Pages

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Server Update - Is your listing missing from eBookLister?

Yesterday, October 14th, the eBookLister Administration team received notice that the company that handles our servers had recently gone through an update/upgrade of our servers.  We either missed the pending notice or we were never notified of this change. 

This change caused the eBookLister to 'lose' some listings that had been submitted, and even approved, between October 12th and October 14th.  We apologize for this problem.

If you submitted your listing between that time frame, there is a good chance that your listing is not currently in our system and will not be part of our promotions on the days that you requested.

We invite you to check the 'Preview' link provided in your confirmation email and if your listing does not show up, please resubmit your listing on our 'Submit' page and we'll do what we can to get your listing included on the days you'd like to promote.

If you have any questions about this update, please feel free to contact us on our Contact' page.

Thank you!

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Changes Coming!

COMING SOON!  eBookLister will be making some big changes that authors and readers alike need to know!  So we'll share it here first, then when the changes go into affect, nobody will be surprised!

First, after more than 4 years of being in service, providing promotional support for authors in all stages of eBook promotion, eBookLister will no longer be accepting listings with fewer than 5 reviews.  We have enjoyed providing support for the newer authors and the newer eBooks, but there comes a time when we must make a business decision and that time has come.  Unfortunately, we are no longer in a position to be able to provide promotional opportunities for newer eBooks.  We encourage new eBook authors to take advantage of early readers, ARCs and other options to get early reviews.

Moving forward, we'll be requiring at least 5 reviews and a rating of 3.5 or higher on all submissions.  These numbers are checked at the time of submission and on review of the submission, and again on the day(s) of promotion.  Listings that don't have the required rating/reviews will be auto-declined.  Please note that eBookLister provides our promotional listings in a 'Value' order, using on our own formula, based on ratings and reviews.  It should be clear that higher is better in both categories.

Change #2: We have already begun to crack down on the submission guidelines and will continue to more and more.  Unfortunately, after more than 4 years in service, there are still many authors that can't seem to follow (or perhaps even read) our submission guidelines.  Because of this, we must regularly filter through hundreds of submissions that do not meet our submission guidelines.  To provide the best service possible to those authors who are 'following all the rules', we must clear out those that are not.  We are no longer sending notices to 'problem' listings.  If your listings doesn't meet our guidelines you should already know it and it will be declined without question. 

Common Problem Examples:
Title too long: 
This is a good title:  "Elevator Pitches - Sell Your idea!"
This is a bad title: "Amazon Best Seller!! and New York Times Best Seller!!!!  Elevator Pitches.  Even if you are in the smallest of windows to sell your idea, this best selling book will teach you all the ways to Sell Your Idea!  From simple to complex, this book from America's greatest 'On-The-Spot seller', Joe Hiemsman is the ultimate guide to Elevator Pitches. (elevator pitches, sell your idea, elevator selling, spot selling, spot pitching, selling ideas, sell your ideas, idea pitching, idea selling, elevator moments)

(Don't laugh at this terrible title.  It might shock you that it is scarily accurate to many submissions that we get!)

Insufficient rating/reviews:
eBookLister requires favorable reviews before we'll accept a listing for possible promotion.  This means that at least 5 reviews and at least a 3.5 rating or better.  We provide our listings in a 'Value' order, based on ratings and reviews.

Description Grammar/Content
Simply put - you need to put more effort into your description than you put into writing the book!  Seriously, bad grammar, bad spelling, bad content, multiple and many paragraphs straight from the book, etc.  Your description needs to be clear, precise, and get a 'hook' into the readers.  If it's a bad description, your listing will be declined.

About the Author info:
Authors have a plethora of places to updated and maintain author information.  The title and/or description of your listing on the eBookLister Service is NOT one of those places.  There are very rare circumstances where we feel some kind of author information is allowed/required in a description, but for everyone else - don't even mention it.  If we see that author's name anywhere but in the "Author's Name" field, then there is a Really good chance your listing will be declined.

Promotion Description:
The description is for the book - not the promotion.  Don't describe when the book will be free, don't describe why the book will be a bargain listing, don't describe the promotion.  Describe the Book!

Change #3:  Editorial Preference.  We are taking more liberties on what we choose to promote and what is declined.  We had previously promoted everything that met our submission guidelines, but we are focusing our efforts more to the listings that look the best and sound the best.  We reserve the right to decline any listing for any reason.  To ensure your listing will be included in our promotional opportunities, make sure your cover image is perfect, your Title is exact and your Description perfectly describes your eBook.

Change #4: Focus on our Daily Email.  We have received great feedback from our thousands of readers and authors alike.  More and more, people are no longer interested in visiting a website to get great free and bargain eBooks.  They want the books delivered to them!  Because of this, we are putting a great effort into focusing on our Daily email.  Our listings are getting better, we are limiting how many go out and when and we are working to track those listings even better.  As we transition more to the Daily Email, authors will want to note that there are a very limited number of spots available on any given day. 

With all ventures, changes must happen and adjustments to the current trends and interest continue.  eBookLister continues to focus on helping authors and readers connect and in so doing, must make changes.  We believe these changes will benefit all and look forward to many more years of providing a great service to authors and readers.

Have a question about some of these changes?  Please visit our website and use our Contact form.

 - Johnathan
eBookLister

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Email Delays

We are experiencing issues with our email and are working to get it resolved.  In the meantime, we apologize for the delay in responding.  Please be patient as we work to get our email working again and get caught up.

Thank you.

 - Johnathan

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Market Research Changes

eBookLister Updates!


The eBookLister Service is always tracking and trending information to enhance it's service to authors and readers.  Our goal is to provide both authors and readers great opportunities to connect.

eBookLister has been providing these great services for over 3 years and during that timeframe, we have identified some needed changes in our systems and processes.

The biggest point we have noted is that the majority of our activity comes through the fantastic free and bargain listings we send out in our daily email.  While we still get great visitor activity on our website, facebook page, and even our twitter account, most of our visitors take advantage of having these eBooks delivered straight to their inbox.

Taking note of this great information creates a need to adjust some of the way our services work, in an effort to provide an even greater value to authors and readers alike.

With that, we now announce our updated services.

  • First - (not a change): It's always free for readers to visit our website, facebook page, twitter account, and sign up to our mailing list.  Emails will be going out every day with the best of the best of the submittals.
  • Second - (not a change): It's still free to submit a listing to eBookLister; a free priced listing or a bargain priced listing.  Submittals must meet our submission guidelines.  We will continue to list the top 30-40 best value submittals on our website.  These will be listed after the editorial selected listings. Approved listings that don't fall in the top 30-40 will not be promoted.
  • Third, Paid Promotions will now only be available for a single day within a 60 day period (instead of up to 4 days). These Paid Promotions guarantee your listing will be included in our daily email on the day scheduled, as well as be included on our website.
  • Fourth, the 'Daily Focus eBook' promotion is changing to a 'Web Promo'.  Any Paid Promotion is eligible to take advantage of our Web Promo (when available) where we'll not only include the listing in our Daily Email, but we'll also post the listing to Facebook, Twitter, and display it prominently on our website, as well as other coming web promotional opportunities.  This promo is available to any listing once in a 60 day period.

The second point we have noticed is that many readers are looking for ebooks on more platforms than just the Amazon Kindle.  While we have always planned on moving into providing Nook Books as well as ebooks on other platforms, this gathered information moves that development up higher on our 'to-do' priority list.

We have set ourselves an internal goal to soon provide authors the opportunity to provide links to their eBooks on Kindle, Nook, iTunes, and Kobo.  We're also working to allow authors to link to the print version of their books as well.

With these coming changes, we are excited for the new and better opportunities for both authors and readers.

Are there changes you'd like to see in our service?  Suggestions?  Comments?  Let us know by using the Contact form on our Website.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Submission Process Update

We have recently completed a programming change to our submission process.  This change is to improve the value of our listings, as well as the process. 


While we have tested and tested again, we can not claim to be perfect so if you have any trouble submitting or confirming your listing on our system, please don't hesitate to contact us as soon as you can and we will look into it.


You can best reach us on our contact page found at:
http://www.ebooklister.net/page.php?p=16


Thank you!


 - Johnathan
eBooklister.net

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Submission Guidelines Review

Here at the eBookLister Service, we want nothing more than to help authors get their names and books out to the public, and to help people find great free and bargain books.  But we have to follow rules, as do our submitting authors. 
 
Today, I'd like to address our submission guidelines, as a review for ALL authors and submitters, but specifically, direct my comments towards the non-fiction authors regarding rules.  While we love to promote non-fiction books, they must fall under slightly stricter submission guidelines due to the far-greater volume of submissions.  Non-Fiction books fall under the same submission guidelines as all other submissions with a few notes.  I am pulling this information from our 'About Us' page (http://www.ebooklister.net/page.php?p=2)
 
Rule #4 -
  • Please allow at least 24 hours to get your book listed on EBL.  
This rule #4 is even more important for Non-Fiction books because of the volume of 'DayOf' Non-Fiction submissions that occur.  Please plan ahead and give us a chance to give your listing a fair review before the promotion begins.
 
Rule #7 -
  • We require all listings to have at least a star rating of 3.5 or higher.  The exception to this rule is if your book has no reviews or if the book is Non-Fiction.  ... Non-Fiction books MUST have at least 5 reviews to be eligible.
Non-Fiction submissions that do not have at least 5 stars on the day they are submitted will be declined without further review.  Please ensure your listing has at least 5 reviews (this number is subject to change), on the day you submit to the eBookLister Service
 
Rule #10 -
  • Do NOT put pricing information in your description.
No pricing information.  None.  Not "free today", not "limited time bargain promotion", not "get this free on kindle unlimited".  Nothing like that.  The description is the description - describe the book - not the author, not the promotion, not the pricing, not anything other than the description of the book.
  
Rule #12 -
  • Do NOT put an 'About The Author' section into the description.
Author's can link to their profiles in the Author URL field.  An 'About the Author' section anywhere else will cause the listing to be declined.


Rule #13 -
  • Keep the Title field to just the Title. Keep it short and concise.
Long titles are the fastest way to decline.  This is a horrible title: "Weight Control: How to lose all of the extra pounds you've put on over the last few years, maintain your current goal weight (in connection with your gender and age), and how to maintain a true control of your weight by making smart decisions in eating, activities, and even friends; this shareable, effective, and great methodology is your ticket to maintaining and controlling your weight to give you more confidence, energy, friends and even the love everyone needs to have an enjoyable, fullfilling, and interesting life. By Best-Selling Author and Doctor Jane A Anserden, MD, CEO of Weight Loss and Control Management LLC (WLCM), in Shermin Colorado."


 For Real!  BAD!  Keep your titles short and concise please. 


These notes apply to both Non-Fiction and Fiction alike, but the eBookLister Service has found Non-Fiction submitters break the rules more often.

In summary:  Please - read the rules and Follow them!  We WANT to help you - we WANT you to be successful.  Follow our submission guidelines and we'll be far more likely to do this.
 

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Server Change / Technical Difficulties

We have finally resolved the server issue we've been fighting that is the reason that our daily emails have not been being sent out.


Daily emails should resume today or tomorrow.


Sorry about the issue.  You can now enjoy your daily free and bargain deals once again as they kindly arrive in your email.


 - Johnathan