C.L.’s Comments (group member since Jan 14, 2017)

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

thanks!

Last chance in case any of you missed this thread. It ends in less than two hours!
https://www.thekindlebookreview.net/v...

Ha! Speak of the devil.

I just got that exact type of review.

This is the BEST type of review because I feel like it will both recommend my book to those who don't mind the language and put off the people who do.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

My first book starts off with a seventeen year old girl yelling at her parents, "What the F*CK IS WRONG WITH MY ATTITUDE?"

I'm sure it puts a lot of people off. I've even had some school teachers tell me they would love to recommend my book because of its positive messages regarding relationships and self-esteem....but were hesitant to because of the swear words.

Yeah, well, teens swear. This story is about a girl with major anger issues. It would be unrealistic for her not to swear.

My life would have been easier if I had taken the swearing out. It's funny because I don't swear much myself. My dedication says,

"To my mother, who always believed I would write a book but never dreamed it would contain so many swear words."

Since the swears are mentioned in the dedication and then occur heavily in the first couple pages, I feel like anyone who does a look inside will be well forewarned.

And while some reviewers have knocked off a star or two for language, most of my reviews are positive and people love the main character.

I'm glad I didn't water her down.

You can't please everyone.

If you had your rough-and-ready blue collar men talking like 1950s housewives you'd get stars knocked off for that, too.

Alex wrote: "C.L. wrote: "Ooh, we could make fan merchandise with this too, couldn't we?"

You can, but make sure to check with the person who designed your covers before doing anything.

I checked with mine a..."

That's odd. I mean, you sell your books with those same pictures on them. Most creative licenses are either for resale or not. If your cover designer purchased the correct licenses you should be able to sell things (including books) with those images shouldn't you?

"Rhonda wrote: "I see a lot of votes for C.L. / Chemistry at this link below (but I don't see the book on this page)
https://www.thekindlebookreview.net/v..."


Yes it is there in the second row from the bottom.

Thanks all!

They moderate comments so it'll take a couple days for your comments to show up.

Congratulations! A low review or two helps make your book look more real and genuine when all the five stars pour in.

Ooh, we could make fan merchandise with this too, couldn't we?

Hey guys!

My book is up for The Kindle Book Review's Reader's Choice Award. It's also a finalist in their main (judged) award section.

The Reader's Choice Award is basically a popularity contest. Now, I don't have a massive mailing list and I've never won a popularity contest in my life, being an awkward autistic introvert.

But I do have a lot of superfans and they've been great at turning out to vote. I went through and tallied the votes for me and some of my biggest competitors and guys... I could WIN! I am very very close.

Everyone who votes enters to win a kindle, and the winner of the award gets a cash prize and gets to do a $200 giveaway to their followers.

If anyone feels comfortable helping me out - especially those of you who have read Chemistry - do you mind popping over? It ends soon!

Just comment "Chemistry by C.L. Lynch" in the comments, and then don't forget enter for your chance to win the gift basket.

Thanks guys!

www.thekindlebookreview.net/vote-youn...

In the UK, only the product display ads have copy on them. Sponsored ads don't.

The ads don't change, but if you have an ad blocker on they'll all disappear. Took me a while to figure out where all my ads went!

Because if you have one ad running, you have one ad running. Someone enters a search term or clicks an amazon link, and now Amazon is asking for bidders. You have one ad bidding out of maybe a hundred ads all bidding to be shown. Your ad may win or not depending on the other bids. If it does, the person may or may not click on it.

If you have twenty ads running, you can experiment with different bids, different ad copy (if you're running ads with copy on them), and different markets.

Then you can see which ones perform best and duplicate them.

Unless you're making serious money outside of KU, it's worth re-entering. If you've entered a PDI ad then be warned - they rarely get views outside of massively high bigs (like 0.25 and up) but they do tend to get a lot of clicks and more sales, so I love them.

If this doesn't pan out and you're up for it, DJ, I'll make you a deal. Let me re-write your blurb, and put yourself back in KU. I will personally pledge 15 quid of my own money and I will run ads for you myself. If you don't see a profit, I'll shut my mouth and never open it again.

Re "not liking your payment type" for "the other kind of ad" - i'm curious. Since PDI ads and Sponsored Ads are both done out of AMS, what kind of message are you getting when you choose sponsored ad?

No, you just select the paperback version of your book.

Well, I do get sales for my books at $4.99 over there so people obviously do spend. But I do find that my ads for paperback do better than my ads for ebook.

1. The US has 312 million people. Canada has a tenth that number. The UK has a quarter of that number. More readers equals more books purchased.

2. Amazon is an American company. Everything from ads to store items has been directed at Americans. The Amazon.ca store SUCKS so I order through Amazon.com, drive to the states and pick up the packages from my US mailbox rather than use Amazon.ca. The non-American Amazon stores are smaller and have not been around as long so that's a factor. For a long time, createspace books weren't even available in other markets. So Americans are more in the habit of using Amazon whereas people in the UK and Canada probably use other stores/devices more.

3. Everyone can do ads on AMS. They practically push it on you at the KDP page. On the other hand, you have to be sneaky to know how to do ads in the UK - which is why I started this thread telling people how to do it. Less competition means lower bids

Yeah it takes time to get good data. I assume the back of your book has a blurb for book 2 and a link?

Yup. Unless you have GREAT readthrough rates on your books, in which case you might get enough sales to cover it. But you'd need great conversion copy on your descriptions and a readthrough rate of probably 50% plus.

So far the biggest spend I've had on an ad is $237 and that was for an ad with a budget of $1000. Of the ads I budgeted $100 when i was first wetting my feet, the biggest spend I got was $22.

But if you're not in KU it's very hard to make money on AMS US because there is a lot of bid competition. With KU it's possible to make whopping profits, especially if you have series. But AMS UK has less competition so the bids are much lower.

There's no minimum spend just a minimum budget. Ad spend never goes anywhere near budget.