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

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

Yeah, Phillip, I also struggle understanding people with that mindset. What good is a promise if you don't intend to fulfill it? There are situations where it may be a valid reason - such a major change in one's life - but that's not a majority of those cases. I can understand abandoning an idea - but why not honestly tell the person? That's what I don't understand.

Well, but if they weren't an average person with an ordinary life, how would everything change?

Jokes aside, yeah, they're overused formulations. As you said, no story without a change. And while many characters don't start out exactly ordinary or average, I think for those there are other ways to point out the difference.

EDIT: I've also seen the word "unputdownable". And now I'm shocked that spellcheck isn't even highlighting it.

Definitely keep a different edition for e-book, because you can include formatted links to your website or other books in those. You can have links in print, of course, but the typical underlined link in a print book looks amateurish.
Plus you need headers and footers in print (for page numbers and such) while those won't do e-book any good.

On topic of Bookbub, yeah, the big genres can go to quite a high price. Then, those very genres can give you quite a good conversion. There's a reason why the featured deal is considered one of the best marketing tools available to writers - because the success rate is quite high.

Of course - Black Friday and Christmas are coming - both vigorous discount seasons, and who would make a discount without reviews, right?

E.M. wrote: "if you search free advertising for authors, you can probably find many more."

The hard work will probably be sorting out the good ones.

I know, but it seems a bit naïve to expect that. Trad-pub books, done by companies who can spend thousands on editors, can't do that if they tried. It's almost impossible for self-pub authors.

Then, I guess if they went with "edited to the best of your ability" would be easy to abuse - because authors could then try to pass their books in bad shape claiming they've done their best. So I guess it's about a simple formulation. But it's still impossible, as I know just by reading books...

Eldon wrote: "Error free. We look for content that is well-formatted and free of typos and grammatical errors."

To quote David Gaughran: "Typo-free book wasn't ever published." It just isn't possible to catch all of them, even if you had 10 people to go through it. I've seen typos in professionally published books, small typos that are easily overlooked. But I get the point.

Anyway, My point about followers/reviews is that I guess it'll be hard to push a book if I don't fully know my target audience to help me with choosing the right parameters. I may have some idea of my primary audience (20-ish males) but that is subject to my own biased view. Before I'd make at least a couple of sales, and get some reviews, I have no way to verify that.

Eileen wrote: "The painful thing writers need to learn is that it is not easy to make money as a writer so don't quit the day job."

I know that, and I don't count on quitting my daily job - not anytime soon. I'd consider $100/year a success. Sure, it's a nice dream that it'd make $100 a month and I'd chuck that into my retirement fund but I know it's tough work to get anywhere close to that.

Gail wrote: "You don't need reviews, but you do need followers to be considered for their feature ads"

That seems even harder to achieve, tbh.

Don't you need some amount of reviews to be considered at Bookbub? That's the main hurdle for new authors, I'd say, getting the first couple of reviews.

Caroline wrote: "What do you do to light the fire again?"

A walk in the woods does wonders, more so now in autumn when they're all colorful. As does reading anything that's not my own draft.

Yes, the KDP select is in 3-month periods, but it auto-renews, so if you want to leave, you need to think about it beforehand.

Keep in mind that trying to promote a book that has very few reviews may be similar to banging your head against a wall... which definitely makes it hard for people just starting out.

I have started with Kindle Unlimited enabled when I self-pubbed almost a year ago. I still am enrolled.
KU has made roughly 50% of my $11 royalties so far.

A gazillionth twist on the same idiom...
"You see, they’re not the sharpest blade in the rack.."

And sometimes, when you're under attack, a simple line may work the best.
"Don’t just stand there watching him!" a cultist shouted. "Fire on the mage, for hell’s sake!"

(both from Secrets of the Eternals working drafts)

The Kindle Unlimited monthly fund is steadily growing, if the e-mails I receive are using true numbers. The per-page payout was bound to drop. COVID gave people more time for their home-bound hobbies, which means the people subscribed to it are reading more books while paying the same, thus diluting the payout.
I was expecting that.

Another thing to mention that while Amazon may still be the lesser evil. Traditional publishing companies still cling to outdated practices that hurt both authors and readers (chiefly among them totally-useless DRM and inflating the prices of e-books to the same level as print) while asking authors to shoulder more of -their- work.

You should post asking for betas in the Writer's workshop folder, with enough detail to let people know what kind of book it is. Make a new topic for it there.

Well, the fact is that trying to promote book 1 in a future trilogy when I, despite my best tries, won't release book two sooner than late 2022 and book three in (probably) 2024 would have dubious efficiency. Many of the people would forget who the hell I am by the time the next book is out, hence I'll be saving some money on the side and try to give book 1 a nudge 5-6 months before book 3 is ready to be released, then bump book two 2-3 months ahead. That sounds like a good plan to me.

Whether it'll happen to be a good plan... ask me in 3 years. If it goes well, then I'll consider a hardcover. And by that time, Amazon will weed out all the bugs it may have *grins*.

Mark wrote: "Margin and/or font reduction or size increase? Just a thought."

It could be possible, but I probably won't consider it unless I get some decent momentum with my book. Considering I'm at 2 sales, 2 KU reads, and 12 free downloads over the 11 months since the launch of e-book, and 0 paperback sales, paying for another size of the cover adjusted for hardcover would be a waste of money. So, if I push through at some point, maybe.

The page limit for hardcover is 550 pages.
My book is 680 in paperback so I guess I'll sit that one out.