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

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

Do you have any tips on how to find readers who'd review your books?

JAKe wrote: "It's my understanding that someone or some entity at FB determines who will see your posts."

As far as I've heard, there's an algorithm that selects the people who are most likely to interact with your post, and there's some kind of cap on how many people will see it (which can be increased or bypassed with enough $$$). The "official" reason may be to prevent people from being flooded with more posts than they can realistically handle, but there's definitely money involved.

M.L. wrote: "they were by writers who had social media following and engagement ahead of time."

That's quite the problem for me, I guess. I never used FB (and I never will, if I have any say in it) nor any other cesspit of fake news, dubious ads, and such. Which makes it hard to be discovered...

It should be possible if the book is announced already in any form (such as if you have a webpage where you have the cover and release date mentioned). Then you add the book manually and can go through the steps needed to upgrade to an author account.

What I did was go through the process once I uploaded the book on Amazon. I set it up with a 2-week delay on release so I could test the conversion and formatting is okay, and to set-up Kindle X-ray, which revealed an issue with formatting, so I had those two weeks to re-convert the book file. And from the moment I uploaded the first version of the book, it was assigned an ASIN and I had quite an easy time getting upgraded to a GR Author profile.

Keep in mind, though, that unless you have a massive - and active - following, setting up a Goodreads author profile won't do that much.

As for myself... I honestly don't know. The initial idea for my project was a jumble of random ideas I've eventually woven into a story and iterated on it. Ideas for future projects in the same world come and go, I note them if I can, and time will tell if there will be anything out of them.

Dwayne wrote: "I don't much care what happens to my work after I'm gone. After all, I'll be gone."

As a convinced atheist and afterlife skeptic, I see it like this. All I know about what may happen after my life ends is that I want to donate my body to science or medical training. Apart from that, I don't really care.
Another point is that I don't have children of my own (at least not yet, and there's no change to that on the horizon), so there's none to inherit it anyway.

To D. M.:
Facebook ads supposedly work, if you get down to nerd-level targeting and nail it. This is the case with most online ads, but more with a massive site such as FB.
People may clock your ads if the book looks well, but I'm very skeptical about getting actual sales from ads if you have no reviews - so it's a hard place to start as well.
Deal sites are supposedly decent in return value, but those have requirements in rating and review count, which is a massive hurdle for those starting out.

GR giveaways are probably a massive waste because you shell out a lot of money and attract a lot of people I call "internet kleptomaniacs" - people who try to grab anything because it's free (be it a book, a game, whatever), regardless of whether they'll actually use it. Same risk with free runs compared to $1 sales.

B.A., Noor, both your posts sound like good advice. I plan to give some attention to my weblog in late spring or early summer, so I may try to edit the short story I've written a few years ago as a reader magnet and set things up for then.
Still, it feels like an unsustainable goal to not run out of ideas for monthly messages sooner rather than later.
Sorry if my previous comment sounded way too frustrated, but it often feels to me like this.

B.A. wrote: "Long story short, the easiest, cheapest way is to have that email list, keep them engaged, get them to share your newsletters/blog, etc."

With this, I see the same problem as with direct sales. Just as people won't magically discover your book (at least not in meaningful amount), they won't magically appear as your subscribers. And I have yet to see decent advice to have a newsletter discovered without sales (end-of-a-book request). I'm not saying newsletters don't work, but it seems like they add one chicken-egg problem on top of another.

I would always be wary about anyone who doesn't look professional, more so if they want your money. If they have no reviews, they may just want to read books for free. If nothing else, it gives you no idea what their tastes are and a chance to possibly avoid misunderstandings due to (sub)genre or potential sensitive content.

Roger wrote: "The big challenge, I think, is getting a book in front of anyone's eyeballs."

This is pretty much a fact. So far, I haven't done any marketing at all, and my results are 3 sales (one was me, one was a gaming friend, and one is unknown), and one full read via KU from a member of this group.

However, marketing is pretty much impossible without having at least a few reviews, and getting them without visibility is difficult. And getting visibility without marketing... I guess you get the point.
So, the hardest part is to find the first early readers.

M.L. wrote: "Another issue that doesn't come up if you read all ebooks is paper..."

Thanks for all the info, ML. Appreciated.

By the way, I've heard an author (won't name) say that Amazon cream is "not cream enough".

M.L. wrote: "Sure, for Kindle, but you asked about print books."

Yes, but the fact I read on Kindle means that have no idea about print specifics. I've last read a physical book maybe 5 years ago, and I didn't care about the font back then either. As long as it's not something really out of place... I've seen documents written by lawyers in Comic Sans, of all things, at work *facepalm*.

So, once again, I face an issue I couldn't imagine before.

M.L. wrote: "if you have a favorite book you might check for that"

As a reader, I honestly don't give a damn about the font. I have the default that was set on my Kindle when I bought it and that's it. Hence why I am asking, because I don't have any good sense of style.

Thus, thanks to everyone who replied so far, and to everyone who may yet reply. I appreciate your insight.

As a reader, I don't really care that much, but some level of consistency is good when I read on the move. If a chapter is, let's say, about 15 minutes long, and I have to get off the train in 10, I'll put the book aside for that moment. I may use a similar method when reading before sleeping, to some degree.

As a writer, this probably gets a bit more complex, but with a relatively simple outcome. I'll answer that point by point.

So what are your thoughts on chapter length?
Having consistent chapter length (within some unforced range) helps me find scenes when editing. This is further aided by chapter names. My chapters are somewhere around 3k, the actual range is probably between 2k and 5k. The only case where I could've made a chapter much longer is a major battle (3 chapters for the final battle in book one, 3 chapters for the final battle in the current draft of book two, 3 chapters for the major half-way battle in the current draft of book three, and 5 chapters in final battle in the current draft of book three)

How do you decide when to start and end a chapter?
Pretty much a major scene break.

Do you monitor word count when writing chapters?
Indirectly, by keeping an eye on page count.

If you do keep your word counts consistent across chapters is there a reason for it or a benefit that you get?
Answered above - it helps me to find specific scenes when editing.

If you do keep word count consistent for all your chapters do you vary scene lengths to make up for it or to affect the pace?
Scenes are "as long as the story wants them to be". I don't manipulate the length of those. There are chapter-long scenes, and scenes that are just a few paragraphs.

Gail wrote: "Hi Tomas, are you talking about paperback (13.3 x 9.3 is what I use in word) or ebook (6 x 9)?"

I plan to use 6x9 for the actual book, but my drafts are done with standard office paper (A4, 210x297mm) in Word. I used Calibre for e-book conversion, and it can convert into PDF, which is what I'd prefer to do with the e-book as I could keep the CSS formatting from the e-book file and just add ToC and glossary at the end. But that means I'll need to set the spacing, margins, etc in numbers.

As for font, I've seen Garamond recommended a lot.

Hello everyone,
I plan to get my book ready for paperback release soon, and I realized I know little about the specifics.

What should be the font size, considering the book is adult fantasy? And the line spacing? And what should be the distance between the text and the end of the paper in 6x9 format?

Thanks for any advice offered.
Tomas.

Dwayne wrote: "I try to make every chapter significant in some way. Yeah, I have heard the first 10% thing, too, which is always tough for my writing style. I like to start with small ideas in the beginning and build and build as I go along. Doesn't really fit the Amazon mold."

They had to draw the line *somewhere*. For stuff like epic fantasy, it's a tough fit. In my first draft, the build-up before something really happened took 20 (!!!) chapters. Yes, that's an extreme and a beginner's mistake and I've squished it a lot during the drafting and beta stages but it's still a slower start.

However, the first 10% should be more than enough to give the reader a clear idea about the author's writing style and themes, and thus whether the book will work for them.

I'll take a wild guess, but I'd guess it was some kind of made-up standard by traditional publishers for pacing purposes. If books followed some structure and had roughly similar chapter count, then it's possible that those points might've been some markers for events that should've been set in motion to assure the pace is good for the rest of the book.

However, I've seen books that had quite a lot of shorter chapters (I may fall there with 60-ish), and I've seen a book that had longer chapters, and ended up around 15 - so even chapter 3 would be too late, let alone 13.

These days, I've heard that the important part is the first 10% or so - the "Amazon free sample" range. I wouldn't be surprised if chapter 7 would hit a similar mark.

But maybe someone knows more.

Thanks, and you can be sure I will.
Wishing good luck and lots of ideas to everyone.