The idea of a book countdown is fun: set the price at the lowest level allowed on Amazon, 99 cents, and watch it rise each day by one dollar – until it’s back to the original price. There is an element of game betting: you, as the customer, have to beat the clock in order…
Author: Claude Forthomme
Writer, essayist, poet, painter. Columbia U graduate in economics; United Nations expert (25 years in FAO; ended career as Director for Europe and Central Asia). Presently Senior Editor at Impakter Magazine and Deputy Observer Order of Malta at Rome-based United Nations Agencies (FAO, WFP, IFAD)
Writes in English and Italian under various pen names (Nougat for fiction in English; Forthomme for non-fiction). So far, publications include 2 books in Italian (including an award-winning children's book of tales) and 6 books in English (including one non-fiction essay on development aid).
All fiction in English is available on Amazon and major e-platforms, uncer pen name Claude Nougat.
How to promote your book and win reviews at the same time
Reviews sell books, right? But the problem is to get them. Ads are easy, you pay for them but they tend to be ignored unless you tie them to a promotion, making your book free or at 99 cents for a short period. The grand-daddy of book promoters is of course BookBub, recently joined by…
A Writer’s Quandary: To Blog in a Niche or Not to Blog?
Like every writer who starts out, I was told I should have an Internet presence, an easily recognizable brand. That’s why I started this blog back in 2009 as a way to brand myself. I also got on Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and scores of other sites. On day one, I had one reader…
Which Country Reads The Most?
Originally posted on Mark Williams – The International Indie Author:
Which country reads the most? You won’t be surprised to learn it’s not America. In fact, the USA kicks in at an embarrassing #22 on the list. This side of the pond you can probably hear the guffaws of laughter and see the knowing smiles…
What you learn in your 60s
So many 50th anniversaries of Baby Boomer milestones to celebrate these days, from the Beatles appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show fifty years ago to President Kennedy’s assassination. And expect a lot more, since the Baby Boomer generation spans 18 years of history (1946-1964). Moreover, in 2014 all boomers, even the youngest ones born in…
Simenon, Some Lessons from the Grand Daddy of Genre Literature
We all know that Simenon is the father of Commissaire Maigret, a fat policeman in the French Brigade Criminelle with a penchant for staring down suspects, and that all through the 20th century he was considered a literary phenomenon. But exactly how phenomenal is not so well known. For example, I didn’t know that he…
Is the Amazon Ebook Market Model Broken?
Is Amazon about to drop self-published writers? Is there any reason why it shouldn’t if self-pubbed titles clog its Kindle Store, making it look like a hastily published slush pile? After all, the ebook market is reportedly only worth 7% of total Amazon sales and it’s not showing much signs of growing.Yes, that’s not a…
Is Amazon Supremacy in eBooks Threatened?
Wow, super star Bella Andre has given full confidence to, no…Not Amazon Kindle Select but Kobo! See here: For me, this is surprising news. I’ve always thought of Amazon as the giant e-retailer whose supremacy could not be threatened – not yet and not for a long time. I guess I was wrong. What we…
The Digital Revolution: What Published Authors Really Want
Best selling author Hugh Howey has set up a really cool website to encourage authors, both traditionally and self-published, to come together and (eventually) form a “guild” – or some sort of association to defend authors’ rights against publishers and e-distributors. To visit, click here. To reade his latest report on author earnings and the…
Two Good Reasons Why You Should Do Audiobooks
Should you do audio books of your titles? The answer is YES! And there are two very good reasons for doing so, but before I get to them, here’s a little introduction to the world of audiobooks. It’s a new aspect of the digital publishing industry, now worth $1.6 billion (still peanuts) but growing fast….
When an Audio Clip Turns Into a Radio Show
Fantastic job done by the Director of the HighRock Institute Joel Scott and his partner Angela Castonguay. This is a fiery dialogue taken from CRIMSON CLOUDS, my just released romance. What was going to be a sample audio clip was suddenly turned into something quite different, like a radio drama show, with two beautiful voices,…
Are Mammograms Useless in Screening for Breast Cancer?
This morning the New York Times trumpeted the news that “mammograms fail to cut risk of death and causes overdiagnosis”, apparently the result of a major Canadian study involving 90,000 women over 25 years (to read the article, click here). For women like me who’ve been undergoing mammograms ever since we turned 40, this is…
Claude Forthomme 