I have a confession: I write to entertain readers and because I love to write.  Otherwise, I’d never keep this up.  More than Human: The Mensa Contagion will be my twentieth ebook and seventeenth novel (I have three short story collections).  But the old saw that you write the next book with the royalties from the last has NEVER been true in my case.  Sales aren’t flat; they’re abysmal.  Today it’s hard to even give ebooks away.

Amazon is partly responsible for the plight of most indie authors.  Don’t get me wrong: I’m 100% indie (otherwise I’d still be looking to publish my first book within the traditional paradigm).  Indie publishing is the most efficient way for an old storyteller like me to keep spinning his yarns and hoping to entertain readers with them.  No, I’m just a wee bit against Amazon, though.  With KDP Select they initiated the free give-away for promo purposes, people became used to freebies and downloaded them like mad, and then lost interest.  Yet the expectation for free ebooks still exists.

I participated in Amazon’s give-away program, but I got into it late.  My numbers were in the hundreds at best, instead of thousands, and probably ate into the sale numbers I might have received.  The whole process made me swear off the concept of giving away my ebooks.  I don’t do it anymore.  I’ll give away a limited number of ebooks for review purposes—you can always receive a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.  And I do limited promos—the “Señoritas Peligrosas” offer, for example.

Amazon has ruined the reviewing process too.  Most book reviews on Amazon are versions of “atta-girl” or “atta-boy” or “this book stinks.”  For these reviews, the number of stars provides more info, so Amazon pays more attention to the ratings than the actual review.  It’s a bit like the old SAT in reverse: the testing people finally realized that the written portion didn’t really determine if the person could read and write, so they added the essay part; written book reviews existed before Amazon, but the latter gurus smartly realized that in the internet age, people don’t want to take the time to write reviews and/or can’t do it well, so the star-system was born.  It’s like American Idol; good judging and reviewing techniques have been murdered by popular voting.  (Makes you wonder why people pay attention to the Amazon reviews; I don’t, for one.)

In theory, a book review can be useful (I try to make all of mine useful, even when I’m reviewing a traditionally published “famous author”—they certainly don’t have to read reviews because they’ve established a popular brand, but any author who says s/he can’t learn from a good review is an egotistical ass).  The problem with reviews is that they’re post publication.  An author can keep them in mind for the next ebook, but what’s done is done for the one just published.

That’s where free reading v. free ebooks comes in.  Critique groups have been around forever—most MFAs for writing are just organized critique groups called classes where one student writes something and the others, led by the all-knowing professor (if s/he were truly a writer, s/he’d be writing, not teaching, by the way), tear it apart, putting the student’s efforts up for ridicule.  It’s a bit like the old Native American tradition of running the gauntlet—s/he who survives is proclaimed a warrior.  (Our military has adopted these practices, by the way, especially in Special Ops.)  I guess we could call it toughening up as prep for the writer’s life.

Online critique groups can function this way too.  Or they can be gushy, sentimental, ass-kissing sessions of oohs and aahs signifying nothing.  Don’t get me wrong.  I used to participate in both ways; as the one being critiqued, I came away with some golden nuggets that have served me well.  If one per cent of the free advice is spot on, I’ll take it.  (Same for reviews, of course.)  I’ve evolved, though.  Now I’d rather be writing (say, maybe I can make some money marketing a bumper sticker with that phrase?).

Given that reviews are so bad, generally speaking, and are post-publication, how about pre-publication?  Can we get people to read an MS (that’s manuscript, for newcomers to writing acronyms) before we turn it into an ebook?  The answer is yes.  They’re called beta-readers, and they generally do a remarkable job.  Mine find logical inconsistencies and weird turns-of-phrase.  Some I ignore as stylistic preferences, but they all make me think about my prose in different ways.

Some beta-readers charge fees; mine don’t.  That makes their contributions even more remarkable.  They’re volunteers.  Because I run my writing business with very little investment on my part (compared to traditional publishing’s bloated bureaucracies), their volunteerism is a tremendous help.  Given the number of ebooks I release each year, I’ve kept my investment at the level of a golf addict, her/his investment after initial outlays represented in green’s fees, putters (usually what ends up in the water hazard after missing a putt), and balls (surprisingly expensive nowadays, I’m told, especially if s/he loses many of them).  Consider beta-reading to be content editing after-the-fact; if it’s free, it keeps prices down.  If I keep prices down, I can pass on the savings to my readers—and I do.

The Goldilocks Principle, so often a meta-principle in my blog posts about the writing business, plays an important role when considering beta-readers.  I value the personal relationship I have with them.  Too many and I would be lost.  But there is a way to augment their number tremendously, if the author wants to go beyond that personal relationship and toss old Goldilocks out the window.  Amazon has a new service—at least, new for me because I just discovered it.  It’s called Kindle Scout.  In some sense, it’s a combo of beta-reading, reviewing, critique groups, and postponed publishing.  Throw in a wee bit of American Idol too.

I’m still learning about it.  Basically, an author takes an Microsoft Word MS of more than 50K words (my novels are 60K or above—I had to look that up, though, because I don’t pay much attention to word count), pays for some good cover art (that cost is still on the author), and sends it off to Amazon to be perused by readers who will rank the author’s efforts.  Depending on results, Amazon might decide to format and release your ebook for you and pay a modest advance in royalties up front.  I don’t know if they will help with PR and marketing after publication.  This is only for ebooks, by the way; if you want some pbook copies, that’s still on you.

Amazon, of course, is interested in making money selling ebooks.  Their Kindle Scout program obviously provides a way for them to guarantee more sales.  Making more money is clear, too.  If your book is selected, it goes into KDP Select somewhere in the $2.99 to $4.99 sweet spot, but the author now only gets 50% instead of 70% royalties.  For some, that might be a killer.  In my case, I can definitely go back and write the next ebook with the advance.

Moreover, I see this an opportunity to expand my number of beta-readers and obtain pre-publication reviews.  To the extent that other writers are the readers in the Amazon program, I’ll also have a critique group.  The participating readers will also receive a free ebook when it’s released.  Maybe not a bad deal, but I’m still thinking about it.  For readers of ebooks, it can be both free reading and free ebooks!

Has any author reading this blog had experience, good or bad, with Amazon’s Kindle Scout program?  There are clearly pros and cons, but do the former outweigh the latter?  I’ve made some costly mistakes in this business, but that doesn’t seem to be a factor here.  I pay for my cover art, so that’s the same.  If you’ve had experience with Kindle Scout, let me know, either through comments here or via my contact page.  I’m in a quandary.

In elibris libertas….

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2015 at 4:00 am and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.