Just one sale...one measly sale of Fractured Facade on Smashwords was all it would have taken to keep The Valentine's Day Curse available everywhere. But after a year, it never happened. Oh sure, I got plenty of sample downloads of Fractured Facade, but I just couldn't make the sale, which is odd, because I still was getting sales on Amazon. No, not many, but at least I was thrown a bone once in a while. Nook readers, iPad people, Smashies, Kobo tablets, had no problem "buying" the free short story, but unless Smashwords was screwing up, they just wouldn't part with $4.99 for the novel. Also, not one of them left a review of the Valentine's Day Curse either. Hmmmm, so much for my grand plan!
My thinking was that if I made the short story free everywhere, Amazon would have to price match it as well, and they did. Great, right? Well, along the way, freebies on Amazon suddenly no longer had the same punch as they did once before. Why? The only thing I could figure out was that the new Amazon program, Kindle Unlimited, stopped not only downloads of freebies, but also sales of books. Kindle Unlimited is a program whereby a reader pays a yearly fee and can then borrow as many books on their kindle as they like (up to 10 at a time) instead of only one per month as in the past, for free. I figure readers aren't bothering with freebies any more as their thinking may be, why borrow something that's free when I could borrow something that would have cost me money.
In order to have a book in KDP select, which would then be part of the KU, the book had to be exclusive to Amazon. And that is the one thing that really bugged me. So, I said I would NEVER go into KDP Select. And now over a year later I am eating my words. I gave all the other outlets a shot and they all fell short. So I figure now is the time for me to try another tactic by putting The Valentine's Day Curse -- A short story back into KDP Select and price it once again at $.99.
My thinking last year was that folks will be getting Nooks, iPads, etc. and they will seek out the free story, download it, and then hopefully review it and/or seek out my novel and buy it. Never happened anywhere except on Amazon! So now the thinking this year is the same thing - that folks will be getting kindles for Christmas, only this time with each kindle they automatically get a free month of the Kindle Unlimited deal. My hope is that they borrow the Valentine's Day Curse which would translate to a higher royalty than if they bought it. Will this work? Who knows, but as an independent author I can change my mind and give it a shot. I'm still debating if I should pull Fractured Facade everywhere too and put that exclusively on Amazon as well.
Of course, the best way to sell books is to write more books, and I am doing just that...just not quickly.
Showing posts with label kdp select. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kdp select. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Saturday, July 19, 2014
My Thoughts on Kindle Unlimited
Yesterday authors who have books on Amazon received an email to let them know they are offering a new subscription service called Kindle Unlimited.
"Hello,
Today we are excited to introduce Kindle Unlimited--a new subscription service for readers in the U.S. and a new revenue opportunity for authors enrolled in KDP Select. With Kindle Unlimited, customers will be able to read as many book as they want from a library of over 600,000 titles. KDP authors and publishers who enroll their books with U.S. rights in KDP Select are automatically enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. Inclusion in Kindle Unlimited can help drive discovery of your book, and when your book is accessed and read past 10% you will earn a share of the KDP Select global fund. For the month of July we have added $800,000 to the KDP Select global fund bringing the total to $2 million."
For those who don't know, once upon a time Amazon's KDP Select program was a Godsend for authors, especially for unknown authors. In the beginning, offering a book free equaled many downloads which equaled a nice top spot in the charts once the promotion was over whereby your book became highly visible to the masses. This in turn equaled sales, a nice amount of sales. Then one day Amazon decided it would change its algorithms. No longer would one free copy equal one sale. The buzz is, and I don't have cold hard facts to back this, that it now took ten free downloads to equal the ranking power of one sale. After a promotion ended, the "bounce" became a thud. Many authors, like myself, questioned if it was worth keeping a title in KDP Select. What harm would it be you might ask, and don't you get some royalties if someone borrows the book? Well, the problem is in order to enroll a title in Select your title cannot be sold ANYWHERE else. "Strangely" this exclusivity mandate only applies to independent authors, not big published authors.
A lot of independent authors bailed so Amazon came up with another plan -- offer a new promotion tool -- the Kindle Countdown Deal whereby you can lower your price for five days, say starting at 99 cents for two or three and upping it as the countdown clicked onwards. I never bothered with it so cannot say if it's a successful endeavor or not. I'm guessing probably not so successful as Amazon has come up with yet another plan -- Kindle Unlimited.
Kindle Unlimited is being called by some the Netflix of books. If a reader wants to join this program they pay $9.99 a month and then can "read as many books as they want." But here's some of the fine details...not every single book Amazon carries is enrolled. You can have up to ten titles at a time on your Kindle, which you can keep for as long as you want. If you're a voracious reader this service might be worth the $120 a year. As a reader, I already subscribe to a similar service...it's called my local library, and it's a free service. True, not every book is available for my Kindle, but every book is available in a hard copy. All I have to do is request it.
Now as an author, how do I feel about this new program? First and foremost, unlike the major publishing companies, I would still have to make my books exclusive to Amazon. Now maybe if I was a prolific author and had dozens of books I'd give it a shot, but I'm not. The first book I wrote, Fractured Facade, took years to write and the one I'm presently working on has taken me years to research, and I've just begun writing it. Sure, I could whip out a short story in a week or two, or a monthly erotic novella, but I don't want to.
I have one short story, The Valentine's Day Curse, originally 99 cents, that I was able to make Perma-Free. One might ask, well, why don't you put your short story in Kindle Unlimited? If someone borrows it you can make some cash. True, a borrow on a 99 cent book is worth more than a 35 cent sale. But, if I did that I would have to remove it from everywhere else. My plan has been that if someone likes my short story enough they might seek out my novel and actually buy it for $4.99, the price of a cup of Starbucks coffee, depending upon the size one chooses. It has been a pretty successful idea, (not bestselling top of the chart one) as I've gotten sales from Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Apple. From Amazon? Not so much. I'm beginning to think Kindle readers don't like to part with cash as easily as Nookies and iPeople, and maybe expect every book will become free at some point so they'll just wait it out until it does.
So I have to ask myself, would I get more borrows which would equate to more revenue than if someone actually bought my novel. I don't know. The borrow royalty varies from month to month and is good for a 99 cent short story, but would never be higher than sale of my novel. Of course in order to even get credit for the borrow, the reader has to read at least ten percent, which I hope wouldn't be a problem. But say I had put my full length book in it and the reader was someone who had a problem with an expletive or two, and once they got top the 8% mark was offended by my use of the word F*ck or Bitch, and returned it before they reached the golden 10%, I would get zilch. Oh, and if they were really offended they'd probably would leave a bad review as well which would suck, but has been known to happen. And on the other hand, say they really liked the book and decided they wanted to keep it. They could without paying for it, and still have 9 other slots to borrow books. Believe it or not, there are folks who will only "buy" free books. I'm not one of them, but I also don't have $28 to buy a new hardcover every time one comes out that I want to read. In fact, I will not spend $14.99 on an eBook either. That's just crazy. I hope the author who wrote that book is getting a huge percentage from their publisher, like $10.49 per book which is the 70% Amazon pays in royalty at that price, but I doubt it. Anyway, I digress. So, although I really want to read this book, I will wait for one of two things, whichever comes first...the paperback version, or a free copy from my local library.
Well, there you have it, my thoughts on Kindle Unlimited. Clearly, as a reader I won't be paying $120 a year, and as an author, I won't be enrolling my books, but I'm curious as to what you think, both authors and reader...worth it, or not?
And here's my blatant sales pitch...check the side bar for links to my two books, one of which is free, everywhere.
"Hello,
Today we are excited to introduce Kindle Unlimited--a new subscription service for readers in the U.S. and a new revenue opportunity for authors enrolled in KDP Select. With Kindle Unlimited, customers will be able to read as many book as they want from a library of over 600,000 titles. KDP authors and publishers who enroll their books with U.S. rights in KDP Select are automatically enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. Inclusion in Kindle Unlimited can help drive discovery of your book, and when your book is accessed and read past 10% you will earn a share of the KDP Select global fund. For the month of July we have added $800,000 to the KDP Select global fund bringing the total to $2 million."
For those who don't know, once upon a time Amazon's KDP Select program was a Godsend for authors, especially for unknown authors. In the beginning, offering a book free equaled many downloads which equaled a nice top spot in the charts once the promotion was over whereby your book became highly visible to the masses. This in turn equaled sales, a nice amount of sales. Then one day Amazon decided it would change its algorithms. No longer would one free copy equal one sale. The buzz is, and I don't have cold hard facts to back this, that it now took ten free downloads to equal the ranking power of one sale. After a promotion ended, the "bounce" became a thud. Many authors, like myself, questioned if it was worth keeping a title in KDP Select. What harm would it be you might ask, and don't you get some royalties if someone borrows the book? Well, the problem is in order to enroll a title in Select your title cannot be sold ANYWHERE else. "Strangely" this exclusivity mandate only applies to independent authors, not big published authors.
A lot of independent authors bailed so Amazon came up with another plan -- offer a new promotion tool -- the Kindle Countdown Deal whereby you can lower your price for five days, say starting at 99 cents for two or three and upping it as the countdown clicked onwards. I never bothered with it so cannot say if it's a successful endeavor or not. I'm guessing probably not so successful as Amazon has come up with yet another plan -- Kindle Unlimited.
Kindle Unlimited is being called by some the Netflix of books. If a reader wants to join this program they pay $9.99 a month and then can "read as many books as they want." But here's some of the fine details...not every single book Amazon carries is enrolled. You can have up to ten titles at a time on your Kindle, which you can keep for as long as you want. If you're a voracious reader this service might be worth the $120 a year. As a reader, I already subscribe to a similar service...it's called my local library, and it's a free service. True, not every book is available for my Kindle, but every book is available in a hard copy. All I have to do is request it.
Now as an author, how do I feel about this new program? First and foremost, unlike the major publishing companies, I would still have to make my books exclusive to Amazon. Now maybe if I was a prolific author and had dozens of books I'd give it a shot, but I'm not. The first book I wrote, Fractured Facade, took years to write and the one I'm presently working on has taken me years to research, and I've just begun writing it. Sure, I could whip out a short story in a week or two, or a monthly erotic novella, but I don't want to.
I have one short story, The Valentine's Day Curse, originally 99 cents, that I was able to make Perma-Free. One might ask, well, why don't you put your short story in Kindle Unlimited? If someone borrows it you can make some cash. True, a borrow on a 99 cent book is worth more than a 35 cent sale. But, if I did that I would have to remove it from everywhere else. My plan has been that if someone likes my short story enough they might seek out my novel and actually buy it for $4.99, the price of a cup of Starbucks coffee, depending upon the size one chooses. It has been a pretty successful idea, (not bestselling top of the chart one) as I've gotten sales from Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Apple. From Amazon? Not so much. I'm beginning to think Kindle readers don't like to part with cash as easily as Nookies and iPeople, and maybe expect every book will become free at some point so they'll just wait it out until it does.
So I have to ask myself, would I get more borrows which would equate to more revenue than if someone actually bought my novel. I don't know. The borrow royalty varies from month to month and is good for a 99 cent short story, but would never be higher than sale of my novel. Of course in order to even get credit for the borrow, the reader has to read at least ten percent, which I hope wouldn't be a problem. But say I had put my full length book in it and the reader was someone who had a problem with an expletive or two, and once they got top the 8% mark was offended by my use of the word F*ck or Bitch, and returned it before they reached the golden 10%, I would get zilch. Oh, and if they were really offended they'd probably would leave a bad review as well which would suck, but has been known to happen. And on the other hand, say they really liked the book and decided they wanted to keep it. They could without paying for it, and still have 9 other slots to borrow books. Believe it or not, there are folks who will only "buy" free books. I'm not one of them, but I also don't have $28 to buy a new hardcover every time one comes out that I want to read. In fact, I will not spend $14.99 on an eBook either. That's just crazy. I hope the author who wrote that book is getting a huge percentage from their publisher, like $10.49 per book which is the 70% Amazon pays in royalty at that price, but I doubt it. Anyway, I digress. So, although I really want to read this book, I will wait for one of two things, whichever comes first...the paperback version, or a free copy from my local library.
Well, there you have it, my thoughts on Kindle Unlimited. Clearly, as a reader I won't be paying $120 a year, and as an author, I won't be enrolling my books, but I'm curious as to what you think, both authors and reader...worth it, or not?
And here's my blatant sales pitch...check the side bar for links to my two books, one of which is free, everywhere.
Monday, August 12, 2013
PermaFree Follow-Up
Since it's been about sixth months when I removed both of my books from Amazon's KDP Select program, and between four and six months since my short story, "The Valentine's Day Curse" has been free, I thought it was time to report on my findings.
As I outlined in this post, "Is PermaFree For Me?" one of the main reasons of offering my short story for free was to see if it translated to sales for my novel, "Fractured Facade." My hope was people would become familiar with my writing and seek out my other book. I had also hoped that the downloads of the freebie would be so great that I would remain in the top 100 on Amazon awarding me a highly visible place. Another hope was that I would receive more reviews.
So let's look at each of these hopes -- first the reviews. In this PermaFree time period I have received a whopping two reviews, one in the U.S. and one in the UK, and both are 5-stars. But that's it. One of the reviewers on Amazon said they would look for other books from me, but according to my Amazon stats, they never bought it. Which brings me to sales.
Re. Amazon: Since I've pulled everything out of KDP Select, there have been zero sales. Yup, that's a big fat goose egg on Amazon. Since sales were non-existent there, I dropped the price of Fractured Facade to $3.99 everywhere for the summer. And that has made a difference on Smashwords, but not on Amazon. In fact, my downloads on Smashwords and the two sites I publish to through them, Barnes & Noble and iTunes for the freebie, have over-taken Amazon's numbers. And this is with The Valentine's Day Curse being in the wrong category at B&N and iTunes! It's been forever since I've been trying to get it placed correctly, and out of "Theatre." Frustrating indeed, but not as frustrating as coming to the realization that in my case Kindle/Amazon customers mainly download freebies, whereas Nook readers and iPad folks do not have a problem paying for a book. One plus is that I have broken into most countries via Amazon, with Japan and India being the sole hold-outs.
My main problem with Smashwords is that I don't get real-time figures. I will see downloads on my dashboard, but not know if they were samples or full purchases until the day I wake up and see that Apple and B&N have reported sales. And my hope that the free downloads on Amazon would keep me in the top 100 only lasted a couple of days after it first went free. With each additional month the ranking drops lower and lower. The only way to keep the numbers up is to promote it constantly and I don't want to do that. Once in a while I'll throw out a tweet about it, but that's pretty much it.
So, although my hope was that the freebie would translate into sales, it really hasn't happened. Well, I guess it has happened, just not on Amazon, and not as high as I had hoped on the other outlets either. But, I am selling books -- paperbacks, that is. And no, not online. My biggest seller has been just having a copy of my book placed on the counter at our auto repair shop. Customers pick it up and either read it while they are waiting for their car, or once they realize I wrote it, ask to buy a copy. They particularly like when I sign it for them. And out of all the outlets whether it's an eBook or paperback, local point of purchase is my biggest profit margin. Of course this does not translate to a "high ranking" anywhere but my pocketbook. And that's okay with me.
So in closing...for now "The Valentine's Day Curse" will remain free. Links to everywhere are on the sidebar. "Fractured Facade" is $3.99 for two more weeks before going back to $4.99. The paperback is available for $14.99. And if you are local and would like an autographed copy just drop me a line.
The mantra amongst authors is to sell books you have to write books, the more the better, series really are the way to go, yada, yada, yada. So what's been happening on any future book? Progress is being made, but "prolific" is not my middle name. And frankly, I've been having a little too much fun researching! You might have already read this on my Facebook Author Page, but for those who haven't, I'd like to leave you with this tidbit I found which was an actual Wanted Ad placed in June 1866 in the Alexandria Gazette and reprinted in the Roanoke Times:
Wanted -- One hundred seventy five men of all shapes and sizes, from the tall graceful dandy with hair enough on his upper works to stuff a barber’s cushion, down to the little hump-backed freckled face, bowlegged carrot headed upstart. The object is to form a gaping corps to be in attendance at the church doors on each Sabbath before the commencement of divine service, to stare at the females as they enter, and make delicate and gentlemanly remarks on their person and their dress. All who wish to enlist in the above, will appear at various church doors next Sabbath morning where they will be duly inspected and their names, personal appearance and quantity of brains registered in a book kept for that purpose, and published in the newspaper. To prevent a general rush it would be well to state that none will be enlisted who possess intellectual capacities above that of a well bred donkey. -- Alexandria Gazette
Sunday, February 17, 2013
A Big Thanks!
A big thanks to all the folks who downloaded The Valentine's Day Curse. Although the numbers weren't through the roof -- short stories are a hard sell, especially if none of the big sites pick it up -- I was happy with the results, if only to get a 5-star rating on Goodreads, a couple of Authorgraph requests, and to finally break through Italy! Yes, after a year, at least two people in Italy have my words on their kindle.
My hope as always is that readers will have enjoyed the short story so much that they will search out my other book, Fractured Facade, and give that a go. The other hope is that those who read The Valentine's Day Curse will leave a review on Amazon like this last one written by Jan Taylor --
"The only thing wrong was the story ended too soon. I loved it. I'm a "hard sale" on 1st person POV, but DeRosa carried it off perfectly. I had fun "traveling" with the heroine, and she was a good heroine. Loved how DeRosa used the curse in the story. Was impressed and moved by her style and talent. This was an easy 5 star ranking."
I really hate the promotion part of being an independent author, and I'm glad my short story will soon be out of Amazon's Select program. No more begging people to download my book for free! Soon it will join Fractured Facade and be available on other sites. Even though I don't get a lot of sales through Smashwords, people can go there and download a larger portion of the book for free than Amazon offers to see if it's something they're interested in. If so, they can then order through Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Kobo Books, Amazon, or even get the paperback. Do not buy the paperback on B&N's site where it's showing for $34.68! It's only $14.99 on Amazon and even I wouldn't pay $34.68 for it! I don't know why it's there, or who's selling it since I did not opt for the extended distribution on Createspace. Still waiting for it to show back up on iTunes.
Meanwhile, I am continuing my research for the next book. As you can guess by now, I'm not one of those authors who bang out a book a month. I could bang out a short story a month, but I am choosing to listen to my inner voice and focus on the one in my head that's shouting to be written. What genre will it be? I have no idea where it will find a home as it will be contemporary, historical, and paranormal. Perhaps this one will appeal to more folks than my previous two. Too bad I'm not a romance or Christian novel writer. That's where the bucks are!
Clearly, I am not writing for the money and masses, but I am sure my works will wind up in the hands of those that are meant to read them. So without further adieu...upwards and onwards!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Latest KDP Select Results
It's been a week since my last KDP Select freebie ended for Fractured Facade and I wanted to share my observations. First and foremost I am happy to report that an author need not get picked up by POI or ENT to get noticed. POI has never picked me up, and ENT has changed in that they no longer just focus on free books. In fact, they've scaled it down to only a couple of day. Naturally, if one did get picked up by either of these two outlets your downloads would multiply greatly, but don't despair if you don't.
Without them, my downloads in the US were near 6,000 and in the UK 800. I had a couple from Germany, France and Spain and as usual nothing in Italy or Japan. Now I would like to give a shout out to Free Kindle Books & Tips, Kindle Boards and Ebook Lister for their promotions.
Big deal you say, you had twice, or three times that many. Well, good for you! I didn't need that many to get to #1 Suspense, #3 Family Saga, and also up to #47 in the Top 100 of all books, so I was pretty happy.
Of course I wasn't as happy as I was the very first time I used the freebies last year when every book downloaded was counted 1=1 for rank, instead of the 1=10 now. At that time, I had hundreds of sales afterwards. This time, nowhere as many, however since the promotion ended I have been selling steadily in the US & UK and getting actual borrows.
The borrows are more valuable for the next three months since Amazon has doubled the payment for them. Some folks are up in arms about this claiming Amazon is "doubling down" and screwing up indie authors by "making them" become exclusive to them. Although I would love to not be exclusive in Amazon, it's my choice to be exclusive right now with them. They're not "making me" do anything I don't want to. I wasn't exclusive for over 90 days previous, and had both my books pretty much everywhere. My total sales for that period on those other sites amounted to $3.45. All the clamoring to have my books made available for the Nook resulted in $3.00 of that $3.45. Now when people ask me when it will be back on B&N I tell them, I don't know, but I do have a paperback available, if they are interested.
Another reason folks are hating Amazon lately is that reviews of their books are being removed, especially 5-star ones written by other authors. On B&N, I only had one review, and it was a good one, that I lost when I pulled my books. The rest of mine are on Amazon. I haven't experienced the removal of reviews as I don't believe any were written by other authors. Apparently being "unpopular" and not in the "indie clique" does have its advantages. I wish Amazon would remove some of the one-star ones as they were written by people who didn't even read the entire book. My most recent review after the freebie was a 3-star entitled "Good" and left by someone who, duh, duh, duh, wait for it...didn't read the book yet, but plans to! Sigh.
And that's one of the biggest problems with giving your book away free -- negative reviews. Since folks seem to have a problem with the "f word" based on past reviews after a freebie, this time at the end of the book description I made sure to let folks know there was language they may deem inappropriate, in the hopes they'll just skip over my book. Hopefully they have. Even though I haven't gotten many reviews yet, I have noticed that the "like" number on Amazon's page has increased, so I'm happy with that.
How long with this slow trickle of sales for Fractured Facade last? I have no idea, but it's better than the no trickle from B&N, Apple, Kobo & Smashwords. I really hope that some folks will consider buying, or better yet, borrowing, my short story, "The Valentine's Day Curse" also exclusive on Amazon, as the royalty for borrowing a 99cent short is better than the sale.
Sorry to those folks who are Amazon haters, but I'm not in that camp...you can't argue the numbers.
***UPDATE***
After I wrote this post this morning I noticed a new 5-star review from someone who downloaded the freebie..."I loved this book, couldn't put it down. I felt that I really got to know the author and her characters. They were like family by the time I finished. I didn't want the book to end. I got this book as a freeie and I can say I wasn't disappointed. I have looked up her blog and plan on becoming a regular visitor. I don't like short stories, but I may even check out her short story "The Valentine's Day Curse". Great job and please keep it up!!"
Just had to share that...thank you Luv to Read!
Without them, my downloads in the US were near 6,000 and in the UK 800. I had a couple from Germany, France and Spain and as usual nothing in Italy or Japan. Now I would like to give a shout out to Free Kindle Books & Tips, Kindle Boards and Ebook Lister for their promotions.
Big deal you say, you had twice, or three times that many. Well, good for you! I didn't need that many to get to #1 Suspense, #3 Family Saga, and also up to #47 in the Top 100 of all books, so I was pretty happy.
Of course I wasn't as happy as I was the very first time I used the freebies last year when every book downloaded was counted 1=1 for rank, instead of the 1=10 now. At that time, I had hundreds of sales afterwards. This time, nowhere as many, however since the promotion ended I have been selling steadily in the US & UK and getting actual borrows.
The borrows are more valuable for the next three months since Amazon has doubled the payment for them. Some folks are up in arms about this claiming Amazon is "doubling down" and screwing up indie authors by "making them" become exclusive to them. Although I would love to not be exclusive in Amazon, it's my choice to be exclusive right now with them. They're not "making me" do anything I don't want to. I wasn't exclusive for over 90 days previous, and had both my books pretty much everywhere. My total sales for that period on those other sites amounted to $3.45. All the clamoring to have my books made available for the Nook resulted in $3.00 of that $3.45. Now when people ask me when it will be back on B&N I tell them, I don't know, but I do have a paperback available, if they are interested.
Another reason folks are hating Amazon lately is that reviews of their books are being removed, especially 5-star ones written by other authors. On B&N, I only had one review, and it was a good one, that I lost when I pulled my books. The rest of mine are on Amazon. I haven't experienced the removal of reviews as I don't believe any were written by other authors. Apparently being "unpopular" and not in the "indie clique" does have its advantages. I wish Amazon would remove some of the one-star ones as they were written by people who didn't even read the entire book. My most recent review after the freebie was a 3-star entitled "Good" and left by someone who, duh, duh, duh, wait for it...didn't read the book yet, but plans to! Sigh.
And that's one of the biggest problems with giving your book away free -- negative reviews. Since folks seem to have a problem with the "f word" based on past reviews after a freebie, this time at the end of the book description I made sure to let folks know there was language they may deem inappropriate, in the hopes they'll just skip over my book. Hopefully they have. Even though I haven't gotten many reviews yet, I have noticed that the "like" number on Amazon's page has increased, so I'm happy with that.
How long with this slow trickle of sales for Fractured Facade last? I have no idea, but it's better than the no trickle from B&N, Apple, Kobo & Smashwords. I really hope that some folks will consider buying, or better yet, borrowing, my short story, "The Valentine's Day Curse" also exclusive on Amazon, as the royalty for borrowing a 99cent short is better than the sale.
Sorry to those folks who are Amazon haters, but I'm not in that camp...you can't argue the numbers.
***UPDATE***
After I wrote this post this morning I noticed a new 5-star review from someone who downloaded the freebie..."I loved this book, couldn't put it down. I felt that I really got to know the author and her characters. They were like family by the time I finished. I didn't want the book to end. I got this book as a freeie and I can say I wasn't disappointed. I have looked up her blog and plan on becoming a regular visitor. I don't like short stories, but I may even check out her short story "The Valentine's Day Curse". Great job and please keep it up!!"
Just had to share that...thank you Luv to Read!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
My Anti-KDP Select Experiment Results
So my 90-day anti-Amazon KDP Select experiment is coming to an end and I thought I would share the results.
At the end of July I withdrew Fractured Facade from KDP Select and placed it on Smashwords, B&N, iTunes and Kobo. The Valentine's Day Curse followed shortly. I decided to give the other outlets a try since my Amazon sales and borrows had slowed down to a trickle. I thought perhaps it was time to spread my wings and fulfill the requests of Nook readers who urged me to make it available for their readers. So I did.
Unfortunately, those Nook readers disappeared as there was only a single sale of both books on Barnes & Noble through Smashwords. Yes, one single sale. Nothing on iTunes. Nothing on Smashwords direct. One sale of The Valentine's Day Curse on Kobo, and that was from someone in the United States, and not from the market I was hoping to break into -- Japan. That's a whopping 45 cents waiting for me from Kobo.
Now, maybe if I spent 20 hours a day promoting each outlet I would have gotten better results, but I don't have the time, or stomach, for that. I believe it's more effective to point someone to one site to purchase a book than it is to point them to my website for information on where to order the book on many sites. Frankly, none of those other sites help an author sell a book as they often get the categories wrong and make navigating their site impossible and frustrating.
Amazon is user friendly, and for the most part, author friendly. During my 90-day experiment I even received an email from Amazon promoting Fractured Facade as one of the suspense picks. During this same period Amazon has opened a store in India, and most recently, a store in Japan. They've also now made book lending available in European countries. Kobo has fallen way short of my expectations so I've decided they can keep my 45 cents. Smashwords can also keep my $3.00.
So, my final decision on my 90-day experiment -- As of today I will begin unpublishing from all sites and go back exclusively into Amazon, hopefully in time for the holidays. It will probably take a couple of weeks to get the books removed everywhere, so you Nook readers better take this opportunity to get your copy before it disappears.
I no longer feel guilty about not having my eBook everywhere as I now have a paperback version of Fractured Facade as well. Although I don't expect anyone other than friends and family to buy the paperback, it is out there. And Amazon has free apps for most other eReaders.
I'm not thrilled with Amazon's exclusivity requirements to get into their lending library, but until there's another significant player out there, it looks like I'm going to have to follow their rules.
At the end of July I withdrew Fractured Facade from KDP Select and placed it on Smashwords, B&N, iTunes and Kobo. The Valentine's Day Curse followed shortly. I decided to give the other outlets a try since my Amazon sales and borrows had slowed down to a trickle. I thought perhaps it was time to spread my wings and fulfill the requests of Nook readers who urged me to make it available for their readers. So I did.
Unfortunately, those Nook readers disappeared as there was only a single sale of both books on Barnes & Noble through Smashwords. Yes, one single sale. Nothing on iTunes. Nothing on Smashwords direct. One sale of The Valentine's Day Curse on Kobo, and that was from someone in the United States, and not from the market I was hoping to break into -- Japan. That's a whopping 45 cents waiting for me from Kobo.
Now, maybe if I spent 20 hours a day promoting each outlet I would have gotten better results, but I don't have the time, or stomach, for that. I believe it's more effective to point someone to one site to purchase a book than it is to point them to my website for information on where to order the book on many sites. Frankly, none of those other sites help an author sell a book as they often get the categories wrong and make navigating their site impossible and frustrating.
Amazon is user friendly, and for the most part, author friendly. During my 90-day experiment I even received an email from Amazon promoting Fractured Facade as one of the suspense picks. During this same period Amazon has opened a store in India, and most recently, a store in Japan. They've also now made book lending available in European countries. Kobo has fallen way short of my expectations so I've decided they can keep my 45 cents. Smashwords can also keep my $3.00.
So, my final decision on my 90-day experiment -- As of today I will begin unpublishing from all sites and go back exclusively into Amazon, hopefully in time for the holidays. It will probably take a couple of weeks to get the books removed everywhere, so you Nook readers better take this opportunity to get your copy before it disappears.
I no longer feel guilty about not having my eBook everywhere as I now have a paperback version of Fractured Facade as well. Although I don't expect anyone other than friends and family to buy the paperback, it is out there. And Amazon has free apps for most other eReaders.
I'm not thrilled with Amazon's exclusivity requirements to get into their lending library, but until there's another significant player out there, it looks like I'm going to have to follow their rules.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Back on Smashwords
After I received my royalty check from Amazon I had misgivings about not re-enrolling Fractured Facade in its Select program. After all, the majority of that check came from sales garnered after I gave away almost 10,000 copies for free...but that was a couple of months ago. The last freebie's downloads of over 3,500 more copies did not justify the amount of sales that came afterwards. And as far as borrows went, I got a measly one.
Still, it was a nice chunk of change and I wondered if I was shooting myself in the keyboard by abandoning Amazon's ship. I still didn't re-publish on Smashwords so I thought, "Hmmm, let me see if I could generate some action by having a spur of the moment, one day freebie of The Valentine's Day Curse, which is still enrolled in Select. I didn't expect much as I knew the main sites of ENT and POI would not post it as they need a couple of weeks notice and I never submitted it to them.
As I've stated before, I have begun to believe that the free eBooks carrot is losing its appeal since everyone is giving their books away. After reading comments left on posts from ENT and POI from readers thanking them (ummm, how about thanking the author who is the person responsible for the free book?) and writing, they love, love, love the free books and will NEVER pay for a book again, I began to dwell more on this practice. Although the free seems to work well for those books that are part of a series, and for prolific writers who have many books out, I fear my time may have come and passed.
I wondered if the 5 day free promotions and ability for prime members to borrow my book was still worth the 90 day exclusive period, yet I still couldn't bring myself to hit republish on Smashwords! The nail in Amazon's Select program came yesterday, before my lousy results were even done on the spur of the moment freebie, via a glance at their welcome screen. On it they were touting that prime members can now borrow for free all the Harry Potter books, as well as New York Times bestsellers and I wondered something...does that mean those books are part of the Select program, and if so, do they also have to abide by the exclusivity clause same as I do?. I checked, and nope, they don't. So I did some more checking of other bestsellers. Nope, they are available everywhere else too, no exclusivity for them either.
Now, I'm no Rowlings or Collins, but it peeves me that they get to play by different rules than I do. I think my borrows may have halted because those "popular" more expensive books are there for the taking. And I could totally understand that, but it still bothers me that Amazon changed the rules for "some" authors. I know it's their game and their board, but it's my game piece, so for now I've taken my piece off the board. I hit re-publish on Smashwords! I've already been approved for their premium catalogue as well.
This time thought I want to go only into Barnes & Noble. Apple products can be downloaded via Amazon already. Kobo has just made a deal with Japan and soon will be offering authors a way to publish directly with them in their store, so I'll wait for that. As far as Sony goes, nope, it took too long to get them to remove my book. Same with Diesel and no sales on either site. No also for the Baker & Taylor library which only pays 45% royalty for one book and nothing when someone checks it out. Smart phone apps? I'll keep that via Amazon as well.
I figure I'll give my experiment three months, the same as the exclusivity clause in KDP Select. If I feel I'm not getting the results I want I'll unpublish again and re-enroll, just in time for Christmas. That's what's great about being an Indie...I can make my own decisions and changes whenever I want, and if I'm wrong, I can change it again.
So Nook readers, you can download directly via Smashwords now, or, you can wait until it arrives in Barnes & Noble. I hope you show up to the game...
Still, it was a nice chunk of change and I wondered if I was shooting myself in the keyboard by abandoning Amazon's ship. I still didn't re-publish on Smashwords so I thought, "Hmmm, let me see if I could generate some action by having a spur of the moment, one day freebie of The Valentine's Day Curse, which is still enrolled in Select. I didn't expect much as I knew the main sites of ENT and POI would not post it as they need a couple of weeks notice and I never submitted it to them.
As I've stated before, I have begun to believe that the free eBooks carrot is losing its appeal since everyone is giving their books away. After reading comments left on posts from ENT and POI from readers thanking them (ummm, how about thanking the author who is the person responsible for the free book?) and writing, they love, love, love the free books and will NEVER pay for a book again, I began to dwell more on this practice. Although the free seems to work well for those books that are part of a series, and for prolific writers who have many books out, I fear my time may have come and passed.
I wondered if the 5 day free promotions and ability for prime members to borrow my book was still worth the 90 day exclusive period, yet I still couldn't bring myself to hit republish on Smashwords! The nail in Amazon's Select program came yesterday, before my lousy results were even done on the spur of the moment freebie, via a glance at their welcome screen. On it they were touting that prime members can now borrow for free all the Harry Potter books, as well as New York Times bestsellers and I wondered something...does that mean those books are part of the Select program, and if so, do they also have to abide by the exclusivity clause same as I do?. I checked, and nope, they don't. So I did some more checking of other bestsellers. Nope, they are available everywhere else too, no exclusivity for them either.
Now, I'm no Rowlings or Collins, but it peeves me that they get to play by different rules than I do. I think my borrows may have halted because those "popular" more expensive books are there for the taking. And I could totally understand that, but it still bothers me that Amazon changed the rules for "some" authors. I know it's their game and their board, but it's my game piece, so for now I've taken my piece off the board. I hit re-publish on Smashwords! I've already been approved for their premium catalogue as well.
This time thought I want to go only into Barnes & Noble. Apple products can be downloaded via Amazon already. Kobo has just made a deal with Japan and soon will be offering authors a way to publish directly with them in their store, so I'll wait for that. As far as Sony goes, nope, it took too long to get them to remove my book. Same with Diesel and no sales on either site. No also for the Baker & Taylor library which only pays 45% royalty for one book and nothing when someone checks it out. Smart phone apps? I'll keep that via Amazon as well.
I figure I'll give my experiment three months, the same as the exclusivity clause in KDP Select. If I feel I'm not getting the results I want I'll unpublish again and re-enroll, just in time for Christmas. That's what's great about being an Indie...I can make my own decisions and changes whenever I want, and if I'm wrong, I can change it again.
So Nook readers, you can download directly via Smashwords now, or, you can wait until it arrives in Barnes & Noble. I hope you show up to the game...
Friday, June 29, 2012
It Was Fun While It Lasted
Come July 2nd my 90-day exclusive period for Fractured Facade in Amazon's KDP Select Program is up. I have decided to not click the auto-enroll feature.
Once upon a time, less than 90 days ago, I enjoyed the fruits of this program. The first time I offered a freebie I had almost 10,000 downloads and more sales in one month than I had previously experienced the prior six months everywhere else. The added bonus was my book was getting borrowed, which besides the freebie carrot, was a good reason to enroll my $4.99 novel. The "bad" part of having 10k free books downloaded, besides not getting a royalty on any of them, is that some will wind up in hands of readers who are not your target audience. Oh, and they will let you know via a 1-star rating.
Cut to the next freebie less than two months later. This time I took the advice of other writers who suggested I would have sold more books if my price was reduced. So I went with $3.99. Not as many downloaded, but well into the thousands and high ranking in the free charts. However, when it went back to paid, it plummetted back down to a lower level than it was when I first gave it away. Apparently the changing of the secret Amazon algorithms had struck! It took a day or two before the ranking went up, but by that time, I had probably lost any exposure and momentum I might have gotten. At this lower price point I sold 1/10th of the amount I had sold at $4.99, and worse yet, had only 1 measly borrow.
Now, I don't know if the following red-highlighted Prime Members borrow for free statement was always there under my "borrow this book" or if it popped up since my last freebie, but here it is: "With Prime, Kindle owners can choose from over 145,000 titles to borrow for free – including all seven Harry Potter books and more than 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers – as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates." Frankly, if I were a Prime Member those are the books I would borrow since I only get one borrow a month. Those bestsellers charge about $12.99 for an eBook, so I would feel like I was getting my "money's worth." Although, once upon a time, I actually had borrows on my 99 cent short story, I haven't seen one of those in a while.
There's another reason I'm opting my novel out of Select. People are cheap. After reading comments on ENT and POI's posts, as well as across the internet from people who love, love, love the free books, some saying they will NEVER pay for an eBook, or, they're just waiting until a certain book goes free, I think the lack of sales might be due to people having come to expect something for nothing. As soon as they see the book on Amazon with "Prime Members can borrow for free" they assume it will eventually be free during a promotion. And they're usually right.
So, I've decided to run a test. I'm going to un-enroll Fractured Facade, leave it at $3.99 for the summer, and put it back on Smashwords, yet not opt-in to their premium catalogue just yet. In case I have a change of heart and want it to go back into Select, I don't want to have to waste weeks chasing down every location where the book is being sold. Smashwords takes it down pretty quickly, but the other outlets take their sweet time.
I still have a month to decide on what to do with my short story, The Valentine's Day Curse. I might just leave it enrolled, as one borrow (if it ever happens again!) equals over six sales. Also, I'd like to use it as bait when having a freebie, in the hope that someone will read it and seek out other books by me. I know that strategy works well for authors who have series, but I don't. However, I did have sales of Fractured Facade after giving away the short last time, so who knows.
Amazon seems to change things up all the time, so who knows what they'll decide to do next. I wish they had kept the algorithms where they were in the beginning of the year, but since they haven't all I have to say is, it was fun while it lasted.
Once upon a time, less than 90 days ago, I enjoyed the fruits of this program. The first time I offered a freebie I had almost 10,000 downloads and more sales in one month than I had previously experienced the prior six months everywhere else. The added bonus was my book was getting borrowed, which besides the freebie carrot, was a good reason to enroll my $4.99 novel. The "bad" part of having 10k free books downloaded, besides not getting a royalty on any of them, is that some will wind up in hands of readers who are not your target audience. Oh, and they will let you know via a 1-star rating.
Cut to the next freebie less than two months later. This time I took the advice of other writers who suggested I would have sold more books if my price was reduced. So I went with $3.99. Not as many downloaded, but well into the thousands and high ranking in the free charts. However, when it went back to paid, it plummetted back down to a lower level than it was when I first gave it away. Apparently the changing of the secret Amazon algorithms had struck! It took a day or two before the ranking went up, but by that time, I had probably lost any exposure and momentum I might have gotten. At this lower price point I sold 1/10th of the amount I had sold at $4.99, and worse yet, had only 1 measly borrow.
Now, I don't know if the following red-highlighted Prime Members borrow for free statement was always there under my "borrow this book" or if it popped up since my last freebie, but here it is: "With Prime, Kindle owners can choose from over 145,000 titles to borrow for free – including all seven Harry Potter books and more than 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers – as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates." Frankly, if I were a Prime Member those are the books I would borrow since I only get one borrow a month. Those bestsellers charge about $12.99 for an eBook, so I would feel like I was getting my "money's worth." Although, once upon a time, I actually had borrows on my 99 cent short story, I haven't seen one of those in a while.
There's another reason I'm opting my novel out of Select. People are cheap. After reading comments on ENT and POI's posts, as well as across the internet from people who love, love, love the free books, some saying they will NEVER pay for an eBook, or, they're just waiting until a certain book goes free, I think the lack of sales might be due to people having come to expect something for nothing. As soon as they see the book on Amazon with "Prime Members can borrow for free" they assume it will eventually be free during a promotion. And they're usually right.
So, I've decided to run a test. I'm going to un-enroll Fractured Facade, leave it at $3.99 for the summer, and put it back on Smashwords, yet not opt-in to their premium catalogue just yet. In case I have a change of heart and want it to go back into Select, I don't want to have to waste weeks chasing down every location where the book is being sold. Smashwords takes it down pretty quickly, but the other outlets take their sweet time.
I still have a month to decide on what to do with my short story, The Valentine's Day Curse. I might just leave it enrolled, as one borrow (if it ever happens again!) equals over six sales. Also, I'd like to use it as bait when having a freebie, in the hope that someone will read it and seek out other books by me. I know that strategy works well for authors who have series, but I don't. However, I did have sales of Fractured Facade after giving away the short last time, so who knows.
Amazon seems to change things up all the time, so who knows what they'll decide to do next. I wish they had kept the algorithms where they were in the beginning of the year, but since they haven't all I have to say is, it was fun while it lasted.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Gone Fishing...
Well, I haven't really gone fishing, but would like to. Whenever I come off a freebie run I feel as if I need a vacation. The preparation time before, and work during the promotion, is a drainer of physical and mental energy. To get the most out of the free weekend I really should still be promoting the hell out of Fractured Facade, but I'm exhausted.
This last run was another success with close to 4,000 copies downloaded. The highest ranking I received was #2 on Family Saga and # 10 in Suspense...not too shabby. The biggest surprise was the hundreds downloaded in the UK. I do believe the one five-star review I received from the last promotion really helped. Germany was on the chart as well with 3 copies. I wonder if it was the same 3 readers who downloaded The Valentine's Day Curse during the last promo. Still, no paid sales from either country.
I decided to lower the price to $3.99 to see if I would get more action than the last time when I had it at $4.99. So far, no. In fact, last time I had more copies sold by the second day than I do now! And thus far, no borrows. My 90-day period is up July 2nd and unless my numbers dramatically improve over the next two weeks I will not be re-enrolling Fractured Facade in the exclusive program.
I think people are getting too used to free books. When an Amazon reader sees they can borrow the book, they know the book is enrolled in Select and that the author has five free promotion days. I fear too many people are just waiting for those free days to happen rather than spend the money buying the book. An author cannot make a living that way. Hey, I download free books, but also buy books as well.
The only way for an author to make money is to write books, books and more books. The most successful authors are those that have many released, especially a series of books. When a reader likes one that they downloaded for free they will search out the rest of the series, and maybe even pay for them. I do not have a series of books. I am not a prolific writer. I do not write in a popular genre...and still don't know what the thrill is of zombies and vampires!
I read somewhere that an author needs to release 4-5 books a year to be successful. Ha! That's not me. Oh, if you want crap, I could do that with one hand on the keyboard, but that's not what I'm after. I just want to tell stories that mean something to me. Those tales take time. And you can't rush them. But there is something I can do to speed the process along. Get off the internet! Well, not totally get off, but definitely decrease my time, especially on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. All those FB writing groups and blogs about writing and publishing are valuable, however, they can take up too much time and actually hinder the writing process, so it's time for me to step away a bit. Throw a puppy, running a business, insomnia, & exhaustion into the mix, it's no wonder my creative spirit is sapped.
Although I have two books battling each other to "go first," my brain cannot make the simple decision of which one will. Should I deviate from the first two and go with the more popular haunting/supernatural genre, or, spill another New York story? I do believe I need to take some time and clear my head, and rejuvenate my spirit before proceeding.
So yeah, I'm going fishing...
Friday, June 1, 2012
The Valentine's Day Curse June Freebie
When my 90-day period expired for The Valentine's Day Curse's run in Amazon's KDP Select program I had to make a decision whether to pull it or renew it. After much consideration, the main one being that every time someone "borrows" my 99 cent short story I get a royalty which would be equal to selling 7 copies, I decided to go with another 90-day run. Believe it or not, people actually borrow it. Thank you borrowers!
The last time I gave away over 2,000 free copies, besides the borrows, I also sold quite a few books. It might be different this time. From what I understand, Amazon has changed the algorithms which are no longer as attractive for gaining traction on the best-selling lists as they were when the program first began. In the beginning, every freebie was equal to one sale, so one could shoot up the charts and get some action afterwards. I've heard it now takes 10 freebies to equal one sale, so one moseys up the charts and gets little action afterwards. I imagine Amazon will tweak their system again once authors start abandoning ship.
As of this post, The Valentine's Day Curse ranking is 362,138, so figure it's time to give it a shot in the arm. Even though many folks say never give away free books in the beginning of the month, today and tomorrow, June 1 & 2 this 5-star short story will be free, free, free! Click here for a direct link! And don't forget you do not need to own a Kindle to read it. Click here for free apps for many other devices.
If you like this short story, by all means please leave a review, or at least a "like," but if you're a troll, please ignore this post, my book, and me. Thanks!
Friday, May 11, 2012
Amazon's Free Casino
During my two day freebie book promotion, when I was watching the number of Fractured Facade downloads skyrocket, I felt like I was in a casino, finally winning at the slots.
Unfortunately, the downloads were free, so whenever the jackpot hit, it was like winning plastic chips. Three weeks ago, I thought getting my book into the hands of thousands of people was just fantastic. Now, I realize a lot of those people shouldn't have my book in their hands. They're not the people I wrote it for.
Although the quick downloading brought me high rankings, I'd rather it have stayed lower if it meant my reader was choosier. Just because something is free, it's not always for me. Before I download anything I check out the description, reviews and sample. The sample is what tells me if I want to invest my time or not. Reviews are great, but I trust my own eyes to know what I'm looking for more than someone else's opinion.
But in Amazon's Free Casino, it's a crapshoot. Sometimes you'll touch a reader in a special way, and other times, a reader may not want to touch your book with a ten foot pole. Out of 10,000 people, some will have different ummmm "taste" than I have. Some may even find my writing "distasteful." Hopefully, many more will find it authentic and necessary. For those that have a problem with characters using words that "offend them" I'd like them to know it's called dialogue. And sometimes, it's colorful. And frankly to me, it's not profane, but to others, it's enough to stop reading and write a one-star review -- the only review they ever wrote -- just focused on what they deem to be a book "so filled with profanity" they couldn't finish it. I think that's a ridiculous statement.
Yeah, there's some cuss words. That's how we talk in Brooklyn. "Pissed off," "shit," "hell," "bitch" and wait for it..."fucking bitch" are spoken by a woman, yes, a woman, a woman grappling with turbulent times. In order not to "offend" any righteous reader, I want them to know what they're getting into before reading my book. In the sample there are "cuss words." On Shelfari, I even quoted Marie: "I didn't know you needed a stage name to pick up dog shit." This way if someone had a problem with "shit" they'd move on to the next free book. I know I most likely wouldn't download an Amish romance or Christian fiction book as it's not my preference. My in-your-face writing may not be yours. So, if words easily offend you, please do not read my book. Just like in real life, people either love me or hate me, so why should my writing be any different.
On the other hand, if you are one of the 10,000 people who actually read and liked Fractured Facade, please consider leaving your review, or letting me know so I could hound you to leave a review. Since the freebie, I've had some five, four and one-star reviews on Amazon. And five and four star ones on Goodreads. At first I was pissed at the one-star reviews, but after I checked out what, if any, other books they did like, I knew they were not my target audience. I thought their opinions would make my sales suffer, but other than bringing down my rating, it hasn't hurt. Other authors have said you're not a "real author" until you get a one-star review. I say bullshit. The check from Smashwords I received holds more weight as to my "real author" status.
Recently I read a book review from a friend who absolutely hated a memoir she tried to read. After reading her review and checking out the others on Amazon, I thought to myself, "Hmmmm, this sounds like a book I might like," so I requested it from my library. I know her tastes are different than mine, so I'll be curious to see what I think of the book. Her review didn't stop me from getting it...in fact, had she not reviewed it, I would never have known about the book.
By far the best thing that's happened with my freebie is that people I had never known before have reached out to me, and some of them have even become Facebook friends. And you know what? We seem to have much in common. Those are the type of people I want reading my book...the ones that get it. Still, I'm starting to think that maybe giving away free books to the masses is not the be-all, end-all after all...
Unfortunately, the downloads were free, so whenever the jackpot hit, it was like winning plastic chips. Three weeks ago, I thought getting my book into the hands of thousands of people was just fantastic. Now, I realize a lot of those people shouldn't have my book in their hands. They're not the people I wrote it for.
Although the quick downloading brought me high rankings, I'd rather it have stayed lower if it meant my reader was choosier. Just because something is free, it's not always for me. Before I download anything I check out the description, reviews and sample. The sample is what tells me if I want to invest my time or not. Reviews are great, but I trust my own eyes to know what I'm looking for more than someone else's opinion.
But in Amazon's Free Casino, it's a crapshoot. Sometimes you'll touch a reader in a special way, and other times, a reader may not want to touch your book with a ten foot pole. Out of 10,000 people, some will have different ummmm "taste" than I have. Some may even find my writing "distasteful." Hopefully, many more will find it authentic and necessary. For those that have a problem with characters using words that "offend them" I'd like them to know it's called dialogue. And sometimes, it's colorful. And frankly to me, it's not profane, but to others, it's enough to stop reading and write a one-star review -- the only review they ever wrote -- just focused on what they deem to be a book "so filled with profanity" they couldn't finish it. I think that's a ridiculous statement.
Yeah, there's some cuss words. That's how we talk in Brooklyn. "Pissed off," "shit," "hell," "bitch" and wait for it..."fucking bitch" are spoken by a woman, yes, a woman, a woman grappling with turbulent times. In order not to "offend" any righteous reader, I want them to know what they're getting into before reading my book. In the sample there are "cuss words." On Shelfari, I even quoted Marie: "I didn't know you needed a stage name to pick up dog shit." This way if someone had a problem with "shit" they'd move on to the next free book. I know I most likely wouldn't download an Amish romance or Christian fiction book as it's not my preference. My in-your-face writing may not be yours. So, if words easily offend you, please do not read my book. Just like in real life, people either love me or hate me, so why should my writing be any different.
On the other hand, if you are one of the 10,000 people who actually read and liked Fractured Facade, please consider leaving your review, or letting me know so I could hound you to leave a review. Since the freebie, I've had some five, four and one-star reviews on Amazon. And five and four star ones on Goodreads. At first I was pissed at the one-star reviews, but after I checked out what, if any, other books they did like, I knew they were not my target audience. I thought their opinions would make my sales suffer, but other than bringing down my rating, it hasn't hurt. Other authors have said you're not a "real author" until you get a one-star review. I say bullshit. The check from Smashwords I received holds more weight as to my "real author" status.
Recently I read a book review from a friend who absolutely hated a memoir she tried to read. After reading her review and checking out the others on Amazon, I thought to myself, "Hmmmm, this sounds like a book I might like," so I requested it from my library. I know her tastes are different than mine, so I'll be curious to see what I think of the book. Her review didn't stop me from getting it...in fact, had she not reviewed it, I would never have known about the book.
By far the best thing that's happened with my freebie is that people I had never known before have reached out to me, and some of them have even become Facebook friends. And you know what? We seem to have much in common. Those are the type of people I want reading my book...the ones that get it. Still, I'm starting to think that maybe giving away free books to the masses is not the be-all, end-all after all...
Monday, April 23, 2012
48 Hours Later
When I woke up this cold, dreary Monday morning I turned on the computer and found something that immediately warmed my soul. It was an email informing me someone had left a comment on my last post. It was from a 68-year-old woman, originally from Brooklyn who now lived in Florida. Although the comment did not show up on my post, grrrr! Blogger! I want to share it with you here, and I hope she doesn't mind...
"Well I just finished your book, as my late Italian Brooklyn Taxis Cab driver father would have said you have Moxie! I grow up in Brooklyn too, love Brennan and Carr's, your story had me rooting for you. Your dad and mom are touching Jersus shoulder, and saying "look at our Daughter, fight for us!"
You have shown your children that it is possible to fight evil and win. I am 68 years old and live near Orlando, it the Evil one sent you mail from here, I would gladly track her down send her you love. Only kidding. God bless you and your beautiful family."
At first I smiled, then I called my daughter over and as I read it to her, I choked up. That one little email validated for me that giving away thousands of copies of Fractured Facade was worth it. A complete stranger "got it" and she took the time to tell me. I reached someone and that's what any writer really wants to do.
I decided to check my Amazon stats just for kicks. I was happy to see that overnight, people had actually purchased and even borrowed the book. I checked the rankings and beheld this sight...
Yes, that's #78 in Paid Family Saga! Even though it's not burning up the charts, I'm still thrilled to have cracked the top 100. Frankly, I didn't think that would happen as my sales were almost non-existent immediately following the promotion. I figured there's no way anyone could "find" me. I think I may be getting noticed by the "also bought" icons that pop up on Amazon's page when you buy a book. My author friends told me to be patient, and suggested I lower the price. I do not want to "rock-bottom" my book. I put years into it and feel $4.99 is still a good deal. Heck, Snooki gets $11.99 for her eBook, and she "wrote" that in a couple of months. I believe after people read the sample they'll know whether or not they feel it's "worth" the money. If they do, great, if not, no harm, no foul.
Based on the number of times it's being shelved on Safari, as well as the recent paid sales, I think people are beginning to read it, before it gets buried and forgotten on their Kindle. And after they finish, hopefully they'll like it enough to not only recommend it to a friend, but also take the time to write a review on Amazon. Time will tell...
"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Well I just finished your book, as my late Italian Brooklyn Taxis Cab driver father would have said you have Moxie! I grow up in Brooklyn too, love Brennan and Carr's, your story had me rooting for you. Your dad and mom are touching Jersus shoulder, and saying "look at our Daughter, fight for us!"
You have shown your children that it is possible to fight evil and win. I am 68 years old and live near Orlando, it the Evil one sent you mail from here, I would gladly track her down send her you love. Only kidding. God bless you and your beautiful family."
At first I smiled, then I called my daughter over and as I read it to her, I choked up. That one little email validated for me that giving away thousands of copies of Fractured Facade was worth it. A complete stranger "got it" and she took the time to tell me. I reached someone and that's what any writer really wants to do.
I decided to check my Amazon stats just for kicks. I was happy to see that overnight, people had actually purchased and even borrowed the book. I checked the rankings and beheld this sight...
Yes, that's #78 in Paid Family Saga! Even though it's not burning up the charts, I'm still thrilled to have cracked the top 100. Frankly, I didn't think that would happen as my sales were almost non-existent immediately following the promotion. I figured there's no way anyone could "find" me. I think I may be getting noticed by the "also bought" icons that pop up on Amazon's page when you buy a book. My author friends told me to be patient, and suggested I lower the price. I do not want to "rock-bottom" my book. I put years into it and feel $4.99 is still a good deal. Heck, Snooki gets $11.99 for her eBook, and she "wrote" that in a couple of months. I believe after people read the sample they'll know whether or not they feel it's "worth" the money. If they do, great, if not, no harm, no foul.
Based on the number of times it's being shelved on Safari, as well as the recent paid sales, I think people are beginning to read it, before it gets buried and forgotten on their Kindle. And after they finish, hopefully they'll like it enough to not only recommend it to a friend, but also take the time to write a review on Amazon. Time will tell...
"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sunday, April 22, 2012
My Wonderful/Miserable Success
I'm happy/sad to report that the 2 free KDP Select days for Fractured Facade was a wonderful/miserable success! Huh? How could it be both you ask?
Almost 10,000 people downloaded Fractured Facade for free...yes, you read that right, 10,000! At one point it was #1 on Suspense, #1 on Family Saga and #19 in Amazon's Top 100.
I'd be lying if I said it wasn't exciting watching the ticker flick into the hundreds per minute, catapulting me to the head of the charts. Of course, it was the head of the free charts.
When I woke up this morning I checked to see if I had experienced what many authors have after giving their book away for free...sales! Yes, yes, I did. One! That's right you read that right, one sale. I checked my rankings and sure enough back down, down, down. Not quite in the netherlands where I began, but still low enough that I'm not on any potential customer's screens. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
On the positive side, for the last two days I stopped crying. Those that know me, know Max, my dog, died last Saturday. The grief had consumed me and having this distraction was what I needed. I am also humbled by how many friends, as well as people I hardly know, rallied around me to support this promotion. I thank you all!
On Fractured Facade's page I received 64 likes and folks have placed it on their shelves in Shelfari. I heard from strangers telling me they look forward to reading it and expressing how they knew someone that sounded like they were in a similar situation regarding a golddigging abuser as the "character" in my book. I believe in my heart that people that "needed" to get this book, have. And that's why I wrote this book. So if I can help even one person, this promotion was a wonderful success.
My biggest fear is that a lot of folks won't even read it. Too many people just download free books and forget about them. My hope is that even if 10% read it, they will like it, rank it, write a review, and finally recommend it to someone. Hey, my family likes to eat too.
I've always been a gambler. I bet on the longshots. I only play the progressive slots. I wait until the lottery hits over $100 million before I part with a buck. For the most part I can say, I always lose. And that's okay. I only bet with what I know I can lose. It's the excitement of the potential win that keeps me going. And one day, I know I will hit. Today's just not that day.
Almost 10,000 people downloaded Fractured Facade for free...yes, you read that right, 10,000! At one point it was #1 on Suspense, #1 on Family Saga and #19 in Amazon's Top 100.
I'd be lying if I said it wasn't exciting watching the ticker flick into the hundreds per minute, catapulting me to the head of the charts. Of course, it was the head of the free charts.
When I woke up this morning I checked to see if I had experienced what many authors have after giving their book away for free...sales! Yes, yes, I did. One! That's right you read that right, one sale. I checked my rankings and sure enough back down, down, down. Not quite in the netherlands where I began, but still low enough that I'm not on any potential customer's screens. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
On the positive side, for the last two days I stopped crying. Those that know me, know Max, my dog, died last Saturday. The grief had consumed me and having this distraction was what I needed. I am also humbled by how many friends, as well as people I hardly know, rallied around me to support this promotion. I thank you all!
On Fractured Facade's page I received 64 likes and folks have placed it on their shelves in Shelfari. I heard from strangers telling me they look forward to reading it and expressing how they knew someone that sounded like they were in a similar situation regarding a golddigging abuser as the "character" in my book. I believe in my heart that people that "needed" to get this book, have. And that's why I wrote this book. So if I can help even one person, this promotion was a wonderful success.
My biggest fear is that a lot of folks won't even read it. Too many people just download free books and forget about them. My hope is that even if 10% read it, they will like it, rank it, write a review, and finally recommend it to someone. Hey, my family likes to eat too.
I've always been a gambler. I bet on the longshots. I only play the progressive slots. I wait until the lottery hits over $100 million before I part with a buck. For the most part I can say, I always lose. And that's okay. I only bet with what I know I can lose. It's the excitement of the potential win that keeps me going. And one day, I know I will hit. Today's just not that day.
Monday, April 9, 2012
My Third KDP Select Experiment
It's funny how jaded a writer can become after hitting a number one slot on Amazon. If I hadn't arrived at the top spot during my March promotion of The Valentine's Day Curse, I probably would have been ecstatic that I hit number five in short stories this past Saturday. This shows six, but I did make it to five before I went to bed.
And although I was happy about that, I never made it into the top 100 of all Kindle books like I had back in March. Actually, I was in the top ten then. Rising to the 500's from the 200,000's shouldn't be scoffed at, however by not arriving into the magical 100, and top ten spots, means you face the prospect of plunging right back where you started from once the promotion is over. I haven't yet, but it's only a matter of time. Your book is no longer on every one's screen and has little chance of shifting into the best selling paid column.
Frankly, I had my doubts that Saturday was a good day to hold my last freebie promotion. I figured with Passover and Easter there would probably be a lot less people on the computer. Heck, I didn't even want to be on the computer, but I really had no choice because promotion is one of those necessary evils when you're running a freebie. I was bummed as well since I knew I couldn't submit to ENT because I already had run there within 30 days. I gave POI my info, but they didn't choose my book to run. Clearly, getting on one of those two sites is the best/only? way to get your book downloaded thousands of times.
Even though my intuition told me not to, I decided I give it a go after one of the author Facebook groups I am part of suggested authors giving away freebies this past weekend pool together to promote each other. I'm not going to get into the details, or finger-pointing, but will say it was a dismal disappointment, epic fail! By the time I realized I had made a boo-boo by jumping aboard, it was way too late, at least for me, to change my free date. I had already notified certain sites, people, groups, of the date and even if there was no guarantee that they would "highlight" my book, the last thing I'd want to do is piss off people when they find out my book wasn't free when I said it would be. When I say I'm going to do something, I do it. It was a valuable lesson learned.
Luckily, there are many other authors, groups, friends, and even strangers out there who want to help others achieve success, and they stepped up to the plate for me. In the end, I had over 400 downloads (last time was in the thousands, due I'm sure to being on ENT) yet only 3 sales afterwards, a far, far cry from last time.
At least more folks have placed it on Shelfari and in their to-be-read shelf in Goodreads. Now, for the best part...someone actually bought Fractured Facade. My hope is that they read The Valentine's Day Curse and said, "This story rocked...I wonder if this author wrote anything else?" and then discovered that I had, and bought the novel. I don't know. Maybe I'll find out via a review some time. And although the hope is that other readers will feel the same way, I have to wait until they actually read the short story. As I've stated numerous times, the problem with downloading a free book is that it could quickly get buried by other free books. I think people read books they pay for first and eventually, maybe, get around to the free ones. Heck, I'm the same way. And although I loved a book I also have a hard time writing a review. So I'm just as guilty as many of the folks I hound to write one for my books!
So now that I'm approaching the end of the KDP Select in a couple of weeks I have to decide if I want to keep The Valentine's Day Curse exclusive in Amazon or not. So far, I am leaning to yes. Believe it or not I have gotten some borrows, which pay me 6 times the royalty I would receive on the 99 cent book. And people have been leaving really nice reviews too.
So now it's time for Fractured Facade to get some exposure. I haven't decided the freebie dates yet, but do know I will run at least two days in a row and make sure I give enough time for ENT and POI submissions. And, this time, I won't allow my decisions to be swayed, or put my trust in anyone else's hands, except my own.
A big thank you to all of you who continue to support this crazy journey of mine! Once I get this last promotion out of the way, I can finally get back to what I prefer doing...writing.
And although I was happy about that, I never made it into the top 100 of all Kindle books like I had back in March. Actually, I was in the top ten then. Rising to the 500's from the 200,000's shouldn't be scoffed at, however by not arriving into the magical 100, and top ten spots, means you face the prospect of plunging right back where you started from once the promotion is over. I haven't yet, but it's only a matter of time. Your book is no longer on every one's screen and has little chance of shifting into the best selling paid column.
Frankly, I had my doubts that Saturday was a good day to hold my last freebie promotion. I figured with Passover and Easter there would probably be a lot less people on the computer. Heck, I didn't even want to be on the computer, but I really had no choice because promotion is one of those necessary evils when you're running a freebie. I was bummed as well since I knew I couldn't submit to ENT because I already had run there within 30 days. I gave POI my info, but they didn't choose my book to run. Clearly, getting on one of those two sites is the best/only? way to get your book downloaded thousands of times.
Even though my intuition told me not to, I decided I give it a go after one of the author Facebook groups I am part of suggested authors giving away freebies this past weekend pool together to promote each other. I'm not going to get into the details, or finger-pointing, but will say it was a dismal disappointment, epic fail! By the time I realized I had made a boo-boo by jumping aboard, it was way too late, at least for me, to change my free date. I had already notified certain sites, people, groups, of the date and even if there was no guarantee that they would "highlight" my book, the last thing I'd want to do is piss off people when they find out my book wasn't free when I said it would be. When I say I'm going to do something, I do it. It was a valuable lesson learned.
Luckily, there are many other authors, groups, friends, and even strangers out there who want to help others achieve success, and they stepped up to the plate for me. In the end, I had over 400 downloads (last time was in the thousands, due I'm sure to being on ENT) yet only 3 sales afterwards, a far, far cry from last time.
At least more folks have placed it on Shelfari and in their to-be-read shelf in Goodreads. Now, for the best part...someone actually bought Fractured Facade. My hope is that they read The Valentine's Day Curse and said, "This story rocked...I wonder if this author wrote anything else?" and then discovered that I had, and bought the novel. I don't know. Maybe I'll find out via a review some time. And although the hope is that other readers will feel the same way, I have to wait until they actually read the short story. As I've stated numerous times, the problem with downloading a free book is that it could quickly get buried by other free books. I think people read books they pay for first and eventually, maybe, get around to the free ones. Heck, I'm the same way. And although I loved a book I also have a hard time writing a review. So I'm just as guilty as many of the folks I hound to write one for my books!
So now that I'm approaching the end of the KDP Select in a couple of weeks I have to decide if I want to keep The Valentine's Day Curse exclusive in Amazon or not. So far, I am leaning to yes. Believe it or not I have gotten some borrows, which pay me 6 times the royalty I would receive on the 99 cent book. And people have been leaving really nice reviews too.
So now it's time for Fractured Facade to get some exposure. I haven't decided the freebie dates yet, but do know I will run at least two days in a row and make sure I give enough time for ENT and POI submissions. And, this time, I won't allow my decisions to be swayed, or put my trust in anyone else's hands, except my own.
A big thank you to all of you who continue to support this crazy journey of mine! Once I get this last promotion out of the way, I can finally get back to what I prefer doing...writing.
Monday, March 12, 2012
My 2nd KDP Select Experience
On Saturday evening, right before I climbed into bed, I witnessed a beautiful picture on the internet...
Yes, that's my short story, The Valentine's Day Curse, in the # 1 position on Amazon's Free Best Selling Short Stories chart, directly across from a book I've read and enjoyed very much, "A Visit from the Goon Squad," which, by the way, is not a short story. 'The Valentine's Day Curse" also was # 9 in Contemporary Fiction and #125 in the Kindle Store. Of course, it wasn't really a best "seller" as it was free, but let's not quibble about money.
The important thing is that my short story, between both promotions, is now on over 2,600 Kindles, iPads, Smartphones, computers, etc. in the U.S., England, Germany and yes, even France! How cool is that? I have to admit it was hard to pull myself away from the screen Saturday knowing the promotion was still going on for two more hours. And I was glad my daughter came home in time to capture that screen shot because when I awoke Sunday morning the bubble was burst. Back to the netherlands.
Well, that's not exactly accurate. Before the promotion I was in the 400,000 rankings. I found I actually had some paid sales afterwards, and one return. I hope the reader returned it because they thought it was still free, and not because they read it & didn't want to pay the 99 cents, or worse, hated it. So early Sunday morning the book's ranking was in the 70,000's. Okay, so it's pretty down there, but not as bad as 400,000! The hope now is that people will actually read it, and some must have because I did garner additional "likes." Hopefully they will review it and then seek out something else I wrote, which would be the novel that practically killed me, Fractured Facade, and then buy that.
Besides lucking out by being one of the books included in Ereader News Today's picks, I also received help from folks on Twitter and Facebook via retweets and reposts on their Facebook walls. A big thank you goes to everyone, especially the total strangers who opened their walls and hearts to my wee little story.
As Sunday went on I enjoyed the beautiful day, glad to be away from the computer screen, promoting is hard work! And after my walk along the Roanoke River I checked my stats again and was surprised, and thrilled, to find that The Valentine's Day Curse was actually selling! At 5:00 pm the book had moved to the left side of the screen into the # 7 position on Amazon's Paid Best Seller's Kindle list, and #12 on the Fiction Book list!
Yes, paid sales!
Now, what about the week long Read an eBook Smashwords promotion for Fractured Facade? One word...Blech! That my friends, I would consider a bust, except I did get one sample download which resulted in one paid sale. So, I am happy that my novel is in one new reader's hands. However, with the results of both promotions I am now convinced that I need to pull my novel from everywhere else and enroll it exclusively at Amazon. I know I said I wanted it available to the most people, and based on actual experiences, I think that would probably be if I put it into Amazon's KDP Select program. Gotta go where the action is.
One quick check this Monday morning before I post this shows The Valentine's Day Curse is still selling, but has moved down to the #12 paid position. I'll take it!
The most important lesson learned is that I need to get back to writing. You want to sell books? Write them...
Yes, that's my short story, The Valentine's Day Curse, in the # 1 position on Amazon's Free Best Selling Short Stories chart, directly across from a book I've read and enjoyed very much, "A Visit from the Goon Squad," which, by the way, is not a short story. 'The Valentine's Day Curse" also was # 9 in Contemporary Fiction and #125 in the Kindle Store. Of course, it wasn't really a best "seller" as it was free, but let's not quibble about money.
The important thing is that my short story, between both promotions, is now on over 2,600 Kindles, iPads, Smartphones, computers, etc. in the U.S., England, Germany and yes, even France! How cool is that? I have to admit it was hard to pull myself away from the screen Saturday knowing the promotion was still going on for two more hours. And I was glad my daughter came home in time to capture that screen shot because when I awoke Sunday morning the bubble was burst. Back to the netherlands.
Well, that's not exactly accurate. Before the promotion I was in the 400,000 rankings. I found I actually had some paid sales afterwards, and one return. I hope the reader returned it because they thought it was still free, and not because they read it & didn't want to pay the 99 cents, or worse, hated it. So early Sunday morning the book's ranking was in the 70,000's. Okay, so it's pretty down there, but not as bad as 400,000! The hope now is that people will actually read it, and some must have because I did garner additional "likes." Hopefully they will review it and then seek out something else I wrote, which would be the novel that practically killed me, Fractured Facade, and then buy that.
Besides lucking out by being one of the books included in Ereader News Today's picks, I also received help from folks on Twitter and Facebook via retweets and reposts on their Facebook walls. A big thank you goes to everyone, especially the total strangers who opened their walls and hearts to my wee little story.
As Sunday went on I enjoyed the beautiful day, glad to be away from the computer screen, promoting is hard work! And after my walk along the Roanoke River I checked my stats again and was surprised, and thrilled, to find that The Valentine's Day Curse was actually selling! At 5:00 pm the book had moved to the left side of the screen into the # 7 position on Amazon's Paid Best Seller's Kindle list, and #12 on the Fiction Book list!
Yes, paid sales!
Now, what about the week long Read an eBook Smashwords promotion for Fractured Facade? One word...Blech! That my friends, I would consider a bust, except I did get one sample download which resulted in one paid sale. So, I am happy that my novel is in one new reader's hands. However, with the results of both promotions I am now convinced that I need to pull my novel from everywhere else and enroll it exclusively at Amazon. I know I said I wanted it available to the most people, and based on actual experiences, I think that would probably be if I put it into Amazon's KDP Select program. Gotta go where the action is.
One quick check this Monday morning before I post this shows The Valentine's Day Curse is still selling, but has moved down to the #12 paid position. I'll take it!
The most important lesson learned is that I need to get back to writing. You want to sell books? Write them...
Monday, February 27, 2012
Is KDP Select Creating a Wedge?
I don't know if planets were in retrograde this past weekend, or someone slipped something into the drinking water of independent authors, but after reading too many disgruntled and disturbing posts on various Facebook groups I was sure that had happened.
It seems people were up in arms over a couple of things, most notably Smashwords recent edict about pulling certain "erotica" books from their site mandated by Paypal and arguments over whether giving away thousands of free books makes you a best-selling author.
I don't have any, nor plan to write any books about incest, rape or bestiality so the erotica dilemma doesn't affect me at all. And as far as the best-selling free author argument, I have my opinion, that no, it doesn't make you a "best-selling" author, but if someone wants to call themselves one, go ahead. I really don't care, and I wouldn't dream of bursting someone's bubble by calling them out on it.
Unfortunately there were lots of ugly comments, chest-thumping, grand poobahing, "expert" opinions, sniping of people's accomplishments and denigrating their opinions to the point that I thought these groups are no longer worth reading. It saddened me because when I first discovered them in my early self-publishing dream, I found so many authors were helpful. They taught me, held my hand and helped me cross the busy boulevard. Even if I only read the comments and didn't always jump in, still feeling insecure, I loved the camaraderie I saw and the support of each other.
Then, over the last couple of weeks, I started noticing the wind began blowing jealousy. It's like Amazon's KDP Select program has created a wedge between indies. The program has worked wonders for some writers, and for others, like me, not so much. Just because I'm not enamored of it, it shouldn't make me a "loser" and those who are, shouldn't think because they are the "winners" that their opinions of it are any more valuable than others. Everyone has their own experiences and what works for one person, might not work for another. However, reporting on the results helps everyone to see what "might" work. But if anyone thinks they're an expert at anything, they're insane.
So on Sunday I was all prepared to leave certain Facebook groups when something happened. Someone suggested that instead of just promoting our own work that day we should all promote another author's on our wall. The idea immediately took off and suddenly the group got back to where it should be. Authors helping authors.
It's the Wild West out there in indie publishing land. There's gold in dem dar hills and although everyone can grab a pan, not everyone is going to find the nuggets. As independent authors, we face enough obstacles without having to knock the pan out of each others' hands.
It seems people were up in arms over a couple of things, most notably Smashwords recent edict about pulling certain "erotica" books from their site mandated by Paypal and arguments over whether giving away thousands of free books makes you a best-selling author.
I don't have any, nor plan to write any books about incest, rape or bestiality so the erotica dilemma doesn't affect me at all. And as far as the best-selling free author argument, I have my opinion, that no, it doesn't make you a "best-selling" author, but if someone wants to call themselves one, go ahead. I really don't care, and I wouldn't dream of bursting someone's bubble by calling them out on it.
Unfortunately there were lots of ugly comments, chest-thumping, grand poobahing, "expert" opinions, sniping of people's accomplishments and denigrating their opinions to the point that I thought these groups are no longer worth reading. It saddened me because when I first discovered them in my early self-publishing dream, I found so many authors were helpful. They taught me, held my hand and helped me cross the busy boulevard. Even if I only read the comments and didn't always jump in, still feeling insecure, I loved the camaraderie I saw and the support of each other.
Then, over the last couple of weeks, I started noticing the wind began blowing jealousy. It's like Amazon's KDP Select program has created a wedge between indies. The program has worked wonders for some writers, and for others, like me, not so much. Just because I'm not enamored of it, it shouldn't make me a "loser" and those who are, shouldn't think because they are the "winners" that their opinions of it are any more valuable than others. Everyone has their own experiences and what works for one person, might not work for another. However, reporting on the results helps everyone to see what "might" work. But if anyone thinks they're an expert at anything, they're insane.
So on Sunday I was all prepared to leave certain Facebook groups when something happened. Someone suggested that instead of just promoting our own work that day we should all promote another author's on our wall. The idea immediately took off and suddenly the group got back to where it should be. Authors helping authors.
It's the Wild West out there in indie publishing land. There's gold in dem dar hills and although everyone can grab a pan, not everyone is going to find the nuggets. As independent authors, we face enough obstacles without having to knock the pan out of each others' hands.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
KDP Select Experiment Follow-Up
Last week I reported my results of putting my short story, The Valentine's Day Curse, in KDP Select. You can read all about it in this post. Since a week has passed I thought I would update what has transpired since then.
I have sold two, count them, two more copies of my short story. And someone has even purchased my novel, Fractured Facade, which I have discounted to $3.99 for the duration of this KDP Select experiment, ending May 2nd. By far the best thing about KDP was that I did get 11 "likes" and four five-star reviews for The Valentine's Day Curse. Here are two of them:
"This short story is proof that this gifted writer has a fantastic voice and wonderful storytelling chops. What a wonderful ending, too!"
"I loved this story, read it on Valentine's Day. The ending was just awesome. What an excellent twist in such a short story. Thank you author for showing us another side of our human frailties. I enjoyed this so much. A quick read with a punch."
Although by having my title in KDP Select it is eligible to be "borrowed" by Amazon Prime members I never thought anyone would "waste" their one borrow per month on a 99 cent short story. So, you could imagine my surprise when I checked my stats yesterday and found that someone did! Of course, I was honored as I figure someone who borrows the book will definitely read it. But then, the conspiracy monster began to rear its ugly head.
You see, yesterday I "unclicked" the automatic renewal button. If I hadn't, at the end of the 90 day period The Valentine's Day Curse would automatically be placed back into the KDP Select program. Now, since the beginning of the year I've seen one sale for Fractured Facade on Smashwords and one sale on Barnes & Noble. Worse than that there is still only one review on Barnes & Noble. At least my Amazon customers review the darn thing! And Barnes & Noble takes forever to report to Smashwords so I haven't seen a cent from them, so it's not like I feel I'm missing out by not having my short story listed there. I just prefer making the decision myself whether or not I want my title to be included in KDP Select so that's why I "unclicked" the auto renewal.
When I posted on Facebook my shock that someone had "borrowed" the book I wondered if it had anything to do with me stopping the auto renewal feature. A friend said he thought my 99 cent book wouldn't be on Amazon's radar, and that got me to thinking...What if Amazon has some sort of robotic feature that tells them when someone opts out of the auto renewal and that triggers Amazon to "borrow" the book? Frankly I did get a thrill out of seeing that "1" listed under borrows. What if the author thinks, "Wow, this program does work. I got a borrow! I'm going to keep it in KDP Select and hope I get even more." Amazon's mission accomplished. Am I crazy?
I have sold two, count them, two more copies of my short story. And someone has even purchased my novel, Fractured Facade, which I have discounted to $3.99 for the duration of this KDP Select experiment, ending May 2nd. By far the best thing about KDP was that I did get 11 "likes" and four five-star reviews for The Valentine's Day Curse. Here are two of them:
"This short story is proof that this gifted writer has a fantastic voice and wonderful storytelling chops. What a wonderful ending, too!"
"I loved this story, read it on Valentine's Day. The ending was just awesome. What an excellent twist in such a short story. Thank you author for showing us another side of our human frailties. I enjoyed this so much. A quick read with a punch."
Although by having my title in KDP Select it is eligible to be "borrowed" by Amazon Prime members I never thought anyone would "waste" their one borrow per month on a 99 cent short story. So, you could imagine my surprise when I checked my stats yesterday and found that someone did! Of course, I was honored as I figure someone who borrows the book will definitely read it. But then, the conspiracy monster began to rear its ugly head.
You see, yesterday I "unclicked" the automatic renewal button. If I hadn't, at the end of the 90 day period The Valentine's Day Curse would automatically be placed back into the KDP Select program. Now, since the beginning of the year I've seen one sale for Fractured Facade on Smashwords and one sale on Barnes & Noble. Worse than that there is still only one review on Barnes & Noble. At least my Amazon customers review the darn thing! And Barnes & Noble takes forever to report to Smashwords so I haven't seen a cent from them, so it's not like I feel I'm missing out by not having my short story listed there. I just prefer making the decision myself whether or not I want my title to be included in KDP Select so that's why I "unclicked" the auto renewal.
When I posted on Facebook my shock that someone had "borrowed" the book I wondered if it had anything to do with me stopping the auto renewal feature. A friend said he thought my 99 cent book wouldn't be on Amazon's radar, and that got me to thinking...What if Amazon has some sort of robotic feature that tells them when someone opts out of the auto renewal and that triggers Amazon to "borrow" the book? Frankly I did get a thrill out of seeing that "1" listed under borrows. What if the author thinks, "Wow, this program does work. I got a borrow! I'm going to keep it in KDP Select and hope I get even more." Amazon's mission accomplished. Am I crazy?
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