Annabelle’s Comments (group member since Apr 15, 2017)

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

Even if they don't know how to stop it in general, when somebody points out a book where 90% of the reviews are very clearly fraudulent and they just let it stand, that bothers me.

So one of my book is on sale for only 99 cents this week. It's a hopefully very accurate story about a woman with severe OCD. Here's what some reviewers have said about it:

"I sat down before bed to read a few chapters, and 2 hours later I was done!"

"All I can say is that it's a must read. You won't be able to put it down."

"This book was sheer brilliance. Seriously. I was hooked from page one, right until the very last page. There wasn't a single page that I didn't love, not a moment that I vaguely got bored, nothing. Loved it, loved it, loved it."

Also got 5 stars on Ind'Tale Magazine. Please check it out:

https://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Love-Rom...

OMG, I read that article and it totally made me furious. It's hard enough to get your book legitimately on the bestseller lists... it gets me so angry when I see people cheating.

I saw this book appear on Amazon not that long ago that 100 reviews shortly after release and a high ranking. The reviews were SO obviously fake. They were all something like, "I enjoyed this book because the subject matter was interesting to me." Or, "This book involved a story about characters and that's why I liked it." Ridiculous stuff that was barely in English.

Did Amazon do anything about it? Obviously not. I reported it, but zero response.

Of course, one time my mother had the audacity to review one of my books for me, and Amazon was all over that, deleting it instantly. Obviously, people's mothers reviewing products is a major source of fraud we must address.

Thanks, Carole... you're so nice. I don't even have most of the social media stuff set up though. Mostly people I can't deal with starting with a giant goose egg, then annoying everyone I know by being like, "Follow me! Friend me!"

I think that the biggest thing you do is to get really involved in social media and build a strong presence. That's one thing that I totally fail on. I know what I *could* do to grow my social media presence but I don't do it. Mostly because with a full time job and a kid in the house, I have time to write OR do social media, but not both.

Years ago, when I was about to publish my first book on Amazon, I was chatting with an online friend of mine who had self-published about a dozen books. She had some success with it, so I asked her if she had any tricks or tips for me for selling books. This was her response:

"No tricks. Just writing lots of good books with great covers & blurbs."

I accepted the answer without further question. Clearly, she just published and was lucky enough to have sales. No tricks, right?

Except a couple of months later, I looked her up on Amazon again. And she had published a new short book called, I kid you not:

How to Sell Books on Amazon

And while I didn't purchase it, I read the sample in order to verify the book wasn't "Write good books" typed over and over and over.

Why are some self-published authors so reluctant to divulge their "secrets"? Or do they actually have secrets? Are there secrets??

Thanks!!

Thanks for the advice, guys! I'm just using blogger so there's not really any "code" to get buggy. I'm going to reupload tomorrow and hopefully that will fix the glitch. Really weird...

Carol: that's so weird! It shows up for me. Anyone else can't see it?

Thanks, Carol! What do you mean that the header didn't show up?

I've been slightly inspired to write a couple of posts lately. If anyone has feedback on my blog, I'd love to hear it:

http://annabellecosta.blogspot.com/

I know I'm coming into this thread late, but the answer should be one space for everyone! If you use two spaces, when it converts to Kindle, spaces can appear in weird places for the reader! I didn't realize this until I started self publishing.

I am old school, so I can't break the habit of putting two spaces after a period, but if you do a search and replace of two spaces for one space when you're done writing, that should fix the problem for you! Hope that is helpful ;)

It was called "Remember Me" by Lynda Renham.

Actually, I like exclamation points! ;)

I recently read a book on Amazon that was a best seller in thrillers with over 100 positive reviews and very few negative reviews, and the complete lack of commas was startling to me. The person made the grandma mistake over and over and over. And not one reviewer pointed it out. It made me wonder if I was going crazy or something.

(it was actually a very good book, commas aside.)

1. Read as much as you can. When you have a free moment, you should read. When you're eating dinner, you should read. When you're on the toilet, obviously you should read (because if you play with your phone, it could fall in the bowl). When you're asleep, you should put a book on your face to read by osmosis.

2. Always carry around a little notebook to write down ideas, and also to pretend to be a detective if the opportunity arises.

3. Listen to constructive criticism of your peers. Unless it's really stupid.

4. Don't use too many exclamation points! Seriously! Not every sentence needs them! Use! Them! Sparingly!

5. Write what you know. Especially if you're a space captain who fights zombies for a living and bangs beautiful aliens in your free time.

6. Don't write stuff that's boring. Write interesting stuff. Duh.

7. Make sure to write every day. Except holidays. And obviously not weekends. Or that day that comes between Tuesday and Thursday. And nobody can write on Mondays, for God's sake.

8. It's been said that anyone can write a book. But actually, I don't think that's true. After all, a rat can't write a book. A pig can't write a book. A beetle can't write a book. They don't even have opposable thumbs! So I suppose you can modify that to say that any human can write a book. But that's not true either. A newborn baby can't write a book. Hell, I don't think any baby could write a book. I'm beginning to feel like whoever said that anyone can write a book just didn't think the statement through very well.

9. Don't let anyone see what you've written until it's finished. Also, for the love of God, don't let anyone see your Internet browser history. Especially your parents. #life lesson

10. A good adage for a writer to follow is "show don't tell." It's also a good adage for a stripper to follow.

I've performed it many times, unfortunately.

I actually have an author friend who did this to me not too long before publishing her first book. When she later complained to me about the above scenario, I had to bite my tongue.

Act I
Friend: "I really enjoyed your book!"

Author: "Thanks! Would you mind leaving me a review on Amazon? It would help me out a lot."

Friend: "Of course!!!! I'd be happy to. I'm really busy now but I'll get to it in the next couple of weeks."

Act II (Two weeks later)
Author: "Um. I know you're really busy, but you mentioned you'd leave a review on my book. If you could just leave a quick review, that would be awesome."

Friend: "Oh right! Sorry, I totally forgot! I'm really busy but I'll get to it in the next few days for sure."

Author: "You don't have to write anything much. Just like a sentence or two, tops."

Friend: "I promise I'll do it."

Act III (Two weeks later):

[Author is browsing on Facebook and sees 10,000 posts from Friend.]

[Author hovers on post from Friend on Facebook: "So bored today. Nothing to do."]

[Author lets out sigh.]

Act IV (two weeks later):

Author: "Hey, just wondering if you had a chance to write that review.....?"

Friend: [never writes back again]

That's sort of what I was thinking... that if it's not enjoyable for me, I shouldn't bother.

Obviously, as an author, it's important to have a website. But one thing I was wondering about is whether making regular posts on a blog on the website is worth it? There are some topics I might like to write about, but I feel like a blogging has gotten a little bit passé.

What do you think?