Maria Savva's Blog, page 44

Introducing musician, Matt Keil

Those of you who follow my blog will know that I love music just as much as reading and writing. My obsession with music leads me to seek out new music on the Internet, and in the last few years I have discovered many Independent musicians who are extremely talented. My guest today is one of those musicians. I first came across Matt Keil when he was part of the rock group, Le Monnier. After following him on Twitter, I found out that he had a solo album of piano music. I downloaded a free track, 'Skating in Circles', from his website, and liked it so much I asked Matt if I could use it as the background music for my book trailer for Coincidences. He very kindly agreed. For those of you who haven't seen the trailer, here's a link: Coincidences - Book Trailer - YouTube

I recently bought Matt's Album Regression Play, and would recommend it if you like piano music. I invited Matt here to talk about his music and his other projects. He is a very talented guy, and has lots of experience as an Independent musician.


Here's the interview:

I read on your bio that you play piano, guitar and drums. Do you have a favourite instrument, and if so why is it your favourite?

It would definitely be the piano but I never quite practice as much as I should be! I started playing when I was eleven years old and sixteen years later I'm still fumbling my way around a few tricky Beethoven Sonatas. Because I studied piano for so long and had a great teacher, I feel I can be so much more expressive and creative with it, much more so than the guitar or drums.

You have released a solo album of piano music, Regression Play, and also played guitar in Le Monnier, a rock band. You are quite a versatile musician. Which bands were your favourites when you were growing up?

Metallica was the band that got me into rock music. I remember having bought my first acoustic guitar when I was 12 and didn't really know much about rock. One day I heard a friend of a friend playing 'Nothing Else Matters' on his guitar and thought 'Wow! That's awesome!'. From there on it was a slippery slope and I soon got into other bands such as Megadeth, Alice in Chains, Machine Head and In Flames.


What is your favourite type of music to listen to these days?

I go through phases to be honest. I'll go for weeks on end just listening to classical music and film scores then all of a sudden, get in the mood for some grunge music like Alice in Chains, Mad Season and Pearl Jam. I'm not sure if I should admit this, but I do listen to Phil Collins too when I go running!

LOL, What's wrong with Phil Collins? He has some great music... now I am showing my age!

If you could tour with any other band, who would that be, and why?

I'm secretly hoping Metallica decide to release a prog album and need me on keyboards!


I saw on your bio that you also write film music and your work has been shown in independent films in the UK, US, Australia and Africa, and includes films such as Beneath the Thoughts (2011), The Shake Off (2007) and Our Time To Live (2007). That's a great accomplishment. Were there any films in particular that inspired you to start writing film music?

Okay, I'm about to mention Metallica again on this one. I promise I'm not obsessed with them! In 1999, Metallica released an album called 'S&M' in collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. The guy who conducted and wrote the orchestra side of things was Michael Kamen who was a hugely successful film composer. In 2003 he died and I remember reading about it on the internet. I'd never listened to any of his film music before so I went on his website and started listening. From then on I was hooked and that's all I wanted to be at that point - a film composer. Apart from his film scores, I was heavily into the Bond film music by David Arnold and some of the work done by Thomas Newman. The Shawshank Redemption soundtrack is one of the most beautiful I've ever heard and is probably my all-time favourite soundtrack.

As well as the music, you are also into making videos. Is it correct that you made the music videos for the band Le Monnier? The videos are very good.

Thanks! It was one of those skills I ended up acquiring through necessity as there weren't the funds to pay someone else to do it. Glad I took it up to be honest, worked with a Grime artist a few months ago and have one or two more projects lined up. I'd like to think the videos got better the more experienced I got, but who knows.

I know that you're also a photographer. There are some stunning photos that you've taken, on your website. When did your interest in photography start, and is it something you do professionally or just as a hobby?

I was probably in my early 20s before I took up photography. I like it because it allows me to have a complete break from music. It's sometimes necessary not to live and breathe music every now and then, I guess like any other career-focused creative thing. For me, it'll only ever be a hobby. There are far better photographers out there than me so I'll leave it to the pros. Malcolm Gladwell has a 10,000 hour rule that says this is the amount of time you need to practice in order to have a chance of getting to a successful level. If I was to compare my practice time for music compared to photography… I think I'll stick with the music!

Do you have a favourite photo that you've taken, and if so, why is it special to you?

Wow, this is a hard one. I've always struggled to connect on an emotional level to any of my creative work, even my music. I have some unbearably cute photos of my parent's dog, some cool shots of rap artist Mirakool, some nice sunsets and stuff… But I have some shots I took last year in St. Katherine's Dock in London which I like. Not my best photos, but it's probably my most favourite place in the whole world - centre of London but really quiet, a beautiful place at night.



I understand that your album Regression Play was written between 2004 and 2010. Can you take us through the album track by track and tell us in a couple of lines what inspired each track?



Starlights and Streetlamps
This track, I actually came up with the title before I had written a note of music. I used to take walks at night around my University campus and (depending on the day of the week) it was generally pleasant and quiet. When I listen to the track now, it kind of reminds me of the opening to Dario Marianelli's score to Atonement, but this wasn't an conscious decision.

Frühling
A bit of a silly tune, using the German word for 'Spring' (the season). Quite a simple idea in A major that I played with. Can't remember when or why I wrote it to be honest!

Dance of the Hungarian Cats
Several years ago my former piano teacher gave me her husband's piano as she needed the space. It's a wonderful Bechstein with candlesticks, probably around 80 or so years old. This was the first piece that I wrote on it. At the time I was studying at University under a wonderful composer called Dave Smith and I guess this is a little bit inspired by his compositions.

Skating in Circles
This is my favourite track from the album and generally is the favourite of people who have heard my music. It's got a bit of an Einaudi influence to it, with it's minimalistic approach and calm mood. It's actually quite tough to play in terms of Stamina and the rhythmic differences between the left and right hand parts. Like most of the titles of my pieces, I have no idea why I called it this!

Live Another Dream
This is one of the older tracks on the album. It doesn't move much from the centre notes of the piano, mainly because I wrote it on a cheap Yamaha keyboard when I was a student!

Bad Weather
In 2009, I wrote a series of three experimental piano pieces, all of them very short. Unfortunately this is the only one that has survived as I have lost the sheet music and cannot remember how to play the other two! I'll keep looking though and hopefully they'll make an appearance on the next album.

The Turning
This is the oldest track on the album. I wrote this in 2004, during a gap year before University when I had saved up loads of money to buy a digital piano. It was the first proper piano piece I've written during a time I was feeling very inspired and dreamt of being a film composer.

Like Nothing Else
Another favourite of mine and a highly unusual piece of music as it's the only one I've ever written about a person. Not in a romantic way, I should add. No one but me knows who it's about and I'm keeping it that way!

Regression Play
The last track I wrote for the album. I always picture myself watching an episode of 'Jonathan Creek' whenever I hear it. This was the last piece I wrote on that digital piano I bought years ago before I sold it. I've always regretted selling it.

Drum Kit
This was actually a University assignment. It's called 'Drum Kit' because it's rhythmically based around paradiddles and warm-up rhythms on the drums. Has a kind of 1930's bank robbery film atmosphere to it.

One of the tunes from Regression Play has been available as a free download for some time, Skating in Circles, and more recently, you are giving away free downloads of another track, Dance of the Hungarian Cats. I assume that offering the tracks free is for promotional purposes. Often, writers will do the same thing, i.e. give away a free copy of a book in the hope that this will act as an advertisement for the product and lead to sales. This is a controversial subject, as many artists feel that they should not have to give away their work free but are almost forced to do so because of the current trends. What are your thoughts on this topic?

It's something I know a fair bit about because I've seen the future. I'm a teacher so I know lots of children and teenagers and I'm acutely aware of their listening habits. When they want to listen to music, they go to YouTube. They don't use streaming services or anything like that - only YouTube. Who can blame them? It's easy to get to and appeals to the public's instant gratification attitude that the Internet has cultivated.

I guess by giving away tracks from my album, I'm pandering to convention and public perception as to what is normal in promoting new music. Unfortunately it's a necessary step. Giving away tracks helps get 'likes' and 'follows' on social media which us creative people hope will translate into sales in the future.

The internet has empowered writers and musicians to be able to create, distribute and sell a product with no third-party involvement. We're moving quickly into a post-publisher and post-record label world. It's completely unclear as to what it'll be like on the other side.

One thing that I have noticed about independent authors and to some extent musicians is how cheap they price their product. Before ebooks you could never buy a brand new book for 99p, but many people sell their book at this price and I often wonder why. Independent authors and musicians need to avoid falling into the trap of lowering prices in order to try and promote more sales. We risk devaluing our own industry. Short-term promotions and giveaways are fine, but authors shouldn't be afraid to charge more for their product. It surprises me authors have to occasionally give their work away too. This is what the previews on the Kindle and iBook stores are for.

Thank you, Matt, I agree with that. It's difficult these days, however, as there are so many free e-books available, authors need to try to reach a larger audience by giving away a lot of books. I agree that low pricing devalues work. It's a bit of a catch 22 situation for now, but we shall see what happens... these are interesting times, and things are rapidly changing in the publishing industry

Do you have any tips for bands or musicians who may just be starting out, for example, what things that you or your band have done did you notice helped most with promotion, and are there any social media networking sites that you think are helpful for bands to join?

I don't want to give away too much as I'm writing a book on it! One massive tip I would give - and to some extent this could be applied to writers too - is you must treat your fans as fans, not customers or consumers. It doesn't matter how many social network sites you are on or how good your product is, if all you do is shamelessly promote, people will become tired of it. The key is to interact, treat fans as friends, communicate and take an interest in them. Every human-being has an innate desire to feel special or appreciated and if you can take advantage of this in the right way, you'll do far better.

Well said. I couldn't agree more!

As I'm interviewing you on Goodreads, which is a site full of book lovers, an appropriate question is, do you like reading, and if so who are your favourite authors?

I'm currently re-reading the Red Dwarf books! Yes, yes, I know not very high-brow, but it's for more nostalgia purposes than anything else.




I like to read a lot of non-fiction - books on History mostly. I've been wanting to read some of Christopher Hitchen's books for a while, but I've been limited by time. My all-time favourite books however, are the Sherlock Holmes books by Arthur Conan Doyle. They are incredible books and so well written, I've never been so excited to pick up a book than I have with his stories.

As a reader, do you prefer print books or e-books?

I bought a Kindle shortly after they came out in the UK. I hardly ever read before then, but read lots now. There is something quite nice about reading on a Kindle, it's just so easy and comfortable to hold. I actually think that's the key. I don't have to hold a book in bed at an awkward angle to try and keep the pages open.

I agree, I love my Kindle :)

I understand that you are currently writing a non-fiction book about the music industry. How is that going? What kind of topics will be covered in the book?

The book will be a help-guide for musicians on how to promote their music online. Social media websites only work to some extent, but there is so much more you have to do in order to generate and maintain hype about your product and brand. It will cover things like how best to release a product, what to do in the build up to release date, how to communicate with fans and most importantly, how to generate money from your music in a relatively simple way.

Will you be publishing your book through a traditional publishing house or will it be independently published?

This is an independent project, just like my music. Being independent is great as you have total creative control and the Internet means we're no longer limited in what we can achieve.

Agreed

Are you working on any more music-related solo projects at the moment?

I have begun forming ideas for a second piano album, but it's release will be some way off. Over the next few months I have a 'classical' style chamber orchestra piece I will be releasing as a one-off single. I think it'll be quite popular in the same quirky way that 'Eliza Aria' by Elena Kats-Chernin was (The music from THAT Lloyd's TSB advert).

Where is the best place for people to find you on the Internet and to buy your music?

Okay, here we go:
My official website is: http://www.mattkeil.com - You'll find my blog, photos, music and video portfolio here.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mattkeilmusic - I'm giving away two FREE tracks when you like my page.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mattkeil

My album 'Regression Play' is available from:
iTunes: http://goo.gl/Xc744
Amazon: http://goo.gl/o12id
Spotify: http://goo.gl/tFn27


Thank you Matt, for a very informative and entertaining interview. I wish you every success with your music and future projects.

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I hope you will all go and download Matt's free music from his Facebook page and if you like it, why not show your support for a brilliant young musician and purchase his excellent album?

I've changed my mind...

I just wanted to let you all know that since the phenomenal success of the Coincidences free promotion on Amazon KDP Select last week, I've decided that I am going to enrol the book in the Select programme for 90 days more. This means that it will only be available as a Kindle version until that 90 days is over. Of course, you don't need to own a Kindle to read Kindle books, you can download free apps from Amazon so you can read them on your PC, Mac, smartphone, iPad.

The thing that has made me decide to continue with KDP Select is that not only is Coincidences continuing to sell well on Amazon since the free promotion, but people have also started lending the book from the Kindle lending library. Before this last promotion, no one had borrowed the book from the library so I thought it wasn't worth continuing with the KDP Select Programme. Now though, I think it will be great if people are starting to notice the book and are lending it from the Kindle library. I'll be interested to see whether the royalties that are paid on books lent from the library are worth me staying with the Select Programme.

I have had to make this decision quickly as my current contract with KDP Select ends on 6th October. At this point, I don't want to withdraw my book from the scheme when it seems to be helping me promote my work.

Sorry to disappoint anyone who was looking forward to reading the book in a different format. All my other books are available in all e-book formats, and the sales I get from the other sites don't compare to the sales I get through Amazon, so for me it's a financial decision.

It will be interesting to see whether keeping the book in the KDP Select Programme for another 90 days will be beneficial. I will, of course, report here with my findings for the benefit of other indie authors.

Thank you again to everyone who has bought a copy of the book from Amazon (or even downloaded the free version). I am very grateful to all of you, and hope you will enjoy the story.

KDP Free Promotions - a few things I have learned

This blog post is really for the benefit of authors who may not have promoted their Kindle books using Amazon's KDP Select Programme, but who may be wondering whether it's worth doing so. It will also be beneficial for readers who want to learn how they can help support their favourite authors when there is a free promotion going on.

There is a bit of controversy surrounding the whole KDP Select Programme. Indie authors and their books definitely benefit from promotion by a massive online retailer if they take part in the Programme, but the question remains: do the benefits of this type of promotion outweigh the detrimental effect? The result of KDP Select is that there are now millions of free books flooding the market. When will readers find time to read all of these books? Is it a fad? Will readers get bored of these promotions when their Kindles are full to bursting? Will actual sales of books diminish as a result?

I'm going to ignore the controversy for the moment, and tell you a bit about what I have learnt from my own experience of the KDP Select Programme. Right now, I'm thinking that, yes, maybe this promotion has helped me because a lot more people now have my book on their Kindles. Whether they ever get around to reading it or not is another matter. For now, I prefer to believe that they will read it, love it, and buy the rest of my books -- yes, my imagination is still working ;)

Here are some tips for those of you who are thinking of doing one of these promotions:

1. The first time I did the promotion, back at the end of July, I didn't know about all the websites and blogs that promote free books... I think I only tried to get listed with Pixel of Ink, as that was one that I heard has a big following. I now know that there are many similar sites, okay not all of them have a large following, but they are growing each day.

Here's a handy blog post I found about the list of sites that will promote your book. It also has a list of Facebook pages that you can post to. Bear in mind that going through this list takes a while, so don't leave it until the last minute! http://katrinaparkerwilliams.wordpres...

2. I was told about the benefits of Hootsuite by a few of my author friends. I used the free version during my promotion to schedule some Tweets on Twitter during the night when I couldn't be online. This service will send the Tweets out at any time you choose, so you can market your book taking into account different time zones.

3. Readers can help their favourite authors by posting links to the free books on their Facebook pages and other social networking sites and by tweeting and retweeting links on Twitter. I think it's important to have a more or less constant online presence during the promotion to get the most benefit from it.

4. Set up a Facebook Event for your free day and invite your FB friends and ask them to invite their friends. Everyone loves a freebie, so it's a good way to get extra promotion.

5. Goodreads allows you to set up Events. I did that for my first free promotion but not for the second one as I ran out of time! But I think it's also a good way of letting more people know about your free book.

6. Another tip I heard was that in the days following the promotion you should keep your book at a low price as there will be readers still seeing your book on the bargain ebook sites and if it's priced low there's more chance they will buy it. After my first promotion I priced my books at $2.99 and had quite a lot of sales in the month after the promotion. This time I've reduced the price to 99 cents to see if this will mean even more sales. In the past couple of days I have had more actual sales than I would usually have in 2-3 months, so it seems like a good tactic.

As indie authors we are always looking for ways to help more people hear about our books as our resources are limited and we cannot afford expensive advertising. I think Amazon KDP Select is a way to help promote and kick start sales. Whether those sales continue, I think will be based partly on luck, and partly on continued marketing after the promotion.

Good luck to all authors out there who are considering using KDP Select.

Here are some stats, from my promos:

In my first promotion, which was a 2-day one (and bear in mind that I didn't promote on the free sites), I had just over 1,700 free downloads of Coincidences.

This time, it was a 3 day promotion and I had just over 13,800 downloads.

The majority of the downloads in my first promotion were in the UK (about 1,400). On the second promotion, the majority of downloads was in the Amazon.com site (over 10,000).

I did the first promotion - 2 days - on the weekend Saturday & Sunday.

The 3 day one, I did on Sunday-Tuesday, as I had heard that weekdays are better for downloads. The Monday was the day I had most downloads in the Amazon.com site, over 6000.

Coincidences went to #1 in the UK free Kindle store in the Drama Category, and #5 in the top 100 free Kindle books

On Amazon.com, It went to about #18 in the top 100 free Kindle books, and went to #1 in two of the free Kindle store categories: Drama, and Theater.

I hope this information will help.

Remember, if you missed the free promotion for Coincidences, I am leaving it at 99 cents/77p for the next week or so. US/India:http://www.amazon.com/Coincidences-eb...
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coincidences-...

Coincidences: KDP Select free promotion - another update!

Coincidences is still doing very well in the free promotion on Amazon. 11,000 downloads so far, with 12 hours to go!

It's #1 Drama in both Amazon.com and Amazon UK!

Again, a big THANK YOU to everyone who's downloaded the book, or helped in any way with the promotion. I couldn't have done all this by myself, after all!

Special shout outs are due to authors, Susan Buchanan (@Susan_Buchanan),Terry Tyler (@TerryTyler4), and Darcia Helle (@DarciaHelle), who have been sending out tweets and retweeting lots!

Also a special shout out to readers Deena Rae Shoenfeldt (@eBookBuilders), and Helle Gade (@Lyshawk), who have been tweeting every hour or so about the promotion! And, not forgetting, Doreen Cox (@mothersitting), and Judee Bee (@OfficialJudeeB) who wrote lovely reviews and have been retweeting about the promo!

Those girls are great and you should all follow them if you're on Twitter!

In fact I could probably write a long list of fabulous Twitter followers who have helped with this promotion, but that would take me all night, and I have a promotion to do! Thanks again to all who have helped... you know who you are!


The purpose of this update was to let you all know that Coincidences was hand-picked for promotion by another website, Indie Book Bargains! I know, I'm showing-off, but how often do I get to do that? (Bear with me LOL, I'll be back down to earth after the promo has ended.)

Anyway, here's the badge with a link to my page on the site!



I'll try to write up another blog after the promotion has ended with all the information that might help other authors who are doing these events.

Keep downloading and spreading the word!

Thank you!!

Free promotion for Coincidences 23rd - 25th September - An Update

The free promotion for my novel Coincidences, which began on Sunday, is going very well.

The last time I did this free promotion, it ran over 2 days, and I had just over 1,700 downloads, the bulk of those in the UK Amazon store. This time around, it's a 3 day promotion that will end sometime early on Wednesday morning.

I've had lots of support from my readers and author friends, who have been helping out with Tweets on Twitter, and posting links to their Facebook pages. I am very grateful for the overwhelming support.

This time around, I submitted the book to quite a few of the blogs and websites that feature free books. I was lucky enough to be featured on a few of those, including Addicted to eBooks, The Serious Reader, and Free Ebooks Daily.

I have also just received an email from freebooksy saying that Coincidences has been featured there. They hand-pick the books they feature, so it's a great honour to be chosen out of all the submissions they receive.











So far, I have almost double the amount of downloads I had the last time I did the free promotion, with over a day to go. I am very pleased with the results.

Coincidences has gone to #1 in the free Kindle store in the US Drama category and also the Theater category. This to me is amazing, as last time I didn't even get any rankings on the Amazon.com site. At the time of posting this, it's #88 in the Top 100 free books in the US store and #28 in the Top 100 in the UK store (also #1 in Drama in the UK store).

I'd like to thank each and every one of you who have downloaded a copy, and helped to spread the word about the promotion. I hope you'll all continue to help with Tweeting and posting, so that the free version can be available to everyone who wants to read it.

After the 6th October, Coincidences will no longer by in the KDP Select Programme, as I want to make it available in more eBook formats and other eBook websites. So this is the last chance to grab a free copy!

Happy reading!

Coincidences - last chance to get it free for Kindle users! 23rd-25th September 2012, and some other great free books you should check out this weekend!

Coincidences will be available free on all the worldwide Amazon sites from Sunday 23rd September - Tuesday 25th September 2012!

This will be the last chance for all you Kindle users to download the book for free. After this promo I will be taking the book out of the KDP Select Programme so I can make it more widely available e.g. for Nook, Kobo etc.

I'd be really grateful if all of you could let your friends know about the promotion. Even if you've already downloaded the book, you can still help by tweeting the links on the free days, and posting a link on your Facebook pages.

Thank you all for your continued support!

While I'm on the subject of free downloads, it just so happens that there are a couple of other great books you can download for no pennies this weekend!

From Friday 21st September - Sunday 23rd September 2012, make sure you are ready to download two of the best books I've read recently:


Sign of the Times by Susan Buchanan

and

You Wish... by Terry Tyler


Both books are fabulous and must reads.


Here are all the links you'll need:

Coincidences:



Amazon .com http://www.amazon.com/Coincidences-eb...

Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coincidences-...

Amazon France http://www.amazon.fr/Coincidences-ebo...

Amazon Germany http://www.amazon.de/Coincidences-ebo...

Amazon Italy http://www.amazon.it/Coincidences-ebo...

Amazon Spain http://www.amazon.es/Coincidences-ebo...


You Wish...



Amazon .com http://www.amazon.com/You-Wish-ebook/...

Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Wish-eboo...

Amazon France http://www.amazon.fr/You-Wish-ebook/d...

Amazon Germany http://www.amazon.de/You-Wish-ebook/d...

Amazon Italy http://www.amazon.it/You-Wish-ebook/d...

Amazon Spain http://www.amazon.es/You-Wish-ebook/d...

Sign of the Times





Amazon .com http://www.amazon.com/Sign-of-the-Tim...

Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sign-of-the-T...

Amazon France http://www.amazon.fr/Sign-of-the-Time...

Amazon Germany http://www.amazon.de/Sign-of-the-Time...

Amazon Italy http://www.amazon.it/Sign-of-the-Time...

Amazon Spain http://www.amazon.es/Sign-of-the-Time...

Happy downloading!!

Update on my new novel, Haunted

My upcoming novel Haunted is now with my beta readers. I am still on track to publish the book on 31st October 2012, Halloween. I thought given that the title is Haunted that would be a suitable date for release!

Now would be a good time to preview the cover of the novel.

It's an acrylic painting that I did, inspired by the book's content. The main character, Emily, has bright red hair. It's night and there is a rather large eye, which is significant, but I don't want to give away the story, so I won't say anymore...

Here it is. I hope you like it:

A-Z of Self Publishing and Writing tips - H - J

In today's instalment, I will be providing more tips for indie authors and there is some useful information for readers of indie books about how they can help their favourite authors.


H

Honesty

This is a hot topic at the moment. Everyone knows that reviews can influence readers when choosing a book to read. Recently, an indie author was accused of writing reviews for his own books under a pseudonym, and he owned up to it http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...

I am sure that many writers do this and I can see why they would be tempted to do so, but I would advise against it. Not only for the reason that you can get caught, but because I believe that honesty is important, in life, and in how we promote ourselves and our work.
There are some authors who are so keen to get great reviews for their own books that they do something similar to the above in that they write glowing reviews for other authors' books in the hopes of getting a great review in return. This again is dishonest and not something I would recommend.
I believe that you should be honest in your approach to your own writing and promotion, and in your approach to reviewing other authors' books. That is the only way that the indie book industry can prosper. There are many trashy, badly edited, and frankly, rubbish books produced by indie authors because of the ease of publishing these days. It does no one any good if we go around giving 5 star reviews to such books. It will only bring down the standards in the industry and lead to critics finding more ways to find fault with us as a group.
In the same way, if an author gives his or her own book 5 stars and a glowing review, using a pseudonym, when in fact the book is full of typos, how does that help promote the indie book industry as a whole? If you are so sure that your book is great, you should be willing to send it out to others for reviews. There is no need to review your own book in this way.
Having said that, I have nothing against an author reviewing their own book under their own name. This is a nice idea, because it gives the reader something extra from the author, and these days, with all the social networking sites, readers are interested in getting to know the authors as well as the product.
Honest reviews are great, even when they are not glowing reviews. Most authors will admit, sometimes reluctantly, that they learnt something from an honest critical review that helped them improve their writing. I take into account every criticism in reviews of my books and see how I can approach my next book in a way that could maybe avoid this criticism. I'm talking about reviews by normal people here, not the ones by the trolls whose only mission appears to be to upset people with nasty one star reviews. Authors can safely ignore those types of reviews.

Okay, I'm off the point here, so to conclude, I do believe that when it comes to promoting your writing as an indie author honesty is the best policy. It will reflect well on you and on the industry as a whole. It will help the books that deserve recognition to find that and it will help those authors who may need assistance in fine-tuning their work to be able to do so.


Helping others

I truly believe that the best way to promote yourself as an author is to help other authors. For example, you could do reviews, if you have time, or you could host the authors on your blog, interview them, etc. By doing this you can build up a following of readers who are looking for new reads and because you are an author they may also consider reading your books.
On my blog, I have been promoting my favourite authors and books for a while now, and I do find that it helps to build up a following for the blog. It also keeps the blog interesting and varied. You don't want to be talking about yourself and your books all the time, after all.

Here are a few tips for authors and readers as to how you can help indie authors:

Review books that you've enjoyed reading. This is perhaps the most important and best way you can help your favourite authors. Amazon is the biggest retailer for eBooks these days, so an Amazon review would be fantastic. You don't have to be a professional reviewer to review a book. You can just write a couple of lines saying why you liked the book. All and any positive reviews are always gratefully received by an author. I cannot stress this enough. So, if you've read a great indie book recently but haven't reviewed it on Amazon, go there now... come back here and read the rest of this post later! Go!

Amazon is not the only place to leave reviews. As we all know, you can leave reviews here on Goodreads and as there is a large population of readers here, that is a fabulous way to help an author. You can also join sites such as Shelfari and LibraryThing where you can list all the books you've read, and leave reviews.

Barnes and Noble is also a big bookseller, so leave a review there too.

I suppose to cut a long story short, I am saying you should review your favourite books wherever and whenever you can.

Tag and Like the books on Amazon

You will see under the title of every book on Amazon there is a 'Like' button. So, please go there now and make sure you click that button for every great book you've read recently. This helps enormously because Amazon takes account of how many 'Likes' a book has when it decides which books to promote.

Similarly, on the book page, after the reviews, there is a list of 'Tags' associated with the book. The more times a book has been tagged the more visible it will be on Amazon. Usually there are already tags listed for the book, but where you find no tags, you should add your own. These are just words that are associated with a book that help readers to discover it. So, for example, if you've just read a mystery book, you could add the tag 'mystery', and when customers are looking for mystery books the book will show up in the list if it has enough tags to make it prominent.

Amazon Author Pages
While we are on the subject of Amazon, most authors have their own author page there. This page has a 'Like' button on the top right hand corner. Make sure you go there and Like all your favourite author pages.

Tell your friends

If you've read a good book, tell your friends. Word of mouth helps to promote books. Amazon has links on each book page allowing you to post to Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Make use of these.


I

Indie writer

What does it mean to be an indie author? Readers may be confused, so I will take a bit of time to explain it. I know that before I started publishing my own books I had no idea of what was involved in the self-publishing process. I mainly bought books that I found on the bookshelves in my local bookshop. None of those were indie books. Most of the bookshops you'll find on your high street (unless they are independent bookshops who make an effort to stock books by independent authors) will only stock bestsellers or books that are published by traditional publishing houses. There is a reason behind this which is logical. They are a business and they want to sell books. Books that are being hyped with big advertisements posted everywhere are more likely to sell. So, if you want to help your local independent author, you need to go to independent, smaller bookshops, the kind of places that are open to stocking books by local authors that are trying to make a name for themselves. Indie books are also easy to find on most Internet stores like Amazon and Barnes and Noble these days.

Being an indie author means that you are self-publishing your books, so you are independent of a publishing house. The tools used to publish books these days are readily available on the Internet and this has led to a surge in people publishing their own books. Is this a good thing?

Readers may be told that the reason a writer will publish their own work is because they cannot find a traditional publisher willing to publish them. This is often far from the truth.

Many authors (and I'm one of them) like the freedom that comes with self-publishing. It would take a lot to entice me to agree to have my books published by a publishing house. For one, publishing house like books to fit within a certain word count, they like their books to easily fit into a category/genre, they don't like things that are outside of the norm. And, most importantly, they take a big slice of the royalties. Many big name authors are turning indie these days. For artists, the ability to keep control over our work makes self-publishing an attractive alternative. It's a choice that a writer makes these days rather than being forced into it because they can't find a publisher.

Readers should bear in mind that when you buy indie books you are supporting the artist. The work is independently produced by the writer. They are typically people who are driven by a passion for writing, and determined to get their books published because they have a story to tell, or they like to tell stories. By buying indie books, you can be sure that the money you spend is going to the artist and not to a publishing company. It's very much like supporting a small business rather than going to a large superstore.

The quality of the books produced by indie authors will vary, which is why there has been a lot of hoo-hah about people being able to publish their own works. The fuddy-duddies will tell you that an independent book can never be up to the standards of large and established publishing houses. However, I see no reason why indie books cannot be just as polished and just as good as those published in the traditional way.

I have read many indie books over the past 3-4 years and have found that many are well written and well edited. There are those that fall below the standards you would expect. It's important to have a way to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. People should not turn against indie books just because they've read one that doesn't quite come up to scratch.

There are reasons some of the books are not very well edited. For example, it may be that this is the debut novel or first book written by the author and they were so keen to see their masterpiece in the shops that they didn't take the type to polish the manuscript before publishing. It's very exciting when you finish writing your book and you want the world to see it, but as I have said before in this series, you cannot cut corners if you are serious about your writing.

A great way to discover new indie authors and make sure that the author is someone who cares about his or her art, is to download the free books from Amazon. There are always freebies available, and you can look on them as samples of the author's work.

Indie authors (those who take pride in their work) work very hard to make sure their books are the best they can be, and this means hours of labour. Being an indie author often means doing your own editing, designing your own cover, and taking care of all the promotion. It's a full time job, but most of us also have day jobs. You can show your support for indie authors by trying the freebies and buying one of that author's other books.

There are also blogs all over the Internet that review indie books and you can look for recommended books from those sites to make sure you are getting a good quality book. I recently launched a blog with authors Darcia Helle and J. Michael Radcliffe , which features reviews of Indie books that we have read and enjoyed. You can keep up with the blog to find new books to read, here: Bestsellerbound Recommends. We also have an Amazon carousel across the top and bottom of the blog showcasing books that we recommend. Take a look, there's something for every taste.

At least where someone else has read the book, you know whether it is worth reading, that's the idea behind BestsellerBound Recommends because we also got to the stage where we wanted to be able to tell whether a book we are going to read is worth it or whether it would be riddled with typos.

It's important, if you intend to be an indie author long-term, that you take pride in the work you produce and make sure you are not giving other indies a bad name.

Happily, most of the indie authors I have met over the years have been really professional in their approach to their writing and publishing, and are willing to work as hard as they can to produce books they can be proud of.


J

Journey

Self-publishing should be looked upon by the author as a journey. All along your journey, you will keep learning. When you publish your book, you haven't reached a destination, you are still travelling. You have to keep going with the marketing and promotion, and with writing the next book. It's not an easy journey. The writing and editing itself will take many hours each day, as will the publishing, formatting, and promotion. You should not expect to get results straight away as most writers don't see any rewards for years, and some are still waiting to see a reward for their hard work even after many years. Just as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Life is a journey, not a destination." This also applies to your writing life. You should learn to enjoy the journey rather than focusing on what you expect the destination will be. Many authors become very frustrated early on because they have unrealistic expectations. Remember that not every author that publishes a book will become as successful as J.K. Rowling. Yes, it happens but it's rare. So, try to enjoy your journey.

You can find my previous blogs in this series, here:

A-C: http://nutsandcrisps.wordpress.com/20...
D-F: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...
G: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...

A-Z of Self-publishing and writing tips: G

Welcome to the third instalment of my series, wherein I intend to pass on some of the things I have learnt on my publishing journey.

I'm hoping this series will be of use to aspiring authors as well as established Indie authors. Readers may also find the insights valuable, in order to gain some kind of idea of what the self-publishing journey entails. It's not an easy road to travel, which is why I think it's beneficial that we all assist each other and try to enlighten those who may not be familiar with all the ins and outs.

You will find the first two instalments here:
A-C: http://nutsandcrisps.wordpress.com/20...
D-F: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...


I am only covering the letter G today as I have found many tips that start with this particular letter!

So, here we go:

G

Goodreads

I love Goodreads, and I'm not just saying that because I'm here. I discovered this invaluable website back in 2008 at the very beginning of my self-publishing journey and it has been a source of inspiration and assistance to me. I have met some of my best Indie author friends here. Back in 2008, when I was trying to find a way to promote my writing, I heard that a good way to get the word out was to have lots of reviews of your books. So I set about trying to find ways to obtain reviews. I contacted some Amazon reviewers, but then heard about something going on at Goodreads where authors would swap books and review each other's work. As I was out of work at the time, I had lots of time to read, so I thought this would be a good way to build up a following. While I would recommend book swaps as a way to get more reviews, I would also add a warning. There are some authors who will give you a high rating for your book in the hope that you will do the same. If you're like me, and only give honest opinions on books, you can run into some trouble. Some authors will be offended if you give them a less than glowing review of their book. So find out a bit about the author before you agree to swap books with them. Make sure you inform them from the start that you only give honest reviews. I had to start adding that to e-mails because of the unrealistic expectations I came across from less than professional authors. A good system is to agree that if you don't like the book you won't post a review. Then there won't be any backlash.

Anyway, back to why I love Goodreads. Through the book swaps, I discovered many great books and it made me realise that self-published fiction is just as good as the books you'll find on the best-seller shelves in shops. It opened up a whole new world of reading for me; up until that point, I'd been someone who was swayed by advertising to buy the books that were hyped up by publishing companies.

Some of the Indie authors I met on Goodreads way back in 2008 are still great friends and I enjoy their work immensely, for example, Julie Elizabeth Powell, and Quentin R. Bufogle.

Goodreads also has this blog facility, which I have found very handy as a tool to spread the word about my books. There are also many groups you can join where you can interact with readers and writers. In general, I have found the groups and forums on Goodreads to be more Indie-friendly than for example the Amazon forums. I am almost afraid to post anything on the Amazon forums because readers there seem to hate self-published authors... It's odd that people who claim to love reading and hang out on those forums can also hurl such abuse at creators of fiction. I have seen many an author criticised for mentioning his or her own book on those forums, and can only say that it offends my very soul to see that sort of behaviour. I can understand to some extent, the hate of spammy authors who will post links to their books everywhere without participating in any discussions, but the sort of abuse of authors I've witnessed on those forums is akin to bullying and seems to have its root in an innate hate for Indie authors that obviously stems from ignorance, and the unfounded belief that all self-published books are somehow inferior to those published by a mainstream publisher.

Sorry, I have strayed from the point again.

Other things I have found useful on Goodreads are the giveaway, recommend, and events functions. You can advertise a giveaway of a copy of your book, and as there are plenty of readers on this site, there are often thousands of entries. This generates interest in the books, as people are likely to add the book to their to-read list.

The 'recommend' link next to every book title is great, because you can recommend books you have read to your followers and thus help promote good books.

The 'events' link is great too as you can use it to let readers know about any upcoming book signings, KDP Free promotions etc.

To conclude, I would say that being a member of Goodreads has definitely been worthwhile for me and I'd recommend it to all Indie authors. When you join you'll be given a reader profile page, but can apply for an Author Page quite easily by following the links. Author pages are useful to have because as well as having a blog attached to them, there is also a section where you can add excerpts from your writing, so that readers can get an idea of your style.

Grammar

If you are thinking of self-publishing your own work it is important that you have a good grasp of grammar. If you don't, there are many books that you can buy to help you learn the rules. An editor is also a useful resource if you're not confident with your knowledge of grammar. It's very important for your prose to be grammatically correct (and I am aware that there are conflicting grammar rules that often make this an arduous task). The only instance where you can be excused for not following grammatical rules is within dialogue. Everyday speech is hardly ever grammatically correct, and I think good writing should reflect this. However, another warning here: don't make your dialogue so authentic to a particular district or country that your reader is left unable to understand it! I once read a book that was supposed to be written so that it reflected a particular slang, and I only got through about 16 pages before giving up. What's the point publishing a book that no one can understand? Our aim should be to have as large a readership as possible, so don't alienate your readers. It is still possible to write authentic dialogue without making it illegible. An example of this, is Scottish author Mark Rice whose stories are based in Scotland and the character dialogue is authentic but still easy to understand.

The main point about grammar that I want to make is that when a book is written as near as possible to correct grammar as you can get it, it will be so much easier for the reader to read. And clarity is what we should all be aiming for when we are writing. You don't want a reader to have to stop and think after reading each sentence trying to work out what you actually meant by that.


Giveaways

Many authors say they don't like giving away their books because they have worked so hard writing them. It is very true that authors work very hard on their books.

But my view is that you are shooting yourself in the foot if you don't give some books away. Every book you give away is an advertisement.

As mentioned above, Goodreads allows you to set up book giveaways. You can then use the giveaway as a marketing tool, and a way for more people to find out about your book. After all, everyone loves getting something for free. The success of the Amazon KDP Select programme is testament to that.

Other places you can set up giveaways are LibraryThing.com, Rafflecopter, and even when you're invited for an interview by a blogger or another author, you should also offer to give away a book or two. I have personally found the Goodreads giveaways a great way to promote a book.

On BestsellerBound Recommends (the new blog from Darcia Helle, myself, and J. Michael Radcliffe), we can set up a giveaway for Indie authors. Check out the submissions page for details!

A Time to Tell - News

I am currently going through the process of preparing to release a second edition of A Time to Tell. I originally self-published this book through a small press, back in 2006 when the internet self-publishing tools were not really available.
I am terminating my contract with Pen Press who initially published the book for me, and will be re-releasing a paperback version through Lulu.com where I published my other books. This will be much easier for me in terms of keeping a tab on royalties and having all my books in the same place.
In the next few months, I will announce the release of the second edition (I will be designing a new cover as well to set it apart from the first edition). In the meantime, I assume there are still copies of the first edition in stock at Amazon and other retailers should you wish to purchase a copy. The first edition will go out of print at some stage, as I've asked the original publisher to cancel that ISBN. I'll be assigning a new ISBN to my new edition.
Hopefully I will publish the new edition without too much delay. I will be reading through it to check for any editing issues, as this is good opportunity to do that, before releasing the new version.
This process will not effect e-books; only the paperback version.

I will be happy when this has been done, and all my books are in my control :)