Smorgasbord Christmas Posts from Your Archives – Merry Christmas and Season’s Greeings from Nicholas Rossis

Check out Sally Cronin’s ‘Smorgasbord’ Christmas blog post by Nicholas Rossis and enjoy an entertaining article. Well done, Nicholas!

Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life

Nicholas Rossis has delved into his archives and come up with a quiz of a different kind.. There are a number of story boards below that relate to a particular Christmas Story.. There are no prizes but you can show off if you like in the comments to let us know how many you got… and you can give yourself a pat on the back…Over to Nicholas and Season’s Greetings!

I managed to get four right (dreadful)… Both Nicholas and I would love to hear how many you managed to get..

©Nicholas Rossis 2015.

Nicholas has been watching Christmas videos with his baby daughter and has chosen this one for all of you who are young at heart out there.

I have selected Runaway Smile by Nicholas to feature as being a book that would brighten anyone’s Christmas.

About Runaway Smile

Where do smiles come from? And where can you…

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Are You Using AMS? Here’s How To Respond To Clicking Disasters

Another post from Nicholas Rossis. He informs us about using AMS and how to respond to clicking disasters. Thank you Nicholas!

Nicholas C. Rossis

I hope you will never have any use for today’s post, but it could be a lifesaver if you are hit by the so-called “clicking disaster.” If you’re using Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), you will have noticed that the reporting system is somewhat… unreliable. However, there are times when the AMS reporting goes completely bonkers. This has been reported by a number of authors who use AMS, and who notice huge spikes (up to 1,000%) in their campaign clicks.

Now, you may think that this is a good thing. And it would be if there was a corresponding increase in sales. Alas, that is not the case: clicking disasters mean that the AMS reporting vastly overrepresents clicks, but the actual sales (as reported by KDP) are not affected by this.

Why Is This Bad?

Well, there are two reasons why this should worry you. First, since you pay for…

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Changing My Books’ Titles And Some News

Congratulations, Nicholas C. Rossis! Brilliant news are brilliant news! One day I’d like to be where you are now.

Nicholas C. Rossis

Some News First

There have been some interesting developments in my writing career, among which the fact I’m now Editor-in-chief for Azure Fire Publishing (AFP), a US-based non-profit promoting youth-friendly Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Even though the position only offers a nominal fee at the moment, it comes with a perk: AFP has offered to publish my Fantasy/Science Fiction books.

The organization has a large monthly advertising budget to promote its authors’ books, so, after much deliberation, I have decided to accept.

My Books’ Titles

Perhaps, then, this is the perfect opportunity to deal with something that’s been bugging me for a while now: my first books’ titles. I find myself no longer satisfied by “Rise of the Prince” and “The Power of Six,” as I think of them as weak titles compared to my later ones. And since AFP will soon handle these…

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5 Tips To Get You Tweeting Like A Pro

Nicholas Rossis teaches us how to tweet like a pro. Thanks a lot, Nicholas!

Nicholas C. Rossis

Author Steve Boseley, who has posted on my blog a guest post on the best time to tweet, recently published a post filled with tips on how to compose the perfect Tweet. I’m copying here his main tips, but I urge you to check out his complete post if you’re using Twitter to promote your books, as he also has some great tips on Twitter etiquete.

Tip #1: People Are Looking For Bargains

Here is what people are looking for on Twitter:

Image via Steve Boseley

Notice a pattern? Yes, the two most popular items are discounts and promos, and free stuff!

Tip #2: Ask A Question

Phrasing your tweet is obviously paramount to its success. One remarkably successful way to increase interaction with a tweet is to phrase it as a question:

• Why it is important to always…
• Why you should never…
• What is…

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Don’t Advertise With Amazon Until You’ve Read This

Nicholas C. Rossis has provided us with a fantastic blog post about advertising with Amazon. Read this article before you decide to do so. Thank you very much Nicholas!

Nicholas C. Rossis

Yes, this is the long-promised post where I share my experience advertising with Amazon and the things I’ve learned — things that could make or break your campaign.

What I’ve Learned Advertising With Amazon

You may remember my past experiences with Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) and the recent plan I’d set for myself. I started promoting in April with 3 kinds of ads:

Ad #1: Sponsored Products, Manual Keywords

This was the bulk of my promos. I chose up to 1,000 keywords for each book and used them to target potential readers.

How does one come up with so many keywords, you ask? Well, there are two easy ways:

1. Choose The Best-Selling Books In Your Genre

The first strategy requires that you find the genres in which your books sells. Amazon does some automatic choosing for you, and you can sometimes see these listed under your book details…

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A Fantasy Tip From History: Doo-Dooing The King

Nicholas Rossis provides us with a fascinating fantasy tip from history. Thank you very much, Nicholas!

Nicholas C. Rossis

Hand Of The King pin (image: Dark Comics)

In Game Of Thrones, it is the King’s Hand who exerts some real power of the Seven Kingdoms. His symbol, appropriately enough, was a pin depicting a hand.

But in yet another example of reality being stranger than fiction, it was the Groom of the Stool—named for the close stool, the king’s 16th-century toilet—who filled a highly coveted position in the royal house. How powerful were they? Well, historians believe that both James I and his successor King Charles I were so swayed by their grooms’ counsel that political discussions of the king’s privy helped fuel the 17th-century English Civil War.

As Natalie Zarrelli of Atlas Obscura observes, every day, as the king sat on his padded, velvet-covered close stool, he revealed secrets. He asked for counsel, and could even hear of the personal and political woes of his personal…

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How To Set Up Twitter Ads For Your Books: A Complete Guide By Alfageek

Nicholas Rossis has published a blog post with a fantastic step-by-step guide on how to set up twitter ads for your books – a guide that has been created and built by alfageek, aka Joshua Smith. Thank you Joshua and Nicholas for providing us with this useful information.

Nicholas C. Rossis

I’ve mentioned Joshua Smith’s (aka Alfageek’s) excellent blog in the past (in Alfageek Shares His Bookbub Ads Experience and The Benefits Of KDP Select: One Author’s Experience).

Well, the man has done it again and produced the best guide in setting up Twitter ads I’ve ever seen. He has detailed everything in six (!) consecutive posts aptly titled Step By Step Instructions for Promotion of your Book with Twitter Ads. I will be repeating here the gist of it in a single, easy-to-bookmark post with my experience added to Joshua’s, but be sure to check out the complete posts on his blog if you decide to go down the Twitter ads route.

How To Set Up Twitter Ads For Your Books

Photo by thesocialskinny.com

Using Twitter Ads, Joshua has been able to sell an average of almost 3 copies of his first novel a day, day in…

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