How many sales to stay in the top 100?

[David]

Thanks, Alicia; you never know.

[Tim]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Jim said a few months back that authors pay...I can't recall. $100 per ten thousand words?"

Not far off, certainly. $1000 (~ £650ish) for a 100K novel is in the ballpark of expectation.

[Kath]

Phew. An expensive way to park your ball.

[Jim]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "*I'd*
..."

'I be' is legitimate as he's writing as dialogue and obviously we're supposed to spot subtle inferences due to the character's accent

;-)

[Tim]

Kath wrote: "Phew. An expensive way to park your ball."

Tell me about it. Makes it hardly worth publishing, since the chances of making back the money are minimal.

[Patti (baconater)]

Oh Jim.

*sigh*

[Tim]

Jim wrote: "Patti (baconater) wrote: "*I'd*
..."

'I be' is legitimate as he's writing as dialogue and obviously we're supposed to spot subtle inferences due to the character's accent

;-)"

In that case it should be "Oi be..." to indicate dialect.

[Patti (baconater)]

Tim wrote: "Patti (baconater) wrote: "Jim said a few months back that authors pay...I can't recall. $100 per ten thousand words?"

Not far off, certainly. $1000 (~ £650ish) for a 100K novel is in the ballpark ..."

Oh nice!

Get writing, buddy. I wanna buy a posh handbag.

Or a hell of a lot of bacon...

[Kath]

Tim wrote: "Kath wrote: "Phew. An expensive way to park your ball."

Tell me about it. Makes it hardly worth publishing, since the chances of making back the money are minimal."

And unlike the Big Six, you get one editor for that - who, with the best will in the world, doesn't catch everything. I don't either, but I don't cost!

[Patti (baconater)]

Our group rocks, doesn't it, Kath?

[Kath]

Rocks the rafters!

[Tim]

There's a classic howler in the first edition of my latest (fixed now in the Kindle edition, but still present in the first batch of print books) - "back from the dead syndrome". There's a character who gets killed in the fireball of a big exploding wossname, yet two scenes later, he's running around giving orders!

It was a late change, and not every reference to that character got caught. Sadly, it was a reader that spotted it.

[Patti (baconater)]

Eep.

But strangely, that wouldn't bug me as much as a 'sat'.

Weird, ain't I?

[Nik]

Tim wrote: "There's a classic howler in the first edition of my latest (fixed now in the Kindle edition, but still present in the first batch of print books) - "back from the dead syndrome". There's a characte..."

Next time when killing someone use a wooden stake, spray some holy water and stuff some garlic into the mouth to make sure they don't return as vampires or zombies later...

[Kath]

Tim wrote: "There's a classic howler in the first edition of my latest (fixed now in the Kindle edition, but still present in the first batch of print books) - "back from the dead syndrome". There's a characte..."

Do you get a rebate from the editor? ;)

[Tim]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Eep.

But strangely, that wouldn't bug me as much as a 'sat'.

Weird, ain't I?"

I often use "was/were sat" (big fan of non-standard word forms, me :)), "was/were stood", even "was/were gone" (although that seems to be much less regarded as non-standard)

[Patti (baconater)]

Yes Tim. I know.

Keep meaning to give you some one star reviews...

[Kath]

It's fine in speech (the I couldn't bring myself to say it) but narrators should use standard forms. Unless it's first person.

[Rosen]

Didn't Hugh Howie publish a comprehensive report on this about two years ago? Has anybody got the link?

[Jim]

Tim wrote: "I often use "was/were sat" (big fan of non-standard word forms, me :)), "was/were stood", even "was/were gone" (although that seems to be much less regarded as non-standard) ", ..."

Yes, if used in dialogue or by a character it's fine. I've used such classic phrases as "Happen he were sat..."

But in deference to Patti's sensibilities the speaker always comes to a bad end soon afterwards ;-)

[Alicia]

Jim wrote: "...But in deference to Patti's sensibilities the speaker always comes to a bad end soon afterwards ;-) ..."

Do that often enough, and the world will catch on.

A suitable end for the crime.

Here we have a similar problem, and it is both getting seriously ingrained and becoming a class marker: People who "axe" you questions. The ability to pronounce the 'sk' combination indicates the level of education and persistence from teachers.

[Pete]

Tim wrote:

I often use "was/were sat" (big fan of non-standard word forms, me :)), "was/were stood", ..."

You could have an each-way bet and say 'he was sat sitting there...'

[Pete]

Alicia wrote: "Here we have a similar problem, and it is both getting seriously ingrained and becoming a class marker: People who "axe" you questions. The ability to pronounce the 'sk' combination indicates the level of education and persistence from teachers. "

It depends upon ethnicity. It seems 'axe' has been a West Indian idiom for ages, in the same way many Americans say 'nucular' for nuclear. But when it's out of the right context and becomes 'street talk' I just turn off. Whatever. Innit. Lol.

[Patti (baconater)]

Alicia wrote: "Jim wrote: "...But in deference to Patti's sensibilities the speaker always comes to a bad end soon afterwards ;-) ..."

Do that often enough, and the world will catch on.

A suitable end for the c..."

I taught a little girl in Nigeria for four years and never broke her from pronouncing it 'axe', try as I might.

Yep, her mum was American.

[Alicia]

Pete wrote: "...in the same way many Americans say 'nucular' for nuclear ..."

Drives me crazy. Especially since I'm a Nuclear Engineer.

A former president of ours couldn't pronounce it - and he had his hand on the Nuclear Button. Scary.

[Alicia]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "...I taught a little girl in Nigeria for four years and never broke her from pronouncing it 'axe', try as I might..."

If people only realized what a killer it is in a job interview - no one wants someone to represent the company by axing its customers.

[Pete]

Alicia wrote: "Patti (baconater) wrote: "...I taught a little girl in Nigeria for four years and never broke her from pronouncing it 'axe', try as I might..."

If people only realized what a killer it is in a job interview - no one wants someone to represent the company by axing its customers. .."

We need a 'Like' button on here!

[Pete]

Alicia wrote: "Pete wrote: "...in the same way many Americans say 'nucular' for nuclear ..."

Drives me crazy. Especially since I'm a Nuclear Engineer.

A former president of ours couldn't pronounce it - and he had his hand on the Nuclear Button. Scary. "

Yes, but he didn't know what it was!
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/bu...

[Patti (baconater)]

Rosen wrote: "Didn't Hugh Howie publish a comprehensive report on this about two years ago? Has anybody got the link?"

I went looking as I vaguely recalled something about this.

He has a really good blog with lots of info.

http://www.hughhowey.com/does-bn-mani...

[Jim]

Amazon and BN are there to make money for Amazon and BN and will manipulate the system to do so.
They'll be nice to customers to extract money from them and they'll be nice to authors if the authors are a successful tool for extracting money from customers.

Just do a thought experiment, if Amazon was intent on promoting authors would it try to encourage authors to sell solely through Amazon?

[David]

You're not wrong, Jim, but I for one am happy for Amazon to have 30% of every sale I make; I wouldn't have sold many books without them. Maybe ten, at a push.

[Jim]

I think about 20% of my sales are not Amazon. If I include paperbacks, 95% of my paperback sales are not amazon

Whether I would sell more if I went down the exclusive Amazon route I genuinely don't know. It is a possibility

[Tim]

When it comes to paperbacks, I'm 100% not Amazon. But since that's basically "3", it isn't saying much.

[Kath]

I sell a decent amount of paperbacks, but I sell them myself, to people in the village. If they had to send for them from Amazon I don't think many would. Even people who've read the ebooks buy the paperbacks. Strange...

[Jim]

Same here, I sell them myself

[Tim]

Round here, people just laugh and say, "Self published? You're not a real author." :(

[David]

I struggle to get people I know (family, friends, work mates) to read my books; I reckon Kath must have compromising photos of everyone in the village ;~)

[David]

Tim wrote: "Round here, people just laugh and say, "Self published? You're not a real author." :("

That's ok. I'd rather be a surreal author anyway.

[Kath]

Family seem reluctant, David. I've given paperbacks to the kids that they 'haven't got around to' reading yet. It's a nice, close and friendly Yorkshire village, though. What can I say?

[Alicia]

David wrote: "I struggle to get people I know (family, friends, work mates) to read my books; I reckon Kath must have compromising photos of everyone in the village ;~)"

That's the secret? I've been going about this all wrong. Now where is the camera...

[Pete]

Alicia wrote: "David wrote: "I struggle to get people I know (family, friends, work mates) to read my books; I reckon Kath must have compromising photos of everyone in the village ;~)"

That's the secret? I've been going about this all wrong. Now where is the camera...."

No, it's not that. They've all got wonky tables from the village carpenter.

[Tim]

Pete wrote: "No, it's not that. They've all got wonky tables from the village carpenter. "

Right, where's my saw . . . ?

[Pete]

Tim wrote: "Pete wrote: "No, it's not that. They've all got wonky tables from the village carpenter. "

Right, where's my saw . . . ?"

Kath - have you got a 1.3cm book for Tim, to save him the trouble?

[Kath]

Mine are in Imperial. I'm an oldie!

[Pete]

Around 5/8" at a rough guess. As I recall, Createspace is metric in cover design? How do you manage???

[David]

I believe Kath has a man that does :~)

[Pete]

David wrote: "I believe Kath has a man that does :~)"

Ahh. (taps side of nose with knowing finger). Nudge nudge, wink wink.

[David]

I'm not the man in question by the way…

[Kath]

Oh, he does... he does!

[Jim]

Tim wrote: "Round here, people just laugh and say, "Self published? You're not a real author." :("

but strangely they don't say that when there's a paperback