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Random stuff - the something good happened thread
Aislinn wrote: "I don't know. I can't imagine continuing to write after this. I'm too devastated. And I don't want to keep writing if no one will read it. There's just no point to it unless I'm sharing it. And sad..."Grab a pillow. Punch the shit out of it.
Eva, really well done with your award. Congratulations.Aislinn, be reassured that I can count on one hand the number of people who have bought my second book. You're still beating me.
(Although admittedly I have 18 supposedly reading it on Radish for free. Free, ugh)
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I can't find J.A. Huss and the perfect year series on Amazon.
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Ugh. I can't comment. To date in the last 18 months I've sold one copy on iBooks. The rest (couple of dozen) were on Amazon and most of those went when it was free. I rank somewhere in the 2k level. Yay. (Note the sarcasm)
Aha! Thank you, R.L.
Promoting is hard and time consuming. I have put in some hours. I have done what little promotion I could afford. I have yet to find somewhere I can afford to promote erotica. It's out there somewhere. And Radish (for my sci-fi) is an issue because I haven't bought an isbn for the book on there and the promo sites need numbers.
Nope it's on the Radish Fiction app. Download the app for free and read the first three episodes of anything for free. A small charge for each chapter after that on Missing Remnants. 30-40 cents or pence. Other books can be free or unlock able early for a small charge.
It's an interesting concept. I've only written 7 chapters. Have planned 8 and 9 but people are already reading the first few. Even I don't know how it's going to end. Great fun. Lol
Glad to see you made it through the storm all right, R.L. ♥
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R.L., I tried following JA Huss's advice a few months ago and nothing worked for me. Her insistence on doing a cover reveal cost me $40 I'll never see back. I didn't get a single sale from it. I'm releasing books regularly, doing preorders, everything. But I cannot for the life of me move any books.But, guys, it's not the time that's making me not want to write. I have plenty of it. It's that I just can't find motivation when I know no one will read it. I'm meant to be working on book two in my new series at the moment, but I just can't bring myself to care. I'm not going to make my deadline at this rate but eh.
My heart hurts. And thinking about what a failure this whole thing has been is bringing my depression back. I can't keep putting myself out there - and hoping this next time will be different - again and again, because it's actually breaking my brain. I go through a grieving process every release that really fucks me up.
Maybe you guys are just stronger than me. But I think my disappointment at how this all went is a valid feeling. I need to give this up for my own mental health. It's not a question of 'oh, keep your chin up!' because you can't manufacture that. I need to stop, because I need to stop hoping. It's the hope that's killing me. That's just the way it'll have to be for me.
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In college, I started off as a music performance major. The more it became a job, the more I hated it. I finally decided I needed to move on. I changed majors and it took me a while to begin to enjoy playing again.
I guess what I am trying to say is, I get it, and sometimes yes, a break is the best thing you can do for yourself. Just don't give up completely. You start writing because you enjoy it and eventually, that joy will come back. It may just mean a break from the business side.
I continue to hope that your luck changes, but more than anything, I hope you continue to do what you love. Even if it is purely for your own enjoyment.
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Thanks RL. It is like that, isn't it? I'm going to keep going until the end of the year. After that, we'll see. But for now I just don't think I'll be able to keep going.
Congratulations to everyone on your success big or small. I would like to share my great news. Two days ago my 2nd poetry book was released on Amazon as paperback and ebook. The book is called "Soul Mates:Poems of Eternal Love." Today it was made available on Barnes N' Nobles. I am excited because this is the first time a book of mine has been picked up by a bookstore. I am hoping it now sells well. So happy.
Thank you, Judy and Erica!Aislinn,
Take it from someone who has always struggled and vacillated with "quitting" - something invariably happens to turn things around. Maybe it's one book sale after a drought. Maybe it's one review. For me, I needed the morale boost with this recent contest win. There are a glut of books out there, and more born every minute. This is why Indies cooperate, so maybe, we can rise above the ashes of obscurity. Sales may not be part of that equation. It takes time. There isn't any one answer, so we try so many different things and cut our losses or stay the course.
Best wishes to you and to each of us to find our way.
Congratulations Kimberly, I hope it does very well.Aislinn, I hope you manage to reach whatever decision is right for you. You're not alone. I just don't sell books. (8 copies of Nate and Day in ebook format sold since July 14 when I published it. I suspect one of them was me) I've switched genres because I couldn't sell books. I'm on a platform I haven't figured out how to market yet with my new murder mystery. I wish I had answers. You're certainly not alone.
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After five years of hard work on a long twisty path, I've learned to be happy doing this you have to have a clear idea of your goal. If you can come to peace that you will share your work with a very minute portion of the populace, make little to no money for your effort, pour your heart and soul into your work with no visible reward, then you will understand this is a labor of love, and must be kept in balance with the rest of your responsibilities and life.
This is my experience and my realizations! I am not preaching to anybody- I have worked tirelessly writing several genres, marketing other people's various genres, and have learned this from the effort.
1- You have recorded a piece of yourself for posterity. Even if it doesn't reach a person now- it will be an indelible mark that you were here among the 7 and three billion people (according to Siri) that existed at the same time. Who knows- maybe it will be chosen in the 23rd century as a populace example of what was in the minds of people in our time. Who wrote Beowulf? Would Chaucer been considered an indie too? Did the authors of the Epic of Gilgamesh expect their work to become legendary?
2- I have learned so much about myself- I started this journey deeply mourning and missing my mother. It is almost as though she guided me to this forum of wonderful people. She left a hole in my heart that so many of you have filled. There is no loneliness here. I love the judgement-free zone we have ALL created. This is a place of acceptance and peace.
3- RL- I know that feeling you described- of being locked out or kept from the party. It is frustrating and hurtful. I love the fact that I think we have created our own island. This is our own marketplace, where we bring ideas and share them. Some work others don't- We communally celebrate each of our success- because I believe we support each other.
4- Hope doesn't end, Ainlinn. Dreams change as we grow older. I dreamed of many different things in life and found found the disappointments make us stronger- open new pathways we never considered before. Something will come to you and you will have that moment of clear understanding of why things are going this way. I believe- I have spent my entire life believing better things will come our way- they always do!!!
You are always welcome here, as is everyone- You can write, or take a break- do anything you like. You are indie- like everyone else here. It's not about your writing-it never was- it's about your spirit.
That's very good. I've had to re-evaluate my dreams several times over the years. (Was going to be an actress, almost got into drama college.)My good thing is that I have started to put the feelers out to pay for promo for Nate and Day. I have a few erotica sites on a list, although I've had to forget one I thought was viable that requires books to be discounted. Get over yourselves, I'm running a business here. It's only £1.99 as it is.
Radish retweeted my tweet about Missing Remnants. I wonder if anyone will see it. Or even more exciting- look at the book.
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Amy wrote: "Congratulations Kimberly, I hope it does very well.Aislinn, I hope you manage to reach whatever decision is right for you. You're not alone. I just don't sell books. (8 copies of Nate and Day in ..."
Thank you.
Denise wrote: "Kimberly wrote: "Congratulations to everyone on your success big or small. I would like to share my great news. Two days ago my 2nd poetry book was released on Amazon as paperback and ebook. The bo..."Thank you.
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I love them. Make sure you put it in the editorial section of Amazon!!
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Here is the review:
Children's Bookwatch: September 2017
Reviewer's Choice
Talking Tales: Puppy's Bubble
Erica Graham, author/illustrator
Skyrai Publishing
9780997855548, $17.95 HC, $9.99 PB, $1.99 Kindle, 36pp, www.amazon.com
"Puppy's Bubble" is a Talking Tales title, written by a speech pathologist to help parent encourage early speech development in their children. Emphasizing the sounds of words including "p", "b", "m", "n", "d", and "h", "Puppy's Bubble" guides the attention of young readers through simple shaded colored pencil drawings and spare prose. Children are encouraged to make the sounds in the story, surprised by a "Boo!" or a bubble-fest. "Puppy's Bubble" has tips for encouraging speech development as well as an appealing, illustrated story that children will love reading and interacting with. "Talking Tales: Puppy's Bubble" is an excellent tool for parents to help promote their children's speech development and sense of play.
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I think Indies Authors face two major enemies, Big Publishing Companies with big budgets, and themselves, Indie Authors. We can't change big publishers, but we can change ourselves. Some of the biggest issues are the amount of indie & self-published books hitting the market. There are a lot. Some are great, but I think a lot are just rubbish. Just copies of ideas regurgitated again and again for the cheapest possible price. They're flooding platforms like Amazon. Fake reviews float them for a little while, but eventually, they fall down. A lot of them are just going for page reads on KU.
Don't get me wrong, being an Indie Author is great, but I would sell any one of my books for the right price. What's the right price? I don't know, no one has offered.
Every book you put out needs to compete with professionally published books. They spend tens of thousands on marketing, a thousand on the cover, a thousand on formatting, a thousand on proofing, thousands on copy editing, thousands on arc copies and then they print off 50,000 copies and promote the hell out of them on Amazon etc etc.
If you make a book and spend $50 on it and throw it on Amazon, you have to be realistic about what's going to happen. You need to plan out a budget, plan your marketing and have realistic goals. In children's books on Amazon, there are over a million books alone. That's a lot of competition.
You have to invest a certain amount of time and money into every book if you expect to achieve anything. A few hundred dollars on a good cover will go a hell of a long way. Getting your book formatted professionally for another $100-200 so that every reader that reads your book on any device has a good experience goes a long way. You end up with a perfect copy of your book you can upload to any platform out there. Pay a proofreader to read & edit your book.
My wife works formats book to the same standard as any major publishing company in the world and charges about 1/4 of the price. It constantly amazes me that people will pay for $50 for crap formatting, or do their own formatting that's barely ok, when they could pay $150 and have perfect formatting. If you ever had any questions or concerns she would happily look at books and point out formatting errors that could be fixed if wanted and give you a competitive quote. Just message me whenever and I can pass on your details.
The old saying never judge a book by its cover sounds nice, but I haven't read a book with a crap cover ever, EVER. If it looks crap, or like someone chopped it up and made it themselves, I pass straight by.
I think each children's book I produce costs me about $500-750 without any marketing. I need to sell 175-250 paperback copies to make back my money. Kindle and other eBook copies I don't even count the sales are so low. If a book doesn't cover that investment, then it was a failure. I write my books to fit specific categories or markets. A book about hockey, or soccer, or doctors etc, because they're easier to market, people are already looking for them. My fav book is about a caterpillar that can do anything it wants, I LOVE IT! but how the hell do you find a category for that? It's hard. Real Hard. If you write about things people aren't really searching for, your job is that much harder.
Marketing is where you can really lose some money. I think all up I've invested about $300-400 in marketing & advertising, that's over 2 years and about 12-15 books. The rest has been blogs, author interviews, free directories and author listings, social media etc.
I don't know where the hell this was going now lol. I think often Indie Authors fall into this trap of being 'indie' they think that they have to do it themselves, go it alone and look down their noses at any other indie authors that pay for any professional services.
There are some extremely opinionated and judgemental indie's out there and some freaking fantastic ones (like this group) that offer suggestions, help, and advice.
If you love writing and consider it a hobby or past time, then write for the love and fun of it. If you are trying to build a business or career, then put aside your personal feelings and look at every aspect of your book as a business. Your book is an investment, you wouldn't try to sell any other product unless it was perfect and you wouldn't pay for a product that was shonky or crap, even if it was some indie/artisan/handmade product.
Anyway, end of rant or whatever this was lol
I would love to be able to wave a magic wand and get rid of all the unreadable books out there. There are many many crap authors and I'm not one of them. I don't have the hundreds of pounds to spend on each aspect of producing a book. The needs of my family come way above my career as an author. It's why I wanted to be traditionally published so I wouldn't have the initial expense of everything. It's great if you have a pot of money sitting there and think yeah 300 for editing that's fine. My reality is, right so if I can get the food in this week for 50 for 4 people I'll be doing ok with what I already have in the freezer, don't forget the text book someone needs for school and the football boots I need to buy. I am so far away from a reality of being able to spend that kind of money on producing a book, but I understand what you're saying. I've just come out of a period of time of being tens of thousands in debt and terrified of falling into debt again. I am struggling to keep my other business going which I had hoped would produce enough money to fund my writing career. It hardly covers food. (Oddly, if I had the money I wouldn't have the time as I'm self employed and having the money required spending more time on that business.) But I have more savings to implement to make providing for the family more doable.
I've always thought there's a them and us. The ones who can afford to spend hundreds producing a book as an indie and those who need to choose to feed the kids instead. If I started spending the money the other way round I'd expect social services to take my kids away from me. It's the simple reality I live in.
Whereas it would be nice to have a "rule" that says all indie authors should spend these hundreds on different aspects of producing a book to get rid of the terrible ones, for some of us that is a pipe dream. It's not just a case of charging it to a credit card-that's how I got into 42k of debt in the first place. You need to actual cash. You can't remortgage-I already did that after the credit crunch when my business dried up.
So I guess this is my "meanwhile in the real world" post because I don't live in the same world as someone who has hundreds to spend on producing a book. As a business woman I absolutely consider what I do as a business, but I also need to consider real world situations and have to set priorities.
It's hard Amy because I think there are so many different levels of Indie Authors. There are people I wouldn't even consider to be Indie Authors that are just mass producing crap books and flooding the market.
There are people that are trying to do their best to be passionate about something they love and get the book out there and do a lot of hard work with very little capital.
There are others that are trying to build another income/business and have some money to invest and try different things.
I think as long as you know where you are, have a good attitude and have realistic expectations you're doing good.
I only do one book every six months because it takes me that long to be able to afford to pay for it lol children's books are quicker, but freaking paying an illustrator $20-40-60 per page is a killer. Summer sucks for book sales, and Christmas is coming so one more book before Christmas is what I'm aiming for.
Crikey. I'm about a book a year at best. But it's different. No illustrations and possibly more words. I can get a decent cover off Fiverr for £30 and they seriously do look good on the paperbacks. I'm really pleased with the latest set. (I can also get a not so great cover off Fiverr for £10 which needed to be replaced. I had to pick carefully.) I have add ins for grammar editing and to be honest that's all they're useful for. The rest of the add in is a lot of nonsense. I have a free text to speech add in which is priceless for picking up errors my brain has missed when I'm reading through. I suspect I will need to have almost a dozen books out there before I come anywhere near being noticed as a viable author. There are too many one crap book authors. Anyone that is a decent writer gets lost in that mix if they only produce one decent book. Anyone can produce a crap book. And many people do.
Radish is handy. I am slowly getting more views over there. But it needs daily tweets and twice weekly FB posts into relevant groups. It is apparently better with FB this year to only post rarely or the algorithm treats you like spam and no-one sees your post. Don't know how accurate that is-I read an article online! Another article said the only way to get seen on FB is to boost the post. That didn't work before but I could try it again in the Sci-Fi genre and see what happens.
I produce quality work. Getting it seen is a challenge. And it will take me a long time to achieve my aims.
I would love to see that happen. I can see problems with it. But, if the book is dead in the water and the account hasn't been used for a year. Think of the number of books that would disappear.
Amy wrote: "Crikey. I'm about a book a year at best. But it's different. No illustrations and possibly more words. I can get a decent cover off Fiverr for £30 and they seriously do look good on the paperbacks...."Don't waste money on Facebook ads unless you're ready to spend hundreds. Facebook is crap lol. I think that content is key. You can flog your books on Twitter and Facebook all day, but really who is seeing it, mostly other authors flogging their crap.
I think having a good blog/website is probably the best strategy. Do every author interview available. Write guest blogs for other people, write your own blogs. I write on Tumbler a bit, it then automatically posts to my Goodreads blog page and my Author Central page.
Those sites like reader's fav, bookworks, allauthor, etc are good too. You create a profile, upload your books, and you're done. All free. When I help other authors, I like to explain it like a footprint. Every time you get your name out somewhere, your footprint gets just a little bit bigger. Build a list of people willing to read and review your books, build a list of people willing to let you do author interviews or guest blogs. Go through the top reviewers on Amazon and write them an email. I have gotten a few people that review every book I write that way.
You don't have to spend a lot. Just on the basics. The foundation. Cover, Proofing, Formatting. Once you have those, you can do a lot for nothing.
Once I've finished Missing Remnants I'll get a cover for it and release it on Amazon. I'll need to check the Radish rules for that. I think it's exclusive to them until it's complete. I would love to not have the other two on Radish for free. I am still allergic to free.
Thanks Ben. Now I have something I'm writing that doesn't have sex in it I think I have more avenues to explore.
Alex wrote: "I understand the principle of appearing on multiple blogs and increasing your web footprint, but I really struggle with blogging, I've had an idea for a blog post for a while now, the first one I'v..."Commenting on blogs and blogging creates backlinks to your website, that's why I have 20-30 spammy comments I need to delete every day on Indie Publishing. It's a PAIN.
You did an interview on Indie Alex, and you did fine talking about yourself!!
I'm always trying to think of blogs to write. I just started one tonight actually while I was sitting here lol. Tips for writing a great book description. I started the author interviews on Indie and for everyone I post, two more authors want to do one. They take me about an hour to get into a format, add the links, add them to the website, add photos, do the SEO and then post.
My biggest problem is I have a full-time job, I work on Indie Publishing, I do all my own book stuff, and I'm a freelance writer on Fiverr. My biggest earner on there is writing blogs/articles, so I get sick of it.
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Amy, you represent every struggling indie author- the difference is you comb these threads looking for the best way to get your book out there while faced with the challenges that we all have to deal with. Your an inspiration, too.
Ben, you are so right about so many things you say. You bring up so many ways to promote yourself. It has become as if some giant machine is churning out hundreds of books- the only way to bring consumers to your product is to make the author stand out. "Why should anyone buy your book? What makes it stand out from the crowd?" You, the author! You have to promote yourself and as you said, the best and cheapest way is exposure on as many blogs as you can find. Then, here's the thing. If you do get people to read your book, it should be as professional as it can be- that means finding the right way to put out the best book you can.
You are ploughing ahead and I am so inspired (don't all roll your eyes- I really am. I am inspired by everybody in our group.) by all the things you are doing. Your weekly blog is a testimony to your dedication to help other authors. I have used many of your services because they are reasonable and one of the best ways to invest in myself.
Being an indie isn't easy but you are right. It doesn't mean you have to do it alone.
Erika,Congratulations! You've written a book with the intention of making a positive difference--and it's noticed!
Amy wrote: "Eva, really well done with your award. Congratulations.Aislinn, be reassured that I can count on one hand the number of people who have bought my second book. You're still beating me.
(Although a..."
Thank you, Amy!
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they are right, Aislinn, don't give it up/ Perseverance pays off.