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Comment by Neil Ostroff on February 12, 2013 at 1:04pm
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To all indie authors
I woke up this morning, checked my books stats, and nearly retched at what I saw. My Amazon ‘likes’ which took me two years to build are gone on all my books. At first, I thought it was a mistake and then I delved further.
Seems Amazon has decided to get rid of all ‘like’ buttons and tags for books and products. Why, you ask? I have a theory.
The rise of indie publishing and authors self-publishing and selling their own work has skyrocketed. And not just in the publishing world, in all aspect of the entertainment industry. This last Grammy Awards is a perfect example of how independents are taking over. More than half the awards went to artists who published under their own labels. Even the song of the year has no major label backing.
So, why is Amazon so afraid of independents when they appear to be gaining popularity, respect, and success? They’re not. It’s the big publishers who are.
Independent authors are usually also marketing machines and spend hours promoting their own books. And one of the best ways was by encouraging readers and friends to ‘like’ and tag. Which book would grab your interest more, one published by Random House that has twenty ‘likes’ or an independent book that has 300 ‘likes’? That’s what scares the big three. Getting rid of the ‘likes’ and tags greatly diminish the opportunity for readers to stumble upon a book just by searching random keywords. What was once a level playing field between indies and the traditionally published author has become greatly skewed. And that only hurts the reader looking for a good story.
All my books had many more than 100 ‘likes’ each and I think that definitely drew attention to the content. Think about it, if you had two books side by side, both with great reviews, one book with ten ‘likes’ or one with a hundred, which would you take a look at?
My sales have dropped since Amazon incorporated these new “indie buffers” so the big publishers can sell more books. What puzzles me is why Amazon would continue to try and keep the independents from selling thousands of copies? After all, royalties is money no matter who is selling. It just doesn’t make good business sense to hamper a segment of profit.
Though Amazon gives traditionally published books precedence over indies, as the recent Grammy Awards showed, there is no stopping the rising tide of new age artists. The internet will allow us to sell our books worldwide forever with no limit on the possible audience. Whether on Amazon, Smashwords, Nook, Kobo, or any of the thousands of other bookselling sites, a good story will always find its readership.
That said, I bid farewell to the combined 2,500 + ‘likes’ my books used to have and I thank all those that took the time to check me out and hit the buttons. I ask that you re-tweet and repost this blog to as many sites and social media as you can to let Amazon know that the indie author is here to stay and we can all work together to share our stories with the world.
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Comment by Sly Fleming on February 7, 2013 at 2:20pm
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This will not disappoint.
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Back to writing
I’ve spent the last few weeks doing a lot of marketing and promotion for my nine novels and it has paid off. My main blog, ALWAYS WRITING has reached a milestone 250,000 + page views, and the other sites that I post blog articles have reached a combined 150,000 + page views. Not bad for the twenty months they have been in existence.
Now that I’ve reached a comfortable level of exposure it’s time to get back to the business of writing books. I did manage a 20,000 word outline of a planned six book dystopian series, and also broke out an old manuscript from last year; a YA literary fiction novella about teenage drug abuse in the 1980’s. The manuscript only took six months to write so if I don’t think it’s worthy of publication it’ll go back into the drawer. It wouldn’t be the first manuscript collecting dust in that drawer and it won’t be the last. I believe readers deserve a rich, storytelling experience and I won’t publish a book that I don’t think possesses those qualities.
I’ve never written one book at a time. What I usually do is write two or three beginnings to different projects and then spend a few hours plotting out the gist of each. I’ll then write an intro paragraph for each one and continue on with the concept that most hooks my interest. I’ll write until a rough, first draft is complete (usually about a month). Then I’ll put the draft aside and start the process all over again with new ideas.
When I’ve got two complete rough drafts, I’ll work on both simultaneously, writing one in the morning and the other in the early afternoon. When both novels are nearly complete, I’ll choose one to work on exclusively until it is perfect (perhaps, another two months). Once that novel is finish to my strict and insane standards, I send copies off to my editor, formatter, and cover artist to put the book into production.
As the chosen book begins marketing and promotion, I’ll start the novel-seeking process all over again with three new story ideas. The remaining, nearly complete manuscript will sit in the drawer until I finish the first draft of my next new project. Then that one will sit and maturate while I spend time fixing the previous manuscript. This method allows for one heavily edited, thought-out, and finished manuscript about every six months, which is about pace with what I’ve achieved over the last two years.
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What makes a writer better?
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a writer better. Certainly, you have to be creative, that’s a given, and you have to love stories and reading. But what is that will make you better? Here’s my answer; time.
What do I mean by that?
With the exception of a few very talented people, most writers take years to hone their skills. Some writer’s like Stephen King say that a writer’s schooling is never finished. That writer’s always have something more to learn about the craft. There’s always a better descriptive phrase or character trait out there in the field of the imagination. And I do believe that.
A few things that I’ve learned over the years that have helped make my stories better is blogging. I try to post every two or three days if possible. The constant pressure of trying to come up with a subject and then write a post for the world to see has honed my storytelling skills. A now famous newspaper journalist-turned-novelist once said that the daily articles she provided for her editor prepared her for the rigors of writing a full scale novel. This writer’s name was Jennifer Weiner, bestselling author of numerous chic-lit novels.
The other thing I’ve learned about becoming a better writer is you have to talk to yourself a lot. I mean a lot! I know it sounds crazy but a few of you will relate. Tell yourself stories during the day. Make up things about people you pass on the street. I spend a good portion of my social activities imagining things about people I see, sometimes talking out loud to my wife about the fantasy lives I’ve concocted about these folks. She’ll look at me a little weird.
The last quick note I want to say about becoming a great writer is that you must write something every day. I know everyone’s heard that a million times but it’s so true. It makes you better and faster. My first novel took me three years to complete, my eleventh novel took one. And now I’m in the throes of a four book dystopian novella series that I’m planning one complete book every three months.
Writing is a profession as difficult as any. You can’t take a magic pill or a single college course and learn all there is to the craft. A real writer knows this and knows with time they will only get better.
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A writer’s year
The New Year is here and I’m sure everyone plans on making 2013 better than 2012. And hopefully it will be for all of us. My free pre-release promotion for IMAGINATION has ended and the results were pretty much what I had expected due to the lack of my announcing it; a total of 857 downloads. My intention wasn’t to give away tens of thousands of books but to expose the book to heavy readers who would then ‘like, tag, and review’ the book before I rolled out the big guns and shared the link with the world. It appears to have worked. Unique to this promotion, I had several downloads from six different countries which hadn’t happened before. I guess Kindle is really taking over the world. IMAGINATION received several dozen ‘likes and tags’ and four anonymous fan/readers emailed me that they will give a review when they are finished reading the book. According to the KDP Select contract, I still have two days left of Amazon free promo which I may use right before my ninety day exclusive contract with them is up. I am not going to renew the exclusivity any further since I believe the Nook market is going to open up big time. I just started posting on Nook boards and placing my books on other Nook and Kobo sites and I continue to market heavily to those ereaders. I am seeing sales begin to rise through the Smashwords site that distributes them. I’ve also decided to concentrate on writing mini sci-fi/paranormal novellas (@ 30,000-words each) for a while, and putting them on the market for ninety-nine cents each. I’m estimating I can put out three a year for the next two years. Not only will the increased revenue help my financial state (even though I only profit 33 cents a book royalty) but readers who like my style could move on to purchase my other novels. Since IMAGINATION took nearly thirteen months to complete, I will hence triple my chances at readership with the novellas. All I have to do is unlock and yank open my drawer of ideas, sift through the thousands of scribbling outlines I’ve jotted over nearly three decades, and pull out the ones I think are best. Telling the story is the easy part.
http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com
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Taking the leap
Here I go! I just spent the most ever on a huge promotion blitz for SILENT INVASION and DROP OUT (my two best sellers). I did it through blogads.com. I’ve read other posts about the effectiveness of such ads and most said that author’s sales increased because of them. I booked on nine different sites with a combined reach of 312,000 avid readers. These are people who actively read the blogs. My ads will feature the cover, a blurb, and the link to buy the book. The blitz will run on all sites simultaneously for an entire two weeks beginning on December 26th and running through the New Year into January. My logic is that people will be getting ereaders (it’s the #1 gift this year) at Christmas and then will have time off through the holiday to peruse various reader and book sites. At the same time, my newest novel debuts on Amazon and B&N, and I’ll be promoting that one like a rabid beast. If there’s a recipe for going viral I think I have all the ingredients. It’s just a matter of how much time it takes to cook.
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Sponsorship success!
Now that my Kindle Fire Department.com sponsorship has officially ended I can now look back on it as a success. I sold enough copies of DROP OUT to break even but what most important is that so many new people have now been exposed to my stuff. It also got my ranking down below 10,000 which according to the Amazon algorithms, means that the site will give me a little more promotion than a book that hasn’t sold so well. As of this post I’m still below the 20,000 rank. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m raising the price of my books on Jan 1st to $2.99. At that price I can take advantage of Amazon’s 70% royalty program. If the results of my sponsorship were the same at that price I would have nearly doubled my investment. I plan on devoting the entire month of January to marketing my newest novel and booking sponsorships galore, most with KFD.com. I’ve done a few with Kindle Nation Daily and Kindle Boards, but none has achieved the result of this last sponsorship. Here’s the link again so prospective authors can see what KFD does for the money. http://fireapps.blogspot.com/2012/11/drop-out-kindle-book-of-day-11... Besides this page, KFD also blast the link out to Facebook, Twitter, and various other social media. I also think KFD is a good site for sponsorship because the Kindle Fire ereader was the most searched item on the internet on Black Friday, which means millions of new Kindle owners; that’s gold to us indie authors. DROP OUT is also garnering attention because of promotion provided by fans of the book. Here’s another link to free promotion. http://www.rickiwilson.com/4/post/2012/11/indie-spotlight-on-drop-o... Thanks to all who purchased the book and maybe next time I can get my ranking under 1,000.
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Please check out my latest novel. It's book of the day on Kindle Fire Department.
Thanks.
http://fireapps.blogspot.com/2012/11/drop-out-kindle-book-of-day-11...
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Comment by Gene Cartwright on November 12, 2012 at 12:21am
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Comment by Joy J. Kaimaparamban on October 31, 2012 at 7:54pm
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I am author from India, released my second novel based on Ayurveda, an ancient treatment system of India, under the title, 'The Ayurvedic Healer'. I have updated my website. Kindly check it and let me know your valuable comments.
http://www.kaimaparamban.com
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