Thea Atkinson's Blog, page 10
July 1, 2012
Kobo readers prepare your Kobo readers
by Thea Atkinson
FREE on Kobo right now
That’s right. For three long months Rattling Bones was exclusive to Amazon because it was enrolled in the KDP Select program and I couldn’t give it away anywhere else, but now it’s up on Kobo and it’s free. I’m not sure how long it will be so, but I’m thrilled to see it listed. I would LOVE it if you would spread the word for me and, of course, download it yourself.
Why? You ask. What’s in there? What’s it about?
The main theme is death and dying. It’s what I call dark edged chick lit, but there’s some light in there as always.
But what the heck. It’s free. Go grab it. Enjoy. Pass it on. If you like it, review it. Tell folks. Tell everyone, but do it now before I have to set it to an actual price point like at Amazon.
On Monday, I’ll be posting the results of the Haystack Giveaway. What? You ask. What is the Haystack Giveaway? well, if you don’t know, you probably lost out on a chance at a $50 gift card from Amazon. Poor you. But don’t worry. I’ll be posting another giveaway soon. Not sure what yet…maybe you have some ideas….Post them below.
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If you liked this post, please do share.
Thea is the author of several novels that she considers left of mainstream. You can find her on Smashwords, BN, Kobo, Sony, Apple
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Filed under: Thea bits
June 17, 2012
Guest Post: JE Taylor
Welcome to J.E. Taylor. Will you share a little bit about yourself?
[JET]: I’m a writer, a publisher, an editor, a manuscript formatter, a mother, a wife and a business analyst, not necessarily in that order. I first sat down to seriously write in February of 2007 after my daughter asked:
“Mom, if you could do anything, what would you do?”
From that moment on, I haven’t looked back and now I’ve got eight novels and a couple short story anthologies out there for purchase.
In addition to being co-owner of Novel Concept Publishing (www.novelconceptpublishing), I also moonlights as an Assistant Editor of Allegory (www.allegoryezine.com), an online venue for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. I’ve been known to edit a book or two and also offer my services judging writing contests for various RWA chapters.
I live in Connecticut with my husband and two children and during the summer months I enjoy my weekends on the shore in southern Maine.
Visit me at www.jetaylor75.com
Tell us about Crystal Illusions and where it’s available.
[JET]: Here’s the book blurb for Crystal Illusions along with the Amazon link. It’s also available through Barnes & Noble and Smashwords and can be purchased in paperback as well for those that prefer an actual book…
Assistant D.A. Carolyn Hastings has an uncanny knack for putting away criminals. With one of the best prosecution records in recent history, her future as Manhattan’s next District Attorney looks certain. But her sixth sense for winning cases threatens to work against her when she starts seeing a string of murders through the eyes of the killer.
With suspects piling up as fast as bodies, and the motives of those closest to her questionable, Carolyn doesn’t know who to trust. When the FBI assigns Special Agent Steve Williams to the case, Carolyn discloses her deepest fear – that the man she loves may be the one responsible for the city’s latest crime spree.
The only thing Steve knows for sure is Carolyn has an inexplicable psychic connection with the killer, and all the victims have one thing in common…a striking resemblance to Carolyn Hastings.
And he knows it’s only a matter of time before this psychopath knocks on her door.
“Taylor has a strong thriller where every single character has reasonable doubt flashing like a neon sign hanging over them, and right from the beginning you are trying to guess who the killer really is. Gripping, rich and magnificent – crime whodunnits don’t get any better than this!” JET Poppet / Gemma Rice – JET of Quislings, Blindsided, Djinn and Dusan
Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Illusions-Steve-Williams-ebook/dp/B007JBWCIQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331505187&sr=8-1
Please tantalize us with a story blurb or excerpt.
[JET]: Randy turned his head in her direction, the hot shower had done nothing to quell his aggravation and he carefully examined his response. How do I explain a black eye and the blood on my clothing to the assistant D.A? It was almost laughable, but the earlier events had dampened his mood. The truth would land him in a shitload of trouble, but he couldn’t brush it off either. “I went to meet a client and got mugged on the way back.”
Carolyn’s eyes grew hard as she took a step back. “I had another vision.” She took another step toward the bathroom door.
Randy’s eyebrows drew together at the question in her eyes. A vision, shit. She thinks I’m responsible? The sudden realization of her thought process burned through him like a ravaged wild fire. “You think I…”
Carolyn bolted out of the room.
“Fuck!” Randy cursed and grabbed a towel, sliding on the tile floor as he made a bid to catch her. Her hands shook as she tried to navigate the dead bolt on the front door and he grabbed her arm before she figured out how to unlatch it. He had to stop her, to convince her it wasn’t him and he spun her toward him. “I didn’t kill anyone.”
“But you weren’t mugged either!”
Randy’s shoulders slumped and his gaze traveled to the balcony and the bloody shoes. “No, I wasn’t mugged. But I’m not the Scarlet Psychopath either.” He brought his gaze back to hers.
“You were covered with blood when you came in, what the hell am I supposed to think?” She yanked her arm from his grasp. “And your face, that’s where she hit him with her purse.” Carolyn’s voice trembled as she pressed her back to the door.
The fear in her eyes churned his desperation into raging fury. She believed he was capable of murder, of killing innocent women—women that looked like her. “Go ahead, test the blood.” Randy pointed at the balcony, his anger bleeding from between his clenched teeth. “It’s beef and pork blood, from my family’s meat packing plant.” He turned and stormed back into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
He drew on a pair of jeans and returned to the living room “How the hell can you think I’m capable of that!” Anger radiated in waves.
Tears brimmed and slid down her cheeks. “Your trench coat, now this…”
“Jesus, Carolyn.” Randy ran his hand through his wet hair, her accusation stewing, stirring his anger into a tizzy.
“I couldn’t reach you the other night after the nightmare and tonight you weren’t here. Do you have an alibi for the other murders?”
Randy couldn’t believe her audacity, her ability to believe he was capable of such things. “If it happened at night, I was here. During the day I’m working.”
“Can anyone vouch for you?”
Randy’s jaw tightened, his teeth aching from the pressure. “I don’t know.”
Her head dropped to her chest and her lips pressed together. “I have to go.”
Of course she’s going to run. That’s what she does when things get tough. “I’ll take you home.” He turned before she could argue coming back moments later fully dressed. He grabbed his trench coat and ripped open the front door.
“Randy.” The glare he sent her stopped her in her tracks.
“You think I’m a murderer. What else can I say?” he snapped. “This…” He pointed between the two of them. “Is over.” He stabbed the down button and waited for the elevator.
Do you have a favorite quote you’d like to share?
[JET]: I’ve got a few quotes that come to mind when I read this question and I’ll separate my answer into three sections: Favorite quote from my books, favorite quote from another author’s book and favorite movie quote.
In my books – my favorite quote so far is “Game on”, which is from my erotic Games series.
By far my favorite quote that’s attributed to another writer came from Jonathan Maberry’s book Patient Zero and it actually happens to be the first chapter in its entirety:
“When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week, then there’s either something wrong with your skills or something wrong with your world.
And there’s nothing wrong with my skills.”
― Jonathan Maberry, Patient Zero
And my favorite quote from a movie comes from The Rock and is delivered by one of my favorite actors – Sean Connery – “Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and f@#$ the prom queen.” This always makes me chuckle because it’s so damn true.
Did any music inspire your book? Do you have a playlist?
[JET]: This time around I didn’t listen to music as I wrote. I needed to concentrate on the story line and on making everyone a plausible suspect, so while I usually am rocking to my Ipod, this time I couldn’t. I actually do have a ‘writing’ play list on my Ipod. It’s comprised of a great deal of 80’s and 90’s rock.
Which of your characters would you most/least like to invite to dinner, and why?
[JET]: Least like to invite – Kyle Winslow because the likelihood of me not living to see the next day is pretty high with Kyle. On the other spectrum, I’m tossed between my FBI Agent Steve Williams and his guardian angel – Chris Ryan. Not sure who would be more entertaining to have at my dinner table. Either way – they’re both an eyeful. J
While creating your books, what was one of the most surprising things you learned?
[JET]: That my characters sometimes take over the story and lead me where I don’t expect to go. They take on a life of their own and that was the most surprising thing for me. I thought I as the writer would be in control of the situations at all times, but it’s quite funny to find out the voices in your head actually can take control.
What’s next for you?
[JET]: I’m writing a YA thriller with my twelve-year-old son. It’s the first in a trilogy and it’s his idea and direction and my translation of his idea. What a fun venture. Look for the first book in The Death Chronicles – Don’t Fear The Reaper – to arrive on the virtual shelves this summer.
Any other published works?
[JET]: Yes. Crystal Illusions is the fifth book in my FBI Steve Williams series and as I hinted above, I’ve got another adult trilogy as well as two short story compilations. Just look me up on Amazon and you can see the entire list of books available as well as a few free short stories.
What’s the most interesting comment you have received about your books?
[JET]: “I never thought this 39 year old, stay-at-home mom would love the kinda twisted drama in the Games series books, but I absolutely loved them.”
Where can readers find you on the web?
[JET]: My website: www.JETaylor75.com
My blog: http://JETaylor75.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/JETaylor/190872939774
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/JETaylor75
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3153969.J_E_Taylor
Thanks for swinging into this stop on my Blog Tour and I hope you’ll swing in to Bitten By Books on the 20th for a chance to win a $50.00 Amazon gift certificate and if you’d like to check out Crystal Illusions, you can purchase it here on Amazon.
Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Illusions-Steve-Williams-ebook/dp/B007JBWCIQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331505187&sr=8-1
Until next time,
Ciao.
JET
Filed under: guest blogging
June 16, 2012
Tell Me About 50 Shades of Grey
by Thea Atkinson
I’ve been reading a lot of indie fiction lately, and not just because I want to be supportive. I truly have been finding a lot of enjoyable reads…and a lot of what I’d initially call stinkers, too. Meh. That’s OK. I find the same dichotomy in trad published fiction.
Cue 50 Shades of Grey
That doesn’t look so good sitting there written that way, and my inclination is to go back and delete it lest I be judged by my sourness. I think of the early Amanda Hocking stuff I tried out and ending up feeling an incredible rush of shame over my misplaced sense of author superiority. Wow. That many typos? That much bad grammar? Really?
And then I think of my — again — misplaced sense of superiority, my verbal mocking of the writing when I tried to read the Sookie Stackhouse novels. You really don’t want to know the horrible things I said in those first ten minutes of reading my first Charlaine Harris Sookie book.
Did you catch that? That way I said, ‘first’?
You know that means I read more than one, right? Well, I ended up reading–no, gobbling them up like hermit cookies — the entire series of eleven books. Yikes.
Then I went back and picked up another Amanda Hocking book; I wanted to see if I had indeed misjudged her now that she had proper editing and all.
This is where the shame finally kicks in.
I realized I had been giving in to that nasty lime green sense of writer righteousness over someone else’s success while my books languished, unbuyable, in the Amazon jungle. I loathed that quick-to-fire engine in me that is ready to judge another book when I readily admit I’m no Alice Munro or Margaret Laurence or Atwood.
What gives me the right to judge?
Well, I’m a reader too. And my delicate sensibilities can sniff someone else’s exhausted cliché and misplaced mixed metaphor a mile away, and then turn its nose as quickly as my black lab turns up peppermint. (how’s that for jamming in all kinds of mixed metaphor. woot)
When I ended up giving the books good honest reads based on story, I discovered those authors did indeed have that innate telling ability that makes a great author. Hollowland kept me captivated (OK. Forget the pet lion for a second), and Eric makes me drool in the Sookie series. (um. don’t forget any part of that fella.)
These authors can do what I cannot–lure a reader in. Grip the reader. Hold that reader fast. And all that in spite of some juvenile turns of phrase and bad grammar. Now. I say. That’s a writer, baby.
So. Fifty Shades of Grey. I have to admit to opening a Kindle sample. And just as quickly closing it.
Should I feel shame?
I can’t help wondering if I’m missing something. Is there something in there too that as a writer I should be paying attention to? Tell me. If you’ve read it, because I really, really want to know, tell me if I should invest my reading time in another million-dollar-already-franchised sensation book or another deserved, unknown and struggling indie author who is dying for a buy and a read.
Really.
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Remember the Haystack giveaway. You can win a $50 Amazon Card.
If you liked this post, please do share.
Thea is the author of several novels that she considers left of mainstream. You can find her on Smashwords, BN, Kobo, Sony, Apple
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Filed under: Thea bits
June 13, 2012
How To Price Your E-book for Writer Wednesday
High Moor by Graeme Reynolds
RICK: Thea has been after Graeme and me to do a blog post. After I emailed him), he came up with this topic. I also asked Graeme to do a post for Scott Gamboe’s and my blog. Graeme sent me ONE blog post to play with. I’ll put his original up at the Write Well blog in a couple of weeks. For this post, I extracted some of his thoughts and added my own. My novels to date were traditionally published. I will be jumping into the self-publishing arena later this year.
GRAEME: A few weeks ago, I was reading an interview with a reasonably well-known author who stated that e-books should be priced at an appropriate level to reflect the work that had gone into their production.
RICK: This makes a lot of sense, and it’s how most stuff is priced in the retail world: price = cost of materials + labor. Except for publishing. Almost without exception, mass-market paperbacks are all sold at the same price. Surely a bigger book requires more editing time. Are publishers telling us that they’ve overpriced books so much that this time is factored into the cost of each one? What about e-books, where printing costs don’t factor in?
GRAEME: Traditional publishers have one opinion. They feel that an e-book should be sold for the same price as a physical book, even going so far as to charge a hardback price for the electronic version when a book comes out, then dropping it in line with the paperback price when that one is released. They argue that the content is what people are paying for and the medium that it’s delivered in is largely irrelevant, and that the cost of producing an e-book is the same as producing a hard copy.
So, let’s take a look at the costs associated with creating an e-book (Rick adds: or any book). Once the author has a decent manuscript, they will need to get an editor, proof-reader, cover artist, and interior layout designer involved.
Most freelance editors tend to work for around a penny a word, although I’ve seen them charge as much as four times more and four times less than that. The old adage of “you get what you pay for” rings true in these cases, with the lower end of that scale often delivering a much less thorough edit. As an illustrative figure, I’m going to say that around $1000 is about the cost of getting a manuscript edited. (Rick adds: editing is not the same as proofreading. Make sure you understand the differences.
Proofreaders also vary in price by a fairly wide margin. Some will charge the same as an editor, while others will work for considerably less. It’s important to use them, because they are your last defence against errors in the manuscript making it out into the real world. For the sake of argument, let’s say $500 for a proofreader on a standard 90,000 word book, although the reality will most likely be less than that.
RICK: This brings up the point of self-editing your work. It’s not impossible, but most of us have a hard time spotting all of our own errors, and if you’re not a grammar and punctuation guru, you will need professional help with that. While a well-edited novel doesn’t guarantee sales, a poorly edited one is far more likely to garner scathing reviews for being sloppy. If your budget can’t afford these prices, look around for alternatives, such as trading or bartering services with other writers. Do not skimp on quality. Your reputation as a writer depends on it.
GRAEME: Cover art is one of those things that you would think expensive, but is probably less than most people imagine. I got the cover for my novel done for less than $200.
More Than Magick by Rick Taubold
RICK: A poor or sloppy cover will hurt your book as much as poor editing. A good cover will get buyers interested; a bad one will turn them off before they even read a sample, but a great cover won’t help if what’s underneath is poorly written and poorly edited.
GRAEME: Lastly, there is the expense of getting someone to lay the book out for you so that it displays properly on e-readers and looks good in paperback, if you decide to go down that route. To be honest, there are plenty of guides available that make the e-book layout fairly straightforward, but I would recommend using a specialist if you are going down the paperback route. Again, there are plenty of places out there that will do this for $100, but even the top end places don’t tend to charge more than $250.
So, there we have it. The cost of putting a good quality book together is around $2000. Realistically, if you shopped around you could probably get it done for $1500 or less. For the sake of argument, let’s stick with the $2000 figure.
For a self-published e-book, priced at $2.99, the author will need to cover off the $2000 fees for editing, cover design etc, but will make $1.97 per sale (at Amazon’s 70% royalty rate). Put the cover price up to $3.99 and the author makes $2.67 per copy. Once the publishing costs are paid, then you don’t have to worry about them again, and those costs would be covered after you sold your first 1000 e-books.
I sold the first 1000 copies of my novel “High Moor” in less than five months, this from a completely unknown author with no previous publishing history outside of some short stories, so it shows that it can be done.
Selling a book for $0.99 drops you down into the 35% bracket (at Amazon) and means the author only makes $0.35 per sale. Which means that he would need to shift almost 6000 copies to cover the cost of getting the book done properly in the first place. While moving those sorts of numbers isn’t impossible, it’s considerably less likely, and it generally means that the writer is almost certainly going to try to cut corners on things like editing to keep costs down. Readers are starting to associate the books at a permanent $0.99 price bracket as badly edited junk, and with good reason. An overwhelming number of them are exactly that.
The exception to this is when an author has a series and gives the first book away for free or at a reduced rate to hook the readers, or when the author does a short sale to boost sales rank and visibility. Both of these are examples of using pricing as a tool, and my own personal experience indicates that they can be very effective over short timescales. If they are set to the reduced level for longer than 48 hours though, then sales seem to plateau and then fall off quite sharply. I am putting this down to association with the aforementioned badly edited junk at a permanent $0.99 price point, but I may be wrong. I’m just going from my own experiences here.
So, after all of that, what is an appropriate price for an e-book? Well, it’s going to be down to the individual, but the way that I look at it is this. A $2.99 book will sell better than a $9.99 one (from a traditional publisher), or even a $3.99 one, and more sales mean a better sales rank and better visibility. Which means more sales.
RICK: As self-publishers, we can deliver apparent value to readers with proper pricing, and we can price by the size of the book. If you write a shorter book, price it less, unlike traditional publishers. Let’s say you’ve written a novella that’s 30,000 words. Because traditional publishers have this desire to price books by the unit rather than by the amount of material. Such a book would probably still be sold for the standard price. Would you, as a reader, pay $6.99 or more for a book barely half an inch thick? The self-published author has the advantage. Or he could bundle two novellas together, price the combo at $2.99 and give two for the price of one to readers.
If you price you books fairly for yourself and your readers, everyone wins. But don’t undersell yourself or price yourself out of the market, as the traditional publishers are trying to do. As a self-published author, you always have options. If a publisher doesn’t make enough money on your book–for whatever reason–you simply won’t be offered another contract.
Here’s where we hang out:
sidenote by Thea:
I really enjoy both of these authors and highly recommend you sample/buy any of their work. High Moor was a Thea indie recommended read on Thea’s Writing Page. They are worth the read. Also, please consider sharing this post. It’s always nice to see generous authors give of their time to help us all make sense of this indie journey.
Thanks Rick and Graeme. Please come back another time in the future.
Filed under: guest blogging
June 9, 2012
Does a Blog Post Sell Books?
by Thea Atkinson
You know from my last post that I enjoy playing with numbers. I have a spreadsheet and graphs and formulas and everything. It wasn’t too long ago that I plugged in one single purchase for each of my books over the .com and .co.uk platforms of Amazons just to see what it would look like– and came up with an astonishing realization.
I could earn $1800 in a month.
Wow.
The thing with spreadsheets is you can have fun with them. You can plug in numbers, you can fudge numbers, and you can budget, plan, and what-if till your eyes bleed…the reality is always very different.
So After last week’s post I started thinking: has my blog helped or hindered me. By helped I mean: gain me an audience. By hinder I mean: keeping me from writing. (Any one who blogs knows the time, effort, and energy that goes into writing and finding readers for it. Phew. Talk about time consuming.)
Thank heaven I enjoy it.
So I started looking over my spreadsheet and I started comparing it to my blog traffic on certain days to see if there was a trend. John Locke certainly felt there was a connection. I read his book, and I tried out his technique to see if he was joshing me out of my $4.99. (it was an interesting read. You might consider looking him up. something about how I sold a million ebooks or somesuch.)
July 16, 2011
I wrote a post that I connected to an ebook of mine that didn’t sell (I wanted to track the effect) in a way I thought was authentic. Secret Language of Crows had sold a total of 4 books in the 30 days before this particular post, and it had sold an average of 4 books per month for the 3 months before.
The next two weeks, over the .com and .co.uk and Smashwords platforms, I sold 11 copies of that book. Huzzah. It looked like ole John had something. I started to believe in the power of blogging to reach an audience. Could finding a Thea reader really be as easy as this?
I decided to pick 5 days when my blog hits were high for whatever reason: more hits should mean more chance of selling, right?
Sept 25, 2011
202 hits.
Incidentally, the post I had put up one day before was this one about secrets: AND incidentally, on the 25th, an article came out from a book reviewer (Jodi Delong) who had reviewed the Secret Language of Crows for The Chronicle Herald. The review brought me 15 hits directly that I could attribute to the Chronicle Herald link, but I imagine it was actually more. Over the next 14 days, I sold 37 copies of Secret Language of Crows. (Thanks once again, Jodi!) The 14 days before that? TWO.
Who were the target audience for that post? Well, folks like me. Folks that read. Folks that care about characters. Folks who just like to get some insight on the human condition.
OK. So things were really, really looking awesome for the blogging thang.
May 26, 2012
192 hits
Near the end of lobster season in my region and the big thing on everyone’s mind this year was price, greed, and striking. My lil post got the second highest posts of my blogging history with What do you know about Lobster Fishing? The post itself wasn’t attributed to any of my ebooks in particular, it was just there because I felt I wanted to say something about the topic. Ah. So. Did I sell anything?
10 books that day. The day before? 5. The day after? 5. The average for the week before? 5. The average for the week after? 5.
Target audience? Regular ole folks like me.
Hmmm.
So let’s look at random.
March 10, 2012
I post Coming Clean: Small Publishing Stats from a modest Seller
Overall, this post has had 370 hits. I can’t tell how many on the day I posted it, as I can’t find it in WordPress, but I can tell you how many sales I had that day: 11
The day before? 16
The day after? 19
This post made it to the Ipad’s Zite magazine. Wow. That should have netted me some readers, one would think.
March 31, 2012
I post I love your book and other nasty emails.
This one gets a total of 209 hits overall.
Sales on that day: 12
The day before: 17
The day after: 11
Last One: August 6, 2011
I post Runaways and Fiction. Attached it to a book (Secret Language of Crows again)
This post gets 178 hits overall
Sales on that day: 8 (no SLOC sales for 5 more days and then 2 in one day)
The day before: 10
The day after: 9
Target Audience: Folks like me.
So what does all this mean? Really?
I wish I knew. But it does seem to me that I get the most interest when I write for the same audience as my books. It seems that a multi-layered blog post with some advertisement works best. It seems that blogging is far, far better for audience reach than simply doing nothing because no one out there knows who the heck Thea Atkinson is anyway. (‘cept me Mom. She’s the bees knees, truly. Love Ya Mom).
And it seems that I have far too much invested in procrastinating when I should be working on the next book in the Elemental Magic series (The first one is Water Witch in case you weren’t sure). I also learned that I should continue blogging for the reason I continue blogging: because I like it–not to increase sales.
Because really, I can’t think of a single book I’ve bought because of a blog post I’ve read. Can you?
BTW: do you think this post was for writers or readers? grin.
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Don’t forget the Haystack giveaway. You can win a $50 Amazon Card.
If you liked this post, please do share.
Thea is the author of several novels that she considers left of mainstream. You can find her on Smashwords, BN, Kobo, Sony, Apple
Related articles
Have you tried Graphing your book sales? (theaatkinson.wordpress.com)
Is Your EBook Lost In The Straw Jungle Of Amazon? (theaatkinson.wordpress.com)
Filed under: Thea bits
June 4, 2012
Monday Mashup: Marketing 101
I used to do a mashup…but I got sidetracked as I usually do by reading and clicking around blogs instead of recording them and passing them on.
I can be so selfish sometimes.
So I’m going to try to rectify that by offering you a few of the interesting things I’ve read on that there Internet during the previous week. Bear in mind, some of these posts might actually be a little…old in terms of date published…but new to me.
If I found it interesting, I’ll pass it along.
Jane Friedman put together a list of 4 things to help authors with marketing.
Catherine Howard is offering her ebook of blog postings free for 2 more days (And nope. She’s not the reincarnation of the ill-fated third wife of Henry VIII…I didn’t actually check, of course, but I doubt she’d have come back with the same name.)
Al Boudreau is one heck of a supportive writer. Follow him on twitter and he doesn’t forget you. Like him on Facebook, and he doesn’t forget to engage you. This post is from his archives, but still a goodie.
Well, that’s it. I come across lots of great stuff in my internet travels, and it’s hard to pick favs. But this is my first attempt this week. Enjoy!
Have you come across some great posts this week about marketing? I’d love for you to share. Enter the link in the comments.
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Don’t forget the Haystack giveaway. You can win a $50 Amazon Card.
If you liked this post, please do share.
Thea is the author of several novels that she considers left of mainstream. You can find her on Smashwords, BN, Kobo, Sony, Apple
Filed under: mashup
June 1, 2012
Have you tried Graphing your book sales?
by Thea Atkinson
I always tell folks I’m a word gal, not a numbers gal. I suck at math. Meh, as my Acadian brethren would say. What I know has served me well, I guess, so long as I’m not asked to do any wild ratio work or somesuch.
Truth is, I actually do enjoy numbers. I always liked accounting and budgeting and problem solving.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to most indie authors that I obsessively track my Amazon sales from my author panel. I check the numbers, type in any new ones I see into my handy spreadsheet, ponder over the ranking, wonder if I’ve done something to help a sale, wonder what I could be doing to make the numbers just a bit better… All I can say is thank God I can’t track my sales on BN or Kobo or Sony or Itunes.
So. You can imagine after reading that, that I’m playing with the numbers a hell of a lot and tracking new numbers not so much. Grin.
Just for the heck of it, I created a graph to see visually what was happening with my sales.
I wasn’t surprised to see how much came from the one title I keep wanting to unpublish: Pray for Reign. It’s not my favorite. It’s written in the traditional historical fiction style, and nowadays historical fiction is so much more creative. Think Philipa Gregory. Some facts, and lots of creative manipulation of facts. Grin.
I knew it accounted for most of my sales, but I was shocked to see how much. It means if I unpublish it now, then roughly 75% of my income will just go away.
I can’t have that. I need to pay for pie.
My favorite books, well, they don’t do so well, most pitiably, as you can see. and it’s quite a different thing to see those paltry numbers in all kinds of colored baubly slices of pie. It’s enough to make a gal go hide her head somewhere. Ah well, at least, there is hope from Formed of Clay, as it makes up 15% of my sales.
Now the question was: how to get those other numbers up. I created another graph to look at trends. That one just became too depressing to post. It showed a nice rise in a line graph that fell off horrible sometime around March and took a shocking nose dive akin to the market crash graph pics I’d seen when I studied Economics. Yikes.
Yup. The dreaded March 19 algorithm shift. Ugh. I’ve been going downhill ever since. Steadily. It showed me just how much I was relying on the little things Amazon did to put my books in front of readers’ faces, even when I had no idea they were.
All but one: Throwing Clay Shadows:
That one, though a small enough line it barely showed against all the other lines, did at least rise after March 19. I’m ever so grateful. Can you see my smile? 8 sales a month is a lovely thing. Would that it were 20. Sigh. Would that it were.
I digress.
Two factors could be influencing this rise. The first, I think, is that I put a sample of TCS at the end of Pray for Reign. Anyone who reads Pray and actually enjoys it, might click over to TCS. That’s the hope anyway. The second is that I altered the cover to something more genre specific and changed the category on Amazon to something that would put me in a rank a little quicker–even if it’s not quite the right category.
I fear that as I lose more and more visibility, I’ll drop down to a paltry amount of sales and eventually to zero. I’m not sure where to go from here, really. Word of mouth must become my friend, I guess.
Strangely, while I am having lower sales numbers, I am earning a bit more…even if it’s just a bit enough to buy a nice coconut cream pie at the Farmers Market on Saturday.
I still have to decide how I think about that one.
Maybe I’ll make another graph.
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Don’t forget the Haystack giveaway. You can win a $50 Amazon Card.
If you liked this post, please do share.
Thea is the author of several novels that she considers left of mainstream. You can find her on Smashwords, BN, Kobo, Sony, Apple
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One Insular Tahiti
I just finished reading “One Insular Tahiti” by Thea Atkinson, and would like to say a few words about it. I don’t think I can really do this work justice, but was impressed enough to give it a go.
This is not a beach read. This is not a fun read. This is the real deal.
From the beginning, the author pulls you into the story with imagery that flows from surreal serenity to a hard slap up side the head.
Shoutout of thanks to TW Dittmer for this lovely review of an old favorite. I can't say how humbled I am by this review, and how incredibly grateful. Most people I know have a hard time with a nonlinear story and it was pleasant to hear someone could follow the plot. Personally, I love nonlinear tales: I think "Butterfly Effect" and I'm agog at the genius behind it. I feel smart when I can piece it together. One Insular Tahiti is nowhere near the genius of "The Jacket" or "Butterfly Effect" but I'm pretty stoked that someone enjoyed it.
BTW: If you haven't entered the giveaway, please check it out. There might be $50 in it for ya!
http://theaatkinson.blogspot.ca/2012/...
May 26, 2012
What do you know about lobster fishing?
Price Wars and Greed
by Thea Atkinson
It’s very nearly the end of lobster season here in Nova Scotia and I wanted to post about before it ended because some very interesting things happened this season. The biggest? The fishermen in District 34 went on strike–something only accomplished once before in its history that I know of. Most of you know I’m a lobster fisherman’s wife. I met my husband when he and his family lived in a shanty during the fishing season on a remote Tusket island back in the 80s. Back then, he stayed on the island from Sunday to Friday for the months of December and January, and then again from March to May. Often, the weather was too fierce during January and February to sail to the island or to stay there and be at the mercy of insulation made of eelgrass or an outhouse at the head of a wharf.
Recently, there has been much discussion and angst over the price of lobster in our area: the fishermen (who hold our local regional economy together and supply much of the world’s lobster) are vying for a higher price; buyers are sticking to their guns and giving some of the lowest prices per pound in years.
Let me break it down for you:
It costs the average fisherman $3 a pound to fish his grounds, and due to increasing fuel costs, that number is growing. Btw: that figure doesn’t include salaries.
The buyers are offering an average of $3.25 a pound.
At the height of the season: those first 2 weeks when the market has its highest demand, and when in the past, lobster went for an average of $5.50 per pound, our economy was able to keep our area going. Buyers made money. Fishermen made money. Fish plant workers made money. The local stores made money. Restaurants made money. Car lots made money.
Get the point?
So you say, “So? They’re making .25 per pound. That must surely be nothing to quibble about. It’s about time the lobstermen stopped complaining and stopped being so greedy.”
You’re right; some fishermen are greedy (so are some bankers, some lawyers, some used car salesmen).
The year my husband had to stop fishing after nearly 25 years, he nearly went overboard. The weather was incredibly, consistently, bad. He stabbed himself in the nerve sheath of his wrist when a rogue wave knocked the boat as he was trying to cut loose a snarl in the rope. He tore a healing tendon hauling on a snarled trawl. He wore arm bands on both arms to help manage the tendonitis he suffered from pinching open traps and banding lobsters. X-rays showed he has two compressed discs in his back from the rigor of hauling 100 pound traps all day. He was icing his swollen knees each night from the bob and weave of sealegging. He would rise at 3:15 am and arrive home around 6 pm if everything went well.
Most fishermen, if they are in the stern, work enough to break down 2 men’s bodies in the course of their career. The stern is back-breaking, leg-twisting, life threatening work here in District 34.
About four years ago, our next door neighbour got knocked over on dumping day. He managed to get hauled back into the boat despite his boots filling with frigid water and having a hard time moving to swim. He, like most fishermen these parts, breathed a sigh of relief when he was drug back aboard, and thanked God for the quickness of his crewmates. Then he changed his clothes for dry ones. Then he went on fishing.
Would you be able to go merrily about your workday if you came close enough to the afterlife that you could smell the mothballs on Death’s cloak?
I’m not trying to convince you that it’s a smaller version of “The Deadliest Catch”; I’m trying to tell you what I think of this whole affair, this whole area-wide controversy that fishermen are just greedy men who want a price the buyers and market can’t support.
I’m sick of hearing folks who do not really, really know a fisherman’s life, argue that want of a higher price is driven by greed.
I just want to hear someone say they can respect the work these men do.
I support a price that benefits all in the little tangled web of the lobster price structure. Yes, I said that supports ALL: that includes my little corner of the world where my daughter can have part-time work in a retail store because people in the area actually have some spare money to buy a nice thing now and then. That includes your corner of the world where you can eat out in a restaurant once in a while because a fisherman’s dollar is helping to keep that outlet open. It includes the electrician who can live in his/her heritage village and work because a fisherman is building a new shed, or a car salesman who can feed his family because a fisherman needs a new truck. Where a buyer can employ fishplant workers, drivers, and wharf loaders.
Whatever you think of whatever side of the controversy you’re on, please realize that not all fishermen are greedy. Some are hired hands. Some are part owners. Some are even women with a hardy taste for the sea.
And some just want to feed their families, pay their bills, and send their kids to school.
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Additional notes:
You don’t see much in the way of Youtube video of the real fishing times: those in the height of the season, when it’s the most dangerous. You see the videos from the spring: the end of May because that’s the time they can show what they do without worrying about watching every wave that moves. You don’t see many videos from the depths of winter, myboyoh.
But you do see a few that hint at what it’s like.
Don’t forget the Haystack giveaway. You can win a $50 Amazon Card.
If you liked this post, please do share.
Thea is the author of several novels that she considers left of mainstream. You can find her on BN, Kobo, Sony, Apple
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Filed under: Thea bits
May 17, 2012
Is Your Book Not Selling? Get It Critiqued
by Thea Atkinson
Buy Me from Amazon
Recently, I submitted One Insular Tahiti to Victorine’s Lieske’s blog: Why is this book not selling. I had what I thought was a good product: it originally won me my agent, and we’d gone over it in edits, and submitted it to publishers with some stunning comments. It had to be at least passable, right?
Alas, as you know, it ultimately got passed over by the traditional Big 6, but still, I believed it was a good enough product to offer as an ebook and set about getting it out there. That was a year and a half ago.
Despite some great reviews, the book still languishes. Perhaps the Big 6 do know a winner when they see it, and they were right about One Insular Tahiti being a modest seller.
Truth is, I wish it were a modest seller. I’d love for it to be a slow seller even.
If you read the comments on the book over at the blog, you’ll see a variety of issues. Yup. They are all true. I do have a hard time finding a genre. It’s literary to me, but alas, I hate calling it that for two reasons I’ve discussed in the past: One: Litfic is typeically defined as that which does not sell, and Two: I am loathe to put myself in the same category as say: Margaret Atwood or Alice Munro or Donna Morrissey (all wonderful Canadian litfic authors)
So categorizing the thing has been a beeyatch to say the least. And the blurb is a tough one too. If you read some of the reviews, you might see the same from the readers who loved OIT.
And then there’s the title. Sigh. It’s my original title, and it fits the book perfectly. Seriously. It really does. My agent wanted to change it to Raise the Buried Dead, and maybe I should have gone with it, but after 6000 freeloads I’m afraid of confusing my readers if I change the title. So I’m stuck with what I picked, even though I believe it’s the best…and yet…it’s not the best if no one likes it. grin.
Ah, but the cover. The cover I could change. It has been through 5 revisions, this cover, and this (which I hope is the last) is the 6th. I hope I finally got it right and that folks will like it enough to click.
I’m still working on a great blurb. I would love comments. The insides are as good as I can make it–now to get folks to actually get to the inside. There’s the rub.
No one seems to make it to the inside. So this one’s gonna have to be in the 100 mile marathon it seems. No sprinting to the finish for this gal.
SO:
Onto the fun stuff.
I’ve been doing well in the Haystack Giveaway! Thanks to everyone who has entered. There’s just 30 days left, and I have to say, I’m pleased to see a review and two purchases of Water Witch. Mind you, there are a few people who bought a Thea read and have not come forth to enter. Please. Please. If you buy me, review me, tweet me, enter. I want to give you 50 bucks.
Click Here: (Please note: you can also enter on Facebook on Thea’s Writing Page)
A quick peep at the ways to enter:
Blog or reblog about the contest. That means you can simply click reblog on the wordpress bar at the top of my post, or you can write your own post about the contest, or just leave a review of one of my books as a post. I’m OK with any of it. I’ve even found a way for you to post the contest rafflecopter widget right on your blog. (If you’re wordpress free, then alas, you can’t I don’t think) Just go to: the Rafflecopter site and copy/paste the appropriate widget code.
You can buy a Thea book from just about anywhere. I just need some kind of assurance though. (like a forwarded email receipt…just be sure to delete any of your sensitive information)
You can leave me a new review of any Thea book you’ve read! I especially like this entry type. So I’ve given you a chance to leave 2 reviews. Grin. (If you complete this option, consider adding it to your blog as another entry)
You can Tweet about the giveaway
You can share the giveaway on FB or Pinterest or Stumble
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If you liked this post, please do share.
Thea is the author of several novels that she considers left of mainstream. You can find her on BN, Kobo, Sony, Apple
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Filed under: Thea bits
