Mark McCarrell's Blog
March 7, 2015
What sells a book?
Personally, I have no idea how authors can even make enough these days to go to Starbucks and celebrate a newly finished novel. Everyday in my emails and Twitter I get lambasted with "Free E-books," "Sign up for our daily free E-books," "Free E-books for you," and etc,,,simply showing that us, as Authors, are practically begging people to read our hard work; so desperate we are giving it away. I don't see many Patterson and Grisham books given away, unless it's a teaser to tempt us to buy one for $19.99. In fact they cost more than paper towels and toilet paper at Wal-mart, which we need; we don't need a Patterson book to survive, but it sure gets tiresome walking around with a sore butt if we chose to sacrifice a good wiping for a branded read.
I met a person recently. He bragged how he had over 1100 E-books on his Kindle, and hadn't paid a cent for a single one; just a hobby of his to collect as many as he could. He liked the cute little book covers that showed on his device, refusing to pay. I scornfully asked him why, and he said because they were "Free." I asked how many reviews he had left, his answer was none. And as far as he was concerned, he was never going to leave a review.
I have 4 novels, and 5 Photography Photo books on Kindle. Last month I sold a whopping $19.97 worth of books to support my years of slaving over words to hopefully one day make a living at writing. Will I quit? No, I enjoy it too much.
Recently I surfaced my secret persona to start writing Adult Erotica Novels. Under a pen name of course. Why? For one, I enjoy it. Two, the adult genre are a hungry voracious group out there that doesn't mind paying $.99 to $2.99 for a good sexy book, and they appreciate the material and are quite honest in their reviews, which as an author, I deeply am grateful for and appreciate. Even now, people are at home excitedly scanning Amazon for "Free Books." Not that I hold that against them, but they could at least leave a review for the starving artist that put this thing together.
All in all, it's still a better road than submitting to a literary agent. Personally I do not see why they are even in business, as they send out more rejection letters and a Fed-Ex delivery company. I have my share, and I'm sure the pile is even in every authors file folder. We've all seen the garbage books at the airport bookstore, and know we can do better, but yet, we still go ignored.
It seems to me, my opinion, that talented well crafted words with a good story are not what publishers are searching for these days, hence "50 Shades of Gray" proved that useless dribble and poorly edited books that only have laughable sex in it is what agents are searching for, and oddly, sells. I tried to read the book (with an open opinion) to see what the fuss was all about and spent the first 10 pages frowning and laughing at the poor writing skills of the book. Well, who's laughing now? The author and publisher rolling in the millions of dollars constantly filling in. Just goes to show you how social networking creating a controversy can surface into gazillions of bucks, and sadly, the series follow up's made just as much.
I have no idea what sells a book. After what I've seen happening, it baffles me. I believe Amazon has helped Authors with self pubbing but also hurt it with all the literature out there for anybody to take for free 24 hours a day. Again, will I quit? No, I have too many strange worlds and people running through my mind to just let them die off unheard of, but I sure would like to find out how to get them into the hands of readers willing to leave me a simple review or a small payment for my work.
Mark Mccarrell
The Tarnished Gentleman
I met a person recently. He bragged how he had over 1100 E-books on his Kindle, and hadn't paid a cent for a single one; just a hobby of his to collect as many as he could. He liked the cute little book covers that showed on his device, refusing to pay. I scornfully asked him why, and he said because they were "Free." I asked how many reviews he had left, his answer was none. And as far as he was concerned, he was never going to leave a review.
I have 4 novels, and 5 Photography Photo books on Kindle. Last month I sold a whopping $19.97 worth of books to support my years of slaving over words to hopefully one day make a living at writing. Will I quit? No, I enjoy it too much.
Recently I surfaced my secret persona to start writing Adult Erotica Novels. Under a pen name of course. Why? For one, I enjoy it. Two, the adult genre are a hungry voracious group out there that doesn't mind paying $.99 to $2.99 for a good sexy book, and they appreciate the material and are quite honest in their reviews, which as an author, I deeply am grateful for and appreciate. Even now, people are at home excitedly scanning Amazon for "Free Books." Not that I hold that against them, but they could at least leave a review for the starving artist that put this thing together.
All in all, it's still a better road than submitting to a literary agent. Personally I do not see why they are even in business, as they send out more rejection letters and a Fed-Ex delivery company. I have my share, and I'm sure the pile is even in every authors file folder. We've all seen the garbage books at the airport bookstore, and know we can do better, but yet, we still go ignored.
It seems to me, my opinion, that talented well crafted words with a good story are not what publishers are searching for these days, hence "50 Shades of Gray" proved that useless dribble and poorly edited books that only have laughable sex in it is what agents are searching for, and oddly, sells. I tried to read the book (with an open opinion) to see what the fuss was all about and spent the first 10 pages frowning and laughing at the poor writing skills of the book. Well, who's laughing now? The author and publisher rolling in the millions of dollars constantly filling in. Just goes to show you how social networking creating a controversy can surface into gazillions of bucks, and sadly, the series follow up's made just as much.
I have no idea what sells a book. After what I've seen happening, it baffles me. I believe Amazon has helped Authors with self pubbing but also hurt it with all the literature out there for anybody to take for free 24 hours a day. Again, will I quit? No, I have too many strange worlds and people running through my mind to just let them die off unheard of, but I sure would like to find out how to get them into the hands of readers willing to leave me a simple review or a small payment for my work.
Mark Mccarrell
The Tarnished Gentleman
May 30, 2013
Backlash.
My new book “Backlash” just went self published on Amazon. As usual I received the same responses from literary agents; they like my writing but just can’t publish me right now. I follow JA Konrath’s blog and enjoy the motivational push he has for self publishing. It may take 10 years…I don’t know. But once a writer you have this overwhelming desire to have people read and comment on your books.
Okay, I’ll admit my first book “A shutter in War” was a real stinker, begging for a rewrite, which is what it’s getting right now. But I’ve noticed a vast improvement on my new books. Many thanks to that reader out there that was kind enough to lambast me with a horrible review, but it was just what I needed. It really helped me in my writing. He was brutally honest in telling me my writing stunk, but that’s what a writer needs to hear. It makes you re-evaluate yourself, and if you can’t handle being criticized, then you better give up writing. So please, feel free to lambast me with your opinions on any of my works.
One day, I will be a well known and popular writer; it’s just a matter of time.
Okay, I’ll admit my first book “A shutter in War” was a real stinker, begging for a rewrite, which is what it’s getting right now. But I’ve noticed a vast improvement on my new books. Many thanks to that reader out there that was kind enough to lambast me with a horrible review, but it was just what I needed. It really helped me in my writing. He was brutally honest in telling me my writing stunk, but that’s what a writer needs to hear. It makes you re-evaluate yourself, and if you can’t handle being criticized, then you better give up writing. So please, feel free to lambast me with your opinions on any of my works.
One day, I will be a well known and popular writer; it’s just a matter of time.
May 27, 2013
My new novel.
I just finished my second novel, "Backlash." I pulled my first, due to I just wasn't happy with it, rewriting the book completely. Backlash is about a man that gets sent back in time to suffer his victims past turmoil’s for his crimes as a punishment. I'm now sending it out to literary agents hoping to get the book picked up. I dread the self publishing simply for the fact of marketing. It's so hard to convince people to find the books. I have 4 Photography books on Amazon now that's getting very little attention, due to Marketing. Writing a book is the easy part. Getting noticed is the hardest.
April 7, 2013
To curse or not to curse.
I've often frowned on whether a book is proper if colorful language or "Cursing" should be included in a book. The "F" word to me, always seemed to darken a book, but sometimes it's needed or justified to deliver the scene. The newest book I'm writing "An Unusual Hit" has Gangsters and a Racist Black street thug. Somehow writing "Okay you mugs, you done made me angry, therefore, I will have to shoot you full of darn holes."...seems weak. More appropriate would be the next line full of colorful darkened language which I prefer not to include in this Blog. I've read many books that include this type of language, and it did not seem to dampen readers pursuing the book. I've went through and cleaned it up best I could, but without the dark language it just doesn't deliver. Hopefully folks won't bash me when the book comes out. It's a rather large book with an eerie twist at the end.
