Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 23
September 30, 2013
Reviews on Amazon Following KDP Select Free Days
Of course, these reviews roll out gradually after the free days are over as people need time to read the book in question. And it is only a small percentage of readers who write reviews.
But if your book has a downloads in the thousands and thousands, you can expect several reviews, some of which will leave you shaking your head as to whether the person actually read your book or confused it with some other book.
Here is my theory about head-shaking negative reviews on Amazon for books that have had KDP Select free days:
People love free books — and many people download free books that they would not otherwise buy because the free books are in genres that these people do not usually read.
I see this in some reviews for my spy thriller CIA FALL GUY. For example, some reviewers complain that they cannot follow the characters.
Well, a thriller is expected to make it difficult to figure out who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. (In fact, I just read Dan Brown’s INFERNO and the “good guys” and the “bad guys” shift back and forth.)
But if you do not usually read thrillers you may not understand this deception strategy. And thus you may write a negative review complaining of not being able to follow the characters.
The other part of my theory regarding reviews following KDP Select free days concerns the expectations of the reader for a book.
I have designated that my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT is a women’s friendship book (taking place in 1970). Yet what I mean by that is four very different women learning to get along.
I do NOT mean four women who have lots of different sexual exploits as fans of other novels might expect. Thus some negative reviews for MRS. LIEUTENANT complain of the pace of the novel, which I think means NO hot sex scenes.
As authors, we are often sensitive to criticism of our books. But we do need to remember that readers who download free books may not be the ideal target audiences for our books. (Not every book is for all readers.)
Thus we need to try not to take the negative reviews too much to heart, especially when we also get many positive reviews.
And if a negative review that is truly off the mark “gets” to us, there is always chocolate to calm our nerves!
P.S. If dytopian thrillers are what you like to read, you can read my work-in-progress THE MOTHER SIEGE on Wattpad at http://budurl.com/MSintro
And if a Cold War memoir would interest you, you can read my work-in-progress TALES OF AN AMERICAN OCCUPYING GERMANY on Wattpad at http://budurl.com/TAintro
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.
September 25, 2013
Changes on Wattpad
I first thought that the “All Rights Reserved” option was no longer available because this option no longer appeared in the sidebar edit mode of a new part of an ongoing story. To compensate for what I thought was a disappearance, I went back through all the chapters of my two current ongoing Wattpad projects and added a rights statement and a copyright at the beginning of each chapter.
Then more recently I realized that I now have to click on the “advanced” choice in the sidebar edit mode to get the “All Rights Reserved” option instead of having that option available in the “basic” choice.
Actually, though, I am glad I added the copyright and rights reserved info to the beginning of each chapter, and I plan to continue doing so. Why? Because it is too easy for people to wrongfully assume that, if something is online, they have the right to use it.
Another change: The “promote” option has been changed to a “share” option and placed in a different location in the sidebar edit mode.
Okay, now that I have solved these two mysteries, I wanted to mention interesting information about how Amazon is incorporating Goodreads, which Amazon now owns, into the new Kindle Fire. Click here to read my Miller Mosaic blog post about this.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.
September 15, 2013
Author Frustration: People Read What They Think They Read
This experience happens to me every so often for my women’s friendship novel MRS. LIEUTENANT, which takes place in 1970 during nine weeks at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, during one AOB (Armor Officers Basic) class.
Sometimes a negative review is connected to a reader’s views about the Vietnam War. These readers read into the story their own experiences and expectations.
But recently a review chastised me for mistakenly saying that all warrant officers were helicopter pilots. What I actually said was that all the warrant officers in this particular AOB class were helicopter pilots because they had been offered, due to this circumstance, a very specific option.
Rationally I can understand that the person attacking my “error” believed she was setting straight the status of warrant officers. But as an author I cannot help feeling irked that what I wrote was misunderstood by a reader.
Of course, authors cannot ensure that every word we write is understood correctly. Yet, when we review books by other authors, I hope we all consider whether we have correctly understood what was written. It is important to take a moment and think about such things instead of jumping to conclusions that an author has gotten something wrong.
I’m wondering if my writing a dystopian thriller set 36 years in the future will prevent the occurrence of these kinds of misunderstandings of what I have written. Or perhaps this is too much for which to hope?
You can read the first chapters of THE MOTHER SIEGE: A DYSTOPIAN THRILLER by clicking on http://budurl.com/MSintro and then clicking on the dropdown table of contents.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.
September 13, 2013
Deconstructing Fiction Plots
I have been watching the 8-part mystery series BROADCHURCH on BBC America, and in the sixth episode I was startled to learn that eight weeks have passed since the murder of an 11-year-old boy.
Why would the TV writers decide that eight weeks have passed and yet, for example, no one has investigated the $500 found under the murdered boy’s mattress? What have the police been doing all this time?
This kind of fictional disconnect impacts my appreciation of a good story. I cannot imagine why it was necessary to have eight weeks go by in order to say the police are not doing enough. Surely two weeks would have sufficed to be able to say this considering the story takes place in a small seaside town in England.
It is not always easy to deal with these kinds of issues in a fictional story. But as writers we need to consider whether what we are writing makes sense.
As I write each new chapter of my dystopian thriller THE MOTHER SIEGE (which can be read on Wattpad at http://budurl.com/MSintro), I try to consider whether the actions in the story make sense in the future society I am creating.
Sometimes I realize that, although I may understand something, I need to clarify a point for readers so that they will feel that what I have written is integral to the story.
This checking of story elements is very important for the credibility of any fictional world — equally so for future worlds as for contemporary worlds.
I will watch the final two episodes of BROADCHURCH, hoping that the overlooking of the major clue of $500 is eventually satisfactorily explained.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.
September 10, 2013
Starting From Ground Zero as a New Author
I spoke to a prospective Miller Mosaic book marketing client about first steps for her nonfiction book. Some of the questions she asked made me decide to review some of these areas here.
First, I asked her whether she had had the manuscript professionally edited. I explained that, especially for the subject matter of her nonfiction book, this was especially important. If the book has a lot of typos, etc. this could distract from the credibility of the information.
Second, the author had received a favorable email response from a query. She wanted to know what questions she should discuss with the prospective traditional publisher.
While this is NOT my area of expertise, here are the questions I came up with off the top of my head:
Will the publisher pay an advance?
Which rights will the publisher buy?
Who retains foreign right sales?
What publication date will the publisher commit to?
What publicity budget/efforts will the publisher commit to?
And I should have added:
What arrangements will be made for the rights to revert from the publisher to the author?
(This right was very important for the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION that I co-authored with Rabbi Karen L. Fox and was published traditionally in 1992. When the rights reverted to us and POD options became available, we re-issued the book so that it no longer shows as out of print on Amazon.)
Of course, there are undoubtedly many other questions to be discussed.
And if, as a new author you do not have an agent but do have a publisher interested in your book, you should become as familiar as possible yourself about publishing contracts — and then you should hire an attorney specializing in this area to review the contract for you. (A little amount of money spent now on attorney fees could save you a great deal of money later.)
On the other hand, if you have decided to self-publish your first book, you might want to get my Kindle ebook TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET IN THE AGE OF AMAZON at viewBook.at/B009RBJW3E
(If you do not have a Kindle, you can get free Kindle apps for almost any electronic device at http://budurl.com/freeKindleapps)
Finally, if you do not already have an active social media presence, it is important you start now with sharing information (not “selling”). If you need help in doing this, my online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com offers one-hour consulting sessions for this purpose.
And if you want to publish your work in chapters first (as long as you choose the option to reserve all rights each time you post a new chapter), consider the free site Wattpad. You can check out my fiction project at http://budurl.com/MSintro and my nonfiction project at http://budurl.com/TAintro
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.
September 2, 2013
Has KDP Select Jumped the Shark?
While authors should not have all their book marketing eggs in one basket, Kindle Direct Publishing’s Select option has been very beneficial for many authors. But what if this option has jumped the shark?
Recently I read Jeff Bennington’s ebook WINNING WITH KDP SELECT: 5 STEPS TO HIT #1 IN THE AMAZON FREE STORE and followed his steps for KDP Select free days for my women’s friendship novel MRS. LIEUTENANT.
I ended up having a bifurcated campaign because of the date that BookBub had available for a paid ad. I can affirm that this particular ad was very successful, resulting in thousands and thousands of downloads. And the free days the following week were decently successful.
And then almost nothing, which was surprising given the current general belief that each free download counts as 1/10 of a sale, thus attracting the attention of Amazon’s search algorithms.
In a Twitter DM exchange with another author I may have found the answer to why a massive number of downloads resulted in almost no new sales:
The author told me: “Amazon does not convert free to paid ranking in any way.”
When I asked where KDP Select says this (so I could include the link in a blog post), the author replied: I emailed support with this Q: “Can you explain to me how the Free to Paid ranking conversion works?” That was their answer.
Disclaimer: Because this is a reply from an individual KDP rep it may not accurately reflect company policy. Or it may mean something other than what it appears to mean.
On the other hand, this does seem to indicate that the major benefit of KDP Select with its free days may have jumped the shark.
Do other authors have opinions on this apparent change?
And what legitimate strategies can we use now to get our books in front of prospective readers?
P.S. I had to grit my teeth and follow the advice in Theo Rogers’ ebook HOW TO GET GOOD REVIEWS ON AMAZON: A GUIDE FOR INDEPENDENT AUTHORS & SELLERS to restrain from commenting on a negative review.
One reader of an apparent free download really objected to elements of MRS. LIEUTENANT and was brutal in her attack on the book in an Amazon review. I do wonder, though, whether she thought the book was nonfiction. (See my post “Help! Kindle Is Misrepresenting My Novel MRS. LIEUTENANT as Nonfiction.”)
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.
August 29, 2013
MRS. LIEUTENANT: A WOMEN’S FRIENDSHIP NOVEL Free on Kindle Aug. 29
And here is information from the book’s Amazon product page:
This 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist is a story of unexpected women’s friendship.
“Miller captures the freshness and naiveté of those women, all transplanted to an environment that forced them to deal with new challenges.” — Dr. Cathy Goodwin, Top 500 Amazon Reviewer
“I loved MRS. LIEUTENANT. Reading it brought back for me, a military wife, memories of the Vietnam War era, when so many of our young men were in uniform due to the draft, and memories of what it was like being in the sub-culture of the military as a new Army wife.” — Mary Raynor
“This book should be required reading for every contemporary military spouse, the families of our servicemen and women, and civilians who want to understand the lifestyle of our men and women in uniform. The military isn’t just a job or career, it is a WAY OF LIFE that can’t be fully understood by those who haven’t lived it. Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s MRS. LIEUTENANT makes it clear — this is a life she understands at the deepest level.” — Bonnie Bartel Latino, co-author of “Your Gift to Me”
“Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s MRS. LIEUTENANT is one of those stellar reads that keep you engaged from the first word to the last, and how long or how short the book is doesn’t concern you at all. Keep a box of tissues handy, because you’ll need it; I certainly did, and more than once.” — George Polley, author of “Grandfather & the Raven”
When newly married Sharon Gold suddenly finds herself in the unfamiliar culture of the U.S. Army during the unpopular Vietnam War, she realizes she must quickly adapt to this alien world. If she does not learn to “fit in,”p the consequences could have a severe impact on her husband.
The women’s friendship she unexpectedly experiences turns out to be her lifesaver.
Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. You can get a FREE Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC or Mac at budurl.com/freeKindleapp and in just minutes you can be reading MRS. LIEUTENANT.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.
August 25, 2013
Back-to-School 99 Cent Special: HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE
(If you do not have a Kindle, you can get free Kindle apps for almost any electronic device at http://budurl.com/freekindleapp and there is also a paperback version of this book available on Amazon.)
In my opinion one of the most important skills to learn during high school is how to write a good essay. And this is vital whether a high school student plans to apply to college or go out into the world after high school and be able to communicate in writing with others.
The August 24-25 Wall Street Journal carried the article “Writing the Right College-Entrance Essay“ by Lacy Crawford. The advice is very good, although not as specific as I think it needs to be.
In my book I give specific advice, and I add a bonus at the end of the ebook that I will share here:
How to Use Dynamic Language on a College Application Essay
Summary:
Following a few basic recommendations helps the language of your essay sound dynamic rather than weak.
Introduction:
Some people mistakenly think that dynamic language in a college application essay means using those big words you memorized for the standardized tests. Actually, the opposite is true. Unfamiliar words interrupt a reader’s thought process and can make him/her lose the train of thought.
What you want to do is use familiar words in a dynamic way that keeps the reader moving along at a good reading pace. Follow the rules below to increase the dynamic flow of your essay. (You are not expected to do all the following on a first or second draft. Do these steps for the stage we will call “the polish.“)
Rule #1: Get rid of words that are unfamiliar to most readers. For example, do NOT say: She wrapped a scarf around her florid face. Instead say: She wrapped a scarf around her ruddy face. The word “florid,“ which is used less often than “ruddy,“ could interrupt a reader’s thoughts.
Rule #2: Get rid of forms of the verb “to be.“ For example, do NOT say: I am hoping to see my brother in his orchestra recital. Instead say: I hope to see my brother in his orchestra recital. Notice how much more energy appears in the words “I hope“ as opposed to the words “I am hoping.“ And, yes, sometimes following this rule will require an entire sentence be rewritten in order to get rid of a form of the verb “to be.“
Rule #3: Get rid of all adverbs. For example, do NOT say: I walked quickly towards the airport exit gate. Instead say: I strode towards the airport exit gate. Go through your entire essay and eliminate the adverbs. Then choose stronger verbs that include the concept of the adverbs you eliminated.
Rule #4: Use descriptive adjectives rather than generic adjectives. For example, do NOT say: She wore a nice dress. Instead say: She wore a knee-length navy wool dress.
Rule #5: Limit your use of the pronoun I. Yes, a college application essay is about you. Yet dynamic language calls for reducing the number of times a writer uses the personal pronoun. For example, do NOT say: I wanted to proofread the essay that I had written before I had to pick up my sister at her ballet lesson. Instead say: Before picking up my sister at her ballet lesson, I wanted to proofread my essay.
Rule #6: Vary your sentence length and structure. Be careful to avoid monotonous sentence structure that can lull a reader to sleep. Use some short and some long sentences.
Rule #7: Shorter paragraphs are easier on a reader’s eyes. And you want the college admissions essay reader to actually read your essay. If you have a long block of text, break it in two or more paragraphs. Just be sure that each paragraph can stand on its own. Sometimes a better editing choice would be to remove a sentence or two in a long paragraph. Many paragraphs of four or five sentences can have one sentence removed without losing any of the paragraph’s meaning.
Conclusion:
And, remember, every time you make changes to your essay, you must run spell check and then read the essay aloud to check for incorrect words, missing words, extra words, or other errors that spell check might not catch.
Now through August 29 get the entire book of advice for 99 cents on Kindle at http://amzn.to/PdupDP and please share this link with others who can benefit from the advice.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.
August 22, 2013
Help! Kindle Is Misrepresenting My Novel MRS. LIEUTENANT as Nonfiction
Recently I noticed that “nonfiction” had mysteriously been added to my women’s friendship novel MRS. LIEUTENANT on the book’s Kindle sales page:
Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > War
Books > Literature & Fiction > Women’s Fiction > Friendship
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > War
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Women’s Fiction
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction
Of course I emailed KDP days ago to please remove this. I was assured this would be done — and as you can see from the above listing, I am still waiting.
In fact, I suspect this will be a major undertaking to get nonfiction removed because MRS. LIEUTENANT was an early book on Kindle and this request, as in past issues, will probably have to be “bumped up” to the “tech” team to get resolved over several weeks.
The bigger question at this point is why would a book so clearly labeled as a novel, including in its subtitle, get a nonfiction classification?
Yes, I quote from historical documents in the book. But I make it very clear that the story — while inspired by my time as a new Mrs. Lieutenant in the spring of 1970 — is a fictionalized account.
As I write this blog post (and this will change very soon) MRS. LIEUTENANT is #1 in free nonfiction. I can only hope that people who go to download the book will see the subtitle A WOMEN’S FRIENDSHIP NOVEL and understand that Kindle has mistakenly categorized the book.
Meanwhile, I hope that in the future, when my work-in-progress TALES OF AN AMERICAN OCCUPYING GERMANY: A COLD WAR MEMOIR is published and this book is nonfiction, Kindle will not arbitrarily decide to place it in fiction.
(Click here to read for free on Wattpad the work-in-progress TALES OF AN AMERICAN OCCUPYING GERMANY.)
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.
August 21, 2013
Elmore Leonard and His Writing Tips
As someone who enjoys Leonard’s stories — and am a huge fan of the TV show JUSTIFIED based on Leonard’s character Raylan Givens, I found Leonard’s writing points especially insightful. And I am pleased to say that, after years of working on improving my fiction writing, I actually do many of the things he advises.
I particularly liked his point 8 because I personally am not very interested in authors’ physical descriptions of their characters — and I admit I have a very hard time writing this kind of description for the characters in my own books.
Leonard said:
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” what do the “American and the girl with him” look like? “She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” That’s the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.
Whether you are a writer or a reader, I think you’ll enjoy reading Leonard’s entire article now.
P.S. You might want to check out my newest fiction work on Wattpad to see if I’m doing a good job of following Leonard’s tips — click here to read chapters of the dystopian thriller THE MOTHER SIEGE.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.
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