer to home for the answers. These are some of the main questions you are likely to be asked.

1. Where were you born? The US is a nation of diverse cultures and peoples from all over the world. Your kids are going to want to know where their roots lie. Are they part Irish, part German? It’s interesting to know where you came from and if you still have family there. It gives your kids a sense of identity and the information needed to start researching their family tree.

2. What were you like as a kid? Your kids want to look into the window of your childhood. They want to see how your childhood compares to theirs. By discovering how you were as a child, teenager and young adult they can get a better understanding of who you are today and perhaps who they are.

3. Where did you live growing up? They will want to know where you lived and how you lived. Were you born in the US or did you come from another country as an immigrant? Share with them the details of your childhood home, the neighborhood, the room you had as a child and what your backyard was like. It’s sure to be quite different to what they have been used to.

4. What were your parents like? Where did your parents take you and how was your relationship with them? What they know about your parents, so far, has been dictated by the roles they have i.e. Grandma or Grandpa. Let them see a different side to their grandparents through your stories of your life with them.

5. Did you go on many dates? Not only will they get a sense of how strict your parents were with you concerning dating but it will give them an idea of how it was done when you were younger. Cultural and social differences can be quite intriguing from generation to generation.

6. What were your hobbies/passions/pastimes? Depending on where you lived growing up your hobbies as a youngster may be wildly different to what your kids do today. You might even spark their interest in trying something new to them perhaps something you were good at as a youngster.

7. Where and how did you meet my dad? What your kids really want to hear is a fairytale love story and if this fits your experience then all the better. For most of us, however, this is not quite the reality. You will be able to judge for yourself what is appropriate to tell them and still give them a good story.

8. How did you choose my name? Normally when we pick a name for a baby it’s because we just loved the name or we are naming the child after someone we love and respect. Your kids will want to know who picked their name and why so they can establish pride in their own identity.

9. What was I like as a baby/child/teenager etc? It’s OK to tell them the good and the bad things about themselves growing up as long as there is a healthy measure of both. Some of your stories of them growing up will surprise them especially those very early memories they are unlikely to remember themselves.

10. What would you do differently with your life looking back? No child wants to see their parents unhappy and full of regret but at the same time they will be interested in your dreams and whether they were fulfilled. Share with them your dreams and how these perhaps changed as you grew older.

There are probably many more questions they are likely to ask. Writing an Autobiography is the one of the best ways to capture these stories in a more permanent way. It will give you something solid to present to your family.

What is an Autobiography & why should I write one?

An Autobiography is quite simply a historical record of a persons life; the thoughts, feelings, events, people and places of an individuals past in detail. It’s your very unique and personal contribution to your Family’s History and on a greater scale your contribution to the history of the world we live in. There are many reasons to write an Autobiography/Personal History. The main reason should be because you want to. Perhaps to share the experiences of your life with others; as a gift for your family; a desire to write; to try and understand your life and the forces that have shaped you; to gain a new insight into yourself; so that you are not forgotten or simply to have a story to go with those dozens of old photos you have kept in a box for years.

Even Oprah has said ‘I urge you to pursue preserving your personal history to allow your children and grandchildren to know who you were as a child and what your hopes and dreams were’.

What’s interesting about my life?

Many people wonder who would be interested in reading their Life Story. Quite simply, you’re Family. They love to hear these stories because it allows them to peer into a place in time ‘in your life’ which they don’t know. Your time in history is different to theirs. The younger members of your family don’t know what you were like as a kid, teenager, young adult, etc. They just know you as parent or grandparent. Some of them don’t imagine you were anything else but the age you are now. So when you share stories of your life with them they begin to realize that you were a kid too; you made mistakes, had fun, got into trouble with your parents, etc. They feel like they can relate to you better, they feel like they know you better and this brings you closer together as a family.

How do I begin to write my Life Story?

The task of starting such a project may also be daunting for some. You don’t have to be a great writer to write your Autobiography. Your words written naturally are more important. In fact ‘your words’ in ‘your handwriting’ are more precious to your loved ones than any printed document. They will really feel like they have a piece of you forever. It is, however, advisable to structure your writing into Life Stages; Childhood, Teenage Years, marriage, etc but you can start at whichever life stage is most comfortable for you. There are no set rules.

What if I have forgotten?

Many people also feel like they have forgotten the details of their childhood. Not so, they are still in there and just need a gentle push to the surface. Try looking through old photos and memorabilia you may have kept over the years. Take some quite time to reflect.

How long will it take to complete?

An Autobiography should never be rushed or run to a schedule. This is your project, you set the time scale. While I’m sure your loved ones are eager to get a glimpse of the ‘real you’ don’t be pressured into finishing quickly, you don’t want to miss out important parts of your story.

And Finally….

Writing and sharing the stories of your life should be a positive experience, so enjoy it. Have fun reliving those old memories. Laugh at the funny ones, cry at the sad ones but most of all don’t ever let yourself forget them again.

Maureen Stewart is the author of The Personal History Book and The Tribute Book. E-Mail her at info@treasurechestproducts.com or visit http://www.treasurechestproducts.com

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By Mike Brozda

Once a luxury of the rich and famous, technology has, for the first time in history, made it possible for anyone to capture, share and preserve their most precious life stories. With the advent of computers, the Internet, digital photography, video, and audio, anyone can capture the richness and texture of their life stories. These personal histories will be appreciated by family, friends, and future generations.

Today it is possible to easily blend the art of traditional biography and memoir with powerful new technologies into a new form of individual life storytelling: the personal life history. Personal life histories are satisfying to create. And, because of the interactive multimedia possibilities inherent in computers and the web, a well-done personal life history can be rich and fully rounded in ways that are impossible to achieve in text-only memoir or biography. But most importantly, personal life histories preserve vital individual and family stories. And, when properly done, they will last for generations.

In this article you will discover how to use time-honored life story writing techniques along with the latest technologies to create a story that is uniquely “you.”

The Art of Traditional Life-Story Formats

For anyone interested in creating their own autobiography, memoir or personal life history, it is important to understand the distinctions between these forms of telling one’s own life story. To over-generalize for a moment, an autobiography is more fact-based, while a memoir is more emotion-based.

Autobiographies are written by the subject, sometimes with the collaboration of another writer. Autobiographical works take many forms, from intimate writings made during life that are not necessarily intended for publication (including letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, and reminiscences) to the formal autobiography. Interestingly, the autobiography format does not necessarily have to be true. It may also be a literary fictional tale.

Memoirs are a form of personal recollection that has grown enormously in popularity in recent times. Memoirs often focus on more subjective recollections such as memories, feelings, and emotions and are generally written from the first-person viewpoint. The memoir is often focused on capturing certain meaningful highlights or moments.

In his own Memoir, Palimpest, Gore Vidal writes that “a memoir is how one remembers one’s own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked.”

Memoirs usually focus on a brief period of time or a series of connected events (an autobiography covers a longer time period). In a memoir, the writer is usually retrospective, and contemplating past events. Memoirs may incorporate the techniques of storytelling such as setting, plot, conflict, character development, foreshadowing, flashback, irony or symbolism. And lastly, writing one’s memoir often has a therapeutic effect for the writer.

Oral History Recordings

An oral history is a verbatim transcription of an interview, left in the narrator’s exact words. These are usually left in a question-and-answer style and are an economical way to preserve family stories. A recording system with a good-quality microphone and a quiet spot free from interruptions are all that is really needed to capture an oral history. It helps to have questions prepared in advance of the interview.

Oral histories are usually recorded using analog tape or digital recording equipment, but it is also possible to record directly into a personal computer. Oral histories are often transcribed (typed or word processed) into a document format. The conversational style is appealing for its easygoing informality.

Caveats: Recording formats and standards are constantly evolving and could become difficult or impossible to play back if the equipment becomes obsolete. Taped recordings decay over time.

Video History Recordings

Do-it-Yourself: At the basic level, it’s easy and fun to create a basic video history. Camcorders are relatively inexpensive, and many computers today come with basic editing software. Capturing a good video history shares all of the same prerequisites as an audio recording: a quiet spot, with questions prepared in advance. Plus, you will want an uncluttered background, flattering lighting, and right clothing to improve the quality of the end product. White shirts, pants or dresses, for example don’t show up well on video. Likewise, busy patterns can be distracting. Solid light-colored neutrals or pastels are usually safe.

Professional videographers: A large number of professional video companies specialize in the creation of life story productions. Productions may range from a 10 or 15 minute short to an hour or longer mini-movie, complete with titles, music, and other Hollywood-style effects. Naturally, you’ll pay more for a professional production than a homegrown effort.

When selecting a professional use all the usual smart-consumer tips. Ask for references. Ask to see samples of prior work. Get all costs, production timetables and commitments in writing. It’s delightful to have movies of an individual or family. When well-executed they often have entertainment value and are great for special occasions.

Caveat: As with audio recordings, formats change over time, and media can degrade, even with proper storage methods

The Integration of Art and Technology: Web-Based Personal Life Histories

Just in the last few years, the Web has emerged as a powerful new medium for creating and sharing life stories. On the web it is not only possible, it is enjoyable and easy to create a rich multimedia story with text, photos, audio and video. This is the new format of the personal life history.

Web-based personal life histories enjoy several advantages over paper-based publishing, audio, video, or even CD life stories. Specifically, Web-based publication is updateable-one can add new information at any time. It is easily shareable among friends or family. The most advanced sites offer choices of privacy and security protection. The web is also multimedia, meaning you can add text, photos, audio, and video. Photos, audio, video are never lost, damaged destroyed. An finally, many sites offer print-on-demand, allowing you to create instant books. The books may be printed on your home printer, or sent out to small-run publishers. If you choose the small-run option, be sure to specify archival quality paper.

One of the biggest advantages of web publishing is the ability to build community around similar interests, occupations, backgrounds or life events. For example, a WWII veteran pilot who posts his story to the Web and makes it available to the public may be contacted by long-lost friends, other veterans, students, historians, museum personnel, or others interested in this pivotal chapter in American history.

Why Create Your Personal Life History?

Mark Twain once said: “There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is impossibility. Inside everyone, there is a drama, a comedy, a tragedy.”

A personal life history can be as short as a few pages, or several volumes in length. Whatever the length or medium, it requires thoughtfulness and sometimes quite a bit of work to accomplish. But the work is worthwhile because it has the ability to influence generations ahead. Your personal life history may leave a legacy for your children and grandchildren. As with memoir, writing a personal history allows you to examine and reflect on your life up to the present day. It lets you add your story to the larger historical record of your family, city, and country. And lastly, if you don’t do it, who will?

Start with a Timeline of Life Chapters

How does one start to tell the story of a life that may cover 60, 70, 80 years or more? Often it’s helpful to create a chronological timeline of major events in your life. It helps to jot down a few notes around key phases in your life. In fact, you may already be thinking of your life as a book, with separate, distinct chapters built around important life episodes.

Of course, not everyone’s life follows an identical chronological sequence, but here are a few ideas for chapter headings for your book or story. GreatLifeStories.com uses the following “chapters” to organize life stories:

o Your Beginnings

o In Your Neighborhood

o School Days

o Off to Work

o Romance and Marriage

o War and Peace

o Triumphs and Tragedies

o Words of Wisdom

o Humor

o Words of Gratitude

The chapter system is very flexible. For example, you don’t have to start your life story with the days of your birth and youth. Perhaps you had a fascinating experience during the war. As with a movie, you might open your life story with that “scene,” then tell the story how you got there.

Once you’ve got an idea for the “flow,” of your story, here are some more specific guidelines to help add color, texture, and authenticity:

1. Just start writing! Do a mind dump. Get it out of your head and down on paper, the computer, the tape recorder, wherever. Don’t worry about how it sounds. Just write. Resist the temptation to edit yourself; there will be time for editing later.
2. Be yourself. Don’t worry if your grammar or spelling isn’t perfect. Write it as you would say it.
3. Honesty is everything. The best writing tells it like it happened.
4. Include humor. Favorite jokes, stories, anecdotes
5. Detail, detail, detail. What kind of floor did the kitchen have? What color was the scarf she wore when you first met?
6. Go at a comfortable pace. Don’t try to capture an entire lifetime in a single session of furious writing. Write, allow time to reflect, and return again to writing.
7. Consult others. Family members and friends can be invaluable sources of facts and interpretation.
8. Use photos to jog your memory. Tip: Set out photos in a timeline of your life, starting from your very youngest days, and moving through current times. Write or record to your visual storyboard
9. Look for themes in your life. Themes are broad ideas that are central to your life. Did you always want to be a pilot? A preacher? Own a restaurant? Be a farmer? Tell the story of how you met your goal, or how the goal changed to something else totally unexpected.

Here are just a few other thematic life story possibilities: a. The Spiritual quest b. The Confession c. The Travelogue d. The Portrait e. The Complaint f. Humor g. The Family history h. The Road to Recovery i. War Story j. Romance

Another Option: Hire a Professional

Most of this article has been focused on creating the do-it-yourself personal life history. There is, of course, the option of working with a professional. The right professional writer or videographer is a highly skilled interviewer and has the proper tools and equipment. And, believe it or not, it is sometimes easier for someone to open up in front of a stranger rather than in front of a family member.

There are many approaches to working with writers or videographers. However, there are a number of similarities in common. The writer/videographer often:

1) Meets with you to determine the scope and cost of the project.

2) Usually sets up taped interview sessions. Depending on your objectives, these may be an hour or two, or 10, 20 hours or more.

3) The recording is transcribed and edited with your input and guidance

4) Once a final manuscript/movie is agreed upon, it may be sent out for printing or duplication.

5) For books, personal history professionals recommend archival bindings and acid-free paper for longevity

6) You receive the number of books/movies agreed upon in your contract.

7) Be sure to discuss services, fees and end products in advance, and get all agreements in writing.

Thanks to high technology, the art of capturing and preserving the stories from one’s own life is now open to more people and easier than ever before. A new genre of personal storytelling is emerging that draws on the literary traditions of the autobiography and memoir, while adding audio, video, and web technology to create personal life histories. On the Web, these personal stories personal life histories are multimedia, collaborative, shareable, and instantly updateable.

Enjoy capturing your life story!

References and Further Reading

Web Sites:

http://www.greatlifestories.com

Associations:

The Association of Personal Historians is a 600+ member organization of professional personal historians who create life stories in all formats: text, audio, video. http://www.personalhistorians.org

How-to Books:

There are many good books filled with different approaches and tips for writing a personal life history. Here are just a few:

Daniel, Lios, How to Write Your Own Life Story

Rainer, Tristine, Your Life as Story Books

Roorbach, Bill, Writing Life Stories

Mike Brozda is one of the founding members of the GreatLifeStories team. A veteran journalist, he has more than 30 years experience writing for national and international publications. He has also created more than 150 personal life histories for people across the US, Canada, and Mexico. Contact him at mike.brozda@yahoo.com

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By Andrew Cavanagh

Let me tell you exactly how to write an ebook that sells. This is a method I’ve used over and over that will work for you.

Best of all while it is important that you can write clearly and coherently you don’t have to be a great writer to do this. And you can get started making money today before you even write a word.

If that sounds a bit far fetched to you I don’t blame you for being skeptical.

After over a decade struggling to make a living as a writer I wouldn’t have believed it either.

But there really is a way to write a steady stream of ebooks that sell and to get paid good money before you even start.

Let me share some fundamentals with you.

First you have to understand that you only get paid for the value you create when you write.

If you can write an ebook or a report that generates tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales or business it’s reasonable to expect to be paid a good percentage of the profits you generate.

That’s why it’s so much easier to make money writing an ebook or a report in the business how to niche than it is to make money writing a fiction book.

But there’s an even more important fundamental you need to grasp if you want to write an ebook that sells immediately.

Before you turn on your computer and start writing you must have a hungry market to sell your ebook to.

The only way to guarantee your ebook will sell is to know at least one person will buy it…before you write a word.

And here’s my real secret to writing an ebook that sells.

I don’t try to write ebooks for the general market. I don’t even try to sell them myself.

You can make an exceptional income by writing ebooks and reports to help local businesses sell their products and services.

If you were working with a pool and spa installer you might write an ebook with the title “The 7 Most Costly Mistakes You Can Make Installing Your Home Spa (And How To Avoid Them)”.

It doesn’t have to be a long ebook either. Just one to ten pages that lead to the obvious conclusion for the prospect that he should be getting his spa installed by your client.

I’ve been paid many thousands of dollars to write simple 3-7 page reports.

And my clients pay me 50% of my fee in advance. That means I get paid a substantial amount of money for my ebook before I even write a word!

And the other half when I finish.

Best of all you can do this too.

All you need to do is go talk to business owners in your local area.

Tell them you have your own business as an internet marketing consultant and get into a casual conversation about how they’re doing their online and offline marketing.

Then you can give them some ideas on how to integrate their marketing more effectively by using automated email follow up and ebooks or reports delivered online pre-educating their prospects on why they should buy from them.

A business owner is unlikely to see the value in paying you $500 to $5,000 for a simple report or ebook but he’ll be thrilled to pay you that kind of money for a website that helps his business make sales and a report delivered online that he can also print out and give to his prospects as a gift.

Ordinary people just like you with a little writing skill and a little internet marketing skill are making real money just walking into local businesses this way and having a casual conversation with the owners.

Many are walking out with checks in their pockets for $500, $1,000, $1,500 or more…often on their first day out.

In my opinion that is how to write an ebook that sells for a substantial price and get paid in the fastest way possible with the least amount of work.

Andrew Cavanagh is an online marketing pioneer with over 25 years experience in offline business. He is the author of the special report: Offline Gold For The Online Marketer which reveals how you can make money fast selling your online marketing skills to brick and mortar business owners.

Andrew’s Offline Gold Audio reveals how you can walk into a brick and mortar business and walk out with a check in your pocket for $500, $1,000, $1,500 or more. You can download this 68 minute audio instantly for free at Offline Gold Audio Giveaway

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By Daniel Murphy

Title and Author: Drive by Daniel H. Pink

Synopsis of Content: Drive is about what science teaches about motivation, how it differs from mainstream business practices, and how business in the 21st century is and needs to learn from this science to improve employee performance.

Pink characterizes three generations of motivation. Motivation 1.0 is the basic needs motivation: you need food and water and shelter and you will do what you need to in order to secure those things. Motivation 2.0 is the so called carrot and stick motivation techniques business, schools and government have used for centuries: rewarding people with money and other rewards for desirable conduct and punishing with sanctions such as termination from employment for undesirable conduct. Pink argues that Motivation 2.0 is unreliable and inadequate for knowledge workers in the 21st century.

He then describes Motivation 3.0 – engaging people through greater autonomy, mastery and purpose. He demonstrates how the science of psychology has shown this more elegant method of motivation is more consistently effective and far cheaper to provide.

At the end of the book he sets forth a plan on how to implement this new motivational method in an organization.

The book has a broader significance however than just organizational motivation techniques. It teaches the reader how they can best motivate themselves and obtain more from their work by seeking purpose in what they do, developing mastery over what they do and reaping greater satisfaction in the process.

This is an enlightening and important book on many levels.

Readability/Writing Quality:

Pink’s writing style is easy to follow. While he cites many studies and discusses the science behind his conclusions the book is very engaging and is not as dry as the subject matter might suggest. The chapters are well organized and build upon one another.

Notes on Author:

Daniel H. Pink is the author of A Whole New Mind, a best seller. He is also author of two other best sellers: The Adventures of Johnny Bunko and Free Agent Nation. He lectures on economic transformation and the “new workplace”.

Three Great Ideas You Can Use:

1. Traditional motivational techniques in business and education based on carrot and stick approaches are unreliable, especially for the modern knowledge worker. Employers need to learn about engagement motivation and apply it to motivate workers to a higher level of sustained performance.

2. Engaging people is based on intrinsic motivation rather than the extrinsic motivation of the older carrot and stick approach. While it is more challenging to implement and sustain due to its complexity, it is also more effective.

3. Rewards narrow our focus causing us to concentrate on getting the reward – this diminishes creative capacity and can dumb down the potential of anyone, even the most gifted or capable.

Publication Information: Drive by Daniel H. Pink (c) 2009. Published by Riverhead Books, Penguin Group. 242 pages hardbound.

Rating for this Book

Over all Rating for Book: Very Good.

Writing Style: Easy to follow; complex ideas well described.

Usefulness: Very useful to anyone working in the 21^st Century.

Difficulty: Moderate

Daniel R. Murphy writes on success and how you can build wealth. Would you like to learn how others have been successful in business and in life? For a free ebook and much information which can help make you successful and financially independent visit http://www.bookstowealth.com. Begin your self-education today learning how others have become successful and rich! Do it today!

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By Daniel Murphy

Synopsis of Content:

In Good to Great Jim Collins writes about his team’s intensive research into what makes good companies great and what makes comparable companies fail to attain greatness. His standards for greatness are exacting. Of the Fortune 500 companies he only identifies 11 which have gone from good to great. He also identifies 11 very similar companies that did not do well and compares them.

Collins identifies 7 fundamental attributes that make a company great.

First he identifies the kind of leadership that is essential for a great company to sustain its development. He calls this Level 5 Leadership. Although Level 5 leadership contains a number of elements the key ones are that a Level 5 leader is humble and yet driven. He puts the success and future of his company before his own reputation or success. He does not seek credit for success but accepts full responsibility for its failures. While maintain personal humility the Level 5 leader is committed with singular dedication to the improvement and success of his company and his colleagues.

Second he describes how great companies make sure they have the right people doing the right jobs in a successful company. People who are not doing well are either reassigned to a position they can do well in or they are fired. While this is not an entirely ruthless process it is crucial to success and is therefore employed rather systematically.

Third he tells us that a great company confronts the brutal facts about the business, its market, its competition and what it has to do to succeed.

Fourth is the Hedgehog Concept. This concept is the identification of what core activity of the business meets three key requirements: the core activity must be something the business leaders and employees are passionate about doing; they must be satisfied they can be the best in the world at doing it; and it must drive the economic engine – that is, it must make sufficient profits to sustain and grow the company. The company then focuses its energy and efforts on this core activity and gets rid of anything that distracts them from it.

Fifth, a great company must have a culture of discipline born from the passion and the dedication to the core activity. This discipline cannot be forced from above – it must come from within.

Sixth, the company must use new technologies to leverage effectiveness but not be a slave to technology or fall into the false belief that technology is the important essential of the business.

Seventh, he describes how greatness is not accomplished over night. He provides many examples of how great companies evolve over time by applying the right principles, discipline and steady forward direction to their efforts. It is this steady day I and day out progress, little steps taken each day, which builds the eventual momentum that moves a good company to become great.

About the Author:

Jim Collins is an author and consultant. He has taught at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and teaches seminars for business leaders throughout the nation. He wrote an earlier book, Built to Last, which describe his team’s exhaustive study of long enduring companies and described why the endured for so long. His management research laboratory in Boulder, Colorado continues similar research.

Readability/Writing Quality:

This book is easy to read. It is very well organized and contains many illustrations and case studies to support the conclusions.

Publication Information:

Good to Great was written by Jim Collins and published by Harper Collins. Copyright is by Jim Collins in 2001.

Rating: Excellent.

Daniel R. Murphy writes on success and how you can build wealth. Would you like to learn how others have been successful in business and in life? For a free success ebook and much information which can help make you successful and financially independent visit http://www.bookstowealth.com. Begin your self-education today learning how others have become successful and rich! Do it today!

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With Kindle, the Best Sellers Don’t Need to Sell

Here’s a riddle: How do you make your book a best seller on the Kindle?

Answer: Give copies away.

That’s right. More than half of the “best-selling” e-books on the Kindle, Amazon.com’s e-reader, are available at no charge.

Although some of the titles are digital versions of books in the public domain — like Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” — many are by authors still trying to make a living from their work.

Earlier this week, for example, the No. 1 and 2 spots on Kindle’s best-seller list were taken by “Cape Refuge” and “Southern Storm,” both novels by Terri Blackstock, a writer of Christian thrillers. The Kindle price: $0. Until the end of the month, Ms. Blackstock’s publisher, Zondervan, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, is offering readers the opportunity to download the books free to the Kindle or to the Kindle apps on their iPhone or in Windows.

Publishers including Harlequin, Random House and Scholastic are offering free versions of digital books to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other e-retailers, as well as on author Web sites, as a way of allowing readers to try out the work of unfamiliar writers. The hope is that customers who like what they read will go on to obtain another title for money.

“Giving people a sample is a great way to hook people and encourage them to buy more,” said Suzanne Murphy, group publisher of Scholastic Trade Publishing, which offered free downloads of “Suite Scarlett,” a young-adult novel by Maureen Johnson, for three weeks in the hopes of building buzz for the next book in the series, “Scarlett Fever,” out in hardcover on Feb. 1. The book went as high as No. 3 on Amazon’s Kindle best-seller list.

The digital giveaways come as publishers are panicking about price pressure on e-books in general. Amazon and other online retailers have set $9.99 as the putative e-book price for new releases and best sellers, and publishers worry that such pricing ultimately creates expectations among consumers that new books are no longer worth, say, $25 (the average list price of a new hardcover), or even $13 (a standard list price for trade paperbacks).

Some publishers have tried to take control of pricing by delaying the publication of certain e-books for several months after the books are made available in hardcover.

Executives at some houses said that given such actions, offering free content amounts to industry hypocrisy.

“At a time when we are resisting the $9.99 price of e-books,” said David Young, chief executive of Hachette Book Group, the publisher of James Patterson and Stephenie Meyer, “it is illogical to give books away for free.”

Similarly, a spokesman for Penguin Group USA said: “Penguin has not and does not give away books for free. We feel that the value of the book is too important to do that.”

But some publishers regard free digital books as purely promotional, in the same vein as the free galleys they distribute to booksellers and reviewers to create attention and word-of-mouth buzz for an author.

“Most people purchase stuff because somebody has recommended the title,” said Steve Sammons, executive vice president for consumer engagement at Zondervan.

Neither Amazon nor other e-book retailers make any money on these giveaways either. But it is a way of luring customers to their e-reading devices.

Free e-books are also a way of distinguishing a less-well-known author from the marketing juggernauts of the most popular books.

“You have to show people things because there’s a lot of competition,” said Ms. Johnson, the author of “Suite Scarlett” and seven other books. “If they go into a store, they are going to see 4,000 books with Robert Pattinson’s face on it,” she added, referring to movie-tie-in versions of Ms. Meyer’s “Twilight” series. “Then my book will be buried under them.”

And if a free e-book rises to the top of the Kindle best-seller list — or Barnes & Noble’s ranked list of free e-books — it automatically gives an author more visibility.

“When you push to No. 1 of any best-seller list, that in itself seems to beget publicity,” said Brandilyn Collins, who writes suspense novels with Christian themes and whose novels “Exposure” and “Dark Pursuit” were No. 1 and 2 on the Kindle best-seller list earlier this month and remain in the Top 10 (and are still available free).

Most of the giveaways are of older titles by an author, with the idea that reading them will convert new fans who will go on to buy more recently released books. Even if only a small percentage of those who download a free book end up buying another one, “that’s all found money,” said Steve Oates, vice president for marketing at Bethany House Publishers, a unit of Baker Publishing Group, whose authors Beverly Lewis and Tracie Peterson had free titles on the Kindle best-seller list this week.

Samhain Publishing, a publisher of romance and erotica, has offered a free e-book title every two weeks for more than a year. Christina Brashear, its publisher, said that the giveaways have led to a noticeable bump in sales.

In October, the most recent month for which she has statistics, Ms. Brashear said Samhain offered free digital versions of “Giving Chase,” a romance novel by Lauren Dane, leading to 26,897 downloads.

But paid purchases of some of Ms. Dane’s other novels jumped exponentially. Her earlier novel “Chased,” which sold 97 copies in September, sold 2,666 digital units in October, and another of her previous books, “Taking Chase,” which sold 119 copies in September, sold 3,279 in the month in which a free download was available.

With e-books still representing about 5 percent of the total book market, data on the effect of digital giveaways is still inconclusive. Brian O’Leary, a principal at Magellan Media Consulting Partners, which advises publishers, said that while it appeared that free downloads led to an uptick in actual book buying, there was a risk that free reading could eventually “supplant paid reading.”

Indeed, said Brian Murray, chief executive of HarperCollins, “free is not a business model.”

Authors are torn between wanting to experiment with new formats and wanting to protect their income. Charlie Huston, the author of the Henry Thompson crime trilogy and a series of books about Joe Pitt, a vampire detective, said that “the part of me that grew up in a union household” still feels as if he were occasionally undermining himself by sanctioning digital giveaways by his publisher, Random House.

But, he said, “I guess my attitude right now is that I can be afraid of what’s coming or I can try and aggressively embrace it in some form.”

And in some cases, the free e-books work. Pamela Deron, a 29-year-old administrative assistant in Florida, said she downloaded a free edition of “Already Dead,” the first in the Joe Pitt series, onto her Kindle this month.

“There are so many authors out there that fall into obscurity,” Ms. Deron wrote in an e-mail message. “Simply no one knows of them, and some readers are hesitant buying an author they never heard of. Free books allow you to experience the writer as a whole, not just a small tidbit.”

She added: “Fifty dollars later, I have the entire Joe Pitt series.”

News Release

Amazon Announces New 70 Percent Royalty Option for Kindle Digital Text Platform, Enabling Authors and Publishers to Earn More Royalties from Every Kindle Books Sold

SEATTLE, Jan 20, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced details of a new program that will enable authors and publishers who use the Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) to earn a larger share of revenue from each Kindle book they sell.

For each Kindle book sold, authors and publishers who choose the new 70 percent royalty option will receive 70 percent of list price, net of delivery costs. This new option will be in addition to and will not replace the existing DTP standard royalty option. This new 70 percent royalty option will become available on June 30, 2010.

Delivery costs will be based on file size and pricing will be $0.15/MB. At today’s median DTP file size of 368KB, delivery costs would be less than $0.06 per unit sold. This new program can thus enable authors and publishers to make more money on every sale. For example, on an $8.99 book an author would make $3.15 with the standard option, and $6.25 with the new 70 percent option.

“Today, authors often receive royalties in the range of 7 to 15 percent of the list price that publishers set for their physical books, or 25 percent of the net that publishers receive from retailers for their digital books,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. “We’re excited that the new 70 percent royalty option for the Kindle Digital Text Platform will help us pay authors higher royalties when readers choose their books.”

DTP authors and publishers will be able to select the royalty option that best meets their needs. Books from authors and publishers who choose the 70 percent royalty option will have access to all the same features and be subject to all the same requirements as books receiving the standard royalty rate. In addition, to qualify for the 70 percent royalty option, books must satisfy the following set of requirements:

• The author or publisher-supplied list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99
• This list price must be at least 20 percent below the lowest physical list price for the physical book
• The title is made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights
• The title will be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, such as text-to-speech. This list of features will grow over time as Amazon continues to add more functionality to Kindle and the Kindle Store.
• Under this royalty option, books must be offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices. Amazon will provide tools to automate that process, and the 70 percent royalty will be calculated off the sales price.

The 70 percent royalty option is for in-copyright works and is unavailable for works published before 1923 (a.k.a. public domain books). At launch, the 70 percent royalty option will only be available for books sold in the United States.

The Kindle Digital Text Platform is a fast and easy self-publishing tool that lets anyone upload and format their books for sale in the Kindle Store. To learn more about the Kindle Digital Text Platform, visit http://dtp.amazon.com

About Amazon Kindle

Kindle and Kindle DX are the revolutionary portable readers that wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and personal documents to a crisp, high-resolution electronic ink display that looks and reads like real paper.

Kindle and Kindle DX utilize the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so users never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Kindle is the most wished for, the most gifted, and the #1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc., seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel; Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Examples of the services offered by Amazon Web Services are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS), Amazon Mechanical Turk and Amazon CloudFront.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including http://www.amazon.com, http://www.amazon.co.uk, http://www.amazon.de, http://www.amazon.co.jp, http://www.amazon.fr, http://www.amazon.ca, and http://www.amazon.cn. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management’s expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

Kindle devices and content are sold through Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

SOURCE: Amazon.com

Amazon.com Media Hotline: 206-266-7180

Amazon vs. Apple = Happy Days for Writers?

Posted By Roger L Simon On January 20, 2010 @ 11:54 pm

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2010/01/20/amazon-vs-apple-happy-days-for-writers/

URLs in this post:

[1] Amazon : http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10437897-1.html

Write Your eBook by Judy Cullins