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I went the multi shop route, but is it good then to go KDP Select for just a one three month run and then change over? I just thought of it as mainly forever exclusivity. Also how does CreateSpace figure in? Is KDP Select just for ebooks?
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Aug 3, 2013 15:21
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PoshAlligator posted:I went the multi shop route, but is it good then to go KDP Select for just a one three month run and then change over? I just thought of it as mainly forever exclusivity. I intend to run every book for one three-month period, though I have been known to do a second for specific reasons (mostly if I released a sequel to the original book close to the three month mark). It is just for eBooks, Createspace is cool to go extended distribution with. Also, I use ACX to do audiobooks and those end up on iTunes as well.
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Aug 3, 2013 15:26
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EngineerSean posted:I intend to run every book for one three-month period, though I have been known to do a second for specific reasons (mostly if I released a sequel to the original book close to the three month mark). I haven't done much marketing or anything, but I've only sold like one copy anywhere but Amazon. Was considering opting into Select just because. Anyone know if when delisting via D2D you can select certain ones or if it does them all? I want to keep my CreateSpace. Is ACX the Amazon one? I'd be kind of into that.
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Aug 3, 2013 15:31
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PoshAlligator posted:Anyone know if when delisting via D2D you can select certain ones or if it does them all? I want to keep my CreateSpace. Click "edit book", click "save and continue" twice, click the box that says you've reviewed the file again, then uncheck all boxes but Createspace and click publish.
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Aug 3, 2013 15:35
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I have a free ebook promotion coming up. Is there a list somewhere of websites that alert people to these deals that I could contact? It's just for one day though.
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Aug 3, 2013 20:15
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PoshAlligator posted:I have a free ebook promotion coming up. Is there a list somewhere of websites that alert people to these deals that I could contact? http://www.ebookbooster.com/ That being said, I've painstakingly submitted to each of those sites (at least the ones that accept my genre) and I've gotten about the same results as one submission to Bookblast.co (and if you can get accepted to Bookbub that will give you about 4x more from what I understand, although they seem to want 20+ Amazon reviews).
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Aug 3, 2013 20:46
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Logisti posted:This is the most comprehensive list I'm aware of: 20+? Yikes. I'm looking at about 5 reviews by the end of my promotional cycle (though only one has cross posted to my amazon page). If I can get at least five positive reviews on amazon, I'm hoping to get it over to Bookblast and see where it goes from there.
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Aug 3, 2013 21:19
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Finished up a long sea voyage ( Comparatively ), and started posting on my WordPress again. Ranting about French things in my brief off time  I finally managed to finish the first five novelettes in my series, which was my goal-point before self-publishing anything. Everything still has to go through the editor and I'm in the process of getting cover art, but what do you think of this as a blurb? The Napoleonic Rose posted:Fresh from the front lines of the Great War, newly commissioned lieutenant Eve “Chance” Masters has been recruited into a shadow branch of the Entente military machine. The Special Courier Service is a clandestine counter-partisan unit tasked with rooting out enemy agents and dealing with supernatural cases that others cannot, or will not handle themselves. Is it generally a thing to post word counts at the end of the blurb? I'll definitely be mentioning it's a novelette, but I want to make sure anyone looking at the Amazon/B&N page is aware that it's only in the 10k words range.
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Aug 4, 2013 16:48
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I may as well throw my hat into the ring. I have just published my first e-book on Amazon links below. If anyone is interested; follow the third link to downlad a FREE! PDF version of the first full chapter. UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-Skin-Meets-Sky-ebook/dp/B00CJXR5TK/ref=sr_1_83?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367486764&sr=1-83 US http://www.amazon.com/Where-Skin-Me...n+Meets+the+Sky Chapter one http://rapidshare.com/files/3635616795/Where%20the%20skin%20meets%20the%20sky_Chapter_1.pdf If anyone would like to comment on the first chapter, feel free.
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Aug 4, 2013 17:16
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Stratafyre posted:Fresh from the front lines of the Great War, newly commissioned lieutenant Eve “Chance” Masters has been recruited into a shadow branch of the Entente military machine. The Special Courier Service is a clandestine counter-partisan unit tasked with rooting out enemy agents and dealing with supernatural cases that others cannot, or will not handle themselves. I've no experience with novelettes, so I'm not sure about the word count. Best to search around and see what other authors are doing. Regarding the blurb, I think it's really solid. You might be able to tweak a little more excitement from the second paragraph with some minor changes in diction: "Expecting to deal only with the violent Apache gangs of Paris, Chance's first mission becomes more complex than even the ambitious agent could have bargained for when clues are unearthed that point to a century old national relic. No records exist of the treasure, and with no living witnesses there's only one way to complete the mission. Someone is going to have to talk with the dead." moobydooby posted:I have just published my first e-book on Amazon links below. Some thoughts: Very nice cover. You can (and probably should) use HTML tags in your Amazon descriptions. Your description begins with a one-liner, I would definitely want that to stand out using a <b> tag at least. If you're setting your description from the KDP bookshelf you can even use H-tags (like where it says "Book Description", the large, orange, official-Amazon-looking text, which is <H2>) The first line of the description is, "What if the end of the world changed more than the course of your life?" I'd try to avoid starting a blurb with a rhetorical question. Also, by definition the end of the world definitely will change more than just the course of one life, so you might consider rewriting to a statement with slight changes. Maybe something like, "The end of the world was just the beginning." or "When the world ended, one man's life was just getting started." "He wallows in the basic comforts that life allow him." (I think this might be a typo, and it should be "allows him") Overall very solid. Congrats! Logisti fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Aug 4, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 21:25
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I always set my description through Author Central after uploading through KDP. Then I don't have to worry so much about exposed html tags showing up all over the place. I make mistakes a lot. Edit: I should clarify, I always FORMAT my description through Author Central (bold and italics). I still upload a description through KDP.
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Aug 4, 2013 21:31
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Logisti posted:Some thoughts: Thanks for the compliment. I wasn't sure my limited artistic skills would be up to the job. I think you're right about the blurb. I'll have a think and do a re-write.
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Aug 4, 2013 21:46
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Your Dead Gay Son posted:I always set my description through Author Central after uploading through KDP. Then I don't have to worry so much about exposed html tags showing up all over the place. Problem I ran into: I was using <h2> tags (setting the description through KDP) and then suddenly I made changes in KDP and days passed, then a week and it didn't update. I submitted a ticket to support and they told me that since I had updated it through Author Central at one point it would no longer update through KDP. This seemed an oddity, but I didn't really care until I realized Author Central doesn't support the use of <h2> tags. It strips them right out of the description. <b> and <i> still work, but it is nice to have your lead and closing lines in that big, bold, Amazon orange (apparently impossible once a title has been edited in author central). Logisti fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Aug 5, 2013 |
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Aug 5, 2013 03:08
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Stratafyre posted:Expecting to deal only with the violent Apache gangs of Paris, Chance finds that her first mission has gone on a startling tangent when clues are unearthed pointing to a century old national relic. No records exist of the treasure, and with no living witnesses, sometimes one has to resort to talking with the dead. Yeah, something about this second paragraph is bugging me, too. That "Chance finds that her first mission has gone on a startling tangent" line sounds strange to me. Something about the verb tenses, maybe? But that aside, I think one more specific detail would make it more compelling. You know, like "Chance's mission goes on a startling tangent when she runs into a lapsed Catholic priest who has clues about a century-old national relic" or "Chance's mission goes on a startling tangent when a Cheerios decoder ring leads her to a century-old national relic" (obviously silly examples). I just mean... the more specific you can be in that blurb, the more drawn in I feel as a reader.
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Aug 5, 2013 05:40
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Chance expects to deal only with the violent Apache gangs of Paris, but her mission goes on a startling tangent when she unearths clues pointing to the whereabouts of a forgotten, long-lost national relic. However, with no extant records or witnesses, she turns to her last resort: talking with the dead. There was some weird passive voice in there that made it less exciting for me.
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Aug 5, 2013 06:20
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Logisti posted:Problem I ran into: I was using <h2> tags (setting the description through KDP) and then suddenly I made changes in KDP and days passed, then a week and it didn't update. I submitted a ticket to support and they told me that since I had updated it through Author Central at one point it would no longer update through KDP. This seemed an oddity, but I didn't really care until I realized Author Central doesn't support the use of <h2> tags. It strips them right out of the description. <b> and <i> still work, but it is nice to have your lead and closing lines in that big, bold, Amazon orange (apparently impossible once a title has been edited in author central). There is apparently a way to make this work through Author Central as well, and I think it has to do with putting the html code in ASCII. I've just been doing it all through KDP still but search around. Another thing you can do is simply request that Author Central delist your books from your author page, and your reasoning can literally be "because I want to be able to change the description through KDP again".
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Aug 5, 2013 08:03
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Thanks for the advice, everyone! I'm going to retool the blurb while I'm at sea, and hopefully come up with something that'll work. With any luck, I'll be ready to publish by next week.
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Aug 5, 2013 10:20
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Is Chance Masters' ability to deadspeak something inborn or is it given to her by the shadowy French post-war government agency? I think there should be some kind of mention either way in there, so your audience knows which way to expect.
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Aug 5, 2013 13:56
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EngineerSean posted:There is apparently a way to make this work through Author Central as well, and I think it has to do with putting the html code in ASCII. I've just been doing it all through KDP still but search around. EDIT: This actually DOES work. You just need to use the "Compose" tab in AC, not the "HTML" tab. Logisti fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Aug 5, 2013 |
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Aug 5, 2013 15:56
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does <a href </a> work like it used to in KDP? If so I might switch over.
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Aug 5, 2013 16:29
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EngineerSean posted:does <a href </a> work like it used to in KDP? If so I might switch over. Haven't tried it. EDIT: Get this...the trick for html tags in descriptions posted via Author Central only works for Kindle books. I put the same description for both the Createspace and Kindle versions of the book. Kindle looks great, I almost didn't bother checking the paperback but it turns out Amazon displays the naked html tags as plain text. Logisti fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Aug 5, 2013 |
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Aug 5, 2013 16:54
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I'm just releasing a second issue of my self-published comic book called "Koko the Blue" You can get both it and the first issue here. It's full 24 pages, with two stories.    
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Aug 8, 2013 04:36
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I've got ~75k words written in a fantasy novel that I'd like to throw onto Amazon or something similar. Goonreads is blocked from work (while SA isn't for some reason as long as I don't want to see images and if I use the IP, go figure), so I'm not able to check that out and see what resources exist there yet. Ideally I'd like to just put it on Amazon or somewhere and charge like, 99 cents for it, just to say I've done it. Is it worth it to throw it out there first and then worry about seeing if anyone actually thinks it's decent or would it be better to try to have it reviewed and read by someone instead? I apologize if this was answered - I looked through the first/last pages, but not everything displays right for me.
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Aug 8, 2013 19:44
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Solaron posted:Is it worth it to throw it out there first and then worry about seeing if anyone actually thinks it's decent or would it be better to try to have it reviewed and read by someone instead? I'd recommend against putting anything out there that hasn't gone through a multiple-rewrite process where you fixed all of your pacing problems, plot holes, etc., followed by an editing process that preferably involves a professional editor but at a minimum should involve other people reading the book specifically looking for errors/problems.
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Aug 8, 2013 20:28
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Logisti posted:If you just "throw it out there" you probably won't receive any useful feedback (or money). Most likely, no one will see it or know it exists unless you put a lot of effort into getting the word out. If I knew three months ago what I know now, I might not have self-pubbed my first book until my third one was nearly finished. Thanks - and I probably misworded that a bit. It's been read by a few friends who have been pretty great about pointing out my plot holes and inconsistencies. It's been rewritten and had continuity and things like that verified as much as can be expected, I think. That said, I don't have enough confidence in myself to spend a ton of money on an editor to go through it, and I don't have any more friends who like fantasy at all that I can have read it. Maybe I can beg one of my non-fantasy enjoying friends to read it. I had an academic friend of mine try to read it but she just doesn't enjoy non-fiction and isn't a fan of fantasy. That said, I'll hold off until I can find more people to read it for me! Thank you!
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Aug 8, 2013 20:36
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Logisti do you mean you wouldn't self-pub until you had 3 books in the same series ready to go, or just 3 books under the same pen name in the same genre? And is it for the standard reason, or anything in particular for the number 3? The standard reason being that if you publish one book, you need to work just as hard to market it to everyone, and if it's part of a series they're not going to buy it knowing they'll have to wait years for the series to be finished. And once you write and publish each following book, you'll essentially have to spend the same amount of time/money marketing as you won't have retained any followers, and even if you get someone to buy the book and they like it, they don't have any other books of yours to buy and you'll have spent $0.99 per reader to get $2.99 in sales, rather than $0.29 per reader (in bulk) who might turn around and buy 10 of your books for a total of $29.90 in sales. Or are there more specific reasons? I'm thinking about the same thing, which is at what time I should actually put some short stories and longer novellas on Amazon etc. I am happy enough to keep writing until I have a more substantial number of items to sell under my name, but I also know that as soon as I have my first sale, my writing productivity will quadruple. So I'm undecided on how to approach it.
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Aug 8, 2013 21:04
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Solaron posted:That said, I'll hold off until I can find more people to read it for me! Thank you! Sulla-Marius 88 posted:Logisti do you mean you wouldn't self-pub until you had 3 books in the same series ready to go, or just 3 books under the same pen name in the same genre? And is it for the standard reason, or anything in particular for the number 3?
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Aug 9, 2013 01:23
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Logisti posted:Maybe we can put together some sort of author's circle/writing group right here. I'd be up for that. I would definitely be interested in that as well!
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Aug 9, 2013 01:55
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Let's all make sure none of us end up like Derek Medina: http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2013/08/derek_medina_facebook_wife_kil.php
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Aug 9, 2013 02:20
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Solaron posted:I would definitely be interested in that as well! I posted a thread here for anyone interested in forming a writing group: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3564138 FingerbangMisfire posted:Let's all make sure none of us end up like Derek Medina: http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2013/08/derek_medina_facebook_wife_kil.php http://lousybookcovers.com/ ....err...I mean, he was such a quiet young man, I never would have guessed he would do something like this.
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Aug 9, 2013 02:47
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While I'm working on some short stories, figured I'd throw my first book on sale for $0.99 over the weekend. Figured I'd see how it does. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E1EVHW6 My hopes aren't too high since, as stated before, the first book in a series doesn't generally do too well without later books. Just for shits and giggles, though, I wanna see if a sale does anything. If nothing else, a few more reviews could be enlightening before I release the next book. I think this release is more about learning the ins and outs of the publishing process.
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Aug 9, 2013 10:17
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into the void posted:I suppose a better way to phrase it was "I wasn't expecting to make money". Little ways back, but wanted to chime in as I'm also not really focused on sales/see them as a cherry on top. You're not alone. I've written for most of my life just because I love telling stories, enjoy the craft, and want to get better. I also feel like I have something to say, even if it still gets muddled as I grow. Reviews are also more important to me because I define success as reaching someone on a deeper level. If my fiction can connect with just one person, I'm satisfied. I'm sure that comes off as pretentious twaddle, but it's my reality. Not to say that I don't try to reach more readers and would of course love to be able to do this full-time, but it's not my highest priority.
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Aug 9, 2013 15:59
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HPanda posted:While I'm working on some short stories, figured I'd throw my first book on sale for $0.99 over the weekend. Figured I'd see how it does. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E1EVHW6 Mind sharing what kind of sales you've had, and what you've done to promote/get reviews?
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Aug 9, 2013 16:53
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Sales have been pretty negligible. I think I've had 21 sales total, including friends and family, since July 19th. I've tried a short Facebook ad campaign (wife signed up for it, but I cancelled it after a few days), promoting it on Bookdaily, putting it up on Goonreads and Goodreads, advertising it on a couple other message boards, and sending it out to about 70 review blogs. So far, six of them have said they want to review it, though the reviews will be coming out sporadically between sometime soon and November. For the sale, I didn't do much advertising. Really don't have the money for it, but it's fine since I just did it on a whim. Posted it to some Facebook groups, message boards, and Pixels of Ink (though probably won't get posted there since I really didn't give much notice, just figured I'd try just in case). I'm not really expecting any significant uptick in sales or anything. Just experimenting. I'm shifting my focus to short stories for a couple months while intermittently working on the sequel to this one. I kind of think the biggest thing hurting me is the preview and blurb. There's something of a major gamechanger about six chapters in, making the book something quite different and more fun, but it's well past the first few chapters. So now I'm stuck either spoiling the surprise to get more readers or trying to get more people to give it a shot in other ways. Bit of a lack of planning on my part, but live and learn.
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Aug 9, 2013 20:01
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HPanda posted:I kind of think the biggest thing hurting me is the preview and blurb. There's something of a major gamechanger about six chapters in, making the book something quite different and more fun, but it's well past the first few chapters. If it's in the first 25% of the book I think it's all right to mention in the pitch. If it dramatically effects the books salability then you'd be crazy not to. Here is the description on Amazon for The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks: Meet Frank Cauldhame. Just sixteen, and unconventional to say the least: Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through. Most of that is literally ripped from the end of a chapter more than a third of the way into the book, and is a pretty major spoiler as I don't think the sixteen year old narrator reveals he's murdered anyone at all until close to 25% of the way in.
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Aug 9, 2013 21:04
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It's a little further than that. I just opened up the Kindle file, and it's about 40% of the way in. I think while writing it, I was really hoping the prologue would grab people more than it seems to be doing. I really like the first chapter, and it certainly sets things up in a necessary fashion, but I worry it might drag a bit. Lots of action, very little dialogue. The second chapter probably comes off as less charming than I wanted. The third chapter sets up the reader's knowledge of the world in what I hope is entertaining dialogue, but by that point, it's outside the scope of the preview. Then the book really gets going in chapters 4 and 5, then big reveal and gamechanger in 6 (with immediate repercussions in 7). When writing it, I was thinking in terms of the series, not just this novel, and I think that's what's killing me. The stuff I wanted to be charming lead-up might just come off as dragging. From what I can tell from beta readers, it seems that people become hooked into the story about 40-50% of the way in, but that really is too late with me being a new author. This is why I'm trying a short story strategy at the moment. If readers can see the style of the world and story in that form, they might be more willing to invest time into a longer novel, even if they're not crazy about the beginning. I'm also taking what I think is a necessary gamble with sending it off to review sites, but at least I can figure they'll read halfway in before marking it DNF. Then I guess I'm also hoping that they like it at that point. This is definitely a learning experience.
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Aug 9, 2013 21:31
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HPanda posted:When writing it, I was thinking in terms of the series, not just this novel, and I think that's what's killing me. I also recommend obsessing a little about story structure. Three-act format is the most basic structure you can use, and if your story doesn't at least roughly fit into it you should probably rethink things. I outline using Dan Wells' method (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcmiqQ9NpPE).
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Aug 9, 2013 22:04
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Freaky. I was going off of an idea of standard plot structure (beginning, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement), but with three main climax/turning points. It fits into that structure of three acts quite well even without my intending it. Unfortunately, the first act is kind of misdirection. I wanted to have a main theme of things which seemed important to the characters at the time actually being unimportant in retrospect. When things actually start getting real, suddenly the old importance of passing a test is forgotten and replaced by the importance of, well, not dying. Then something else even larger than that takes precedence. I thought it would be a good theme for a YA novel (remembering the progression of everything being so important in high school, then afterwards none of it mattering). In terms of drawing in the audience, though, it makes it seem like the book is just about that first thing. Maybe not such a good theme in that respect. I've tried modifying the blurb a bit to help with this. The book definitely does have a beginning, middle, and end, though. The end is more open-ended than in a standalone novel, but it does conclude the immediate conflict. In hindsight, though, it might be more like Fellowship of the Ring's ending, which now that I think about it, wasn't originally meant as a book's ending point. Didn't he originally write it as one awesome tome? Drat... That is a great video series for breaking down story structure. Little weird with the porn music at the beginning and end.
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Aug 9, 2013 22:36
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HPanda posted:That is a great video series for breaking down story structure. Little weird with the porn music at the beginning and end. From what you've said, I think you need to leverage that flip in the blurb so people know it's coming. e.g. "Bob always wanted to be an astronaut, but he was never any good at math. Struggling to make his childhood dream come true, he does the unthinkable. Homework. With painstaking effort, Bob collected the knowledge and confidence he would need to achieve his dream. That was when the war broke out." Logisti fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Aug 9, 2013 |
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Aug 9, 2013 23:38
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I hear you Hpanda buddy, in a similar situation myself. If anyone is interested my ebook is free for today only (due to my birthday). Links here: https://www.oscartk.co.uk/fiction
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Aug 10, 2013 10:57
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