Ann Benjamin's Blog, page 251

Zomato Blogger Conference.

So, I went to the Farzi Cafe launch and ended up sitting with some of the senior people at Zomato (who were perfectly lovely to entertain some rando (me) throughout the many courses).  They were also kind enough to invite me to the first ever Zomato Blogger Conference, held on April 2nd, 2016.

What we all want to know.

Starting time? 2PM registration, 3PM panel discussion — all pretty close to the agenda.  During the registration period, I made one of my conference buddies, Tiffany of That Fitness Journey, who had a lot of good social media tips about attending a conference.

Refreshments?  Mostly coffee breaks with the usual pastries and sweets (I don’t think some fruit would’ve gone amiss).  Dinner was served at Olea (the in house all day dining at the Kempinski, serving mostly Levant style salads, mains and starters).  Considering everything was free, this was a nice treat, although would not be my first choice of restaurants at MOE.

Location?  Kempinski, Mall of the Emirates (keep in mind, it might be attached to MOE, but it is rocking AED200 for the first hour in their valet parking, so make sure you get that ticket stamped!).

Messages?  Highlights from the agenda included a panel discussion on reviews, the line of paying for reviews and remaining honesty, a wonderful presentation on food photography, and further professional discussions on growing one’s brand.  As I hoped, I got a good dose of well-needed motivation.

Personal reflections?  To keep doing my own thing, in fact, to find a way to make my voice more pronounced.  I had been slightly stalking a local Instagrammer and when I saw her, I knew I had to go and say hello.

Also, I had been slightly stalking a local (well known) Instagrammer and when I saw her, I knew I had to go and say hello.  My awkward introduction worked — we ended up connecting about a lot of topics, having dinner (staying nearly late enough to shut the restaurant down) and starting what I hope is a good relationship.  She’s got a lot of great ideas and I can’t wait to see how far she is going to go.

Swag?  A lot great stuff (coasters, a decorative cow (!), and some fantastic coupons, which I will definitely be using, thank you Vaniday).

Bottom line.  I would’ve loved more focused networking (i.e. almost speed dating to connect with people most like me), but overall, as a first conference, I think the Zomato team have a lot to be proud of.  I would be curious to see what they do with next year’s agenda.

Sunday Sentence.

“Spring is the time of plans and projects.”

― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

As temperatures in Dubai start moving steadily upwards, I believe Spring has well and truly arrived.  With plenty of planning and plotting going on, this quote was a perfect fit for today.

Week by numbers.

What a productive week!

70,655, current total word count (The Queen)
220 pages, current total pages.  I expect this to change as I…
500+, instances of ‘that’ in the manuscript.  I’m currently going through to fine tune this draft including removing very, that and really, as well as add in a few missing scenes.
1, voice over demo I recorded.  Now, to get some work…
2, awesome friends we had to say goodbye to this week (as they did a REPAT back to the States).
1, car reregistered (super easy – thanks Abu Dhabi!)

Gif(s) of the week:

On Writing.

Trying to remind myself of this as I go through and see which of the 500+ instances of using ‘that’ in my manuscript can be cut.

Waiting.

We’re all waiting on something, right?  But maybe it’s okay to chill out while we’re waiting for that thing to happen. Original (by Rebecca Mock) here.

Sunday Sentence.

A clumsy young man wants to impress a beautiful young woman.”

The Moth and the Flame: A Wrath & the Dawn Short Story by Renée Ahdieh

I’ve already established how much I love Ms. Ahdieh, so this short story was pure enjoyment.  In a short novella she manages to pack a lot of emotion and this one line actually made me sigh aloud.  I cannot wait for the sequel to come out this year!

Week by numbers.

I had a very nice week to reset after being tour guide last week.  Perhaps it’s the inner introvert in me, but I place a lot of value in time to myself.  In this case, I put the extra hours towards writing and exercise.

185, pages edited (think I may finish up next week…well, at least Draft .75)
66,082, current word count.  I’ve been adding in a few necessary scenes and dialogue.
1, visit to the Autodrome track to walk (Hubs did some biking).
6, episodes of Daredevil watched (not quite a binge, but…I’m fairly certain we will finish season 2 this weekend)
Monday, my car reregistration day — please wish me luck!
1, book finished!  It wasn’t amazing, but it felt good to (sort of) get into a book and complete it.  I’m even working my way through a new book now (even if the protagonist is super annoying and I want to slap her).

Gif(s) of the week, I couldn’t pick one:

This is so me, it hurts.
In which we are all Elektra.

Sunday Sentence.

I excused myself to go see a duck about a dress.”

Jackaby by William Ritter

While I’m certainly not out of my reading funk, I semi-enjoyed reading Jackaby, a Victorian Sherlock-esque type YA (?) book.  While there were redeemable elements (good inclusion of the supernatural, a story that moved, and a fairly decent protagonist), it didn’t truly draw me in and I won’t be finishing the series.  Still, I did like this line from the book.

My Mistake and Amazon: A KDP Lesson for Everyone.

TL;DR I violated the terms communicated to me and Amazon made all my books ineligible from the KDP Select Program for an entire year.

I’ve been sitting on this for a month and still haven’t reconciled exactly what’s happened.  I’m equal parts embarrassed, frustrated, angry and devastated.  I’m hopeful that this post might help or protect someone else from what happened to me or start to provide some closure I know I am still seeking.

In December, I enrolled Life After Joe into the KDP Select Program.  The terms of this program are such that the book must exclusively be available on Amazon.  Yup, all good.  I’ve done this before and understood the deal.  What I forgot is that I had Life After Joe available on Google Play (total sales? 0).  After I was informed of this, I immediately took the book down.

Fast forward to February.  I was having a wonderful run where people were consistently reading pages of Life After Joe via Kindle Unlimited.  As part of my marketing plan, I decided to enroll the rest of my books.  I took them offline (everywhere I could remember they were) and waited to see what would happen next.  Would more people discover my books?  Would I see a big uptick in pages read?

Spoiler alert, it was none of the above.

Through my own fault, I had overlooked two places were two of my books were still listed.  I have 8 books in total which have been released since 2007 and — excuse alert — it’s difficult to keep up precisely with where everything is located.  Amazon contacted to let me know this was the case.  As with the previous infraction, I removed the books (immediately) from where they were listed.

And that’s when I was informed that as my second ‘strike’ my entire catalogue would not be eligible for KDP Select for an entire year.  This fact had been communicated to me in December; I had overlooked it.

I was then and still am, in a bit of shock.

For a completely unintentional oversight on my part, I am not eligible for many of the benefits enrollment into the program allows an author.  While I know there is a lot of controversy these days about KENP pages, for where I am in my career, Kindle Unlimited is still one of the best ways people can find out about my work.

The thing in all of this is that I’m not selling a lot of books.  I am not a major bestseller.  For the three days where there was an overlap, Amazon did not miss out on some large amount of money.  Additionally, what hurts the most is that there is absolutely zero human component in the process.  Even after I spoke with someone on the Author team (who was very much in my favor, who understood that I had been a human person and made an unintentional mistake), even after I sent a highly impassioned e-mail to the KDP Select Team (no, they don’t have a phone line to speak with someone), even after all of this, the rule to boot all of my books off stood firm.

I tried to bargain.  I asked if only those books which had been in violation could be banned from the program.  I asked if the terms (1 year) could be reduced in any way.  I asked if every book but my most recent one could be banished.  I was met time and time again with a quotation of the rules.

We’ll be upholding our previous decision regarding the eligibility of your book(s) for KDP Select. I'm sorry, but we can't offer any additional insight or action on this matter. However, please notice that all your titles remain available in the Kindle Store."

The worst part?  I had planned on releasing two or potentially three books this year.  Guess what?  None of them will be eligible for the program until my year of banishment is over.

Lesson learned?  Read the fine print.  Understand exactly what you are enrolling in.  Understand what the consequences are if you violate those terms.  Have a back up plan.  Have a good support system in place.

Sure, my books are available on other platforms.  And yes, my books are still available on Amazon.  And of course Amazon is allowed to follow the rules they set out.  I just wish I didn’t feel so depressed about the situation.  I know it shouldn’t, but the banishment is having an impact on my writing (and self).  There is the constant voice in the back of my head that says, ‘Why bother? You’re going to fuck something up again.  Why put effort into this book?  No one’s going to find it.’  I can’t get this voice to shut up.  I can’t replace the voice of ‘why did you totally fuck yourself over when you had a great thing going’ with ‘Amazon is not the only retailer — now get off your ass and show them what you’re made of!’  I really hate that voice.

So, if you know of any other way around the system or contact details of someone who might listen to my case, I would love to know.

If you have a similar story and feel like sharing, I would love to hear it.  Big hugs to you.

The countdown to February 17, 2017 is on and it’s going to be a very long wait until then.

 

Week by numbers.

Out and about this week playing tour guide with my visiting friend.

A lot, of steps (y’all, the malls here are huge).
45, an estimate of episodes of the Mindy Project watched (there was some down time as well).
1, day it rained (crazy!).
1, invitation to dine on entirely too much Indian molecular gastronomic cuisine.
1, camel ridden.
1, paid of awesome shoes purchased (late birthday present?) with 5 inch heels (and they are comfortable)!

Gif of the week (Happy Easter!):

Not entirely sure how this weekend is going to finish up — what are you up to?