Jennifer Becton's Blog, page 19

On Writing Romance

The following is a real conversation.

Me: I’m having trouble with the romance plot I’m writing for a short story.

DH: Romance? That’s easy. Order a pizza. Forget your purse. Bam. Done.

Me: Uh, that’s a porno, not romance.

 

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On Jane Austen Day

Dear Miss Austen,

In celebration of your 239th* birthday–though I suppose a lady would not like to reveal her age–my gift to you would be to tell you about your legacy. (Though it is actually a gift you gave yourself.) Through your books, you have achieved a certain type of immortality. They have become movies and musicals, and you yourself have even become the heroine of novels and movies. You have awakened the creativity of other writers, and you have shown generations of women what a true gentleman ought to be.

And I would like you to know that women no longer have to marry for reasons other than love. We are free to follow our hearts, just as you dreamed.

That knowledge is my birthday gift to you, if only I could tell you.

And to all your fans, the authors of Holidays with Jane would like to off you a chance to win a free ebook copy of the collection. Here’s how to enter:

Just tweet using the hashtag #HolidayswithJane and tell us what gift you’d buy for any of Austen’s characters.  That’s it!

One entry per tweet using the hashtag, so feel free to enter multiple times!

We will accept Twitter entries all day on 12/16/14 ending at 9pm EST.

This giveaway is worldwide.  Three (3) winners will each receive one (1) ebook copy of Holidays with Jane.

Good luck, and happy birthday, Miss Austen.

*This letter to Miss Austen has been reprinted from a previous blog post.

 

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Reviews of Holidays with Jane: Christmas Cheer

Marci at To Read or Not to Read gives Holidays with Jane: Christmas Cheer 4 Willies (William Shakespeares), “Really likes it.” She writes:

I honestly can’t tell you what story I like the best because I like them all but for different reasons. One thing I especially liked is that certain elements appeared in each story. It made the six individual stories seem like one collective one. This is a great book to cuddle up to this Christmas.

Candy at So Little Time gives Holidays with Jane: Christmas Cheer 5 out of 5 stars! She writes:

I loved Holidays with Jane! All six of Jane Austen’s books are represented in these modern retellings! I found each to be very well written; short, but complete. It is so perfect for the holiday season, when you’re busy and really don’t have time to get involved in a full novel. I could curl up on my couch and read a story without worrying about staying up too late! Six modern retellings all wrapped up in a neat little package!

The Kindle edition of Holidays with Jane: Christmas Cheer is on sale for $1.99!

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Book Marketing: When Nothing Works

Book marketing seems to be all about flash-in-the-pan advertising. Things that work really well seem to burn themselves out over time. And for me, right now, nothing works. Everything is burned out.

Social Media (Twitter and Facebook): Back in 2010, Twitter was my marketing mainstay. I met friends, people who would be come writing partners. I met reviewers. I talked to readers. Something as simple as talking to people on Twitter created opportunities. It’s still fun, but the opportunities seem to have dwindled. Facebook is a great way of connecting with existing fans, but I rarely connect with new people that way.
Blog posts: Crickets. You can judge my traffic based on the number of comments on my posts.
Email Lists: These are great for book launches, but I am not a fan of author newsletters. Unless I have something new to offer, I don’t use my email list.
Kindle Nation Daily: KND helped launch Absolute Liability (Southern Fraud Thriller Book 1) to the Amazon kindle Top 100 list. Since then, I have had diminishing results. Coupled with increased pricing, KND doesn’t pay for itself anymore.
Bookbub: This one replaced KND, but then the same thing happened. Pricing has increased, and results decreased, making it less desirable to use.
Other Bargain Book Promoters: Same here. I keep looking for the one to replace Bookbub, but I haven’t found it yet.
KDP Select Promotions: And the Countdown deals have done absolutely nothing for my books. I saw no difference in lowering the price myself and running their special promo deal.
Price raising/lowering: I’ve changed prices in both directions. Nothing gives me traction, not even the $.99 price point.
Free books: There was a time when giving a book away free meant a trip to the Top 100. Not so much now. You know it’s getting crazy out there when you can’t get any traction after giving books away.
Book launch giveaways: People don’t seem to want to enter giveaways so much anymore. I end up spending more on items and shipping than I get in visibility or sales.
Ads: Static ads always had limited usefulness.
Paying attention to trends: I follow the book news blogs and read opinions on the market all the time. No one seems to have anything tangible to add to the conversation. Trying to make an educated decision based on the market right now is as effective as tossing out some animal bones and divining the future based on how they fell. It seems pointless and a waste of time and resources.

Lots of the above techniques had their heyday. Many of them were fairly successful, but all of them have since stopped working. Paid promos no longer earn out. People no longer sign up for giveaways.

So my question is:How do you market a book when nothing seems to work? Stop trying to sell. Just write.Tweet This

The only thing that spikes my sales is the release of a new book. Mary Bennet: A Novella in the Personages of Pride & Prejudice Collection gave me visibility, temporarily lifting the other books in the series a bit.

However, the effect was transient.

This makes me wonder if the key to consistent sales and better visibility is releasing shorter works more frequently. What do you think?

In the meantime, what do you do to keep your books visible?

If you find a marketing technique that works, use it as much as you can.Tweet This

Drive it like you stole it. Eventually, it will stop working. And it won’t be because you used it up. It will be because markets have changed.

So if you stumble on a venue or technique that works, use it as much as you possibly can. And tell me what it is!

What marketing techniques are working for you?

 

 

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Digital Content

Indie authors have recently reported a drop in Kindle sales with the advent of Kindle Unlimited.

Author HM Ward participated in the program and says her total revenues fell by 75%. (Please note that the data provided in this post is pretty vague. There is no hard data to help draw conclusions.)

Other authors, including those who did not participate in the program, reported loss of revenue as well.

This evidence is anecdotal and incomplete, and the dips in income could be attributed to other factors. The Digital Reader notes that sales also took a dip at this time last year.

While it is entirely possible that we did identify the respective causes, it is just as likely that we fell for the post hoc logical fallacy. Given that we are looking at what could be a cyclical market trend, I think we need to consider the possibility that both declines have the same cause. Read more here.

Economic markets are complex, and it’s impossible to isolate the effects of a single factor and make a truly scientific conclusion. Something larger could be at work. Do ebook sales always take a hit at this time of year? Or is Kindle Unlimited responsible for the steep drops in reported sales? Or something else entirely?

If KU is the problem, what does that mean? And more importantly, how does an on-demand style program fit into the book world?

For years, people have predicted that digital content sales will shift to a “Netflix” style format. Instead of buying an ebook or movie, people would be able to subscribe to a service and choose from a variety of books to read on demand. That’s what Kindle Unlimited offers. Scribd also made this service available this year.

Look to other digital media. The transition has already begun in the movie and TV industries: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu…. Even individual channels are finding ways to offer their content on demand to subscribers. That’s what is happening in the ebook world.

With the advent of subscription services, ebook “sales” may be a thing of the past.Tweet This

That sounds scary. Authors are used to judging their performance based on sales, not on reads. More troubling is the seeming drop in revenue. Is this drop permanent or temporary? Only time will tell. Changing from straight-up sales to on-demand reading is a huge shift in how the book market works. It is bound to have a large impact as the transition happens. It’s going to cause instability.

The change to on-demand ebooks is going to happen, and indie authors are already one step ahead.Tweet This Indies have already bucked the traditional publishing system and opted for the new thing: selling their books themselves. Well, the new thing is now passé. Sales are out. On demand is in. Don’t make the same mistake that traditional publishers make. Make the best of the changing ebook world and don’t cling to the olden days.

The olden days are already gone.

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Author Survey and Bias

Authors JA Konrath and Lisa Grace discuss DBW’s Author Survey:

Here are the survey questions that we thought were problematic, with our fair use critique and comments.

Question: Have you had at least one book published (either traditionally or self-published)?

Lisa: Okay, I thought this survey was for published authors. Yet, a surprising amount of non-published writers are posting.

Survey over for them, right? Read more here.

The problem with many “scientific surveys” is that they forget to be scientific method. According to sciencebuddies.com and every high school science teacher, the scientific method is:

Ask a Question
Do Background Research
Construct a Hypothesis
Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
Communicate Your Results

Please note that it says “test” your hypothesis. You can make a guess at the results of your survey, but that doesn’t mean you construct a survey so that you will get the results you want. That’s called bias. Yes, it happens every day in “science” and politics etc, but that doesn’t make it right.

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Holidays with Jane Available in Paperback

Holidays with Jane: Christmas Cheer: Modern Austen short stories

Now available on Amazon!

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How to Live Like Jane Austen (www)

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The Mentalist: Jane Austen Style Romance

The Mentalist returns on Sunday, November 30, at 9:30 PM for its final season. Jane’s quest to avenge the murder of his wife and daughter has been completed, and he has admitted his love for Lisbon.

So how will the show end? What will the creator and writers emphasize as the story draws to a close. The Mentalist is about more than just Jane’s quest to find and kill Red John. For Jane’s quest to be truly complete, he has to become a whole person again. He has to let himself experience life and love again.

That seems to be the direction Bruno Heller, creator of the show, is going:

“Both Jane and Lisbon are private, self-contained, protective people, so it is a love story, but it is not a very conventional love story,” Heller said. “It is a very sort of Jane Austen type of romance. The good ones in Jane Austen–the best, the one that you devoutly wish to be consummated–is between two people that you’ve known for years, who have known each other for years, and you can see they’re made for each other — not in a fiery kind of crazy way, but just in a human, gentle, correct way.” Read more here.

Not every romance has to turn into Fifty Shades of Grey and a visit to the red room of pain. Jane and Lisbon have been through enough pain and twisted torment. It’s nice to see writers exploring a different side of their romance.

I can’t wait for the season premiere! Are you going to watch?

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Tensions: Inspiration for Dramatic Scenes

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