Internet Marketing For Writers & Businesses: Everything you need to know about self-publishing &how the Amazon algorithm update affects you via @thecreativepenn

Dear Sylvia

Welcome to the new look newsletter from The Creative Penn. I will be making some changes and bringing you more original content that you haven't already read on the blog. It will also become more regular. As always, I love to hear your feedback and any questions. You can email: joanna@TheCreativePenn.com or leave a question on the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheCreativePenn

Writing: What is your why?

I have just returned from 9 days holiday in the Languedoc area of the South of France with my husband. It's an area famous for its Cathar castles, as well as its wine, of which I may have drunk a fair bit! The Cathars were a religious sect, Christians who were persecuted by the Catholic church and wiped out for their different beliefs. I studied them as part of my theology degree so it was fascinating to be there. It was also a good time for reflection.

My big 'aha' moment was this:
My job is create a body of work that I am proud of and that resonates with people.

That's it. Anything that stops me moving towards this goal needs to be evaluated. This is going to be guiding what I do going forward.

Do you have a driving 'why' behind what you are doing with your writing career?

Everything you need to know about self-publishing

There is one site I recommend over and over again and that is TheBookDesigner.com. Joel Friedlander is the most knowledgable person I know about everything to do with self-publishing and he shares so much of it freely on his blog.

Joel has just launched The Self-Publishing Roadmap which includes everything you need to know about self-publishing in one super course. It is only for those people who are taking this seriously as a business because there is an investment of time and money. If you want to be proud of your finished products, then this will give you the tools to make it happen. It will help you create that quality body of work.

It's a multi-media course with video, audio and PDF resources as well as a stack of valuable bonuses. The course is open now for a short time and then closes to new participants.
(yes, I'm an affiliate because this is an amazing product!)

Click here to find out more on the Self-Publishing Roadmap

Amazon algorithm update

I was fascinated to read this article about how Amazon has changed its recommendation algorithms in the last few months. We can never know exactly how things work but author Edward W Robertson has done a lot of the hard work. Click here to read the whole article

The conclusions: Free books AND books under $2.99 are not getting the same weighting in terms of ranking as they used to do. So what worked in January with KDP Select no longer brings the sales after the promo period. Presumably the aim is to stop the free and cheap books dominating the charts.

This article may shape your decision to use KDP Select or even change your pricing. Well worth a read. If you prefer audio, check out the Self-Publishing Podcast team who interview Edward here http://selfpublishingpodcast.com/5/

(Fantastic podcast but language warning - adult listening only)

Tips for your website design

MenWithPens.ca is one of the most influential copywriting sites on the web and my interview with James Chartrand has been one of the most popular podcasts.

We went through website design for authors and how the psychology of color can help with branding which you might find useful for your own site. You can listen/read here =>
http://bit.ly/ME5gPH

We also talked about gender in publishing. I now use the gender neutral initials J.F.Penn for my action-adventure fiction and James is actually a woman. Our experiences were also picked up by a reporter and showcased on Forbes - check out the article here

OK, that's it for now. I hope you found this information useful. If you want to keep up with the latest information on the site, you can subscribe by email here. You can also subscribe to The Creative Penn podcast on iTunes here (129 episodes and counting!)