Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 26

There Is No Magic Bullet in Self-Publishing

Today’s post is based on this video I watched yesterday on You Tube:

I really like Dale’s videos. He’s usually quick and to the point, and I find that he does a good job of offering a balanced view of things.

That in mind, he also did a video on why you SHOULD publish on Amazon, too. Here it is so you don’t have to rush over to You Tube to find it:

For today’s post, I wanted to piggyback off of the first video because a few thoughts came to mind as I was watching it.

Quick disclaimer: I believe you should be on Amazon with ebooks. Dale brings up a situation where the author did better not going on Amazon, but most of us will have ebooks under $9.99 to sell over there, and in that case, it’s wise to be on Amazon.

That disclaimer aside, let’s get into the content of this blog.

There is No Magic Bullet in Self-Publishing



1. Just because you write it, it doesn’t mean people will find it.

I know this isn’t exactly breaking news, but there’s still this idea floating around out there that if you’re on Amazon (especially KU), you’re going to be earning a livable wage in under a year. Yes, there are people who are killing it on Amazon. I’ve met them. But it takes work to get noticed.

Dale is right about 2015. Before 2015, it was super easy to get noticed over there. You pretty much could write the book, publish it, and go off to write the next book. The algorithms on Amazon pushed you up without much effort on your part. It was a beautiful thing. Early on (like 2011 to 2012), Kobo and Barnes & Noble would push up indie books, too, but that lasted for maybe a year. So Amazon was definitely the indie author’s friend.

Despite everything, Amazon is still the friend of the indie author because even if you aren’t in KU, it’s still easier to get noticed over there. There are some authors who make more wide, but a lot of authors still make more money on Amazon than the other wide retailers. I’m one of them. Even not being in KU, I still make more on Amazon. That’s why I suggest being on Amazon with your ebooks. It’s one more piece of the pie you can have.

However, you have to do some marketing to get noticed. You can’t write the book, slip off into a corner, and watch the money come in. You have to work at it. The term “pay to play” fits. I don’t run a lot of ads. An author friend I have ran Amazon ads on her KU books and her wide books, and she found that Amazon pushed the ads with the KU books a lot more. So I don’t bother with Amazon ads.

I do, however, find success with Freebooksy ads, and I’ll run those to help give my backlist a boost. The first in a series free strategy still works, thankfully. I’m not a heavy marketer. That’s why I don’t make the kind of money I did back in 2013-2015. But the ads and permafrees do keep me afloat.

I’ve also found some success with pre-orders on Apple. This isn’t a big and wild success, but it does help to pay the bills. The longer you can have a pre-order up at Apple, the better. I even find that I make more on a new release on Amazon if I have it on pre-order for at least one month before it comes out. But again, you have to let people know about these pre-orders. You can’t just put it up and never mention it.

You should pick the marketing method that best appeals to you. I hate marketing. I find it physically draining. That’s why I use the path of least resistance. (Freebooksy ads, permafrees for Book 1 in a series, and pre-orders.) And guys, my strategy doesn’t yield megabucks. It’s enough to get by if you are getting books out on a consistent and frequent basis. The minute I go longer than two months between new releases, my income takes a nosedive. In my opinion, fresh and new content is a necessity if you’re not very good at marketing. If you are good at marketing, you can utilize your backlist to your advantage if you don’t want to be writing all the time.

2. Amazon has strict and ambiguous guidelines. Being on all retailers is, in my opinion, the best strategy.

Dale mentioned this in the video at the 3:49 mark, and he’s right. Things change. Nothing stays the same. You have to be flexible.

One of the benefits to being in this business for a little over a decade now is that I’ve seen things change across multiple retailers. I remember when Barnes & Noble wouldn’t publish an indie book. I remember when Kobo was created. I remember when you could make paperbacks on Amazon using CreateSpace. I remember when Amazon didn’t require exclusivity in order to get special visibility on their site. I also remember when authors weren’t able to do pre-orders unless they were with traditional publishers. Heck, I remember when traditional publishing was considered way better than indie publishing. I’ve been around so long, I even remember when MySpace was the place to go!

Forced Into Marriage Trivia

[image error] This is Book 4 in the Pioneer Series.

While I was writing Groom for Hire, I had a secondary character who had to be dropped off in a small town in the middle of nowhere because he was unfit to help lead the wagon train. In the back of my mind, I thought, “It’d be a shame to leave the poor guy there forever.” And so, I decided to write another book in the Pioneer Series.

In the book, Brandon is an alcoholic who needs to overcome his dependency on liquor. I grew up in a home with an alcoholic father. He was a functioning alcoholic, meaning that he was able to hold down a steady job despite his addiction. My mother almost left him because it put a strain on their marriage, but in the end, he was able to quit drinking. My dad was the quiet type of alcoholic. He never screamed or threw things. I did some research into alcoholism during the writing of this book. Mainly, I was interested in what alcoholics go through as they stop drinking, and the symptoms widely vary. So I picked the stuff that best fit Brandon’s personality. My dad never talked to me or my sister about what he went through, but I imagine it wasn’t too different from what Brandon went through. (Side note: my dad went to be with the Lord years ago. Even if he had been alive when I wrote this book, I wouldn’t have asked him about it.)

I got the idea for Lokni’s character after all of the spaghetti westerns my husband watched. These westerns are more nitty gritty than your typical western. There are a lot of brutal scenes in them. (Brutal for the 1960s and 1970s.) I have yet to see one of these movies end with a genuine happy ending for all of the main characters. I mean, they might live, but the main love interests never ended up together. One movie in particular involved a white man with a Native American woman who fell in love. Being a spaghetti western, they didn’t end up together. The romance writer in me hated that ending. So I decided to write this book where a white man and Native American woman would be forced together and end up together. This was my own “spaghetti western” without getting too far into the brutal aspects of it, though I did give Lokni a nitty gritty backstory.

While I did have characters on the wagon trail in two other books in the Pioneer Series, I wanted just the hero and heroine to be out in the wilderness as they made their way to the next town in this particular story. I thought it would be the best way for the two to get used to each other.

In some instances in my romances, I use the birth of a child to represent a fresh start in life. These are typically for characters who are struggling for a second chance but are unable to find the hope for a second chance any other way. The other book where I used this strategy was The Marriage Contract. In that book, it was the hero who needed it. In this book, however, both the hero and heroine needed it. This was why Lokni was pregnant at the beginning of the book, and she had to be ready to give birth.

In my research of the Wyoming Territory, I found out that there was a good mix of white people and Native Americans, and quite a few of these people married and had children. The stigma associated with whites and Native Americans marrying didn’t exist in these small towns. So this book had to be different from the Native American Series in how interracial couples were viewed. What I couldn’t do in Bismarck, North Dakota for Chogan and Julia (in Brave Beginnings), I could do in this book.

I’ve been in hotels with my kids when they were babies, and it’s a huge pain in the you-know-what. I never want to go through that ever again. It’s so much easier when they’re potty trained and old enough to sleep in a bed. Every time I wrote a scene with Lokni and the baby in that hotel room, my mind went back through all of those past trips I had to take because my husband was still in the Air Force, and we had to move around.

I felt it was important to give Lokni the option of being able to leave Brandon at some point in the story, so I did plan for that scenario when I started writing the book. After everything she’d been through, she needed to have a moment where she could finally pick what course she would take in her life. Since this was a romance, I already knew she’d stay with Brandon. The question was “how”. The “how” is what makes writing fun.

Though it wasn’t intentional, Brandon’s middle name “Clint” now makes me think of Clint Eastwood.

Random Stuff

November Newsletter on my newsletter blog is “missing in action”.

So a long time has passed since I’ve posted anything. I didn’t even realize how long it was until I checked my calendar. I even forgot to make a post for November on my newsletter blog. I’ll try to remember to do the blog post for December.

Writing discrepancies might lead to pre-order dates moving back.

I have done very little writing. This has been the case since mid-September. There’s been a lot of back and forth with whether the kids are home or in school, and on top of that, I have the one I’m homeschooling. Plus, we’ve have two snowstorms in the past month. Since we live off of a dirt road outside of town, the snow drifts can make it impossible for us to get anywhere until someone plows us out, so I’ve had everyone here on and off during the last few weeks. I think all of that just threw everything up in the air.

So if I end up pushing a pre-order back, this is why. I’m on track for publishing A Deceptive Wager on January 17. That book is already done, and I just need to give it another round through in edits. The other books, however, are up in the air. I have tentative release dates on them, but if I have to, I’ll move them back. I refuse to rush a book. I want each book to be the best it can be.

I won’t be putting any more audiobooks on Amazon or Audible.

Over the past few days, I’ve been studying up on Audible’s return policies. I already mentioned this on Facebook, but for those who haven’t seen it over there (or aren’t on Facebook), Audible is allowing its subscribers to return any audiobook for up to a full year for any reason. Audible will then return the credits (or whatever those things are called) to the customer.

Authors in a Facebook group I’m in have said they’ve noticed up to a 50% return rate on their audiobooks. A couple of them say they average that 50% in returns. So last month, I made $30. What if, in February or even June, 50% of the people who got my audiobooks decided to return them? That means I would then owe ACX (which uploads to Audible and Amazon) $15 because they already paid me the $30 back in October.

I get that they’ll probably wait until I sell $15 more worth of audiobooks to collect on that money, but the point is, they will demand I pay them that $15. This is like being in debt, except I have no control over who buys or returns my audiobooks.

What Audible needs a more author friendly return policy. There are two requirements I would like: 1.) The customer did not get to listen to the entire audiobook. I’d suggest no more than 40% listened to. 2.) The customer should be required to return it within 2 weeks. Two weeks is plenty of time to decide if someone likes the audiobook enough to keep going or not. Plus, I wouldn’t have been paid already for the sale. Then I don’t have to owe ACX anything in some unknown future.

Until there’s a more author-friendly situation for authors, I’m done. But I’ll still claim my books over there to stop thieves from taking them.

Speaking of audiobooks, it’s slow going on getting one done.

It looks like I can’t do more than one per quarter. My focus needs to be on my family, and after that, I need to write new books. That puts audiobooks at #3 on the list of priorities. I enjoy doing them, but I find the more I do this, the more I pick up things I didn’t before. I’m hoping that the new microphone I got will be way better than the one I used on Meant To Be. If it’ll cut down my editing time by half, then it’ll have more than paid for itself. On average, each chapter is taking me 6-7 hours to do.

Unfortunately, I got into this after I put out over 100 books. As of right now, I have 105 books and 6 short stories. This includes all of the genres I’ve done. I have done 91 romances (including A Deceptive Wager) so far. So basically, this means I’ll probably never be able to do my entire backlist. I can only do my personal favorites.

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I’ll leave it here for now. I’d like to get another trivia post up next. I think I’ll do Forced Into Marriage for that.

Isaac’s Decision Trivia

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The cover was made by Bonnie Steffens (one of my awesome readers).

Update on A Deceptive Wager and I Got the Hero for A Perilous Marriage

I plan to get A Deceptive Wager out in January. That will finish up the Marriage by Design Series, which I have to say is one of my favorites. I’m very pleased by the way the whole thing turned out.

Here’s the series for quick reference:

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In a previous post, I wasn’t sure if A Deceptive Wager was a more dramatic romance or a romantic comedy. Now that I have gone over it after taking a couple of weeks away from it, I can safely say that is a drama type of romance. It’s more like Breaking the Rules.

Nobody’s Fool has comedic tones to it that make me think of A Most Unsuitable Earl, His Reluctant Lady, and Kidnapping the Viscount.

A Deceptive Wager makes me think of Love Lessons With the Duke, The Perfect Duke, If It Takes A Scandal, and The Earl’s Secret Bargain. These are all books where there was tension between the hero and heroine to some degree, and they had to work through it. So if you enjoyed those books, you’ll probably enjoy A Deceptive Wager.

Now I’m done with A Deceptive Wager (and moving it into edits), I am starting a brand new Regency series. This series will fall between the Marriage by Fate Series and the Marriage by Fairytale Series. I know some authors can write books and series in specific chronological order, but my brain just doesn’t work that way. Sometimes I have characters I want to write about, but it’s best I wedge them between series or even within a series. I’ve given up trying to be like other authors. I’m just going to write the series as they’re ready instead of the exact order they come in.

I looked at the year on Kidnapping the Viscount (which is the end of 1819) and the year The Marriage Contract begins (which is the end of 1824). I want to bring in some side characters from earlier in the Regency timeline, and it’s easier to do that between 1819 and 1824 since those characters are all in the ideal marrying range.

I just went in and updated my Regency timeline. Here’s my Regency timeline so you can see the order things are.

[image error] Marriage by Necessity: Book 1

Regarding A Perilous Marriage, I want Miss Tumilson to be the heroine, and yesterday I finally decided who the hero will be. I’m going to bring in Mr. Charles Duff. I need the kind of hero who is on the serious side, and he qualifies from the things he did in Kidnapping the Viscount.

[image error] Marriage by Fate: Book 5

For those of you who read Kidnapping the Viscount, Charles was the heroine’s brother. He’s not a bad guy. He wasn’t the villain. But he was so sure that Gill didn’t want to be with Heather that he thought he was helping Gill by dragging her back to London. So, I saw his role as a very serious person, and once he thinks something is a certain way, it take a lot to change his mind. That is exactly the right kind of character I need for A Perilous Marriage. I need a hero who is convinced that his friend died because the new wife (Miss Tumilson) murdered him.

I just need to come up with who Charles’ friend was, how he was murdered, and how Charles is going to work his way into the “good graces” of Miss Tumilson so he can get close enough to her in order to find out how she did the crime. Of course, she didn’t. I have no idea what really happened, but I’ll find out when I write the book.

I expect this book to be similar to The Earl’s Scandalous Wife in the tone and feel of it.

Making Audiobooks

I’m still in the process of working on the first audiobook I have narrated myself, and it’s been a lot of fun. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but once I got into it, I found myself in the story and acting out the characters as I read the dialogue.

I never thought of narrating fiction as a form of acting, but that’s what it is. I’ve heard radio shows in the past, and that’s what this reminds me of. You’re not on the screen, but you’re still acting out the role of the characters. And yes, I was moving my arms around, using all sorts of facial expressions, and really getting into it. I didn’t expect that to happen. I always wondered why people who speak roles in animated movies moves around and altered their facial expressions to match the mood of the characters. Now I know. When you put all of yourself into the character like that, you can’t help but “be” the character, and your body goes right along with it.

Anyway, this trial of narrating a book has been a lot of fun, and I feel like I added another dimension to the book that I didn’t have before. For that reason, I have decided to keep narrating more books.

As I wrote out this blog post, I realized there was a lot of information in it, so I’m adding subject headings to help make it easier to follow everything I’m throwing out there to those of you reading this.

Nobody’s Fool is Available!

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This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Design Series!

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Nobody’s Fool is a romantic comedy.

I’m trying to think of what other Regency I’ve done that is similar to this one, and I guess the kind of humor in Kidnapping the Viscount had in it matches up the best. The whole thing is based around Emilia’s goal to dissuade Benjamin from falling in love with her, and no matter what she tries, it doesn’t work. It’s a light and fun read.

If this sounds like your kind of book, you can find it at these places:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Smashwords

Stuff I’m Doing

1. I got Nobody’s Fool up on pre-order last week



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The editor got this back sooner than I expected, so I was able to set the pre-order date for October 17.

This is a cute romantic comedy. It takes a fun look at one wife’s dream of discouraging her husband from falling in love with her.

You can reserve your copy today if you wish at these retailers. (I’ll be getting it up on Google Play soon.)

Here are the links to the pre-order:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

2. I finished the first draft of A Deceptive Wager two weeks ago.

My goal is to start on the edits in the next week or two.

This is a battle of wills romance where the two main characters don’t like each other at first. It’s an “enemies to lovers” type of romance. There are a lot of humorous moments, but I don’t know if I can classify this as a romantic comedy like I can with Nobody’s Fool. Nobody’s Fool was funny the entire way through. This book has some more serious moments because the hero has a lot of trust issues since his mother took lovers and had illegitimate children she cared more about then she cared about him. After giving it a fresh read through, I hope to be able to better pin this one down. It’s not dark or anything. It’s just more serious, kind of like The Earl’s Scandalous Wife or The Earl’s Wallflower Bride.

This is the last book in the Marriage by Design Series.

Here are all of the books:

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3. I uploaded The Wedding Pact audiobook.



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It’s going to take time to get up on all of the retailers, but so far, here are some links that Findaway Voices have put them up to.

Apple (iTunes)

Kobo

Scribd

Google Play

Hibooks

Chirp

This audiobook will be up on more retailers soon.

4. I’ve been listening to audio files for the rest of the books in the Marriage by Fairytale Series. Soon the entire series will be available as audiobooks.

It takes me a while to go through these. I don’t want to rush through the process. But soon, I’ll be getting Fairest of Them All and The Duke’s Secluded Bride uploaded. All of these are narrated by Stevie Zimmerman. I haven’t been able to make the audiobook covers yet, but here are the paperback ones for quick reference. It always helps me to see the book cover to remember what book an author is talking about.

Boaz’s Wager Trivia

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When Stephannie Beman and I wrote the beginning scene of The Stagecoach Bride (which is now The Outlaw’s Bride), I thought, “What would happen if the women on the stagecoach had been sold off to the highest bidder?” At times, I’ll write a scene or set up a book in a way that makes me wonder, “What would have happened if the story went in another direction?” Before I started Boaz’s Wager, I had already decided I wanted to set up a romance where the heroine was auctioned off because of the opening scene in The Stagecoach Bride.

I didn’t originally know who was going to be the heroine in this book, but I had wanted to bring in a character I had already introduced from another book. I keep a timeline on this blog that’s tucked into the series’ pages for easy reference so I can pair up couples who are in the same age range. I had been wanting to do a book for Eva Connealy ever since Isaac Larson broke her heart in Isaac’s Decision. (I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.) When I saw that she was old enough for Boaz to marry, I happily put her into this book. I wanted to give her a friend, so I brought Rachel Larson (Dave and Mary’s daughter) into the book, too.

Speaking of Rachel, I have been asked if I’ll do a book for her, but there is no story beyond this one to tell for her. Rachel and Herb got along right away, and there’s nothing that I can give these two to warrant their own story. I only write a story if there’s a substantial plot.

Like Eva, I’d rather read than cook any day of the week.

Updates on What I’m Doing

I finally got all of these books back on up all the retailers!

These were the books I got back from my publisher. There was a little snafu with Google Play Books, but I finally got that all resolved. If anyone hasn’t read any of these and would like the link to a certain retailer, let me know in the comments.

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It feels good to get all of that out of the way. Now I can focus on other stuff.

Release date for Nobody’s Fool pushed back to October 28.



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Someone on my editing team has run into a couple of situations that has required her to go to doctor appointments and care for her elderly mother. To help lighten her load, I have decided to move the date from October 17 to the 28th. The book is done. I will have it out before the end of October. All she needs it a little more time to work on it.

I hope to finish the first draft of A Deceptive Wager this month.



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This is scheduled to come out on January 17.

I am still working on Perfectly Matched.



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This one is due for a March release. Poor Jim has Patricia and Erin Larson both fighting over which one will get to marry him. And poor Tom Larson doesn’t know how to stop them.