Xavier Edwards's Blog, page 16

You Can’t Please Everyone

Picking my way through the various sites and reviews of my books recently, I was surprised to see a rating that was through the floor compared to the others I had received up to that point. I can understand when writing material that is borderline kink (for vanilla, it’s rather vanilla for those in the scene) that it can be confronting for some readers, but when I’m writing something that’s almost completely vanilla, it’s surprising.
Taking a closer look at the review and the other sorts of books that the reviewer is reading, it looks like they may have picked up my book by mistake as it is the only erotic title on their reading list. It’s good that I was their introduction to erotica, but I get the feeling they weren’t looking to read erotica.
Despite clearly stating in a number of locations that I write erotica and erotic romance, some sites don’t actually classify my books all that well. It would be useful if I could use BISAC codes or some similar classification means on those sites, but they don’t have anything like that.
I’m going to leave the review where it is, despite it dragging the overall rating for my book down a long way. I do want to thank the reviewer for actually taking the time to write the review, particularly given how much they didn’t like the title.

Returning to Nature Published

Finally, I’ve got my next title out with the retail sites. I was planning to release it a little earlier this week, but life got in the way of my plans.
“Returning to Nature” is a wonderful slice of life for a couple who are heading to the wilderness for a couple of days and in the process they discover their wilder, natural side.
No mobiles.
No flushing toilets.
No coffee.
No civilization.
No worries.
No problems finding inspiration from the natural beauty they find themselves in.
No problems discovering incredible physical ways to demonstrate that to each other.
It has been described as a wonderful little story by the proof reading pool, and it’s available now (with more retail sites to be added as they come online).

Book Updates

[image error] Wow, two updates in a single day, I really must be procrastinating. Either that, or I have been getting my social media presence in order. Yes. That must be it. The second one.
My personal Facebook page was mentioned a couple of posts ago. Now I have my author page set up, as well. I’ll be keeping the page more for the book announcements and keeping it relatively clear of the mundane ins and outs of my personal page.
What is more important is having each of my books with its own page, and also updating the list of sites where you can buy them, to correct for retail sites that are now listing some of them.
A Hero’s Return
Facebook GoodReads
The Special Scent
Facebook GoodReads
Tied in Knots
Facebook GoodReads
Seeking Something More
Facebook GoodReads
An Introduction to Sappho
Facebook GoodReads

To be an Author & Businessman

[image error] Continuing my theme of procrastination I thought I would take a closer look at what was happening with the various publishing houses and other sites that accept works from erotica and romance authors. What I found was frustrating more than anything else.
A lot of sites were offering royalty rates or flat fees that would amount to less than a quarter of what it costs to edit a script at commercial rates.
Exclusivity across the board was another sticking point. Forgoing reprint rights globally for up to 5-10 years is unacceptable in an environment where there is no guarantee that the site will even be around in 5-10 years.
It was sobering to note just how many erotica publishers disappeared in the last 10 years (many who failed to transition to online services), and how many retail sites have also disappeared in the last few years.
So, if the cost to me is reduced royalties and loss of publishing rights for an extended period, what possible attraction could there be to go with another publishing house?
Quite simply it would be exposure. The small following I am establishing through hard work could be obtained in greater numbers and with greater speed by going with an established publishing house. A quarter of something is better than three quarters of nothing, so the hope would be that over time the greater exposure would result in greater income.
What I have read a lot of in the past, is that authors with agents or smaller publishing houses find that they need to do quite a lot of their own marketing, so there’s no real benefit in that aspect.
At the moment I am getting titles distributed to a number of the major retail sites, and have worked out the various ins and outs of each system to ensure that exactly what I want to see published is. I am also working hard on increasing my fanbase and the number of titles published (especially at the short story length).
The only things that would change if I went with another publisher is that I wouldn’t have that control over where the titles are distributed, pricing, or ability to reprint / modify at will. That loss of control is a little bit too much for me at the moment. Perhaps a couple of titles in the future can be released under that approach, but not now.
On the upside, there are still a couple of publishers out there who, it seems, treat their authors with respect and actually give a really good boost to exposure for the tradeoffs associated with handing over a manuscript.
After all of that, might some of my upcoming titles be published through someone else? Who knows? For now, expect to see fortnightly short story releases at least until the end of September (next story should be out by the end of next week), published by me.

Socially Active

Okay, this one kind of does make me ashamed. I’ve taken quite a bit longer than I should have to get my social media stuff in one pile, but I’ve finally gotten a number of accounts set up, with a fairly common theme for naming across the different services, as well. That last bit was a surprise, given how long it’s taken me to get the accounts set up.
Perhaps it’s just my version of procrastination, keeping me from writing. I’ve still been getting story ideas throughout, so it hasn’t been a complete loss. I’m either found as Xavier Edwards (there’s an awful lot of them out there), or Aussierotica on a range of services. Either select from the list below, or check my Contact page for the list.
Facebook Twitter
Tumblr Google+ (G+)
I’ll save the other social media options for a little later on, but for now I’m joining everyone else, just a little later than I should.

Ashamed to be an Author

I only recently read about the shut down of the ebook lending site Lendink, following complaints from authors, seemingly mainly indie authors. It wasn’t just complaints, but legal threats against the hosting provider and the operator of the site, whose only crime was to allow ebook readers who wanted to use the lending feature of their devices connect with each other.
If that is enough to get a site shut down, then places like GoodReads should pay close attention to what has happened to LendInk. A vocal disaffected group of people can have far greater effect than is warranted, especially if they’ve failed to read their contracts properly in the first place.
It’s difficult enough to get readers, reviews, and awareness that I exist as an author without my fellow authors poisoning the common pot. I carefully read my contracts before I signed them and willingly added my books to the various lending programs that exist. I would also hazard a guess that more people have my books because I gave them away to people than have bought them.
I make sure that DRM-free copies are given away, so that people who want to share my work, can.
I strongly believe in a Right to Read (even if that link is a little bit extreme), and would be dismayed if my personal library of thousands of volumes could not be shared with others at my discretion, and would likewise be distraught if my rights as an author and rights holder were dismantled by the short-sighted, the greedy, and the close-minded.
Please, dear Reader, don’t let what happened to Lendink become the pattern for things to come for similar sites and services.

Inspiration Strikes

It’s something that if I could capture and sell, it would make me an absolute fortune. It is the inspiration and genesis of a new story or set of stories.
I’ve had a couple of stories that have emerged seemingly from nowhere, inspired by something that I can’t work out. More recently, something that’s been said or done has been the impetus for a story developing.
Fortunately for my readers who are waiting for longer stories, these ideas have ended up slotting in nicely with existing story nuclei. In a couple of cases, they have even provided the fleshing out for the story that was otherwise missing from my planning.
The most recent of my story ideas came to me while I was elbow deep in preparing dinner for the family. Why inspiration chose that moment to strike is unknown, but i’s going to result in quite an interesting story at the end of it.
Another story had been only a sentence for a couple of months, but all of a sudden I could see how the story was going to flow and it took on a much larger life than what I was expecting -- always a good thing and likely to result in a story that is longer than originally anticipated.

My Kingdom for an Agent

Well, not really - but it did catch your attention. I’m quite happily writing and publishing without an agent at the moment.
That’s not to say that I would turn down any approaches by an agent. Of course, if the right agreement could be reached, I would sign with an agent. I have distribution onto most major retail sites, so it would have to be a fairly good offer / level of service to attract my attention.
More upcoming releases have been returned from the editorial pool, so the next couple of months are looking really good for a series of releases around once a fortnight. As they’re all in the short story / short novella length, it’s going to work out well for those readers who just can’t get enough of my stories.
I’ve been looking back over the stories that have been published, those coming up for release soon, and those on the drafting pile. What I’ve noticed is that the word counts are slowly creeping up, on average.
For the readers who want more and longer stories, they’re in luck. I haven’t set out intentionally to write the longer stories, it’s just worked out that way. At least one or two shorter novellas (over 10,000 words) will be on the market before Christmas, and likely before the end of September.
I have also updated “An Introduction to Sappho” to reflect the sites the book can now be found on. There are other retail sites that are carrying the title by way of an aggregator. If you find it, let me know and I’ll update the list to reflect where it can be found.

Exciting Times

August is rapidly approaching and with it comes “Tied in Knots” as Book of the Month with the GoodReads Kinky World group. It’s going to be exciting and interesting to see the feedback and discussion that the book generates.
I have discovered a couple of readers who absolutely love my writing, and I absolutely adore having them as part of Xavier’s Harem. If I could write something just for them I dare say it would completely make their century.
Now that family emergencies have faded away, life has returned to some form of normalcy and with it comes a return to my normal rate of writing. The next batch of manuscripts are now in the hands of my editorial team, so there’s several new releases slated for the second half of the year.
More titles continue to take shape in the drafting pile and it is looking like this release schedule will be kept up for a little while longer, at least. I do promise my excited readers that I will go back and make some of their favourite shorts into longer stories but, for now, that’s where they’re having to stay.
I will also get around to updating my book pages soon to reflect the changes in the retail listings for them.
I have also got some ideas for a special surprise (or set of surprises) in the lead up to the Christmas period. My fans and Harem will absolutely love them, and I’m sure many others will enjoy them as well.
Right now, though, they’re just ideas.

Retail Delays

Even though “An Introduction to Sappho” was only released a couple of days ago, there are some issues holding up its distribution to all retail sites. Some sites have been really good in sending the title through the review process quickly. Others, not so much.
I’m expecting that, because it’s the weekend, things aren’t going to be resolved until at least the middle of the week, but it is frustrating to be running headlong into these problems again, after having taken steps and making sure that all previous issues were (and are) resolved.
That’s the reason why the books aren’t getting to everywhere that people have been buying them from.
I’m still getting feedback that my stories are wonderful, but are still too short. I appreciate the desire to be reading a lot more of some plot lines, but I have a mountain of story ideas to get written down, first. Once most of those have cleared, I’ll be sure to go back and flesh out some of the stories that people are most keen on.
The short story format is also allowing me to refine my writing skills so that I don’t waste the time of my readers in a longer format. So, all good things will come to those who wait.