E. Rachael Hardcastle's Blog
October 20, 2024
Indie Author Diaries: Part 7 - When It's Just NOT Working Anymore...
"I am really struggling to get the TSAW description to format correctly on Amazon. I've tried by copying and editing it in a Word document, removing the second header and just using bold and we will see if that works... I've re-written a 5-page summary document for my new talks, and proofread it."
I remember writing about this in my June 1st entry. Lots of things were on my mind, and I had an ever-growing to-do list for my novel, To See A World (TSAW) and how best to promote it. I made 2-pages of notes that I haven't included above due to how boring and complicated they are (to anyone else, they probably won't make much sense) around keywords and Amazon Ads, but after May 2024 and trying my hardest to learn how they worked, I wanted a few days away from the stress.
This went in my 'success' journal. It isn't really about success but progress, documenting everything* about the re-release of my series 'The Chronicles of Pandora' to see just how far I've come, what I have achieved, and what I've survived.
I hope it helps you (or at the very least entertains you!). Perhaps you can prepare for or completely avoid the mistakes I made.
*Yes, these entries are real, but I've edited out some of the more personal and private information for obvious reasons. I hope you understand! I will also not mention the names of people, companies or shops I've encountered in a negative way. It's only my experience, so it would be unfair of me to name them when others may have had a fantastic experience.
01/06/2024 - 03/06/2024 - There were a few awkward days here where lots went on book-wise and my notes were scattered. I decide to get some honest feedback using a Google Docs questionnaire to help clarify a few things.
After I finally fixed the description mentioned in the first part of this post, I matched my e-book and paperback descriptions on Amazon to pull both editions together. But sales were still slow, and I was beginning to ask myself that same question again...
"I'm going back to the theory that maybe my book... isn't good."
I'd put so much work and effort into making it the best possible edition it could be, and I allowed my stubbornness to take over. I knew there would be room for improvement still as there always is, so I thought it best if I created a questionnaire that people could anonymously complete to give me honest feedback on the product description and the book's content. Immediately, I began to get responses (03/06/2024).
One female responded to say the book cover was 'cute' and another said the description was 'disparate' and not YA. They suggested I clarify how the cover and the description and the genre all tie together, which lead me to believe that perhaps, after all the work I'd put in to perfecting the description, the cover could be the issue.
Someone else then added they don't know what LOTRxOUAT (my USP from part 6) meant, and they thought also removing the references to using AI images inside would help, as people are still unsure about the technology. Someone else commented that the cover (the green edition with the pink flowers as shown below) was far too young for the reading level and reminded them more of a romance than a high fantasy, even though at the time I was trying to target mostly teenaged girls (due to previous readers being mostly young women). They suggested I remove 'for girls' in my description and the USP as some teenaged boys might like the content if not for the cover and this initial targeted line on Amazon.
I completely agreed, and this is one of the first things I changed.
The A+ content seemed only to appear on the paperback edition and not the e-book edition, and only in some countries. This was brought to my attention by a reader completing my survey from abroad.
Someone must have read the first chapter as they commented mentioning wine in a YA may not be ideal. I decided to trust my own instincts here, as the setting and age of the characters involved made the drink necessary.
It was at this point I received a 'warning' from a Facebook group I posted the questionnaire in. I asked for some honest advice and feedback to help me progress my marketing skills, and was warned not to 'self-promote'. I would have argued here that I cannot promote a book that is not actually ready for promotion yet (and asking for tips to promote a book is not promoting the book, but trying to learn the skill), but decided simply to ditch the group altogether for the admin's pettiness. I have unfortunately had to leave lots of groups that claim to support indie authors, and encourage indie authors to ask for help and advice, only to 'tell you off' when you actually do so, particularly if there's a link involved or a picture that could be seen as trying to sell books. Yet another struggle that new authors have to face.
Back to the questionnaire, I received a note to say this person didn't know what Haeylo was, and another to say they wanted Arriette's powers to be more obvious. Somebody else told me I wasn't charging enough, even though others had previously told me to lower the e-book price.
The 6th reply I received was overall... negative. The cover was hard to read, and the A+ content needed more. But everyone else gave a constructive mix.
Most people liked the cover, but doubt had officially set in. It was too 'romance' and too young for my target audience. It also alienated any male readers.
Nobody seemed bothered by the number of reviews but they preferred a book to have 4-5*.
50% liked that I did a video flick through of the book's interior. But this wasn't for Amazon, and was only for socials and my website.
Some suggested I needed to release all the books in the series before attempting to market it. Others said the themes were re conflicting so to focus on one book at a time.
Everybody loved the fantasy map at the beginning.
Some liked the AI additions and others not so much. There wasn't really anything solid either way, but I chose to remove them and to put them only on my website.
Everyone seemed happy with a £4.99 price. Until this point, I'd priced much lower in fear nobody would spend more than £2.99.
This kicked off June and gave me much to think about. I wanted to address each of the points the questionnaire raised. I'll be posting more about my June progress in the coming weeks. Please stick with me for the 8th instalment in this series coming soon...
Rach x
October 16, 2024
Indie Author Diaries: Part Six - Taking Advice, and Feeling Severely Confused!
"I just realised my product description has a typing error. So, I have amended it. I've read that description loads—HOW did I not catch it? The paperback cover is fine though, so it must just be the online blurb. Maybe this is what the nasty reviewer meant by a 'mistake in the first line'? It's all updated now anyway, and the physical book is fine. I'm mortified, but at least I did catch it eventually; it could have been worse."
I remember writing this on May 30th 2024 after discovering a silly typing error in the description for To See A World; a description I must have written, re-written and read a thousand times already. I realised after the mad rush to fix the error that just as much care must go into the online descriptions and listings as the books themselves, and that I wanted to make myself a note not to let something like this happen again.
This went in my 'success' journal. It isn't really about success but progress, documenting everything* about the re-release of my series 'The Chronicles of Pandora' to see just how far I've come, what I have achieved, and what I've survived.
I hope it helps you (or at the very least entertains you!). Perhaps you can prepare for or completely avoid the mistakes I made.
*Yes, these entries are real, but I've edited out some of the more personal and private information for obvious reasons. I hope you understand! I will also not mention the names of people, companies or shops I've encountered in a negative way. It's only my experience, so it would be unfair of me to name them when others may have had a fantastic experience.
30/05/2024 - This did cause some panic because it had me wondering if this was what that bad review was referring to all along. But it only seemed to be on one particular website, and as the description was copied and pasted over across the multiple platforms I use, I was baffled as to how I'd let that slip through, and could only assume it was accidental, like the nudge of a key or something. But, fixing it felt satisfying, and it was a major reminder that even those who care immensely about their work can make mistakes. The good thing about publishing the way I do is that these can be corrected... fast.
How had I let such a silly mistake slip through? How was I going to prevent that happening again?
I took some advice from a YouTuber to learn more about running Amazon ads and getting my online description and display perfect.
I've used one of the AI-generated images here for The Resurrection of Pandora as it accurately describes my mind on the 30th and 31st May 2024. After seeing that error, it sent me spiraling down a 'how can I improve this even more?' phase. It happens occasionally, when something triggers my anxiety or a short burst of OCD, and I NEED to fix something that technically cannot be fixed, and NOW. So I turned to the experts on YouTube who were already doing this and did some research.
Here is the outcome. See what you make of my notes!
An Amazon Ad impression is when the book appears on Amazon's listings when somebody is scrolling. Ideally, we need the book to appear on page 1 to get the most attention. But its appearance is called an 'impression'. This happens if your keywords are correct, so it will appear in the right place at the right time for the right reader. You might get 1000 impressions, which means all those people have seen it, but not all of them will click or buy it.
More impressions mean you can rank higher. Page 1 makes the book easier to see and may equal a higher conversion rate for a keyword. The books above you on a listing have a higher conversion rate. But you don't need to mess about on Amazon to achieve it. Your conversion will go up if you have the correct keywords, design a top notch cover, have stunning A+ content and plenty of reviews.
The important thing to know is that we don't actually pay Amazon ads for sales. We pay them for data, which helps us to achieve more sales. You can start a bid at 60c and increase by 5c after every few days if you don't see impressions, but you don't need to immediately bid so high. 35-60c is too popular, so ideally bid a little higher than that.
ACOS
I got baffled by the ACOS term, and felt myself drowning in the math behind how it all works. But I did follow the YouTuber's advice and made some notes about ACOS, and he said that to achieve a high ACOS, this means tons of clicks on a book but no sales (so basically, a low conversion rate from clicks on the ad to actual sales of the book).
If your bid is $1.20 (cost per click, CPC) x 10 clicks (CPC to get one sale) = 100% ACOS based on a $12 book. If the spend is $12 and the earning is $12 then it's a 100% ACOS.
A few other things to consider are:
is the price of the book too high?
Does the description look good with bullet points and formatting (if relevant)?
Do you have A+ content?
Reviews have value - 50+ are needed and ideally 4-5* average. Aim for 50-100 reviews in month 3.
The reader then clicks on what they like the look of. My book, ideally, if the cover is correct and the title is enticing. This then extends to the description, A+ content and the reviews, and a customer/reader will compare books they like before choosing which one to buy, just as customers might compare brands of other products before choosing the best.
A+ content is one of the things the YouTuber says is needed to impress the reader. So you need a standard image header with text (one of the options when you create the content) or a standard image and dark text overlay, 970x300px minimum in size, but if you want just images you can leave the overlay text blank. I didn't realise you could do this and it took me a long time to figure out that to create simple images without any additional text over the top, you can simply choose not to add any.
There will be a 3-10% increase of conversion with effective, high quality A+ content. Use colours from the book - the same ones in the same amount - focus on contrast and hierarchy, so put the big stuff at the top and skip some of the smaller stuff like your readers will.
So I created these (example of 2), which matched my book cover/series theme.
"I have re-designed my A+ content in [design software] using 3 artboards to separate them. 1 image that reflects the cover. I had to upload that to [2nd design software] with a free pro trial to lower the export quality as KDP only allows 300mb. I have then added a 4th image to advertise book 2 beneath it... submitted today for up to 7 days of approval + 24 hours to then appear on the screen for UK, USA, AU and DE territories."
You can have up to 5 modules with A+ content, and they are accessible via the KDP account. The YouTuber says to make use of all of them if you can, but I didn't, as I write fiction not non-fiction, so there was less to include. Focus on the USP (unique selling point), and give at least 3 of these in the description.
The Chronicles of Pandora has:
zero spice/sex (suitable for teens and adults who prefer not to read erotica)
Lord of the Rings meets Once Upon A Time (adventure and lots of mythical creatures with a lighter story-telling method where storylines cross).
Strong female protagonist
Unique characters and creatures I created (Dreamers, Retainers, Everlasts)
A full-spread map I designed myself
AI character art and locations as extras on the website (and in one edition of the book)
I chose to mention these 3:
The map
The HPS (Haeyloian Power Scale) which focuses on the creatures I created
The AI images (which I later removed from the paperback and posted online only as bonus content).
There are three types of readers on an Amazon page.
Skimmers - they look only at the image
Readers - they look at the image and the headline/s
Invested Readers - they read the body of the text
So you need to target people in the right order. Have a big image and a headline first, then the body beneath it. A catchy description and a picture alongside it, ideally. He also said to include the 7 Amazon keywords I chose when publishing the book on the description body as well. This helps the algorithm to determine what it's about (and the readers too), and categorise it organically. You can, for non-fiction, include it in the title, the cover and the A+ content as well.
I made a note of some keywords and phrases I could use given that my book was fiction:
YA readers
Greek Mythology
Pandora
High Fantasy
No spice fiction for teens
YA Fantasy
Fantasy series
I came across this part far too late, but I made notes for the future anyway.
Phase 1 of a release is the honeymoon period - 40 days. Keywords for ads should be broad with fixed bids. It's not about making money but about getting the data in so you can adjust it later. It needs to be fixed as Amazon don't have previous data to use and needs to learn about the title. Gain 100-300 sales from ads before you try to move on.
I needed to be completely honest with myself here, so I made some notes about potential problems I might face when it came to my book's description on a Facebook ad I was running, and how that would lead people to Amazon.
"The cover and ad is nice. Title potentially fine. Price £1.99 is acceptable as this is mentioned on the ad too. It leads to a click through to Amazon UK... could have more reviews as 41 in the UK and 58 in the US. Can the UK be higher as I live in the UK? Bold formatting is a bit off and the main USP and reasons to buy it are too far down. This can be corrected. The A+ content at the minute is OK but not very fantasy-related (again this can be corrected)."
KYC = (Know Your Customer).
31/05/2024 - I continued my study of branding and advertising to improve my product description page, but by this point I was honestly feeling very overwhelmed, tired, and a bit defeated by it all. There is NO WAY a new author would know any of this, and it baffled me how anyone sells anything with such complicated systems.
I learned a bit about the different types of branding
I learned a near fact about Amazon reviews
Linear brands are in a series like Harry Potter. Non-linear brands are a series of similar things that can be read out of order, but still understood. Targeted non-Linear brands niche down on the non-linear, for example a book about anxiety can be further niched to OCD or social anxiety etc. Expanded branding are workbooks or colouring books that relate to the original content.
My Chronicles of Pandora series is therefore a linear brand.
I discovered today that a reader must get through at least 50% of an e-book for the review on Amazon to count. I'm not sure if this is true or a rumour, but something I thought worth noting.
This covers the May entries in my success journal, and at the end of the month I was left feeling lost and confused. There was still a lot to learn, but I'd taken in quite a lot of information as well, and had to learn lots of percentages, abbreviations and 'tricks of the trade' to get my book's product description page and the Amazon ads I was running to standard. I am sure having read this, you are just as puzzled as I was back then, and writing this now I have to admit I'm not overly confident, but I'm getting better.
I'll be posting more about my June entries in the coming weeks. Please stick with me for the 7th instalment in this series coming soon...
Rach x
September 22, 2024
Indie Author Diaries: Part Five - 1* Reviews, Feeling Alone, and Wondering If I've Let Myself Down
"I got a 1* review over the weekend, and it was from a blank profile with a username I'm not familiar with on [review platform]. I don't know how he's read the book and it's not verified either, but it says he 'went in riveted' but ultimately, he came away ''somewhat disappointed'."
I remember writing that in my journal on May 20th 2024 and feeling somewhat confused how that equated to a 1* rating overall. I'd have hoped for a riveting start but a disappointing ending, maybe a 2-3* would have been more appropriate and less of a kick to my average on Amazon. However, each to their own...
This went in my 'success' journal. It isn't really about success but progress, documenting everything* about the re-release of my series 'The Chronicles of Pandora' to see just how far I've come, what I have achieved, and what I've survived.
I hope it helps you (or at the very least entertains you!). Perhaps you can prepare for or completely avoid the mistakes I made.
*Yes, these entries are real, but I've edited out some of the more personal and private information for obvious reasons. I hope you understand! I will also not mention the names of people, companies or shops I've encountered in a negative way. It's only my experience, so it would be unfair of me to name them when others may have had a fantastic experience.
20/05/2024 - Thankfully this 1* didn't upset me, merely left me a bit puzzled. So I turned to my tarot cards, which I often do when I need a bit of comfort from the universe. I studied them when writing Elemental Ascension, and found the act of studying each card and its meaning left me asking personal and profound questions of myself, allowing me to develop and better my mental health. Do I believe they predict the past/future? I'm not convinced, but I love how they make me think and feel.
This deck of cards was called 'Into the Lonely Woods; by Lucy Cavendish. She wrote, "Call back to yourself the wondering parts of your mind and soul that departed when they knew others could not understand them." - That's from Pg 46, and I'd encourage you to check this out (there's a deck of cards with a guidebook, but also a hardback book available).
I fell in love with that quote because it perfectly describes what it's like to be an independent author, or I'm sure to have any creative side hustle. "Today I've been feeling alone. Alone enough that I've scheduled some time to actually be alone, including to write and to simply be. I feel like I am fighting this battle to be something all by myself which I understand because only I can do this... I feel like I have let down my 18-y/o self; I'm not the person I dreamed I would be. I feel like all the luck and the opportunities, the money and the stability goes to the wrong people. I've been trying, but even targeted ads aren't working - a process that on the surface seems to work for everyone else... I just don't understand why I have different rules, like Truman, being kept in one set of circumstances for the entertainment of others. I feel like my lack of sales right now is orchestrated or something, though I keep fighting."
I'm sad re-reading this entry, because sometimes it does feel a bit like the world is against you despite everything you're doing or trying. Truman refers to The Truman Show by the way, the movie starring Jim Carrey. It's a fantastic movie - please go watch it and you'll understand what I mean by things being orchestrated against you.
I then go on to write something even I'm stunned to read back, because I have no idea where it came from. This is the power of the written word, and being able to reflect.
"I have so much to say. So much to teach. The written word is a saviour, a lifeline in many forms. At least, it is for me. And the pen and paper are an ancient set of tools readily available. I document this way to try to free myself from restraints. Some I cannot see or feel until I wriggle around a little. There is power and courage in the space between the nib and the page. I capture it when I feel brave enough to try to reach out to my soul - the page is the mirror, and often I am the only one able to unravel a thought or an emotion when I wield the pen and embrace silence. It does not criticise or humiliate. It keeps secrets, forces me to uncover truths however tempting darkness may be, and though it helps me to project who I am, it acts as a beacon to call me back to myself... All that I need is within me. All the success, appreciation and approval for every creative venture I embark upon is behind my pen."
I was fed up of allowing my 'success' to be in someone else's hands. Only because that is where I was placing it, instead of realising that only I could steer this ship. I wanted to get every negative thought out on the page to leave room for only the positive, motivational, and inspirational thoughts. "Get out of my head, and make room for the light." So I made a list of everything 'bad' I could ever say to myself or others could say to me when it came to my writing. And by 'bad', I don't mean cruel or hurtful or depressing. Just things I didn't want to have to encounter, like "People don't like my book; it gets bad reviews". Or, "I wasn't prepared for that; I didn't learn enough and I jumped in too soon."
The logic? If it has already been said and I've seen it on paper, nothing will shock me, nothing will hurt me. I can simply shrug it off and say 'been there, thought that, means nothing to me'. It takes away its power.
I'm going to write a bit of a disclaimer here. This kind of activity is not for everybody. If you keep a journal regularly or have been to therapy, you may have done something like this before (and that is NOT what I did here - it's a separate kind of list. The negative points were NOT personal and they were NOT intended to make me cry or make me dislike myself - it was focused only on my writing and the frustrations around it). Journaling can generate emotions, and as I am not a therapist, I do NOT suggest you sit and list lots of negative things about you and your work. My attempt was to clear the air of what I thought might be blocking the positive.
My list included things I haven't ever actually said to myself (or thought), but may do in the future, or may have said to me. It was a prediction in a way, a shield I could build and allow other people's arrows to ping off and disappear. Doesn't matter if you tell me you don't like my book - I expected somebody wouldn't at some point because I can't and shouldn't try to please everyone. So there. That kind of thing.
I won't be listing what I wrote here because it's not a task I want to encourage. If anything, do the opposite! Write down all the amazing things about your work and what people could say that brings you joy and fills you with pride. You work hard. You love what you do. You speak passionately about it. You sat and read a boring blog by an indie author complaining about being an indie author and you got this far! Yey!
I will, however, share five things that may resonate with 'imposter syndrome' in writers, which is basically what this whole series of blog posts is about! I'm sure these appear on lists often.
"I'm not any good at this." or the question "Am I really any good at this?" (Yes, you are.)
"I don't have the money to invest in this." (No problem, you don't need any.)
"I'm not talented enough." (Talent is down to personal taste. You can't please everyone. For every reader that doesn't think there's talent there, two more might think you're the best author they have ever read, and they tell all their friends. It's subjective.)
"I'm not knowledgeable enough." (Yet. You can learn. You probably know more than you think you do.)
"I will never be famous." (To one little girl reading your book under the covers because she's absolutely hooked, you're probably a super star. That's the sort of fame you want).
Bet these are familiar? There is always room for growth. And you can always learn more, discover more, meet new people etc. And you do not need to invest a lot of money to self-publish a book. Really. If you are just starting out, these thoughts are normal and I'm sure every writer will agree we all doubt our talent and whether anyone will know of our work in the future. But it's early days. There's a long way to go yet and trust me when I tell you that mistakes and things that seem to hold you back will turn out to be blessings.
After I got all of that out of my system and felt a bit sorry for myself for 24-hours (and a bit angry at the world when they had nothing against me!), I battled on over the next few days, and by the 27th May 2024, I documented in my journal that I'd had 5 random sales on the Hoopla platform, and I had no idea how or why they came about, but they made me happy. I uploaded some documents to KDP for my OHAWF pre-order, and that made me happy. I noticed my books were getting some nice comments on Goodreads with 47 people 'wanting to read' TSAW and a 4.0 star average. This made me happy!
By the 29th May 2024, I had emailed lots more groups about my talks and workshops. All I wanted to do was inspire others and help them to find their own paths to success by this point. I joined some more Facebook groups to learn what others were doing and to share some links to my book on the ones that allowed self-promotion. And, I noticed Amazon had a few of my books on sale, so I was able to share those links to see if anyone fancied grabbing a bargain. Perhaps some of those people that had marked TSAW as a 'want to read'? They might be tempted!
List or no list, I remind myself every day that I'm doing my absolute best. Even when that day I actually haven't written anything or emailed anyone - other things have taken priority, and it's important to acknowledge that's OK.
Please stick with me for the 5th instalment in this series (and the final one that covers May 2024) coming soon...
Rach x
September 15, 2024
Indie Author Diaries: Part Four - Comparing My Book to Bestsellers, Discovering TikTok, Disagreeing with a YouTuber, and Learning Little Things Mean A LOT!
"I finished reading ACOTAR book 2 last night and my book is terrible in comparison!"
But, it's also nothing like my book; it's aimed at a completely different target audience, is non-spice, inspired by Greek mythology and doesn't include faeries at all...
I remember writing that in my journal on May 12th 2024 at 9pm after reflecting on the second book in Sarah J Maas's A Court of Thorns & Roses series. And after further reflection four months later, I'm laughing at how much I put myself down for comparing my high fantasy YA series (with absolutely nothing in common with ACOTAR) to another author's work.
This went in my 'success' journal. It isn't really about success but progress, documenting everything* about the re-release of my series 'The Chronicles of Pandora' to see just how far I've come, what I have achieved, and what I've survived.
I hope it helps you (or at the very least entertains you!). Perhaps you can prepare for or completely avoid the mistakes I made.
*Yes, these entries are real, but I've edited out some of the more personal and private information for obvious reasons. I hope you understand! I will also not mention the names of people, companies or shops I've encountered in a negative way. It's only my experience, so it would be unfair of me to name them when others may have had a fantastic experience.
12/05/2024 21:00 hours & 14/05/2024 - This was a mixed entry, as were the days that followed. So, I've summarised a few of them here to get across the main points without having to explain each note I made.
A Youtuber stresses the vital things I needed to have for my book to be successful.
I start using TikTok to promote my book, and my love of other books.
A few local social groups have booked me to speak at their events, inspiring them to write and to tell them about why and how I became an independent author.
"I filmed 2 short TSAW vids and one is on TikTok—the matching bookmark one. I have also filmed the stack of proof copies. It is saved to drafts. 185 views in 5 mins and counting. 1557 by 21:14."
TSAW is my novel To See A World.
As a user of mostly Facebook for connecting with friends and family, and Instagram to lovingly stare at other people's beautiful journal spreads, TikTok scared me to begin with (and still does a little). I'm not used to being on the camera a lot, and haven't really kept up to my YouTube channel since having my son a few years back. Mostly, because I haven't got time to edit the content. So when I discovered my target audience were all over on TikTok, I decided I needed to try. I have absolutely no idea if the above figures are good for a TikTok video viewing, and part of me has to admit I don't care all that much (sorry!). All that matters to me is that my videos reach people genuinely interested; 1557 views is good because it does mean all those people have seen the content and it is potentially 1.5k book lovers, right?. But... I highly doubt all 1557 then went on to look at the book, purchase it, etc...
The art of social media and how to get a video trending, the use of hashtags and the various dances and popular sounds etc overwhelms me. Totally. If anyone reading this can give me the heads up how to reach more real viewers, then e-mail me! I'd love to know the insiders tips and tricks for TikTok, and how to get my ideal target audience to see my content and engage with it. At the moment, and certainly when I wrote this, I was toying with the platform and experimenting with what it could do, and what the baseline of viewers would be with the minimal effort.
A Youtuber with, supposedly, a million-dollar indie author career shared a list of what books absolutely had to have to be successful. I wrote them down in my journal:
Professional Cover Design
A+ Content
More Reviews (20-50)
Market the Book
Show the Inside of the Book on TikTok
Now, frustrating as it is and you'll know because in one of the previous posts in this series, I talked about low-content books... this author produces either ghost-written books or low-content journals and colouring books etc. So I took all of this with a pinch of salt.
My cover designs are not purchased through a professional (but they are designed by a professional... me). So I ticked that one off. Why pay somebody to rip me off when I could create something unique and uphold my 100% indie goal? The A+ content again is not professionally designed, but I created and uploaded this to give an extra little taste of the book's themes on Amazon. I ticked this off too. The reviews... I was already working on using the platform (that I'm not naming) to gradually increase the number of genuine readers. I ticked that off, because on Amazon US, I'd surpassed 50 reviews already. UK not so much, because the users of the platform turned out to be mostly American. Marketing the book - don't get me started. To me, every little thing I note and try is an attempt to market the book, and in the months to come I'll talk more about that. Finally, as you read above, using TikTok. Tick.... sort of.
I'd argue that having all the above does not make my book 'successful' with a steady stream of readers, all buying the book every day from Amazon having seen me on social media. Define successful first of all. But I think 99% of indie authors will tell you that it doesn't matter how many formulas you try to re-create, or how many 'rules' or lists you follow, sales do not happen like this and certainly not overnight.
Sorry Mr. YouTuber, but.... that's easy for you to say.
The next day, on May 14th 2024, I reached out to a full page of contacts via email and socials and even snail mail to offer them talks and workshops.
Inspiring people to write, especially children, is really important to me because it's how and where I started. So back to defining success... if I can convince one or two people a month to pick up a pen and express themselves, I've achieved something worthwhile. On that day's entry, I counted 10 emails sent to new contacts.
A few bookings did come in, which was a good sign that what I have to say and share on the subject of writing a book is of interest, and important to others too. I also had a local free magazine confirm they were running a free piece for me this month, so I'd be able to introduce myself to people in my area with a love of books. The book reviewer contact he had was too busy to help me out (fair enough, I feel their pain) but Amazon reviews were creeping up slowly, so I wasn't too bothered.
15/05/2024 - The same YouTuber released a new video, so I made some notes to see if he could help me figure out my Amazon and Facebook ads problem.
Here are my notes from that day (perhaps even though they didn't really help me, they will be of use to you!). If you're not running ads, this may not make sense to you as you won't have seen the screen they get you to fill in, so feel free to skip it.
"Begin with a manual keyword campaign and a manual product campaign. UK, US and/or CAN too. 2 weeks later, you can switch it to auto targeting. This will help to ID the best keywords. Focus on paperback only or paperback and e-book together. For dynamic bids, select down only. High content - custom bidding should be at 65c (52p) and low content 30c (23p). Only use broad keywords. Do this before you click to add the keywords, so the settings for those you enter are the same. Use the 7 high demand low competition keywords on Amazon that you have already researched when publishing your book, then use the Amazon search tool for other suggestions. Amend it once you get 1k impressions or 10 clicks, then optimise it. £10 max per day or £4 if you're strapped."
This is the part that meant the most to me:
"Clicks but no sales - looks good but then they are turned off for some reason.
Impressions but no clicks - looks poor from the start."
Breaking Down Amazon Ad Advice
Basically what the above means, in a nutshell, is that when running an Amazon ad, this YouTuber recommended you manually enter the keywords you want your book to appear in for shoppers. He wants us to give it two weeks to let Amazon's algorithms learn about our book and the shopping habits of others interacting with it before we let Amazon take over and do that automatically for us. He recommends using the keywords you've already given Amazon KDP when publishing your book to start with and to try and aim for a £10 per day spend at first, or as low as £4 if you're a bit strapped for cash.
The outcome? If you get 'impressions' meaning the book appears in front of people, but nobody actually clicks it, then it doesn't look good enough to grab their attention. If you get people's attention and get people to click on the book (costing you money) but they don't buy the book, then it disappoints them at some point between the click and the sale.
Got a headache yet?
Yeah... me too.
16/05/2024 - In this entry, I note something important that I didn't think would be important at the time. I want to talk about it here as it's evidence that you shouldn't give up, and that attempts however small are worth the effort because they do pay off, just maybe not straight away.
"I have sent the details of Elemental Ascension to [store name] as they posted on Facebook asking for tarot card non-fiction. I thought I would try my luck."
EA is my novel Elemental Ascension.
This is important because the Facebook post wasn't about fictional books. Yet, I decided to risk it and emailed them anyway because EA features a full tarot card spread, and is all about a seer predicting the future of the hero, and him following his path because of it. I didn't hear back straight away and realised perhaps I had overstepped and been deleted or ignored because they only wanted non-fiction, but later down the line I got a really enthusiastic reply asking to stock the book, which was fantastic news. It also led to a potential event running in 2025, which we are still organising as I write this.
"I watched a movie about a 16y/o Australian girl who sailed around the world. It was her dream and inspired others. I shouldn't give up on mine, but it is so hard!"
The next few days in my journal were rather boring, as they included mostly editorial notes for OHAWF (my novel, Of Heavens and Wild Flowers) and lists of things I needed to check and images I wanted to include etc.
I pick back up on the 20th, where I have a meaningful and painful rant to myself about the struggles of being an independent author, and how sometimes it feels like the only person in the universe who cares is me.
It's daunting, but I'll cover it next week for anyone feeling a little like that right now. It's a feeling that comes and goes, but when it passes, in its place is this surge of motivation and determination.
Hang in there.
Please stick with me for the 5th instalment in this series coming soon...
Rach x
September 7, 2024
Indie Author Diaries - Part Three: The Worst Review I Have Ever Received, and the Tears to Prove It
"Soulless...[like it's] actually something to be proud of...exposition dump...mistake in the first line...some of the worst writing I have ever come across..."
It got worse...
I remember writing that in my journal on May 8th 2024 at 8pm after a HORRIBLE day. I'd spent most of it in tears over this truly awful review I'd received on Facebook of all places, and then even longer crying over how angry at myself I was for allowing it to happen, for not responding to it the way I truly wanted to, for removing the review, and for literally every other action I'd ever taken since becoming a writer in 2010. Reviews like this really do make creatives question themselves. Are we actually talented at all? Are we just imposters? Is every good review I've ever received just out of pity?
This went in my 'success' journal. It isn't really about success but progress, documenting everything* about the re-release of my series 'The Chronicles of Pandora' to see just how far I've come, what I have achieved, and what I've survived.
I hope it helps you (or at the very least entertains you!). Perhaps you can prepare for or completely avoid the mistakes I made.
*Yes, these entries are real, but I've edited out some of the more personal and private information for obvious reasons. I hope you understand! I will also not mention the names of people, companies or shops I've encountered in a negative way. It's only my experience, so it would be unfair of me to name them when others may have had a fantastic experience.
I'm sorry if any of you have ever received reviews that break your heart. Sending hugs.
The saying I grew up with: 'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all', or this one... 'Treat others how you would want to be treated'.
Well... in this industry, these basic rules for humanity do not exist. I have proof.
I sat at my desk on May 8th and cried. A friend had to console me, I was so upset. I sobbed at the sheer cruelty of this person's comments and how they seemed researched and real. The comments were, to me, legitimate as they mentioned things that I do have in my book, but they were so... mean. I scoured the opening chapter of the book for hours that evening looking for the mistake/s he'd said were on the first line. I had others do the same. I checked the e-book edition and the paperback edition. Nothing. Nobody could see what this person was referring to, and that made me even more anxious. Was I such a terrible author that I couldn't even see what should have been staring me in the face? Was I less skilled than this person?
Friends and family said the review seemed malicious. But if his comments were malicious or meant to either turn others off reading it, what could I possibly have done to this person (or in a past life!) to deserve that kind of behaviour from a complete stranger? This sent me into a spiral of anxiety. I couldn't comprehend how somebody thought that was OK. Basic kindness... thrown out the window. Constructive criticism in a helpful manner without offending or causing hurt... out the window. Reviews don't have to be positive, but they don't have to cause pain. Who was this person?
For a few minutes, I explored the possibility that I may already know them. Maybe it was somebody I knew, or did know, who had a grudge and saw an opportunity to express it through a fake account? Surely, I would remember parting on such negative vibes. Nah... too much effort. And this person's account was not my target audience, had no other links to books or the literary world in any way. They did not even have recent posts I could see (as their profile was public). I was so confused as to how my book could have ended up in this person's hands, but I did have a paperback sale earlier in the week that stunned me.
Maybe... just maybe... this review was real?
A friend said that obviously, somebody was jealous, wanting to put me down to raise themself up. But why me? I'm not exactly J. K. Rowling! There are writers out there far more involved in social media doing much MUCH better than me. Nah... not likely. They'd pick on somebody who they thought was their own size (or the size they wanted to be).
Then, I had a bookish friend take a look; she thought it looked suspicious, like spam or a bot... or something. She suggested I report it, block the account to be safe, and hide it from my Facebook page. I did all those wise things and never heard back thank goodness, but the hurt and doubt had been planted in my soul. It unnerved me that somebody could be so publicly cruel to another person, because I would never ever deem anything like that appropriate, even from a professional or famous critic!
Was To See A World truly THAT terrible? If you've read Parts 1 and 2 of this series, you'll know about my discovery of AI and my caution with using it for certain things. This person's awful review led me to want to limit the print of that particular edition of To See A World and remove everything AI image related to re-release the version I have on sale today. I should say here that my books are NOT written with AI. I just played around with to create a few pictures of characters and locations for a bit of fun. I wish I hadn't had the audacity to think that was OK!
The decision made me sad because I loved the extra visuals I'd included, but I could see how some readers may not appreciate the use of AI, or want the characters presented for them. Imagination is so important in this industry, so I made the decision to, sadly, let the internet troll win. I kept the images though, and you can see them all proudly on my website if you want to have a look. Just click to explore Haeylo.
Here's the book the reviewer hated:
Later in the entry, I did note some positive things down.
I'd sent some mailings out about my talks and workshops on creative writing, hoping to inspire some local groups to pick up a pen too. This was exciting as I'd never used snail mail to promote myself before.
I got my first ever Amazon ad click. No sale, but somebody clicked the damn thing!
I ran a Facebook ad (that niggled me because there was one thing I couldn't figure out how to amend). Well... I fixed it!
Here's the book I re-created (out now):
The more I think about that review as time has passed, the more I think it was likely just spam or a fake profile trying to drum up business elsewhere. On that same journal entry, I wrote that I'd been getting lots of spam and phishing messages/comments on my FB page that I'd had to report, which seemed to happen since I started posting to FB groups as if I'd invited them to target me. Logic suggests one of the scammers uses this fake profile to generate some dread and self-doubt in their 'clients', then sent a message from a professional-looking page to help fix... coincidentally... those exact problems. So if you've experienced anything similar, please stay safe and get suspicious posts and messages reported, blocked, deleted and then ignored.
You're doing amazing. Know that.
Real or not, if I had one short message for that person. I would say...
'It doesn't matter if you like my book or not. All you have to do is be kind .'
I hope this content helps you as an author to feel seen; you're not the only one out there experiencing this kind of hurt. You should know there is plenty of good intermingled with these struggles, and they are worth the wait. Please stick with me for the 4th instalment in this series coming soon...
Rach x
August 31, 2024
Indie Author Diaries - Part Two: Failing Spectacularly with Freebies, Trying Again, and STILL Failing Spectacularly
"I don't want to be rich, only to know my books are being read and enjoyed... I can't even give them away free!"
My Indie Author Diaries continues this week, covering May 2024 in my 'success journal' that isn't really about success but progress. If you haven't already read Part One: Complaining About the Stuff I Hate About Being an Author, you can read that here to see what this series is all about. Basically, I'm opening up my real-life* day-to-day journal for all things writing and publishing, and sharing some helpful insights to make new and struggling authors feel less... alone.
I hope it helps you (or at the very least entertains you!). Perhaps you can prepare for or completely avoid the mistakes I made.
*Yes, these entries are real, but I've edited out some of the more personal and private information for obvious reasons. I hope you understand! I will also not mention the names of people, companies, or shops I've encountered in a negative way. It's only my experience, so it would be unfair of me to name them when others may have had a fantastic experience.
After a less-than-impressive April, I started my journal on May 4th 2024 and I must say here, openly, that May the 4th was NOT with me as I'm sure you read last week. But, after laying everything out on the page and 'dumping' my thoughts, I found some clarity and motivation to continue through my struggles. I still wanted to burn everything I'd ever written feeling a bit sorry for myself (as all writers do... right?), but I could see a plan forming—there was a path out of self-publishing Hell appearing before me.
05/05/2024 20:48pm- this second entry helped me to form a path through the list of problems I'd noted on the 4th. It solidified how journaling would act as my guide, because it was already allowing me to form pathways and new ideas towards solutions. I decided I wanted to give away my
Noah Finn & the Art of Suicide
audiobook codes, but how Amazon ads were appearing in places I didn't realise they would. I gave in to AI temptation and created some interesting images for
The Chronicles of Pandora
.
"I messaged [a group of people I know] today and offered my Noah Finn audiobooks for free. Nobody wanted one."
After offering free audiobook codes to a group of people I know (who I thought might support me if it didn't involve a cost) and not getting any response whatsoever, I felt a little broken when it came to giving things away, and confused as to where my real support truly sat. I asked myself, if I can't give my book away for free then how can I expect anyone to pay for it? Surely, there had to be a simpler and less icky (and soul-destroying!) way to offer audiobooks for free in exchange for nothing but honest reviews to, hopefully, boost the interest and entice some sales for my efforts. Maybe these people just didn't like being messaged by me, or they were busy and forgot, or they didn't want to be the first to grab a freebie in a group chat... who knows?
On paper, my idea to promote it sounded reasonable and like a great plan of action:
Offer audiobook in exchange for an email subscription to my website = free audiobook code is sent to individual user at no expense to either of us = reader hopefully enjoys listening to the book on Spotify = reader leaves a review of the audiobook = review looks good on Amazon (or whatever other platform they decide to leave their comments on) = this, in turn, promotes the other formats.
Oh, how foolish was I! Turns out, giving individual unique codes away for free (and limiting the number of codes overall, plus the number of times they can be claimed and for how long) is not as easy as you would expect it to be with technology these days. I spent several hours researching and contacting customer services over the next few days to see if there was a way I simply wasn't seeing.
As it wasn't immediately an option for auto-responses within the platform I use (red tape number one), I decided to try a workaround, but that particular option limited the characters in the codes I have (mine were MUCH longer, due to no fault of my own as I wasn't the one generating them - red tape number two). It got me thinking if I could somehow 'sell' the code at a zero cost through my online store, so instead of being emailed the redeemable Spotify code they would receive a unique code to purchase an audiobook on my store for free, and then be emailed the code as a means to deliver it. This was red tape number three as (though technically I wouldn't be selling the code, merely giving it away but through a shop) doing it through my online store, I feared, would break a rule set out by the audiobook distributor I use. Also, there didn't seem a way to do this again through my provider to create a code to give an item away (like a 100% discount, effectively) so that was red tape number four.
I gave up. Can you blame me? I later discovered a way to promote those free audiobook codes that did not involve technology anyway, and I'll share it later in the series.
"There has GOT to be a way to do this on [platform], surely? Ideally, I wanted it automating. Maybe I can offer Elemental Ascension (EA) free instead in e-pub form for any readers subscribing and beg for reviews of that edition? Though, it would open EA up to plagiarism, but I guess so does uploading to [review site]?"
Notice my use of the word 'beg'. Yes, that's how it feels sometimes.
"I think AI is good for some things in this industry and not others. For example, my scene-setting images for characters and locations, and I have today created 6 free colouring pages for email subscribers..."
If you're not already subscribed and you want to see what AI created with the parameters I set using a fantastic bit of online design at Kittl (I love Kittl and would recommend it), pop your email address into my home page and you'll be sent those 6 A4 sheets to have a look at. Honestly, I was impressed (or I wouldn't have sent them out)! Two of them can be seen below:
Despite being really impressed with my little self for creating such amazing freebies and visuals for my series, one particular Facebook troll (later in my journal) completely slashed my confidence with cruel and personal comments about the first book in the series, To See A World. So, I limited the edition including any kind of AI and re-released it. More on that later, too.
I noticed that evening, after re-running some Amazon ads to try yet again to get my book noticed, that they were appearing in a few places on product pages for other novels. I found this fascinating and immediately made a list of any I'd seen:
Beneath the menu bar at the top of the page
Beneath the description mid-way down
Beneath the buy column on the right
In 'products related', a scroll bar showing you similar items to the one you were viewing
In 'based on recent reviews', a scroll bar showing you items based on what you've looked at recently.
Beneath the review button on the bottom left.
I then made note of the authors appearing on my product page and which books Amazon ads were running in those places. I did a bit of research into each of them and their similarities to my story or my cover or my target audience. It turns out, the author dominating those was a USA Today Bestselling Author, which made me sigh (and not with relief). How could I compete with 'bids' for Amazon ads against an author who was probably already doing really well (based on reviews and the number of books she had, she definitely was!) and how could I afford to out-bid somebody like that for the spots I wanted? This created another dilemma, but a dilemma I could potentially logic my way around if I did enough research.
I'd recommend doing this type of research though and perhaps before you attempt an ad of your own. It's worth the time.
I didn't write again until the 7th...
Two days later, I was really beginning to hate technology, and loving my journal more than anything because of how it comforted me, involved only me (not scammers!), and couldn't write fake reviews of my book in seconds. Oh, how I wish we could all just revert to typewriters sometimes. Any one else?
The review platform I found and did research on, previously mentioned, I had high hopes for. Here was a platform where authors could help other authors to increase their reviews with genuine comments and star ratings. Perhaps I'm naive, but my understanding seemed to differ to some, though not all, others. I'm a busy bee, so I could only read short books or offer feedback on things like journals and poetry. I didn't pretend to be able to read massive fantasy sagas or complex sci-fi novels. But for the smaller books I did manage to read, I made lots of notes in a notebook and then formed a review I though the author would appreciate.
It didn't take me long to discover some of the reviews I was receiving were sounding... similar. And I soon realised that when you upload your book, you have to detail things about it and tick some boxes to help others choose your book but sadly, some seemed to just select the book (claiming the credits for it to get reviews back for themselves) and then use the information you had given in an attempt to entice the right readers to form a quick, lifeless comment or two. This, I believe, is where the problem lies!
I reported two very similar reviews which may as well have cut and pasted what I'd written at a later date (shortly before I gave up trying and cancelled my subscription completely) and the below was the entry from the 7th:
"Basically, one gave the wrong character name and so it is obviously either a typo or a false review. I got a refund of credits back and they took the reviewer's away until they'd fixed it. I also had to report one that says it's a great series despite there only being one book out at the moment. False... or a typo? Who knows! The customer service continues to amaze me. So, I will probably have to wait longer for a response with it being down right now."
What I would advise, for anyone wanting to give sites like this a try, is to give the bare minimum information. Genre, target audience and the blurb from the back only. That way, you're more likely to find the readers you want and need, who will read cover-to-cover and play fair. The more information you share up-front, the more you are giving somebody to type into an AI engine.
I read on a social media post that you can find interested readers and reviewers in groups on Facebook, which I'd done in the past but not for many years. It seems the best places for promo are now TikTok and Instagram.
But, I decided why not? It's important to check the guidelines and rules so they definitely allow 'self-promotion'. Personally, I think posting that you're in search of honest reviewers, bloggers etc is not self-promotion but asking for help. Self-promotion to me is 'buy my book'. But... I'm not in charge of these things. [shrugs shoulders]
I created and edited a post about the book I thought sounded interesting, using my hook (see part one) and selected 20 Facebook groups I was either already in or that allowed self-promo to share my 'in search of' post. Out of all 20 posts, I think maybe 1 or 2 people responded with a like. I got endless scammers and spammers wanting to 'talk to me about my book', only to send me an unwanted message asking me for money for various 'services'. Lots had fake profile pictures, and one (which I did engage with out of interest to see just what they wanted) offered me a service then told me they didn't actually have a website. Despite their photo being a professional headshot in a suit and full makeup, and the claims to have helped X number of authors, this had me giggling.
After doing that, I was mostly frustrated and exhausted from trying to deflect scammers, and not at all proud of myself for the promotional work I had attempted. I found zero reviewers from this, and I don't think I got even one download or sale.
In my opinion? A waste of time.
From these two days, my journal taught me how to be suspicious and how to see the red flags in things that appeared too good to be true (because they were). it also helped massively with Amazon ads research!
Over the next few weeks I'll keep going through my journal's content to see how I managed to overcome a bunch more issues, documenting some amazing things that helped my progress, and some events I thoroughly enjoyed over the past few months.
I hope this content helps you as an author to feel seen too; you're not the only one out there getting stuck and frustrated. You should know there is plenty of good intermingled with these struggles and they are worth the wait. Please stick with me for the 3rd instalment in this series coming soon, especially if you have ever been on the receiving end of a truly horrible review.
Rach x
August 25, 2024
Indie Author Diaries - Part One: Complaining About the Stuff I Hate About Being An Author
"I think, maybe, it's time to accept that my book just isn't good, and the demand is zero."
I remember writing that in my journal on May 4th 2024. It was around 9pm, and I'd had a disappointing day (after a disappointing few months). I set out in late-2023 to achieve something, and four months into the new year, I was still no further to nearing my goal. At least, I didn't think I was, because I couldn't see my progress (however slow). I needed to see everything laid out on the page. What had I tried? What did I still need to do? What problems was I facing?
So, I decided to start a 'success' journal. It isn't really about success but progress. The aim of the journal, which is 100% handwritten by the way (other than blogging, I keep everything in notebooks and journals with a pen and paper), is to document everything about the re-release of my series 'The Chronicles of Pandora' and eventually, I'd look back after its completion and see just how far I'd come, what I'd achieved, and what I'd survived.
The aim of this short blog series four months later (I'm hoping for a minimum of four parts, maybe a couple more if I have enough to share from my notes?), is to show you the brutal, honest truth of self-publishing from the genuine* handwritten notes of an indie author in the midst of working full time, raising a child, trying to write, trying to help others, attending events and overall, attempting to maintain some level of sanity!
I hope it helps you (or at the very least entertains you!). Perhaps you can prepare for or completely avoid the mistakes I made.
*Yes, these entries are real, but I've edited out some of the more personal and private information for obvious reasons. I hope you understand! I will also not mention the names of people, companies or shops I've encountered in a negative way. It's only my experience, so it would be unfair of me to name them when others may have had a fantastic experience.
04/05/2024 9:10pm - this initial entry was a collection of all the issues I was facing so I could see everything laid on the page. It includes lots of different things and what I'd tried so far. In this blog, I'll summarise the following in my notes: Amazon Ads and Keywords A+ Content, Categories, and the Amazon Product Page Re-Writing the Blurb Book Stores
"I set out last year to give Pandora a chance because I wanted to keep writing in that series—I wanted to complete the story and re-boot it. I thought I had a good, complex storyline, and God knows it has been through so many re-writes... I'm utterly bewildered, honestly. I feel like I'm doing things right, and the cover is beautiful and the website is professional."
With things like this going through my mind every day, I knew I had to take some action. As I'm an anxious person generally, I find journaling really beneficial. It's a way to calm my mind and try to make sense of my feelings and the problems I'm experiencing. This first journal entry turned into... well... a huge complain. I was feeling sorry for myself because the re-launch of To See A World (book one in The Chronicles of Pandora) hadn't gone as I'd hoped. Despite the hours and hours of research I'd committed to the series to perfect things like keywords, categories, and learning advertising on Amazon and Facebook, I wasn't really seeing any real traction. You can check out my blog post about what I really hate about being a writer sometimes, and then read this to gain a further understanding of why.
Keywords are one of the things I dislike because they are something which changes a lot based on demand and what people search for. As the hypes and 'next big thing' shifts, so do the keywords. I noticed I was having to adjust these keywords weekly. I don't know about you working mums out there, but having a side hustle is difficult at the best of times, never mind when it's being consumed by something so tedious for no good reason.
"...my budget for the day is just sitting there. My time spent calculating was, frankly, a waste of time. It doesn't matter, does it!?"
This entry relates to my efforts to get Amazon ad impressions and clicks. I'd sat and made notes about how many books I'd need to sell to make back my fees; how many impressions should convert to sales; how many sales might convert to reviews. I'd filled half a page with sums and calculations, and after reviewing what I should have been seeing vs what I was really seeing (and what others were claiming to be seeing), I assumed I must be doing something wrong.
"But here is the truly devastating bit. These people have seen my book and not one decided it was worth even looking at. I'm not sure what's worse—people clicking and deciding it's not for them (after presumably thinking it looked good), or people just not choosing to click at all."
Don't answer that question. Please, I beg you.
It was at this point I opened YouTube and did some searching. I found a guy who I thought made a lot of sense to see if he could help me with some of my main concerns when it came to self-publishing. As well as advertising, one of those was gaining reviews. I wrote a bunch of notes based on his advice, then added extras to convince myself I was already doing the majority of them.
He said that keywords need to be in high demand but with low competition. So I did a Publisher Rocket search for mine. This took many attempts because I struggled to find... well... ANY! Everything was either high demand or high competition. No matter what I typed in. Then he said the new categories needed to be niched down enough to rank effectively whilst still being relevant. I think I satisfied this point but, as I wrote later, "who knows?".
"KDP informed me I could not ask for more categories any more—three max. And only 7 keywords per format, and those require separate research too."
He said that ideally, I needed between 30-50 reviews before I ran an Amazon ad. I already had a healthy number and I managed to find a website to help me encourage more readers to honestly and genuinely review the title in a shorter timeframe in the months running up to starting this journal (more on this later). But, my book is more popular in the US than the UK so most of my reviews are in that territory. It frustrates me that the number of reviews isn't carried across the Amazon platforms unless you look at the US site I've found, but this was something out of my control. I wanted to up my UK reviews but ultimately ended up gaining mostly US reviews.
The service I mentioned is a paid service, monthly, with an additional one-off fee if you want your reviews to be verified on Amazon, meaning reviewers have to buy the book first and then leave their review rather than just receive a free copy. I should note here that I checked thoroughly that this meets all policies, because I was anxious this would break an Amazon review law. It's allowed, but it also did not go well for me and has completely put me off doing this in future (and I'm no longer using it!). I didn't realise this until further into the journal so I won't explain the outcome here. But, I did note the following at this point:
"[the YouTuber] recommends charging more per Kindle edition and £9.99-£10.00 for a paperback, but then the verified purchases on the review platform are more expensive per book, so you burn more credits... At 1k credits each book, they do not stretch far!"
This related to the service working on a credit basis. Different books based on their length are worth a certain number of credits to read and review. The idea is you review for others and build up credits, then you can cash them in to ask for reviews. But if you're like me and you don't have a lot of free time, you can only help with low-content books so only earn around 1k credits each. But, it's maybe 1.6k to ask for a review of To See A World. You see where I'm going with this!
He also said I needed some good A+ content. That's the extra bits on a book's product page on Amazon when you scroll down. Often bigger publishers supply this for popular traditional authors, but indie authors can add it to their titles through the Author Central part of their KDP account. I had A+ content, but there were a few things I hadn't realised, so I decided to upgrade it. A+ content can take a long time to get approved and you must meet guidelines. If you don't, you then need to revise the submission which can then take a long time to be re-approved. Do it right the first time, or it's lengthy and tiring.
"I'm not sure having A+ content will make any difference, but it's something else I can now say I've done."
The YouTuber then advised another author in a video he'd made that they needed to indicate immediately what the book was about. I examined my product page and title, and as I write high-content fiction, it's hard to include what the book is about in the title, subtitle, and on the front cover like you would with a non-fiction book. Here's what I wrote about that:
"It took me a long time to design the new covers and an investment into Kittl** to create them. The word Pandora is on the front indicating Greek mythology and it is most definitely a fantasy. It looks and feels professional with the font, the winged woman and the skulls. The series indicates fantasy too with the word 'chronicles'. The only thing I haven't done is include keywords in the title (KDP don't allow those changes and prefer what is on the cover to be the title, so if it isn't, I can't put it as the title now... only in the description)."
**Kittl is like Canva, which is an online design tool. You can pay more to access their premium service.
I introduced a book hook I'd been taught by another author. I had to pay for that advice in the form of a short e-book which did irk me somewhat, but it was an interesting read even if ultimately, it did not work. She says to write a comparison between two other popular (similar) books or films and then use exciting words to target a specific audience. I wrote this in my journal:
"Lord of the Rings meets Once Upon A Time in this magical, zero-to-hero adventure for YA readers of high fantasy."
I used Lord of the Rings and the TV series Once Upon A Time as my comparisons, and then used 'magical', 'zero-to-hero' and 'adventure' as the words before targeting YA readers of high fantasy.
You may see it still on some of my socials because it's accurate, but it didn't have any affect on sales. Fun to write, though.
I had already sent information about the book and my other novels to stores like Waterstones in the UK and many indie shops. But, I hadn't heard back at this point. I emailed an indie store who had previously supported me, and I also emailed a store I believed would but, and I'm sorry to say this, responded with a rather rude and offensive email. Needless to say, I won't be going back there.!
To summarise, they told me if I wanted a shot at having my book in their store, I needed an agent (plus a bunch of other things I didn't appreciate). "Go away you indie trash" is what I took from it, and for a few days I felt put in my place, until I realised they'd done me a favour.
This journal entry went on for eight A5 pages, and by the end of it, I'd written in capitals, "WHAT MORE CAN I DO? WHAT AM I MISSING? WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?"
Over the next few weeks I'll be going through my journal's content to see how I managed to overcome these issues and a bunch more, and documenting some amazing things that helped my progress, and some events I thoroughly enjoyed.
I hope this content helps you as an author to feel seen too; you're not the only one out there getting stuck and frustrated. You should know there is plenty of good intermingled with these struggles and they are worth the wait. Please stick with me for the next instalment in this series coming soon...
Rach x
August 17, 2024
Sometimes, I Hate Being An Author
Whether it's a hurtful review, the struggles of perfecting Amazon and Facebook ads (and learning all about keywords and algorithms), or just what feels like an endless scream into the void in an attempt to gather honest book reviews, being the author of a high-content book isn't easy.
I know authors are reading this who will agree with me and are struggling. I see you. I feel your pain. So, I'm here to share my top 5 frustrations with you—things I did wrong despite my years of experience, and things that are doing my head in a little bit! And if you're nodding and grinning and groaning as you read this, stick a like or a comment on this post and share it with other independently published authors who need to feel understood. Let me know what you hate the most about being an author, and what you did that you could have done differently to save yourself a headache!
There is so much out there (YouTube, I've noticed, is great for this) to help authors of low-content books do really well with Amazon KDP. For example, those who are creating AI-generated colouring books, activity/puzzle books, or journals. YouTubers who are actually making money at this are quick to advise us to run keyword research with expensive tools and to produce books that are trending or popular right now from those results.
Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only author in the world who watches this content and wants to scream, 'What about those of us who write a series?' I've been searching and can't find much out there to help authors of high-content books that are less than 12-months old. When you're writing a series, you're in it for the long run. You're not out to make a quick quid. Research, writing, and editing can take months to years, and if we only wrote what was popular when we did the keyword research, those trends would change before we hit publish.
I do agree keyword research is important, as is placing the book in the correct categories as it helps the right readers to find and enjoy your content. I also agree that checking your keywords after a few months and adjusting them is sometimes necessary. But, those keywords must be relevant to the book you are writing, and not simply included to get your book seen.
I recently commented on one YouTube video and asked what that person's advice would be to those of us writing high-content, a fantasy series for example. They replied to say, basically, do the same thing. Which, of course, doesn't work for us.
Honestly, if anyone out there wants to start a channel targeting high-content authors and helping us to navigate Amazon KDP and all the things I'm about to complain about below, I'd be your first subscriber.
On the back of the above, I decided to check out lots of low-content books to see what authors are producing, what the reviews are like, how they are presenting them, and if there was any use of AI which I think Amazon KDP now makes you declare when you upload the title. Was I missing something—how were these authors managing to make money?
Until recently, I've avoided AI; to this day, I still have not attempted to write anything with it. It would take the fun out of writing for me as (despite what the title of this post suggests!) I do love sitting down to write my novels. Even more so if I can do it by hand for the therapy it provides and the ability to unplug.
But, I recently found that www.kittl.com (the site I use for design) has an AI tool, and curiosity got the better of me as I really wanted to include something visual in TO SEE A WORLD. I had an absolute blast playing with that to create artwork of my characters and the locations in my series, The Chronicles of Pandora.
Despite one reviewer recently calling this artwork 'soulless' (thanks!), I was so impressed with how well their AI tool took my descriptions and re-created what I had imagined on the page. Arriette Monroe was so beautiful, and the Recruit's underground lair was simply stunning. The above are a few of the results I got, which I included in a limited edition of the book itself (both formats) to share them with my readers for a bit of fun.
KDP did ask me if I had used AI at all to create my book, and it also asked me which platform I had used to create them. I was impressed that this is being policed in some way.
Then, curious to see if their black and white colouring images would look good, I spent a few days playing around to create 6 designs I instantly fell in love with that represented TO SEE A WORLD for my e-mail subscribers. I wanted these to be bold and beautiful, to be intricate to keep my readers busy, and for there to be no wasted white space or too many dark sections they couldn't colour. I also wanted the images to be correct and smooth, with no 'errors'.
From left to right, top to bottom, the images are:
The temple at Enzo, the Recruit's underground lair after the battle for Pandora's Box, the entrance to the lair before the orc invasion, Drakonta (the village against the mountain), Arriette and Tobias falling in love outside Casper's cabin, and Arriette in Mousique (colouring sheet).
During my research, I struggled to tell which books were AI-generated and which were hand-drawn by artists who wanted to share their illustrations. I didn't know if this was a good thing or not and suddenly, I found myself backing away and unable to trust the descriptions. I could see a few 'tells' where illustrations were unfinished or 'faulty' in some way, and I found the human-illustrated books to be far more personal. Also, there was a clear theme in their artwork, a style, and emotion.
So, overall, I can see the purpose of AI in the publishing industry, but in careful moderation.
If you use keyword research tools like I do, or you have software to help you find categories and analyse competition, you may have noticed that despite the advice being to place your book in keywords that have a high demand (plenty of people searching for them) but low competition (not many books currently meeting that demand), most of the keywords and terms I entered are all over-saturated already.
Publisher Rocket is a tool I use, and I recently discovered a free ad-on for Chrome that shows you popular Amazon searches when you begin typing in the search bar. As a beginner, this is eye-opening and definitely helps you to decide what to enter in those 7 keyword boxes KDP allows. But actually learning what the numbers in the results mean requires study. The advice I have recently gathered (though this again was on a low content video) was to also include those keywords in the title and the description of the book. This wouldn't work with my novel TO SEE A WORLD as the title doesn't also include the keywords (but the description can). Amazon KDP like what is on the cover to be reflected in the title you enter and nothing additional.
Keywords again get confusing when you start to run Amazon or Facebook ads, and it's soul destroying to see that tons of people have clicked on a book and thought 'nah' and then walked away. Did I get it wrong, or is the book just not interesting enough? Then again, it's surely worse to have more people see the advert and avoid it. I did recently follow some influencer advice to set up Amazon ads, which had zero effect, so I went back to allowing them (and Facebook) to assist me initially based on the content itself—my book's listing, and my FB page's content and current followers. This seems to work better, and it then gathers the data you can use to tweak it yourself later down the line if you want. I wouldn't recommend attempting to manually enter keywords if you're new to advertising.
If you haven't already done so, creating A+ content for your Kindle books on Amazon KDP is fun and a great way to share what's inside the book and some extra pictures and information. It spruces up the product page a little and looks professional. But, it can take up to 8 days for Amazon KDP to approve the content you submit, and if they reject it, it's then another 8 days before they will approve your amendments.
The above is a copy of my A+ content for TO SEE A WORLD, and the reasons some of my designs were initially rejected were as follows:
I stated the sequel was coming soon - Avoid any timelines or dates
I included a QR code to direct people to my website - Do not include a QR code
I mentioned I was an Amazon bestselling author - Do not refer to Amazon
I included a link to my website (a www. link) - Do not use external links
I do think A+ content is beneficial and it looks amazing, but my advice is to check and double-check and then triple-check that your content meets the standards, and avoid everything I did above. I assumed, having seen these things on existing content for other authors, that it would be acceptable. I was wrong, and this added maybe 2 weeks delay to getting this up and running. Something I won't do again.
Note, also, that you must upload these individually for each territory. You cannot just upload them once for all the different Amazon websites worldwide.
All an author wants is to hear what readers think of their work, even if it's not always the feedback we hope for. Feedback helps us to better meet the needs of our readers who are quite often experts in the genre. If you write in a niche category, listen to those comments because your readers are experienced.
Honest reviews can sometimes be cruel. I recently received the worst review I have ever had. Not going to lie... I cried a little. Then, I received a 1* review! But I picked myself up and read through the handfuls of positive reviews that far outweighed those few negatives, and it gave me the strength to carry on.
Simply asking nicely for a review doesn't seem to work anymore. I've put out a few posts on socials asking for readers to spend a minute or two to drop a review on Amazon. I've tried reaching out to reviewers or BookTok accounts I follow. I've sent letters, emails, and even had face-to-face conversations with people who have met me at events and promised to leave feedback. It rarely leads to a result. People are busy! I think it's quicker for readers to select from a 1-5 star rating on the final page of an e-book than to expect paperback readers to log in and comment before they move on. I'm guilty of this myself; I review far more e-books than physical ones, because I'm reminded to do so before I buy the next.
There are a few platforms out there to help authors gain legitimate reviews, and I tried one recently. At first I was impressed, but I quickly came to realise the types of reviews I received were not what I wanted or needed. Some were rather basic and generic, and though I hope they did read the book from cover-to-cover, it's so hard to tell when you haven't chatted with the person at an event or seen a sale of the book on your publisher's reports. So if you do opt to join one, please be sure it complies with Amazon's policies and that, if you're reading for somebody else, that you actually read the book before you post a review.
It's no secret that I keep a daily journal, and I make notes as I'm reading for others that I think the author might want to know. I make sure I fill it with positive and negatives, and if it's a low star rating, I am kind in the delivery. Cruel reviews are not acceptable no matter how terrible you think a book is, and I would not subject any author to this, because I know how it feels to be on the receiving end.
I made the mistake of not starting this process sooner. I did send e-copies to ARC reviewers but didn't really hear back for release day.
I'll stop complaining now, because I think positivity is far more important in this industry. These points are more helpful tips and things to avoid, to help you side-step the same frustrations I've been feeling. If you have any advice for me, or want to add your thoughts to these points, please feel welcome to get in touch at any time. I'd love to hear your input.
Rach x
August 10, 2024
August 2024 Newsletter
The Chronicles of Pandora
I have been so overwhelmed recently with the support I've received for The Chronicles of Pandora: To See A World, which is book one in my YA high fantasy adventure series. So I wanted to give an update on the progress of this series following the release of book two (Of Heavens & Wild Flowers) on Monday 5th August 2024.
Recent sales of To See A World on Amazon pushed it to no.18 in its genre in the Amazon bestsellers list, which was a fantastic surprise! I am always stunned when the book shoots back up the charts, as the original edition of the novel did get to no.1 when it came out many years ago.
To be in the top 100 for three categories and the top 50 for two of them...? WOW!
You may have noticed the covers have changed! I decided the green To See A World cover with the pink roses needed to be a limited edition. It got some amazing feedback, but overall what I took from it was they preferred to imagine the characters themselves rather than have the extra content included with character and location art. So I've moved that artwork onto the website as additional, optional material instead of including it in the novel itself.
You can re-discover all this here if you want to check it out.
It took me a little longer to feature the signed copies on my online store in these new editions due to awaiting some deliveries from the printer. But, I'm thrilled to say they are both now listed for purchase through my online store. They'll come signed and personalised with a free bookmark included. I'm shipping only to the UK and Ireland at the moment, but wider shipping is being considered so if you're one of my international readers and would like this option, please e-mail me through the Contact page.
Links to these editions on my online store are below:
If you are still interested in the limited edition green cover with the bonus material, I believe I have a very small number left in stock, so order now before it's too late!
And for those of you who have followed me from the beginning, you'll remember Finding Pandora, which was the same series before I re-released it as The Chronicles of Pandora earlier this year. I do have a few copies of Finding Pandora left (which is To See A World and Of Heavens & Wild Flowers combined), for a discounted price. I've listed them in the store here for you to grab if you'd like the original cover:
I'm writing book three of the series at the moment and can confirm the title of this novel will be To Hold An Infinity.
I don't yet have a release date planned for this story, but I'm aiming to have pre-orders announced by Christmas 2024, with the actual release date in 2025. I don't yet have a cover to reveal, but I already know roughly what this will look like and how I'm going to design it, which is super exciting!
Anyone who has met me will know I love getting to know readers near me and aspiring writers in my community. I always attend local events and fairs to introduce myself to bookworms, and the past few months have been no different.
I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has welcomed me to their group or event for either a private talk/workshop, a signing or a stall event. If any of you have additional photos from the events and you would like to share them, please do tag me on socials or email them direct. I'll make sure they are added to the gallery here.
Idle Women's Institute (left)
Woodlands Park Summer Fair (Middle)
Eccleshill Mechanics Institute Farmers Craft Market (right)
If you've had a chat with me at an event over the past few weeks, you may know that I'm planning to update and re-release my non-fiction writing guide over the coming months. Technology and systems change, so I want to keep the book as up to date as possible. I've been handing out some free packs with bookmarks, signed photos, stickers and colouring pages to those interested at my in-person events, and included is my story - how did I get started, what are my books about, and what's my mission statement?
To everyone who has graciously accepted one of these from me, I hope you found it interesting and moving, and maybe even a bit inspiring or encouraging if you're considering writing something yourself. Whether you took the freebies and binned the text, or whether you sat and read it cover-to-cover over a brew, thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time, and the chance to introduce myself.
I'm taking bookings for the back end of 2024 and now into 2025. If you're interested in booking with me for a talk, a workshop or any other kind of event, please get in touch sooner rather than later so I can get you scheduled in my diary!
Details can be found here. I am insured and DBS checked. I am also more than happy to speak to large groups including schools.
I bring signed copies and merchandise with me to all my in-person events, and usually offer these at a discount. These include the bookish merch I make including those currently available on my store:
Use promo code FREESHIP at the checkout to get free delivery on your phone charm order.
Use code QUIDSHIP to save £1 on postage when you order one of Ash's elemental bottle openers.
In July for the Bradford Literature Festival, I was lucky enough to get tickets to see Ruby Wax speak at St Georges Hall, Bradford about her new book, I'm Not As Well As I Thought I Was. Ruby very kindly signed a bunch of books for me after the show, and my friends and I were thrilled that she agreed to take some photos with me. I've included 2 of them here for you. I also got to ask her about journaling and its benefits, as I LOVE my journal.
Thank you for checking in with me this month. I hope you enjoyed the update and are making progress with your own novels (or getting through your TBR list. Forget your chores and go read your book (preferably one of mine!).
I look forward to seeing those of you I've booked events with in the coming months, and can't wait to talk all things reading and writing with you.
Rach x
June 1, 2024
OF HEAVENS & WILD FLOWERS Kindle pre-order is live!
I've been looking forward to this announcement for AGES!
I'm thrilled to say that book two in my 'Lord of the Rings meets Once Upon A Time' magical, zero-to-hero adventure series for YA readers of fantasy is now available to pre-order. My Of Heavens & Wild Flowers Kindle pre-order is live!
You can pre-purchase OF HEAVENS & WILD FLOWERS in e-book format from these retailers, with more added every week.
Haeylo's thriving supernatural community and the humans they protect come under threat from Falkon Lou, a trusted, high-ranking Everlast. And after targeting Arriette's newest sanctuary and her powers, she knows it's time for the Recruit to wage war.
But burdened with the arrival of another unique Vampyr—a ghost from her past—Arriette must find a way to protect her vulnerable followers, and prepare them for the impending battle.
Falkon is eager to gain control of Haeylo's power scale, and sends his army of Orcs and Werewolves to storm the Recruit's underground lair, killing any Supe who stands in their way.
Fortunately for Haeylo, that Supe is Arriette Monroe. And this time, she won't go down without a fight...
If you haven't yet read book one, TO SEE A WORLD, it's available right now in paperback and e-book from the following retailers:
Thank you all for your continued support! I can't wait to share book two with you all <3
Rachael x
