News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #103…
Item. A thank you. If you’re reading this newsletter, you’re a reader of my blog. I thank you for reading. I’m now averaging about 15K visitors per month to my website; I thank all of you—everyone’s welcome. Blog readers probably make up a good portion of those visitors—I estimate at least 9K—so hopefully you’re having as much fun reading my posts as I do writing them.
I can’t say that number of visits translates into ebook sales, though. I realize some of you borrow ebooks (Prime, Unlimited, Oyster, and Scribd, for example); I don’t have stats on you. I just see book sales on Amazon and Smashwords. Of course, I also thank you if you’re a book reader, even if you don’t read my books. Did you know we’re an endangered species?
You all know my philosophy: If I can entertain just one person with an ebook, that ebook is a success. If I can entertain and/or inform just one person with a blog post, that post is a success. If just one person makes an informed buying decision with each book or movie review, that review is a success. If just one author is helped by one of my posts on writing, that post is a success. I don’t set my bars high. I don’t have to.
Item. A second thank you. Janella Fila wrote a good review of Muddlin’ Through on Readers’ Favorite. I don’t have many reviews, but many of them show the reviewer enjoyed a good tale. I like to read a good story; I try to write them. In some cases when I get in the zone and everything clicks, the story turns out surprisingly well, and I ask myself, “Who was that guy who wrote that? Why can’t I be him all the time?” But my goal is always to be entertaining and thoughtful.
Janella wrote an excellent summary of Muddlin’ Through and found ex-USN Master-at-Arms Mary Jo Melendez an interesting and complex female protagonist. She also figured out what I was trying to do with the story. Kudos to her and all my reviewers who understand what I try to accomplish in my ebooks. You all deserve my thanks. Sometimes it’s scary; you understand me better than I do!
Remember: You can review ANY ebook in my catalog in return for an honest review. Thank you for reading and reviewing. (Some of Janella’s review is excerpted on my first two webpages. Better still, read the full review on Readers’ Favorite. Muddlin’ Through now has a sequel too, Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By.)
Item. Comments. Let’s suppose there are many people reading a given blog post (this one, for example). Why don’t I receive more comments then? It’s a mystery. I’m an opinionated old curmudgeon, but I don’t bite. I know people have different opinions—I’m always willing to read yours, and I’ll always defend your right to express them, even if I disagree. Personal attacks and foul language are frowned upon, of course. Some of my op-eds might be considered personal attacks, I suppose—public figures have to accept that the spotlight makes them targets for criticism. But you can step up to their defense too.
Don’t get discouraged if your comment doesn’t appear immediately. The WP spam filter sometimes goes overboard, but I do check it, and I screen comments for foul language. If acceptable (no foul language, you’re not trying to sell me something, and so forth), your comments will eventually appear, and, of course, I might comment back. I realize many internet surfers are lurkers. I lurk in many blogs; lurk and smirk in others. But I also comment if I feel something needs to be said.
Of course, you can visit this site and make a direct but private comment on my contact page. Maybe you’d like to see more or less of something. Maybe you have marketing ideas (I think I’ve seen them all, but I’m open to suggestions). Maybe you want to give me a great recipe for Hungarian goulash. Who knows? Whatever the email, I’ll try to acknowledge it. And I’ll never divulge your name/email address. Some people use them for marketing purposes. I won’t. My only newsletter is this one, and it’s only online.
Item. Author interviews. Maybe you’re an author as well as reader who reads this newsletter? Given the numbers above, your author interview here will be seen by many people. Your readers are interested in you as well as your catalog of ebooks. (I have a preference of indie and midlist authors, but if you’re a in the Big Five stable of “famous authors,” try me—nah, I didn’t think so.) An author interview won’t cost you anything but time (I have a list of questions you can choose from, and you can add your own). While this offer is always ongoing, I’m surprised authors don’t take me up on that. Unlike book reviews, you can query me to do an author interview (you can query me for book reviews too, but via Bookpleasures, where there’s a whole group of reviewers). Don’t pile on, though; I can schedule at most one interview per week.
Item. Why ebooks? While indie writers can publish both pbooks as well as ebooks (Create Space and KDP Select from Amazon, for example), I choose only ebooks. There are many reasons. The main one is that paper formats won’t last forever; ebook files will. It’s a wee bit of permanency that will last far beyond my lifetime.
There’s also the cost. I run my ebook business on a shoestring budget. I’ve discovered the easiest and most cost effective ways to push my stories out to the reading public, and the prices of my ebooks reflect that cost savings—I pass that savings onto my readers. I want you to have quality entertainment at a reasonable price.
That said, some people just like the old-fashioned idea of holding a pbook. I respect that—I used to be like that, in fact, but now I couldn’t live without my Kindle. I’ve carefully considered the argument that old e-readers add tons of toxic detritus to the environment, just like old computers (they’re little computers), compared to renewing the forests that were cut down to make paper. I’ve decided that there’s not enough renewing of those forests that’s done—just ask Brazil and Canada, where acres of forest disappear every day—killing the lungs of Gaia—so my environmental conscious is soothed by the fact that my books won’t kill more forests.
Item. Why indie? Speaking of prices, most readers are undoubtedly aware that there’s a two-tier price system for ebooks, a bifurcation into two major groups, ebooks in the range of $0 to $5, and ones in the range of $10 on up. Guess what? The first class of ebooks are indies; the second traditionally published. Some ebooks in both classes seep into that gray zone between $5 and $10. Indie ebooks provide quality entertainment at a reasonable price.
Item. My two pbooks. Well, actually I have four: Full Medical (Xlibris), and Soldiers of God, Survivors of the Chaos, and The Midas Bomb (all Infinity). They were all published during my early POD (Print on Demand) period—call it BE (Before Ebooks). The last two also have ebook versions; the first two didn’t, so I published ebook second editions. I apologize for the prices of the ebook versions of Survivors of the Chaos and The Midas Bomb. As you might expect, I had nothing to do with choosing those prices and can’t modify them now. I’m working on the problem, though. As the first ebooks in two series, I’m sure that’s hurt subsequent ebooks in those series. While those ebooks are both less than $10, I want to bring them in line with my other ebooks’ prices.
I know I can say many times that each of my ebooks is a self-contained story—they can all stand alone—and it still won’t register, but I’ll say it again and again anyway, until I solve the above problem. I respect those readers who want to read a series in order. While it isn’t necessary in my case, there are a few rewards associated with doing that—increasing familiarity with certain characters, for example. But good novelists want readers to be able to jump into the middle of a series. I jumped into Lee Child’s and Michael Connelly’s series—I never even looked at their order. Jack Reacher and Harry Bosch become friends, no matter what order you take them in. (I can’t say that Child or Connelly are “good novelists” anymore, though—they’ve become pretty formulaic, and their ebooks are generally too expensive.)
Item. A new PR and marketing business model. If you enjoyed the post about ebook economics, you’ll probably enjoy next Thursday’s post that analyzes the current model’s problems and how to fix it. On Wednesday, you’ll have another free story, “The Tightrope Walker.” Enjoy.
In elibris libertas….
