C. Hoyt Caldwell's Blog, page 3

Bad Way Out wins the bronze

Bad Way Out is now officially an award winner!

Well, I’m not exactly sure you can ‘win’ third place.  Let’s just say Bad Way Out received a bronze metal in the South Regional category in the Independent Book Publishers Awards, otherwise known as the IPPYs. 

I’m pleased, particularly because I did not enter the book into the South Regional category.  I was notified by the folks at the IPPYs that they felt like the book was misplaced in the traditional “Thriller” category, and they made a decision to include it in the regional competitions instead.  I’m glad they did because it worked out pretty well for me. 

Will it change my life having the third best independent book in the South.  Nope, but I’ll take it with many, many thanks. 

BTW – I’m still selling about a book a day.  On this, the eighth day of May, I have received payment on 10 books this month.

Bad Way Out numbers and more

News to come

Well, I just got some pretty good news about Bad Way Out, but I don’t think I’m allowed to post anything about it yet.  As soon as I can, I’ll post it here for the world to ignore see.  Meanwhile, I have the updated numbers for April sales/lending on Kindle. 

Basically, if I made money on it I count it as a win.  The final tally is 170.  I’m bringing in about a sale a day, and I have a total of 14 reviews now on Amazon. Twelve five star reviews and two four star.  I have no idea what those two people were smoking.  Just kidding, of course.  I appreciate anyone who reads the book, and I’m completely shocked and stunned when some of those people actually take the time to review it. 

Onward we march into May.

Book sales and Boots Up!

The boots are made for writing… redneck romance novels.

I told you I would keep you posted on actual sales, and I’m here to keep that promise.  As you will see, this isn’t to brag, and it’s not even my subtle way of complaining.  This is simply a factual post done for other authors who may be wondering what a typical unknown indie author can expect as far as sales.  I’ve spent a minimal amount on advertising.  You can read what type of advertising I did here, but the cliff notes are that I found a few Kindle specific sites that worked as far as generating downloads of Bad Way Out when I made it available for free for two days.  That resulted in 4,443 downloads.  Last week, those downloads lead to approximately 70 sales (including actual sales and lending through the Amazon Prime program).  The total amount of books I’ve received some form of payment on now stands at 151.  I’ve also picked up six reviews since the giveaway giving Bad Way Out a total of 13 reviews as of this writing.  I have continued a rotating banner ad on DailyFreeBooks.com. The cost for that ad to run for 5 weeks was around $40, and I chose to keep running it because one of the reviewers mentioned my tagline in that ad in their review.  I figured it was worth the small cost to keep it going.

I’ve done a lot of research over the past several weeks, and I have a long way to go before I’ll label this publishing venture a success, but I’m pleased with the progress so far.  I’ve come across some absolutely unethical marketing advice from some gurus and ‘successful’ authors, and it has irritated the piss out of me.  I’m not interested in buying or begging readers for Amazon reviews just to pump up my sales numbers.  The writing matters to me, and if I can’t make it on merit, I won’t make it.

Another thing I have noticed in my research, if you’ve written a Romance novel, you are golden.  There are virtually endless opportunities for you to get the word out about your book through blogs and websites.  It is definitely the most indie friendly genre.  That’s why I’m working on a redneck romance series called “Boots up.”

Okay, not really, but if I get a 30 day notice from my electric company, don’t be surprised if I cave and crank out book one in the series.

“I am the danger!”

I love this scene from Breaking Bad.  It exemplifies the two things that makes this series the best thing on television – The writing and the acting.

Why the NRA opposes any gun control

The NRA leadership has shown a complete disregard for common sense concerning the current gun debate.  And, they aren’t doing it for philosophical reasons, or even because they have a deep and abiding commitment to protect the 2nd Amendment.  They could give two shits about the 2nd Amendment.  They oppose gun legislation for one reason.  It brings in money. 

The NRA leadership isn’t serving the interests of their membership, not the entire membership.  They are running their organization to appease the ‘Alex Jones’ fringe element of their organization.  Why?  Because they are the evangelical gun owners that will donate their hard earned money to the NRA to keep the government from taking away their liberties. 

The NRA leadership doesn’t care that they look insane and unreasonable to most Americans because most Americans aren’t giving them enough money or any money at all.  The nutbag ‘Alex Jones’ pea brains are the ones that keep the leadership in luxury cars and expensive suits. 

To those poor lost souls who are buying this load of horseshit that the government and President Obama want your guns, you are being lied to, and it’s your own damn fault for believing it.  The NRA is doing everything they can to scare the hell out of you so you will pony up and keep them fat and happy.  Get smart!  Stop sending the NRA your money. 

Be pro-gun.  I’m a Southerner. I get it.  There are more guns than toothbrushes where I live.  I’m just asking you to bail on the NRA.  Boot those bastards to the curb.   

A horrible book trailer for Bad Way Out

Still getting my legs on this video crap. It stinks, but it’s honest.

Bill Hicks wants me to kill myself

I am an indie author and by extension, I am now in marketing and advertising.  This morning it hit me that Bill Hicks, a funny man who died way too soon, would encourage me to take my own life because of this unavoidable responsibility I have to sell, sell, sell.

That’s okay.  I’m cool with Hicks wanting me to off myself because he’s funny as shit.  Here’s his bit on marketing and advertising.

How many books I’ve sold so far

Some struggles are worse than others.

Warning:  I’m going to do something that is frowned upon in the publishing industry.  I’m going to share actual sales numbers with you.  I’m doing this because I know a lot of folks that will find this blog are struggling indie authors like me.  They should know that they are not alone.  It is tough to make a decent living in this business, and I’m hoping by pulling back the veil they will get a sense of what to expect when indie publishing.  Here’s what to keep in my mind as you read the rest of this post.

No one knows who C. Hoyt Caldwell is.  In this online era, personal brand rules the day when it comes to book sales.  Konrath, Scalzi, and Doctorow are talented writers, but their writing would go largely unnoticed if they weren’t personal brands.  They make selling books look easy.  It’s not.  I am not Konrath.  I am not Scalzi.  I am not Doctorow.  I am you.  My experience at this point in my journey will/does closely resemble yours.
I am an indie author.  Those three authors I mentioned above come from the traditional publishing world.  Konrath is currently comfortably ensconced in the indie world, and I think Doctorow paid us a brief visit, but to my knowledge, Scalzi is Tor’s wunderkind. Always has been.  Always will be.  Indie means I’m doing this shit on my own without a large fan base.  If I sound jealous, it’s because I am.  I don’t begrudge them their current positions.  On the contrary, I look up to them for what they’ve accomplished.  I just covet what they have.
The odds are not in your favor.  You are going to fail and feel awful about yourself repeatedly throughout your indie publishing career.  If it was easy, those various bestsellers lists would be packed with authors like me counting our money and shopping for our own private writing cottages.  The good news is the disappointment that is ahead of you won’t kill you.  Your book will be forever available for sale in virtual space… well until virtual space collapses in on itself and destroys the known universe.  You’ll still have plenty of time to make it a success.
Your book is better than mine.  Every author’s book is better than every other author’s book.   It doesn’t matter.  The chances your book will climb to the top of the sales charts without you relentlessly marketing it are the same as you winning an Oscar just for visiting IMDB.  Okay, maybe it’s not that impossible, but it might as well be.
Your readers are your ticket to a lot of sales.  The more you have the more you’ll get.  Treat them like they are responsible for your success because they are.  The happier they are with you the more they multiply.  I don’t know if they divide and grow like zygotes or they have some special bar where they hook up and create more readers over drinks and empty promises, but the fact is they show up in droves when you show up for them.  Don’t ignore them.  Engage them.
How do you market?  I have no friggin’ idea.  That’s why I’m here trying to figure it out.  You’re welcome to learn from my mistakes and victories, or better yet, if you know what the hell you’re doing, tell me. 

 

And, here’s the reason I decided to write this blog today. I got a message from someone yesterday congratulating me on the sales success of Bad Way Out, and I giggled because I thought they were joking.  They weren’t.  They were quiet sincere.  They based their comment on my current Amazon Kindle ranking.  It’s somewhere in the 6,000 range.  That doesn’t sound great on the surface, but when you consider there are millions of books available to buy via Kindle, it’s actually not too shabby for a guy like me.

It is, however, not good enough.  Since the two day giveaway ended on April 8, a total of 60 books have been purchased on the Kindle store.  Ten have been borrowed through Amazon Prime.   That’s 70 books for which I will receive some kind of payment.  With a $1.99 purchase price, I’m not going to be starting a retirement fund with my sales so far. 

I’ve been doing some poking around.  A lot of indie authors aren’t doing even that well.  That’s why I got the congratulatory email.  The best I can figure, if you want to make this a fulltime gig, you have to have a book that ranks in the mid to low three figures consistently.  If you want to buy that writing cottage, it’s top ten or bust for many, many weeks.

As the days and weeks pass, I’ll post more sales figures.  I’ll do so until it gets so low I get depressed or it gets so high there’s a chance my relatives will read about it and want to borrow money from me. 

BTW – Don’t mistake this post as me complaining.  I’m very grateful for the sales and reviews I’ve received so far.  I’m not just going to pretend that struggling isn’t tough.  It is.  But, hell struggling to make it as an author is nothing compared to the other struggles out there in this sometimes too cruel world.  I’m lucky as hell and happy for it. 

 

Maybe Amazon should have a vulgar category

Carlin is my god of vulgarity.

I just had a friendly email chat with a person that notifies Kindle owners about “bargain” books.  I figured since Bad Way Out is a paltry $1.99 it qualified.  However, he declined to notify the folks on his list because the book’s subcategory is erotica.  That is his right, and I have no issue with him turning me down.

It did make me rethink my decision to include Bad Way Out in the erotica category.  I did it as a cautionary measure.  I don’t want those offended by sexual content to be fooled into buying a book that does contain sexual content.  That’s not fun for anyone. Those sales wouldn’t stick, and I’d probably get hammered with a bevy of “how dare you” type reviews. 

 I was tempted to title it Fifty Shades of Redneck to ride E.L. James’ coattails, but it is not typical erotica.  There is sex in the book, that is true.  And, I can be accused of using graphic language to describe body parts and sexual encounters.  But, it’s backwoods graphic.  The word pecker is sprinkled throughout, and my protagonist E.R. does not mince words when expressing how he feels about Eva’s body parts. 

All-in-all, I would say Bad Way Out is more vulgar than erotica, but Amazon doesn’t have a vulgar category.  Maybe they should because just about everything I write will probably fit into that category. 

Writing the everything of sex

William Nicholson, author of Motherland, has an interesting article on the Huffington Post today about the tricky task of writing sex scenes.  Having written a sex scene or two in my lifetime I do agree that it can be unsettling, especially if you let your own predilections get in the way.  As a writer,  you have to realize, the sex in your novels has nothing to do with you.  It has everything to do with your characters.

 You’re nothing more than the creepy guy in the shadows taking notes.  Your responsibility is to record action, dialogue, sounds, facial expressions, signs of pain and pleasure, etc.  Even if you’re writing in the first person, you have to resist the temptation of putting yourself in the scene.  It’s a tough thing to do because sex is one of those things you’d much rather participate in than watch, even imaginary sex, but that’s not your job as a writer. 

It’s also not your job to worry about the reader when writing sex scenes.  Nicholson wrote a great article save one irritating sentence.  When I read this, I groaned the tiniest bit.

“At what point does it become distasteful?”

That tells me that he’s worried about the reader.  Writers should never worry about the reader.  Honest stories don’t get told by worrying about the reader.  What is true for writers is also true for your readers, they should never be part of your sex scene.  If you’re worried about how readers will perceive a sex scene, then you’re having the sex scene performed for the reader, and that makes them a participant, and frankly, that approach will probably leave them woefully dissatisfied with what you’ve written.

Sex, when it’s done right, is a brilliant mix of tangled emotions that become so intertwined they are impossible to sort out into definable terms.  Getting lost in that mix leads you to be totally present in that moment.  There is no past, and there is no future.  You’re actions are largely reactions.  It’s one of those rare moments in life where you’re so wholly focused you know your purpose.  It is so intense it has to be fleeting, and as a result, there’s an ever-present frantic sense of loss.  It will all be over far too soon. 

Capturing that sense of “everything” is truly all the writer has to do when crafting a sex scene.  You know your characters.  You know how they approach everything in their fictional lives, including sex.  They aren’t having sex for your readers so don’t write like they are.  And please, for the love God, don’t write like you’re the one having sex.  No one wants to read about that.