Rick Soper's Blog, page 4

Goodreads Ads!

As a new author I found that one of the greatest ways to get in touch with potential readers was to do an Ad here at Goodreads. And before you think I'm just writing this to suck up to Goodreads, I'll just say that "No" I really mean it. Why? I don't have a huge advertising budget, so I just use the self-service advertising and do it in small increments, but I find that those ads pay huge dividends. Now if your unfamiliar with how these ads work, they come up off to the side when people are browsing around Goodreads. Sometime people see them, other times they're like white noise that people ignore, but either way you only pay for the ad when people click on them. But if people click on them they go right to where your selling books and if they take the time to click, a lot of times they end up buying the book, which is a customer you wouldn't have unless they saw the ad. Now let me put this in actual numbers, I've had one ad running for a few months now and it's gotten over a million views, three hundred plus clicks, and a corresponding three hundred plus buys on the book. The ad cost me a few hundred dollars to put out there, but it got over a million views! Self-Publishing is all about getting your name out there any way you can, so if you can get your name out there to a million plus people and only spend a few hundred dollars I would say that is well worth it. I'm not sucking up to Goodreads, I don't have to,and they won't pay attention even if I do, so trust me when I say Goodreads Ads are really worth doing if your trying to get your name out there.

Cover Change

You know self publishing can sometime be a hit and miss undertaking. Sometimes you hit something out of the ballpark, and then other times you swing and miss and the bat keeps going and comes around full circle to hit you in the head, and then you bleed all over the place and scare people. My first try at the cover for the Singer seemed to be a miss. I was going for eclectic and artsy and instead got a lot of "What the heck is that?". So I went back to the drawing board and changed things. At first I was thinking, can I do this? Then I thought sure I can, that's the whole point of self publishing, so you as the author can have the ability to change things that don't work. With that being said I don't really think it should be done very often. But then again covers get changed all the time for books that have been in publication for years. As an example do a Google search on Lord Of The Flies Covers... I stopped counting at over thirty. You get the same thing if your Google The Hobbit Covers. My point? There is a precedence for changing covers. I'm not alone. The big publishers do it to. Now weather or not it was a good change...well that remains to be seen. It all depends on what the readers think, because ultimately they are the ones who decide these things by making the decision to buy...or not buy my books. Personally I hope they buy, but more than that I hope they enjoy reading them.

Life gets in the way of writing...

Like many authors writing is not my full time gig. I work full time as a financial advisor, part time as a video producer, as much time as I can as a boyfriend, and then I have a new puppy that I have to watch over or else she barks at me or leaves puddles on the floor. So after all that I write. But sometimes after all that I really don't want to write, and I find myself vegetating in front of my TV, which in turn leaves my ticked off at myself for not getting more writing done. At some point I want to move out of California and buy a house on an island near Seattle that sits way back in trees, far away from neighbors or any people in general, turn off my phones, disconnect my internet, and just write. But that's a pipe dream until some Hollywood exec decides that my stories are good enough to start making them into movies or HBO or Netflix series and pays me inordinate sums of money. So until then I have to do what every other writer who hasn't made the jump to superstardom has to do, try and find a balance between life in general and being able to find the time to write. Now I'm not doing too bad, I've written two full length novels and two novellas in the space of nine months, but I could do better if I could just find a way of properly using every moment of dead space to write.
I mean I could take it a little slower and just let my books sit out there and sell for a little while and build up a base of fans and interest for the next books, but when it comes down to it I'm a voracious reader too, and I know that when I start reading a series of books I really don't want to wait for the next in line, I want it as quick as possible, so I want to get the books that are in the series done, so I can fore fill the promise that I've made to my readers that I'm going to complete the series and get it in their hands so they can get the closure of the story ending. To that end I'll be putting out the second book in The Rock Series called The Singer within a week or so. Then I'll put the second Jon Stevens novella out a few weeks after that. Meanwhile I'm pounding away on the third and final book in the Rock Series called The Stage, but that might take me a few more months to get done. Hopefully life will let up enough to let me get it done quicker than that, but you know, it probably won't...

FREE DAYS

In anticipation of my upcoming release of the follow up to THE ROCK STAR called THE SINGER, I'm going to do my first and only set of FREE DAYS on AMAZON for THE ROCK STAR, so from Monday to Tuesday, March 25th-26th you will be able to pick up THE ROCK STAR for FREE. If you enjoyed THE BAINBRIDGE KILLINGS then you need to take advantage of this opportunity to pick up your FREE COPY of THE ROCK SATR. If you like THRILLERS then you'll want to get your FREE COPY of THE ROCK STAR.

Writing vs Promotion

I recently read Russell Blake's latest blog "I care a lot" which you can find at http://russellblake.com/i-care-a-lot/ I Like Russell because he has a tendency to say what's on his mind, which in most cases can be quite outlandish, and sometimes very funny. This blog was talking about giving advice to other writers and I found what he said valuable. I'm a new writer, so I read a lot of what other people have to say, some of it is good, but a lot of it is crap. Russell Blake makes the very good point that if you just write a good book then an audience will find you, because people really don't like reading bad books, in fact if they're anything like me, they hate reading bad books, they in fact get angry and end up throwing the books against the wall if they're that bad, which if you're reading on an iPad mini can get expensive. So I avoid bad books and bad authors. And I try and write good books. But as you're starting out it's really hard not to fall into the trap of Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube, and the rest. You find yourself spending far too much time with the websites trying to promote your books instead of using that valuable time writing your books. I think there is happy medium between the two, but it's a medium that you have to work to find. Self-Publication is a great thing, it allows you to break out of the old guard book industry, and it allows you to get books out there that the old guard might not buy into because they are only interested in producing hits and justifying the huge cut of profits they take from every book sold. But if you were with the old guard they would promote you, they would set up book signings, and book tours, and websites and all of that stuff. Being self published means you have an entire extra workload that old guard published authors don't have. Regardless of the extra workload though, at the core of any writing success will always be the ability write a good book. You still have to get it in the hands of readers which means taking the time to write blogs, Tweets, do videos, and all of that other stuff. But in the midst of all that promotion, remember first and foremost you're a writer, so write good books, make sure they're edited well, create good covers, and take time to make good blurbs. Get the package of the book wrapped up, done well, and when you think it's the best it can be, run that baby up the promotional flag pole and go crazy. I could be wrong, but it seems to make sense to me.

FREE Day is here

This is exciting. My Free day on amazon is here and my book The Bainbridge Killings is flying off the shelf. I've been Tweeting, being Re-Tweeted, being friended here, followed over there. This is just plain fun. Somehow I actually shot up to number 11 on the Hard Boiled best sellers on Amazon, which is completely surprising to me, because I didn't even know my book was considered Hard Boiled. I mean I like to think that my main character Jon Stevens is badass, but I wasn't thinking Hard Boiled, but hey, I'll take it. to all those that reached out and picked up a copy of the book Thank You, I really do appreciate it, and I really, really hope you enjoy it. So there's about five more hours or so to pick up the book and I can't wait to see what happens from here...

FREE BOOK

Why would anyone write something and give it away for free? I mean as writers we put a lot of time and effort into the actual process of writing, so why would we want to turn around and give what you spent your precious time on for free. The answer is simple. FREE is the new commercial. FREE is the new advertising. FREE is the new way of creating buzz. FREE is the way you get your writing in the hands of readers. We're in a new age of publishing where the big publishers have lost their stranglehold on the industry and writers have the power to publish their own works in a number of venues, which is a great thing for readers because it gives us choices that weren't there before. But it also means that the floodgates have been opened up and there is a massive amount of content being poured out on a daily basis. So to rise above the din and get your writing in the hands of readers you have to give a little. Which means doing a FREE day here and there. I'm doing a FREE day with THE BAINBRIDGE KILLINGS because I want to get it in the hands of readers who will hopefully enjoy it and then in turn write reviews, tell their friends, and in the end hopefully pick up my other books, which aren't free. We all can't be Stephen King or Dan Brown or Steig Larsson and have everyone pick up everything we write automatically just on our name alone. But King, Brown, & Larsson all had to start somewhere, and if they were starting out in todays market they wouldn't be going through a major publisher, they wouldn't have an agent, they would be publishing themselves, and they would be doing FREE books too. So please pick up my book THE BAINBRIDGE KILLINGS when it's FREE, because I think you'll enjoy it, and someday I want Soper to be in that list with King, Brown, and Larsson. Hey, it never hurts to dream.

FREE BOOK

Why would anyone write something and give it away for free? I mean as writers we put a lot of time and effort into the actual process of writing, so why would we want to turn around and give what you spent your precious time on for free. The answer is simple. FREE is the new commercial. FREE is the new advertising. FREE is the new way of creating buzz. FREE is the way you get your writing in the hands of readers. We're in a new age of publishing where the big publishers have lost their stranglehold on the industry and writers have the power to publish their own works in a number of venues, which is a great thing for readers because it gives us choices that weren't there before. But it also means that the floodgates have been opened up and there is a massive amount of content being poured out on a daily basis. So to rise above the din and get your writing in the hands of readers you have to give a little. Which means doing a FREE day here and there. I'm doing a FREE day with THE BAINBRIDGE KILLINGS because I want to get it in the hands of readers who will hopefully enjoy it and then in turn write reviews, tell their friends, and in the end hopefully pick up my other books, which aren't free. We all can't be Stephen King or Dan Brown or Steig Larsson and have everyone pick up everything we write automatically just on our name alone. But King, Brown, & Larsson all had to start somewhere, and if they were starting out in todays market they wouldn't be going through a major publisher, they wouldn't have an agent, they would be publishing themselves, and they would be doing FREE books too. So please pick up my book THE BAINBRIDGE KILLINGS when it's FREE, because I think you'll enjoy it, and someday I want Soper to be in that list with King, Brown, and Larsson.

Bainbridge!

The Bainbridge Killings is a look into the mind of Jon Stevens as he tries to unravel a series of killings that has been set up to look like suicides. he must go to Bainbridge Island undercover because the Islands small population leaves it feeling like a small town where everyone, knows everyones else's business, and if the killer knew he was there he'd be gone. So no one, not even the local sheriff knows he's there, and he has to investigate without anyone knowing he's doing it. Can he pull it off? Well you're going to have to pick up a copy to see.

Coming Soon...

I've put in The Bainbridge Killings for editing, and I've put together a cover for it, so you mark your calendars for the next novella from me to be coming out in the very near future. And just so you know it's a prequel to the Rock Star that features FBI Agent Jon Stevens before he was severely damaged by The Stoner