Bruce Blake's Blog, page 18
April 11, 2012
Something Different
Want to hear something funny?
When I was writing my last post, I was also thinking about what to write for my next…this one. And I was going to write about all the things a self-published author needs to do while working toward some semblance of success, and how difficult it can be to find time to do it all. Guess what happened.
I couldn't find time to write it. That silly life outside the things I love got in the way this week. It happens sometimes. I did manage to find time to write a guest post for Writers Get Together, and if you need more of me (bless you for that), you can read the interview Fiona McVie did with me at Inspiration Forums. Please don't feel neglected; I still have three other blogs I volunteered to write a guest post for that I haven't managed to get to yet (sorry Mac, et al).
To make it up to you, I'm posting an excerpt from "On Unfaithful Wings". I hope you enjoy it.
The tip of the knife waggled in the air, gesturing for me to continue. I stared at the point of the blade, at the man's fingerless glove and the way he'd chewed his fingers until they looked painful. Beyond his arm, I thought I saw a smile hidden in the darkness beneath the hood.
I sighed, a shuddering breath lamenting how little my wallet contained for them to steal as much as it did the fact they were stealing it. The man behind me snatched it away before it cleared my pocket, his nails raking my wrist, and rifled through the meager contents. He snatched the three bills it contained, made a face at the fifteen bucks, and then took the VISA card I'd fought so hard to get after ruining my credit a few years back. Joke's on him if he uses it, they'll probably ask for a payment first.
He showed the sparse loot to his partner.
"Fifteen bucks? That's it?"
"Look at this." He'd dug out my driver's licence. I knew this would happen. "The guy's name is Icarus Fell. Icarus, like in the Iron Maiden song"
"Yeah," I said. "The guy who named me didn't like me much. Call me Ric."
"Sure, Icarus," the guy holding the knife said in a schoolyard-bully lilt. With a name like Icarus Fell, I'd heard that tone enough to recognize it. He stepped toward me, blade extended to within an inch of my face. I wanted to take an equal step away, but knew his partner wouldn't like that, so I stood my ground, hoping to look more brave than stupid.
"What else you got?"
"Nothing. That's it."
"Check his pockets. He put something in his pocket."
The man tossed my wallet onto the grass where it landed with a mucky-sounding splat. He advanced on me and this time I moved. He grabbed my arm, pulled me toward him. "Don't do nothing stupid."
Why didn't he tell me that twenty-five or thirty years ago?
He patted my pants pockets first–the most action I'd seen in a while–then moved to the pockets of my suit jacket; the right hand outer one produced a hollow, plasticky thud.
I cringed.
"What's that?"
"Nothing," I said inching away. "A game for my kid."
"Give it up."
"Guys, really. What are you going to do with a video game?"
His fingers dug into my bicep. "Give it to me."
"I already missed his birthday. Can't you let me keep it?" I yanked against his grip knowing I shouldn't–people got killed for less–but I couldn't let Trevor down. Not again. "Take everything else. I won't tell anyone."
"There is nothing else. Give it to me," the knife-wielder demanded.
I wondered what Rae would tell Trevor when he didn't get a present from me again. Probably that, since someone else was his 'real' father, I didn't care.
Adrenaline flooded my brain, but it didn't heighten my senses the way they describe in books. Instead, it made me stupid. Before I realized what I was doing, I swung at the man holding my arm, my fist contacting his nose with a satisfying crunch. The move surprised both of us and he lifted his hands to his face.
It took a second to comprehend that he'd let me go. My heartbeat quickened, pulsed in my ears. I ran, or attempted to: dress shoes aren't made for sprinting on wet grass. Both men jumped me before I got going, riding me to the ground like they were the cowboys and I was the calf. A knee pressed into my back, an elbow in my ear as my cheek sank into soggy lawn knocking breath from my lungs and hope from my heart. My clothes soaked instantly, plastering cloth to skin, the smell of wet earth filled my nose, literally.
"You stupid bastard," one of them said, but the mud in one ear and elbow in the other precluded me from identifying which one. "Couldn't give us the stupid game, could you?" He yanked it out of my pocket.
The pain of the knife's tip pushing through the flesh of my lower back into my kidney hurt more than I could ever have imagined. The shock of it made me suck a mixture of cold air and dirty rain water through taut lips and expel it all in an agonized howl. The knife rose and fell again, then again, perforating my internal organs, each stab more painful than the last. Each time it pulled free, I prayed to a God I didn't believe in that it would end, that I would get up and hurry on my way to see Trevor.
My body jerked and spasmed beneath the men straddling me, my bladder let go. After the fourth time the knife entered me, my flesh went numb. It may have pierced me a few more times, but I lost interest in counting. I gasped air in through my mouth and the breath tasted like the black crud scraped off bread left too long in the toaster. And blood.
"That's enough. Let's go," one of them said, presumably the one not engaged in shredding my bowels.
Their weight lifted off my back and my mind told me to roll over and sit up, defend against further attack, but my muscles would have nothing of such a proposal, so I lay on the wet grass doing the only thing I could: bleed. Maybe I wept a little, too, but who can tell in the rain?
"I guess Icarus really did fall, didn't he, Ric?"
Their laughter didn't sting nearly as much as the knife, and it dissipated much more quickly as they ran off. I was used to being teased but couldn't say the same of being knifed. After they left, my ragged breathing and the sound of rain pattering around and on me became my world. I never realized how much noise rain hitting grass made until my ear was pressed to the ground with no choice but to listen.
My stomach knotted as the gravity of my situation set in: after eleven on a Wednesday night, bleeding on the lawn outside an empty church in the kind of downpour that convinced people not to venture out for a chat with God.
Did I mention I was bleeding? A lot?
Water pooled in my ear canal until the unnaturally loud plop of rain drops splashing into the tiny pond drowned out even the sound of my breath. Not steady, metronomic drips like I imagined a water torture would be, but an uneven patter that, should I live long enough, would likely prove equally effective at driving me crazy.
"Help."
In my head, the single word came out a scream, shaking trees and rattling windows, attracting the attention needed to save me so I could see my son again, even if it was for the last time. In reality, it was more of a peep. I closed my eyes and sucked dirty water through my nose then coughed it out my mouth. The pain it induced in my back and side hurt worse than the original stabbing, like someone stood over me with a hot poker pressed to my side, except I was cold and wet and bleeding to death, too. A hot poker didn't sound so bad.
"Help," I peeped.
Excerpt fom "On Unfaithful Wings"
April 3, 2012
Liked It? Review It!
Making decisions is something most of us don't relish. I'm not talking about the big decisions here — buying a house or car, getting married, moving, having children (not always a decision!) — I'm talking about the little things. We've all had this conversation while driving or walking along with our significant other:
"Where do you want to eat?"
"I don't know. Where do you want to eat?"
"I'm not sure. You pick."
"I picked last time. It's your turn."
"No. I chose the last restaurant. You pick."
"No, you."
"No, you."
Sometimes a squabble ensues; often the decision ends up being the same old place you always go, or nowhere at all. But how much does that discussion change if one of you read a restaurant review in the local paper?
"Where do you want to eat?"
"I just read a review of this place, 'Joe's Eats'. The reviewer said it was good. Let's try that."
"Okay."
Much easier, right? You could substitute choosing a movie, going to see a band, or a host of other similar situations and the conversation remains essentially the same. The problem is that we don't want to take responsiblity for a choice and end up disappointed. Then it's our fault. But if the reviewer or a friend told you it was good, and it turns out they were wrong, you have someone else to blame.
Here's another example.
In my family, we don't have cable (by choice — there's too much time-wasting, soul-destroying crap on TV) and we used to spend a lot of money renting DVDs every month (probably more than we would have spent on cable). When Netflix came along, we remedied that situation. How is that an example? Those of you who follow my blog will remember I am Canadian, and our version of Netflix has had some problems with different studios. While I can watch Thor or Transformers 3, I went looking for Blade Runner the other day and it wasn't there. Given the lack of selection, we are left with one way to sort through the myriad of movies we often have never heard of: the star ratings. We don't know who rated them, but that doesn't matter. It gives us a guide as well as an out. If we start watching a movie and it's crap, we can still say, 'but it had a 4.5 star rating. It's not my fault!' (we tend to avoid most rated less than 4 stars). More often, we discover hidden gems we would otherwise never have known about because other people who watched and enjoyed took the time to make sure we knew it was worth it.
See where I'm going?
There are literally millions of books available through Amazon. Suzanne Collins, Stephen King, James Patterson, etc., have no problem finding readers, because the readers will go looking for them. But why, with all those books to choose from, would someone in Montreal, or Dallas, or Albuquerque, bother to buy a book by some guy named Bruce Blake (insert your name here, indie authors) who they've never heard of?
"Well, it's urban fantasy, I like urban fantasy — that's good. But it's self-published, and the last self-published book I bought was crap. But it's only $2.99, that's not too bad. At least if it sucks, I didn't waste too much money. 'On Unfaithful Wings'? Interesting title. Kind of a cool looking cover. Geez, I'm not sure; I've already got so many books on my Kindle. I should just get it. No, I shouldn't. Yes, I should. No, I– Oh wait, it's rated 4.6 stars. That's pretty good. Hmm. Oh, what the hell. I'll take a chance."
Click.
Thank you.
The moral of the story is, gentle readers, if you liked it, leave a review. Let others know how much you enjoyed it. I'm not talking about 'The Hunger Games' here — Ms. Collins already has almost 6000 reviews on Kindle (and a movie, which doesn't hurt sales). I'm talking about myself and all the other independent authors out there who need your help: the ones you know and got their book as a favour (see? Canadian!), the ones you picked up free during a promo, the ones you bought (usually for $3.99 or less). Don't be nervous — no one's expecting Ernest Hemingway to write the review. If all you've got is "I liked the book. You should read it", that'll do. I would love to have that review.
And, if I may speak on behalf of independent authors everywhere: thank you from the bottom of my heart, not only for buying my book and taking the time out of your busy life to read it (who has time for reading when it takes so long to choose a restaurant?), but also for caring enough to let other people know how much you liked it.
Thank you. Now go review someone's book.
March 30, 2012
4 Days Later…
No, this blog is not the chronicles of what happened 24 days beforeawoke from his coma to find most of London devoured by zombies (though it would probably make a good movie–lots of people to kill and eat). Instead, it's to fill you in about what's gone on with my novel, "On Unfaithful Wings" in the four days since I ran a free promotion on Kindle.
To recap: in a three-day period, I gave away 8400 copies of my e-book in North America, U.K., Germany, France and Italy (I mention the last two more for my own feeling of success than anything else–only 1 person in each of France and Italy downloaded my book). I'm quite happy with the number of downloads, though it's low compared to some of the other promos that have been run. A friend of mine just ran his second free promotion over the last two days and had 15000 downloads (his first time? 50000!), but I'm not here to make comparisons. For me, hitting 8400 was beyond expectations.
And how have things been since? Well, that's the question all Kindle authors are asking nowadays. You see, Amazon has changed things up a little. Before the middle of March, when you came off your promotion, the free downloads counted as sales, so authors who had successful campaigns ended up high on Amazon's popularity lists. This equated to sales. After the ides of March, this no longer seems to be the case. Different lists show up on different browsers (as I write this, the Kindle store on my laptop shows Hunger Games as their most popular book while on my iPhone, it's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, a book that doesn't even seem to be available through my laptop).
I know…weird, right? Nobody knows what effect free promos will have now.
Well, here's what it's done for me. On the first day after, my book was purchased 11 times. Day 2 — 14, Day 3 — 13, Day 4 — 15. That's a total of 53 times my novel has been purchased in the last 4 days. Is that a success? Some might say no. Before mid-March, others have come off their promos and sold hundreds, sometimes even thousands of books. But, as I said, I have no interest in comparing myself to others. What I'm looking at is the fact that, before the promo, I'd sold 11 books for the month of March, and at least 5 of those were ones I gifted to people.
If you use that as your means of comparison, I'd say the promo campaign worked. Isn't more than quadrupling sales in 4 days a good thing? And where do these sales come from? As far as I can tell, it's from ending up on a bunch of 'also-bought' lists. If you're familiar with Amazon, you'll remember the little side-to-side scrolling list of books below most of their wares available that they title "Customers who bought this item also bought…". In author-speak: 'also-bots'. My book is now connected to about 100 other books on Amazon. Now, when someone views those books, they have an opportunity to see mine.
If the pace continues at an average of 13/day (and I don't know at this point if it will or not), that means I will sell around 400 books/month or 4800/year. That would add in the neighbourhood (see, I'm Canadian) of $9500/year to my household income. Not bad for a part-time income doing something I love. But is it worth it?
Absolutely. The average advance paid by a traditional publisher is around $8000, so I could out-earn that in one year with one book. But I'm in this writing thing for the long-haul. The second book in my Icarus Fell series, "All Who Wander Are Lost", should be available by summer. The first book of the 2-part 'Khirro's Journey' epic fantasy, "Blood of the King", should be out by summer's end and part 2 by the end of the year. I have plans for at least three more Icarus novels and there are lots more books in me after those.
In my view, every time my book was downloaded for free, and now every time it's purchased, I'm potentially creating a loyal reader who will purchase the next book. and maybe the next.
I'll say I'm happy with the results of my first run on Kindle's free promo. Was it a screaming success? Ask me in a couple of years.
March 26, 2012
Kindle Free Promo Update #5 – Final
Well, it's finally over. Three days of stress, near-constant twitter and Facebook exposure and constant statistics checking (I think my laptop gave me a tan on my face) are done. I'm relieved. My wife is ecstatic. My kids get to see their Dad again. I think even the hamster feels a little less stressed-out.
Here's a bit of a recap about how things went, in case you haven't read my other posts, and I'll finish up with the final results.
Preparation for my Friday-Sunday free promo began on the Monday before with sending notifications to a number of sites that list free books (see this post for links). During the week before I also redesigned my cover, changed the content of my book (I added previews for two of my other novels) and uploaded both to Kindle. That was a bit stressful in itself as, when you change the content, Kindle automatically generates a message telling you it may take as much as five days for the new content to become available! My book disappeared while the update happened. As I did this on Wednesday, I nearly pooped! But fear not, everything worked out. It was back up again by noon on Thursday, shiny new cover and all, ready to be ravaged by the crowds hungry for my writing.
12:01am Friday morning came around and, as the focused individual I am (some might say obsessive…I disagree, honey), I watched and waited. It didn't drop in price. 12;15? No price change. That's okay, sometimes it takes a bit. 12:25? No. 12:37? 12:43? 12:47? 12:50? 12:52? 12:53? No. Screw it, I went to bed.
Remember the focused (not obsessive) comment earlier? I woke at 5:35 am and couldn't keep myself from checking…it had been marked down to free and already had 45 downloads. Not bad. Go back to sleep, you obsessive bastard.
By the end of day one, the book had been downloaded over 4300 times. I attribute the bulk of this to being picked up by some of the sites that list and tweet free books, including E-Reader News Today, one of the two biggies in the world of free ebook promo. There were about 450 downloads between 9am and 10am on Friday, my biggest hour which, I suspect, lines up pretty closely to ENT's listing. I did make an attempt to jot down hourly totals, intending to have reams of data for any writers who might read my blog, and I got lots of them, but not enough to do a thorough analysis. Plus it would bore most of you. Suffice it to say I averaged over 116 downloads/hour every hour of the 72 hour promo. By the end of Saturday, without being picked up by any other listings, I hit about 6400 downloads, a slower day, but still good numbers.
Which brings me to the final tally… 'On Unfaithful Wings' was downloaded 8248 times from Amazon's U.S. site, 69 times in the U.K., 10 in Germany and 1 each in France and Italy (no one in Spain, Kindle's only other store, wanted me). That makes a total of 8329 people who now have copies of my little book on their computer or other e-reading device. During the 3 days, I reached as high as #46 on Kindle's free Bestsellers list, sat at #1 in Fantasy for more than two days and #1 in contemporary fantasy for the better part of all three days.
Nice.
My main promo through Sat and Sun was on Facebook and twitter (and some might say I did that too much. Sorry, Jordan). My links were shared and tweeted many time; thank you to everyone who did. Here's something I didn't know: I used bit.ly to shorten my links for twitter, and they keep track of the number of times a link is followed, so I can tell that my twitter campaign was successful. As of this morning, the link they created that goes directly to my Kindle page has been followed 51 times. Other links I posted (to reviews, rankings, etc.) were followed and additional 48 times for a total of almost 100 click-throughs from twitter alone (though truthfully, some of those are likely from FB, too, as my tweets post to my FB page as well).
All in all, I'm extremely happy with the results. Now comes the true test… does all this effort equate to an increase in sales? I'll find out in a couple of days and let you know.
I considered thanking everyone individually for the help they gave during my campaign, but I'd probably forget someone and hurt their feelings, so let's go with bulk appreciation. Thank you so much to everyone who helped out by sharing my posts, tweeting and re-tweeting. Thanks to all who offered assistance and advice in how to run a free promo, and to everyone who encouraged and supported me. Special thanks to everyone who downloaded a copy. I hope you enjoy it and make sure you go back and leave a review when you're done.
In the meantime, check out an interview I did for Fiona McVie at Inspiration Forum.
And, once more, thank you, thank you, thank you.
March 24, 2012
“And I woke up to…” Kindle Free Promo Update #4
I slept in a bit this morning – got up about 8am (I am on vacation, you know). Here’s where things were at then:
4880 downloads, #46 on the free bestseller list.
The pace of the downloads seems to be slowing a bit, so I’m going to hit the promoing pretty hard today to see if that helps. I really don’t know what to expect from a Saturday. Are people more likely to be downloading books because they’re not at work, or less likely because it’s their day off and they have lots to do? My ranking has slipped a couple of places, so I have to assume people aren’t finding me as easily right now.
What I need for a boost is to have Pixel of Ink, an on-line site that lists free e-books and has over 200,000 followers, to pick me up. That would be good.
Everyone cross your fingers.
"And I woke up to…" Kindle Free Promo Update #4
I slept in a bit this morning – got up about 8am (I am on vacation, you know). Here's where things were at then:
4880 downloads, #46 on the free bestseller list.
The pace of the downloads seems to be slowing a bit, so I'm going to hit the promoing pretty hard today to see if that helps. I really don't know what to expect from a Saturday. Are people more likely to be downloading books because they're not at work, or less likely because it's their day off and they have lots to do? My ranking has slipped a couple of places, so I have to assume people aren't finding me as easily right now.
What I need for a boost is to have Pixel of Ink, an on-line site that lists free e-books and has over 200,000 followers, to pick me up. That would be good.
Everyone cross your fingers.
March 23, 2012
Free Kindle Promo Update #3
Just coming up 9pm here on the left coast, so not exactly the end of the night, but I thought most of you would be in bed (or inebriated) if I waited until midnight or 1am to update the first day of my Kindle free promo. So here we are as of 9pm:
3677 downloads.
#64 overall free bestsellers
#40 free genre fiction
#1 free contemporary fantasy
#1 Free fantasy
Very happy with how things are going. Lots of people have helped and I appreciate every bit of advice and encouragement I've gotten. Fingers crossed for two more great days like today.
Free Kindle Promo Update #2
Wow.
It's 11:14 and I'm finding it hard to concentrate. I feel like things are a bit of a whirlwind. Here's a recap.
5:35am – 45 downloads
8:30am – 358
9:07am – 413
Tell my wife I'm averaging around 80-90 downloads/hour. She says it's not enough. The universe listens.
10:07am – 853
11:07 – 1124
"On Unfaithful Wings" has reached #2 on Kindle's list of free contemporary fantasy, #84 in genre fiction and #142 on the overall free list (the last time I checked before that, I was around #1990).
Here's crossing my fingers that it keeps going.
Update #1
If you've been following along with my blog, you'll know I went to bed a little disgruntled. The free promos on Kindle are supposed to start at 12am Pacific (which happens to be my time zone). The price hadn't been changed when I gave up and went to bed at around 1am (but it's okay because I'm enjoying Game of Thrones).
Just like the kid at Christmas I mentioned last time, I awoke at 5:35 am and couldn't help but grab my phone and check. Good news…sometime between 1 and 5:35am, the price got changed. At that time, it had already been downloaded 45 times.
As I sit here typing at 8:30am, my free listing was picked up be eReader News Today (considered one of the two biggies in the world of Kindle giveaways), and my novel has been down-loaded for free 358 times from the U.S Kindle site, 14 times in the U.K. (plus one sale for my short story collection), and twice in Germany.
I feel like it's a good start.
Now back to promo-ing and chewing my fingernails.
Waiting for the Time to Come
So I didn't sleep too well last night.
I know it's silly, but I feel like a kid at Christmas. At 12:01am on March 23, 201, my novel "On Unfaithful Wings" goes on a free promo on Kindled for three days. While three does will not determine the success or failure of my book, a successful free run could help put some much-needed coins in the coffer to help bankroll my addiction to publishing novels.
March 22 – 7pm – My daughter has a friend over and my son has agreed to watch them , so the wife and I go out to dinner. Nice little place in Victoria called 'Fiamo'. If you live where I live, I recommend it, the food is quite good. But I'm distracted through the meal. We talk about the play she's writing, our daughter's photography course, etc., etc., but it keeps coming back to the book. Oh well.
10pm – Watching Game of Thrones. Tapping my foot. Fidgeting. Writing a blog. How's that for multi-tasking? Two more hours until it goes free. I wonder what will be inside when I unwrap the presents?
11:55pm – It's been a few years since I read A Game of Thrones. It's amazing how much I've forgotten, but the show seems to stick pretty close to the book. I managed to mostly concentrate on the show, but I have to admit, I paused to peek at Kindle a few times. Almost time for free to begin, though I'm not sure how prompt Amazon is. I'll be back in a few minutes.
12:12am – Not free yet. A few more minutes then off to bed.
12:29am – Bah! Still not showing up for free yet. I'll get back to you as soon as it does (or go to bed if it doesn't soon).
