Josh’s Comments (group member since Apr 15, 2018)

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

I'm not sure if I'd want a kangaroo in my backyard; although there is a camel in Vermont.

Rats. I can't find it in my Yojimbo database.

Okay, so there is this article somewhere on the web. What the fellow does is draw some circles on a page. Then he labels each circle with an entity: dwarf, giants, human settlements, etc. Then between these circles he creates a boundary: mountains, swamp, maybe an ocean, and so forth.

It was a really neat idea. If I find the original article, I'll post the link.

The sketch that I'm using for my book is just a logical map. Meaning, from this town name to that dwarf fortress takes 3 days walking. From here to there takes 1 1/2 days air travel. And so forth.

I am also marking the major chapters in the travel path that they are taking. So now I can look at my map and see that chapters 3 - 6 are all in the same area. If I invest time creating descriptions and detail for that area, then I get a better return on investment.

I have also used Illwinter's Floor Plan Generator (http://www.illwinter.com/floorplan/) purchased via Steam. It's not perfect, but for a quick sketch, it isn't bad. It's also rather cheap. It's designed for table top RPG. This means if you print out the map, each grid will be 1 inch by 1 inch. Good for being on screen, not so good for printing.

Also check out (https://topps.diku.dk/torbenm/maps.msp). Free fractal planet generator. Oceans and landmasses. If you need a quick planet map, this is a good place to start.

Technical note, distance between towns is dependent on the technology used. Example: Europe and the eastern part of the US, each town is about one good horse day's ride apart. That's why there are some really small towns that just had a stage coach in and that was it. As we moved westwards, the technology impacted the distance - but not the time. One day's railroad ride was a different distance. A car with paved roads could travel longer as well. Now that we have interstate highways and the internet, the distance is increasing yet again. Just a thought.

I have a number of web links which I can post if anyone is interested.

Regarding marketing, I have found a few sites suggesting to do exactly what the above letter did, request a top reviewer to review one's material.

The problem is that the inboxes get full real quick, hence the reason for Agents.

Agents exist throughout the entertainment industry: film, TV, books, music. All do to the same thing - volume control.

As an Indy, one of the chief problems is getting people to read and review your work. This is the same problem that the big guys have. They usually try to solve it by throwing a lot of money at the equation. How well those marketing budgets work, I'm not sure. But it always comes down to word of mouth. I agree with Alexis. My goal is to get the right people to read my material. Making that goal a reality ... is something else.

Why is Amazon deleting reviews? I have noticed that there are a lot of 5 star reviews ... which makes me suspicious. Hence, I have lost faith in all the glooey reviews on Amazon.

As for answering your question, passive does not seem to work.

I did a bunch of reading in regards to eCommerce and building an eBusiness a while back. There was always two or three calls to action in an email. All of the literature that I read always pointed to getting the reader of your email to act. So what does that mean? If your sending an email, just like everyone else, to a person, they will delete your emails. Too much volume, so they remove the volume. But how does one get someone to go out of their way to post a review? That seems to be the gimmick.

Sitting back and waiting isn't going to work. That has been proven. Harrasing people isn't going to work either. "If you like this book, please concider creating a review for it."

There seems to be a lot of dialog on the web about it. What it seems to come down to is relationships. Building that personal relationship through social media et al. Once that is established, the person whom has read the book is more likely to create a review. Always be sure to ask for an honest review. A three star or four star is fine, too!

Having something on the last page as a gentle reminder seems to nudge me sometimes. "I hope you enjoyed reading ToFo Made Edible: This Time With Yellow Plates (....) etc."

Wish I had something better to write!

Wangh! It's PINK!! Like the whole page IS PINK?!

I will assume it's targeted for a different audience than myself. And a kangaroo? How does one get a kangaroo?

I have been studying the entertainment industry as a whole: music (Nashville), screenwriting (Hollywood), video games as well as writing.

Everyone has the same problem. They have a product. There are a couple of high profile people that can broadcast that product to their own audience. And those exact same people have a TON of email hitting their monitors everyday.

There is a scale issue. When your new, you read everything. When you have a little scar tissue under your belt, you read some things. After you have been around a while, you have an agent-only submission process.

As for when people are contacting you, is it possible to run them through some kind of gauntlet? A site like typeform.com or one of their competitors. Even a disclaimer on the page that says: "I cannot TK" above the contact field.

As for sending out query letters, email in modern parlance, that is a skill as well. I would have kept mine much smaller.

----
Dear TK-person-being-addressed,

I noticed that you have an interest in Fantasy fiction. I have just recieved back my very first novel from my editor. I am looking for Beta readers. Do you know any whom would be interested in a standard RPG magic styled book?

Sorry for the intrusion.

Thanks for your time!

Sincerely,

TK-me
----

Or something like that. Getting reviews is part skill-part art. In all honesty, how many of those can you reply to before you just start hitting delete?

Hello!

I just stumbled across this thread and I'll toss something in which hasn't been mentioned, the quality of indy ebooks.

I happen to like the short, real niche, ebook on a subject matter which is just too narrow for a traditional book. With the eBook medium, one does not need to fluff up a book to hit size requirements. I get just what I need at a nice price. Good for the author and good for me. Sometimes the wording isn't the best. And sometimes the formatting isn't the best. It's a trade-off.

What I'd like to add is Amazon's perspective. With a traditional publishing route, there are half a dozen people involved in a book publishing pipeline. With an Indy publisher (self-publish) there are far fewer people filters. This is good. This is bad.

The reason it's bad is that the quality isn't always there. And as some of the folks that write, how shall I say, not main stream material, have found there is an audience, but the distribution mechanism isn't always going to be cooperative.

From the big company's perspective, they have a lot to lose both in a law suit and in branding. Both translate to lost sales.

I always find it amusing when people grumble about Facebook or Google or Amazon. What happened to Yahoo! or MySpace? I used to drive past the old Mack Truck building which housed a major book distributor. Their largest customer? Some new company called Amazon. These companies all upset the prior generation of companies. As they become unbalanced, new ones will emerge just as they emerged to top tier positions.

As for what Amazon is trying to accomplish, I can only guess. I will assume that there has been some hank-panky with reviews and other such "modern marketing gimmicks". I am also assuming that the signal to noise ratio on Indy publishing is off. As for paid reviewers, that makes me wonder. If at any point the general public feels as though the reviews on Amazon have been compromised, expect a drop in sales. See "Unleashing the Ideavirus" by Seth Godin as it touches on this.

If someone is writing niche books and Amazon isn't cooperating, consider a platform such as FastSpring or other digital download service. That means selling direct. That also means your doing the whole sales-marketing-chief dishwasher routine.

I am finding that a lot of books on Amazon have 5 star reviews. I do raise an eyebrow in suspicion. As for indy authors, be sure all your ducks are in a row. Good cover. Good content. And good keywords. They are probably using computer algorithms to do their filtering.

Best!

Congrats on the MSS!

There is no replacement for a good editor. Costs are inconvenient, however.

Have you looked at AutoCrit or posting a chapter on WattPad?

There is also Grammerly and ProWritingAid. There seems to be some debate about the quality of these tools. Some writers really like them.

I picked up "How to Draw Fantasy Art & RPG Maps" by Jared Blando to help me along.

Currently, I am sketching a 'logical map' which connects the different events.
I am including the time of travel (walking vs airship) between each event location. Eventually this will develop into a physical world map, but probably not drawn by me! :)