News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #32…
#183: Welcome Brits! The newsletter “Publishing Poynters” pointed to the following stat: eBooks are outselling pBooks now at Amazon/UK! I have noticed an uptick in interest among Brits for my eBooks. That’s understandable. Many of my books are international in flavor. Perhaps I should say, “Welcome international readers!” Although I’m partial to Jameson’s and other fine Irish whiskeys, I think the whole UK rocks. In fact, all of Europe rocks. I have fond memories of my sojourns there. It’s natural that this propagates through my books, from London’s Trafalgar Square to Barcelona’s Botanic Gardens to Paris’ Rue Rivoli to Brindisi’s port (have fun associating these with my different books). I know readers love to revisit sites they are fond of too.
That’s why I must apologize for an enormous gaffe that I can’t seem to fix. I recently entered some of my books in an eBook directory, eBook Heaven, and entered dollars for the prices. Senior moment? Whatever. I know, of course, that prices there are in pounds. All I had to do was go to Amazon/UK and search for my books. Since I can’t even remember the prices in dollars, I went to the U.S. Amazon site instead—big gaffe. (By the way, my website takes the reader to the U.S. Amazon site—Brits and other UK people, French, and others should adjust accordingly.)
#184: Coming soon! Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand! This is the sequel to Sing a Samba Galactica (no, I’m not auditioning for a position on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars) and finishes the trilogy that began with Survivors of the Chaos. And you thought that the saga ended with the Singer saving the Swarm? This turned out to be a thriller that combines sci-fi intrigue and suspense with some major space-operatic action scenes. Remember Asimov’s mule? The villain here is also a statistical anomaly whom the ITUIP had not planned for (“What’s ITUIP?” you ask—see Samba or read this book when it’s released).
Well, Cumbia is coming soon, just as soon as I finish the final edits. What did we do before word processing? Cut-and-paste revolutionized novel writing, folks (in my case, major cutting and very little pasting), not to mention spell- and grammar- checkers. I get deep into my story just like you, the reader, and can’t wait to finish it to see how it all turns out. That means I have to go back and edit for you because no one wants to read a 200k word novel (painful to x-out my own beloved words, but still a necessity). If Jules Verne had done this, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea would have been a novella—but he didn’t have word processing.
#185: Amazon change? Suddenly I’m getting e-mail messages from Amazon telling me that someone found my review useful. This must be a new policy because it still has some bugs. In the e-mail, they suggested other books I might want to review. That’s fine, but so far the books they suggested are my own. Sorry, Amazon, I can’t and won’t review my own books. Moreover, even if they were someone else’s books, I tend to review in response to an author’s request, preferably via Bookpleasures, unless I suddenly have a whim to write a review of a book written in Spanish or a book by some NY Times best-selling author (you can bet he or she won’t ask me for a review in that case).
#186: Helpful sources. I want to thank Rebecca Dahlke for her free PDF on genre-specific book marketing. It’s full of tips for writers. Recommended—her books also look interesting. Moreover, her PDF pointed me to Jim Kukral’s The Ultimate Digital Book Promotion Handbook, which is filled with even more tips and lists of more useful websites ($0.99 download from Amazon)—also recommended, and I understand that you can receive free updates. Authors should also join his Author Marketing Club where you can request reviews and join interesting forums. I find marketing and PR the most difficult thing about indie publishing. People like Rebecca and Jim help me tremendously. They are, of course, also indie authors—it’s all about indies helping other indies.
#187: Reviews? I’ve concluded that my KDP Select give-aways have pros and cons (I wish I had known about Jim Kukral’s website above because you can announce your give-away there). The main pro is that more people know about me. The main con is that people who download one of my books for free still might not get to know me. You can’t know me as a writer until you read one or more of my books. (OK, you can argue that you know one side of me through this blog. That’s often the serious side. For the lighter side, I write my books to entertain you, although they contain serious content too.)
#186 was about indie authors helping indie authors. What can readers of indie books do for indie authors? First, recognize that it takes some effort to write an entertaining book, no matter who writes it. This is a great time for readers—you have access to many good books and should reward the authors you read, no matter what the prices their books have. Let’s face it—if you don’t support indie authors, they will just stop writing. One pundit in fact has predicted that indie publishing has already peaked and that soon a large percentage of indie authors will just stop releasing new books (I won’t name names).
You can help me and all indie writers by writing reviews of our books when you read them. I don’t know how other people get reviews, but is it too much to ask you to write a wee review for Amazon, either “I liked this guy’s writing and here’s why…” or “This guy’s writing sucks and here’s why…”? I write extensive reviews for Bookpleasures and if the author so wishes, I also post the review on Amazon. Some of these authors have responded in kind. But I’d much rather know what my other readers think. Authors yearn for feedback from readers—I’m no exception.
I don’t expect an MFA treatise about my book discussing all the writing rules I’ve broken, intentionally or otherwise, or all the Freudian implications about how my two-headed sister influenced the plot of the book. If you download the book, just a polite interview is fine. You must have at least liked something about the book if you downloaded it. And, if you downloaded it for free and didn’t read it, shame on you.
I probably won’t do many freebies on KDP Select in the future, but don’t be disheartened. In the spirit of the above, if you want to read one of my eBooks gratis, you can get it free by reviewing it. I will gift you the Amazon eBook for your Kindle if you write a non-trivial review (you just have to meet Amazon’s word requirements, which should be easy). This also holds for Nooks, Sony Readers, etc, for those eBooks available in those formats, but you have to post the review on Amazon. (If you have a Kindle, a wireless connection, and skinny fingers so you can negotiate the tiny keyboard, Amazon makes eBook reviews easy—there’s generally a page at the end of the book that allows you to do it directly from your Kindle.)
This review policy holds for each of my eBooks up to my marketing budget’s limits for each book. I can’t give books away forever and Amazon doesn’t want a large number of reviews anyway. Just e-mail me at steve@stevenmmoore.com saying you’d like to read and review X title of mine. Also, tell me if you’ll give me permission to quote from your review (I always ask that—some authors don’t). Budget permitting, I’ll gift you the book directly to your e-mail address (that’s the only thing I’ll use it for, I promise). By the way, if you get a freebie from me in return for a review, I’ll look for that review, so don’t abuse this offer—I’d be hurt and miffed and so would other reader/reviewers if I run out of marketing dollars.
I value my readers’ opinions. If you think I write entertaining stuff, say so! This goes for any indie author. While the digital revolution has reduced costs to a minimum for an indie author, they still exist. Maintaining a website, cover art, editing, formatting, and giving away freebies to reviewers—these are my costs. I love to entertain you, but I have to recover costs. Think about it, please. If you can speak English, you can write a review. In fact, you can even write your review in some other language on an international Amazon site—that would be so cool! (Have pity on me though—make your request in English.)
[If you enjoyed this post, support this blog: buy some of Steve’s books.]
In libris libertas…
