News and notices from the writing trenches #39…
#224: Amazon’s new review policy. I thought I’d see more action here. Several writers have told me that they’ve lost reviews too—good legitimate reviews, not from family and friends. My lost reviews correspond to writers reviewing and independent reviewers from online reviewing sites. I guess Amazon can do what they want and the rest of the world caves. I’ll have to admit—I don’t know what I can do about it either.
One irony here occurs when Amazon asks ME to review one of my OWN BOOKS. I use Amazon’s easy gifting service to provide books for reviewers—and they count as book sales, of course. But you’d think that they’d know enough not to ask the author of the book for a review. Left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing?
#225: B&N digital policy found lacking. Barnes & Noble had touted a new digital strategy where they were going to spin off their Nook division and give impetus to online eBook sales. It floundered. Very soon, they’ll be shedding their big book barns (future Apple or Samsung Stores, or Starbucks Blonde Coffee Emporiums?). As Jim Krukal pointed out in my last Monday’s interview, in ten years (or less?) we’ll talking about the good old days when B&N and traditional bookstores tried to control how people buy reading material (the number ten is mine, not Jim’s).
On the other hand, it’s becoming more difficult for new and entertaining authors to rise above the average sea level in indie publishing. Clearly, the review path is being taken away from us by Amazon. The promotional rush to give away our intellectual material (also encouraged by Amazon) has diminished, primarily due to Amazon’s algorithm change. Thank goodness! That was unhealthy. I’m lucky—I only need to recover costs. But what does an author do in this kind of environment if he’s not Lee Child and yet still wants to make a living. Write ad copy or greeting cards? The “starving artist” moniker seems to be more applicable to writers as time goes on, contrary to what the indie digital revolution is supposed to be.
#226: Editing and book marketing. Although Jim Krukal disagrees (see my Monday interview with him), I’m still going to push my idea of pro bono royalties sharing for book marketing. I still see these wonderful offers like “we’ll spam the hell out of everyone if you just pay us $1000” or “hop on the blog tour bandwagon for only $250” or “get 50 Amazon reviews for $500.” (These aren’t actual quotes, of course—otherwise, the first number would be $999, and so forth.)
I fell into one of those traps with my first self-pubbed book—I won’t repeat that mistake. (A bit of sleuthing on your part will tell you the name of the company…for me, the name now is a bit like the name of the evil villain in Harry Potter.) My point is, if these marketing ploys actually worked, the book marketer would put the money where his mouth is and collect his percentage of the royalties in order to get rich, along with the author. But he knows they don’t work! He knows an author has a successful book because the author has won a lottery, a sweepstakes dependent on a very subjective buying public.
Jim Krukal said it straight out: a fiction writer increases his chance of success by first writing a bunch of damn good books—well, he didn’t actually say it that way. “Damn good” here is like a black hole—it has hair. Tufty patches of hair. “Damn good” means great content, for one thing. Maybe the reader can’t continue due to time constraints, but the author must make the reader want to keep on reading the book. He certainly won’t feel that way if the book is badly edited, so “damn good” means avoiding the editing mistakes I’ve found even in traditionally published books. “Damn good” also means a great cover, something too many authors neglect, especially for eBooks. (I think about my covers a lot—almost as much as the titles.)
To use mathematical terminology, the above are necessary conditions (one can dive into what “great content” means to find more), not sufficient ones. There is no sufficient condition. That’s capitalism applied to our publishing world. In other words, there is no condition that guarantees you’ll win the lottery. Oh yes, there is one more necessary condition, just like the lottery’s—you have to play the game. And keep playing. Write, write, write. There are still more readers than writers. Who knows? There might come a time when they’ll discover you and you will become like that rogue wave, rising above the average sea level to sweep all before you. If it doesn’t happen, don’t take it personally. I don’t, because writing is “damn good”—it’s a lot of fun! And being an indie author means I can keep doing it for a long time.
#227: Coker versus Maass. Mark Coker, owner-guru of Smashwords, has described in his 21-point summary of e-publishing his encounter with super-agent (not 007) Donald Maass (I won’t give a link because Coker’s report is available in several places, including the Huffington Post). While Mr. Maass didn’t use a four-letter word, his term for Mr. Coker was not complimentary. Mr. Maass also describes in February’s Writer’s Digest a trio of things that you probably didn’t do if your book flopped. As I said above, these are just more necessary conditions and I pretty much covered them all under “great content.” Reading Don Maass’ discussion of what makes a good book, though, is like listening to a priest’s explanation of what makes a good marriage–it seems OK, but you don’t know whether to believe the guy.
#228: Confused about POV? If you are, February’s WD also has a couple of good articles on it. Readers might not care much–they just know when it’s wrong. So, writers need to care a lot. POV is one of my weaknesses. After reading the article, I’m now sure I’m doing it right (readers, chirp in if you disagree), but I have to work at it. I wish I had these articles when I began writing years ago (that number is classified, of course). Of course, you can find articles on POV all over the web. The WD articles happen to be a good place to start (and end–the technicalities of writing should not get in the way of writing!).
In libris libertas….
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