June 7th, 2008
Email spam. We all get it. We all hate it. What might be surprising is how many in the industry of book publishing are not just receiving spam but also sending it.
But what exactly constitutes email spam? Wikipedia says,
E-mail spam, also known as unsolicited bulk email (UBE) or unsolicited commercial email (UCE), is the practice of sending unwanted e-mail messages, frequently with commercial content, in large quantities to an indiscriminate set of recipients.
The two keywords there are “unsolicited” and “indiscriminate.” Lately, I’ve been getting quite a few emails that I think qualify as both, from unexpected sources. Some are promotional emails for a service or website concerning books in general or romance novels specifically, but most are advertisements for new book releases. I’m not talking about author newsletters that I’ve subscribed to or done anything that would have given my permission to be subscribed. No, these emails are arriving at our business contact emails (i.e. various “contact@” emails), addresses that we list on our sites but have never subscribed to any kind of mailing list. I’ve never been spammed by an author directly, but I have gotten such messages from publicists and directly from publishers themselves—big NYC publishers who, in my opinion, really ought to know better than to send unsolicited emails. So authors, be careful who you hire and make it clear to those who do promotions for you that you don’t want them to send unsolicited emails on your behalf.
Now, I’m not saying that no one should ever send an unsolicited email of a commercial nature. I’ve received commercial/advertisement emails that I didn’t feel was spam, and before writing this column, I had to figure out exactly what I would consider spam and what I wouldn’t. Here’s where the “indiscriminate” part comes into play. First of all, if the email doesn’t address us, our business, or our website title by (the correct!) name, then it’s an indiscriminate advertisement. If it does use the correct salutation but has no relevance to us or the services we offer, it’s indiscriminate advertisement. One example of this is an unsolicited new book release announcement to the contact address at AccessRomance, a community site that only promotes the books of its own authors (the ones listed on the sidebar). We don’t do reviews. We don’t create buzz on books that we personally liked on this site. We promote our authors, and that’s it. So when our contact address somehow ends up on a publicist or publisher’s mailing list, that means said publisher or publicist took it upon themselves to decide that we might be interested in spreading the word on this product product (they were wrong), and so they went to our site, found our contact email, and added it to their list.
Folks, this is called spamming. I’m not going to name names, but within the time span of a couple of weeks, I got three such emails from the same person at a NYC publisher. After the first one, I informed him that it was unsolicited and asked to be removed from his list. I had to reply to two more of his messages with the same request before the emails finally stopped arriving in my inbox. I’ll admit I was probably a bit rude to him, but the subject of spam does seem to get people unreasonably riled up, doesn’t it?
And it’s that excessive anger on the part of spam recipients that can easily get authors in trouble when they send out newsletters. As a company that runs hosting on our own server and also sends out newsletters for a huge number of authors, we get hit by the spam deluge threefold. Firstly, we’re in a constant struggle to prevent spam from being sent to our hosted clients, including ourselves. Secondly, the spam attacks on our mail system, contact forms, message boards, and blogs use up resources and cost us money. And thirdly, we have to make sure that the newsletters we send out don’t get marked as spam, the end result of which could be blacklisting by email service providers such as Yahoo! and AOL, preventing all of our authors’ newsletters from being delivered to those subscribers.
To stop that from happening, you have to play by the rules. Email service providers are under tremendous pressure to block spam, and because of that, they can be merciless on anyone that their customers tell them are spammers. If you have a website hosted by a big company, you most likely agreed to Terms of Service that stated you can’t send out newsletters to a list without a double opt-in. (You did read the Terms of Service, right? Yeah, I didn’t think so. No one does. But trust me, it’s there, and it’s something you should be concerned about if you send out newsletters.) So, what’s a double opt-in? It’s where subscribers, after submitting the form to join the mailing list, get an email asking for confirmation, and only after they’ve clicked the link in that email are they actually subscribed to the list.
This method generally doesn’t work for authors that want to build up a mailing list by running a traditional type of contest, where the entries are collected either manually or automatically in some sort of database, and the emails are then manually added to the author’s newsletter list. We currently do have the ability to ask all those email recipients to confirm their subscription, but this is an ineffective way to build a list, because very few actually click on that link.
There are ways around all of this, however. Here’s what we’ve done to make sure we play it safe and are still able to help our authors grow their list numbers:
Recent comments from: · Bekke · aBookworm
April 6th, 2008
I get this question every once in a while from unpublished writers inquiring about our services. It’s always been tough for me to answer it, since from my side of the table as the developer of websites, it’s hard to judge the real value of taking this plunge. The question behind the question is, of course: Can a website or a blog help an aspiring author make that first sale? I figured it was time to do some research on the topic by getting answers out of agents and of published authors who had a web presence before they sold.
Can a website or blog help you get an agent?
The short answer is: Yes. Agents (and to some extent, probably also editors) do visit your blogs and websites, and what they find there can impact their decision to request materials from you. All of the agents I surveyed said that if they find your query or partial interesting, then they’ll most likely visit any URL you’ve included in your query or cover letter. Agent Kristin Nelson said that in cases where she’s unsure about requesting more material, what she finds on a blog or website is more likely to sway her one way or another. While the agent’s decision to offer representation will depend on the manuscript itself, your web presence can help motivate the agent to take a closer look at it in the first place. For an even more encouraging example, agent Lori Perkins said, “I read about a book published by a small press, Googled the author, went to her blog, where I found an excerpt from the book. After reading it, I knew she could write, so I emailed her about representation.”
Can a website or blog hurt you in your search for an agent?
Definitely! When an agent visits your home on the web, she is looking for more info about your writing and info about you, the writer. The importance of professionalism can’t be stressed enough. Kristin Nelson points out that a site that’s obviously homegrown leaves a bad impression and can actually do more damage than good. Content that the agent finds off-putting can make her decide you’re not someone she’d like to work with or that you’re not serious about your career.
Keep in mind that your URL in a query or cover letter is not the only way an agent can find you on the web. They visit many of the same sites that you do and could follow any link you leave behind. They might be pointed to your website by an acquaintance. Or they might actually Google your name to see what they can find about you. Several agents admit to Googling writers they’re curious about, so consider that not only when you add content to your own site or blog but also when you post anything on other people’s blogs and message boards. If you come off as unprofessional or say something that rubs the agent the wrong way, you could get a “no thanks” instead of a request.
Do’s and Don’ts
So what are agents looking for on your blog or website, and what do they not want to see?
Samples of your writing are probably the most important. If your query or partial interests them, they might visit your site looking for more excerpts. Information about your other projects could be helpful, too. You could talk about your research and writing process. Mention anything positive as relates to your pursuit of a career as an author—conferences and workshops you’ve attended, contests you’ve won, and critique groups you’re a member of.
The number one thing to avoid is adding too much personal information. A “this is what I did today” blog generally won’t impress an agent, unless you write it in a way that shows off your voice and writing skills. Agent Marlene Stringer of the Barbara Bova Literary Agency said, “This is a great venue to show off your writing chops, and I can get a better feel for your writing style overall if you’re writing about other topics. This is especially useful if you’re writing in a genre that is hot at the moment, but might not be next year. Lets me see you can write other things.”
Marlene adds a warning that unpublished authors should be careful about dispensing advice on the publishing business when it’s clear they have very little actual experience to back it up. Agent Jessica Faust of BookEnds similarly cautions against talking about sensitive issues such as politics. It’d be very unfortunate if you got a rejection because the agent felt offended by your personal beliefs.
Finally, be careful about talking too much about your submissions. Agents prefer not to know that you’ve received X number of rejections for the manuscript they’re considering—they tend to find that discouraging.
Advice from published authors
February 6th, 2008
I’ll be blunt: I don’t get book videos.
As a reader, they generally do nothing for me. And as a web designer involved with author promotion, I’ve been struggling to understand the value vs. the cost of them. So in an effort to educate myself and perhaps shed some light on the situation, I’d like to take a closer look at this promotional tool, from my perspectives as a reader and as an industry professional. (And I want to note that I don’t offer book videos as part of my services, never have and probably never will, so these are my unbiased observations.)
AS A READER
The reader in me agrees with author Brenda Coulter’s opinions on book videos, as written in her July 2006 blog entry Those boring book trailers:
Lately I’ve been seeing an awful lot of book trailers, which means I’ve seen a lot of awful book trailers. What’s a book trailer? Nothing more than a 30-second hyped-up slide show with a soundtrack.
[…]
Listen, I’m no marketing expert, but I am a bookbuyer, and one who uses the internet daily. That means book trailers are aimed at me. So when I say they aren’t impressing me, maybe some of the authors and publishers who are so excited about the things ought to pay some attention.
[…]
Frankly, the trailers just aren’t clever enough to induce anyone to link to them and make them go “viral.” As I mentioned earlier, they’re just slide shows. They suggest movement by jiggling the photos and spinning them and zooming in and out, but those of us with broadband are used to watching real video clips on the internet, so we’re a hard bunch to impress.
Most of the videos I’ve seen contain still photos, so the “slide show with a soundtrack” bit sums up pretty well why those don’t interest the reader in me. There’s nothing that grabs my attention about the zooming in and sliding back and forth on stock photos, set to what I’m assuming is a stock audio track, and text that amounts to just a slow, agonizing presentation of the cover blurb of the book.
The next tier of videos, those containing stock footage (i.e. video clips instead of still photos) aren’t much better. It’s basically just a slight upgrade, and their ability to hold my attention is just slightly higher. The final and most advanced kind of video is the one using live actors and original footage. One example of this is L.A. Banks’ trailer for her Vampire Huntress series. If I were into vampire books, this one might piqué my interest, but I have one major problem with it: it’s way too long.
Here’s the deal. I have a short attention span. And I don’t think I’m the only one. Authors are advised that they have to hook their readers’ attention with the first paragraphs of a book. If you apply that mentality to a book video, then it has to do some major attention grabbing in the first scene. And then with each second that passes, keeping the viewer’s attention just becomes exponentially more difficult. IMHO, a great book video is only 30 seconds long. If it goes on for more than 60 seconds, you’ve lost me. It takes me 30-60 seconds to read a cover blurb, so if a video drags on for longer than that and doesn’t offer me anything the blurb doesn’t, then it’s a waste of my time.
Besides length, my other beef is with the cover blurb aspect I just mentioned, the “slide show with a soundtrack.” In most videos, there’s just too much text. And the pace of the text is much slower than the pace at which I read, so half of the time I’m just watching the zooming and fading effects of the photos and said text while I’m waiting for something new to appear. What I liked the most about the Vampire Huntress trailer I linked to above was the narration by the protagonist. It gave a fresh perspective, and it wasn’t just an abbreviated version of the cover blurb. Another good example is Sandra Hill’s Pearl Jinx. This one is way too long as well, but the banter between the hero and heroine is fun and unique. It didn’t make me want to read the book, but it came very, very close. Bottom line is, I don’t want to read the blurb in the form of a slow book video. I’d be surprised if there are any readers who do.
December 11th, 2007
I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t like free stuff. The great thing about anything that’s free is that if it disappoints you, you’ve essentially lost nothing except the time it took you to check it out. Today I’m going one step further to save you that time and give you a list of online freebies that are not only really, really cool but also useful and definitely worth taking a closer look at.
Let me start with what has been one of the most helpful tools for me business wise and personally as well: www.MemoToMe.com If you’re like me and have a gazillion things that you need to remember to do, this site’s services will be a godsend. Schedule a reminder for yourself, and you’ll get an email at the time that you specify. If it’s a weekly or monthly event, you can schedule it as such, and you’ll only have to do it once. There’s even the equivalent of a snooze button—you can get emails about the same event, say, three days in a row, just in case you’re one of those, you know, procrastinators… You can also upgrade to their platinum membership, where you have more control over the way your reminders look, you can send to more than one email address, and you can even send reminders to your cell phone. This is not free, but—and this is a big “but”—you set your own annual price. That’s right. You decide how much you think the service is worth, and that’s how much you pay. It doesn’t get much cooler than that.
I’m sure most of you have at least heard of the blogging/publishing platform Wordpress, but I couldn’t very well do a post on great free stuff without mentioning it, especially since it’s safe to say that even RTB wouldn’t be what it is without Wordpress. Outside of sites such as Blogger and Livejournal, it seems to be the most popular choice of bloggers, and for good reasons. Set-up is a breeze, and it can be customized to your heart’s content. Everything is absolutely free, including the tons and tons of plugins and add-ons that make Wordpress so much fun to play with. And you don’t even need to have a web space of your own to enjoy many of the advantages of this blogging tool—for anyone who wants to use Wordpress without paying a single dime, there’s Wordpress.com where you can get your own WP blog even more quickly and easily. Oh, and if you do decide to go with your own website and set it all up yourself, check out the Wordpress Basic workshop on AccessRomance that was hosted by the fabulous Frauke of Croco Designs along with some other WP experts. The workshop is now open to the public for reading with no forum registration needed. Easy peasy!
On a related topic, if you have your own website, be it a Wordpress site or a regular ol’ site with HTML pages, you’re most likely using some sort of FTP program to upload and download your files. I’ve been using FTP programs for close to 10 years, and until recently, I hadn’t found one that made me 100% happy. With as much uploading of files as I do, I need a smart FTP program with all the bells and whistles that’s at the same time easy to use. When my tech guy Walt (incidentally also the tech wiz who handles any issues on RTB—let’s give him a round of applause for all his hard work!) mentioned the open source project FileZilla, I was skeptical. Could a freebie do everything I needed from an FTP program? Short answer: Yes. Slightly longer answer: Yes, and then some. This is a program that’s so powerful and yet so simple that it’ll work just as well for a beginner as it would a professional. I’m in love!
Moving on to another open source project, this one of particular use for authors: phplist. A while back we were struggling with finding the best way to manage our clients’ mailing lists. The software we were using was a behemoth, an old and outdated kind of program that incidentally was also a terrible resource hog. Oh, and did I mention that the professional version with all the advanced features was not free? We eventually moved on to phplist and haven’t looked back. Now, installing, setting up, and using this program is not for beginners, unless you’re an adventurous amateur. But if you have the savvy or have an unsuspecting relative or friend who does, consider phplist for managing your mailing list and sending out professional newsletters. One word of caution, though: Make sure you know your web host’s policy on newsletter mailings. Because of spam problems, there are often limitations on what ways you’re allowed to build a mailing list and what ways you’re allowed to send out newsletters. When it comes to respecting your host’s terms of service, better be safe than sorry!
And speaking of nuisances like spam… Did you know there are free ways to protect your computer and your privacy? I’ve never been a fan of the most common for-purchase virus/spam/spyware protection. They always seem to be big programs that, seeing as they need to run in the background at all times, take up resources and slow down your computer. The free stuff is generally so much simpler and equally effective. For a great, free virus protection program, try AVG Anti-Virus Free. 9 out of 10 geeks swear by it—or at least, that seems to be the case. To detect and destroy of spyware and other kinds of malware that could slow down or even crash your computer as well as endanger your privacy, you have options such as Ad-Aware, Spybot – Search & Destroy, and Spysweeper. It’s always a good idea to routinely clean up your computer with at least two different spyware protection programs, since one might find stuff the other program didn’t, and that way you’ll cover the most ground.
These are my personal recommendations. I also asked some friends with know-how if they had anything to add, so here are a few more.
Author Alison Kent recommends Open Office (free equivalent of Microsoft Office)
Author Lydia Joyce recommends:
-Zone Alarm (a firewall, for even more protection)
-Windows Defender (spyware protection)
-McAfee Site Advisor (even more protection!)
-IRFAN View (open source image/photo editor)
-Google Docs (free online word processor and spreadsheet)
-KompoZer (open source HTML editor)
And finally, Lydia also mentioned Ubuntu, the open source Linux based operating system. If you decide to install this, however, you’re braver than me!
Now, bring on the freebies. If you have anything to add, feel free (pun intended) to do so!
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This article was originally posted on Romancing the Blog.
August 10th, 2007
One of our clients recently was looking for a redesign, and because of a limited budget, she went to a different designer who could cheaply do a fresh design and set up a Wordpress website for her. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out between her and that designer, who couldn’t come up with a design she was happy with. But the worst part about this was that the designer required full payment upfront with no refunds, meaning this author lost nearly $500 and has no new website.
If you hire a designer that requires full payment upfront, this could happen to you, too. We recommend you avoid these businesses altogether, but if you decide their work is good enough to take such a risk, make sure that you will be entitled to at least a partial refund if things don’t work out. There should be an official agreement of this, and you should have it in writing.
At DreamForge, we don’t require any kind of deposits–our clients only pay us when they have a finished product that they’re happy with. This might be considered risky on our part, because we take the chance that we’ll do hours and hours of work that we might never get paid for. However, after being in business for four years and creating websites for more than 50 clients, this has only happened to us once. We think of the way we conduct our business as an act of faith, on our part and on the part of the client. We do everything we possibly can to make our clients happy, and our clients work with us until they have a product they think is worth paying us for.
So, before you hand over your money, be careful and know what you’re entitled to get in return. A designer that requires a partial non-refundable deposit might make you hesitate but could still be worth it. One that requires a full non-refundable payment upfront should make you run in the opposite direction.
June 21st, 2007
Until recently, I’d been laboring under the impression that once a client paid for a design, it was legally theirs to do with as they pleased. Then I heard of a client of ours whose site was designed by another company, who wants to switch to host with us, but her designer won’t allow her to take her current site with her when she moves.
Aside from being a horrible and nasty thing to do (and don’t tell me the designer is doing this because it would hurt her business otherwise–it’s sheer pettiness, period), I thought there was no way this could be legal. Surely the designer can’t hold the design hostage like that?
Well, according to this Business Week article, the designer can, indeed, do just that. Just like a publisher owns the copyright to a book’s cover art, a web designer owns the copyright to the design unless there’s a contract stating otherwise.
DreamForge Media would never dream of holding a design hostage. If a client wants to leave, no matter the reason and whether it’s a friendly break-up or not, what would keeping the design accomplish except sow resentment between designer and client? The client would only leave if she could afford a new design by someone else, and if she stays, you have an awkward business relationship on your hands.
Do I understand why a designer might want to keep control of her work? Yes. I’ve seen it happen where clients leave and their new webmistresses ruin the design with horrible (and usually pointless) changes. But this could easily be prevented. DreamForge Media’s terms state that a client can take the site elsewhere as long as it’s only updated and maintained with no major changes to the design. And if they do leave, the statement of who designed the site must remain with a link back to our company’s Web site.
So what’s to be done? Well, when choosing a designer of your Web site, make sure you ask about the copyright and whether you’d be able to move the site to a different host. If the designer balks at this, take your business elsewhere. Seriously. There are enough choices out there that you don’t have to settle for someone who’ll take your money and then keep you hostage so that they can keep taking your money. You don’t have to put up with that, and you shouldn’t.
June 21st, 2007
Consider this: You could lose your webmistress/master. It could happen any number of ways. The two of you could have a falling out. Or your webmistress could out of the blue announce that she’s pursuing a different career path and doesn’t have time to maintain your site anymore. Or she could simply disappear off the face of the earth.
What do you do when this happens? Clearly, you need to find someone to take over the job. This is where I make a confession that’s not a big secret, but you still might not be aware of it. Taking over maintenance of a site created by someone else is not in the least bit appealing to a Web site designer.
Why? Well, it has to do with the technical aspects of how your site is put together. If it’s created in a way that makes it unwieldy to update, especially for someone who didn’t create that site, you might have a very hard time finding anyone to take over management of it. Design no-nos include:
- A site created entirely in Flash. These may look fancier, but trust me, you don’t need it! Visitors want information when they go to your Web site. They don’t go there to oooh and aaah at how neat it looks. As a designer, I’d never agree to take over a site built in Flash. It would be way too much of a headache.
- A site that consists entirely of images. This could also look nicer than the average Web site, but it would be a major pain to update. Instead of just entering text onto the page, I’d have to turn it into images with my graphics program. Again, a job I’d never agree to do.
- A site that is hand coded. This doesn’t have to be a disaster, but be wary of it. Most professional designers use professional software to create web sites, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver. Please note that we don’t do this because we don’t know how to write code manually. For years, I created all my sites with a plain text editor. Knowing HTML (the primary programming language used to create Web sites) is a must. If you don’t, you won’t know how to troubleshoot (and you always have to troubleshoot). But when I switched over to using Dreamweaver, I found that it had tons of shortcuts, and the time it has saved me is immeasurable. The problem that can arise with hand coded sites is pages with sloppy HTML that a professional grade program doesn’t understand, which makes updating such a site a huge pain for those who use those tools to edit sites (and trust me, most professionals do use them). I’d be very, very hesitant to agree if asked to manage a hand coded site, and I’d make sure to let the client know the possible extra cost due to the extra time and work involved.
- Messy organization. Do you have looong pages with tons of information? Vaguely titled links? Lots of content without logical placement? If the organization of your site is a mess, it makes updating it a lot of work, especially for someone who didn’t create it in the first place. If I can’t at first glance make sense of how your site is organized, I’d say “no, thanks” to taking over maintenance of it. And need I mention how visitors respond to such sites?
If you don’t think any of this applies to you because you’re perfectly happy with your current designer and don’t think you’ll ever switch to someone else, think again. It could happen, and if you’re not prepared, you could be in for some serious headaches. So, make sure your site is user friendly not only for your visitors but also for possible future webmistresses.
