Larry Darter's Blog, page 4

Size Does Matter

A Look at Novel Word Counts

Size does matter. But, put away the rulers class. That's not the kind of size we're discussing today. No, what I want to look at today is the size of the modern American detective novels. When I say size here, I'm talking word count, not the physical dimensions of a printed book.

Generally, to qualify as a novel, a book must meet the 50,000-word minimum word count threshold. Less than that and most literary people would consider the book a novella rather than a novel.

During The Golden Age of detective fiction (1920s-40s), detective novels typically had word counts of 60–69,000 words. Today detective novels weigh in at between 90–100,000 words. Why? Have detective novel readers over the years lobbied for longer novels? No, the increase in word counts is simple economics from the perspective of the large traditional printing houses.

Publishers want novels 90–100,000 words because that produces a book between 272 and 320 pages in length. Why is that the page count range publishers look for?  Because publishers believe that is a sufficient length for a book to be considered by the reading public as a full-sized novel hence it is quite acceptable for the publisher to charge the full normal price.

Publishers don't want less than 90,000 words because a shorter work might not sell well at the full normal price publishers wish to charge. Publishers don't want authors to exceed 100,000 words because the costs of publishing start to rise quickly once a book goes much beyond 100,000 words. Feeling they can't simply increase the price of novels over 100,000 words, publishers expect to lose money publishing them. Most literary agents won't even consider a novel longer than 100,000 words for that reason. Such a novel would be a hard sell to potential publishers.

What about indie authors who self-publish? Must indies conform to the word counts dictated by the large traditional publishing houses to compete in the marketplace? I say no. Not only are indie authors under no obligation to follow traditional publishing word count guidelines, I think there are compelling reasons why we shouldn't. Again it all comes down to economics.

Today most readers demand the same quality standards from independently published books as they expect from traditionally published books. This applies to professional book covers, formatting, spelling, and correct grammar. I have seen readers post reviews on Amazon where they completely destroyed self-published books and left one or two-star reviews because of something as minor as misplaced commas in the text. But, the inconvenient truth for self-published and small press authors is while most readers demand the same quality standards from indie authors, they refuse to pay traditionally published book prices for self-published books even when those novels meet the standards the readers demand.

Except for a mere handful of extremely popular self-published authors, the sweet spot for independently published eBook cover prices is in the $2.99 - $4.99 range. Few readers will pay more for a self-published book, mostly because Amazon has expended a lot of effort to condition them not to. Traditionally published eBooks on the other hand typically sell for $9.99 - $14.99. Here is the problem with that.

To meet the same standards as a traditionally published author, an indie author today must pay a professional cover designer, an editor, and in some cases one or more proofreaders. That's on top of the advertising expenses indie authors have always had to pay to gain a measure of visibility for their books. Thankfully, there are tools available to handle the formatting so most indies can at least save some money there. Gone forever are the days when most anyone could write a book, upload a self-edited Word document to Smashwords, throw an amateurish cover together, and start making money. Given self-published authors lack the pricing power of traditional publishers it takes much longer for them to recoup the upfront costs associated with writing and publishing a novel and start showing a profit than it does the big publishing houses. So what's an indie author to do? Cutting the word count is the best place to start.

Most every cost associated with publishing a book is driven by word count; editing, proofreading, printing, binding, etc. So when an indie author slashes words counts from the traditionally published standard of 90–100,000 words to the 60– 69,000 word count range that was perfectly acceptable during The Golden Age of Detective Novels, that cuts upfront costs dramatically.

The first three novels in the Malone series are all in the 90–100,000 word range. As a result, I can't compete with the cover prices of traditionally published print books in my genre. Even if I'm willing to accept something as low as 30-40 cents in royalties on a print book, with the discounts demanded by bookstores, I have to price print books higher than the cover prices of many traditionally published novels written by authors who are household names in my genre. As you might imagine, that doesn't work very well. But, by reducing the word counts to the 60–69,000 range, I can compete.

When I decided to write the T. J. O'Sullivan series, I made a conscious decision to keep those books as close as possible to 50,000 words. I didn't just arbitrarily pull that number out of the air. There is a lot of research that shows most young adults prefer books of that length. With all the other entertainment options available to Millennials, they want books that can be easily read start to finish in a single day or over a weekend. In addition to his other novels, James Patterson publishes a family of novels called BookShots specifically aimed at that market. All Bookshots novels are 50,000 words or less, and 150 pages or less. You might say I stole borrowed that idea from J.P. for the T. J. O'Sullivan series. Limiting the word count to 50,000 words allows me significant savings on editing, proofreading, and printing costs.

Starting with Foregone Conclusion, the fourth book in the Malone Novels series, going forward I will aim at a 60–65,000 word count. This allows me to do more than save on upfront publishing costs. It also allows me to write shorter, crisper chapters which will I believe significantly increase the tempo of the stories and make them more entertaining for readers. Also, it allows me to reduce a lot of the detailed descriptions that I've learned some readers simply don't want.

I had a reader crucify one of my books in a review because I wrote a short paragraph in a scene telling two of the characters stopped at a restaurant and had a burger for lunch together. He didn't like that even though the rest of the scene was almost all dialogue that explained to the reader how the characters were solving the case they working on. The reviewer branded the lunch paragraph as "filler" and used that one paragraph to claim the book was "bloated with filler." Without being too mean about it, the guy was probably one of those trolls who take perverse pleasure in posting hideous book reviews because he can, and maybe because he has found life far more disappointing that he had hoped. But, I tried to find something positive in his review.

What I think I learned was some readers don't want authors to show characters doing everyday, ordinary things like eating a hamburger together for lunch. They only want an uninterrupted stream of one fight scene, car chase, and shootout after another. Of course, no one writes books like that. Jason Bourne movies aren't even like that. If novels were like that they would simply be parodies with no basis in reality. No serious reader would enjoy them. But, by reducing word counts, I can easily cut back on things like characters sharing meals, excusing themselves to go to the restroom, and any number of other normal things all us real people do every day that can help make a character appear a little more like a real person than a cardboard cutout action figure.

There you have my take on why size does matter when it comes to novel word counts. It will take a little while to see how reducing word counts affects book sales. But, I suspect the average detective novel reader won't really care much that my novels are below the 90–100,000 word threshold as long as I give them an entertaining story to read.

The release of Foregone Conclusion, the fourth Malone novel is only a week away. The regular cover price will be $3.99. But, I'm offering a $2.00 savings to Malone fans who pre-order the book in advance of the release on September 11. The offer ends at 11:59 p.m. on September 11. The regular cover price will become effective September 12. If you've thought about pre-ordering, don't delay. I wouldn't want anyone to miss this savings opportunity. Foregone Conclusion is available at the special pre-order price on Kobe, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, and Amazon.

PREORDER NOW $1.99 ON AMAZON

Child Prostitution and the Live Long Day Novel

The genesis of the idea for Live Long Day, the fifth novel in the Malone series came from a gritty American crime drama television series The Killing, originally produced by AMC. The series was based on the Danish television series Forbrydelsen (The Crime). Set in Seattle, Washington, The Killing chronicles murder investigations by fictional Seattle homicide detectives Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) and Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman).

While the television series initially focuses on the investigation of the murder of a typical suburban teenager, a peripheral story line is an ongoing investigation of the serialized murders of local underage prostitutes, young girls forced by their individual circumstances to live on the streets. That piqued my curiosity.

During my career as a street cop, child prostitution was something I rarely encountered. While I did encounter prostitutes regularly, they were typically adult women, most of whom it seemed had turned to prostitution to support drug habits. When I watched The Killing, I was curious whether the underage prostitutes depicted in the show was truly realistic or something sensationalized only to create interest in a television series. I started to do some research. What I learned was shocking.

I learned that the child prostitution in cities like Los Angeles, the setting of the Malone Novels, is a real and growing problem. Los Angeles County law enforcement officials and the social services agencies who deal with the problem on a daily basis describe the child prostitution problem in Los Angeles as part of a growing nationwide epidemic. Young girls, some as young as 11-years-old are coerced into a life that will forever leave them emotionally scarred.

Thousands of homeless youth end up participating in prostitution while trying to survive on the streets. While for some child prostitution may entail kids exchanging their bodies for drugs and alcohol, self-preservation is the primary motivation for most. Once on the streets, these children quickly discover that basic necessities like clothing, food, and shelter are far from guaranteed. Without money or the ability to get a job, many are forced to rely on their bodies as the only commodity of exchange they possess that they can use to survive.

Underage prostitutes are exposed not only to emotional damage and the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, but also other types of serious illnesses and diseases. For too many prostitution can cost them their very lives.

In 1979, Dr. Lois Lee, the world’s leading expert in rescuing child sex trafficking victims and president of Children of the Night—founded the privately funded nonprofit organization with the mission to rescue children from child prostitution. It is the only comprehensive program in North America devoted to saving children forced into prostitution.

Dr. Lee found her calling in the darkest of places. She received a tip-off about a young prostitute who was sent to meet a man named Angelo Buono. Buono was one-half of the murderous duo who gained notoriety as the now infamous "Hillside Stranglers." The young prostitute became Hillside Strangler victim number 11.

The lack of a police response when Dr. Lee reported the dire circumstances to them along with the young girl's subsequent rape and murder is what galvanized her to found Children of the Night and to devote her life to rescuing girls from 11-17 from a life of prostitution. Since 1979, Lee's organization has rescued more than 10,000 children from prostitution in the United States. Children of the Night provides children who are sexually exploited and vulnerable to or involved in prostitution and pornography food, shelter referrals, medical services, mental health services, placement in independent living programs, transitional housing, maternity homes, and substance abuse programs.

Understanding child prostitution and sexual victimization starts with understanding why kids become homeless in the first place. Where do child prostitutes and homeless kids, in general, come from? In Los Angeles, the majority of juveniles arrested for prostitution come from the county's foster care system. Many others are runaways, often children escaping physical and sexual abuse and exploitation at home only to find themselves in a homeless adolescent culture where sex is the means of survival, and just a different form of exploitation. The National Runaway Safeline reports that 80 percent of female runaways were physically or sexually abused at home before fleeing to the streets.

Why spotlight such a sad and distasteful subject like child prostitution in a crime novel? I aim to raise awareness among Americans like I once was who perhaps don't even know that child prostitution is a problem in this country, much less understand the scope of the problem. In a time when our national media organizations are singularly focused on their obsession with a president they loathe, an obsession bordering on mental illness, you won't hear much about something like the child prostitution epidemic on the nightly news. It falls to others to expose it for the serious issue it is.

I hope to some degree Live Long Day will raise awareness about this critically important issue. I hope that exposure to child prostitution as depicted in the novel will make readers angry, angry enough to do something about the problem. Not everyone is able to get personally involved at a grassroots level where they live in helping to find a solution to this problem. But everyone can still help by doing something as easy as providing financial support to organizations like Children of the Night and Covenant House California (CHC). Covenant House is another nonprofit youth homeless shelter that provides sanctuary and support for homeless and trafficked youth. They provide shelter, food, clothing, as well as a continuum of other services aimed at meeting the physical, emotional, educational, vocational, and spiritual well-being needs of young people.

In writing Live Long Day, my intent is not to foster a sense of hopelessness–I want us to get angry about a problem that strips hope from our most vulnerable citizens. Children are the future of our nation. If we ignore the unpleasant realities of child prostitution, we do so at our own peril. Isn't it time to turn off the propaganda focused exclusively on partisan political views and conspiracy theories that pass for news in this country, and turn our attention to a real issue that we can all help do something about?

When released this coming winter, a portion of all royalties received from Live Long Day will be donated to Children of the Night.

DONATE TO CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT.ORG

The Malone Report Summer 2018

A Belated Update

As a reader recently reminded me, it's been a while since I published an update. So, here it is, a mix of personal notes and news about upcoming releases. I'll start with the personal notes.

My father passed away a few weeks ago which has been a difficult time for my family and me. Dad was in his eighties, but in reasonably good health so his unexpected and sudden passing was a shock. He and my mom had gone to do their usual Saturday shopping. I'd been on my front porch drinking coffee when they left. I'd seen my dad get out of the car at the corner to check the mail before they drove away. It still feels weird thinking about that, not knowing then it would be the last time I saw him. I'm so thankful that I visited with him the day before and we had a nice conversation. Just a little more than an hour later, my mom phoned and asked me to come to the emergency room. By the time I arrived a few minutes later, dad was gone.

Death is a funny business. We all accept that it is a certainty for all of us, yet it isn't something we like to think about, much less talk about. Personally, when I've contemplated my own future demise, the thought of death doesn't frighten me. Part of it I suppose is that I am a deeply spiritual person. But, I don't mind admitting that the thought of a long lingering death in some hospital or extended care facility, perhaps being really ill or in a lot of pain scares the hell out of me. For that reason, I could find a lot of comfort in how fast things went for my dad. Also, dad had a full and long life. He had a large family and many friends who loved him. Still his passing will leave a void that those of us who remain behind will only be able to learn to cope with, but never fill.

My dad was a good man, one of the best I've ever known. He worked hard all his life to support his family. We were never rich, but we lacked none of the necessities. Dad always kept a roof over our heads, and we never went to bed hungry. I remember when he used to work an extra job, sometimes two when it came time to buy clothes and supplies at the beginning of each new school year. Most of all you always knew where you stood with dad. He was that kind of man. So, another thing his family can remember and feel grateful for is that we always knew how much he loved us.

Now, let me update you on the upcoming new releases.

 

Time Flies
Malone Private Investigator Series Book 4








Coming September 11, 2018

In 2003, a three-man crew robbed a Los Angeles diamond exchange making off with millions of dollars worth of loose diamonds. Two members of the crew were killed in a shootout with police a few days after the robbery, and most of the diamonds were recovered. The third member of the gang, Kyle Murray, was arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. But, part of the loot from the infamous heist was never recovered.

Authorities always believed Murray knew where the missing diamonds were, but for fifteen long years, he denied it. Just days after Murray completed his 15-year sentence, he disappears. Not so coincidentally, one of the missing diamonds surfaces.

The insurances company that absorbed the loss from the robbery hires Los Angeles private eye Malone to find Murray and to recover the rest of the diamonds. Malone is good at finding things;. Whether it be a missing person, a runaway child, or a deadbeat ex-spouse. But between the long years that have passed since the robbery occurred, and having no clue where Murray has absconded to, even for Malone finding the ex-con and the stolen diamonds is far from a foregone conclusion. Fortunately for him, he’s got a friend who can help in the form of his former partner and associate T. J. O'Sullivan. While O'Sullivan has her own busy investigative agency in Honolulu, she agrees to put her own cases on hold to lend Malone a hand.

As Malone and T. J. start tracking Murray, the chase leads them from Los Angeles clear across the world to New Zealand. While they work the precious few leads they have in the attempt to find Murray and the diamonds, a new complication develops. Malone and T. J. aren't the only ones looking for Murray and the valuable gemstones. An evil duo, who quickly reveal they will stop at nothing, including murder to get their hands on the stolen jewels join the mix.

Foregone Conclusion is the fourth novel in the thrilling Malone Private Investigator series. If you like breathtaking action, laugh-out-loud humor, and a hint of romance, then you’ll love this edge-of-your-seat detective thriller.

Save $2.00 off the $3.99 cover price when you preorder Foregone Conclusion before September 11, 2018.





PREORDER FROM AMAZON



Come What May Hits #1 in Crime Fiction on Amazon Free Books List

It was a nice surprise when a friend contacted me today to let me know that Come What May, the first book in the Malone Private Investigator series had hit the top spot in Crime Fiction on the Amazon Free Books Best Sellers List.  When I had a look, the book was #82 overall on the Free Kindle Books list.  I'm so appreciative of all those who have downloaded and read the book. Thanks so much. Free book list or not, I'm stoked to have a #1 book in the series, just three weeks before the release of the fourth book in the series.

At present, I'm waiting to get the Honolulu Blues manuscript back from my editor. It shouldn't be much longer before the book will be ready for uploading to the publisher. Once that is done, I'll be finished with the Fall 2018 releases and ready to relax a few weeks before starting on the next book. Take care everyone and thanks so much for reading.

A Review of the Online Book Club Book Promotion Services

My review of Online Book Club Promotion Services

Somehow I managed to get on the Online Book Club (https://onlinebookclub.org) email list about a year ago. Afterward, my inbox was inundated with weekly promotional emails, sometimes more than once a week. The initial emails always promoted an offer to review one of my books for a nominal price, explaining how the review could help boost my sales once I'd posted the review in the "Editorial Reviews" section on the Amazon book page.

I wouldn't necessarily label the promotional emails as spam since rarely were two emails exactly alike. It seemed someone was spending a good bit of time crafting the emails so that they didn't appear as just repetitious spam. If anything, I couldn't help but be a little impressed with the sheer energy exhibited by Scott Hughes and his team in their promotional efforts.

Still, I never considered purchasing a review from Online Book Club. The claims made in the promotional emails were obviously so exaggerated that I was confident there was no way the promises could be delivered on.

Months went by. I had recently published Mare's Nest, the first book in my new T. J. O'Sullivan Thriller series. Once the launch was over, and the usual summer slump in book sales had rolled around, sales of Mare's Nest dropped off, especially on Amazon. About that time I received another email from Scott Hughes at Online Book Club.

I happened to have an extra hundred bucks at the time and decided to give Online Book Club a try. I was still just as certain that Scott Hughes was over-promising and would predictably under-deliver, but I figured I'd try it anyway. If it turned out I had been right all along, I could afford to lose the cost of the review, and I could use the experience to post a review here of the services for the benefit of other self-published authors.

The truth about most online book promoters and book review services

You don't have to be involved in self-publishing very long until you discover that the vast majority of paid book promotion and book review services are worthless. They take your money, and then you see either absolutely no results or at best, results that aren't anywhere close in value to what you paid for the services.

These services are in my opinion, quite comparable to all the online diet plans and services that proliferate on the web aimed at people who want to lose weight. Many people who want to lose weight are so desperate for that silver bullet that will actually help them lose weight, they readily part with their money for things they really should have known at the outset couldn't ever have been realistically expected to work. But, desperate people too often ignore reality.

Just like those who are desperate to lose weight, there are now easily hundreds of thousands of aspiring authors desperate to self-publish a successful book. They too are seeking a silver bullet, not one that will help them lose weight, but instead, one that will help them sell books. In response to the ever-rising demand, lots of "entrepreneurs" have thrown up book promotion and "editorial review" sites aimed at cashing in on this latest market group of desperate consumers, self-published authors.

Not all book promotion and book review sites are fraudulent

I certainly don't suggest that all book promotion and book review sites are fraudulent. But, I have come across many of them I believe should be prosecuted for criminal fraud. A good many of them make claims that no reasonable person would believe they could ever come close to delivering on. But, there are a handful of such sites that do return at least some value in exchange for the services they sell to self-publishers.

There is BookBub, and then there is everyone else

BookBub is the gold standard when it comes to book promotion services. Most authors and publishers who purchase a promotion from BookBub do receive fair value for the cost they pay for the services. Unfortunately, because BookBub delivers the site can be and is very choosy when it comes to books they are willing to promote. And BookBub isn't cheap. BookBub promotional services are based on the price and the category of the book. The lowest price an author or publisher can expect to pay is when a book is offered for free. The cost of a BookBub promotion ranges from $30 (for a free eBook in the smallest category) to $1,925 (for a mystery priced at $2.00 or more).

Also, books accepted by BookBub must be free or discounted by at least 50%. Books must be error-free, well-formatted and free of any typos and grammatical errors. Book covers must appear as professional, which generally means a do-it-yourself or possibly even a Fiverr purchased cover will not pass muster with BookBub. While BookBub doesn't publish a "minimum review" requirement as many book promoters do, I know of several authors who have been told that their books were not accepted by the site because there were too few reviews. In some cases, those rejected books had ten or more reviews on Amazon. It is safe to say that at least unofficially, BookBub does have some number of positive reviews required.

Clearly, it is in the interest of BookBub to keep their services in the elite category. If they were to lower the bar for how they select books, BookBub would soon plummet into the "also-rans" category along with most of the other book promotion services that don't provide authors and publishers much if any value. The cost and the requirements eliminate the vast majority of self-published authors from participation at BookBub. So, most self-published authors must content themselves with using one or more of the less effective book promotion services.

Importance of reviews

Given how critical book reviews have become, and how difficult it is to get organic reviews, it is not surprising that services like Online Book Club have come along. Reviews literally make or break a book these days. Books that get many reviews, which I'd define as something like 50 or more, typically climb the rankings and sell well. Books that get few reviews, certainly less than 30, languish in the rankings and sell poorly.

Having received only three organic reviews on Amazon (the gold standard for reviews) for Mare's Nest, I admit I'm quite desperate to get more reviews. While I'd much prefer organic Amazon reviews from verified purchasers, that is something that most other authors and I have little if any control over. I could see how even a positive "editorial review" might spark more interest in my book. So, in spite of all my misgivings, I purchased a "Level 1" review (the cheapest) from Online Book Club for $97.00. The email from Scott Hughes I received also promised to buy a copy of my book for the Online Book Club reviewer, so that should have reduced my out of pocket cost to $94.00.

When I entered my details on the Online Book Club review request, there was a notice that stated on the average, it took 4 months for a Level 1 review request to be completed. I was urged to "buy up" by paying another fee if I needed the review sooner. There wasn't any real rush, so I declined the offer to pay more to get the review sooner.

I also had to send an inter-site message to the Scott Hughes team to let them know the offer I received from them included them buying a copy of my book.

My experiences with Online Book Club

To be frank, I have not been impressed at all with the services from Online Book Club. I can honestly say, that beyond providing me a book review, which I honestly consider of dubious value at best, none of the grandiose promises made by the hundreds of emails I've received from them, were delivered on.

First, despite the promise to buy an electronic book copy of Mare's Nest, Online Book Club did not buy one. Instead, the reviewer was provided the ePub copy I was required to upload to the site to complete the review request. How can I be certain of that? Because sadly, no copies of Mare's Nest had been purchased for several days before I purchased the review, and even sadder, not one single copy of the eBook has been purchased since my review was published. One might justifiably believe that Online Book Club makes the promise to purchase a copy of the book to be reviewed, but never intends to do so. They might expect there are bound to be unrelated sales during the process, so the author would never know they hadn't purchased a copy as promised. Unfortunately, in my case that wasn't true, so I have no doubts whatsoever that Online Book Club earned their first strike by failing to keep the very first promise they made.

A single lost sale might not seem a big deal in the greater scheme of things, beyond the fact that the unwillingness to follow through on a $3.00 promise immediately threw the integrity and honesty of Online Book Club into immediate question. But here is the thing. The ePub I uploaded was an ARC, not the edited version of Mare's Nest that appears for sale on Amazon and other book retail sites. That may have played a role in the review I subsequently received.

My Online Book Club book review

Overall, I have to say I was quite pleased with the review I received from the Online Book Club reviewer. She was very complimentary of the story and seemed to have really enjoyed reading it. It seemed clear that she had actually read the entire book. She gave the book a rating of 3 out of 4 stars, which is quite comparable to a 4 out of 5-star rating on Amazon. But in the final paragraphs of the review, the reviewer decided it was necessary to include comments about English grammar usage. I don't feel she was mean-spirited about it, but whether by intent or not, reading the final paragraphs would definitely leave many readers believing that Mare's Nest is riddled with mistakes and grammatical errors when that just isn't the case.

First, the reviewer received an ARC. So, I won't categorically deny that the copy she read didn't have errors. I'm sure it had some, although I expect they were few and minor. Any errors she found certainly didn't deserve the focus given them in the review. The other thing is this. The review was not written by a native English speaker. Mare's Nest is a book that contains a great many New Zealand slang words and colloquialisms which I'm quite sure the reviewer had absolutely no familiarity with based on where I learned she was from. Also, the fact that the review had several rather egregious grammar errors itself, I'm not very convinced that this reviewer was actually qualified to pass judgment on correct English grammar usage in the first place. Essentially, I was happy to read the nice things she said about the book at the beginning, but the ill-advised grammar critique at the end pretty much rendered the review completely worthless. And lest I forget. It took only about 10 days to receive the completed review, not four months. It seems the demand for reviews is not quite as high as advertised.

I could have the review removed from Online Book Club, which is the only place it is published. But I won't for three reasons. Few people are ever going to see the review there anyway. I have to admit I really don't give much credence to the site's claims that there are 450,000 reader members chomping at the bit to find good books to read listed on Online Book Club. I feel rather certain most of the site members are people who joined to get paid for writing book reviews, and authors who signed up to pay for them. Lastly, I'd have to pay an additional fee to have the review taken down. It seems that once you pay for a review at Online Book Club, that is merely the tip of a proverbial iceberg. Anything and everything else costs more and more money, and the other services offered are ridiculously expensive.

Here are a few examples of what I mean by "ridiculously expensive."

"Book of the Month" package (Includes a three-month social campaign) for $9,600.00.
Three-month social campaign for $2,800.00.
Two-week social campaign for $598.00.
"Book of the Day" promotion for $698.00 for books priced at $2.99 or less.
1,000 additional reviews package for $4,000.00.

Even a post I read by an author who evidently still uses Online Book Club and whose comments were generally very favorable, said this...

"If it wasn't for how hard the team running the site work to promote books, I would say 100% steer clear. However, I will still offer a warning that they are crazy expensive and your results will NOT come close to paying back the cost."

I just wish I'd seen that assessment before I'd foolishly parted with my $97.00.

In conclusion, I've seen absolutely no benefits from the $97.00 contribution I made to Online Book Club, and I won't be foolish enough to ever consider using the site's services again. To be fair, this is only one person's personal experiences with them, but I don't have any problem recommending that other self-published authors look elsewhere for both book promotion help and book reviews. The $97.00 price tag for a Level 1 review is very tempting in comparison to other professional book review services. But in my opinion, it would be much better to pay a little more for a professional review that might actually help.

I won't label Online Book Club a scam. Just purchasing a single book review from the site is not in my opinion sufficient to justify that. I can honestly say this. The site is difficult to navigate. Online Book Club is far from being a transparent business. And, at least in my case, they didn't keep a single promise beyond providing a review, albeit one I consider almost worthless. Save your money until you find a better and more effective promotional effort to throw it at. Online Book Club gets two thumbs down from me.

The Power of Free in Book Marketing

The post today focuses on the power of free in book marketing. To be frank, I really dislike the concept of permafree (permanently free) eBooks. The popularity of this marketing tactic produces at least three very negative things for authors and publishers.

It conditions readers to believe it is unnecessary to pay for eBooks because there are plenty of great books available that don't cost a cent.
The popularity among self-publishers of making the first book in a series permafree has created a literal glut of free eBooks. Not only is Amazon awash with them, but you can also find heaps of free books on all the other online retailer sites as well as on the sites of the many book promotion sites that have sprung up over the years.
Permafree books, in my opinion, is one of the biggest reasons that most indie fiction authors are unable to price their books above $2.99. The massive numbers of permafree books conditions potential book buyers to believe that all eBooks should be cheap because they have little value.

Of course, I understand the thinking behind permafree books. The idea is that if an author offers the first book in a series free, some of the readers who download and read the free book and really like it will return and purchase the other books in the series. I know that works at least to some extent, but I also know there is a huge number of readers out there who will take the free book, but never pay for another book in the series no matter how much they may have enjoyed reading the free one.

Still, the fact remains, people love free.

A Turkish proverb says - “Vinegar that is free is sweeter than honey.” But how can we explain the power of free?

In studying the response of consumers to free offers, Duke University behavioral scientist Dan Ariely found that free, “only had an upside. It creates an emotional reaction. It makes us value it more.” He goes on to add, “We don’t think of zero as having any downside. It’s a category by itself, and we think about it very differently.”

If you listen to the advice of self-publishing experts today, nearly all say there are two things an indie fiction author should do to have the best chance of publishing a successful book.

Enroll the book in Kindle Select, the Amazon exclusive deal.
Once an author has a second book published, the first book should be made permanently free as a way of attracting more readers and gaining more visibility for the author on Amazon.

More and more self-published authors are taking the advice of the experts. They are enrolling their books in Kindle Select and making their first book in a series permanently free.

I've resisted both. I've always published wide, and I've never made a book permanently free. Until now. I've given up. I'm drinking the permafree Kool-Aid. You've heard the old idiom. "If you can't beat them, join them." So many indie fiction authors are offering a permanently free book these days, in a real sense, they have already made the choice for the rest of us. The permafree crowd is getting visibility for their books in the marketplace, while stubborn authors like me go begging. All of the self-published authors I'm trying to compete with offer a permafree book. I've finally accepted that as long as I stubbornly resist the idea of doing the same, I can't compete with them. My books will just continue to sink into the morass of the now estimated 8 million eBooks on the virtual shelves of Amazon.

Last week, I made Come What May, the first book in the Malone series free on all the retail sites that allow you to do it. That included every retailer except Amazon of course. Amazon does not like free eBooks anymore than I do. They don't make it easy for an author or publisher to offer their book permafree on Amazon. Amazon is all about making money, and giving stuff away doesn't make money.

Several days after I listed Come What May as free on the other book retailer sites, and it showed as free on all of them, I started nudging Amazon to match the free price using the "Would you like to tell us about a lower price?" link found near the bottom of every book page. After 3 days of that, Amazon hadn't budged. So, I emailed KDP Support. I informed them that Come What May was available permanently free at all their competitors. I told them neither they nor I was going to see any further income from the book. Why would someone buy the book on Amazon when they could get it free everywhere else.

Twenty-four hours later, Amazon relented and price-matched the free price of the other online booksellers. Here is what happened when the Amazon price dropped to $0.00 last Friday afternoon. People started downloading Come What May in numbers I haven't seen in a good long time. On Saturday, the number of downloads soared. On Sunday that continued. Thousands of people downloaded the book.

Before this massive uptick in downloads, Come What May was ranked in the #300,000 range on the paid Kindle store list. It ranked between the #5000s and #10,000s in the three categories the book is in. Starting Friday evening, Come What May started rocketing up the free Kindle store rankings. By Saturday evening the book was at #261 on the Kindle store free book list. It was at #8 in two of its categories, and #10 in the third. It got as high as #6 in crime fiction on Sunday, before the upward momentum started to level off. I was literally gobsmacked. With all the permafree books on Amazon now, I never for a moment expected any of that to happen.

Realistically, getting high rankings in the Kindle store free books list is nothing to get terribly excited about. After all, you don't make a penny in royalties when giving away free books. But, what was exciting was getting the benefit of the massive increase in visibility not only for Come What May but the other books in the series.

To be sure, it was only a tiny fraction of the number of free Come What May downloads, but I did get sales from the other two books in the series, as well as a few sales from some of my backlist titles. That was exciting indeed. The summer months are traditionally the worst months of the year for book sales. So far, this summer has been hands down the worst summer ever for book sales for me. But, in only one weekend, my book sales for the month is now approaching what I have historically seen during the winter and fall months, traditionally the best months for me for book sales.

Obviously, I have been wrong about the power of free in book marketing. Evidently, it really is a case of a rising tide lifts all boats. Making Come What May permafree has already resulted in more book sales than my most successful AMS ads. So, if you are a fiction author with multiple books, especially if you write series, the experts are right. If you don't offer a permafree book, and your book rankings on Amazon aren't as high as you wish they were, you probably should think about offering a permafree book.

It remains to be seen whether my decision to make Come What May free will translate into gaining new followers or getting more book reviews. But, I'm already reaping the benefits of more visibility on Amazon, visibility I've not been able to achieve with any other marketing tactic I've tried. So, unless Come What May falls precipitously in the rankings, I expect to leave it permanently free.

Seeking the Best Caribbean Cruise

I'm taking a day off from writing today to spend some time in my search for the best Caribbean cruise. That seemed a good excuse to write a post about something besides writing, book marketing, and the like.

The Caribbean is the destination I've decided on for my next vacation, mostly because I've never been. I'm a good bit more interested in visiting the islands like Jamaica, Antigua, Saint Thomas, The Bahamas, and St. Martin for example, than the Mexican part of the Caribbean. I'm not sure why other than the islands are more what I associate with the tall sailing ships and swashbuckling pirates of the past.

All-Inclusive Caribbean Vacations vs. Caribbean Cruise

At first, I was leaning towards looking for all-inclusive Caribbean vacations at a single destination and perused the websites that feature that kind of Caribbean vacation deals. But then it occurred to me if I really wanted an amazing Caribbean vacation, why not see several of the best Caribbean vacations spots? So, my search has turned from resorts and all-inclusive Caribbean vacations to looking for the best Caribbean cruise.

I like cruises actually, having been on a few including a Mediterranean cruise that was awesome. What I liked about that particular cruise was the opportunity to visit several countries I'd not been to previously, rather than just one. It seems then a similar approach to my first visit to the Caribbean could have similar results.

For those who have never looked into it, Caribbean cruise destinations are organized by region; the east Caribbean, west Caribbean, and the southern Caribbean. West Caribbean cruise destinations are mostly limited to the coast of Mexico, although some of them do include Belize. The east and south Caribbean cruise destinations are the ones that focus on the islands. So far, I've already narrowed my search to east Caribbean cruises.

Caribbean cruise prices, as an all-inclusive vacation, seem quite reasonable to me. In comparison to land-based resort all-inclusive Caribbean vacations, taking a cruise seems a better value in the sense of best Caribbean vacation deals. I'm looking seriously at a 9-day cruise that sails out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida that ticks many of the destinations I'm most interested in seeing.

There are cruise offerings from two different cruise operators I like, and the prices are quite close. I've sailed with one of them before, but the other is one of the highest regarded cruise operators in the world so I'd have no reservations about booking with them.

The Ex-Pat Angle

This is a bit off the beaten path as far as the topic of this piece, but in a way, it ties in. For quite a long while I've been enamored with the idea of moving to another country and embracing the ex-pat life. It is something that I'm certain I will do at some point.

I seriously considered New Zealand for a while as an ex-pat destination. But, since I'm not in my twenties or early thirties with a skill that's in high demand, or independently wealthy, opportunities for me to immigrate to a developed country like New Zealand are quite slim. Opportunities for anyone wishing to relocate to a place like New Zealand is always a good bit more about "what can you do for us", rather than "what can we do for you." And to be honest, living in New Zealand is quite a lot more expensive than living in even some of the higher living costs areas of the United States. Given those realities for aspiring ex-pats like me, the better opportunities are to be found in developing countries like those in South and Central America and perhaps in some of the island nations in the Caribbean.

The point is, my interest in a Caribbean vacation is just as much a fact-finding tour as an opportunity for an interesting and relaxing vacation. That is the other thing that motivates me to want to see more than just a single destination. I can easily imagine relocating to a Caribbean island. Since my first stint in the military years ago when I served onboard ships as a member of the U.S. Navy, I've loved the sea. I'm more of a beach person than a mountain person, and I prefer warmer climes. The idea of relocating to a Caribbean island to write seems quite romantic in the fashion of Hemingway's twenty some odd years as a resident of Cuba.

How about you dear reader? Have you had a vacation or two to the Caribbean? If so, I'd really appreciate it if you would leave a comment and share any favorite destinations or tips. I'll be sure to share some photos and reviews of the trip when I return.

 

New Amazon Book Quality Checks: A Reality Check for Amazon Kindle Self-Publishers

Today I learned from a self-publishing insider that a reality check for Amazon Kindle self-publishers is on the horizon. Amazon will soon introduce new smart technology that will subject all Kindle books to quality testing. Read on to learn what that will mean. For what should be obvious reasons, I'm not going to name the source beyond telling you the source is a well-known electronic book aggregator that distributes to Amazon as well as other booksellers. Recently Amazon notified its aggregator vendors that big changes are coming soon.

This should not be a surprise to any indie author who has self-published on the KDP platform recently. You may recall that in the not too distant past, Amazon added a misspelled words identification facility to KDP. Frankly, the spell check on KDP is far from ideal. The reason is that, especially when it comes to fairly new words in the English language, there are often multiple acceptable spellings. For example, a term might be properly spelled using two words, it might be acceptable to spell the term as a hyphenated word, and it might be equally correct to spell a term as one word, without hyphenation. I'm sure you know of many words like that, so I'm not going to bore you with a spelling list here.

Here is the problem with the Amazon spell check facility. It uses only a single dictionary that Amazon has chosen to use.

For terms like I mentioned above, if the Amazon dictionary says the correct spelling requires the use of two separate words and you used the equally correct and accepted hyphenated form or the accepted one-word version, KDP will flag it as misspelled. Also, if like me you sometimes use words from another language like French or Spanish in your otherwise English language book, especially slang words, KDP will flag the words as misspelled.

At the moment, you can simply tick a box that tells KDP to ignore misspelled words if you don't agree with the KDP spell check. That's what I've been doing because I have yet to actually see a word KDP has flagged as misspelled, that actually was. I've only seen words that KDP considers misspelled because it isn't the spelling from the dictionary KDP uses or a word from another language that I had reason to use in an otherwise English language book. I'm not about to go back and edit an entire manuscript just for KDP when word spellings I've used are not actually misspelled at all. All good then, right? Just tick the ignore misspelled words box and carry on. No harm, no foul.  Well, not so fast. Here is what is coming to a publishing platform near you.

Amazon I have learned will soon be implementing smart technology to evaluate the quality of Kindle books published on Amazon. No, not just new books, all Kindle books. All books on Amazon will soon be subjected to "quality testing." This smart technology testing will check for typos, cover art "issues," broken web links within the books, missing content, and the existence of negative customer feedback submitted to Amazon customer support. Books that fail this new Amazon smart technology quality testing will be removed from Amazon.

What isn't clear at the moment is exactly how the process will work. Will Amazon just suppress titles that fail the quality tests and then give authors/publishers a fair opportunity to correct the issues or dispute the findings? Or, will Amazon simply summarily delete those books and leave it up to authors/publishers to attempt to publish a new version that complies with the Amazon publishing gatekeeper standards?

The truth is, this smart technology quality checking may be something that Amazon should have been doing a long time ago, but I expect there is going to be a lot of bad to go along with any good that comes from this.

First, consider the KDP spell check situation I've already covered. It may soon not be an option to just tick an ignore misspellings box on KDP. Those terms that aren't spelled the way the Amazon dictionary says they should be, in spite of the fact the terms may have been spelled in a perfectly correct and widely accepted way, is going to be a ding against a book when it comes to these new quality checks.

One must also be concerned that this new smart technology quality check software may not function any better than the KDP spell checking facility. It could very easily flag things that shouldn't be flagged for any number of reasons. And what about "cover issues?" Does that mean if Amazon doesn't think a cover looks professional enough, the book will get suppressed until a new cover is submitted, or maybe even summarily deleted? Let's face it, every time Amazon has come up with some new whiz-bang technological "improvement" it has always been a bit buggy and less than optimal for a good long while before it ever starts functioning the way it was intended to.

Until now, Amazon has pretty much relied on negative customer feedback when making decisions about book quality issues. I've personally known a few indie authors who have been required to make corrections and republish books on KDP when, in the opinion of Amazon, there were too many customer complaints.

Here is, in my opinion, the worst thing about this new smart technology to evaluate the quality of the books on Amazon. For years Amazon has been hailed and given credit for single-handedly destroying the gatekeepers of publishing and authorship, ushering in the indie author movement. All well and good. It's no secret the big traditional publishing houses have from almost the beginning of time operated book publishing as a sort of absurd lottery system. Amazon rightly gets a great deal of credit for leveling the playing field. Yet now, Amazon is about to lay claim to a gatekeeper's crown of its own. Now  Amazon is going to begin making decisions about who can write and publish a book, at least on their platform. That's just another nail in the coffin of self-publishing.

Like it or not, having a book on Amazon has become the gold standard of credibility for indie authors. If your book is on Amazon then you are a authentic author. When a friend or acquaintance learns I've written and published novels, the very first question they always ask is whether the book is on Amazon. If you can't get your book published on Amazon, good luck in finding any book marketer who will be willing to help you sell your books. All of the marketers that actually can help you sell books all require a minimum number of positive Amazon reviews. Without having your book on Amazon, you won't get those reviews, and no credible book marketing site will even consider listing your book.

Wasn't the self-publishing movement always supposed to be about making it possible for anyone who wanted to do so, regardless of talent or the financial ability to pay for professionally designed book covers and editing, being given a fair chance to write and publish a book? Does anyone actually believe it is going to serve the interests of self-publishers for Amazon to now set itself up as just another gatekeeper, just another obstacle to ordinary people writing and publishing books?

It seems I've written a lot of negative stuff about self-publishing lately. In my opinion that has been the case simply because there has been a lot of negative stuff about self-publishing lately. No question this post sounds quite negative too. So, let me try to end it on a positive note.

As said earlier, some good things can come from this new smart technology and the quality checks. Anyone who has been around self-publishing for any length of time knows that there is a boatload of garbage eBooks on Amazon.

I'm not referring to books that just aren't very well written, or that have a handful of typos, misspelled words, or missing or misplaced commas. I'm talking here about the heaps of 100 or fewer pages "pamphlets" that have been published on KDP over the past several years by people with no intention of publishing a quality book.

These are "books" published by people who paid some charlatan for a course get-rich-quick scam that promised to teach them how to write and publish "books" on Amazon in a week or less so that they could get rich by cashing in on the self-publishing gold rush. Few copies of these books ever sold probably, but the books are still there on the Amazon virtual shelves gumming up the works.

Also, there are large scammer operations all over the world spawned by the dubious Kindle Select program that have thrown up tons of eBooks on KDP that are for the most part filled with pure gibberish. These books have been published for one reason only. They were published for enrollment in Kindle Select so the scammers could exploit the program and get paid, in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars per month for bogus page reads. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that this new quality check program is aimed squarely at those Kindle Select scammers. But, if you know anything about the other tactics Amazon has employed to combat the scammers, then you also know that far more innocent authors who have never done anything wrong have been caught in the Amazon nets than any scammers have.

Kindle Select was an ill-conceived program that from the start was vulnerable to being gamed. Amazon has tried every conceivable tactic to stop the scammers. But each time a new tactic is employed to try to stop the scamming, the scammers simply fine-tune their fraudulent systems and keep on cashing those Amazon checks. One hopes that Amazon will eventually accept that Kindle Select needs to go because the company is never going to be successful in eliminating the fraud. For another thing Kindle Select and the companion Kindle Unlimited program is largely responsible for artificially depressing eBook prices for years, and for the slow but steady erosion of a healthy self-publishing environment.

Finally, there are just too many eBooks on Amazon now, and those numbers are growing exponentially year over year. It's estimated that there are now over 7 million Kindle titles. Have you tried to do a search on Amazon lately? If so, I hope you knew exactly what book by what author you wanted, because otherwise, Amazon searches are practically useless.

Amazon searches for keywords or categories are apt to yield hundreds if not thousands of pages of returns. Does anyone find that useful? Has anyone ever bothered to go through maybe even the first three pages of results? In the searches I have personally done of late, I have received far more suggestions for books that had absolutely nothing to do with what I searched for than books suggestions that did. That in part is because of the mind-boggling number of eBooks on Amazon.

Amazon almost continually tries to come up with new book categories because all of the existing popular categories are bursting at the seams with books. Also, a new scheme being pushed by the self-publishing "experts" is for authors to get their books moved to "less competitive" categories to increase rankings and sales. With a wink and a nod, the "experts" say authors should not purposefully put a book in a category it doesn't belong in just to gain a competitive advantage. But, of course, desperate for visibility, authors are doing just that.

I've seen books that are clearly identified as fiction in the top twenty books in the "True Crime" category. There is one book in particular that I know of that has been ranked the number one bestseller in the "Private Investigators" mystery & thriller category that is a cozy mystery that has absolutely nothing in it about private investigators. I've seen titles in African-American culture categories that have neither been written by an African-American nor contain anything remotely connected with African-American culture. Finally, there is a number one bestseller in "Higher Education/Continuing Education" that is a garden variety financial self-help book.

Mind you, these are just three examples, not even the tip of the iceberg. The literal tsunami of intentionally miscategorized books is one primary reason Amazon searches don't work properly anymore. But the real issue is this. There are just too many books. The Amazon platform is simply overwhelmed.

I think it already well-established that Amazon bookshelves, while virtual, certainly do not have room for an infinite number of books. So, a mechanism to start removing the garbage I mentioned is I think long overdue, and a step in the right direction. But, so much more needs to be done, like stopping authors from putting books in the wrong categories simply to gain a competitive advantage for one. Amazon should put books in the proper category when published, and stop accepting requests from authors or publishers to capriciously move books to categories they don't properly belong in to gain competitive advantage.

Only time will tell how much good and how much bad will come of this new Amazon smart technology quality checking initiative, but it's coming and it can't be stopped. One thing is for certain. Better buckle up, buttercups. When it comes to publishing gatekeepers, a new sheriff is coming to town. For any indie authors who have managed to live under the illusion until now that Amazon is some benevolent multi-billion dollar corporation which exists primarily to champion the downtrodden indie authors of the world and is eager to share its largesse with them, a reality check is on the way.

Should Self-Published Authors Pay for Professional Editing?

More and more often I hear self-publishing gurus espousing the view that self-published authors must get professional editing before publishing books. The justification behind that opinion is that readers today expect self-published books to meet the same quality standards that are set by traditionally published books. The recommendation that self-published books must be professionally edited has almost reached the point where it is pointedly suggested that indie authors who can't afford to pay for editing, shouldn't be publishing at all.

Let's begin with this. I think all indie authors and self-publishers should do the very best job possible when it comes to producing the highest quality book they possibly can. If you're an indie author, you should never wish to do less. But is it realistic for the self-publishing experts to expect you to do more by paying for professional editing, and in a similar vein, paying a professional designer to create your book covers?

And will shouldering those significant upfront costs automatically bring you more success as far as book sales go? The honest answer. Probably not.

There is today some very successful indie authors who sell a lot of books and some that even earn six-figure incomes from their writing. But, it's a very small percentage of the total number of indie authors out there who are writing and self-publishing books. What separates the truly successful indie authors from the also-rans, is not necessarily writing talent, amazing artful book covers, or even professional editing. The most successful indie authors I am aware of are selling the number of books they do because they understand book marketing, especially how to develop and grow a following, a tribe of readers who can't wait for the release of their next book.

Contrast the relatively small number of truly successful indies who sell tons of books with the average Jane or Joe out there who are writing and planning to self-publish her or his first book. It's possible (though very likely) that it will be the greatest story ever told since To Kill a Mockingbird. If that brand new indie author pays for professional editing and a professional book cover, does that automatically mean the book will end up at the top of the bestseller lists, even if only the top of the Amazon bestseller list?  Absolutely not. Why? Because regardless of her writing and storytelling ability, the vast majority of new indie authors have a glaring weakness. She has no platform, no following, and no email list. The days of writing a book, throwing it up on Amazon, and sitting back to watch the royalties roll in are long gone. There are simply too many books being published today.

In 2016, there were about 4.5 million eBooks on Amazon. Today, just two years later, there are about 7 million Kindle books in the Amazon catalog. How is a brand new unknown indie author going to get his book in front of anyone beyond his own circle of friends and family?  It's marketing of course. There are plenty of book promoters out there willing to help the author promote his book for a nominal fee. But wait, the book doesn't have any reviews, or maybe it has two or three. The legitimate book promoters who might actually help our mythical indie sell some books, require 10-20 reviews with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars before they will even consider accepting the title for promotion.

Well, then he just needs to start by getting those reviews. But where will he get them? Amazon has clamped down on book reviews. Reviews by friends and family members are now a clear violation of the Amazon book review policy. And trust me on this. Amazon spares no effort in ferreting out reviews like that, and when they find them or believe they have, they delete them. Paying for reviews, while never ethical, is also pretty much no longer an option. Amazon has clamped down on those too.

Without an established following, without an email list, without book reviews, the first book by an unknown indie author is going to start plummeting like a stone in the Amazon rankings almost from the moment the author hits the KDP publish button. And, the truth is, there is really no means available for the author to do any real effective marketing that will raise the visibility of the book. According to some sources, a new Kindle book is published every five minutes, every single day. The barrier to success for new indie authors grows ever larger and more impenetrable literally every single day. Add to that the fact that folks on most of the social media platforms have grown very weary of the tsunami of book promotions that appear in their feeds. Posting "I have a new book, please buy it" on Twitter and Facebook isn't a viable marketing strategy anymore, assuming it ever really was.

Now, let me return the focus to the discussion of whether it is rational to expect all indie authors to pay for professional editing before self-publishing a book. When you take the average of all self-published books, the ones that are wildly successful along with those with average sales, and those that never sell more than a handful of copies, most experts tell us that over its lifetime, on average a self-published book is going to sell 250 copies. Some experts, more pessimistically assert that the average self-published book sells only 100 copies lifetime. But let's use the 250 copies number. If the average self-published Kindle book sells on Amazon for say $2.99, which is the most common retail price, that earns the author the 70-percent royalty rate from Amazon, or $2.90 per copy. When we multiply 250 by $2.09, that means the average self-published book earns $522.50 over its entire lifetime.

Professional editing comes in different degrees at different prices, but based on my recent research, $1,500 is a representative cost for having a 50,000-word novel edited, where the editing is reasonably comprehensive. So anyone who publishes that mythical average eBook that sells 250 copies and earns $522.50 is never going to come within spitting distance of earning back the cost of the editing, much less make a profit on the book. Hopefully, she wrote the book for the pure enjoyment she derives from writing because she certainly isn't going to earn any money for the time and effort she put into writing the book.

Clearly, it just doesn't make sense, at least from a financial perspective, for most indie authors to pay for professionally created book covers, much less professional editing. What makes sense financially for most indie authors is to do the absolute best they can at editing their own book and reducing typos and grammatical errors to the absolute minimum. If the writing is any good, the books will probably eventually sell 100-250 copies, and they will make a little money for their trouble.

I say ignore the elitists who demand that indie authors spare no expense to meet the publishing standards of commercial traditional publishing houses in the name of achieving parity between self-publishing and traditional publishing.  Such does not exist, and its unlikely it ever will. Just compare prices between self-published bestsellers and traditionally published bestseller Kindle books. The vast majority of Amazon book buyers will not consider paying anywhere close to the retail price commanded by a traditionally published book for a self-published book. Amazon has trained them to view self-published books as less valuable.

I looked at some fiction categories on Amazon this morning where the #1 bestsellers were self-published titles with retail prices of $2.99 to $3.99. Traditionally published bestsellers in those same categories and listed further down on the same bestseller lists as those self-published ones had much higher retail prices. The retail prices for those traditionally published books, even by authors who weren't exactly household names, ranged from $12.95 to $14.95. That doesn't sound like parity to me. Amazon wants to keep the average price of self-published books, the market that Amazon maintains firm control over, at around $2.99. In fact, if a self-published author sets a retail price on a book above $9.99, Amazon whacks the 70% royalty rate in half, paying that author only 35%. Amazon makes money on volume. Allowing the price of digital books to increase would reduce the number of Kindle books sold and would cut into Amazon profits. Amazon doesn't intend to allow that to happen.

The decision of whether to pay for editing is a personal one for each and every indie author to make. But, don't ignore the financial realities. Even if you're independently wealthy, and can afford to subsidize your work by paying for editing knowing you're never going to earn that money back, it doesn't mean you should do so.

A Tale of Three POD Publishers

Today I'd like to share a tale of three POD publishers I've dealt with over the past couple of months. If you're a self-published author, perhaps you will learn a thing or two from my experiences.

Maybe I was a Bit Hard on Barnes and Noble Press

In April I posted My Advice to Those Thinking of Using Barnes and Noble Press for a Print Book – Don’t, where I took them to task over the difficulty with meeting their file requirements. Now that I've managed to solve the riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma that is Barnes and Noble Press, in hindsight, perhaps I did protest too much. However, I'm not going to walk back the opinions I expressed in the April piece because while I did manage to successfully get my book onto Barnes and Noble, it wasn't due to any assistance from their print division. I was left to flail about and overcome the learning curve all on my own. Here is what I learned.

When my files were rejected, I'd receive a notice of rejection on my dashboard which was completely confusing. The notices were a mix of comments that referred to both interior files and cover files to the point it was literally unintelligible gibberish. Eventually, after multiple rejections, I finally figured out by trial and error that there was never anything wrong with my interior files, it was the cover files. I'd have sorted that much sooner, had Barnes and Noble Press simply identified the actual problem instead of obfuscating that by including irrelevant information in the rejection notices.

It seems that, unlike every other POD printer I use, Barnes and Noble Press cannot deal with RGB color images in print-ready image files. They can only deal with CMYK colors. For the uninitiated, RBG color are the type used when dealing with the web. RGB colors rely heavily on light to get the colors right. CMYK however, is the standard when it comes to printed material. Trying to print an image that is composed of RGB colors results in the printer dispensing excessive amounts of ink which will cause saturation and streaking.

I'd always uploaded RGB print-ready covers to the other POD publishers, and had never had a problem. I tried to do the same at Barnes and Noble Press, but that was no bueno. Once I figured out that was the problem from one cryptic sentence in the rejection notices, it was actually an easy fix. I found a free website that will convert RGB images to print-ready CMYK PDFs. The very first time I uploaded CMYK cover files to Barnes and Noble Press, they were accepted. Problem solved. A good rule of thumb then is that anything dealing with the web should always be in RGB. Printed material should be in CMYK. No doubt this applies to all POD printers, not just Barnes and Noble Press, so I suspect the others simply do the extra bit of converting RGB to CMYK for you, where Barnes and Noble Press does not.

In the end, Barnes and Noble Press may not be as daunting to work with as I first surmised. However, if you're thinking about using them, be forewarned. There is a much steeper learning curve involved than you will find at other POD printers. And, you will not get anything in the way of real assistance or direction from them if you run into a problem.

So, if they are as hard to work with as I claim, why bother? There is only one good reason to do it. For self-published authors, it is the only way you will get your print versions on Barnes and Noble with certainty, and the only chance you will get at having copies of your print books physically stocked in Barnes and Noble stores. While they will allow customers to order your books that are printed by someone like Ingram,  they won't stock them or in many cases even show on their site that print versions are available. They won't deal in CreateSpace print books at all, since CreateSpace is owned by Amazon, and viewed as a competitor.

Let's just say I won't continue to actively discourage anyone from publishing with Barnes and Noble Press. Just be aware you may experience a good bit of frustration before getting your files accepted by them.

A Partial Apology to Lulu Press

When I posted Lulu Press Review -Thinking Of Using Lulu To Publish Your Book?- earlier this month, a good long time after publishing a hardcover version of Mare's Nest there, the book had not appeared anywhere other than the onsite Lulu store. In the post, I questioned whether they were actually able to distribute the books published with them. I was wrong about that. Mare's Nest has now shown up on Amazon and the sites of other booksellers. It took much longer for the book to get into distribution than any of the books I've published with Ingram. But, I'm manning up and admitting I was wrong about the distribution bit.

That said, I still have the issues with transparency and product quality that I mentioned in the post on May 2. I still recommend Ingram over Lulu Press because at Lulu you will pay essentially the same printing costs to get less quality. But I'll say this again too. The dust cover Lulu created was outstanding.

CreateSpace

My most recent unsatisfactory dealings with a POD printer came just last week when I uploaded new interior and cover files for a book I originally published in 2017. I detailed the circumstances in Why I am Cutting Ties With Create Space and Suggest You Do Too so I won't regurgitate it all here. But, for the benefit of those who read that post, I will update the story.

After demanding proof that I was the author and copyright holder of Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair, my title was suppressed for four full days before I ever received a response from the Content Validation Team. This past Saturday, I received a cheerful email from them indicating that they were satisfied I was indeed the author and copyright holder. I was told my files were under review, and barring any problems, I'd be able to review a proof copy and approve the title for sale. However, the title continued to show a "suppressed" status until late Sunday.

Firstly, those files had already been reviewed by CreateSpace and approved by me the week before. The book with the changes I'd submitted was already back on Amazon when CreateSpace decided to suppress it and demand proof that I owned the rights to publish it. They put the book into review again for no reason, other than I suspect, to show me who was boss because I had sent strongly worded complaints about them suppressing the title in the first place. And, to add insult to injury, there was, of course, no apology for their egregious error or for questioning my integrity.

It was all moot by that point anyway. I'd already republished the book under a new ISBN, and it was already back on sale on Amazon the day before I heard back from the Content Validation Team. Instead of reviewing the proof, once the title was no longer suppressed and I had access to it, I deleted all the sales channels so that it was no longer available for distribution by CreateSpace.  I then emailed customer support and told them to retire the title as I'd published it elsewhere. This morning I received a reply from customer service telling me they were unable to retire titles that weren't active. I'd have to review and approve the proof before they could do that. My response, screw it. Let it stay in "review" for all eternity for all I care. I'm done with it. And with all the sales channels blocked, they can't distribute the book. In fact, as of this morning, the CreateSpace version has already dropped off Amazon.

The most frustrating bit is that this entire controversy could have been easily avoided. Had a CreateSpace representative done literally two minutes worth of checking before my title had been suppressed and my integrity questioned, they would have easily discovered ample proof that I was the author and copyright holder. Instead, the company behaved irresponsibly and earned my permanent ill will.

I continue to urge caution when it comes to using CreateSpace. Especially, if you're considering updating book files for titles, you previously published there or perhaps are considering moving titles to them that you've previously published elsewhere. I think there are many better options available from companies that will provide something called "customer service," something that CreateSpace seems to have little if any awareness of. I'll never use them to publish another book, and I'll remove my other titles out of CreateSpace as time allows.

 

In conclusion, it may seem to those who don't know me that I'm a difficult person and hard to please. I'm not.  I do, however, expect to be treated with courtesy and transparency by companies I entrust with my business. And, as an aside, since publishing the piece relating my experiences with CreateSpace, I've heard from several other authors with similar horror stories about their own experiences with CreateSpace.

Why I am Cutting Ties With Create Space and Suggest You Do Too

I am cutting ties with Create Space, Amazon's subsidiary POD publisher. If you're a self-published author, you might want to consider doing it too. Here's my story.

This past Thursday, I checked my email and found this email from the Create Space Content Validation Request Team.

Hello Larry,

Thank you for publishing with Amazon.

I am contacting you regarding the following content:

Title: Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair:

Author(s): Larry Darter (AUTHOR)

Copyright is important to us – we want to make sure that no author or other copyright holder has his or her books sold by anyone else.

To publish your book, please respond with documentation confirming your publishing rights within four days

Acceptable documentation can include:

- If you are the author and you are republishing your book after your publication rights have been reverted to you, a signed reversion letter from your former publisher

- If you are the author and you are publishing under a pseudonym, please state that you have the rights of the content along with the pseudonym used.

- If you are the author and your content has not been published anywhere else, please state that you own the rights to the content you are publishing.

- If you are not the author, please provide documentation where the author confirms your rights to distribute the content, such as a signed contract between you and the author granting you the rights to publish the book in the territories, languages and formats you have selected or other similar documentation

Documentation we cannot accept includes:

- A statement by you that you have the publishing rights without verification by the author/copyright holder

- A copyright application for which registration has not been confirmed

If you publish books for which you do not hold the publishing rights, you may lose access to optional services or your account may be terminated.

To learn more, please see:

https://www.createspace.com/Help/Righ...

We appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,

The Content Validation Request Team

validation-request@createspace.com

After reading the email, I immediately logged onto my Create Space account and discovered that the paperback version of Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair, had been suppressed and was not available for sale.

Here is what I think provoked this, in my opinion, rude and slanderous accusation that I am not the author and copyright holder of this work. Earlier this past week, I uploaded new interior files for this book to correct some minor typos that were missed when the book was originally published last year. I also uploaded a new cover, because I'd recently changed the covers of the eBook and hardcover versions. I wanted all the covers to match.

I can't say this is the gospel truth, since of course, like Amazon, the parent company of Create Space, Create Space doesn't feel they need to explain their actions to anyone. They wouldn't even respond to my request for further information.  And, if you read the email above, you will find not one single, solitary explanation for why Create Space had decided to question my integrity as well as my right to publish my own original work. This then is what I believe caused the entire problem.

I believe that the longer Create Space, once an independent book publisher and distributor, has been owned by the Amazon, the more the Amazon "no-customer service" philosophy and complete dependence on algorithms have filtered down to the Create Space operations. I think that updating my files somehow triggered one of these vapid Amazon algorithms and as a result, a canned automated email was dispatched to me without any human employee at Create Space bothering to investigate before the "demand" for validation was sent and my title was suppressed and made unavailable for sale.

I replied to the email, offering not one, but six obvious reasons why there could be absolutely no doubt that I was the author of Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair, that I owned the copyright, and that I had every right to publish it. I also took issue with the Create Space decision to capriciously and irresponsibly suppress my title, which was totally unwarranted.

By late afternoon, when I'd received no response from the jack-booted morons at the Create Space Content Validation Request Team, I sent a follow-up email to Create Space Customer Service. In fairness, I did receive a reply from them this morning, informing they had forwarded my email to a representative of the Content Validation Request Team, who was in the best position to address my concerns. Wow! Seriously? Forwarding my email to the same people who had already refused to respond to me? How was that supposed to help?

I've used Create Space for more than a decade, and up until now, I've always been fairly satisfied with the service they provide. Even though, as mentioned, their customer service has grown more and more dodgy and unresponsive the longer they have been owned by Amazon. But I'm not happy with them now. I will not take having my integrity questioned by a two-bit POD publisher lying down. I will begin removing all of my titles from Create Space this weekend, and re-publishing them with another POD publisher who grasps the simple concept that rudely pissing off the people that you derive your income from isn't a real effective business plan to follow. That is if part of your plan is remaining in business.

As most self-published authors know, Amazon has for quite some time had a beta-paperback publishing option on the same Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) dashboard used to publish Kindle eBooks. I tried it once and found it very buggy and clumsy. For that reason, I remained loyal to Create Space and always used them for paperback versions of my books. But, once late-afternoon arrived today, and I'd still not heard a word in response from the ridiculously insipid team at Create Space Content Validation Request Team, I decided to re-publish a paperback version of Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair under a new ISBN on KDP. Here is what I learned.

The KDP paperback option is much improved since I last attempted to use it. I uploaded my interior print-ready files and custom-made one-piece cover in less than five minutes. Not only that, I was able to take advantage of the opportunity to use the superior category and keyword tools on KDP that have always been far better than what is offered at Create Space. Finally, I was able to drop the retail price of the paperback by almost three dollars and still get the same royalty deal that I received at Create Space.

The one drawback of the KDP paperback publishing option is that authors aren't able to publish copies of their books at cost, as can be done at Create Space. But for backlist books where ACR copies are not needed for reviewers, this isn't really much of an issue. And for some time, Amazon has claimed that the copies at cost option will eventually be made available to authors. To be honest, I wish something had motivated me to try the KDP paperback option sooner. It achieves the same purpose that all of us authors have always used Create Space for, to instantly get our paperback titles on Amazon.

Bear in mind, the KDP paperback option won't get your books distributed to anyone else other than Amazon. But that's actually all Create Space ever managed to do anyway, despite their so-called "enhanced distribution" option. Every bookstore out there from Barnes & Noble on down steadfastly refuses to purchase stock from Create Space because they know it is a subsidiary of Amazon and they aren't going to contribute to the profits of their greatest competitor. I don't blame them. Create Space attempted to achieve expanded distribution through Ingram, so what does anyone need Create Space for other than getting a book on Amazon? You can just publish with Ingram directly, as I have always done with hardcover versions, and reap the benefits of true world-wide distribution.

Once Amazon launched the KDP paperback option, many experts in the publishing industry predicted that the days of Create Space were numbered, at least as a place where print-ready files could be directly uploaded to. I doubt that the company will be completely shut down since Amazon will likely continue using them for POD printing. But, I agree with the experts and expect the business model at Create Space will change dramatically in the very near future. For that reason, to me, it just makes sense for authors to pull their titles from Create Space now before the rush and start re-publishing them with another POD publisher that can be counted on to stay in business.

Today, I utilized the KDP paperback option, mostly to get the same free ISBN that Create Space offers. But, from now on I'll just use Ingram for both hardcover and trade paperbacks. The quality is better, and having published a paperback with Ingram recently, I found I could set the retail price the same as I was doing at Create Space, and still earn the same royalty rate. Ingram has never had a problem getting my hardcover books on Amazon, and I suspect they will not have any more difficulty getting my paperbacks on Amazon with no Create Space version to compete.

In conclusion, Create Space, in my opinion, has long since outlived its usefulness to self-published authors. One would think they would be trying to improve their customer service to hang on to the business they have instead of driving their customers elsewhere. But, my experience with them this week suggests not. It seems to be lost on Create Space that the company is just another POD publishing option in a sea of POD publishing options. They certainly don't wield the kind of influence and power that their parent company Amazon does. So, how about this Create Space? When you make an egregious error, insult the integrity of one of your clients, and treat them with unjustifiable rudeness, you damn well better give them an explanation when they ask for it.