Anna’s Comments (group member since Mar 21, 2017)

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

http://ritaleechapman.com/guest-authors

Have you all seen Carole's interview here? Book giveaways too!

I thought my eyes were all misted up or something and I was seeing too many zeros. Nope! My book was on that list...

Still, rather that than on no lists at all. And I imagine the person to be a happy soul, cheerfully collecting what she/he likes. And perhaps they have a large family to share.... um...

Looks good!

I'm in the same boat, Alex. I take so long to read a book that by the time I get to the end, I've forgotten the beginning!

But... we're still better than some GR readers who have over 10,000 books on their tbr lists.

So sorry - it hasn't gone through yet. I've got a short space of time and I'm filling it with letting the world (!) know and drat - Amazon can't keep up with me...

Thanks, Alex.

Just checked again and wahey - wonderful Amazon have sprinted and caught me up! It now shows as 0.99 in the UK.

By request (no kidding) I have reduced worldwide



to 0.99 or its equivalent at least until 20th September.

In 1823 on an island off the south coast of England there is something worse than smuggling going on.

A journey into a very dark and dangerous world - wanna go?

Amazon haven't reduced it yet - but they will, I hope.

Over here in England, we have been following your news and were glad when it was downgraded and then shocked at the floods. Hope things can be put back together soon, as best as possible.

I noticed you'd gone quiet lately, so we do miss you, but it's so nice to know you're keeping in touch by reading what we natter on about. I hope things will improve. Read happy books!

I just read in my newspaper this morning about the coming storm. I hope you will all be kept safe and there will be less disruption than expected.

I think I saw someone in the UKAmazonKindleforum on GR talking about this and so there's plenty of people getting mad about it.

Amazon is too big to be scared of a few Indies (except if they went with a well documented case to the newspapers - yes, plural).

However, I think I had an email or I saw something somewhere from Amazon saying they were changing the way they assess the page count. So perhaps they are doing something slowly but surely. Anyone else see this email?

An excellent idea - I'm sure you'll get lots of readers volunteering and I look forward to reading what they have to say.

I've written two short stories (some years ago) and they were published without payment raising money for something. The only thing they gave me was visibility, and it would be very difficult to work out if I gained any! I was surprised at his sales figures.

But the idea seemed well thought out in terms of getting onto Also Boughts and being able to track interest.

Anyway, as I said at the beginning of the post, I can't endorse it, as I don't have enough info. It's helpful that you know more about these things. Thanks Laurie.

Good to hear your response, Laurie, and a better set of terms.

Over on the kuforum.co.uk there is a thread calling for short stories. I can't endorse it, as I haven't the time to investigate but here is what it says.

Call for Scifi Short Story Submissions

I have edited a couple of scifi anthologies now, and am getting to really enjoy it. Quite a few authors have been asking when I'll run another. As I have several of my own books coming out over the summer, I've decided to go for a submissions deadline of 31 October 2017.
I am aiming for a late November release to take advantage of people buying paperbacks for Christmas presents and ebooks for themselves over the holiday.

The theme and title of the collection is 'The Guardian'. This could be a bodyguard, a childminder, a ship protecting a vital planet, an ancient alien defending an abandoned site, whatever. Anything within the broader science fiction genre is welcome, though in the interests of not getting hidden by Amazon we'd need to avoid outright erotica.
Entries should be between 2500 and 10000 words. As long as they are available to publish, they could have been already released somewhere else, though new pieces would have priority. They can be completely one-off stories, or introductions to series as long as they have a self-contained storyline.
I can't guarantee that all entries will be included. You can submit more than one story, but I won't choose more than one per author to be included. I am aiming for around twelve quality pieces that work well together and avoid covering too much of the same ground.

The focus of the project will be on exposure for the participating authors. Each story will be immediately followed by a short 'about the author' and two links - one to their mailing list signup and one to their homepage (I would encourage participants to set up a unique landing page for these so they can track conversion). As all the stories will be scifi, this should help generate targeted also-boughts.
Profits from the sales will go towards paying off the setup (cover, proofreading, formatting etc), my time, and ongoing advertising costs. The Newcomer paid off the setup in a little over a month and the advertising kitty fills up nicely until I splurge on some promos. The Officer sold over 500 copies in the first couple of weeks.

If you're wondering what I'm like to work with, I'm sure none of the authors in the last couple of bundles would mind a quick question. You could also have a look at my website http://www.alasdairshaw.co.uk/twodemo... to see the kind of things I tend to write.

By submitting your short story, you grant non-exclusive rights in perpetuity for it to be included in the anthology. There will be no fee for entry and no payment for inclusion.
Please enter using this form: https://goo.gl/forms/g2IlxMgRumLZQOas1

I love ships, so an on-board setting will appeal.

OK, I'm a chicken. I've just rewritten the blurb for one of my books and at the last second, I removed the bit about sitting back with a cup of coffee and a bar of chocolate. I imagined prospective readers getting annoyed cos they didn't like coffee and chocolate anyway!

Amy, never, never, never let anyone manoeuvre you into a corner where you end up doing something to annoy them. Waste of time and energy. But... oh boy does that sort of thing ('I was her mistake and I ruined her life apparently') give you scope for a character. Then you can end up saying, 'thanks mum!'. A very much better feeling. I'll cheer you on!

Sorry, Amy. I didn't.

Have you thought about writing something else? OK I'm taking cover now!

I don't like coffee, so that's saved me a fair bit over my life!

What about putting at the end of your blurb something like 'less than the price of a cup of coffee'? That would actually cause me to stop and think, I think(!). It might be worth a try.

Again, coffee is addictive.

Very true, Alex.

We could examine why - are chocolate bars addictive? Yes.
Books? What can we do to make our books addictive? Now, now. Sensible suggestions only please.