Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 28

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.)

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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.

Wyoming Series is now complete!

Quick background for anyone who doesn’t know, this series was originally called the Wild Hearts Series, and I wrote Book 1 with Stephannie Beman. Book 1 was called The Stagecoach Bride. It was published in 2013 (I think). So much has happened in that time that it’s hard to remember exactly. Anyway, this was it:

[image error]The original cover and title

We did start Book 2 together, but about halfway into it, I realized that I just am not the kind of author who works well with others on collaborative projects. I want to note that Stephannie Beman is one of the nicest people anyone could work with. She’s flexible and willing to listen to other people. I, however, am not easy to work with. I’d like to sugar coat things and say I’m super sweet in all areas of life, but that would be a lie. When it comes to writing, I like things a certain way, and I don’t like sharing a story with other people. This is why I don’t do multi-author series or anymore co-written books.

I handed the rights to the books and characters to Stephannie. I tried to put the series on the back burner, but my mind kept going back to it. So I ended up going to Stephannie and asking if I could have the rights to it. We worked through a suitable arrangement, and in 2017 (I think), I started the rewrite on The Stagecoach Bride. I used the same basic plot, but I adjusted it to fit what my vision for the series was going to be. I will add here that Stephannie pretty much laid out the direction the series was going in, and she created the Gray family. All I did was flesh this all out. So this series still has her influence in it.

In January of this year, I published the rewritten version of Book 1, which I changed to The Outlaw’s Bride.

[image error] Wyoming Series: Book 1

After some consideration, I gave the series name “Wyoming Series”. Not very original, but I figured I had a Nebraska Series, a South Dakota Series, the Montana Collection, the Virginia Series, and an Omaha Series. So why not go with a Wyoming Series?

It looks like Amazon finally put this book to free. It’s already been free on other retailers, but Amazon was dragging it’s feet for the longest time. So if you haven’t read the new version yet and would like to, you can find the links to your preferred retailer here.

Next is Abby’s romance, and I have that coming out on June 27.

[image error] Wyoming Series: Book 2

Abby’s book bridges the events in Book 1 and Book 3. It’s heavily given from Abby’s point of view, but I do include Jeremiah’s point of view and a little of Lillian’s point of view. This is a complete romance novel. I don’t leave anyone wondering what happens to Abby and Thayne (the hero and heroine of this story). What you’re left wondering is if Wade will get the ranch back. That has been the subplot through this entire series.

I have this up for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Apple if you’d like to order it now. You can click here to find the links at your preferred retailer.

Yesterday, I finished the first draft of The Fugitive’s Bride. This is Wade’s romance.

[image error]Wyoming Series: Book 3

This will be out August 29. I just started initial edits today.

This wraps up the Wyoming Series. A couple of people have asked if Jeremiah will get his own book. No, he won’t. He does get a happy ending, but it’s not the happy ending you’re used to seeing. His character doesn’t require getting married to have his happily ever after. It did require something else, though, and I don’t want to spoil it by saying what it is.

This is my favorite book of the series. I really enjoyed working with Wade and Millie. They started acting like an old married couple and gradually worked their way to falling in love. It was fun to watch their relationship transform as the story progressed. This book is spicier than what I typically do, but the storyline required it. So the cover accurately reflects what you’ll be getting yourself into when you pick it up. Abby’s romance is tame compared to this one.

***

This is one of my all-time favorite series. I am so glad that Stephannie let me work on this. (Thank you, Steph!) Being able to work on this series and finish it has been one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve ever had as a writer.

I’m back on Facebook…But only for the writing groups.

I’m only making this post in case someone on Facebook sees my new profile and thinks it’s an imposter. I’ve had incidences of people pretending to be me over the past few years.

I searched around for good writing groups where I could keep updated on the latest stuff happening in the publishing industry, tips on fine-tuning writing, and different promotional techniques, but it turns out, Facebook has the best groups for this information. So I bit the bullet and created a new account.

This account is strictly for business. I’m not going to engage with anyone in a social manner where I go to their timeline and comment on their posts. I have MeWe for that. Facebook will be for my books and that’s it.

I know Facebook is supposed to be for social engagements, but that part of it is too divided with a lot of fighting. That’s why I left. I’m going to give this new strategy a try.

Everything I do on Facebook is going to be business all the time. Some authors get reported on Facebook for promoting their books. Some authors don’t. I don’t know what triggers the system. So, if you are the type who gets annoyed by authors promoting their books all the time, do not friend me over there.

That disclaimer aside, here’s my new profile. I’m starting from scratch. I feel it’s best to have everything brand new. The old account is completely wiped out, and for that, I’m grateful. So we’ll see how things go.

In the meantime, if anyone knows of a good writing group over there, let me know.

My Thoughts on a Survey about “How Readers Pick What to Read Next” (This is a Post for Writers)

[image error]ID 148198706 © Tsung-lin Wu | Dreamstime.com

I love Written Word Media. It’s my favorite place to run ads. I use their Freebooksy ad option a couple times a year. They have other promotional opportunities, too, but that’s the one I’m familiar with, which is why I mention it.

Anyway…

Once in a while, they will run surveys and share their findings to authors. These findings can help authors with marketing. I thought this particular survey was interesting, so I decided to add my two cents from the viewpoint of a writer. This survey was on how readers pick what to read next.

Without further ado, here we go…

1. A book’s description and cover trumps the reviews.

This is good news since we can’t control who reviews our books or what those people say in the reviews they leave. If your book gets enough readers, you will end up with someone who doesn’t like it. Why? Because taste is subjective, and there isn’t a single person in this entire world who likes every thing they come across. Since reviews aren’t the key factor in whether readers take a chance on a book, this should give us all a sigh of relief.

We can control the book description and the cover. Between these two, book descriptions were more important than covers. That tells me that our time will be best spent tweaking and improving our book descriptions. Some authors have an easy time with book descriptions. I don’t. I struggle with them. I’ve even had outside help. But if you’re going to devote time and attention to one thing to get a reader’s attention, the description is where you want to focus your energy.

2. A reader’s enjoyment of a book depends on the story.

Okay, at first glance, this is a “duh” statement, right? But when you consider the debate of writing to market vs. writing for passion, this takes on a whole new dimension. The article from Written Word Media specifically says this, “Books with robust plots and interesting storylines will resonate with readers.”

The keywords here are “robost plots” and “interesting storylines”. In other words, these are not cookie-cutter stories that have been done to death. Books written to market are cookie-cutter stories. The reason they are cookie-cutter stories is that the authors writing them are piggybacking off of tropes and trends that are popular. These authors are not going to take risks. They are going to play it safe. In the long run, safe is boring.

Writers who embrace passion will take risks. They will venture into new territory. They will turn stereotypes upside their head. They will pick storylines and characters that aren’t done all the time. They will create the stuff that is far more memorable in the long run. They will offer something different and fresh. In my opinion, they will create the stories that readers will enjoy the most.

Now, you still have the issue of getting people to take a chance on you, but once you do, and if you deliver a story that a reader loves, that reader will buy your other books. It’s not about getting into a bunch of people’s hands as soon as you publish something. It’s about building a loyal fanbase by offering something of value. This is why I think it’s key to embrace passion. If you write a book that excites you 100%, chances are the right reader will be 100% excited by it, too. Writers who are motivated by writing to the market are writing for other people, and they will not be 100% invested in their work. They might get enjoyment out of it, but there is a world of difference between the quality of your story when you write for yourself (which is passion) verses writing for money (which is the market).

3. Average review score is important.

The average is how the book rates overall. It’s not looking at the individual reviews but at all of them together. The way you get a good average review score is by getting enough readers who enjoy your specific genre to read your book. There are three hassle-free ways of getting reviews for your book.

One, offer the book for free. This comes with some risk. Readers who don’t even like your genre will grab the book. Don’t ask me why, but I’ve seen this happen because they’ll leave reviews like, “I don’t even like this genre”, when they leave the 1 or 2-star review. Those reviews aren’t helpful because they come from people who don’t like the genre. But they will leave stuff like that, so be prepared. Overall, though, this has been the best way I’ve been able to boost up the number of reviews on my books.

Two, use a site like Booksprout that will allow you to post ARCs of your book that people can read with the expectation they’ll leave a review. This has boosted my review count. Not everyone who claims an ARC will leave a review, but some do. I believe you can block people from getting future ARCs if they don’t leave a review. The nice thing about Booksprout is that it delivers the ARC to the reader for you. It means you don’t have to find the readers yourself, and you don’t have to explain how to upload a book to their device. Their service is free to use, but it also has paid plans that will give you more features. BookFunnel is another site you can use, but there is no free option with this one. You have to pay for it. BookFunnel does offer other promotional things like newsletter swaps and sales.

Three, ask for reviews at the end of the book. I don’t feel comfortable using this method, but for authors who do, they have told me they get more reviews this way.

Now, a hassle method of getting reviews is to offer free books directly to readers in exchange for an honest review. The reason it’s a hassle is that you have to find them yourself, and most of the time, they never review. So you’re doing a lot of work and not getting much of anything in return. I stopped doing this method years ago.

Whatever you do, do NOT pay for reviews. This is going to earn you a bad reputation if you get caught.

4. Readers are interested in the inspiration for characters and storylines.

If you’re looking for something to make a blog post about or something to share on social media or in an email list, consider doing some kind of trivia to go with the book. Examples would be, how you came up with the plot, how you came up with a character, anything in the book that reflects something in real life, or if there was a sudden change in the story that went against your original plan.

I didn’t think this kind of thing would be interesting to readers until I did a trivia post. I did it on the whim after reading trivia on a movie. I enjoyed the trivia that went behind the movie, so I thought, “Why not do it for one of my books?” I was pleasantly surprised by the positive responses I got.

You can do this on a social media site like Facebook, Twitter, MeWe, or Parler by doing something like, “Book X’s plot was based on a dream I had two years ago. In this dream, I was being chased by a group of wild animals,” or “Character X was named after an old friend who liked to ride horses.” These little trivia bits don’t have to be in one long post. You can separate these trivia bits out. Or, you can put them in a newsletter.

5. Many readers are Kindle Unlimited Subscribers.

That’s not a surprise for most of us. We’re aware of the perks Amazon has rolled out for readers. Depending on your genre and your goal for your books, you may or may not want to put your book into Kindle Unlimited at Amazon. But please beware that if you put your book in KU, it can only be on Amazon. Trying to get away with putting it in KU and on other retailers will run you the risk of getting caught, and if you’re caught, Amazon may do something with that book or even your account that won’t be pleasant.

It’s fine to be in KU, but exclusivity isn’t for all of us. I never liked the idea of only being in one place. I like to be in as many places as possible. The good news is that not every reader is on Amazon. There are those that prefer other retailers, and they are loyal to those retailers.

Where will you make more money? There’s no way to know for sure unless you try KU and then try wide. This is going to vary for every author. Some authors make more outside of Amazon, and other authors make more on Amazon. Some of this is dependent on the genre you write and how frequently you publish books. In the end, though, it’s also about whether your book takes off or not. It’s like tossing a coin. In my opinion, what matters most is your comfort level. How comfortable are you being reliant on one retailer? If you’re fine with it, then go into KU. If it makes you squeamish, you might want to try wide and see how things go.

6. Ads Matter.

Ads from places like Freebooksy, Amazon, Facebook, etc, do help you gain visibility. Remember, visibility is your biggest obstacle. People won’t buy your books unless they know you exist. But what I found interesting in this survey was that most people look at newsletters like the ones Freebooksy sends out in order to find new books to read. This is more effective than a search on Amazon, Goodreads, referrals from people one knows, and even social media. My guess is that this is because the newsletters go directly into the inbox.

I feel the need to add a word of caution. Never go into debt to buy an ad. Debt is not your friend. I’ve heard of authors putting ads on their credit cards and not selling enough books to cover that expense. For example, I recently found out someone paid $1000 for an ad but made about $450 in sales. Imagine having that happen and seeing the credit card statement come in with an interest rate of 18-29% for that $1000. (I’ve had credit card offers with interest rates that high, and it’s just insane. I don’t have credit cards. In my house, we are not good about always paying them off every month. So we just don’t use them.) But when I hear of authors who go into debt for ads that end up not paying off, my heart hurts on their behalf.

What I recommend is tucking aside money until you can afford the ad. There are two times when I think ads are most effective. One, is when you’re not going to have a new release for a while. This helps your sales to be steady between the last book you published and the next one you’ll have out. The dip in income won’t be so hard if you have that visibility boost. I’ve found ads on free books to be the most effective, especially when they are the first book in a series. Another time I think ads are most effective is when you have a new book out in a series. They key is to promote Book 1. The hope is then that people will get hooked on Book 1 and will buy the other books in the series.

7. Most readers spend up to $15 a month on books.

I’d like to know if this factored in KU subscribers. Do KU subscribers pay for the monthly fee (which I think is $9.99) + $15? Or do these KU subscribers only pay $5 once they are done paying the monthly fee? I’ve had KU readers tell me that even my $0.99 books are “breaking their bank”. So I’m inclined to say that the KU readers in this survey were including the KU subscription fee into the $15 they are willing to spend on books each month.

Regardless of the situation, there are two things that I, as a writer, take away from this information.

One, each book you write should represent your best work. There’s a saying I used to hear a lot from my English teacher: “An author is only as good as their last book.” I don’t know who originally said it, but it makes sense. If you have a really good book, people will want to read more. Writing a mediocre book isn’t going to cut it for long-term readership.

Two, it’s a good idea to let people know you have other books out at the end of the book they just read. If they want to read more books you’ve written, the end of the book is the best time to let them know you have other books. This is especially true for a series, but I think adding a list of all the books you have out is also good. It might not be a bad idea to mention an email list since a few readers like them or to mention a website or place where they can find you. If this is an ebook, put in the links to the email list, your website, and your social media sites so that the reader can click directly to those places. I neglected to do this early on, but I do it with every book now.

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Okay, that sums up my thoughts on the survey. This took me a lot longer than I expected. Sometimes I start rambling and just can’t stop, especially when I’m on a topic I really enjoy. I hope there’s something helpful in here for you to use in your future promotional plans.

What Nathan Wants Trivia

[image error]One of the few contemporary romances I’ve written.

I’m currently going back and reading this book again, and since it’s fresh in my mind, I figured I’d do trivia on it today.

The idea for the book came to me because I thought it’d be fun to write a “marriage by proxy” story. In order to have a plot (because every book needs conflict somewhere), one of the characters had to be an unwilling participant. Hence Amy’s resistance to the marriage for a good portion of the book.

I wrote most of this book at the school playground in town while my kids (4, 5, 6, and 8 at the time) would play. So whenever I go back to this book, I remember sitting on the ground with my laptop with my back pressed up against the side of the school. This was during the summer. I wrote this book within a month. This was one of those books that pretty much wrote itself. Most books take about 2 months.

There is a real building in downtown Omaha that serves as the inspiration for the building in the story where Nathan works. Every time I drove by it, I would think, “That’s a fancy building. What kind of person might be the head of that company?” This is also how Nathan’s character was born. And, if memory serves, the building was for an insurance company, not a travel one.

For some time, I did live in Florida in the Fort Walton Beach area which is along the Emerald Coast (aka the Gulf of Mexico). So the way Amy describes the beach and the water reflect my opinion of that part of the country. While it was beautiful down there, my heart is in the western part of the US, hence why I write so many historical western romances and currently live in Montana. I love the open landscapes in the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana. It’s been that way since I went to visit a friend who lived in North Dakota during my college years. Once I saw that state, I was hooked and began to read and do some writing in the historical western romance world.

Danielle was my favorite character in the book. Actually, she’s one of my all-time favorite secondary characters. In my opinion, she had the best lines of any character I’ve ever done. She is the reason the book is as funny as it is. Nathan had some good lines, too, but no one comes close to Danielle. Her character was also named after a good friend I had in high school who was a lot of fun to be around.

The funny events in Amy’s life that her parents told Nathan about also happened to me. For example, I used to pretend I was Wonder Woman when I was a kid. I was born in the 70s but was in elementary school and junior high (that’s what middle school was called back then) in the 80s. I used to watch Wonder Woman (starring Linda Carter) reruns on the TV every day after school when I was in the first and second grade. When the show was over, I’d put aluminum foil around my wrists for the bands she wore to ward off bullets, put my headband over my forehead, and use my jump rope for the lasso of truth. Then I’d pretend to go around and catch the bad guys. As another example, when I was in the 7th grade (or 8th), I did leave the curling iron too long in my hair and ended up burning my bangs. There are a couple of other examples that go back to childhood, but off the top of my head, that’s all I can remember.

Some men won’t change their children’s diapers, but my husband was one of those who did, which is something I totally love him for. I have a soft spot for a man who will help his wife out.

In this story, Elizabeth (aka Beth) had a c-section. I didn’t have twins, but I had a c-section with each of my kids. In the story, Ryan said this about the c-section: “I’m not saying it made me pass out, but I never realized Beth’s insides were that colorful.” My husband told me that after our first kid was born, and I’ve never forgotten it.

Danielle’s thoughts of being pregnant are mine, too. “I enjoyed being pregnant after the morning sickness phase passed. There are no real benefits to the first trimester, except for being able to see that positive reading on the pregnancy stick. The second trimester is a lot of fun.  That’s when you first feel the baby kick and start to show. I know some women complain about the last month, but I still enjoyed it. I know I can’t explain what it’s like to carry another human being and feel him moving around, but it was probably the most amazing thing I will ever experience.” One of the best things that ever happened to me was having the privilege of bringing a human being into the world.

Shady Forest is based on a real place my family and I went to quite a bit while we lived in the Omaha area, and there was a spot to sit where you could look out at the Missouri River and see downtown Omaha. And yes, I even saw that large building that made me come up with Nathan’s character.

The mini-golf course Nathan plays at with Amy’s dad is one that really exists in Fort Walton Beach. I went to it once.

Nathan and Amy named their daughter Amber. Amber was another good friend I had in high school. In case someone is wondering, the reason a writer will pick names of people they like in real life is so that the memory of those people will live on in their work. We might adjust the spelling of the name or give the character different features, but we know who the person really is, and we put that person in the story as a testament to the relationship we have or had with them. Since I’ve moved around so much in my life, I have lost touch with 90% of the people I used to know. But when I put them in my story, they are still with me, and it makes me smile to remember them and the joy they brought to my life.

Quick Updates (Regarding Release Dates and Covers)

As of today (June 5), I am almost done with the first draft of The Fugitive’s Bride, but I am only halfway (or about 60%) done with Nobody’s Fool. I don’t want to rush any book to get it out by a certain deadline. I was originally going to have Nobody’s Fool out in August. I’m going to switch Nobody’s Fool to October.

I want to make my books worth it to those of you who read them. I’d rather switch the books around in order to make them the best stories I can. More people are interested in the Regencies, which is why I was trying to finish Nobody’s Fool first, but The Fugitive’s Bride is pretty much writing itself, and because of that, the progress in the book has been faster.

So The Fugitive’s Bride is now scheduled for August 29.

[image error]This is the last book in the Wyoming Series.

I’m moving Nobody’s Fool to October 17.

[image error]This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Design Series.

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Also, in my other post, I mentioned not doing any more “clean and sweet” romance covers. Well, I forgot all about my Husbands for the Larson Sisters Series. I love the cover for Nelly’s Mail Order Husband, and I don’t want to change it. So this series will say “no sex” on the cover, but be warned, sex will occur on the pages. After this series, though, I will do a better job of branding my work to help avoid confusion.

[image error]Book 1 in Husbands for the Larsons Sisters

The cover for Perfectly Matched (Book 2 in Husbands for the Larson Sisters Series) is equally beautiful. I just got it a week or two ago. This is going to be Patricia’s book, and I plan to start it when I finish The Fugitive’s Bride.

[image error]Book 2 in Husbands for the Larsons Sisters

This is also going to feature Val’s best friend in Nelly’s Mail Order Husband. Jim ran off before he had to marry Carla. I never got to reveal that at the end of Nelly’s Mail Order Husband, but in the first chapter of this book, he shows up on Val’s doorstep, expecting to marry one of Nelly’s “rich” sisters. Remember in Nelly’s Mail Order Husband, Val was too embarrassed to tell Jim what really happened to him out in Nebraska. I’m hoping that this will be a romantic comedy.

The #1 Problem Facing Writers (A Post For New Writers)

The question I get asked the most from new writers is how to sell books.

I wish I could offer a magic bullet, but the truth is, there is no magic bullet. There are people who’ll sell courses to help you with your marketing strategies. If you take your time to do your own research, you don’t need to pay for this information. This information can be found in Google searches on the Internet, in writer forums (in places like Facebook, MeWe, and Kindleboards), in You Tube videos, and in ebooks on marketing and promotion. So before spending hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars on courses, I recommend you do some research to find out different marketing strategies to help you in your pursuit to sell more books.

Back in 2009, it was super easy to get noticed. This made selling without much effort pretty easy. But times have changed, and now you’re going to be confronted with this ugly reality:

The #1 problem facing writers is visibility.

To date, no one has ever been able to produce a surefire way to get noticed. Without getting noticed, it’s impossible to sell books. You have tools at your disposal, but just because you use them, there’s no guarantee those tools will do what you want them to. In the end, it comes down to luck. You have to be in the right place at the right time. You have control over the content of your book, the cover, the description, the keywords, where you publish, when you publish, your pricing, and the marketing strategies you’ll use. Yes, that is a lot a things you have in your favor, but ultimately you have no control over who sees your book and who buys it. Also, way more people will look at your book than will go on to buy it. But to get them to even buy it, they have to know it exists.

The most popular strategies I know to gain visibility are offering a free book (ideally the first in a series), running ads on Facebook or Amazon, getting a promo deal with B&N or Kobo or Apple, running ads at sites with a huge list of email subscribers like Freebooksy or Bookbub, and doing cross-promotions with other authors in the same genre you’re in. Those are all good strategies at your disposal. But will they secure sales? No. They help with visibility, but they don’t automatically equate to sales.

I have the most success with having my first book in a series free and running a Freebooksy ad on that free book. I haven’t run the numbers on the follow through sales, but way more people will download the free book than they’ll go on to buy the other books in the series. This has pretty much been reported across the indie author community. I like the free book method because it gives me an inexpensive and hassle-free way to get someone to take a chance on me. Yes, you’ll end up with some negative reviews this way, and you’ll end up with quite a few people who will “nudge” you to give them the rest of your books for free since they don’t want to buy books, but the people who are willing to buy my books have been higher because of this method.

Will that method work for you? I don’t know. You have to try it to find out. Most authors I’ve come across benefit from this method, but there are those who say the method backfired on them. They did better pricing Book 1 at $0.99. Part of it will depend on your genre. Some genres naturally lend themselves to free books being a useful strategy. In romance, first in a series free is standard procedure. Enough authors offer free books to make this a viable strategy. You have to look at other books in your genre and speak to authors in that genre to find out how well the free strategy works for them. Also, with pricing, you’ll have to experiment and find out what price points work best for you. In romance, most books are between free and $3.99. Only really successful authors can push the price point higher than that. But it seems that in science fiction, fantasy, and thriller, $4.99 and up yields some great results.

Another thing to consider is if you’ll enter KU or distribute your ebooks wide. KU is an Amazon program called Kindle Unlimited. In this program, your ebooks are exclusive on Amazon. You can publish on KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), which is Amazon’s platform, AND have your books be wide (on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Google Play, etc). KDP is not the same as KU. KU is a program within KDP. If you’re in KU, you can only be on Amazon. Think of KDP as an umbrella. KDP has ALL the ebooks from all authors. KU is a box under the KDP umbrella and ONLY KU authors are in that box. I’m not in KU. I’m not in the box. I’m in KDP because my books are on Amazon, but my books are also at other retailers. KU comes with some perks like countdown deals, but the biggest advantage is that readers who pay a monthly fee to the KU subscription program can read as many KU books as they want. This makes KU books “free” to them. That makes it easier for KU readers to take a chance on an unknown author who is in KU. KU authors get paid a certain amount for each page the reader reads. Amazon sets this amount each month, and the amount will fluctuate.

Wide means that an author has their ebooks on Amazon AND other retailers like Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Google Play, Smashwords, Scribd, in online libraries, etc. There are small stores popping up and (unfortunately) dying off periodically, so it’s hard to keep track of them all. If you want your books to be on more than Amazon, do NOT go into KU. If you put your book in KU and put them on other retailers, Amazon might find out, and if they do, the result might not be pretty. Amazon’s been known to get tough on authors. If you’re going to be in KU, be exclusive to them unless you have a personal agreement with Amazon where you can be in KU and wide.

While KU is a tool, it is not a magic bullet. A couple of years ago, authors had a much easier time making money in KU than they do today, which I believe is to due to the amount of books in KU. There are new authors popping up all the time, and this naturally makes it harder to be discovered.

Amazon ads are a way to get added visibility in the Amazon store. These ads seem to do best on KU books. This was according to an author friend who tried ads on her KU books and ads on her wide books. Does that mean wide books don’t have any success on Amazon with those Amazon ads? No. It just means you might get more bang for your buck with KU books.

Pre-orders might be a way to gain some visibility, but you need to be proactive in letting people know the pre-order exists. Mention it in your blog, on social media sites, in an email list, and/or at the end of a book. For example, if you have Book 1 out, put Book 2 on pre-order and mention this at the end of Book 1. Or, if you don’t know the release date and don’t have pre-order links up for Book 2, you can use the back matter in your book to mention you are doing Book 2 and add a link to your email list so people can get notified when Book 2 is out. Yes, people have to read Book 1 all the way to the end to find out you have Book 2, but this is a free way to let people know this other book is going to come out.

I don’t personally do author collaborations because it turns out I’m not an easy person to work with. I have a hard time modifying plots and characters to compromise with another author’s vision of the book, the characters, and the world that the stories take place in. It turns out I am a complete control freak when it comes to writing. I even have trouble working in a series where different authors take on other books in that series. For example, I was offered an opportunity to participate in a 50 book series where I would only have to do one or two books among other romance authors. It was an awesome opportunity, but you had to work with some authors on what is happening with other people’s characters and you had to try to keep everything straight on the timeline with what happened in other books. That was just too complex for me. So I had to decline the offer, though it was an honor to be invited to do this.

That all said, if you are the type who can do collaborations, I think this would be an awesome way to boost visibility. You will be promoting other authors in this collaboration to your readers, and they will (hopefully) do the same for you. Most collaborations have benefited the authors extremely well, but I have heard of one horror story where one author in a thriller genre pretty much did all the work. So be careful who you’re doing this collaboration with. Another thing, the goal of the collaboration is to expand your readership. Be sure the authors you’re doing this with have the same audience you do. For example, clean historical romance authors should only do collaborations with other clean and wholesome historical romance authors. An erotic author will not be a good fit for a collaboration with clean romance authors.

After all that rambling, my advice is to think long term. Visibility is a long-term game. There will be an author here and there that will publish their first book or series, and their book(s) will just take off. I understand that it takes good books and some marketing savvy to make this happen, but it also takes luck. You have to be in the right place at the right time. People who are interested in your books need to be able to find you. So, use the tools that fit best with your budget and your interests, but also keep the long-term focus in mind. This is why I believe in writing books I love instead of writing books that I believe will sell the best. Writing to market is a tool you can try. But writing books you’re most passionate about is what will keep you going even when sales suck.

The part of the post where I go beyond the monetary worth of books.

Honestly, when we look at books as a price tag, we’re neglecting the possibility of a book having timeless value. I’m all for writers being paid for their work while they’re alive. Writers have every right to earn money with their books. But there’s also the side of the equation that looks beyond the money. You never know if someone will read your books and be positively impacted by it. You have no idea how many lives you might touch in a meaningful way simply because of the story you created. There is an emotional component to creating books that all the money in the world will never fill.

Also, there might be a spiritual component to why you write your books. You might be doing something God has called you to do, and while you won’t reap those rewards here in this life, you might get something on the other side. This, to me, is the most compelling reason I’ve found to embrace passion in my writing. I want God to guide me in every book I write, and I want to write in way that will glorify Him. One of my prayers is that He uses me to write romances that pay honor and respect to the marital relationship because I believe it is a gift he’s given us.

I don’t know what the motivating passion is for you. It might be a cause you believe in. It might be leaving behind a legacy for your children and grandchildren. Whatever your motivation is, that might give you something beyond money to focus on if it turns out you don’t sell as many books as you were hoping to.

And my final thought is this: don’t let the genre you write hold you back. Any genre can be used. For example, I might reach someone who will never read anything but romance, and you might reach someone who will never read anything beyond science fiction. But, ironically, we might have the same message. Who knows what power our stories can have that we’ll never even know about? When we look beyond the contemporary situation we’re in, our work takes on a whole new meaning, and we find something bigger and more important than ourselves to invest ourselves in. So I urge you to have a wider view of what your book’s worth is. Yes, it has monetary value, but it also has a much deeper worth. Sales are great, but they aren’t everything.