Noorilhuda's Blog - Posts Tagged "blog"
Reminding Women Writers Everywhere: This is Your Time, Woman!
'Will #readwomen2014 change our sexist reading habits?' Thus began Joanna Walsh's post on 20th January 2014 in The Women's Blog of The Guardian newspaper. It dealt with the sexist way in which the work of female writers is perceived and categorized and the inequality in purchase of books written by men as opposed to women.
Following is the text of Walsh's well-thought-out original post carried by Guardian:
It's a truth universally acknowledged that, although women read more than men, and books by female authors are published in roughly the same numbers, they are more easily overlooked. Their marginalisation by top literary journals, both as reviewers and the reviewed, is confirmed in a yearly count by the organisation Vida: Women in Literary Arts.
Perhaps the problem lies not with whether women are published, but how. Lionel Shriver complained when her "nasty book" Game Control was given a "girly cover", and I've listened to female writer friends grouse when their books are given flowery covers though their writing is not; when reviews, or even their publishers' press releases, describe their work as "delicate" when it is forthright, "delightful" when it is satirical, "carving a niche" when it is staking a claim. Had Peter Stothard, the editor of the Times Literary Supplement, considered that when he responded to the first Vida count in 2011 by saying: "We know [women] are heavy readers of the kind of fiction that is not likely to be reviewed in the pages of the TLS"?
"My own feeling," said Claire Armitstead, the Guardian's literary editor, "is that there is an issue of confidence among women writers." Yet the female authors I know are bold and ambitious; I'm not sure the issue lies with them. In 2011, Stothard said: "We take [equality] pretty seriously." Everyone wants change, but is reluctant to make a change. As readers, perhaps we should take a little responsibility: after all, the buck stops with the book buyer.
I started the Twitter hashtag #readwomen2014 after drawing some bookmark-shaped New Year's cards showing some of my favourite female writers. I had been inspired by two literary journalists – both male, as it happens – who didn't want to show up on the wrong side of this year's Vida pie chart (coming out next month) and were willing to do something about it. Jonathan Gibbs in the UK and Matthew Jakubowski in the US both made a commitment to read only female authors for a set period. When I posted photos of my cards on Twitter, a few people asked me to tweet the 250-odd names of female writers I had typed on the back.
I worried that tweeting the names might seem polemical, even boring. After Caroline Criado-Perez's experience of cyber bullying during her campaign to have Jane Austen appear on the £10 note, I was also a little nervous. But, within minutes, women – and men – were adding their own favourites to the list. The meme was passed on until the list of names doubled, then trebled. This was something people cared about. It also felt as if they were having a lot of fun.
It has been exciting to see some of the ways the hashtag has been used: as a personal incentive; a rallying cry; a celebration of recent achievements (2013 prizes for Alice Munro, Lydia Davis, Eleanor Catton and more) and of authors who should be better known. It has been used to discuss women's writing, and to link up "read women" projects around the world.
When I first wrote about it for Berfrois magazine, I had no inkling #readwomen2014 would become so successful, but revolutions start small. You don't have to exclusively read books by women this year (you may be surprised to learn that I won't be doing so), but you might like to do a Vida count on your own bookshelf; if you find an imbalance, consider whether you might have been a victim of inequality, missing out on good writing because of a pink dust jacket. Just for a change, make sure the next book you read is by a woman. While female writers may encounter similar obstacles, their work is diverse as men's: there is a book by a woman for every kind of reader.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandsty...
Following is the text of Walsh's well-thought-out original post carried by Guardian:
It's a truth universally acknowledged that, although women read more than men, and books by female authors are published in roughly the same numbers, they are more easily overlooked. Their marginalisation by top literary journals, both as reviewers and the reviewed, is confirmed in a yearly count by the organisation Vida: Women in Literary Arts.
Perhaps the problem lies not with whether women are published, but how. Lionel Shriver complained when her "nasty book" Game Control was given a "girly cover", and I've listened to female writer friends grouse when their books are given flowery covers though their writing is not; when reviews, or even their publishers' press releases, describe their work as "delicate" when it is forthright, "delightful" when it is satirical, "carving a niche" when it is staking a claim. Had Peter Stothard, the editor of the Times Literary Supplement, considered that when he responded to the first Vida count in 2011 by saying: "We know [women] are heavy readers of the kind of fiction that is not likely to be reviewed in the pages of the TLS"?
"My own feeling," said Claire Armitstead, the Guardian's literary editor, "is that there is an issue of confidence among women writers." Yet the female authors I know are bold and ambitious; I'm not sure the issue lies with them. In 2011, Stothard said: "We take [equality] pretty seriously." Everyone wants change, but is reluctant to make a change. As readers, perhaps we should take a little responsibility: after all, the buck stops with the book buyer.
I started the Twitter hashtag #readwomen2014 after drawing some bookmark-shaped New Year's cards showing some of my favourite female writers. I had been inspired by two literary journalists – both male, as it happens – who didn't want to show up on the wrong side of this year's Vida pie chart (coming out next month) and were willing to do something about it. Jonathan Gibbs in the UK and Matthew Jakubowski in the US both made a commitment to read only female authors for a set period. When I posted photos of my cards on Twitter, a few people asked me to tweet the 250-odd names of female writers I had typed on the back.
I worried that tweeting the names might seem polemical, even boring. After Caroline Criado-Perez's experience of cyber bullying during her campaign to have Jane Austen appear on the £10 note, I was also a little nervous. But, within minutes, women – and men – were adding their own favourites to the list. The meme was passed on until the list of names doubled, then trebled. This was something people cared about. It also felt as if they were having a lot of fun.
It has been exciting to see some of the ways the hashtag has been used: as a personal incentive; a rallying cry; a celebration of recent achievements (2013 prizes for Alice Munro, Lydia Davis, Eleanor Catton and more) and of authors who should be better known. It has been used to discuss women's writing, and to link up "read women" projects around the world.
When I first wrote about it for Berfrois magazine, I had no inkling #readwomen2014 would become so successful, but revolutions start small. You don't have to exclusively read books by women this year (you may be surprised to learn that I won't be doing so), but you might like to do a Vida count on your own bookshelf; if you find an imbalance, consider whether you might have been a victim of inequality, missing out on good writing because of a pink dust jacket. Just for a change, make sure the next book you read is by a woman. While female writers may encounter similar obstacles, their work is diverse as men's: there is a book by a woman for every kind of reader.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandsty...
LESSONS FROM THE WEEK-LONG KINDLE COUNTDOWN DEAL:
1) When the e-novel was available for free from 27th to 28th Aug. 2014, a few weeks after abrupt launch via Amazon, the number of downloads was 451 on 27th and 292 on day two. The free days were carefully chosen after much research into which days are most viable for downloads. 743 downloads later my Amazon ‘sales’ rank for free downloads was 639 and 589 on respectively - which means that out of all the books free on those days my e-novel was in the Top 1000 if not Top 100. My Author Rank, however, out of the million-plus books that Amazon sells in paperback, hardcover and e-format, was 134,359 and 115,981 on day two.Promotion was done mainly on websites reserved for free promotion. Shelley Hitz list was a huge help: http://www.trainingauthors.com/47-pla... as well as the links given at the end of this page on AuthorMarketingClub: http://authormarketingclub.com/member... . I also had a paid advert running on blog ‘Love Romance, Passion’ ( http://www.loveromancepassion.com/ ) for Aug.-Sept. period (cost=$40) which I did only after getting equal return in royalties.
As is often the case, there was not a single feedback from the free downloads on the mediocrity or viability of the book. But it was a good morale booster nonetheless. The book tags at the time were random but specific words like death, divorce, bad father, inspirational, aging, romance, domestic violence and it was logged under Romance/Regency, later on shifted to Religious & Inspirational, and is currently logged under fiction/literary and fiction / romance / historical/ regency with 7 keywords 'religious and inspirational', 'depression and mental illness', 'death and grief', 'dating and relationships', 'alcohol & drug abuse', 'british', 'aging'.
2) During the week (12-18 Jan. 2015) that the e-novel was available at a bargain price of $0.99, the number of total purchases made was 8 books, 1 KOLL download, 4 facebook likes and 3 shares.
The promotion was done on websites reserved for free bargain / 99 cent promotion, on facebook and GR groups I’m a member of.
* The fb groups included:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/40866...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/38849...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/12601...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bpzone/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/37090...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/15796...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/35711...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bookm...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/30667...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ficti...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/14823...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/19900...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/14223...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/44469...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/13935...
* The fb pages of following most-read blogs:
http://www.blogmetrics.org/Romance_No...
* Fb pages of bookstores in NY, Chicago, California, Ohio etc. were also explored.
* Independent sites for posting free/99cent promotion such as bookgoodies, awesomegang, indiereads, including those given by A. D. Winch on: http://www.winchad.com/uploads/1/2/1/...
and http://awesomegang.com/places-to-subm...
Amazon Sales Rank of the e-novel amongst all books of all genres and all formats on 11th January was 481,535, on 12th the KCD started and at the end of 18th Jan., the rank had gone up to 68,359.
The decision to not have a ‘breakdown’ version ($0.99, $1.99) of Kindle Countdown Deal Sale was to send out a single message with a single theme and not confuse people. Plus, since it’s not a paperback or a giveaway, it did not make sense to complicate the return-value!
Basically unless one goes for paid adverts or local bookstore support in publicizing a book on a grass-root level, it won't go too far.
3) As the image https://www.goodreads.com/photo/work/... shows, I’ve noticed a pattern whereby a single KOLL lending or sale can jump the author and sales rank immediately from a sharp downward spiral to a grossly upward number for e.g. on 1st Nov. the e-novel Sale Rank in All Books was incredibly low at 575, 673 and on 2nd Nov. it shot up to 94,925. On Dec. 15th, sale rank was 180,130 and on Dec. 16th it shifted to 59,318.
It makes me wonder how many sales a book actually makes to get in Top 100 - a few tens or hundreds? My brother did the math and figured that any Top 100 ebook generates 400 sales per day to sustain it’s position in the Top 100. Good keywords can make the book seem even more of a hotcake under Amazon Sales Rank by creating selective categories under which it is doing well, as opposed to overall larger categories.
For e.g. during the free-book days (Aug.2014), while my e-novel Amazon Rank was #349 Free in Kindle Store, it was #6 in Kindle Store > Literature & Fiction > Religious & Spiritual Fiction.
https://www.goodreads.com/photo/work/...
And when it reached overall Amazon Rank of #7 in Kindle Store > Literature & Fiction > Religious & Inspirational Fiction > Christian > Romance > Historical, even though it was not in the 'Top 100 Free' (#593 in Kindle Store).
https://www.goodreads.com/photo/work/...
4) The best sales figure for the e-novel remains from 29th August at 791 (Amazon Sales Rank). And best author ranking remains from within All Kindle Ebooks on Sept. 3rd when it was 20,283.
5) Though the book was not a joy-ride to write, it’s fun to put stuff out there and see whether anyone shows interest in it or not. Amazon KDP and Kindle Select makes it possible and I’m thankful for the learning curve courtesy the online network, GR and author-marketing websites.
6) Also, Amazon has done well by introducing the sales and author rank for Kindle authors. It’s good to have a bird’s eye-view for non-paperback/hardcover formats.
7) Number Seven Lesson is that even if you update a topic-post on blogs/ promotions threads in GR groups, fellow members may see it as spam or unpaid advert and will say so!
8) I am late in re-formatting of the book - which should have been done before putting the book on ANY SALE - and an author reminded me this week that I may get bad reviews simply because of lazy mistakes in the draft posted online, inspite of it being a good story - so back to the writing board it is for now.
9) But still, I would like to thank all those who have taken a chance with the book. A Big Thanks:
https://www.goodreads.com/photo/work/...
10) Following is data from Amazon Author Central on all categories that the e-novel has been ranked under:
Author Rank
All Books
All Available (August 17, 2014 - January 18, 2015)
Aug. 17: 180,235
Aug. 20: 302,706
Aug. 23: 78,266
Aug. 27: 134,359 (FREE)
Aug. 28: 115,981 (FREE)
Aug. 29: 159,617
Aug. 30: 68,152
Sept 3: 49,979
Sept 9: 70,194
Sept 16: 196,462
Sept 23: 251,392
Sept 24: 120,323
Sept 25: 94,005
Oct. 1: 140,009
Oct. 6: 307,213
Oct. 7: 175,799
Oct. 13: 123,841
Nov. 1: 441,995
Nov. 2: 97,246
Nov. 6: 338,825
Nov. 8: 177,209
Nov. 18: 126,471
Nov. 22: 119,255
Nov. 28: 352,507
Nov. 29: 142,927
Dec. 4: 380,918
Dec. 5: 148,497
Dec. 15: 464,860
Dec. 16: 280,505
Dec. 18: 372,145
Dec. 31: 164,882
Jan. 1: 260,176
Jan. 7: 156,918
Jan. 11: 394,597
Jan. 12: 431,258 (KCD)
Jan. 13: 277,513 (KCD)
Jan. 14: 249,432 (KCD)
Jan. 15: 195,195 (KCD)
Jan. 16: 225,676 (KCD)
Jan. 17: 259,144 (KCD)
Jan. 18: 124,194 (KCD)
Author Rank
Kindle eBooks
All Available (August 17, 2014 - January 18, 2015)
Aug. 17: 77,126
Aug. 20: 134,289
Aug. 23: 36,216
Aug. 27: 33,661 (FREE)
Aug. 28: 40,648 (FREE)
Aug. 29: 29,121
Aug. 30: 54,308
Sept. 1: 21,210
Sept. 2: 33,671
Sept. 3: 20,283
Sept. 9: 45,600
Sept. 16: 86,073
Sept. 23: 115,135
Sept. 24: 47,780
Sept. 25: 40,951
Sept. 26: 35,271
Oct. 1: 66,311
Oct. 6: 138, 254
Oct. 7: 63,511
Oct. 9: 42,301
Oct. 13: 47,747
Nov. 1: 197,057
Nov. 2: 198,712
Nov. 3: 98,166
Nov. 6: 56,042
Nov. 8: 68,385
Nov. 18: 60,139
Nov. 23: 38,160
Nov. 28: 76,131
Nov. 29: 46,403
Dec. 4: 151,383
Dec. 5: 62,351
Dec. 15: 180,130
Dec. 16: 59,318
Dec. 18: 131,867
Dec. 31: 72,525
Jan. 1: 74,738
Jan. 7: 52,053
Jan. 11: 170,450
Jan. 12: 192,994 (KCD)
Jan. 13: 47,100 (KCD)
Jan. 14: 73,751 (KCD)
Jan. 15: 55,683 (KCD)
Jan. 16: 68,743 (KCD)
Jan. 17: 103,564 (KCD)
Jan. 18: 38,070 (KCD)
Author Rank
Kindle eBooks
Literature and Fiction
All Available (August 17, 2014 - January 18, 2015)
Aug. 17: 23,341
Aug. 27: 11,211 (FREE)
Aug. 28: 14,270 (FREE)
Aug. 29: 10,087
Sept. 3: 8,087
Oct. 13: 13,883
Nov. 1: 52,007
Nov. 2: 15,925
Nov. 22: 16,149
Dec. 4: 42,440
Dec. 5: 20,870
Dec. 16: 49,144
Dec. 17: 30,130
Dec. 18: 37,795
Dec. 31: 22,809
Jan. 1: 29,270
Jan. 7: 18,897
Jan. 11: 47,523
Jan. 12: 52,066 (KCD)
Jan. 13: 20,525 (KCD)
Jan. 14: 26,686 (KCD)
Jan. 15: 22,368 (KCD)
Jan. 16: 18,814 (KCD)
Jan. 17: 13,054 (KCD)
Jan. 18: 16,659 (KCD)
Author Rank
Kindle eBooks
Literature and Fiction
Literary Fiction
All Available (September 10, 2014 - January 18, 2015)
Sept. 10: 3,938
Sept. 26: 2450
Oct. 6: 6,805
Oct. 13: 2588
Nov. 2: 9231
Nov. 3: 3,666
Nov. 6: 3,023
Nov. 23: 3,060
Dec. 5: 7770
Dec. 7: 4,064
Dec. 16: 8,586
Dec. 17: 6,300
Dec. 18: 6748
Dec. 31: 3884
Jan. 1: 4416
Jan. 7: 2921
Jan. 11: 8543
Jan. 12: 8935 (KCD)
Jan. 13: 4937 (KCD)
Jan. 14: 3279 (KCD)
Jan. 15: 2940 (KCD)
Jan. 16: 3811 (KCD)
Jan. 17: 2383 (KCD)
Jan. 18: 2942 (KCD)
Author Rank
Kindle eBooks
Religion & Spirituality
You don't have an Amazon Author Rank for this category.
Author Rank
Kindle eBooks
Romance
All Available (August 17, 2014 - January 18, 2015)
Aug. 17: 11,310
Aug. 23: 6383
Aug. 27: 7335 (FREE)
Aug. 28: 9213 (FREE)
Aug. 29: 9613
Sept. 3: 5025
Oct. 6: 17,120
Oct. 12: 8300
Nov. 2: 20,764
Nov. 3: 11,932
Nov. 12: 7877
Dec. 1: 13,992
Dec. 5: 9,790
Dec. 7: 9981
Dec. 15: 19,599
Dec. 16: 12,932
Dec. 17: 16,381
Dec. 31: 10,697
Jan. 1: 13,594
Jan. 7: 20,548
Jan. 8: 10,221
Jan. 11: 19452
Jan. 12: 20,092 (KCD)
Jan. 13: 9,960 (KCD)
Jan. 14: 12,588 (KCD)
Jan. 15: 8893 (KCD)
Jan. 16: 11,670 (KCD)
Jan. 17: 7984 (KCD)
Jan. 18: 10,056 (KCD)
Author Rank
Kindle eBooks
Romance
Historical Romance
All Available (August 17, 2014 - January 18, 2015)
Aug. 17: 2220
Aug. 23: 1518
Aug. 26: 1894
Aug. 27: 1281 (FREE)
Aug. 28: 1173 (FREE)
Aug. 29: 1409
Sept. 1: 949
Sept. 3: 957
Sept. 8: 2553
Sept. 9: 1216
Oct. 2: 2447
Oct. 6: 3289
Oct. 13: 1444
Nov. 1: 4004
Nov. 2: 1773
Nov. 23: 1691
Nov. 29: 1426
Dec. 5: 2084
Dec. 7: 2043
Dec. 16: 3780
Dec. 17: 2965
Dec. 18: 3106
Dec. 31: 2114
Jan. 1: 2207 Jan. 7: 3809
Jan. 11: 3611
Jan. 12: 3842 (KCD)
Jan. 13: 2576 (KCD)
Jan. 14: 1964 (KCD)
Jan. 15: 2103 (KCD)
Jan. 16: 2246 (KCD)
Jan. 17: 2443 (KCD)
Jan. 18: 1733 (KCD)
Amazon Bestseller Rank
All Available (August 5, 2014 - January 18, 2015)
Aug. 5: 55451
Aug. 6: 33,873
Aug. 7: 33,538
Aug. 14: 337,638
Aug. 17: 135,886
Aug. 21: 46,450
Aug. 22: 44582
Aug. 27: 639 (FREE)
Aug. 28: 589 (FREE)
Aug. 29: 791
Aug. 30: 43,451
Sept. 3: 28,212
Sept. 25: 51,821
Sept. 13: 61,885
Nov. 1: 575,673
Nov. 2: 94,925
Nov. 17: 57,877
Nov. 27: 373,169
Nov. 29: 68,068
Dec. 6: 94,457
Dec. 14: 488,995
Dec. 15: 153,275
Dec. 16: 179,729
Dec. 18: 383,487
Dec. 31: 108,728
Jan. 1: 240,041
Jan. 7: 116,545
Jan. 11: 481,535
Jan. 12: 161,894 (KCD)
Jan. 13: 96,717 (KCD)
Jan. 14: 107,030 (KCD)
Jan. 15: 104,006 (KCD)
Jan. 16: 162,980 (KCD)
Jan. 17: 73,806 (KCD)
Jan. 18: 68,359 (KCD)
