C.B.’s Comments (group member since May 01, 2015)

C.B.’s comments from the Support for Indie Authors group.

Wow! That is a long paragraph right there! :)

Personally, I found it a bit long, and it feels more like a synopsis than a blurb. I think it would work better if it trimmed in length and only included things that were vital for getting us interested in the story.

There are also quite a few words and phrases that I don't actually understand as they are part of the greater narrative and don't really need to be in the blurb for us to get excited.

I would trim it to this:

Leah Abramovitz is a cossetted member of the upper echelons of Odessan society and has high hopes for a brilliant future. When faced with alarming changes in political and societal mores, Leah and her family must flee and chart a course that forever alters their lives.
Will the shores of Buenos Aires allow her the freedom to design her own destiny?

Maybe if there are 6 different important stories in this, state that fact outright. The big intro for one character and then a jumble of the rest in the end is confusing.

Just tell people it has multiple viewpoints, and then tease us with them.

My fav is number 2.

I will also state that anytime there is pink text on blue, it is next to impossible to read. :)

Claudia wrote: "Just wondering if other authors find online sales are a struggle? And if so, what did you do to overcome it? "

I used Amazon.
:)

I have never tried to sell books online without it, so I couldn't tell you how hard it is to do so, sorry.

Just one?
But I make up too many to choose!

G.G. wrote: "The more you play with it the less sharp the image is. :("

.jpgs degrade the more times you save them. Hopefully you have the original somewhere and haven't been saving over the original over and over again. :)

If you have pictures in your book and the formatting is important, then you will need to use Kindle Textbook Creator to get them on Amazon properly. It is pretty standard in kid's books to need to use that. But they will not work for all e-reader devices.

Other online book suppliers might not even accept them. I had a dilly of a time, because my book layout was important. Amazon was the only one I could find that could do an e-book with special formatting.

Christina wrote: "Dwayne wrote: "I see no reason a third person narrator cannot use profanity from time to time. Vonnegut did this. So did Heller."

Vonnegut spoke to the reader though. He may have been narrating th..."

I could see this working for part of a book, but as the entire book it would be distracting

Write a 10k word story, edit it, and publish it!

Nothing like that to motivate you!

Marie reminded me of something to add.
The purpose of the stories also comes into pricing.

I have some Novelettes out and I price them at 99¢ and give them away a lot because they are related to my main series, and I want them to direct people there! If they were a stand-a-lone maybe they would be priced differently.

I agree with Christina's pricing formula though. That seems pretty
fair!

I can tell you right now that every idea ever has definitely NOT been written before. (Trust me on this, I am proof.)

Even then, just because an idea has been written before, it doesn't mean that writing about it is plagiarism. If you want to write a book about kids that go to magic school, then you should. Have fun with it and make the idea your own.

As for testing the market to see if you idea is... just write what you want to write. There will be more passion in it, and people that get it, will love it. You don't need to be a mega-success media machine to write. :)

Jim wrote: "In your example, doesn't the shipping charge eliminate any profit?"

Only if you order books one at a time! :)
Shipping costs less per book the more books you order.

It isn't the length of your chapters, it is what you do with it that counts!

For reference, someone Kindle Unlimited a bunch of my short stories today and one ranked up by 1,199,852 places.

You are not alone in this!

What causes that? Other books selling.

The best selling ranks and the category ranks are similar. The best selling rank is just all of the books out there.

Numbers will always go down without sales, freebie giveaways, or Kindle Unlimited borrows because other books are doing those things. Amazon has a really complicated formula for this, that they don't share so we can't know for certain.

It is not uncommon to have your book jump up hundreds of thousands of ranks for one sale.

Really they are just numbers. Don't dwell on them and you'll be happier for it. Use them on promotions to see how 'low' you get, but otherwise don't let it eat you up.

I plan names out.

For important characters I make sure to not use the same letter to start a name as another main character, and try to make them all look and feel different when read. I want them all to be unique names that don't rhyme or anything.

Some have meanings, some don't. Some are thought out, some just happened. Some are revised five times, some have never changed.

Gauri wrote: "A bookwhack"

This statement was a bookwhack (please refer to the group rules) and not related to the main topic.

Lyra wrote: "C.B. wrote: "I am really excited to try going to an expo!

... I just have absolutely no idea how many books to bring! :D
(well, I would bring them all, obviously) But i don't know how many of each..."

I would bring a lot more than books! I also have a sunny disposition, and so many perler bead things! :D

I am really excited to try going to an expo!

... I just have absolutely no idea how many books to bring! :D
(well, I would bring them all, obviously) But i don't know how many of each to bring.

That is what is stumping me.

Actual borders are hit and miss on printed materials for one main reason:
We have eyes!

When you cut something there is a chance it wll be slightly off, so if you have a thin border and it gets cut uneven or crooked (even by just a hair), our eyes can see it instantly. They are pretty good at that.

This is why it is often advised to not have thin borders close to cutting edges on printed objects.

This book has a border, but the cutting issue will be less of a problem here because it is not a straight line.

I do not suggest adding a thin gray line to the 'print' version of this cover. That will cause nothing but headaches. However, on the 'ebook' version, and on the 'cover image' for amazon, the line will prevent your cover from drifting off into space.