Social networking sites have us in the habit of sharing every facet of our lives, from the menial to the monumental. When something happens in our lives, we just need to post it, don’t we? So after watching the Twilight series the other night, we wondered: what would our updates look like if someone were to put the bite on us and we became vampires? Surely that would have some impact on our social networking, we reasoned. We came up with ten Facebook status updates we might use after being turned into vampires:

1. Well that’s the last time I date anyone I meet online. Creepy, pasty-faced loser freaked out on me when I ordered the garlic shrimp. I told him to bite me. Funny, I don’t remember much after that.
2. Got tagged in a photo, but no one can see me in it. WTF? – One day your friends are posting comments about your Halloween pic, and the next …well, you’re just not there anymore.
3. A like, and a link, to my favorite cause: the American Red Cross Blood Drive. – Suddenly, you’re a fan of stocking up on that red stuff. You used to faint at the sight of a needle. Go figure.
4. Dentist appointment this morning for my monthly cleaning. I think I might need crowns … and sunglasses.  Anyone know a good 24-hour dental clinic?
5. Good news from my doctor. Blood pressure is excellent and iron levels are up. Yay me!
6. My ex gave me a gift membership to Express Tan for my birthday. What a d-bag. – Some people just have no sympathy for your delicate condition.
7. Man, what a Christmas party last night. I must be getting old. Can’t handle that kind of drinking anymore. One Coors Light Silver Bullet, and it was lights out for me.
8. On the plus side, I guess I was rockin’ some serious beer muscles before I passed out. Friends tell me I tossed a sofa into the swimming pool – with four people sitting on it. RAWR!
9. Twilight marathon and sleepover at my place tonight at 8. BYOB, for all you AB negative types.
10. Switching to the graveyard shift. I figure I can be more productive that time of day, and really sink my teeth into my work.

Read this article on WeblogBetter: Scheduled Tweets vs. Automated Tweets – There is a Difference.

Excerpt:

Automated tweets are just automation in the absence of human engagement. Automated tweets are those that repeat at regular intervals, with no interaction, mentions, replies or anything else in between.

Scheduled tweets, are different. I schedule many of my tweets and even RTs in order to spread them out. I’m still present and active online, but I use the schedule feature as a courtesy to my followers so they don’t feel as if I’m dumping tweet after tweet into their stream. I also try to spread things out so that my followers who aren’t presently online might also see my tweets at a later time and also when I’m unavailable.  This doesn’t mean I’m not socially interacting and engaging people. It doesn’t mean I’m not checking in regularly.

I’ve been using TweetAdder for a couple of years now, but lately I’ve had nothing but trouble with the scheduled tweets. The other parts of it still work great, but my biggest use for it is scheduled tweets, as that’s what drives people to my blog(s). I even write about it and recommend it in my book Publishing & Marketing Realities for the Emerging Author.

I don’t recommend it anymore. I’m currently searching for a better way to schedule recurring tweets, as part of my four-fold Twitter approach, but the second edition of my book won’t be recommending TweetAdder. In fact, so much has changed in the last year in social networking and in the publishing industry, that I’ll have to jump on the second edition very, very soon.

Disclaimer, I’m not a fan of Lulu.com for reasons I’ll outline in a future blog. One of the main ones is that CreateSpace does the same thing, does it better, and offers more for the emerging author.

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The growing popularity if self-publishing has people wondering how it will affect the publishing industry as a whole. Lulu.com is a site specifically for self-publishers, and it is quickly attracting attention. They allow prospective authors to publish their work for others to purchase online. When a customer buys the book, Lulu.com takes care of the rest, including printing the book and mailing it to the customer. All they require is 20% of the profit. With the growing number of people wanting to write a book, it gives hope to those who would have a small chance of being published otherwise, and this online site requires a much smaller cut of the sale than typical publishers. These large publishing companies will also usually require some kind of upfront fee before they publish a book, but Lulu.com doesn’t require anything if your book doesn’t sell.

This all being said, I believe that self-publishers are going to take over a large portion of the publishing industry in the next few decades. There is money to be made, and with time, many more business men and women are going to realize this. The sale of eBooks and products like the iPad and Kindle are becoming more popular each year, and the act of buying an actual book is becoming less common. Lulu.com and the many sites like it that are sure to spring up are going to save a lot of money by only printing and sending books upon request, and the money they make selling eBooks is sure to take off quickly.

I predict that these self-publishing sites will not only make a lot of money quickly, but they will save much more by decreasing the amount of time and energy necessary to run typical publishing companies. The books bought from Lulu.com aren’t touched by human hands until it is opened by the customer. Their software takes care of it all, which also means fewer people to manage and employ. The cost of storing and shipping large amounts of books is not necessary for this type of company, which leaves a lot of revenue left over for marketing the books and the website.

Self-publishing sites will never have to try to please book stores like other publishing companies. All they have to worry about is pleasing the customer. One of the best ways to sell a book is through word of mouth. If one customer is happy, they’ll recommend the book and the service to their friends and family. The happy customers will write reviews and convince their social network that this is the next book they all should read.

We could also see a shift in the use of textbooks in schools if self-publishing does take off. The use of laptops, tablets, and other electronic devices in the classroom is increasing, and future teachers and professors may find it much easier and less expensive to use self-published books on these devices. The teachers may even want to publish their own work to give their class the information they want to teach, and they may find that changing their texts for different levels of education and styles of learning will be much easier if they publish the book themselves rather than trying to go through a publishing company.

I don’t think that the publishing industry will be completely taken over by these self-publishers. However, I do feel that self-publishing sites have the potential to make a major impact on the industry very soon.

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Vanessa Lang is an author who writes guest posts on the topics of business, marketing, credit cards, and personal finance. Additionally, she works for a website that focuses on educating readers about factors to consider with payday loans.

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What do you think readers? Lulu or CreateSoace or another service? What are your experiences? Thoughts?

Yay!

See the reports on TechCrunch and in The Telegraph. Also in The Telegraph, a report on how Apple might have entered into an illegal agreement over eBook pricing with some of the NY Big Boys. This a fallout of what happened with Amazon in 2010 when the “agency model” was forced upon them after Apple teamed up with the Big Boys to set their own eBook prices. This is why you sometimes pay as much (if not more) than the paperback/hardback version for an eBook by one of the Big Boys.

Excerpt:

The corporate drive for DRM is motivated by the fear of ebook piracy. But aside from piracy, the biggest ebook-related threat to the Big Six is called Amazon.com. Until 2008, ebooks were a tiny market segment, under 1% and easily overlooked; but in 2009 ebook sales began to rise exponentially, and ebooks now account for over 20% of all fiction sales. In some areas ebooks are up to 40% of the market and rising rapidly. (I am not making that last figure up: I’m speaking from my own sales figures.) And Amazon have got 80% of the ebook retail market.

For various reasons the major publishers don’t sell direct to the public themselves — they go via external retail channels. Of these channels, Amazon is the 500kg gorilla of internet sales. Amazon has ruthlessly used its near monopoly of online sales to exert monopsony buying pressure against suppliers, forcing the likes of Holtzbrinck or Penguin or Hachette to give them a deep discount on ebooks. In the past they have de-listed publishers’ paper editions during negotiations, chopping their sales off at the knees in an attempt to force them to grant favourable sales terms. When Amazon extract deeper discounts from their suppliers, they pass some of the discount on to the public — this expands their monopoly position on the retail side by undercutting their rivals. It’s good for customers in the short term, but it’s not good for anyone in the long run: they’re sweating their suppliers, all the way back down the supply chain (read: to authors like me) and sooner or later they’ll put their suppliers out of business.

Anyway, my point is that the Big Six’s pig-headed insistence on DRM on ebooks is handing Amazon a stick with which to beat them harder.

Read the entire article on Charlie’s Blog and add to his hundreds of comments on the post. More comments and discussion here.

BUY Charlie’s books on Amazon.com.

What do you think about DRM and the Big Boy’s stance?

New York is still making stupid decisions when it comes to eBooks. They’ve pulled their eBooks from Amazon’s Lending Library. Also, a look at the huge scare around eBook Pirates. Is it really anything to worry about?

Remember, obscurity is worse.

Publishing & Marketing Realities: Episode 25 – eBook Pirates & Lending

Articles Referenced:

• eBook Pirates Cash in on Kindle Boom
• eBook Pirates Cash in on Kindle Boom as Thousands Turn to Rogue Sites for Cheap Downloads
• Surge in Amazon, Library eBook Lending

Read more about the book, Publishing & Marketing Realities for the Emerging Author.

Considering how profoundly it’s changed our lives, it’s small wonder that high tech has infiltrated the furthest reaches of society, and beyond. Consider the vampire. Once resigned to roaming the shadows in search of victims, save for the occasional flight of fancy in the form of a bat, these denizens of the dark no longer have to rely purely on pot luck for their dinners. There are at least 10 technologies that vampires can use to lure their prey:

1. Text messaging – Silently, with mere swipes of his touch pad, the vampire’s intended is made aware of his intentions: I vant to meet you for dinner, my dah-ling. 
2. Email – Gather a mailing list from the Red Cross, and send out a forward to an entire contact list. Sit back and wait for the dinner bell to ring.
3. Facebook – What could be better than a whole network of tender necks at one’s beck and call, providing updates of their every move?
4. Instant Messaging – For one-on-one engagements with his prey, the 21^st century vampire can keep in touch on his desktop and visper sveet nothings all night long.
5. Forums – Goth and vampire sites would be a good start, of course. The modern-day vampire will now be part spirit, part animal, and part troll.
6. YouTube – It’s hard to beat a well-produced video presentation for promoting yourself. Add a smooth techno or death metal track to add some bite, and you’re good to go. Bwahaha.
7. Twitter –  Imagine that. Technology that now makes it possible for a bat to tweet. Make those 140 characters count, #Count. Those retweets will be like echoes in the night.
8. Chat Rooms – Pick a group, or start your own, and strike up a little conversation with someone on your bloody buddy list.
9. Search Engine Listing – Let them know how they can find a dashing, dapper, debonair, dentally-challenged dude. Yes, that’s right. We’re talking about Googling ghouls.
10. Reality TV – Vampirettes, anyone? Or Who Wants to Marry a Bloodthirsty Beast That Sleeps All Day and Goes Out All Night? Have we got a contestant for you.

From Amazon:

KDP Select is a new option that features a $6 million annual fund dedicated to independent authors and publishers. If you choose to make a book exclusive to the Kindle Store for at least 90 days, the book is eligible to be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and you can earn a share of the fund based on how frequently the book is borrowed. In addition, by choosing KDP Select, you will have access to a new set of promotional tools, starting with the option to offer enrolled books free to readers for up to 5 days every 90 days. Authors and publishers can enroll a single title, their whole catalog or anything in between within KDP Select.

As you well know, I’m happy to have my books read for free periodically because it only serves to expand one’s readership, so I love this idea. I certainly haven’t been quiet about how impressed I am with Amazon and what they offer the independent author. By doing things like the KDP select, they are offering indie authors yet another way to have their work seen in exchange for making the eBook version available exclusively on the Kindle. Just as Amazon took a financial hit for years by underpricing the eBooks from the NY Big Boys (until late 2010 when they were forced to stop), they are making another investment towards their own megalithic success. After all, that’s what corporations do. They make money. It’s about the bottom line. Always.

But Amazon, unlike most corporations, help the little guy in the process. New York is terrified of Amazon, and rightfully so. Amazon is on the cutting edge of publishing and marketing. They are giving voice and distribution to thousands of writers who have been ignored or rejected by NY, like a writer’s revolt!

It’s about time the power is back in the hands of the writer. Through Amazon’s CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing programs, independent authors have ways to find their audience and have their work read without the gatekeepers of NY. It’s liberating and wonderful, if you’re an independent author. It’s rather frightening if you work in the Big Boy Industry. But…they certainly have the opportunity to evolve with the technology, the marketing trends, and the consumer’s spending-habits. They just have yet to really do so. I hope for their sake the NY Big Boys will make greater strides to cater to their readership and their authors in 2012.

As for our books, most of them were already available in so many formats across the web, it was too late to efficiently make them available only on the Kindle…with one exception.

My alter-ego O. M. Grey’s YA Steampunk Paranormal Romance novel The Zombies of Mesmer has always been available exclusively on the Kindle, until last month when it was also released in paperback. But electronically, I’ve decided to experiment with Amazon’s KDP Select program and make the eBook exclusively available through the Kindle for the next three months. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Olivia (O. M.) Grey’s two new titles are now available for purchase! Just in time for Christmas!

First, Caught in the Cogs: An Eclectic Collection.

In the midst of war, a beautiful young officer finds love aboard an airship… A woman steals away to fulfill her desire with a phantom lover… A group of thieves seek out a town of women to satisfy their lustful urges, but these ladies have an agenda of their own… PLUS nine more short stories, angsty love poetry, and twenty-six relationship essays considering topics such as alternative lifestyles, deepening intimacy, opening communication, abusive relationships, and how to end a relationship with respect. Steampunk fairy tales, maddening horror stories, steamy erotic fantasies, and more…

BUY IT on Amazon in paperback or on the Kindle for just $3.99. Also available on Smashwords in various eBook formats or get an author-signed paperback from the publisher.

Get them delivered by Christmas for free with an Amazon Prime Membership (free trial!)

Next, The Zombies of Mesmer, previously only available on KINDLE is now in paperback as well!

Follow Nicole Knickerbocker Hawthorn (Nickie Nick) as she discovers her destiny as The Protector, a powerful vampire hunter. Ashe, a dark and mysterious stranger, helps Nickie and her friends solve the mystery behind several bizarre disappearances. Suitable for teens, enjoyed by adults, the story is full of interesting steampunk gadgets, mad scientists, bloodthirsty vampires, and mesmerized zombies. This paranormal adventure is sure to appeal to fans of Boneshaker, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Vampire Diaries.

The Zombies of Mesmer is a Gothic Young Adult Paranormal Romance novel set in Victorian London.

Here is what author/editor Muffy Morrigan has to say about The Zombies of Mesmer:

Nickie is the perfect vampire slayer for the post-modern world. A prim Victorian girl, just coming of age by day, a plucky and touchy defender by night—she is the perfect package, all rolled up into a proper corset.

The Zombies of Mesmer was the kind of book one should never begin at bedtime. Not just because it has a perfectly tuned choir of creepiness, but because once started you cannot put it down!

Look out Buffy, there is a new slayer in town. She is every bit as tough, resourceful and kick-ass—in a full corset.

If the Zombies of Mesmer is the new trend in vampire novels, I have hope for the genre again.

Also, author/blogger Michelle Hauf gave a full review of The Zombies of Mesmer on her VampChix blog. Read it here!

BUY IT on Amazon in paperback or on the Kindle for $2.99. (Read it for free with your Amazon Prime membership)

It’s currently under Kindle’s KDP Select program, so it’s only available in eBook format on the Kindle until March 2012. So get your Kindle! Lowest prices and more choices than ever (or just use the free Kindle app on your smart phone, PC, or Mac.)

In all the years I’ve been around the publishing business, the one thing I’ve noticed is many people have a fear of editors. The fear has become so great, in fact, that more and more people are not even calling editors “editors” but using “beta” instead.

Why? Where does this editor-phobia come from?

I think the fear is that feeling that somehow this other person is going to dive into our creation and gut it. Destroy its little life and hand back something that we don’t recognize. That fear, I will admit, is not unfounded—although that is more an outgrowth of the dreaded “beta-ing”. For some reason in the world of the “beta” (at least as I have experienced it once or twice) completely changing the voice of an author is acceptable, rewriting is acceptable… The list goes on.

That is not editing, that is butchery.

Writers should never fear editing. They should look forward to it, and be eager for the pages to come back from their editor. The process of editing is the second most important thing any writer does. (The first, of course, is the writing.) Editing is like adding the facets to the diamond, making something beautiful into something exquisite.

When you reach the point and start looking around for an editor, maybe “audition” one or two. Ask them to edit a chapter, and see how it comes back. Editors, like writers, have their own style, and you need to find one that will fit you. They should understand and respect your voice and never change it. Of course there will be changes, but the essential organic nature of your prose should remain yours. An editor makes your writing better; they DO NOT make your writing THEIR writing. (Sadly, that is what I have seen over and over in the world of “betas”.)

I love the editing process, and I have several editors who offer me different things. I also have someone who just reads everything for continuity. She is a whiz at catching those errors that other people can miss because it is a flow issue. For example—the characters are by a lake in one chapter then a chapter later at a house with no segue.

I have been in the writing business for most of my life. My first publications were academic papers and a poem, then I spent years as a reporter, reviewer, columnist and editor for newspapers of all kinds, from dailies to an alternative newsweekly. After years of non-fiction writing and reviewing other people’s books I decided to embark on my own career in fiction and launched my Custodes Noctis Series. The Legacy, The Hunt and The Summoning are available on Amazon.com.

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Born in California, Muffy Morrigan began her writing career at the age of six, when after completing her first hand written novel she attempted to sell it to the neighbors for the lofty price of ten cents.

After myriad careers, including archaeological consultant, teacher, herbalist, shop keeper, news editor, reporter and columnist, she has settled in to her first love and passion–writing. The author of the Custodes Noctis Series and the upcoming The Sail Weaver, she currently lives and works in the Pacific Northwest.

Connect with Muffy online: Twitter * Website * Facebook