Tomas’s Comments (group member since May 15, 2018)

Tomas’s comments from the Support for Indie Authors group.

Dwayne wrote: "Google it sometime. Leisure reading has been on a decline for decades. People still read, sure, but not like they did some years ago."

Long-term, sure, because there was almost no alternative in the past. In the scope of the last few years, I am not sure it's that bad. E-readers had brought some people back to reading - especially younger people and students (who would face space issues with print books).

I don't think reading is on the decline. After all, e-book sales are pretty stable (or even growing a bit) in general. I see people read in the bus fairly often, whether on an e-reader or a paperback (sometimes monstrous sizes).
The thing is, readers (more so e-readers) are overwhelmed by choices these days. I've read great books that have less than 10 ratings on GR and think would deserve more but if people don't find those hidden gems...
And yet, when I am done with my book, I'd consider getting 10 ratings a good start. I guess it's hard to have realistic expectations for most people - I can't know, I have no expectations myself because I got to writing out of nowhere and only started to think about self-publishing it around the time the first draft was done, by which I already knew something about the reality of writing.

Just so we have a better idea (because the page count is not exact), can you give us the word count?
If it's as short as it seems, it'd be probably for the best to sell it as a short story - which would probably not do well at $3, more likely at $1 or maybe go for kindle unlimited and see if borrows do better than sales.

I think the best try would be to contact the support - while GR is against changing the cover image in general, the fact that no book exists with that cover (the image being pretty much a placeholder), they might hear you out.

Mehmet wrote: "These stars confuse the consumers and the stars don't necessarily reflect the reality most of the times. For example, I noticed some people provide 2 or 3 stars and praise the book. Some give 4 or 5 stars they criticise the book. This is a real dilemma which Amazon or other service providers need to consider as stars are subjective and problematic for evaluating the quality of books."

Well, in some cases, it might not even be contradictive: if the plot is good and the book fails in aspects not related to it (such as grammar or formatting), I'd probably give a rating purely based on the plot, then point out those issues (such as the case where you say people criticize while giving 4* or 5*).
Similarly, if the plot has promise but is executed poorly, someone might think that giving words of encouragement with the lower rating is good for the author.

Well, hello everyone. I was born (and still live) in the eastern half of the Czech Republic - a relatively small state in the middle of Europe.
I think it has two effects on my writing: first, the vicinity of mountains gives me places where I can go, clear my mind, and gather inspiration.
Second, none of my relatives can speak English (well, except my uncle who lives in the USA), so my secret hobby is mostly safe from prying eyes and question until I decide to 'come out' - even if someone found the files on my PC, they'd have no idea what the hell they are.

No self-promotion and no link allowed. Post removed.

B.A. wrote: "I've discovered that most of the programs are by subscriptiont. MS Word is $100 a year"

Yet you don't need to use the most recent version if you don't necessarily require some of the newest functions. Writing in any 'hard copy' of office since the format change (when they introduced DOCX to replace DOC) will work fine.

Marko wrote: "Adobe Photoshop is only $9.95 a month. I think it's essential."

Essential for who? I don't think it's essential for writing. For people who also know how to do some image manipulation or even drawing (and thus can do their own covers), maybe. For people like me, who can't even edit a photo from the holiday, nope.

I've heard that reviews posted on Amazon US can be seen worldwide but reviews on Amazon anywhere else (whichever country suffix you wish) can only be seen in that country.
"Consistency."
Meh.
Pity that did not come to me before...

Justin wrote: "I like giving my chapters titles. One, as I write it helps me remember what the plot will be about, it's easier for me to go back and check something cause I remember the title over the number."

Yep, it works great as navigation during edits.

If you're going to self-publish, choose whichever fits you best. That's the power of freedom.

By the way, I am in the chapter name club as well (well, my WIP is...)

You can definitely hire someone to help you with the process though if you are formatted, I don't know what else you need to help with.
Just keep in mind that if the price for a service looks ridiculously high, it might be a shady kind of company.

Ruby wrote:
No links
No self-promotion
And definitely no links that are self-promotion.

Amazon is known to be trigger-happy with 'shooting' potentially suspicious reviews. Especially if the reviewer is GR friend or there was already a review going the other way around. If it was any of those cases, don't expect it being restored.

A. wrote: "I always publish the print book about a month later after the ebook has garnered enough interest and you had a chance to correct any typos. Ebooks can be updated, print books take longer and if someone already bought a print book, theirs cannot be changed."

I plan to delay print version for the same reason, possibly 2-3 months, no idea yet.

Safari wrote: "Do you think genre plays into which books do better in KU vs wide?"

Genre plays a lot in format choice. I've once seen someone say that some genres (especially erotica) are pretty much e-book exclusive for a practical reason: the cover of such a genre might get some unwanted attention if reading on a train. Romance, especially the sub-genres with suggestive covers, might be in a similar spot.

When it comes to preference to KU borrows or 'normal' purchases... there might be some ties. I think KU will favor genres where the books tend to be shorter and thus an active reader would otherwise need to purchase several books a month - thus the money spent would ramp up quickly and KU is a great way for them to read a lot of books for a fixed price - which factors into genre habits.

Of course, the major factor will always be the reader: if someone's able to read enough books they'd cost more than then monthly subscription, then KU is a no-brainer for them.

Personally, I'm not sure if such a mixed approach is good.
You say 75% of your income comes from KDP select - readers you would probably lose because the way they read books is to pay for the monthly subscription and read books listed in those exclusively. If PNR is a genre with a major audience there, I think it'd be extremely hard to make up for that loss of money/audience (whichever you care for more) with switching to wide on a sequel.
Not to mention that if someone then found the #2 on another retailer and was like "where's #1?" Then, if that meant going to Amazon to buy it, they'd either quit, or buy the whole series there. I don't know how many people read books from several platforms at once but I don't think they'll be many.

The way I see it, a short story is usually just one major event.

Since I'm currently in the beta stage, what I think I can say is: when betas say it's far too repetitive, then it's a problem.

It's a tough choice. Repeating one word is a problem, sounding like thesaurus is a problem too.

I am a bit jealous you started this thread the day I went for my holiday, but...
Doubt is my constant companion. I doubted pretty much anything about myself before I started writing, and writing became just one more thing in which I doubt myself.
Practice makes this better - as I learn, the feeling is not as strong. Sometimes, I remind myself why I gave writing a try (to see a story that spent over a decade as nothing but a concept finished), how much I learned on the way, and the helpful people I've 'met'.

And, even if it ends up poorly, I can say I tried and gave it my best - which not everyone does.