Reb MacRath's Blog, page 35

My first Unretired Review

My first new review has gone Live on Amazon.

Subject: a stunning little story by Rebecca Scarberry, entitled Rag Do..It's a quick but memorable read from a rising star. Have a look! 

(Since neither Amazon reviews nor links will copy to this blog, you'll need to retype the link below to get to the book--sorry, but the effort's worth it.  


http://tinyurl.com/chpcbhp

                                                    -------------------------


Now, then, the review:

It's always great to watch a terrific new talent at the start of his/her career. Rebecca Scarberry began with a novella (or, I'd say, a short novel) starring--you ready?--a pigeon. And the author turned some heads with her blend of YA/Mystery/Suspense/Humor. Now., for her follow-up, she's scaled back still further in length: a short story that can be read easily in a single sitting. Rag Doll tells a story of love, infidelity, betrayal and loss with great simplicity and power...then caps it off with a twist worthy of O. Henry. In scaling back, this author seized the chance to nail down the narrative basics, pacing and tone, before moving on to her first full-length novel.

I enjoyed this sprint immensely--and look forward to her first marathon run.

In which I rrrrrreally retire from retiring from reviewing--my way.

I have zero interest in trashing other writers' books or in harming their prospects for sales. But I have a good deal of interest in helping promote books I dig.

I plan to reduce the number of my Amazon reviews. I'll do them rarely and those I do will be my call. More often, I'll review books on this blog, where I'm free of the 'star system'. Here I'm free to shine my light on qualities that I admire without flogging an author for flaws I perceive.

I'll do more of the 'roundups' I did way back when and supplement those with bulletins of new books coming soon.

In general, I'll play it by ear and hope for the best. The first new review will appear this week and a second in the following week.

Till then!

Reb

On Gifting vs. Giveaways

I've spent most of my life as a writer learning how to take readers by surprise. But I've done something totally different with the launch of APRIL YULE: I've finally taken myself by surprise.

Did I hear someone ask: How'd you do that? Thank you, friend, for asking.

To celebrate my first anny as an ebook author, I did the exact opposite of what I'd done for the previous four ebooks. For each of those I'd staged repeated Free Events, sometimes for just one book and sometimes for two or three. I'd succeeded in giving away about 50 copies for #1, The Vanishing Magic of Snow. Numbers improved a bit with each event until, last December, thousands of downloads resulted. A groundswell of interest had started to build.

Then again, I hadn't made a penny from the books. I'd experimented, for a couple of months, with lowering the price point: from 2.99 to .99. Impact: none at all. Undaunted, I rewrote my Amazon product descriptions, paying far more attention to keywords. Too soon to say yet if that tactic will work. While I waited to see, it made sense to ponder if consistent giveaways might have been costing me sales.

If readers had grown accustomed to getting free giveaways of all my work, why would they bother to pay?

April Yule had special importance for me--and I chose to not give it away. What if I paid for the privilege of getting this book into the hands of writers whose work I had come to admire? What if I did this without any strings--no requests that they review the book, no sense that they owed me a favor? I wanted the gifting to have a sense of purity about it. And I could accomplish this more easily if I paid to send it as an ebook, not Word doc.

I have a clean feeling about this. Rather than giving away the store, I staged a sort of open house for as many groovy writers as I can afford to feed.

Drinks on me. Enjoy the book. I'm glad I got to know you.

Coming Wednesday: Gifting vs. Giveaways

A warm and cozy, candid chat about why I chose not to stage a giveaway event for APRIL YULE...and to pay for the privilege of gifting copies to writers I admire instead.

There'll be ample food for thought...so come hungry for a short essay on a radically different approach. From the heart and not the head or any online marketing primer.

Till then!

It's here!

Ladies and gents, APRIL YULE has just gone Live on Amazon:

http://tinyurl.com/c8hscph

Though it's not a horror novel, it puts to good use what I learned as Kelley Wilde in that genre. Better still, it fuses that with what I've learned as Reb MacRath.

This one's for you. And you were firmly in my mind with every page I wrote. I hoped to do five things at once: thrill, delight, astonish, move and inspire you.

Readers often ask: Which book of yours should I read first? I'm proud of them all, but from here on I'll answer without hesitation:

'No decision. April Yule.'

Enjoy!

New 5-star review for Southern Scotch

Diane Rapp just posted a terrific 5-star review for the first Boss MacTavin novel, Southern Scotch, on Amazon and Goodreads. I hope you'll take a look at it because this and the other Boss thriller, The Alcatraz Correction, needed time to find their legs and connect with readers. But now the buzz seems to be building.
I'm pleased--and, frankly, grateful because this is how it should be. The reviews come slowly, one by one. And readers lose their reluctance to try something this wildly different.

Enough said--by me at least. Read Rapp's review...then one or two more if you like. Then, if you're in a daring mood, give Big Bad Boss a try.

http://tinyurl.com/adrarem

(Please cut and paste the link, which I can't get to show Live on the blog.)

Perception, Perception, Perception: Part 4

Back to the drawing board again...because the learning curve's as rough as it is thrilly-dilly.

I'd been satisfied with my new Amazon Author Central bio...until I read one by a colleague, Mark Chisnell, that showed me how it's done. Mine had been in the third-person--which I now saw was a major mistake. So was my persistence in keeping my bio as terse as I could. Compared to my laconic third-person 15 lines, Mark went on for 57 lines in the warm and open first-person. He came across as a living room guest, one who answered honestly the questions he knew I must have. Not just where he came from or where he went to school--what sort of person is he, what were his major life experiences, who influenced his writing, why the devil should we read his books, etc. I liked the way he took the time to show me who he was. And I liked his way with the language.

Two results:
1) I downloaded a book by Mark Chisnell because I liked what I'd just read.
2) I spent an afternoon reworking my own pitiful bio. I beefed it up to 49 lines, answering in my own way the same questions that Mark had addressed.

Correction: three results! And here is the third: today, in the same spirit, I spent several hours reworking the product descriptions on Amazon for Nobility and The Vanishing Magic of Snow. In each case, I tripled the length of the copy. I took the extra space to chat with potential readers about the brevity of the two novels--and why these are novels, not stories...exactly what I mean when I call them Anytime Yuletide Chillers and why readers can read them in April...'Trivia' about the novels that should be of interest-e.g., in Nobility, each of the four books opens and ends with a color...leading us from black to the rainbow at the end.

Furthermore, in the description, I was careful to include ALL of the keywords...more than once, when possible.

Back to work tomorrow: new product descriptions for SOUTHERN SCOTCH and THE ALCATRAZ CORRECTION.

Perception, Perception, Perception: Part 3

The time seemed right to start taking some bold if basic steps.

I began with my profile on Twitter, which you can find there if you search for @rebmacrath

I continued with my profile in Amazon Author Central: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B007WJQKYM (Please cut and paste that link since I can't get the thing to Live here, though it works fine on Twitter.)

In the week to come, I'll begin revising my book descriptions, incorporating the selected key words into the descriptions--as advised by one Amazon guru. I'll also follow his advice in giving potential buyers a little more to go on instead of the short and snappy copy I learned in my days as an ad man. Why buy any book by me? Why this book in particular?

I should know if the new approach works in a month. For after a year in the jungle I've given away thousands of books while selling next to none. Time to learn new footwork! As always, I'll keep you posted.

Help St. Jackie Bring It to Twitter

You'd be right as rain to wonder what a long-dead, bestselling trash writer could do for ebook writers anywhere. But, as I hope to show you in my usual terse way, the answer is: quite a bit. Let's start off with a handful of the basic facts:

Name: Jacqueline Susann.
When: 1918-1974.
What: Broke out with her world-wide bestseller, Valley of the Dolls, in 1966 at the age of 48 after stints as an actress and model. A born hustler, she married a man she didn't love but who adored her completely--and became her agent and tireless champion. She published four books in her lifetime:: Every Night, Josephine (about her life with her poodle)...VOD...The Love Machine...and Once is Not Enough. Her literary rivals despised her as fiercely as her readers loved her. Gore Vidal claimed "She doesn't write, she types." And Truman Capote claimed that she resembled "a truck driver in drag". But they ate their hearts out at her sales.
Why: Susann's importance to us lies far less in what she wrote than in how she hustled it. For that was her real genius. The specifics matter far less than the spirit Jackie brought to bear and the three key principles.
The Problem with the Specifics: The past is a locked door. The publishing industry has changed too much in the past 40 years for almost anyone to attempt to match Susann's world-wide tours for her books. Almost none of us can hope to appear, as she, did on talk shows. We lack her social and industry connections.
But now that we've got all that out of the way, let's tune into the beauty of Jackie Susann.

                                                SAINT JACKIE'S  MAGIC KEYS
1) Personalize!  Remember, Jackie died many years before the laptop or smart phone arrived. She relied on a Rolodex the size of a beachball. Others went on glitzy tours, yes. But Jackie stayed till every book was signed--and till she'd written down the name and address of each buyer. Why? Because she insisted on sending a personalized Thank You to each. And she was right in knowing that this set her apart from the pack and would richly pay her back.
2) Work the World, Not Just the Room: Other writers made a habit of schmoozing book store owners...while treating staff like dirt. Jackie always met the floor staff who would sell and shelve her books, getting invaluable face-out displays. Others licked reviewers' boots while trashing peeps who didn't count. Jackie waited outside stores with hot coffee and donuts for the truck drivers who delivered her books--wanting her boxes opened before the hundreds of others. For bookstore staff and drivers, she kept additional data: their birthdays and anniversaries, even the names of their kids.
 3) Never Appear to Be Working: This one is the trickiest. And it's a great key that cannot be faked. No one ever felt that they were being worked or played by her. When a card came from Jackie, it was the real deal. A coffee and donut were two precious gifts. She loved the business of her art...and loved the people she met.  Therein lay the difference.

                                                          APPLICATIONS
So here we are on Twitter or Facebook, wondering how to apply Jackie's keys. Whether we use a Rolodex, a DayTimer or smartphone, we need to find our way of personalizing our approach. When everyone's touting, we need to be cool. And when everyone is self-absorbed, we need to be open and warm. We need to keep track of anyone who's shown the slightest interest in our work--and to repay them sincerely with ReTweets or occasional check-ins to see how they're doing, best wishes for work in progress. In other words, if we turn from thoughts about Me-Me to genuine thoughts about You, most of the specifics will take care of themselves. And Saint Jackie's spirit will shine upon us.

Coming Soon: Bringing Saint Jackie to Twitter

Don't miss the Wednesday post on former Trash Lit Queen, Jacqueline (Valley of the Dolls) Susann.
Say what you like about Jackie, she lived to write, loved her fans...and was one of the world's greatest masters of hype. She died long before Twitter or Facebook, it's true. But let's all have a short, close look at what it was she did so well--and how her marketing tactics might translate to ebook publishing.
You'll learn a few cool tricks that aren't really tricks. And, who knows, at least a few of you may call her Saint Jackie as I do. 
Till then!