Amy’s Comments (group member since Jan 15, 2017)

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

I think if someone was going to get annoyed about the suggestion of coffee and chocolate they'd be an angry person anyway.

Unfortunately, due to my sarcastic nature and what I like to call realistic outlook that other people call negative-I annoy people all the time at work. In the end I go quiet until the urge to lash out with a baseball bat subsides. :-) (See, should write horror)

Writing "less than the price of a cup of coffee" is actually a marketing graphic we have used in the weight loss industry and I could see me using that somewhere for ebooks.

The dilemma is do I continue to spend time trawling through websites trying to find places that promote erotica, or do I just move straight into something I could market as LGBT or Sci-Fi/Paranormal/Horror? I can't decide. Some of the well known horror writers starting writing for Playboy etc before they wrote horror.

Anna Faversham wrote: "Sorry, Amy. I didn't.

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

Oh don't apologise, I did, all three books and have no idea why it was so successful.

And yep, I'm moving into horror/thriller/paranormal/sci-fi etc. I only really wrote erotica because it would piss my mother off, unfortunately she died years before I published. (I was her mistake and I ruined her life apparently. Nice woman.)

If one of the ways to drum up sales is by creating buzz, (which I know to be true, "have you read so and so by thingamy" happens a lot), the problem I have is that erotica is a dirty little secret that people don't talk about. Yet "everyone" read 50 shades. Ohhhhhhhhhhh Myyyyyyyyyyy. (Direct quote from the audio book lol)

It's a once in a blue moon Starbucks price for a venti skinny sugar free vanilla latte. I have one at least every two months lol

YES YES Coffee v book price.

However in the UK I have also recently had the conversation about coffee v diet product price (my other business. Quite happy to pay over £3 for a coffee, but not so keen to spend £2 on something that is an entire meal replacement.) So maybe it's a UK issue.

I'm not exclusive to Amazon, so no countdown deals. Book 1 is at 99p permanently for now. I use Twitter and Facebook. I have people unsubscribing from my mailing list as we speak. I haven't yet paid much for promotion due to not yet receiving the funds to do so.

And I still haven't compiled a great list of free/cheap places to promote that don't yell "sorry we don't take erotica" I don't do well in any market. Friends have bought my books. That's it.

Lottery win...

It sounds great on the face of it. But then they start saying you've have to use the rest of your leave or not be paid and life gets real...

You're welcome.

Voted

It was horrendous. I remember hearing about people unable to get home for work, travel insurance not covering anything, people going broke trying to survive wherever it was they were stranded. Wasn't good.

I'm clutching at straws here, but I need something to cheer myself up with. Last night my husband told me that he was talking to a colleague who was reading an excerpt of one of my books and he apparently told my husband "that's really rude, I might have to buy that." He hasn't bought it, but at least the comment was vaguely positive.

ANGRY. NO REAL REASON. MAKE IT STOP.

Ugh. Remind me which century this is again? I worked in IT for a few years almost 20 years ago and sometimes I come across things that make me wonder if we're not going backwards in time.

Thanks Judy.

Ugh, that shouldn't happen! Hope they update it quickly.

I've probably fixed the address thing. Yesterday my vision was compromised so I was squinting and gurning at the screen all day. Look up gurning if you've never heard of it. (Not sure if it's a UK thing or not, the dictionary here has never heard of it!) I dare you not to laugh.

I like the volcanic ash idea.

Re: the UK market, I know Alex is doing really well-he sells the number in one day that I have sold/given away for free in 15 months on Amazon. I do not see my fortunes changing. I'm too realistic for that.

I am getting increasingly annoyed seeing adverts on Facebook saying how thousands of people never pay for an ebook. It is perpetuating this myth that it is OK for authors to work for free.

I know this is a generalisation, but my experience (outside of people I know who are self-employed in the UK and therefore know what it's like to run a business,) is the British public wants something for nothing and is not prepared to pay for ebooks. I have read many comments supporting this. Some have said that they can get books for free at the library, why should they pay for ebooks? (There are I believe still Public Lending Rights in the UK that authors can apply for. So the comparison does not apply in that case.)

Basically I'm under the impression that the reading public in the UK is only prepared to buy an ebook from someone famous. At least that is my experience. Once the cost of a book has gone over 0.99 I've been told that people aren't prepared to pay the price. (Nobody seems to object to the paperback price which is always considerably higher.)

I will be thrilled when I'm proved wrong by selling my own books rather than having to give them away for free.

No 1 is £0.99
No 2 is £1.99

I'm hardly asking for much. Sorry, it annoys me so much.