K. Victoria Chase's Blog, page 3

Instafreebie: Mailing List Success

I paid quite a bit for Mark Dawson’s Facebook Ads for Author course, and I recommend it. However, I haven’t discovered the right mix to make my ads to work well, but that doesn’t mean the information in that course isn’t gold. While I continue to master that beast, I need an easy win when it comes to building my mailing list–the only marketing tactic that is proving successful time and time again for authors.

Instafreebie.

For $20 a month, I’m giving away a free book or two to eager readers willing to sign up to my mailing list. That’s a flat fee for “quality” signups. I’ve been using Instafreebie since October. After my free month trial–where I had gained new subscribers–I continued as a paying member and I’ve been happy with my results.

New Subscribers (Verified/Unverified).

October (30th-31st Part of my free month): 15/0

November (1st-28th Part of my free month): 191/41

December: 1270/213

January: 1166/185

February: 1044/130

March: 628/60

April (1st-9th): 276/49

Total (Verified/Unverified): 4590/678

Instafreebie Total (Verified/Unverified): 3510/442*

*Not sure why my math is so off from what Instafreebie is giving me. I’ve sent Instafreebie a message asking to explain the discrepancy. I even subtracted the unverified from the verified and still didn’t get 3510. I vaguely recall someone posting on Facebook about this issue, but I’d have to do some searching to be sure. Will update when I have an answer.

Going off of Instafreebie’s numbers, I’ve spent $100 and each VERIFIED subscriber has cost me approximately $0.028. This isn’t including UNVERIFIED subs, who tried to subscribe but for some reason–misspelled email, undelivered, etc.–their subscription wasn’t recorded. I’ve amassed  total unverified subs. Authors will debate whether or not to add unverified subs to their mailing lists, as it’s possible theses aren’t “interested” subscribers. I’ve added most of them to my list and my attrition and open rates will explain why.

Attrition Rate.

Verified Imported Subscribers: 3131

Unsubscribed: 414

Unverified Imported Subscribers: 306

Unsubscribed: 54

As of April 9th, I’ve only lost about 13% of verified subs and 17% of unverified subs since October. This might seem high, but I’ve if you look at the cost of each subscriber, it only raises it to $0.0319. Each time I send a newsletter, about 25+ unsubscribe from both lists combined. That can be quite a shock to your system and ultimately depressing, but it’s akin to an instant culling of your list. You don’t want people subscribed who aren’t interested in you or your books.

Subscriber “Quality.”

Do these new subscribers actually open my newsletters? In truth, they do a much better job than those who’ve found my mailing list through my books/website/Amazon/other. Of the last 5 newsletters–not including today’s–I’ve averaged the following opening rates:

Verified Subscribers: 49.68%

Unverified Subscribers: 45.64%

Main Mailing List (787 subscribers): 37%

Although with each newsletter there is a drop in open rate, subscribers from Instafreebie–people who don’t know me and are not familiar with my work–are more likely to open my newsletter than those subscribers who have been with me much much longer. Of course, my most loyal fans open my newsletters all the time. If you don’t like these numbers, industry average is about 22%, according to Mailchimp.

I’ve found using an email sequence on these new subscribers increased my unsubscribe rate. I haven’t discovered the right approach to really make these readers fans, but so far less is better.

How I Attract Readers.

The best advice I can give is to participate in monthly cross promotions with other authors. Each author sends a newsletter to their mailing list promoting the free books. I only signup for one cross promo a month so as to not inundate my readers with newsletter “ads” about books that aren’t mine.

Will your readers get tired of these promotions? Of course a few will, but others will appreciate receiving notice about other free books they might enjoy from authors they may never have known existed. And I chose promotions that involve books that match my readers’ tastes.

Instafreebie asks you to promote your giveaway on multiple social media platforms, but I question the effectiveness of this practice. It might get eyes on your giveaway, and maybe a few signups, but mostly I allow the cross promotions do the work for me. The 80/20 rule.

You aren’t limited to novels; you can give away a novella, and even a sample of a novel. Pick a great book with an awesome cover. When you set up your giveaway, make it public to have the widest reach. You can limit by date and number of copies, if you want to experiment.

Instafreebie allows you to try their service free for 30 days. Why not give it a shot? Remember, I gained about 200 verified subscribers in that first free month and that was WITHOUT cross promoting; just near daily promoting on social media.

I’m going to continue using Instafreebie with the hope of gaining more quality subscribers. Time will tell if these subscribers continue on with reading my other books and whether or not they’ll be interested in my upcoming release.

Photo Credit: businessboutique.com

 

Losing Joy

Recently, I had my monthly meeting with my business accountability partner and I had to explain why I didn’t meet my writing goal for the month of March. After I essentially said I had no excuse, my partner stated something that hit the nail on the head:

“It sounds like you’ve lost your joy.”

Exactly. Writing has once again become a chore for a number of reasons that don’t have anything to do with actually writing, but affect it nonetheless. So this month’s goal is to get back to basics regarding why I love to write and to have laser-like focus on that alone. Forget about everything else that is causing negativity to build to a point where it’s a struggle to write. This means I’ll have to make some changes about my own daily habits that fuel the negativity.

Today, I was listening to Dave Ramsey’s podcast and he mentioned the joy of business is lost when hope for its success is gone. Although I’ve often asked myself why I’m still publishing, I haven’t reached the point of no hope. Probably never will. Some things, yes, but I can’t see it happening for publishing. I’ll be adjusting my business practices (already started last month) with the belief that hope will grow!

It starts with one right decision, and then eating the elephant a little at a time. And I love to eat. Every day choose joy, then complete the next action step that takes you closer to your goal.

Have you recently entered a season in your life where the joy you used to have has now diminished? Have you recovered from that moment or season of little joy? What are your going to do to choose joy and not disappointment/discouragement?

Photo Credit: http://www.quotemaster.org/

Coming Soon!

It’s been awhile since I’ve published a novel. Last year, I moved from Virginia to middle-of-nowhere Northamptonshire, England for work. It’s been a busy six months settling in and then finishing my latest masterpiece (hehehe). My goal this year is to publish at least four full length novels. I’m patiently waiting for my cover artist to send me the mock ups for my first ever historical romance.

Now, this isn’t your typical historical romance. It’s set in 1930s Nazi Germany. It’s by far the most complex storyline I’ve ever written, and I’m really proud of it. Interwoven through the romance is the history of what was happening in the years prior and leading up to the 1936 Olympics. It’s going to tackle a few issues that you’ll be introduced to in the first book. That’s right; this is a three-book series.

If you haven’t joined my V.I.P. Facebook group, then you’ll miss out on a special surprise I’ll only post there for my most loyal and ardent fans. These are readers who strive to read every one of my books and I want to reward them for it.

So, ready for a sneak peek? 

Willie eased a few inches closer to Henry, who tucked his right arm closer to his body, her hand in the crook of his elbow. One more flight of stairs and they would be on her floor. She slowed her pace and he matched it, and they took the last few steps slower than a toddler learning to climb stairs.

“You were masterful tonight, Willie. I love to hear you play. It’s quite distracting, actually.”

Willie giggled. “Distracting, huh? I hope not while we’re performing.”

“Yes, while we’re on stage.” Henry shared in her merriment. “Sometimes I forget what measure we’re in, especially when you have a solo.” Rays of respect and affection shone like white light in his dark eyes. “You play so beautifully, Willie. It’s like…” His voice trailed off and his gaze flickered over her face. “Like I’m viewing a part of your soul.”

Feeling the weight of his sentiment in the form of heat searing up her neck and pooling into her cheeks, Willie dipped her chin. Her hair couldn’t hide the embarrassment she felt, as it was smoothed back into small pin curls near the nape of her neck. She couldn’t very well use the light teal satin shawl around her shoulders to cover her face; she’d look silly.

“No, don’t…don’t hide your face from me.” A thin finger, perfect for playing a stringed instrument, hooked beneath her chin and lifted it until her eyes met his. “The floor doesn’t deserve so much attention, and I am jealous of it.” He grinned lopsidedly. “You have no reason to be embarrassed by the truth. We’ve known each other long enough to be able to speak our minds to one another, haven’t we?”

“We have,” she whispered.

“Then allow me to compliment you. Your skill enhances our group, not to mention the selection of pieces you’ve suggested. Our repertoire has definitely improved since you joined us.”

“Thank you, Henry.” This time she felt no discomfiture at his unabashed praise. “Thank you for putting up with me. Sometimes I think I overstep, and if I need to be reminded of my place—”

“Your place? Your place is as an equal among the rest of us.”

“Equal? I don’t have seniority—”

“You’ve earned seniority with your excellent contributions. We are definitely a better group with you.”

“I think you’re a touch biased.”

He squeezed her hand. “No, I don’t think so. Am I?” Long, seductive lashes touched in a wink.

For the first time in a while, Willie’s stomach did a flip. Although she had kissed him, Henry had set a slow pace in their courtship. She wasn’t sure if it was because she had startled him with their first kiss—it wasn’t her fault; Klaus had made her restless to compare the two—or if it was just a consequence of his timid nature. Either way, the adagio tempo had afforded her the freedom to fall in deeper…fondness of him.

And being away from Germany—and Klaus—had weakened her emotional connection to the journalist.

The ease with which she was able to focus on Henry—to really give him her full attention—hadn’t surprised her at all. They had been friends for so long now. Guilt pricked her for dismissing him so early after their first romantic dinner. Too soon had she opened herself to the possibility of Klaus being…

Being what, exactly?

They couldn’t be together, the idea was ludicrous. A Nazi? Or at least a sympathizer…

Public Service Announcement: STOP SPAMMING ME

I get it.

You have a business and you need to pull clients out of the woodwork. The world is at your fingertips, and so is my email. If you don’t have clients you don’t survive, and email is so quick and easy, reaching your target market in the murky ocean waters you’re trying to navigate.

As an author, I could potentially be a client; I need advertising don’t I? I mean, I have to sell books or I don’t survive as I’m an independent publisher. I know authors struggling to publish their latest gems to eager readers, and even one who won’t be publishing at all for the foreseeable future because the sales aren’t there to justify the expenses we incur publishing our own material. With so many service options out there, it would be nice to find a business offering exactly what I need. I would be PERFECT for your business.

And the dozens of others that send me emails nearly weekly.

Are you all finding my contact information on my website and then feel it’s an invitation to send me a long introductory letter about your business? I really want to connect with my readers, and any agents or movie producers…

I have yet to use a service that has sent me an unsolicited email. I immediately feel annoyed and either mark the email as spam or delete it. I’ve actually received multiple emails from a single company and have had to send a reply asking them to stop spamming me.

So just don’t start.

Rant over.

I’ve now updated my About page to state that soliciting emails will be deleted.

Readers, agents, producers, other writers–I want to hear from you!

Is It Too Late To Say Happy New Year?

Happy New Year!

Okay, so I said Happy New Year in my last post, although it was in a sarcastic tone.

Yes, I’m still alive and writing. It’s been a while since I’ve blogged (well, just a week, but before that it was a long time) and I’ll be more consistent this year; it’s one of my goals.

Goals. I’ve decided on my writing goals for this year. If all goes well, I’ll finish five books this year with the hopes of publishing four. I’m in the final stages of editing one and the plan is to release it in March. It’s a historical romance I’ve been working on for months and will be the longest book published to date. It’s the first book in a bold new series that will introduce readers to history not well known, unless you love studying this particular era and real-life enemy character. Subscribe to my Facebook V.I.P. group for special sneak peeks into the story.

I’m connecting with other authors this year and hope to introduce you to many more books. If you subscribe to my newsletter, then you’ve already had an opportunity to download over 100 free ebooks and enter into contests to receive ereaders. Sign up now as I’ll be sending out two newsletters in the coming weeks about more books as well as introducing you to another author.

I’ve been living here in England for nearly five months and haven’t been sick with the crud yet–as so many have. It just circulates in my building as the gift that keeps on giving. I. Don’t. Want. It. My body is quite exhausted and desirous to succumb to illness, so I’m going to bed soon to rest. Don’t forget to like me on Facebook for all the latest news!

All Romance Ebooks Closure~The Shade

I’m pretty late with this post, and most of you probably know all about this drama. It’s continuing to evolve and I’d like to share my thoughts since I’m one of the authors that lost money in this fiasco.

On December 28, 2016, I was sitting in my warm living room with my visiting parents–I’m in England–when I received the email about the closure of a popular ebook platform: All Romance Ebooks. My books have been active on that site on and off for a couple of years now. Some months I made pizza party money, and others barely enough to buy a cup of coffee; okay, a venti cup.

In the email, the company president–Lori James–said ARe would be unable to pay fourth quarter royalties (isn’t that money supposed to be in a separate account? Where did it go? I digress already…) and the storefront would close by midnight December 31st. Furthermore, ARe proposed I take a settlement of $0.10 on the dollar for any sales made until December 27th.

Remember earlier when I said I received this email on December 28th? Oh, recall that the store wasn’t going to close until December 31st? What about sales made after the 27th? No settlement deal on sales made during the last four days of the month?

Before I get into whether or not I took the settlement, let’s examine a few more issues.

Authors reported receiving solicitation emails to PURCHASE ADS ON THE ARe SITE FOR 2017–some costing $2000.00–days before the closure notice. Perhaps this was an automated email. Regardless, those running this business more than likely knew they were going to shut it down before those emails were sent. Should’ve pressed the cancel button on that automation. Just sayin’. ‘Cause it looked like ARe was trying to get people to give them more money before it closed up shop for good.
Readers received a similar closure email, only it stated that they better back up their files and use their rebates ASAP. As I understood the rebate system–and I could totally be wrong so someone correct me–authors were still supposed to receive FULL 65% royalties on rebate sales. Not anymore.
Authors reported the site “crashing” as they tried to deactivate/delete their ebook files as we suspect everyone was on that site trying to delete accounts, use rebates, and back up files. I deactivated my books right after I read that email so the likelihood of any future sales should be zero, right? Maybe.
On the 31st, I tried to download my sales report and wasn’t allowed to see anything past the 27th. Who knows what I sold? Futhermore, other authors–including myself–noticed a sharp decline in book sales recently and are questioning the reports their seeing on the website. Audit, anyone?
Authors who were DIRECTLY CONTRACTED BY ARe were told to accept the settlement or the rights to their books would be withheld. Wow. I mean, they wrote the books and your business is bust. Might as well give the rights back since everything else is basically lost. But, getting people to take the settlement would rule out being sued later on by those same people and probably bankruptcy–which the president wrote in her email that she was trying to avoid.
Then there’s this whole thing about the president being sued just two years ago for allegedly forcing the comptroller out of her position and yada yada yada, breach of fiduciary duties, yada yada yada, unjust enrichment. No, that doesn’t seem to be a problem; not at all.

Sure, royalties should’ve been kept separate from other business accounts to avoid this very thing. We don’t know how Lori James conducted business behind closed doors; we only see the results. Authors report earnings lost in the thousands. We’re talking over $10,000.00 for a single author just in fourth quarter 2016. Nearly $100,000.00 in total losses has been reported by a few authors.

On the upside, some authors are reporting that ads purchased for 2017 have been refunded in full.

No, I didn’t take the settlement. Yes, I’m aware that a civil case would likely mean I’m out of pocket more money than I lost and I’ll never see that dime offered to begin with. Just last week, a class action lawsuit has been filed in the state of Florida where the business is registered.

This new year started with a bang. Another revenue stream gone and it looked shady as it left. What does this all mean? Indie authors have to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of publishing. New storefronts will emerge from the steaming pile left by ARe promising a better, safer way to earn money. There’s no guarantee that this will never happen again to any of us. We could lose money to another business. We could also earn more too. The “secret” sauce has always been to write, publish, and repeat, along with growing your mailing list. That’s what I’ll be doing in 2017.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

FREEBIE!!

Hi!

As I write this, I'm in England about to go to their version of Walmart: Asda. Asda has these AMAZING buttermilk breakfast biscuits that look like Thomas English Muffins, only thicker, without the crannies, buttery-er, and just BETTER.

If you haven't gotten your FREE copy of RAFAEL, then click the link below! Share it with your friends. I'm writing sequel number...um, 4! DIEGO. How many brothers are there? You should read their stories to find out.

More news from England coming soon!

RAFAEL:
https://www.instafreebie.com/free/ob3Gl

If People Read Your Book, Your KDP Account Will Be Terminated

Source: https://the-active-voice.com/2016/06/...

Okay, so maybe my title is a bit shocking. Lemme explain…

As an author, you’ve decided to leverage sales from all other book publishing platforms and go all in with Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program. Maybe one person is reading your book (80 pages a day) and then, all of a sudden, your page reads skyrocket to the equivalent of $125 earned on one day (25,000 pages).

Did you forget about a scheduled promotion? Did someone post a great review on a blog and all of their followers started downloading and reading immediately? You have no idea, but you’re elated that your book is finally getting some traction.

The next day, you eagerly open you KDP dashboard for more results. At the same time, you check your email and see this from Amazon:

We are reaching out to you because we have detected that borrows for your books are originating from systematically generated accounts. While we support the legitimate efforts of our publishers to promote their books, attempting to manipulate the Kindle platform and/or Kindle programs is not permitted. As a result of the irregular borrow activity, we have removed your books from the KDP store and are terminating your KDP account and your KDP Agreement effective immediately.

As part of the termination process, we will close your KDP account(s) and remove the books you have uploaded through KDP from the Kindle Store. We will issue a negative adjustment to any outstanding royalty payments. Additionally, as per our Terms and Conditions, you are not permitted to open new KDP accounts and will not receive future royalty payments from additional accounts created.

Yeah, that happened to the author in the above article–probably not all the details of the story I laid out, but you get the gist.

Amazon’s customer service extends to customers of the site, not to business partners. Instead of reaching out and speaking with the author, instead of destroying a relationship and terminating legitimate sales–maybe Amazon doesn’t need that money–Amazon just shuts down the account and ghosts the author. Really. The bots told her the problem is being investigated, but by a real person? It can find a lower price of your book and update your product page within hours, but it takes days–with no end in sight–to investigate this?

But wait, if all the downloads are from “systematically generated accounts,” doesn’t that mean Amazon received payment for all of those “scammy” KU subscriptions? Did it refund the money to whoever opened those accounts (LOL)? Did it close all of those KU subscription accounts?

Well, if you’re an author struggling to get page reads, and then your poor book is the target of a scammer, your recourse is to go wide and build such an extensive platform that sales from Amazon don’t move your bottom line. Indie authors have had success with this strategy, with a few reporting their income from Apple and Kobo is greater than what they earn with Amazon.

Most of my books are in KU at least until the end of the summer. I’ve earned more while in the program than out, but it’s such a small amount that I’ve got to believe I can do better. It’s depressing otherwise…

YOU CAN’T FIGHT CITY HALL (OR THE ‘ZON). OR CAN YOU? (Reblogged)

Source: http://suzannevince.com/2016/04/you-cant-fight-amazon/

Another week, another blog post about Amazon and its janky review system (yes, “janky” is a word).

I’m not sure why the rumor “if you get 50 reviews on your book, then Amazon will start promoting it” is still going around. I just saw a question about its veracity on Facebook last week. Is Amazon really going to promote something that isn’t sitting at the top of the charts?

And I mean the overall Amazon rank chart, not #1 in some obscure category like:

Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Modernism

Or a book that isn’t rising through the ranks faster than a speeding bullet (still haven’t seen Batman v. Superman; my friends are giving me mixed reviews. That tomatometer tho…)?

I’ve never seen any brilliant form of advertising from Amazon when my books have hit 50+ reviews, and an Amazon-backed promotion would be noticed, right? It is the #1 online eCommerce giant.

The real meat of this blog post is the author’s battle with Amazon over having reviews “from total strangers” removed from her book’s product page because they “violate the grossly vague and completely open to interpretation that changes on a dime and for which there is no real guidance Customer Review Creation Guidelines.”

Twice the author’s book hit the 50 mark and twice her latest reviews were removed to just below 50. Thankfully, her book now has 54 reviews after a big push for readers to leave reviews. You can download her book for free here.

Ah, well. What are you going to do? Keep plugging along and hope Amazon’s microscope doesn’t find your glass slide. Meanwhile, when you do have something to report, Amazon will ignore it.

Amazon, you hit like a bitch. (Reblogged)

Source: http://neverendingbookbasket.com/2016...

Warning: Language in the original source blog post.

This is the story of a book blogger who’s spent quite a few dollars at Amazon, has pushed Amazon’s products, and then got banned from writing product reviews because, well, Amazon didn’t really explain.

I’ve had a similar experience with Amazon’s customer service–or lack thereof. After reporting a review that was in clear violation of Amazon’s review policy (the reviewer admittedly didn’t read my book and was one-starring it based on not liking the previous book in the series, for which she had also wrote a negative review about. I believe that’s called one-star bombing), I received this second reply:

“We will investigate the reviews and take the appropriate action. For privacy reasons, we cannot share the results of our investigation with you.”

Yeah, okay. This gets them off the hook from actually dealing with me, and obviously the book blogger. Since the review is still there, I guess that’s the result of the investigation; it stands. I only asked for the removal of the one-star that clearly stated she didn’t read the book. If she hated the previous book, then that’s fair–and she wrote a review for that product, which is her right. But a book she didn’t read? Can she one-star bomb other books she didn’t read because she hated one?

Well, life’s not fair.

In their first reply, Amazon quoted their customer service policy to me, which I had previously quoted to them in defense of my report. It is ridiculousness.

In Amazon’s efforts to cater to its customers, it forgets bloggers and authors are customers too. We buy from Amazon, and we sell on Amazon–which keeps the company in business. If Jeff Bezos had a problem and he went through the regular channels–and no one knew it was actually him–I don’t doubt he’d have the same issues.