Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 28

The Earl’s Wallflower Bride Trivia

It’s long overdue, but I’m finally doing a trivia post. Today, I’m diving into The Earl’s Wallflower Bride.

[image error]

The idea for this book originally came to me while I was writing His Wicked Lady. I introduced Lady Iris in a scene where the hero and heroine from His Wicked Lady went to a dinner party at Lord Steinbeck’s residence. In it, the heroine warns Lady Iris that Lord Steinbeck didn’t return her affections. Lady Iris decided to take the heroine’s advice. Naturally, I HAD to match Lord Steinbeck and Lady Iris up after this because of the one thing each book needs: conflict. That’s why by the time Lady Iris realizes Lord Steinbeck was her match, she wasn’t happy about it.

Lord Steinbeck is probably the stuffiest character I’ve ever created, but I didn’t realize the extent of his stuffiness until I wrote this book. Because of this, if there’s a character who pops up who in my Regencies now who thinks all of the rules in London are unnecessary, I’ll try to either bring Lord Steinbeck in or make a reference to him, and these characters are often making fun of Lord Steinbeck. At first, I thought Lord Roderick (hero of The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife) was going to be the standard of stuffiness, but Lord Steinbeck officially took his place in The Earl’s Wallflower Bride.

Iris got her interest in finances from me. She got her love of collecting old money from one of my children who went through a phase where he kept a binder of old currency from the United States and Canada.

In this book, I really thought Lord Steinbeck was going to end up creating another gentleman’s club where gentlemen like Lord Steinbeck would be safe from having to associate with cads on a regular basis. The story, however, never went that way because none of the other characters would have supported this move. In the end, Lord Steinbeck remained at White’s and is still there to this day. (About 3/4 of my books end up differently than I think they will when I start them. This is a classic example.)

I introduced Miss Celia Barlow and Miss Loretta Bachman in this story. They were there to represent an example of how most people in London thought of Iris as a wallflower. That is why they were so mean to her. Celia’s brother was Lord Worsley, and I had already slotted him to be the hero for the next Regency series I was going to write. The secondary purpose of having Loretta there was to hint to the reader that Lord Worsley needed to do everything possible to get out of being trapped into a marriage with her. To me, writing often involves weaving in snippets of stuff relating to the characters and other book plots because I love it when people pick up on these “Easter eggs”.

I love all the bickering that goes on at White’s between the scandalous cads and the rule-abiding gentlemen, so I’ll bring it up whenever I can. And my two personal favorite cads are Mr. Christopher Robinson and Lord Edon. This is the only reason I had Christopher pester Lord Steinbeck in this book. It did nothing to advance the plot. It was just there for my amusement.

When I first introduced Opal, I planned for her to be just as bad as Byron, but as I continued writing her character, I thought it would be more interesting if Opal was only pretending to be insane because she was terrified of her brother and mother.

My favorite scene in this book is when Byron realized his mother poisoned him right after he arranged it for her to fall down the stairs. My mind kept going back to the Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe while writing the scene. I know I write romance, but it’s always fun to throw in a highly suspenseful scene in a book from time to time. I find it strengthens my skill as a writer.

I’m not 100% sure, but I think every funeral I have in a story is on a cloudy day.

At the end of this book, I was afraid I’d lose the flavor of Opal’s character, so I started the Marriage by Fate Series even though I knew I wasn’t going to be able to write the rest of it for a while. That’s why the release date of Book 1 in the Marriage by Fate Series is so far apart from the rest of the books in that series. My focus was spent on the Marriage by Bargain Series instead. I was also finishing up the Pioneer Series and the Chance at Love Series during this time.

Starting Out as a Writer (A Post for New Writers)

My friend, Stephannie Beman, sent me a link to look at for running an Etsy Shop. Since looking over a few of these videos, I was surprised to find that a lot of the advice they tell craftspeople in order to boost sales is similar to the kind of advice you could give authors. The video is under 7 minutes, so it’s not going to take a lot of time to watch it if you want. This video is the inspiration for today’s post.

Have Books Ready To Go (But Don’t Publish Them All At Once)

In the video, she mentions having “items” ready to go, but you can insert “books” here. A mistake I think a lot of new writers make is that they don’t take time to write several books before they start publishing. Instead, they publish that one book and neglect to write more.

If someone reads your book and loves it, it won’t do you much good if you don’t have other books out. The best time to attract a reader to other books is when they’ve just discovered you. Yes, discovery can happen at any time, but retailers tend to offer a little more “love” to a new book than an old one. So if you can merge a retailer’s extra push (because the book is new) with other books that are available, you have a better chance of leveraging your promotional efforts.

My advice is to have at least one series completed before you start publishing anything. Then when you do publish the series, plan the releases out, and remember to promote the other books you will have coming out.

So let’s say you have Book 1 just published. Let people know about Books 2, 3, etc in that back matter of Book 1. Have Books 2, 3, etc on pre-order so people can reserve their copies while the book is fresh in their minds. Not everyone remembers to go back and check on your books or website. Pre-orders offer the advantage of getting a reader’s attention as soon as possible. By having your entire series done first, you can maximize the effectiveness of pre-orders. (If you have a long series spanning more than five books, my advice is to have at least four of those books done before you publish Book 1. Put the books up on pre-order that are done and make sure to mention those pre-order books at the end of Book 1.)

If you write standalones, you can use the same strategy, but be aware that series do tend to sell better overall than standalone books do. It’s just the nature of the publishing business.

Now, the question is this: how much time should you give between book releases? The answer to this depends on your writing speed and how much time you have to write WHILE promoting your books.

The faster you can write, the shorter time you can go between releases. Some authors write a book a month. In that case, they’re able to publish books closer together than someone who takes 3-4 months to write a book. Also, can you write more than one book at a time, or do you need to write only one book at a time? The more books you can write at a time, the faster you’ll be able to get books out. The length of books also play a role in how fast you can publish the next book. If you write 30,000-word stories, you can get more out than someone who writes 60,000-word stories.

Also, the more free time you have, the better you can balance writing and marketing. If you have a day job and a husband and kids, you’re not going to have much time to write and promote your books. In that case, you’ll need to have longer times between book releases so you have more time to market and write the next book. Let’s say you have a job and a family and you can write one 60,000-word book every four months at a comfortable pace. If you have a four-book series ready to go when you publish Book 1, you can publish a book each book a quarter. This frees you up for an entire year to work on the next four books (which you’ll publish in the next year) while marketing the books you currently have done. On the other hand, if you have a spouse that works or if you’re a single person who doesn’t have a family to take care of, you will have more time to write and market, so you can get books out faster while promoting your books.

The main advantage of having an entire series (or 4-5 books done) before you start publishing anything is that you’ll be set to pace yourself so you can avoid burnout. If you publish just one book, frantically work to promote it while working on Book 2, and you publish Book 2 then frantically work to promote it (and Book 1) while working on Book 3, it’s going to end up taking a toll on you. Or, in some cases, some authors never write Book 2 because they focus on Book 1 all the time. The best thing is to find a balance that works best for you and your situation.

The More Books You Have, The Better Your Chances Are Of Being Found

This is why backlist is so important. Authors rarely make it on one book. Sure, there are the few who do this, but most of us need a lot of books in order to get noticed. Every new book you have is another tentacle you have out in the world. There’s probably a better word than “tentacle”, but I couldn’t think of one. Just think of the books as your reach out into the internet. People might not find the 20 books you have, or even care if they do. But if you have the 21st book that suddenly catches their attention and their interest, that’s an “in” you have that you didn’t have before. The wider your net, the better your chances are of being discovered.

That’s why this is a long-term game. That’s why you need to pace yourself so you can survive the long haul. It’s easy to have a lot of energy and enthusiasm in the beginning when this is brand new. Over time, the process of writing, editing, getting a cover, formatting, publishing, and promoting can lose it’s “brand new” vibe. This is why writing sometimes feels like you’re pulling teeth. It’s not always exciting and fun. If you don’t rush the process but take the time to establish a pace that works best for you, you’ll be more likely to stick it out and end up with a lot of books, which will lead you to a better chance of finding new readers and establishing a career as a writer. Income doesn’t always remain consistent, but if you can build up your backlist, you have a better chance of weathering the low periods.

Figure Out What Kind of Books You’ll Write

To me, this is branding. Branding does entail your social media persona to a point, but I think branding is really about the kind of books we write. If you are writing a variety of genres, it’s going to be harder for someone to know what they’re going to get when they pick up your book. There’s nothing wrong with writing a variety of books. But when they see your name, it’s going to be harder for them to pinpoint exactly what your brand is if you’re in multiple genres. The brand doesn’t mean you write the same book over and over with different characters and tweak the plot. Branding is an overall scope of the books you are known for.

For example, my brand is historical romance with a male and female couple who only have sex after marriage. This isn’t a mission statement. It’s just the “kind” of books I’m mostly known for. I have dabbled in other genres, like thrillers, fantasies, and even nonfiction. But my brand is the historical romance category, and people know when they pick up my book, they are going to get a male and female couple who wait until marriage to have sex. Under that brand, I have plenty of room for different types of characters and different plots.

That is why the advice is often given to use pen names if you write different brands. Varying too much with your stories under the same name will dilute your brand. I ended up marking my thrillers with R.A. Nordin and the pen name Barbara Joan Russell. I kept the four fantasies under my real name since I don’t plan to write any more and it doesn’t hurt to leave them as they are. But any more thrillers I write will be under the pen name for the sake of my Ruth Ann Nordin brand.

If your genres naturally connect together (science fiction and fantasy are good matches, as are the general umbrella of historical romances), then I think you’re fine under the same name. But let’s say you write erotica and Christian romance. I would separate out those two genres because your Christian romance readers will be pissed if they stumble upon an erotica book. This will hurt your brand. If you were to write children’s fantasy cute stories and adult horror violent stories, this is another situation where I believe pen names will do you a favor. No mom wants to search for a cute children’s story by a certain author and stumble upon a story about a sadistic killer who chops his victim up into bits and eats them. So the bottom line is if you’re going to do extremes, separate out your brands with a pen name. If you want to let people know about your pen name, just do it on your website and blog. As long as your different brands aren’t in the “Also Boughts” on Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple, etc, you’re okay. You want your brands to be separated out in the retailers.

Consistency in Publishing

Pacing is important in indie publishing. Your next book is going to be your most effective promotional tool. You can’t just publish a couple of books, walk away, and expect to keep making money. Sooner or later, the interest in your last book is going to fade. You need another book to get attention again. And this never ends. You have to keep getting another book out. Between book releases, you can run ads and do things to promote your books, but there’s nothing like that next book to get the most attention. You need to give your readers something new.

Since 2009 when I got into ebook publishing, it’s always been a “what do you have next?” kind of game. I used to think there would be a time when I could have a certain number of books out and be able to take half a year or more off while still making decent income. That never happened. In fact, since indie publishing became a huge thing, I’ve had to make sure to keep up a consistent publishing schedule. The longer the time between releases, the less money I make overall. I know there are authors who do fine with releasing 1-2 books a year, but they tend to have very strong marketing skills and have other ways to earn money, such as their You Tube channel where they make money off of the ads on their videos or a Patreon account or a course they sell to authors. In other words, it’s not just their books they are making money from. They have other sources of income.

With that said, pick a publishing schedule that is the best fit for you so you can have a new release out on a consistent basis. Just note, the chances of you making money go up with the more releases you have in a year. That’s not to say there are guarantees of making money if you publish all the time. There are never any guarantees in this business. I’m just saying that your chances of success go up when you have a consistent plan that you follow.

Fall In Love With The Process of Book Promotion

In my opinion, it’s best to pick the stuff you love when doing book promotion.

Some authors love to run ads, tinker with keywords in those ads, and track the effectiveness of these ads. Not me. To me, spending hours messing with ads sounds like a punishment. I’d rather sit in the dentist’s chair while they pick at my teeth and gums. So if you feel like that about a certain marketing strategy that someone tells you to do, just pass it up. Focus on the stuff you like. I know authors who love to take their paperbacks to book signing events and mingle with readers. I know authors who love doing Facebook live events. Both of these also don’t appeal to me, either. So I don’t do them.

The reason this blog is still going strong after I started in 2011 is because I love to ramble in blog posts. This is fun for me. I’m playing when I’m here. It doesn’t feel like work. I also love pre-orders because they help me get everything organized before the book is due out. That way I’m not rushing to get everything together on the day of its release. Then I pass along the information about the pre-order on my blog and other places. I like social media, but I found I prefer to stick with what I’m working on rather than going into personal stuff. So I stick with the writing stuff I’m doing. I leave my personal stuff to private conversations. Some authors, on the other hand, tells stories from their personal lives and sharing pictures. So whatever you like to spend your time on, focus on that. You don’t have to be on every social media platform that’s out there.

In addition to what I mentioned above, there are websites, videos, podcasts, newsletter swaps, email lists, and other things you can do to be out into there in the world. Just be yourself and have a good time. This doesn’t have to feel like work. It can be relaxing and enjoyable. And if you’re having a good time, that will come across in what you do. Plus, you’ll stick with it. That’s another thing with consistency. Not only do you want to be consistent in your book publishing schedule, but you want to be consistent in your promotion, too. Pace yourself in all areas so you don’t burn out.

***

Good luck on your future plans, and if I come up with more stuff to pass along, I will.

Stolen Audiobooks are Now Gone

I’m happy to report that the two stolen audiobooks have been removed!

If you’re an author and have had a scammer steal your book and make it into an audiobook, go to Amazon and fill out the copyright infringement form. Go to this link and then click the blue “form” link if you want to file online. They have a process to mail in a copyright infringement complaint, but I find it easier to do this online.

One of my readers who reported the stolen audiobook on Amazon was told to go to ACX. A couple of narrators I communicated with said they went to ACX. So if you’re not an author, it sounds like going to ACX directly is the way to go.

To all authors, as a preventative measure, claim your books if you can. Unfortunately, there are some authors who can’t claim their books because they live in a country that won’t them get into ACX. I hesitate to say which countries since it might give some scammers ideas on which authors to target. I have a feeling my scammer was following my blog posts. That scammer might still be, for all I know. Suffice it to say, if you’re an author in the United States like I am, you can go and claim your books.

If anyone working at ACX happens to be reading this post (which I doubt is the case, but who knows?), it would help authors a lot if the KDP dashboard worked like the Smashwords dashboard. At Smashwords, I can click on the audiobook link to create an audiobook and it takes me directly to Findaway Voices. If KDP required the author to be signed into their KDP dashboard in order to transfer their book to ACX, that would be a huge preventative measure from future scams. This is a win-win all the way around. One, the book would automatically be “claimed” on ACX when the author transfers it over there. Two, the narrators would be able to trust that the author is really the owner of the book they are going to create into an audiobook. Three, this would also protect the authors in countries who are unable to access ACX. Four, this would establish trust in the ACX brand. Right now, ACX’s reputation has suffered because of this. As an author, I don’t trust it. I’m taking my business to Findaway Voices. I’m sure this has made narrators hesitate to want to work on ACX, too.

Edited to add: I realize authors don’t need an account at Smashwords to create audiobooks on Findaway Voices. I just used that as an example of how KDP (where authors create their ebooks on Amazon) can be used in conjunction with ACX.

In the meantime, all authors can do is claim their books as long as they live in a country that makes this possible.

Reported the Stolen Audiobooks to ACX and They Sent Me Directly to Amazon

I got an email back from ACX today. I removed the name of the representative, but here is what the person wrote:

I am sorry to hear that one of your works is being sold on Audible without your consent. We take claims of copyright and piracy issues very seriously.

As part of the Amazon family, any reports of Copyright issues should be sent to Amazon directly. Please go to https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=508088 and view the section “Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement” for the information and form to complete to report infringement.

Please let us know if there is anything additional we can assist with.If you need more help, contact us, we’re here from 9am to 7pm ET, Mon-Fri.
Have a nice afternoon and take care!

So I followed the link, and after going to another link and I think one more, I finally got to the form I needed to fill out. I find it amazing (in a bad way) that they make theft so EASY on the scammer, but they make it HARD for the innocent party to report the theft.

A quick rant about exclusivity on Amazon:

I’ve had readers ask me when I’ll be in KU (Kindle Unlimited). The answer is NEVER. I will never ever in a million years put any of my books in KU unless they remove their exclusive restrictions. I will never be exclusive to Amazon. Amazon has given me the runaround on protecting my own work since 2011. Words can’t describe how upset I am with Amazon. They never should link up books from their site to ACX if they are NOT going to respect copyright infringement claims over there.

Plus, their copyright infringement form is not easy to figure out. I had to tell everyone in my house to leave me alone for a good 30 minutes while I waded my way through the process. But all someone has to do on ACX is click a little checkbox saying they have the rights to my book, and within a second, they can claim it as theirs. I am fed up. This is complete and utter nonsense.

I don’t care how many readers will only read KU books. To me, the money lost is not worth it. I will get a job outside the house before I join KU. I know some authors are afraid to speak up against Amazon because Amazon might hurt their sales by lowering visibility over on their site, but what good is any of this when they are more than willing to hand over money from my work to a thief? When someone steals your book, even if you manage to get Amazon to remove it, you never get paid that money lost. I think Amazon keeps it. I don’t think they ever reimburse the people who bought the stolen book. So what has Amazon to lose if they let scammers do this crap?

The best way authors can vote against this nonsense is to avoid putting books in KU. Put your books on all retailers. Build up the competition. If the competition goes away, imagine what Amazon will be like. They’re already doing this other stuff. They make innocent authors jump through all these hoops to protect their books. To date, I have spent almost $10,000 registering the copyright on my books. That includes the registration fee, buying the two paperbacks per registration, and mailing it to the US Copyright Office. I have almost 100 books out. This stuff adds up. I never know which book the thieves will target, so I have to do this for every single book.

Alright, to filing the copyright infringement complaint on Amazon itself:

Anyway, I did fill out the form. I went to the link the ACX person sent me to:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=508088#GUID-32F0D8DC-150F-4394-921F-77B2DB58A4F8__SECTION_61204EC3A0D64C09820BE2BC332A4AFA

I had to scroll all the way to the bottom to get to this:

NOTICE AND PROCEDURE FOR MAKING CLAIMS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INFRINGEMENT



If you believe that your intellectual property rights have been infringed, please submit your complaint using our online form. This form may be used to report all types of intellectual property claims including, but not limited to, copyright, trademark, and patent claims.

I clicked on the “form” link, and it took me to this url: https://www.amazon.com/report/infringement

Why couldn’t the ACX rep just send me directly to that link? Why make me wade through all of the other stuff to get to the form I needed? I think I know the answer. They just threw up a canned response they give everyone, whether they are claiming infringement on a trademark, a patent, copyright, etc.

Anyway, I filled out the form.

I gave them the US Copyright Registration numbers for both books, and then I added this message:

I am Ruth Ann Nordin. I wrote the two books An Unlikely Place for Love and A Most Unsuitable Earl. I have registered these books with the US Copyright Office. Someone who is going by “Leon Publishing” on your site has scammed two narrators into making audiobooks off my work. I did NOT give “Leon Publishing” my permission to do this. “Leon Publishing” has stolen my work and has done this without my permission. I ask that you remove these books. I do not hold this against the narrators. They honestly believed it was me.

Here is the link of the stolen audiobooks: https://www.audible.com/search?searchProvider=Leon+Publishing&ref=a_pd_A-Most_c1_publisher&pf_rd_p=52918805-f7fc-40f4-a76b-cf1c79f7d10a&pf_rd_r=AFGD7C0REVEVXP40MQHC

Here is the fake profile “Leon Publishing” created pretending to be me: https://www.audible.com/author/Ruth-Ann-Nordin/B002BM2VVQ?ref=a_search_c3_lAuthor_1_1_1&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6

I then linked to the direct links on Amazon in the form since they wanted the ASIN:

Stolen Audiobook direct link to Amazon for A Most Unsuitable Earl: https://www.amazon.com/Most-Unsuitable-Earl-Marriage-Scandal/dp/B08B77J33C/

Stolen Audiobook direct link to Amazon for An Unlikely Place for Love: https://www.amazon.com/Unlikely-Place-Love-Virginia-Collection/dp/B08BX7Q391/

Final thoughts:

Now, I didn’t add this in the form, but I did notice something of interest while on the audiobook description pages of the stolen audiobooks.

At the bottom, the thief put this: ©2012 Ruth Ann Nordin (P)2020 Leong Singh

I suspect that person is following my blog posts because they actually told one of the narrators that “I” decided to make audiobooks to stop the thief from stealing them. This narrator reported this incident to ACX, which I am thankful for. I think this bought me time to claim my books as soon as I realized I could do that.

Well, I am going to publicly make an announcement on this blog. I have decided to go into making audiobooks, but I’m not going to say which ones until they’re done. I have contacted two narrators who I met along the way of this whole ordeal that I decided would be wonderful people to work with. The other narrators were all great, too. But I can only handle two with my hectic schedule. On top of writing, I also have a husband and kids that need my time. So I had to choose which ones to go with. But I’m not doing it to stop people like Leong Singh. I’m doing it because I love my books and I like these two narrators, and I figured, “Why not?”

For me, this pursuit is not about money. It’s about doing something that probably will be enjoyable. Writing is why I started this. I love writing. But in the process of publishing books and getting out there, I have met some incredible people along the way. I met cover artists, editors, other authors, beta readers, readers, and now I’m meeting narrators. To me, the relationship factor of getting to know these people have been deeply rewarding. I value those relationships, and I will take on projects for the opportunity to work with wonderful people.

Check ACX to Make Sure Your Books Haven’t Been Scammed

I went to Facebook and told other writers that scammers were taking my books and pretending to be me in order to trick innocent narrators into making them into audiobooks. I added a warning that narrators have told me this has happened to them by scammers who were pretending to be other authors, too. So I knew I wasn’t the only author hit by this. I was shocked, however, to find out how often this scam occurs over there. Indie authors aren’t the only ones hit, either. Even major publishers have fallen victim to this.

One author in a writing group on Facebook recommended that I “claim” my books in ACX so that scammers can’t take them. I had no idea I could even do this. So after some back and forth in the group, I figured out how to do this, and I’m going to pass this information along to anyone who might want to go to ACX and claim their books so scammers don’t get them.

I have been able to claim most of them. There were two situations where I couldn’t claim them. 1. Two of my books have been stolen and made into audiobooks. I reported those two books to ACX already. 2. The others I was unable to claim have been disabled from being able to be made into audiobooks. These were the same titles narrators had told me were up for auditions. I had contacted ACX about them, and I think this is why those are disabled. At least ACX shut those books down before the scammer could get away with doing those. Also, I think it helped that at least one narrator contacted ACX. I don’t know if more than one did, but I know one who did for sure.

Anyway, it appears that ACX automatically puts our books on their site. I didn’t realize this. All of my books were over there. Other people’s books are there, too. All a scammer has to do it claim the book they want, and then they can arrange for it to be auditioned. This is how easy the scam is. I suspect the scammer has to have a copy of the book to send to the narrator (though I am not familiar with the process since I’ve never been through it). In my case, the scammer was only picking my free books. I noticed that none of the narrators who contacted me were approached with my paid books. The scammer(s) only seemed interested in the free ones. So that was interesting to note.

Claiming the books is a tedious and long process, so if you have a lot of books, set aside a few hours. I had so many books that I had to break my time up. I claimed the ebook and paperback version of my book. All claiming a book does is put your book in production. So you have started the process of making an audiobook, but you haven’t finished it. So your book will be stuck “in production”. If you ever decide to have an audiobook made, this will at least get you started in the process.

If you want to claim your book in ACX so a thief can’t get to it, I’m going to tell you what to do. An author on Facebook was kind enough to explain how to do it to me and a few other authors because we didn’t know what to do.

The first thing you need to do is sign up for an account at https://www.acx.com/. I use the same account for publishing my books on KDP and for buying things off of Amazon, so I was able to connect up to ACX easily. ACX is an arm of Amazon.

In this example, I have two books I took screenshots of while claiming the book. One went through easily, and the other required more work.

When you find your book, look for the “This is my Book” option to the right of it. This is in purple. (In this case, I already had the ebook version claimed. Now I was claiming the paperback.)

[image error]

This is what shows up next:

[image error]

Since I have no intention of ever making an audiobook on ACX, I picked the second option (which is saying I already had the audio files). This is what the other author on Facebook said she did in order to keep her book in “production” status, so I did the same thing.

This is what happens next:

[image error]

I selected non-exclusive even though I’ll never use ACX. Then I clicked continue.

[image error]

Next, I got the page that asked me to say, “Yes, this is my book.” Then I clicked “agree and continue”.

[image error]

Most of the time, this is all it takes to get the book “claimed”, but ACX is a bit wonky, so sometimes I had to keep going in order for the claim to “take”. (Make sure search ACX to see that you get the statement saying you claimed it.) This is what it should look like if it worked. In this case, I got my ebook and paperback covered.

[image error]

In the case of Mitch’s Win, the “easy way” didn’t work. I clicked, “This is my book”, went through the exclusive or not page, and verify your rights to the book page. (I showed those above.) But when I went to check on Mitch’s Win in the search results, it still was not claimed.

So I went through the process all over again, but this time after I verified I was the owner of the book, I kept going. If you keep you, you’ll come to a page like this:

[image error]

Sometimes the description comes up and sometimes it doesn’t. But then you have to fill out all the required boxes. This is what I did.

[image error]

I listed myself as the narrator since it doesn’t matter what is in the box. I had to fill everything with the red asterisk in.

And at the bottom of the page, I clicked continue. That took me to this page:

[image error]

I clicked to start adding my chapters. Then it takes you to a screen to list out your chapters or import them from the ebook on Amazon. I only put “C1” “C2” and then hit continue since I am not actually going to make this into an audiobook.

That took me to this page:

[image error]

Now it’s verified that the book is in production. I checked the book on ACX and saw that it was claimed properly this time, too. I still like to double check. So now the book is in production. I think of this as a placeholder so that no one else can take it.

This is the only way I know of to prevent a thief from coming in and claiming our books as theirs. It’s really sad that authors have to go through such ridiculous hoops to protect their books, but thieves don’t care about stealing. To them, easy money is easy money, and they have no qualms about their shady dealings.

I guess my advice to narrators (if any are reading this) is to check with the author of the book to make sure the author is the one who set the book up for auditions. One of the narrators I came in contact with who spent her time into actually creating one of my books was heartbroken when she discovered what had happened. I was unable to find the other narrator to tell her that she’d been scammed. I searched online, but there was no easy way to find her. So I had to let that one go. But for the one I was able to communicate with, that was her first book, and she was so excited about it.

These thieves really upset me. I’ve had books stolen from me before. I remember how devastated I was when it happened. Now I just get pissed. I have to pay $55 for each book I publish in order to register them at the US Copyright Office. That adds up when you have almost 100 books. The US Copyright Office probably recognizes my name by now. I know some of you can’t afford to do it, but I feel like I have no choice. The US Copyright Registration letter was the only proof Amazon would accept last year when someone claimed that I stole my own book. For me, theft is a way of life in this indie world. I feel like I got a target on my head, and on some days, it is exhausting. I press on because I love writing. If I didn’t love it as much as I do, I’d be done with it. But this is my one real passion. I feel like God has put me here to write these books. So I continue. And I continue with the knowledge that there will probably be a next time. I don’t spend my days worrying over it happening. I just do what I can to be as prepared as I can be so that I have what I need to resolve the issues in my favor.

Regarding that narrator, though, I felt sick to my stomach. Innocent people shouldn’t have to go through this kind of thing. Honest people who are trying to make an honest living should be able to do their work without having the rug pulled out from under them. I can only hope that by claiming my books on ACX no other narrator will have to go through this with any more of my books. I’m hoping that claiming the books is the key to keeping writers and narrators safe.

Caught a Scammer in the Act

Just to alert everyone, I caught one of the scammers (or maybe even the same one) in the act of their theft. Today on Facebook, a narrator shared “my” audiobook with me on my timeline. I notified the narrator that this scammer did not have my permission to make my book into an audiobook.

I feel really sorry for these narrators. I assume they don’t ask for money upfront since the scammers keep going to them in order to make these audiobooks. Scammers aren’t inclined to pay for anything. All they do is steal. And in this case, they are stealing my book AND stealing these narrators’ talent and time. This is not fair to me or the narrators.

You have to watch out for these thieves. They’re in abundance. I’ve have ebooks stolen and/or plagiarized. I’ve had a paperback stolen. Now they are convincing narrators to make audiobooks.

To set the record straight so there are no misunderstandings: I am NOT making audiobooks. I already explained why in a lengthy rant, so I won’t do it again. You can read that post here. After I wrote that post, a narrator contacted me and a scammer must have read my blog post because the scammer actually told this narrator, “I decided to make audiobooks to stop people from stealing my books.”

Nope. No, I did not decide to make audiobooks.

A quick not to narrators (if any are reading this): If I ever decide to make audiobooks, I will pay upfront for your services. I would never ask you to do anything for free. I value people’s time. I would not do a royalty-split because there would be no guarantees that the audiobook would sell. I want to make sure everyone who works for me (editor, cover artist, etc) gets paid. I don’t believe in asking for anyone to do something for free. I will offer something in return.

Back to the post…

Up to now, the narrators caught onto the scammer before the audiobook was created, but in this case, this scammer got away with it from two different narrators. I don’t know if it’s the same scammer who contacted the other five narrators about making my books into audio. This could be a group of them for all I know.

So, assuming that this scammer(s) is reading my blog post right now, I contacted ACX about this, and I let the narrators know they have been duped. You have stolen my hard work, and you have stolen from the time and talent of narrators who are trying to make an honest living. I realize you don’t care. I know this means nothing to you. For all I know, you’re laughing and thinking this whole thing is cute. But my message to you is this: there is a God in Heaven, and He will judge between you and me, and since you are in the wrong, He will deal with you. As the Bible says, He will avenge my case (and the narrators’ case) on my behalf. I’m leaving this at His feet. He has heard my prayer, and He will take care of things for me. You might get away with this for a while, but a day of reckoning will come, and you’ll be held accountable for your actions.

Regarding the scam, this is what the scammer(s) has been able to get away with so far:

The person (people) are going by the publishing name “Leon Publishing,” and this here is the page on Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchProvider=Leon+Publishing&ref=a_pd_A-Most_c1_publisher&pf_rd_p=52918805-f7fc-40f4-a76b-cf1c79f7d10a&pf_rd_r=AFGD7C0REVEVXP40MQHC

The person (people) also make a fake profile of me here: https://www.audible.com/author/Ruth-Ann-Nordin/B002BM2VVQ?ref=a_search_c3_lAuthor_1_1_1&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6880-467a-b5a7-13cef5d729fe&pf_rd_r=G4RKZA50D41RSDT7XKD9

Now to ACX, what is wrong with you? I notified you two weeks ago that I am not making audiobooks, and you still let these books go up? Is there no way you can vet the people coming to your site? Why is it that I have told you what is happening AND a narrator also alerted you to this, BUT you haven’t done anything to keep watch over this?

I bet a lot authors are getting scammed, but they just don’t know it. I bet a lot of narrators are getting scammed, but they also don’t know it. This can’t just be happening to me. It’s impossible to think that I am so incredibly special in this whole entire world that I am the only author who got picked for this nonsense. So for authors and narrators, be careful out there. There’s a lot of slime dripping all over the place.

Why Being Different Works in Your Favor (A Post For Writers)

Today’s post is based on the podcast by The Merriweather Council titled Your Market is Not “Too Saturated”, Here’s Why. It’s less than 8 minutes long, so I recommend you check it out.

There are a ton of books out there. And yes, visibility is going to be an issue. You can’t get away from the fact that there are already more books in the world than any one person will ever be able to read in their lifetime. But there is something you can do to separate yourself from the crowd. It doesn’t mean people will magically find you, but it will mean that when people do find you, they will remember you because you dared to be different.

[image error]ID 141126649 © Ivelinr | Dreamstime.com

I know the big theme in selling lots and lots of books is, “Write to market.” This is code for, “Write the same thing everyone else in your genre is writing.” What is the basis behind this thinking? It’s the idea that readers want the same thing. They don’t want to read something different.

And the result?

Your books aren’t any different than the other stuff that is already out there. There is no compelling reason any reader has to invest in YOU. If your book sounds just like the other gazillion books already out there, then any book will do. You are replaceable. I’ve come across people who’ve said that they don’t remember what happened in the books they’ve read. They can’t remember if they even read a certain author/book or not. And why is this? Because the books weren’t memorable. They are just a blur on the horizon. This is the downside to writing to market that very few people ever talk about.

I guess if your goal is money, this is fine. Who cares if people remember your stories or not? All that matters is how much is rolling into your bank account. I agree that it’s nice to make money. I don’t want to be a starving artist. But does it really matter if you’re making a six-figure income? If you lower your expenses and live a modest lifestyle in an area that has a low cost of living, you don’t need to make $100,000+ a year in order to survive.

Anyway…

I think books have more value than money. Stories that have stuck with me through the years are those that touched me on a deeply emotional level. Good or bad, those are the ones I remember most. These weren’t cookie-cutter books. These were books where the author took a risk and did something unexpected. If I enjoyed the book, I immediately searched out what other books the author wrote. Writing for passion means you will write that kind of book. It just takes one book to pique a reader’s interest. There are no shortcuts. Every book must be the best you can do with that particular story, and if you’re passionate about it, that enthusiasm will show up in your work. Readers can tell when we like what we’re doing.

The best way to stand out in any genre is to make your stories different. It doesn’t matter how many books are in your genre. If you decide not to go the “cookie cutter” route, you will stand out. Yes, you will upset some people because there will be people who don’t like the direction you go in with your work. Those people don’t count. The reason they don’t count is because you’re not writing for them. You are writing for people who share your vision. The world is full of billions of people, and we all have different interests. That means we don’t all want to read the same type of stories. That’s good news. It means that there is an audience for your books.

Also, embrace your unique voice. The plot and characters you come up with are only half of your story. The other half is HOW you tell the story. That “how” is your voice. And your voice should be distinct. It should be like a fingerprint. Someone should be able to recognize your voice after reading several of your books. How you tell the story is the most important thing you bring to the book. So embrace the difference of your unique storytelling style instead of trying to conform to the writing groups’ version of perfection. Writing groups mean well, but they aren’t reading books like readers do. Writing groups look for stuff that would make an English teacher or an editor happy. Readers have an entirely different mindset. Readers read to be entertained. Tell your story to entertain, not to “wow” your English teacher or an editor. I’ll add the disclaimer here that it is important to have your book edited. You want your story to be the most polished up it can be, but it’s possible to take care of grammatical and proofreading errors without destroying the flavor of one’s voice.

Since I am a big proponent of authors embracing their unique voice, I want to give an example of how your voice can be the thing that will make you stand out in a saturated market. For this example, let’s look at podcasts. There are tons of podcasts out there, and there are a good number of podcasts that cover the same topic. In this example, let’s say the topic you’re interested in is cars. There are 100 podcasts that deal with this specific topic. You have searched through them all, and after a while, you realize that you gravitate toward one or two certain podcasts over the others because of the way the person in the podcast presents the material. Other people are giving out similar information, but for some reason, the other people’s “styles” doesn’t fit you. You end up subscribing to two podcasts (instead of the full 100) because the people making those two podcasts have a certain style that most appeals to you. Why is this? The answer is simple. They are bringing their personality to the podcast. Their personality will effect how the information is presented. It’s the same way when we write books. We bring our personalities to the stories we tell when we embrace our voice.

Another way we can distinguish ourselves in a saturated market is by daring to be different in our genre. Since I primarily write romances, I’ll use that as the genre in this example. Out of romance, there are sub-genres, and even those sub-genres can be broken down. I happen to do two main ones: historical western romances and Regency Romances. The difference I chose to pursue was mixing a Christian worldview with the characters’ sexual relationship within marriage. This is different. Rarely do I ever see this done in romance. I was hoping these types of romances were going to emerge when self-publishing took off, but most Christian authors stick with the “clean” romances. Why? I think it’s because they’re afraid of stepping out and being different. I think they fear that there isn’t a market for the kinds of romances I write. Rose Gordon and Carolyn Davidson are the only two other authors I know of that do this. If there are others who do this with each and every book they write, I don’t know who those authors are. I’d love to read their books if they exist. But pretty much, the standard in the traditional publishing world has seeped into the self-publishing romance world, too. Christian romances = clean. Secular romances = sexy.

In a world where authors have the freedom to publish whatever they want, they follow the path of the traditional publishers and focus on the market. But when people write the same things, how will they ever stand out? How will readers ever develop a connection to the actual author? The voice you have and the uniqueness you bring to your genre are your brand. Your brand is what people associate with you when they see your name. The market is saturated out there, but if you build your brand with every book you write, you can stand out. Being different can work for you. Again, this is not likely going to be something that will have you selling like hotcakes. I’m not going to promise that. What it means is that when the right reader comes along, that reader will want to invest in you and your books. It’s a slow build, but I believe it’s also one that is based on a solid foundation.

No other author will be “you”. You will be the only person out there who can write “your” books. Because of that, readers who resonate with your books will remember you and stay with you. Too many times we dismiss readers and think, “Oh, it’s only one, so who cares?” Every reader is important. Readers aren’t a dollar amount. They are people. Some of the most fulfilling conversations I’ve ever had have been with my readers. They are the reason I didn’t give up when I wanted to. Money didn’t convince me to keep writing and publishing. My readers did. And there are quite a few of them who are now friends. I don’t have an assistant to interact with them for me. I interact with them myself. I may not get to them right away because of my hectic life, but I try to make sure I personally answer them.

I don’t waste time on the negative people. I figure if someone wants to complain, they can leave a review on Amazon or some other retailer or tell the people they know that my stories suck. If they don’t like my books, that’s fine. I won’t argue with them about it. They’re welcome to their opinion, but I learned the hard way that I should never rewrite my books to please people who don’t like them. I made the mistake early on of doing that, and in the process, I upset the people who loved my books because of how I wrote them originally. I changed those books back to the original versions, and I have never changed my books since. You can’t please everyone all the time. It’s impossible. Taste is subjective. What one person likes, another doesn’t. So don’t get caught up in what someone who hated your book has to say about it. So what? That’s just their opinion. If you loved your book and you know you have pleased someone out there, the book is just fine. I know that’s not easy to remember when you come across negative feedback, so be sure to have the emails and blog comments on hand to read over when the negativity makes you doubt yourself.

I’ll stop rambling here. But I’ll leave this pose with a final note. In a saturated market, the one thing you can do to stand out is to do your own thing. Be different. Take risks. Do stuff those authors writing to market would never dare to do. That will make you memorable. The niche might be small, but those readers who love what you do will be invested in you. Your books won’t be read and forgotten. They’ll be remembered, and they might even touch another person’s life in a way that lasts for years to come. We never know what impact our stories will have while we’re alive or even after we’re no longer here. Some of the authors we’ve read from centuries ago probably had no idea their books would be read in our day, but their words are still making a difference in the world.

The Rancher’s Bride is Now Available! (This time the post is published on the correct day. Sorry about the confusion, everyone.)

This is Abby’s romance.

This is Book 2 in the Wyoming Series. (The Fugitive’s Bride will finish the series, and that will be out August 29.)

[image error][image error][image error]

A quick background into this book…

At the end of The Outlaw’s Bride, our main characters in this series rescued two-year-old Lloyd. Abby was the one who rode off on a horse with him, but no one knew where she went. So that part of the series plot went unanswered. In The Rancher’s Bride, I pick up what happened to Abby and Lloyd.

I’m going to assume everyone read The Outlaw’s Bride, so I don’t have to rehash that story, but if you haven’t, it is available for free on all retailers now.

What you can expect in this book….

The Rancher’s Bride begins with Abby and Lloyd being pursued by one of Charles’ men. In the process, she’s injured. Despite sustaining the injury, she manages to find a barn on a remote ranch where she and Lloyd hide.

On this particular ranch, there happens to be our hero who was a doctor in the Civil War. He’s now in the Wyoming Territory, and he’s raising his orphaned ten-year-old niece. It turns out this girl has been praying for a woman to come along so her uncle can get married, and she is convinced that Abby and her uncle are meant to be together. So, to help things along, she plays matchmaker. This is the humorous side of the story.

But there’s the serious side of the story as well. We have Wade who is suffering from the gunshot wound he received that night they rescued Lloyd. He took the bullet out, but now he has an infection from it. Jeremiah goes out to search for Abby and Lloyd, and it turns out he’s on the trail of Charles’ men who are also looking for Abby and Lloyd. There’s one particular scene that is tragic, but I won’t say what it is since I don’t want to spoil the book. These scenes with Wade and Jeremiah gives The Rancher’s Bride a gritty western feel to it.

So this is a mix between romantic comedy and gritty western. I don’t think I’ve ever done a book like this before. The gritty side is similar to Brave Beginnings in the Native American Romance Series where I went into some dark territory with my characters. Unlike Brave Beginnings, I had no outright comical moments where you laugh out loud. The humor in this story is similar to the humor in The Wrong Husband and A Groom for Hire.

Where you can get this book…

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Smashwords

Payhip (use coupon code OK72OOHI3H for 50% off; coupon expires July 3, 2020)

Quick Post: The Rancher’s Bride is due out tomorrow, not today.

I just published the announcement for The Rancher’s Bride by accident. I unpublished it.

The post will be going back up tomorrow. I was working on this in advance. The weekend is when my husband is off of work, and I spend time with him and the kids. I was getting the post ready for tomorrow so that I didn’t have to spend a couple of hours on it. Believe it or not, it takes me 2-3 hours to work on a post. So I use my week days when he’s at work to do these posts.

My apologies for the confusion.

If it helps, the book is up on pre-order, and when it strikes midnight, it’ll go to your devices if you want to get your copy now.

Sometimes I Want to Give Up Publishing (But I Won’t)

Warning: rant ahead.

I love writing. I wouldn’t give that up. But sometimes, like this past week, I have wanted to quit publishing. Today, I’m very close to my breaking point, and the temptation to say, “Enough. I’m done. I can’t take it anymore,” is at its peak.

I suspect a lot of other authors feel this way from time to time. Our writing is often not regarded as “work”, and the reason it’s not regarded as work is because reading isn’t work. Reading is for enjoyment. People can read a book in a couple of hours that took months (sometimes even years) to write. Authors put time into their books, they put money into putting the books together (editing and covers), and then they have to figure out a way to get the books out into the world so people know these books exist. That isn’t cheap. Granted, some stuff can be bartered, but most of the time it’s not. When people pick up a book, they want a great cover with a book that is well-edited. They want the book to be professional. Well, professional comes at a price.

Which makes me angry as all get out when some thief, or a group of thieves, takes my books and tries to claim they own the copyright to them to do whatever they want with them. I heard an expression recently that pretty much sums up how disgusted I am with these jerks, and that expression goes something like this, “There aren’t enough middle fingers in the world to adequately convey exactly how I feel about you.”

I’ve had ebooks and paperbacks stolen. Now some scumbag thief is going around trying to get audiobook narrators to make audiobooks off of my ebooks. You’d think audiobooks would be safe since authors usually have to pay a pretty good sum of money to have those made. I guess narrators are offering to do books for free in return to splitting royalties. That’s the only reason I could think that a thief would pull this scam because I can’t see a thief being willing to shell out a few hundred dollars to have one audiobook produced.

Note to narrators: please charge upfront for your service. If you’re offering to narrate books for free, stop. Over the past week, I’ve had three of you contact me as if I can magically make these scamming low-life thieves go away. I can’t do it. It’s like playing whack-a-mole. There’s a lot of them, and they keep coming back. I know you mean well by contacting me, but I can NOT get rid of them. I’ve contacted ACX like you wanted, but that is all I can do. I can’t go further than that. I am only one person. I have no one representing me. There is no publisher I can run to. This is the downside to self-publishing. Authors are on their own. What would help is if narrators charged for their services instead of offering up freebies to these people.

If I were to ever make an audiobook, I would pay for it because it’s the right thing to do. I believe in paying people for a service they provide. I never ask to get anything for free. I pay my editors, I pay my cover artists, and I give my beta readers a free ebook or paperback. I make sure the people who help me out get something in return.

But I’ll make it clear to everyone on this blog that I am NOT going to make audiobooks. Ever. It would be a huge waste of money. My ebooks don’t sell that much. I keep losing income. If I have trouble selling ebooks, what makes you think that I can turn a profit on audiobooks? This isn’t the golden age of self-publishing anymore, and I am NOT a big name author who is consistently on the bestseller’s lists. I can NOT provide for my family off of my income anymore. I used to be able to do that in 2014-2017, but I can’t do that these days. My husband has his pension and his job that keeps us afloat, and we live in a trailer with a couple of used cars. So what do you thieves think you’re going to make off of my work?

Contrary to what you’ve been told by some authors, not every single author is making “a six-figure income”. We are not all rolling in the money. I wish these authors who brag about their money would quit it because it’s making the rest of us deal with thieves who think they can steal our work and get rich from it. That’s why these thieves steal. They’re looking for easy money. Well, there’s no money in my books. I am not one of those authors who is bringing in a ton of money every month. I used to be, but I’m not anymore. That ship has sailed, and you thieves are too late.

The reason a part of me wants to stop publishing is because chasing after these scumbags is NOT worth the time or the stress I have to deal with every time this comes up. I know authors who’ve never been subjected to this, and I wish I was them. It must be nice to not have a bunch of thieves constantly coming after your books.

So I put in all this time into writing my books. Then I put in the money to get it ready for the world by paying the cover artist and my editor and arranging for my beta readers to give me their input. I don’t get a return on my investment these days. I have nothing financially to show for all the time and money I put into these books. And then I get slapped in the face with thieves who believe that they have the right to steal my books. My books are not about money. My books are a part of me. They mean something to me. I’m emotionally attached to everything I write. I’m not writing these books to get rich. I’m writing them because I love to write.

And for you, you scumbag thief, to come in and just steal my books like you are the one who wrote them is like someone coming into my house and stealing my children from me. I know you don’t care. You only care about yourself. It’s probably funny to you that you do this. All I can say is thank goodness there is a God in Heaven who knows everything that is going on and will balance the scales someday. You are going to reap what you’ve shown.

To everyone else, this is why I’m tempted to quit publishing. Sometimes I think it’s not worth all the headache to put books out into the world. I could get a job that pays better and not have half this stress I have to deal with in publishing my books. I love to write. I’d keep writing. But I dream of keeping those books to myself so that the thieves of the world can’t come in and grab them from me.

I’m not threatening to stop publishing. I believe God has called me to do this, and I believe I’m under a spiritual attack right now. Why? Who knows? Maybe it’s to discourage me from publishing more books. But I’m old enough to realize that if God has called you to do something, you should do it no matter what happens because in the end, there’s a reward waiting in Heaven for those who faithfully pursue His will. This isn’t about me. This isn’t about my books. This is about doing the will of God.

I’m just ranting in this blog post to get this stuff off my chest. It’s been building up all week, and when I received word that a thief (or thieves) were trying to get yet another narrator to make audiobooks based on my hard work, I just lost it. I had to write my thoughts down in order to put things in perspective. Which I did. In the end, the only thing that matters is that I stay the course and keep running the race God has placed before me. In eternity, this stuff with the thieves won’t even matter.

I do feel better, but it still ticks me off that thieves go around doing this kind of thing. It’s going to take time to calm down completely from this.