Dale’s Comments (group member since Sep 15, 2017)

Dale’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Carmel wrote: "I have no problem with limiting winners, to even the playing field..I was commenting on tossing a story for mentioning God. Smiley face!"

Oh, that. Yeah . . .

Carmel wrote: "That was an amusing story, Ted! And some picky editors!"

I think the rule change is a good one. The editors are faced with the challenge of making what is admittedly a popularity contest interesting to everyone. Ted has won most of the weeks that he has entered, and he enters most weeks, which could lead to everyone else wondering what the point is. I have to admit to a bit of frustration myself that no matter what I do, I can't ever top his vote-gathering prowess. ;-) Given that, I think it makes sense to limit everyone to one reader's choice award per month so more people have a chance to win that. Besides, the editor's choice awards are the ones Ted and I would really like to win, anyway. That means something more than who has the most friends willing to cast votes.

Theodore wrote: " I wrote to them, asking how submissions from people who win would be handled, given they still would be shooting for Editors' Choice awards, but I never received an answer."

I think the revised rules said that if you win once, you won't appear in the voting for the rest of the month, but you can still submit and will still be eligible for Editor's Choice awards. That was the impression I got, anyway.

Theodore wrote: "Hope your wife is on the mend."

She's doing better of late, thanks. And yes, I was really hoping to trounce you this week, but I just can't seem to get enough votes. ;-) I think there was only one time when we were both in the running that I beat you, and maybe one other time when a third party beat both of us. You've had a good run!

Theodore wrote: "I'm actually wondering if they even are going to make awards for the last half of last year."

Their historical record suggests they'll get to it eventually, probably in a spate of announcements in a month or so. :-P

Theodore wrote: "My books are POD. ..."

In that case, it sounds like you get a reasonably good deal on them. Thanks for the info and the links.

Saw that. Good changes, I think, but I wish they could figure out some way to get word out on the editor's choice awards a little faster. I understand that they are all volunteers and may sometimes have trouble adhering to the stated schedule, but they don't seem to be actually doing what they say they're going to do, at least not as far as announcing winners goes.

Ted,

$6 for that sounds good. Are you getting those books POD or doing a print run? We'll be doing a run of about 300 full color children's books shortly, 24 pages as I recall, for $3 and some odd cents per copy. Our problem is we have to pay an artist for the illustrations, which is going to make the books a tad pricey. But the text is superb and the illustrations gorgeous. The artist is a former coworker of mine who gives us very low prices compared to what one would normally pay.

The participation fee surprises me a little, although it probably shouldn't. The 40% discount, return policy, and lost/stolen/damaged policy are industry standard and why POD books generally cannot be placed in bookstores.

My situation is a little different, because I own a traditional publishing company, albeit a small one. We do small print runs of our books (not POD), so we get them for relatively cheap. ($6 would be a fairly expensive book for us, although some of our larger ones have cost about that much.) We can afford to sell them to stores and distributors at a 40% discount, or even a 50% discount in certain cases. We can accept returns. I've done signings at a local indie bookstore and at a local B&N, although those events usually don't sell more than 4 or 5 copies. My books have stayed on store shelves for a short time after a signing, but they don't sell.

That's the real problem for bookstores as well as authors. The competition for shelf space is fierce. The store doesn't particularly care that there are scads of good indie titles. They care that nobody knows who the authors are, so nobody is looking for their books, so their books will just take up valuable shelf space gathering dust rather than making money for anyone. Alas, that's just the reality of it. Getting a book onto a store shelf usually doesn't translate into sales for an unknown author.

Worse, indie bookstores often have trouble selling books to begin with. I've talked with one bookstore owner and one employee at another store, both of whom said that they make most of their money in non-book merchandise (clothing, calendars, and specialty items). Amazon has cut into their sales so much that one store had to reduce the floor space devoted to books from one half to one quarter. The store owner said she sold all the other stuff so she could afford to sell a few books. (That is, the books were a money-loser for her, but she wanted to provide them anyway.)

My experience is the same as Ted's. For the most part, book stores don't make sense for indie authors, either from the author's standpoint or from the store's standpoint. The only case it does is if you can get into a store for a signing or other event without laying out any money up front. Then you might talk to a few people, you might sell a copy or three, you might get some names for your email list, and you might get invited back for another event. But don't expect miracles.

The best bet is to change your name to Stephen King and hope nobody notices that you aren't him. ;-)

Anna Faversham wrote: "Done!"

Answered. Thank you!

I've updated the "Ask the Author" question on my GR Profile to request questions about my soon-to-be-released novel, Ice on the Bay. If you can think of any such questions, please ask! I'm open to general questions about my writing, too.

If anyone else would like to request "Ask the Author" questions for an upcoming release or other purpose, please feel free to post here.

Thanks!

Talena wrote: "I just read this now. I should have read it first! Lol. I agree, it just took me longer to say that than you did, Dale. ;-)"

That's okay. It's always nice to get confirmation that I'm not way out in left field somewhere. ;-)

I have a story this week, as well, an extrapolation from all that recent political scuffling over border security. I hope you enjoy it, regardless of who you vote for.

Alex wrote: "...the more I think about my bio, the more I realise I've lead a pretty boring life, lol."

Same with me. Except maybe a few bits I don't want to put in my bio in the first place. :-P

Alexis wrote: "Indies at our level can’t affect the market alone. Unless some big publisher or big author or an entire huge group of indies decide to create a competitior that can match Amazon, then there will be no other baskets to put our eggs in."

Certainly an author who makes few sales doesn't influence much of anything. And certainly Amazon can be a useful tool for getting word out about one's books. However, an unknown author who can't sell books on Amazon is in exactly the same boat as an unknown author who can't sell books elsewhere. ;-) Which goes back to my point: we have to find ways to get our books into the hands of people who will read them, review them, and share them with friends.

Alexis wrote: "So yeah, I agree with you that the working of supply and demand will ultimately lead to a new equilibruim. I’m just not sure if demand for trad books, demand for indie books, or demands for all books will be affected."

Good questions. I think part of the answer will depend on the quality of the books. If you find indie authors worth following as much as your favorite trad authors, you'll probably be happy to gobble them up at lower prices, but you may also go to the library for your trad authors. ;-)

I think we have to be careful here. It's probably true that on average "aggressive" people get farther than "non-aggressive" people, but "doing whatever it takes" can be taken too far. If "doing whatever it takes" means doing the illegal or immoral, then it ceases to be a good thing. I also don't think being polite and being aggressive in pursuing one's goals are mutually exclusive. In my experience, people are more willing to work with you and help you if you treat them well than if you walk all over them. Probably the better word would be "persistent."

I don't think it's a bad bio. In the course of fiddling with mine over many years (for various purposes), I've found the following principles help:

1. The bio should contain any special experience you've had that relates to what you are promoting. I've written some Baha'i material, so for that my bio highlights my Baha'i life and experiences. But for my mysteries, I have no special experience, so I skip this part. A police officer writing mysteries should, however, mention their "day job."

2. Aside from special experience, any general experience that tells people who you are is always good, simply because people like to hear it. In my case, I mention that I'm a veteran software developer (which has nothing to do with writing mysteries), and amateur astronomer (interesting but irrelevant, except that sometimes I work astronomical notes into my stories), and a bonsai-artist-in-training (irrelevant but interesting because, hey, everyone loves to look at a well-designed bonsai but almost nobody knows anything about the art).

3. Whatever family information you're comfortable including is nice because it makes you sound like a real person, which hopefully you are anyway. ;-) I generally mention my wife, kids, grandkids, and pets.

4. What you've published is relevant for an author bio. What you're working on next is also relevant. This section will require periodic updating as you publish more books.

And really, that's about it. The rest is just how to phrase it. You can be serious, witty, professional, irreverent, etc., as suits the material you're promoting and how you want people to think of you.

Here's my next review and interview, this one with Chrys Cymri on his book The Temptation of Dragons. Please enjoy and share!

One thing to remember is that a product is worth whatever you can get someone to pay for it. If people are willing to pay higher ebook prices, then companies can price them high and make money off of them. If not, then yes, companies who price them higher will shoot themselves in the foot.

But it may not all be about pricing. In talking with people, I find there are still a great many who don't particularly like to read books electronically. Reading a book is a tactile experience as well as an intellectual/emotional one, and many people seem to have found that they don't want to give that up. (This is just my impression from conversations. I have no data on it.) Moreover, there are studies that show people tend to read less carefully and thoroughly when they read electronically than when they read from a print source. This could play into some people's disaffection with ebooks, too. I think there are likely several factors for the decline in ebook sales in 2017 (or at least the first half of 2017).

This article may be of some interest, too. It covers a number of topics, including a statement that Amazon has over 70% of the ebook market, indie titles represent 40% of unit sales in the ebook market, and that traditional publishers still capture as much as 80% of the money from ebook sales because of their higher pricing. It sounds, therefore, like there is a strong indie presence in ebooks, and that just maybe people are actually willing to pay higher prices for at least some ebook titles.

My view on indie success is that it comes down to a lot of legwork. Amazon can be a great platform for making our works available, but how do we convince people to try them? Reviews alone probably won't do it, especially with what appears to be so much chaos in the review system right now. We have to use personal contact (something I'm fairly rotten at) to introduce people to our work. I read and reviewed Chrys Cymri's The Temptation of Dragons the other day. I've recommended it to my wife and one of my daughters, and one of my FB contacts saw that I'd finished reading it and asked if it was worth it because she was looking for some new urban fantasy to read. I said absolutely. She's downloaded it and is starting it now.

This is how we build up sales. Write good stories, then get them into the hands of people who will read them and tell others about them and review them. Start with people we know and branch out from there. Amazon is just one tool among many for doing that. But no tool can't replace the personal contacts, which is where it all has to start.