Xavier Edwards's Blog, page 19

Another Retail Listing

I’ve gone through and fixed up my books on GoodReads. Now each of the different versions and published ISBNs is represented, which should make it a little bit easier for readers to find what particular version they’re looking for.
The first set of ISBNs has also been registered with the Titles in Print database, and I’m just waiting to see how they will be formatted before completing the remaining ISBNs in use.
I believe that the Kobo publishing issue is now all sorted, with the metadata submitted again, and now I’m just waiting for them to release the titles to retail, or identify something I’ve missed.
Both Amazon and Smashwords have approved the changed blurb for “A Hero’s Return” with the title going live again after less than 24 hours of review process.
The big news for today, though, is that my titles are now listed over at All Romance eBooks. Only the ePub versions are available there, but it’s another stream of retail that’s available. Check out the links from “A Hero’s Return” and “The Special Scent”, with each book’s page now including links to their pages over at All Romance eBooks.

New Stories Are With the Editor

After going back to the blurbs for my previously published titles, I realised that the only one that really needed changing was for “A Hero’s Return”. I’m now waiting for Amazon and Smashwords to approve the re-written blurb. A big thanks to some of the readers over at GoodReads who helped with the process.
A bundle of stories is now with my editor, ready to be processed, so I’m still on track for a series of releases later this month.
The other big issue that has been plaguing me has been why my ONIX feeds to Kobo haven’t been working (what’s been holding up the publishing of my works over there).
In the end, I’ve now switched back to their alternative notification method and will be sorting out the ONIX issue later on.
For now, though there is at least a way forward to getting my books listed there.

Some Amendments Needed

Within the next couple of days, a whole pile of manuscripts will be headed for my editor and have been looking at additional editorial passes for later works. The search is going slower than I would have hoped, because there’s plenty of editors out there, but not so many who are happy to edit erotica, erotica written by males, or short stories. The few I have found will probably enter the editorial pool once I get scripts ready for that part of the publishing process.
Based on the feedback received in a couple of forums online, I have realised that the teasers for my published books aren’t as far into the erotica spectrum as they need to be, and the cover art is okay, but very tame compared to much of what is out there.
I think a bit of reassessment of the way my first two books are identified online will help, but I need to be careful that they don’t cross the line for publishing sites like Amazon and iTunes, where titles need approval for listing and can be arbitrarily delisted if they go too far.
At the least, I can improve what’s out there and look to improve what comes next in the process.

A Busy Weekend & Free Books

[image error] Since my last post, I’ve now got my nice new ISBNs, and have sorted out my book samples on sites that didn’t auto-generated them.
One of the issues I have discovered on GoodReads is that the ISBN they have listed for the published titles is only for the general ePub release, and when they link to Amazon and the iBookstore, they don’t find the actual book release, because they don’t have those variants on there. It’s all my problem, because I was responsible for getting the titles on there in the first place, but I’ll need to fix it up, nonetheless.
I also discovered the power of tagging books on Amazon, so both published books should now be showing up in searches properly.
I am giving away copies of my published books for free between now and 0001 AEST on Monday June 11, 2012.
The main threads covering this are on GoodReads, but if you can’t see them or are otherwise unable to get to them, then read on.
To get your copy(ies), all you need to do is email me, telling me why you want my books in 50 words or less, and in what format you want them. You will receive your book(s) by return email.
Surely there’s a catch, though? No. If you like them, perhaps consider reviewing them / recommending them on, but for now, it’s all about giving readers something to enjoy.

Watch Out For Punctuation

Punctuation. I didn’t think it would be such a big problem, but some of the sites that track this blog’s progress struggled on the last post, most likely because it finished on an exclamation mark. It’s one of those things, having written software in the past, that is stumbled across from time to time. You have to make a decision how to process incoming information and you select certain characters or combinations of characters as filters / end markers. It works great in testing, only to find the real world doesn’t work as well as your testing environment. Quite obviously, it’s a problem with the real world and not the testing.
I received some interesting feedback from one of my proof reading team in the last couple of days. This particular proof reader doesn’t read erotica other than when I pass along a manuscript for review. The first bit of feedback that really cheered me was that they would happily buy that particular manuscript when it was published.
For someone who avoids the genre completely, even going so far as to skip sections of their other romance novels that are similar, it’s quite an endorsement. The second piece came on another recently developed script, with the feedback being that it resulted in quite a definite real world outcome.
With such endorsement, I might have to change my plans for which stories are released next. Or, I could just accelerate the release program so that there is less time between the next few titles.
As the sidebar indicates, I completed another story today, effectively from scratch. There was a little bit of framework in place before today, but when I finished it was a whole new story that sat there. I seem to be on a bit of a writing streak at the moment, so I’ll see what I can do to keep it going on.
I just hope my new bundle of ISBNs turn up soon, or else I’ll be in the position of having to order even more, having used them all up before I got them. My editor is also going to be busy for a while. Look for the next set of stories in the next couple of weeks.

I Have Fans!

Today started well. I received notification that I now have at least one fan (at least one that is willing to state it publicly). Thank you to that special reader.
I also added to my available pool of proof readers, so I’ve also managed to improve the works that are yet to be published.
My biggest surprise today was the complete creation of a story from scratch. In the past I’ve used the rule of thumb of around 1,500 words a day being a good figure for writing, especially if it’s quality writing.
Today, I well and truly blew through that figure, especially when I spent some time tidying up some other works, and time running around doing the normal sort of things that take up time during the day.
I’m quite proud of the effort and I’m now trying to work out where it’s going to go in the list of titles that are building up for release.
In addition to having to wait for my editor to be ready for my new scripts, I have to wait for my next set of ISBNs to arrive, so I can allocate them to the new titles as they are ready to publish.

New Books On the Way

An unavoidable delay with my editor means that my next couple of books will probably arrive at the same time, around mid to late June. That’s not a problem, as it gives me more time to make sure that the books delivered really are as polished as they can be.
I’m not going to give away too many clues about their content, except to say that for one of them, it’s going to have you tied up in knots, while the other might have you seeking something more once you’ve finished reading it.
With new additions to my proof reading pool I have added to the sets of eyes that get to read the stories before they are published - every little bit of assistance beforehand helps with the product that you all get to read at the end.
Another couple of stories have started to develop over the weekend and are already three-quarters complete. They build on concepts that have been sitting around for some months now and are developing nicely into fun little stories.
If you’d like to engage with me in discussions, why not drop into GoodReads, or my page over at Amazon.

Opinions - Everyone Gets One

I was traipsing around the Amazon Customer forums when I stumbled across one on Badly Behaving Authors. After reading through a number of the posts, I came to a rather depressing conclusion. There are far too many people out there who don’t follow any sort of professional or ethical behaviour, and many of those call themselves authors (particularly Indie self-published authors).
Even when I provided a couple of comments, the minute I identified as an author, there were accusations of self-promotion. It seems that there are some authors and reviewers (or at least some participants in the particular discussion) who are happy to blame the other for the situation when both should shoulder blame for it.
Out of all of this are a few points to note for my readers and prospective readers. Firstly, I will never pay for a review. If that means I have books that sit around without any reviews, then I’ll have to live with that. Secondly, I will never delete a critical review. I’ve seen my fair share of criticism of my writing, but at the same time I’ve seen praise as well.
If I didn’t have a thick enough skin or the maturity to handle criticism, I shouldn’t have become an author, let alone one in a field where very personal fantasy is the order of the day and it doesn’t take much for one person’s valid fantasy to be disturbing to another.
With all of that now water under the bridge, I have started working on getting my next book ready for publishing. The manuscript will be heading to my editor soon enough, and it will only be a matter of a few days from receiving it back to publishing.
Another artist has graciously licenced their imagery to the site and for use in ebook covers, please support them:
DarkGomo

Floods Begin With a Trickle

The iBooks versions of my books are now live on iTunes, with the book pages, “A Hero’s Return”, and “The Special Scent” updated to reflect the change in availability.
So far things have been travelling slowly in terms of reader interest, with this blog pretty much the main thing I am doing to promote my works. There is more promotion, advertising and awareness work being planned, but for now the blog is it.
I have distributed a couple of gratis copies to some people who have helped out in their own way, and have made sample versions available on most retail sites, so there are copies of my works being passed around.
In the last few days I have seen quite a significant step up in the interest in my books, with more downloads of the samples from sites that give me daily updates. On sites that have longer term tracking, there is also a nice uptick, but it will probably be another week or so before I see those results.
Also on the promotion front, I have established an account over at Goodreads. For now, though, I’m in the midst of relying on word of mouth to spread my works.
When I have a few more titles through the publishing process, the marketing juggernaut will start unfolding. It doesn’t seem right to do it when there’s only a couple of titles out there.
Here’s hoping, though, that the uptick of interest continues, and I get my next title published soon.

Almost All There

Okay, so despite uploading amended books to Google, only one has actually updated the descriptive content in Google Play, so I’m at a bit of a loss as to what’s happening with the other title even after checking that I did update the book.
My ONIX template wasn’t as good as I first thought. Somehow some smart quotes crept in and it threw out the automated processing tool that was trying to validate them. A little bit of amendment and it should have all been fixed - again...
We’ll have to wait and see the results after the weekend, but it’s possible that the latest iteration has been accepted.
There has been some better news from the iTunes bookstore - I finally have been published there. Initially it was only the ePub versions of my books that were appearing. Somehow I missed the direction that I had to create a sample for my .ibooks versions before they could be published and the error codes I had encountered weren’t telling me what I had done wrong. It has all been addressed now, and both versions will soon be live on iTunes.
As I write this post, the iBooks version hasn’t yet gone live, but it has been greenlighted, so it’s a matter of the caches updating. My iTunes Author page is here. While that link points to the Australian iTunes Store page for me, when it opens in iTunes, it will automatically correct to your local store. Look on my book pages, “A Hero’s Return”, and “The Special Scent” for links directly to the books.
I spent much of today driving to a rather special second hand bookstore that is absolutely crammed full of books. I eventually found what amounted to their section on sex, love, and whatever erotica they had (nil). Many of the books were decades old and had the wonderful musty smell of ageing paper and old ink.
While I didn’t purchase anything from the section, it was worthwhile to see just how much the school of thinking about sex, love, and erotica has moved forward over the years.
Another artist has granted permission for use of their works, selections of which you can see associated with this post. Please support them as with the other artists.
LauraDK