Sharon L. Reddy's Blog: Spinner Spins, page 3

Paradox Equation Playlist

As promised, the themes of the Knights Gallant:

Gallant - La Grange - Z Z Top

Clete - Heavy Metal - Sammy Hagar
Dutch (leader) - Radar Rider - Riggs
Lane - Will of the Wind - Vangelis

Red - Ave - Vangelis
Ace (leader) - Workin' in a Coal Mine - Devo
Mick - Dial Out - Vangelis
Pierce - White Rock - Rick Wakeman

Con (leader) - Motion of Stars - Vangelis
Turk - Open Up Wide - Chase
Butch - Broadsword - Jethro Tull

Cal - Rotation's Logic - Vangelis
Mike (leader) - Love Alive - Heart
Sandy - Dervish D - Vangelis
Dez - Pulstar -Vangelis

Tel - The Shoot - Rick Wakeman
Cass (leader) - Kick It Out - Heart
Dan - Veteran of the Psychic Wars - Blue Oyster Cult

Dutch and Dez - Metallic Rain - Vangelis

Maggie - Winds of Change - Jefferson Starship

Knights Gallant - Om - Moody Blues

Paradox Equation, the ten novel series:

KDP Select Use and Result

December 20th, I put 19 of my titles in the program. Yes, a lot. My intent was to increase exposure and also show how varied and unusual my work is. Now, about to enter the second week of February, my sales are still much better than they were in November and first three weeks of December.

There are several books I won't put on free promotion, again, even though I've only used one or two days, of the five available. The promo days I used did exactly as I intended. I've had several "everything" sales. Since I write for a specific target market, I do expect that, when I find a reader in that market. The rest, as they say, "is gravy."

Will I do it again? No. I might put one or two in the program, but some of the intent was build the reputation to carry to other distributors. I won't know the success of that until mid-March. That's when I plan my last big burst of promotion and there won't be a lot of titles in that.

My conclusion: The program works well as a promotional tool, primarily for authors with several titles published, and the more expensive the book, the more it's downloaded. The numbers for science fiction don't even approach those of books in the most popular genres, especially those in the currently most popular trends, but as part of a promotion plan it's good advertising.

These times and the writer.

Where among us is the Steinbeck who'll tell the tale?

I listened to cheering in the debates and thought about all the people struggling to survive after they lost everything, and who've been trying to find work ever since, and who've found a little, but too little. Food stamps are keeping their families alive. And their neighbors are shouting they're useless and let them starve. And they don't even know it.

That person isn't one of the people they mean, of course. It's just the useless, the lazy and the cheats, and they're told there are huge numbers of them. They've never met any, but "everybody knows." Who is the Steinbeck among us, who will write the pain of this time, in a way that will never be forgotten?

Sock puppet harassment

One of the common problems independent authors have, on Amazon, is fake reviews intended to damage. Any book with few or no reviews may become a target. What do these reviews have in common? They almost always say "couldn't finish the book." They nearly always come from a "person" with no information in their profile. And now, with the KDP Select promotions running, these people can download a book for free and have "verified purchase" above the trashing review. And the most expensive books are the most likely targets.

These people know exactly how far they can go without breaking Amazon's review guidelines. They may totally misrepresent the book, proving to anyone who has read it that they didn't, but it's not the people who have, but the people who haven't they're deliberately misleading. And the intent is emotional abuse of the author.

From what I've seen of these reviews, they do a keyword search for something they expect to be in the book and when they find it, they'll take a bit of the description, a bit of that element and a bit of the author bio, if it offers something they can use, and write a review that looks like they read part of the book.

The author can't fight this type of abuse. Only readers can, but who will read a $3-5 book with one or two stars under the listing everywhere it appears? Would you even go to the book page? Would you look inside? If you did and then bought the book, would you write a review, on Amazon? Or would you carefully back away? Would you risk harassment to aid an author being harassed, with a review of this type, on each of several books, all purportedly by different people?

Think carefully before you say yes. You know it happens. Do you go to check a one or two star-rated book with one review? I've learned someone must and I'm learning how common it is. I can't even read the book and write a review to help the author, because I am one. And "everybody knows" indie authors are all buddy-buddy and lie. You say you don't believe that. Do you believe every indie author with several five star reviews got them from friends and family? "Everybody knows they all do."

That's bigotry and coercion to accept it. Be part of the "everybody," or else be one of "them."

Reading the character

Amazon forum post:

Reading the character:

I've been reading samples for several days. Far too many are 'stiff.' Though the story is good, it doesn't flow, it marches. The most common error of all is authors not reading their work aloud. Or at the least, having a program read it to them. (Not the one on the Kindle.) The descriptions of the characters are different, but they all sound alike.

When two are talking, does there need to be a dialog tag every line? Does the reader need to know she reached for it with her right hand? Or he extended his right hand, before they shook hands, unless he sometimes extends his left, or the other didn't shake it?

Unnecessary detail, redundancy, excessive author intrusion and characters that aren't individualized in the way they speak are all common. There's no better way to find all of them than to read your work aloud and listen to it.

If you don't speak the dialog, you know what the character says, but not how it's said. Too often, the dialog tag is an intrusion that loses the feel of the character speaking. The punctuation may say it's the same character, but the feeling of one person saying something isn't there. Is it the author intrusion of the tag, or there's not enough of the character in the character's speech, or both? Try this. Read and record just the dialog, of one character, over several paragraphs, then do another. Do they sound like different people? Is one rather laid-back and the other a bit on the formal side?

This is the most difficult part of 'show don't tell.' Telling the reader his eyes narrowed, he sounded irritated... Notice the word "telling?" Some of this arises because authors want to assure the readers see and hear their stories as they do. Possessive aren't we? We want them to visualize our stories our way. Does it become 'their' story, engaging them fully, if we do that?

Dialogue is action. Dialogue is character identity. Read the characters. Are they speaking, or are you?

In the beginning...

Middle of July. Beside me on the left is the book I'm supposed to be getting in the computer. Beside me on the right is the book I set aside to get all the ones I've already finished published.

I can't say I didn't know this was going to happen. I've published and marketed before. That's the you-planned-to-do-something-else-too-ha-ha word, "market." Books don't sell themselves, you know.

I do have dreams someday they will. I'll have enough work and enough following I can say, "New one," and go back to writing. It's so much fun! That's one thing I know readers will be sure of, I was having a lot of fun, adventuring with my heroes in all those interesting places. Creating foods, music, societies and, of course, laughter and love, while taking out the bad guys and fixing the societies headed for disaster.

That's one of the things that's different about my books. Most are of a type that have been very infrequently seen in the last thirty years, man against society.

But now, it's market, market, market, groan.