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Marie Silk: the value of permafree?
IMHO you have to do what works for the book. You are a good enough writer to make it a workable proposition. Thing is you can always do it and send it to,your betas. If they are anything like my feral bunch they will soon let you know if the format don't work.
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As a reader, having chapter titles wouldn't bother me in one book and not another. I don't see a problem doing that, especially if that book calls for it.
Considering that I changed point of view within my series and my prequel is a short story with section titles instead of chapters from the perspective of a minor series character, I might be the wrong person to take advice from, but...There is no right or wrong way to present a story. If the prequel calls for chapter titles where the series didn't, then there is no reason not to do it.
And as a reader, I'd not likely notice unless the titles were really catchy or punny.
I am partial to chapter titles, but it really is up to the author and their preference.
Personally, I'd do whatever works best for that book. Cuz I reckon lots of future readers may pick up the prequel before the others so they're not gonna be like, "WTHeck are these chapter titles doing here?!?!!"Of course, I don't think anyone would say that anyway ^_~
Big hugs,
Ann
I'm with everyone else here... I don't think chapter title names vs chapter numbers would be a stumbling block at all! Do what feels right for your story.
You guys are amazing, as always! Thank you for the replies. I guess I was worrying too much! I think chapter names will go nicely in this one :).
I think it sounds fine! Chapters titles in one, none in the other. That wouldn't bother me. I do get thrown when it switches POV characters or something, but then I eventually settle into the new voice... But go forth!
I agree. Chapter titles can be useful and if in one and not the other, i don't think it matters.
A great prophet once said "Whatever's written in your heart, that's all that matters". I believe that wisdom absolutely applies here! Whatever feels most fitting for your creation probably is.
Thank you so much for the responses, everyone! I went with chapter titles and I think it turned out really nice! Your encouragement has meant the world to me :) it made me realize how easy it is to make a mountain out of a molehill with this author stuff...until having the courage to ask for help! I am glad to know it was not as bad a change as I thought.
A lot has happened recently with my writing. I've just listed my new book for Kindle pre-order. I'm planning to launch the socks off it. I never did do a proper launch for my first books so we will see how this goes. You can pre-order it for Kindle at 99 cents for a limited time HERE
A few weeks ago, I received an email from booklinker. This is the service I use to create universal Amazon links and track clicks so I can see where my advertising is most effective. This was the first time booklinker had contacted me so I opened the email. It was about how I was considered a top performer and I could get a free 2-month trial with another link service called geniuslink. Was this a gimmick? Should I even bother? I had never heard of geniuslink, but I did some digging and learned a little about it in relation to becoming an Amazon affiliate.
In a nutshell, I discovered that the short links I had been using all this time *could* have been earning me extra money as an Amazon affiliate, because you earn commission on products that people buy with your link (your own books) along with everything else on Amazon, as long as it is with your link within a 24 hour window. Geniuslink simplifies the process of connecting all your links with your affiliate account.
I headed over to booklinker to see how many clicks my links had received in the last 6 months. 30,000!! Well, I immediately saw dollar signs, thinking surely I could be making some massive affiliate income with that kind of traffic.
I started the free trial with genius link and created all new links so that my affiliate store would get the credit. Then I waited for the huge amounts of cash to roll in!
Apparently I have been reaching France.
Two weeks in, I made a whopping 26 cents...a little anticlimactic considering I had nearly 2K clicks. It made a big difference which of the clicks were coming from the USA and how many items had already been shipped as opposed to just ordered. I decided that the affiliate thing was kind of like the lotto. Get enough tickets (clicks) and you might win something. Well it wasn't until my promotion with Booksends that I saw anything substantial. Booksends lets you use your affiliate tag with your book on promotion with them. After tracking the clicks, I discovered that I had nearly 2K clicks just from the one-day Booksends ad...and some affiliate earnings! Enough to cover a substantial chunk of the Booksends ad. This was encouraging because I had used Booksends in the past with not much to show for it...I was not sure my book was even appearing in the newsletters like it was supposed to.
So I am doing my best to learn how this affiliate stuff works and make the most of it. It was not the "get rich quick" I was hoping for lol but it is extra income from doing the same promoting I was doing before. If you are getting a lot of clicks from your links, you might look into genius link and becoming Amazon affiliate.
It had been a while since I sent out my email newsletter (Thanksgiving, to be precise), and I promised my readers a prequel. I sent out an update to let them know the book is now up for pre-order. I was glad to see that I had 30 subscribers. I have never aggressively sought subscribers...these are readers who visited my website from the link in the back of my book and then signed up on their own. The "open" rate for the email was very high. I immediately received some delightful fan mail in reply of the newsletter. It was so sweet!
I am encouraged with how things are going. I'm carefully planning the launch of my new book. Things have been ridiculously loud busy (did I mention that the bathroom had plumbing issues and is now undergoing a full remodel?), but I plan to have a nice long break once I get this new release out there. Oh, I also entered the Kindle Storyteller UK contest. Fingers crossed that my book gets seen!
Here is my new book if y'all want to maybe add it to your "to read" list *nudge nudge* :D Debutante.
Marie wrote: "So much awesome sauce, well, minus the plumbing issues haha"1) Hooray for the pre-order and first-time "proper" launch. You've been a superstar with improper launches sooo I bet this one's gonna be boss ^_~
2) Yeah, I dig the affiliate thing too! Totally true that it's great during promos. I mean, it's always great to make extra moolah (even pennies) but yeah, even better during promos!!
3) Fan mail = THE BEST, imho. Congrats!!!
4) Bestest of luck in the Kindle contest too!
***mwahhh***
Congrats on the proper launch, Marie! I hope it goes fabulously well!I wish I could become an affiliate, but alas as an Australian I'm not allowed. Maybe one day.
I love how detailed you are! Tremendous help to be able to go back to these threads later and try out your ideas. And yes, some money (even 26 cents) is better than no money at all when you think it's just an initial set up and then let it start collecting ;)Great job, Marie! I'll be getting that Davenport prequel for my Kindle!
Wow, Marie! A legend in your own time! That's great. :)
Congrats, Marie! Your prequel will be a hit, I'm sure of it!
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Thank you so much, everyone!! Thank you Alex and Amie for checking out my books! I am very grateful <3
Some of the sweetest words I have ever seen in an email in my life:Bookbub said: Dear Marie,
Congratulations! Our editors have selected your book Davenport House for a BookBub Featured Deal.
I'm still shaking! I lost count of how many times I submitted and got declined....it was either 7 or 8 previous times, submissions every 4 weeks. My book will be featured!! Yay!! Did I mention it will be at the PERFECT time correlating to my new launch AND release of my audiobook? Thank you God!
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Congrats!
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That is so awesome Marie!!! Congrats! I'm super excited for you!!!!!
Holy crap! That's amazing! Congrats!
Marie wrote: "OMG OMG OMG"OMG, Miss Marie!! Congrats so, so, soooo much!!! I cannot wait to see your crazy results from this deal!
Biggest hugs evahhh,
Ann
Excellent news, Marie! We're all rooting for you to have a massive day.
Yay, Marie! Shatters the BookBub ceiling! :)
Great news, Marie! Congratulations!! Extra Huge Hugs!!
Oh my goodness! This is amazing! Yay! So happy for you! Congratulations, Marie! :D
Thank you so much, everyone! I will be more than happy to update with how the promotion goes. I never thought I would say this, but I am so glad that Bookbub turned me down all the other times I submitted. The timing could not possibly be better than the date they scheduled me for. For those of you interested in stats and details, I posted this to another group's thread where we share marketing info. If not for this thread, I would not have a BB feature scheduled right now, or half the sales on my books. It's 77 pages long, but for anyone ready for some serious reading about marketing, it's a great treasure trove of results:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
This is my post:
Marie Silk says: Hey everyone, I got lucky this week when my book was accepted for a Bookbub feature. My book was turned down every month for the previous 7 months (you can only submit once every 4 weeks). I entered it in the historical mysteries category but BB changed the category to regular historical fiction. I specified in the comments that it was the #1 Amazon best seller in a U.S. historical fiction subcategory.
The feature will be in 4 weeks. Here is what my book looked like the day I submitted it for a deal (and the day it was accepted):
190 Pages
114 Reviews
3.8 Average rating
Exclusive to Kindle
Professional cover
Good ranks in subcategories (#1 in smaller categories, double digits in broader categories like YA mystery books)
First book in a series with 5 additional published books and 1 book listed for pre-order
Regular price 2.99, submitted deal price as free
The stats were basically the same every month I submitted it before (except for more reviews that have trickled in over time and the upcoming release). I alternated between submitting for historical fiction and historical mysteries just in case I was being turned down for too popular a category (hist fic). In the end, BB chose the category themselves, which I did not expect them to do.
Other indie books have been accepted by BB with only a handful of reviews so I'm not sure how much the review quantity affected the approval. Honestly I was worried about my star rating average and the fact that the most recent review was a 1 star. BB also specifies that they show priority to books that are widely distributed (not Kindle exclusive). The only reason I kept trying is because other authors here were kind enough to mention that their books were accepted by BB while in Kindle Select (thank you, authors!). Overall I am surprised and grateful that my book is getting a feature.
Hope this info helps someone :).
So awesome, Marie! Please, please, please do come back and tell us how it goes! I was just visiting BookBub's website the other day and reading all the requirements. I'm hoping to start applying for a feature in early summer after I rack up more reviews. Currently my Amazon USA has 26. I'd like to hit the 50 mark before trying and I want to test more how responsive ads are for me in Historical Romance vs. Women's Fiction. Looks like if I placed a "free" feature it would be between $300 and $385 for me. That would be my biggest marketing splurge yet so I want to do it right!I will read that looooong thread you pointed out. Sounds like I might go through a few cups of coffee on it, but whatever you're doing is working, so I want to follow suit! ;)
What did you ever decide to do with Audible? Did you pull the trigger on recording book 1 yet?
Sounds great, Amie. I hope you get a spot with them! The audiobook for the first book of my series is in production right now :) the due date for the audiobook (first draft?) is April 15, so I will probably hear from my narrator soon!
The Bookbub feature will run on April 19 and my new release for the prequel to the series is scheduled for April 21. I already had huge promotional plans in the works to launch the prequel, so all of this lines up nicely. I was not expecting the BB feature so I had to rethink some things (I was going to do a countdown on that particular book instead of free) but I waited to set up advertisement for the countdown until after I heard back from BB. They won't let you feature a book with them at a price higher than the lowest price your book has been listed in the past 3 months. Since my book was free within the last 3 months, I could not submit for a 99 cent feature.
I knew I wanted to write a prequel to the series that would show my characters at a younger age and revolve around the traditional aristocratic "coming out" party. I had no idea whether it would be a novella or official novel until I was done writing the book. There were some funny conversations with Facebook friends about what to call books of certain lengths. Here it is according to wiki:
Novel 40,000 words or over
Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words
Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words
Short story under 7,500 words
My 6 published books range between 42K and 49K each. I call them novels, but some people think they should be called novellas up to 50K words. Honestly you guys, I don't know that I will ever have the attention span to write a single book past 50K or 60K. Those of you who write 100-300K manuscripts just astound me!
I was paranoid that my prequel was even coming up short of the "novella" category. I did not want to put in filler for the sake of it, but I also wanted my book to pass the barrier of short story and "novelette", a term I have never seen in use since I became an author. I wanted it to have some substance as a paperback. I was afraid to disappoint readers if I made it a short story. I figured if I ended up with 14K to 15K, I would still call it a novella.
I never like to be restricted by word count worries when I'm writing. However, I've found that when I am aiming for higher than what I have, it's when the additional scenes form in my imagination that somehow end up being my favorite. I have no idea how this works lol. But I'm glad it does.
Now that I have the mostly finished product, it turns out to be 18K. Phew! Yeah I know I worry about silly things :D but I am relieved to know I can call it an official novella :).
Does anyone else obsess over word counts or is it just me??? :D
Everyone is invited to enter the Goodreads Giveaway for the prequel here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
Sixteen-year-old Mary Davenport endures drama at the mansion leading up to her debutante ball. Twelve-year-old Abigail is suspended from school while her family faces hunger and homelessness. A special connection is shared between the two girls who have never met.
Alex wrote: "Hey, just popping in to say I thoroughly enjoyed Davenport House and I have reviewed it here https://alexrcarver.wordpress.com/201... it got 4* from me and I'm looking..."Thank you so much, Alex! Your website looks really great!
I got the completed audiobook for Davenport House back today! During this stage, I am supposed to listen to the full book and I can submit up to two rounds of changes/edits. I just finished listening to the "first draft". It was incredible! Honestly this is the most excited I have ever been about my book. Sometimes I cringe so hard since it was my first attempt at writing a novel and I worry it does not meet expectations of readers and writers. Hearing my story come to life by the narrator is downright magical! I got misty eyed at the sad parts and goosebumps at the intense parts. I had no idea it would be this fun! I have to submit a few changes but I imagine the audiobook will be available within the next week or so.
I'm excited :).
Wonderful, Marie! That's definitely exciting!
Marie Silk wrote: "I got the completed audiobook for Davenport House back today! During this stage, I am supposed to listen to the full book and I can submit up to two rounds of changes/edits. I just finished listeni..."that is wonderful!! Congrats.
I can't even imagine how cool that would be. Did you listen from home or hop in your car and drive for a few hours? I'd need to be at home that first time around or else I'd probably hit a tree, LOL, from euphoria!So I know you said on your first one that you went the way of sharing royalties with your actress/reader. Were the set up costs/program costs pretty reasonable for audible all together? I am truly, truly wanting to delve into this in late summer, providing I can swing it. My e-book is 466 pages.
Thank you, everyone! Amie, I listened at home on my laptop. Honestly I'm so new to this audible thing that I don't even know how to take it into my car. I'm guessing there is an audiobook app for iphone. The last time I listened to an audiobook was on cassette tape!
I did the royalty share for this book and there are no setup costs that I know of. ACX takes a share of the royalties once the Audibles are purchased. If you would rather pay upfront instead of royalty share with your narrator, you would need to pay per finished hour. My book is 46K words and came out at almost exactly 5 hours. The average rate per finished hour looks like it's about $200 for an experienced narrator. So my book could have cost $1000 upfront with this option.
I sent in a round of revisions for the audiobook today. There were a couple of scenes of dialogue that I wanted to be done differently and, embarrassingly enough, some typos in the book that I missed during editing *facepalm*. The typos had to do with the correct forms of lie, laid, lying, and laying, which I pretty much despise ha. There was one case of a missing word and one case of an extra word. So I am glad to be getting these issues fixed now. I never caught them until I heard the book read aloud.
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I'm working on the prequel to my series right now. I'll try not to bore you with too many details, so I'll just say that I'm considering doing something different with this book than I have done with the others and I would be grateful for opinions on it:
The other stories take place almost entirely on the estate. This story takes place in two separate settings that will alternate in every other chapter.
My other books don't have any chapter titles at all, but I am considering using chapter titles in this book to add clarity so hopefully the reader isn't shocked going into the new setting.
Is it a bad idea to have titled chapters in the prequel book when none of the other books will have them? How much would this annoy you as a reader (or would you notice? care?)?
Thank you!