Larry Darter's Blog, page 7
June 11, 2017
Running Author
Running might seem a strange topic for a post on a crime fiction author's blog, but that's what I've decided to write about today.
Frankly, I haven't done any consistent running in quite a few years, however, in a time long ago in a galaxy far away, at least that's how it seems, I was a runner. The truth be known, quite a fanatical runner who for many years ran outdoors no matter the weather conditions, six days a week, logging more than a 100 miles a week.
During those years I ran a good many 5K, 8K, and 10K races. The marathon become popular, and so I started running those, eventually completing a half dozen of them. I even wrote and published a brief book on training for a first marathon.
I'm not sure why I stopped running. Maybe my work schedule wasn't conducive to it at the time, but nevertheless, I slipped out of the habit. A part of me has always missed it. A few times I made an effort to get back into it, but it never lasted. For a good while now I've thought about starting to run again regularly. I'm not very fit these days, but I'm healthy, and still capable of regaining some level of fitness. Today, I made up my mind to start.
There is a well-known running program for beginning runners called C25K (Couch to 5K). I've been aware of it for many years, but never actually used it. So now seems a good time to give it a try. It's a program specifically designed to get just about any couch potato off the couch and fit to run 5 kilometers or 30 continuous minutes in just 9 weeks.
It's always helpful when you are trying to start a new positive habit to tell other people you're doing it. It's an accountability thing. It helps to motivate you to stay with it. It's easy to start something and then quit if no one but you knew you started it. It's a little harder to do that once you've advertised your intentions to others. So I decided to use the blog to make the announcement that I'm taking up running again and if you're reading this then you've been drafted as one of my accountability partners.
I'll be posting updates about my progress over the next nine weeks. So if you're interested, please tune in from time to time to see how it's going. As a matter of fact, if you've been thinking about taking up exercise, maybe you would like to join me. This program is designed for gradual progress towards the ultimate goal of getting a person fit enough to run continuously for a half hour, so it's very doable for most folks.
If you do decide to join me, let me know with a comment below, and we'll lend each other mutual support over the coming weeks. The C25K program is now available as a smartphone app, but if you would like to check out a printed copy just visit this link: http://cnycap.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Couch-to-5k.pdf.
June 8, 2017
Team Malone Street Team Promotion
This is something I've been planning to organize for a while now, street team promotion. Thus, the creation of Team Malone, the Official Street Team for the Malone Mystery Novels series. Let's talk about it.
Who?
Do you love detective, mystery, and thriller fiction? Delight in telling other people about the books you read recently? Spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.? Then you might be a perfect addition to my Team Malone street team!
What?
Just so we're all on the same page here...a street team is a group of people who get an author's book for free, and in advance (ARC or advance review copy), so they can read it and post a review for the author on the day of the official book launch. Street team members also do some form of promotion (more about that a little later in this post) for the author during a book launch to help build "book buzz" (get the word out about a new book). Hence, the term, street team promotion.
In my case, members of the Team Malone street team will receive a free advance copy of my next novel, Cold Comfort, 4-6 weeks before its public release. Street team members will asked to read the book before release and if they like the book, to post a brief review on Amazon and Goodreads (same review on both). What if you don't like the book after reading it? Then you don’t have to do anything. The aim of the street team will be to help “create a buzz” about Cold Comfort by writing and posting the review on launch day.
When?
As mentioned the ARC will be made available to street team members 4-6 weeks before the book is released to give the team ample time to read it, write a brief review, and have the review ready to post on launch day.
With regard to the promotional activities street team members will be asked to do, there will be suggested activities during a pre-launch phase, on launch day, and during a post-launch phase.
Pre-launch: The four weeks leading up to launch day (October 31-November 27, 2017).
Launch Day: The day of the book launch, the day it is released and goes on sale to the general public (November 28, 2017).
Post-launch: The four weeks after launch day (November 29-December 25, 2017).
How?
Now I want to look specifically at the promotion activities the street team members will be asked to do. You aren't expected to do every activity. Ideally, each member will choose to do three activities from the list, but of course, you can do less then three, and it would be awesome if you chose to do more. Here's the list–
Write and post a brief review on Amazon and Goodreads on launch day.
Write and post a brief review on other online book review sites (e.g. Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, Kobo, iTunes, your local library’s website, or any other online review site). This can be the same review posted on Amazon and Goodreads. No one is expected to write two unique reviews.
Mention Cold Comfort on your social media pages.
Ask your social media followers to retweet or repost your tweets or posts about the book.
For those who have a blog, blog about the book.
Ask your local library to order a copy of the book (or donate a copy).
If you’re part of a book club, tell the club about the book and suggest it as a selection.
Point people you know to my website.
Write a review for your local newspaper.
Purchase copies of the book to give away as Christmas and birthday gifts.
Pin the book cover or other images from my website to Pinterest.
Post the book cover or other images from my website on Instagram.
Share your favorite quotes from the book on your social media pages.
Suggest the book on reading forums, like those found on GoodReads.
Of course, you aren't limited to the above suggestions. You're free to promote the book in other way you come with as well.
Where?
To summarize, you can utilize reader forums, your own social media pages, and even your own blog to do the suggested promotional activities.
Why?
It's probably obvious why I need and want volunteers for the Team Malone Street Team. As a new crime fiction author, even after publishing the first two books in the Malone Mystery Novels series, I remain largely an unknown author to at least 99% of the detective, mystery, and thriller readers who visit sites like Amazon in search for books to read. That effectively makes my first two Malone novels literally invisible to the bulk of those potential readers.
The purpose of this street team is to raise visibility. The benefit of greater visibility is that more people will discover, buy, and read my books. There are lots of potential benefits for me if you choose to join Team Malone and participate in the promotion activities. No big secrets there. That's why I created Team Malone. But why should you want to join the street team? How do you benefit?
Of course, I'll be tremendously grateful to those who join the team and help promote my book. But it's only fair that street team members get something of real value in return. After all, I'm asking you to give me a portion of your most valuable resource, your time, something we all have in limited supply. So here is what you can expect to get as a street team member, beyond just my sincere appreciation.
The free advance review copy of the book.
A free Kindle version of Cold Comfort.
Insider status. I'll be sharing things about the book with the street team long before that information becomes available to the general public.
The first twenty people who sign up for the street team will receive a free, signed, first edition copy of the paperback edition of Cold Comfort as soon as it is released.
All those who sign up for the street team will receive a free electronic copy of Come What May , the first book in the Malone Mystery Novels series, in their choice of format (Mobi, epub, or pdf).
All street team members will be eligible for the monthly street team contests that will run October-December 2017 and will have a chance to win some great prizes. Prizes like Amazon gift cards, free eBook detective, mystery, and thriller titles by other great authors from my personal list of favorites, gourmet coffee, Kindle eReaders, signed first edition copies of my books in hardcover, other book swag, and more. Three winners will be selected during each monthly contest.
Access to the exclusive private Team Malone Facebook group where you will be among those who get the scoop on all things Malone before anyone else.
Interested? Fill out the form below for your chance to be a part of this group. Team Malone. It's sort of like the A-Team. Only different. You won't be a fugitive hiding from the government.
Maybe You Can Join Team Malone
Get Instant Access
June 3, 2017
A Tale of Three Book Covers: Confessions of a Amateur Designer
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair..." And so begins the classic Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities. While I've titled this post "A Tale of Three Book Covers," looking back on the past few weeks, with three book cover re-designs for Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair in my wake, I think I could use a similar opening here. Let me explain.
It's All Amazon's Fault
Recently, I decided to revisit AMS (Amazon Marketing Service) ads even though I didn't find them very rewarding the first time I tried them. I'd armed myself this time with Dave Chesson's (of Kindlepreneur fame) new AMS ads course and his vaunted KDP Rocket keyword tool.
Dave had me highly motivated to sell books with Amazon ads by the end of the course. I was brimming with confidence I'd taste the sweetness of victory this time rather than the agony of defeat. Dave really should have become a football coach after leaving the Navy. He really knows how to give an inspiring pep talk. He is sort of like Pat O'Brien in the 1940 classic, Knute Rockne All American. "Come on boys, let's sell one for the Gipper!"
Unfortunately, weeks later, I'm still firmly ensconced in the winter of despair rather than experiencing the spring of hope. Don't get me wrong, Dave Chesson is the man when it comes to making money through the Amazon KDP platform, and teaching others to do the same. The course was absolutely first-rate. I not only learned a lot, I enjoyed taking it too. But weeks later, while I was getting an amazing number of impressions, way more than I experienced my first time trying the ads, I was getting only a meager number of clicks, and of course no book sales. WTF? I had done everything just the way Dave said!
Then I started to mull things over. I was certain that the lack of sales didn't mean my book sucks. I mean, come on man, with only four clicks on my ad, not enough people had even looked at it to think that's the problem. So I surmised it was one of two things. Either my ad copy sucked or people didn't like the book cover, ergo no one was clicking on the ad.
First, I re-wrote the ad copy. By the time I was satisfied with it, I was ready to buy the damn book myself. Unfortunately, I'd already done that a few days earlier when I accidentally clicked the one-click buy button while using my iPhone to show a friend at work my book page on Amazon. Still days passed, and you guessed it. No clicks. No freakin' clicks! There was only one thing to do. Change the cover. Again.
Actually, now that I think of it, there was a fourth cover. The original one. I'm actually still using that cover on some of the other eBook retailers where my book is available.
We Have a Winner
This was the original cover I designed for the book. I actually thought it was pretty good. But then I had a brainstorm about combining "blood red" with a massive fingerprint and some bullet holes. So shortly after publication I went with the first of the three designs shown at the top of the page. I still like that cover. It looks really good on the hardcover edition dust jacket. But given the lack of clicks on my AMS ad, it evidently wasn't that appealing to Amazon customers. Enter the third book cover design, the one in the middle, in the group of three.
I thought that one was cool when I created it, but that feeling didn't last long. The first time I looked at it once Amazon had published it on the book page, I felt sort of the same way I often felt in my twenties after a night of drinking to excess and waking up beside someone who looked a hell of lot more attractive with beer goggles on. Back in my Navy days, my buddy Tony and I used to call it waking up with the "oh nos." That one didn't get any clicks either. Not surprising in hindsight, since if I had to describe that cover with one word I'd be firmly in "garish" camp. So it was back to the drawing board, virtually speaking of course.
On the next attempt, I came up with the book cover on the right in the group of three above, which is the cover I'm currently using on Amazon. I think this design is more in line with the other books in the genre I'm competing against. More importantly, it has started to get ad clicks.
AMS still hasn't delivered any sales, but more people are looking at the book now. But is it the best of times or the worst of times? Sure, I'm getting the impressions, getting the clicks, and more people are checking out the book. But what happens now if I'm getting clicks, but still no sales? That would mean I have to re-write the book description which I've already done way more times than I've redigned the cover.
Look, I know what you're thinking. "Maybe the book does suck." No it doesn't, dammit! I have six great reviews from six perfect strangers which means every person who read the book and was kind enough to leave a review, liked it. That's 4.6 out of 5 stars for an average baby! If I was hitting for that kind of average in the big leagues, people would be saying Ted (Williams) who?
In retrospect, since there have actually been four book cover designs for Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair, I suppose I should have titled this post "A Tale of Four Book Covers" instead of three. But let's face it. That just wouldn't have worked well with the Dickens comparison. Hopefully, next time I'll be able to brag about how well my AMS ads have performed.
I finally did it. I took the first step toward forming an official street team in preparation for the launch of my next book, Cold Comfort . Click on the image below to take a look. I'd be honored if you'd consider joining the group.
May 19, 2017
Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair FREE for a Limited Time on Story Cartel
Starting today, you can read Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair free on Story Cartel. For those not familiar with Story Cartel, it’s a new way for readers and authors to connect.
Story Cartel is home to most any kind of book you could imagine, from nail-biting thrillers to tender romance novels, serious literary fiction to self-help non-fiction. The site is filled with books that are read and discovered by people like you.
Since October 2012, 49,788 people have downloaded 102,691 books, helping 2,034 authors get reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, and blogs. Thousands of readers are connecting with new authors right now.
The books you find on Story Cartel are all offered free by authors in exchange for your honest review. For book lovers, Story Cartel is a resource to discover great books and new authors. For authors, it’s a platform to meet and build relationships with readers. It’s a win-win.
As all authors know, lacking a substantial number of reviews, books can quickly be sucked into the black hole of Amazon’s virtual bookshelves which now house some five million eBooks. When that happens, books literally become invisible to Amazon customers and don’t get read.
I made a limited number of copies of Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair available free on Smashwords via a discount code. Admittedly, getting the book that way does require some effort and several steps. You have to go to the book page, click the buy button, and then enter the discount code at checkout. Once you download the file, unless you want to read it on the site, you then have more steps to complete if you wish to transfer the eBook to your electronic reader. That’s why I decided to list the book on Story Cartel.
Story Cartel is the “easy button” when it comes to reading newly released books for free, in exchange for an honest review. So I decided to make things as simple as possible for anyone who would like to read Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair free. Just click or visit this link: https://storycartel.com/books/fair-is-foul-and-foul-is-fair-malone-mystery-novels and download your copy.
I’d really appreciate your help in getting some reviews for the book. I know that unless you happen to enjoy writing book reviews, it can be a real pain. But it needn’t take more than a few minutes to rate the book and write a sentence or two giving your honest assessment. If you enjoy mysteries that read like a thriller, I think you will enjoy Malone’s latest adventure. And since the book is completely free, there is no risk involved.
So, what are you waiting for? Click or visit this link and enjoy your weekend read absolutely free.
May 14, 2017
The Cold Hard Truth About Self-Publishing
Have you ever thought about writing and self-publishing a book?
If so, you’ve got a lot of company. According to a recent survey, 81 percent of Americans feel they have a book in them, and that they should write it. As a self-published author of 8 books, with a 9th to be published next fall, I’d like to use this post to do what I can to offer them a healthy dose of reality.
This post is not aimed at discouraging anyone with the dream of writing and publishing a book. Instead, the intent is to provide some information that every person thinking about writing and self-publishing a book for the first time should be aware of.
Thanks to the Amazon Kindle Publishing Platform (KDP) and other eBook publishing platforms, self-publishing a book is now a goal easily within the reach of virtually everyone. It seems as though nearly everyone with the dream of writing and self-publishing a book has either done it already or is in the process of doing it. Consider a few rather eye-popping statistics.
July 13, 2010, eBook publisher and distributor Smashwords, published its 15,000th eBook. Just nineteen months later the platform released its 100,000th eBook. Woah!
A recent report from Bowker, the US company that issues International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs), shows that self-publishing is growing rapidly. Between 2010 and 2015, the number of ISBNs from self-published books grew by 375%.
While it’s very difficult to know for sure how many eBooks are out there, a recent estimate by experts states that there are over five million Kindle eBooks on Amazon alone. While Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play don’t openly advertise the total number they have in their eBook catalogs, you can assume that collectively it’s less than the number on Amazon, but still a significantly large number.
Another report from Bowker states that over one million (1,052,803) books were published in the U.S. in 2009, which is more than triple the number of books published just four years earlier (2005). More than two-thirds of those books were self-published books.
We know that self-publishing is growing exponentially, but using just the dated statistics in the previous point (2009), we can very conservatively estimate that around 2,000 new eBooks are being published daily (60,000 each month).
A recent Amazon report states that only about 40, not 40 percent, but just 40 of the self-published authors on their platform are considered successful, authors earning a living from writing books.
Experts say that the average self-published book sells less than 100 copies. Using $2.99, the “sweet spot” price for self-published books on Amazon, that means the average lifetime earnings for an author from a self-published book is at best around $209.30 (assuming a 70% royalty rate). For a 100,000 word novel, that amounts to about 2/10 of one cent per word. Does less than a penny per word sound lucrative?
Sunshine or Rain?
The main takeaway from the above statistics is this. If you count yourself among those 81 percent of Americans who plan to write and publish a book, if you want to be successful, you really must first determine the true motivation behind your desire to become a self-published author.
People typically are motivated to write and publish a book for one of three primary reasons.
Money. If making money is your primary motivation for wanting to write and publish books, you will have to write a bestseller to make any real money self-publishing. Please understand that unless you are a famous celebrity, or have an existing and hugely successful blog (getting around 50 million hits), it’s not very likely that you will ever become a bestselling author. The odds are literally right up there with the chances of being struck by lightning or winning millions in the lottery. Yes, it happens, but not many people experience either. There are no two ways about it. You MUST have a significant pre-existing audience to become a best-selling published author.
Social. If your primary aim is to gain recognition from your peers by becoming a published author and financial gain is only a peripheral goal, you will find it much easier to succeed at self-publishing by defining success in those terms.
Self-Actualization. If you plan to write and self-publish a book simply to satisfy your own personal need to see a published book with your name on the cover on Amazon, this is the easiest path to success. Writing and publishing a book is a significant personal achievement even if the book is never successful regarding sales or financial gain.
Writing a Book is Not Easy
Contrary to a persistent and widespread but patently false notion, writing a book is not easy. At least, it isn’t easy to write a book that anyone will want to buy and read. If it were easy, all of us who write and publish would be living the high life right alongside the James Pattersons of the author world. Self-publishing is often touted on the Internet by a bunch of professional hucksters and charlatans as an easy way to make a quick buck. Nothing could be further from the real truth.
It’s a fact that there are some talented self-published authors out there who write books that are every bit as good if not better than those written by their traditionally published counterparts. But there are a lot of self-published books, an awful lot, that are absolutely dreadful.
I read independent, self-published authors almost exclusively simply because I love discovering new, talented writers, and I read a lot. For every really good self-published book I’ve read, I’ve read or at least attempted to read hundreds that I couldn’t force myself to read beyond the first few chapters, much less finish. It’s no exaggeration to say that the vast majority of self-published books are not worth reading, certainly not worth buying. This creates some real obstacles to success for those who dream of writing and self-publishing and who actually have the necessary talent and skills to write a decent book.
Selling a Book is Even Harder
Writing a book that will sell is hard. Selling that book is even harder. Consider the statistics at the beginning of this post, over a million new eBooks published annually since 2009, to name just one.
Assume you are the second coming of Hemingway and have written the best book in the past hundred years. You’re a new author, but you’re hungry for success. Lack of an author platform be damned, you eagerly publish your book on the Kindle Direct Platform and sit back to watch the book sales climb into the stratosphere and the book royalties roll in like a tsunami. But to your dismay, that doesn’t happen. Maybe you sell a handful of books the first week or so, but then nothing. You check your sales constantly each day, but no one is buying your epic novel. Why? Most likely it’s because no one even knows it exists. Thus, no one even sees your book, much less considers buying it. Your book is quickly buried under the avalanche of the other 20,000 new eBooks published during the week after you published your masterpiece.
Even if your book cover is such a work of art that it belongs on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Even if your book blurb is the wittiest, most irresistible and compelling piece of prose every devised by the human mind. Even if your book deserves to become an instant classic that belongs at the very top of Time Magazine’s All-time Best 100 Novels list, no one is going to buy it or read because no one beyond your circle of friends and family will even be aware it exists.
It’s sort of like the old tree falling in the forest philosophical experiment, isn’t it? If a book is written and no one sees it, was it actually published?
But advertising will cure the problem won’t it? The short answer is no. Advertising is not a magic bullet. If you write and publish a good book, advertising can help you sell more copies than you would sell if you didn’t advertise. But there is NO advertising scheme or strategy guaranteed to make a book financially successful.
Also, advertising costs money, lots of money. Even if you are long on writing talent and savvy, if you are short on cash, you are going to have a very difficult time affording the amount of advertising that will make any real difference in terms of book sales. Advertising is not a one-off kind of deal. You have to keep spending on advertising or your book sales will inevitably drop, maybe to even to zero. You have to commit yourself to constant advertising. The more you spend, the more books you must sell just to break even, much less earn a profit.
But I Still Want to be a Published Author
I’ve done my best to this point to expose you to the unvarnished truths about self-publishing. I’ve covered all the gloom, and doom, and agony that’s part and parcel of the self-publishing experience. But you’re the kind of person who bubbles over with optimism. The glass is always half full. For you, there is always a silver lining to every dark cloud. Surely you will succeed where most everyone else has failed. You still want to write and publish your book. If I’ve described you, here is my best advice.
DO NOT self-publish. Jump through all the annoying, time consuming, but required hoops and seek a traditional publishing book deal. Write your book. Get it professionally edited. Carefully prepare your pitch. Spend the time to find a literary agent to represent you. Cross your fingers. Say your prayers. And hope for a book deal. Therein lies your best chance for success as an author and here is why. If your writing is good enough, you’ll eventually find a publisher willing to publish your work. On the other hand, if your writing isn’t good enough, you will quickly find that out. You really should want that more than you want to contribute to the mountainous slush pile of books that should never have been written already out there, produced by self-publishers.
Believe me, with ten years invested in self-publishing, if I could go back a decade and start all over, I’d do exactly what I’m am advising you to do. I’d go the traditionally published route instead of self-publishing.
But I Still Want to Self-Publish
Yes, I knew there would still be a handful of you left here even at the end, eternal optimists, still determined to self-publish. You’re stubborn, you have high self-esteem, and you believe in yourself too much to give up your dream. Sadly, one of the truths about the human condition is that we can never seem to learn from the mistakes of others. Instead, we have to make their same mistakes ourselves. If I can’t discourage you, I might as well at least leave you with a few pearls of wisdom gleaned from my own years of experience with self-publishing.
Go Cheap or Go Home. Ignore the experts who insist that you get a professionally designed book cover and pay a professional to edit your book. That would cost you, on the conservative end of the spectrum, around $1,500-$3,000, depending on the quality of the expertise possessed by the experts you hire. That means you will have to sell between 700 and 1400 copies of your eBook just to pay for the cover and editing. If you have to pay someone to format your book, the upfront investment in production costs grows even higher. Always remember, on average most self-published books never sell more than 100 copies. That’s no accident. Most of us only have about 100 close family members and friends who may be willing to buy our books. If you are an introverted type with fewer than that number of close family members and friends, then prepare yourself for the fact that you may sell considerably less than 100 copies of your self-published book.
Platform. Platform. Platform. In real estate, success hinges on Location, Location, Location. In the self-publishing world, it’s Platform, Platform, Platform. Go ahead and write your book. Make it the best book you possibly can. Design or get a friend to help you design your own book cover. Get your book edited the best way you can without spending any money on a professional editor. Then put it in the bottom drawer of your desk and forget about it. Don’t even think of publishing it before you do something else first.
Start Building an Author Platform. Put up a website. Start a blog. Build a mailing list. Launch a social media presence. Create a pre-existing audience of at least 1,500-3,000 people for your book and have them chomping at the bit to get their hands and eyes on it before you even think about publishing it. While you’re organizing that, start pitching your book to book reviewers. You want at least a dozen reviews, more if you can possibly get them, to go up on Amazon the day you launch your book. Don’t make the mistake so many new authors do (and yes I’ve made it myself), self-publishing a book without reviews. Doing so will permanently stunt the growth potential of your book. From now until the end of time you will struggle to get reviews for it.
The Chicken or the Egg Discussion
Don’t get caught up in the “what comes first, the chicken or the egg” philosophical discussion so many self-published authors love to indulge in. Platform ALWAYS comes before publishing, every single time. There are no exceptions. If you publish without having an author platform in place, be prepared for failure, and don’t even think about whining when it happens. I guarantee that publishing without a platform will be a big fail. That’s just that nature of the self-publishing beast. Throwing a book up on Amazon, expecting hordes of people who never heard of you to buy it is nothing but a pipe dream. It’s just not going to happen.
Advertise
Choose an advertising platform, whether it is Amazon Marketing Services, Facebook Ads, or whatever. Become an expert. Learn everything there is to know about using your chosen advertising platform effectively. Then put your money into it and never stop. Being a successful self-published author means becoming a full-time book marketer. Expect to spend the bulk of your time marketing your books instead of writing them.
DO NOT rely on free social media to sell your book. If that ever worked, it doesn’t work any longer. With the possible exception of paid ads through some social media platforms, social media does not sell books. The usefulness of social media to an author is limited to building social proof that he or she is a serious author and to build name recognition.
As one example, Twitter is perpetually swamped in book tweets, tweets from authors, from publishers, and from paid “book promotion” services. Unless your book tweet contains the image of a beautiful, naked or at least very scantily clad, scorchingly hot and desirable girl, no one will even notice it much less read it. If you use an image like the one I described, some may look at the image and salivate over it, but no one will click on your call to action link or give even the slightest consideration to buying a copy of your book. This should actually be appended to the Ten Commandments as number 11.
THOU SHALT NOT TWEET YOUR BOOK IN THE EXPECTATION OF GETTING BOOK SALES
I do occasionally tweet about my books, but never while under any foolish impression that it will result in someone buying a copy of one of my books. In fact, disobeying the eleventh commandment will mark you as a rank book marketing amateur among your author peers. I do it only for the reasons given above, creating social proof that I’m a serious author and to hopefully gain some name recognition. I also try my best to tweet at least ten to twelve things my followers might actually find useful information for every tweet I post about one of my books. Facebook doesn’t work any better unless you’re paying for ads.
Beware the Snake Oil Salesmen
The dirge for self-publishing authors is the cottage industry that has sprung up on the Internet to help us *wink* “promote” *nod* our books, for a fee of course. Most book promotion services are worthless, some border on being criminal. Just like the dieting industry which preys on people’s desperate desire to lose weight, many paid book promoters for the most part prey on the earnest desires of self-published authors to publish a successful book.
With very few exceptions, paid book promoters overpromise and under deliver. Their prime directive is to separate you from your hard-earned cash, to shift money from your bank account into their bank account. In most instances, if you feel the urge to pay one of them to promote your book, you should consider just flushing your cash down the toilet at your home. That will save you lots of time, aggravation, and disappointment. My advice? Take any money you have to spend on book promotion and use it to buy effective advertising that might actually bring you some book sales. A paid promotion service tweeting your book to their billion followers is not going to bring you book sales.
Bottom line. The only one who makes money when you pay for book promotion is the book promoter you paid. Period.
Don’t Give Your Book Away Free or Sell it for 99 Cents
A lot of authors are going to vigorously disagree with this last piece of advice, but I stand by it. Many authors believe that making one of their books permanently free or permanently pricing a book at 99 cents will pay off huge down the road by building a big following for their future books. Wrong.
I’m not saying this tactic has never worked, but if it did, too many people started doing it and it doesn’t work now. Sure, it’s fine to offer your book free or for 99 cents for a few days here and there as a strategy to gain some readers and reviews, but it should never be used as a permanent strategy.
If you wrote a 100,000-word novel and you really believe that you should give it away free or sell it for a buck permanently, do the literary world, other self-published authors, and you a favor. Don’t publish it at all. Just delete it from your computer and forget you ever wrote it.
Permanently free and books permanently priced at 99 cents do many things. All of them are bad. This tactic can gain authors a substantial and loyal following, a following from people who only download free and cheap 99 cent books. If you can be happy with that kind of reader base, why waste your time writing books? Find something productive and profitable to do with your time.
Given the existing glut of permanently free and 99 cent eBooks, this wildly popular but misguided strategy also depresses the value of self-published books in the minds of potential book buyers and helps to ensure that the vast majority of self-published authors will never be able to price their books above $2.99. In fact, I predict the day is fast approaching when even accomplished self-published authors will be forced to price their books even more cheaply to get sales. As night follows day, the simple economics of it say that the vast majority of self-published authors will never be able to scratch out a living from writing books alone. It’s already happening. Those authors making real money from self-publishing are really earning very little from their own books. They are making a living by selling courses and hosting seminars that teach others how to self-publish.
One of my favorite traditionally published authors eBooks sell for $14.95. He is a very talented author with lots of name recognition and many great books to his credit. But are his books really worth eleven bucks more than some of the great books written by self-published authors? Not to me they aren’t. I don’t buy his eBooks. I wait until the print version has been out long enough to become available from used book resellers, and then I buy a used print copy for far less than $14.95. As a result, the author doesn’t make a dime from me nor does his publisher.
My point, $2.99 is far too cheap for a quality eBook and $14.95 is far too much. On average, all eBooks should probably sell for between $7.99 to $9.99. But the continual and ever-growing glut of self-published free eBooks and books permanently priced at 99 cents helps to ensure that self-published authors will never command anything near that for their work. If you follow that strategy you will be helping to cut the financial throats of all your fellow self-published authors and yours right along with theirs.
Permanently free and permanently 99 cent books promote the misconception that self-published books are of substandard quality, written by amateurs, and not comparable in worth to books published traditionally. As long as the misconception exists, self-publishing is always going to be regarded by the masses as the ugly step-child to traditional publishing. Don’t contribute to that by adding to the existing glut of free or permanently cheap eBooks.I predict that unless large numbers of self-published authors discipline themselves and stop offering perma-free and permanently cheap eBooks, the practice will kill self-publishing altogether.
Human nature being what is, I don’t believe the practice will stop, and I’m going to make a couple of other bold predictions. I predict that within the next 10 years the opportunity to make any money from self-publishing will have ceased to exist. No one will be able to get a book on Amazon or listed for sale anywhere else unless they have a traditional publisher. Self-publishing will go the way of the web content mills of the late 1990s and early 2000s that disappeared when too many writers started getting involved. Self-publishing is rapidly falling victim to its own popularity. The more people who jump on the bandwagon trying their hand at making a fast buck from writing and self-publishing books, the sooner the opportunity will disappear for everyone.
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If you are thinking about writing and self-publishing a book, you owe to yourself to go into it with your eyes open. You need to understand and accept that there are some cold hard truths about it that you better be aware of unless you want to suffer some real discouragement and disappointment.
Please tune in next time when I’ll present five signs that indicate the golden goose of self-publishing has probably already been cooked. Despite the ridiculous claims that abound in the Indie world that now is the best time ever to be a self-published author, I’m going to reveal some reasons why it’s actually the worst time.
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May 2, 2017
Come What May Novel Audiobook Available Soon
Producer Michael Hanko has completed the audiobook version of the Come What May novel, the first book in the Malone Mystery Novels series. The audiobook is now passing through ACX and Audible quality assurance checks. It should go on sale on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes in 10-14 business days.
After reviewing the full audiobook, I couldn't be more pleased with it. Michael is a professional producer in every respect and the audiobook is a first class quality production. If you like audiobooks, I hope that you will give Come What May a listen. I don't think you will be disappointed.
I'll post a notice on the home page of the website as soon as the audiobook is in distribution.
April 26, 2017
Come What May Novel Featured by BookWorks
BookWorks.com, a Publishers Weekly partner, is an international community for self-publishing authors and the professionals and companies who serve them. They help their members prepare, publish, and promote their books. BookWorks members include first-time authors and seasoned pros, as well as experienced service providers and indie publishing experts who share their insider knowledge and guidance.
You cannot imagine how astonished I was when I received an email from BookShout this morning, notifying me that I had been selected as one of their featured authors. It is a true honor because it isn't something an author can apply for. BookWorks makes the selections. What I find most pleasing about the selection is that in a real sense it is recognition from my Indie peers.
In addition to the nifty BookWorks Featured Author Medallion that I can proudly display on the cover of the Come What May novel, BookWorks also created a very attractive featured author page for me on their website.
April 24, 2017
Book Launch: Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair
Few things are as important to a successful book launch as early reviews. To get things underway, I’m giving away 5 FREE eBook copies of FAIR IS FOUL AND FOUL IS FAIR to the first 5 people willing to read the book and post a short, honest review on Amazon. I know it’s a big ask. I’m asking you for the most valuable thing we all have, time. But I’m hoping there are 5 generous people out there willing to gift me a little of their time. I’d be so appreciative for your support of my book launch. Interested? If so, read on.
If you’re willing to read and post a short review, giving your honest opinion of my book, beginning April 25, you can download the book free at Smashwords.com. Just click or visit www.smashwords.com/books/view/717131, and choose the eBook format you want. Available ebook formats include epub mobi (Kindle) pdf lrf pdb txt html.
Enter the coupon code KR33H (not case-sensitive) prior to completing your checkout to receive the book for free. The coupon code expires once it has been used five times to download the book. If you’re interested, please act fast.
If you’ve never downloaded a book from Smashwords, it’s easy and you can easily transfer the book to your iPad, Kindle, Nook, or Kobo reader. For instructions on how to that, click or visit www.smashwords.com/about/supportfaq
If you wish to post a review on Smashwords, or Goodreads, that would be great and most appreciated, but that’s optional. What I’m really asking for is a review posted on Amazon within the next two weeks, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble. Anyone can leave a review on Amazon, whether they have bought the product or not. But per Amazon guidelines, do include a simple disclosure statement at the end of your review like “I received a complimentary review copy of this book.”
Just to be clear, if you choose to read and review the book, I really do want your candid opinion. It’s fine if you wish to only say you like the book or didn’t like it. But if you’re willing to say what you liked or didn’t like, that’s very valuable feedback that can help me write a better book next time. Of course, I do hope you’ll find my book a great read, but if you hate it, please say so in your review. I promise you won’t hurt my feelings. I will appreciate you taking the time to review the book whether your review is positive or not.
If you simply don’t have the time for a read and review, please consider sharing this post with your social media followers. The more people that read it, the better chance we can get those crucial early reviews. Here is a sample Tweet you could share.
For a #FREE eBook copy of FAIR IS FOUL AND FOUL IS FAIR by Larry Darter bit.ly/2pVMwud #BookGiveaway #mystery
Thanks so much for reading this post and for considering lending your support to my book launch.
April 20, 2017
You Can Still Read Come What May Free at Reading Deals Review Club
In a previous post, "Reading Deals: A Great Place to Get Free Kindle Books," I introduced Reading Deals Review Club, perhaps one of the best-kept secrets in the reading world. I'm a club member and just love it. It's such a fabulous way to discover new, talented Indie authors.
While the site may be well known as a great place to pick up terrific eBooks at bargain prices, many of those same books can be read absolutely free by readers willing to post a brief review on Amazon after reading them.
Joining the Reading Deals Review Club is easy. The sign-up process is quick, intuitive, and painless.
One thing I really love about the review club is that Reading Deals sends the books directly to my Kindle since I provided them with my Kindle email at sign-up.
Once you "check out" a free book from the review club, you have 28 full days to read the book and post your review. After posting the review, you then return to the site to provide the link to your review.
Reading Deals even makes that part easy by providing a free tool that will locate and confirm submission of your review automatically, saving you the trouble of finding the permalink and uploading it manually.
Read Come What May for FREE
With my newest novel, Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair, the second book in The Malone Mystery Series, being released in just five more days, on April 25, I thought I'd mention something. You can still read Come What May, the first in the Ben Malone series free by joining the Reading Deals Review Club.
Unfortunately, I can't provide you a direct link to the book on Reading Deals because you must be a member before you can see the books available for review. But you can find it easily after joining the club. Just click on the Mystery genre and then page down to find it.
If you love to read as much as I do, and you don't mind writing and posting a brief review on Amazon after reading a great book, then do click or visit Reading Deals Review Club today and start reading some really good books absolutely free.
Of course, if you decide to join the review club, I'd be so appreciative if you choose to read and review my book, Come What May.
April 17, 2017
Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair Available for Pre-order
Pre-order Fair is Foul and Foul Is Fair eBook at a Discounted Price
The pre-order price for this second book in the Ben Malone Mystery Novel series is only $ 1.99. The discounted price offer is good until midnight, April 24, 2017, when the book will increase to the regular list price, $2.99.
For the benefit of those who may be interested in pre-ordering the book, but haven't ever pre-ordered a book before, here is how it works. Go to the Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair book page at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Kobo. Click the buy button and enter your payment information. Your credit or debit card won't actually be charged until the release date which is when the eBook will actually be delivered to your reading device. In this case, on April 25.
Print Version to be Released on the Same Day
The image above is the cover for the paperback version of the book, which will also be released on April 25. The print book will be available at Amazon and most book stores.
Below are the links to all the eBook retailers that have the book available for pre-order. Just click a button.
