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

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

The sales to reviews ratio is mentioned in many aspects - what, exactly, it is, differs. I had a course on surveys at uni, and the lecturer mentioned reviews/rating, and the usual estimate is 5% success for just rating, less if it includes review.

Eldon wrote: "Agree - David Gaughran knows his stuff. And he offers a free course."

I've read his books. I didn't finish the video course - much of it was in the books as well, and I'm not much into video format because a book takes all my focus while video with just a person reciting something leads to me doing other stuff and eventually filtering the sound out.
But he outright advises to not spend too much money on promoting a series that's not finished yet. At the same time, he advises building an audience during that time, which does seem to be self-contradictory to a degree, because you won't have people just stumble upon your book by chance unless you're in some very specific niche with very low competition.
(SPOILER: Sword-and-Sorcery and Coming-of-age Fantasy aren't low-competition genres. That's why the US featured deal can cost around $2000.)
Hence why I'm looking at some low-spend methods that'd give me a couple of genuine reviews. Because trying to sell a series without reviews won't help that much even if it's complete.

Yes, US is the dominant ebook market. Even I, who is from Europe, buy books from Amazon US because they have way more filtering options (sub-genres) than the localized counterparts. So a lot of e-book shoppers on Amazon US are likely international. I think that's also reason why it's hard to get a decent promotion - as one thing seems to work better, people flock there and it drives the price up to the point it stops working so well. believe Amazon ads are on a rollercoaster in that aspect (in some genres maybe). And many of the smaller deal sites may not have that good results.

Eldon, I'll try to message you later this week - I will be a bit busy now, and we may get more facts and opinions here in the meantime, so it may not be needed as much by that time.

I don't want to derail the thread too much; Eldon, would you mind if I messaged you for specifics during the week?

Eldon wrote: "Probably not what you want to hear Tomas, but I don't think there are any shortcuts for that."

I know that, and I'm not looking for a "get rich quick" method. Just anything that'd get my foot out of the door, because it's not like people would notice a book that's at #2,5M-th spot in the rankings. But what I mostly see is "you need reviews to have a meaningful chance at decent ad results" but how do you get reviews without having reviews...?

About featured deals... not only hard to be accepted, but aren't they crazy expensive anyway? I've seen a screenshot that showed it may cost around $2000... who the hell has that money to spare these days?

Sure, I could run a normal countdown deal, but I have no clue how to promote that in a way that wouldn't make a hole in my pocket.

EDIT: also, a major method like a featured deal wouldn't be too good an idea until I have the trilogy complete as the people would probably forget my book before the next one is out, hence I'm looking for some small-scale method.

Eileen wrote: "I also recommend making your book free on Kindle from time to time, assuming you're in KDP Select. I view it as a way to get more reviews, which adds to your visibility on Amazon and eventually to more sales."

For many people, this doesn't work at all. There are a lot of readers who download free books on sight because they're free but never read them, because they have a pile of those.

Eileen wrote: "working (however slowly) to build up your reviews on Amazon and here."

Any tips on that matter? I think that's the hardest part, knowing how to start with building an audience.

I admit that only a few characters in my project were given last names - they just aren't that important. Most of the time, they're used when the situation is very formal.

Well, you can put me on the "afraid to be famous" pile.

Yeah, apple stuff tends to be overpriced + there will be things that don't run on it.

Laptops in general will have more updates because there's usually a ton of bloatware - an issue you won't have on a desktop you build and install yourself.

Yes, that is definitely possible.

16GB may be good for the future but now, I would think it an overkill. I have W10 with 8GB RAM and it runs quite well even for games, unless it's something very new. Writing demands much less.

Make sure you have a SSD drive, it'll boot faster.

Also, any reason to get a laptop over a desktop PC? If you insist on laptop, I'd suggest a real keyboard. I can't imagine writing on laptop keyboard for hours. But maybe that's just me.

Gail wrote: "Also, several years ago, I was advised by a known trad publisher, "You need to write a unique story, like Cinderella with a twist." Uh...that's considered unique?? I didn't/couldn't/maybe should've."

If you look at present-day cinema and trad-pub books, it, unfortunately, is unique enough - and risk-free enough - to work.

What if I fear when people necro threads from 2015?

(just joking, but seriously, it was like 5 just this week)

Gail wrote: "Okay, good point, Tomas. Since Eldon was initially asking about flashbacks, even in 3rd person past tense stories, wouldn't a flashback need to reflect a time prior to that? So, instead of 'He walked into a room' (3rd person past tense), a flashback would state, 'He had walked into a room'?"

Depends. It might, but I believe many people use normal past tense, and that's okay if the flashback is clear (often just full cursive with normal font where a cursive would be otherwise).

Gail wrote: "Why would you write an entire book in past tense?"

Aren't most (apart from dialogue)? 3rd person past tense feels the most natural to read to me.

Dwayne wrote: "You have to say, "Okay, here's a flashback" without saying, "Okay, here's a flashback" and sometimes the transitions feel a bit sudden..."

Well, as a reader, I don't mind being explicitly told that a scene is a flashback...

It's possible to go with *** (or any fancy scene-break you use) followed by a "[X days/months/years ago]", then make sure to end the scene with a scene-break again. If you want to be totally sure, then ad "present time" at the first scene after the flashback.

Geoffrey wrote: "The only upside of self publishing is that you get to write whatever and however the hell you want. Even if it's in a made up genre."

Only? What about -your- choice of cover, in times when many publishers put out books looking quite generic, to save money?

What about not having to go through the hamster wheel of querying agents, which is just as "fun" as looking for a job but three times as frustrating?

Nah, not the "only" advantage at all.

(edited for typos)

I'm not an expert but can you share what method you used for the formatting? Have you done it yourself? If yes, what software have you used? Or have you hired someone to do it for you? If anyone is to help you, we'll need more information.

As a reader, I don't tend to look at editorial reviews. I go by the book description and a couple of reader reviews. But that's my approach.

One of the characters in my story is loosely inspired by my first love.

I intentionally avoid negative inspiration, because I don't want to be reminded of negative things when editing.