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Fix your blurb's opening sentence. Quick, identify the following words as noun, verb, or adjective: assault halted race secure Now read this and see if you got the answers right: With the assault on the planet Redmond halted the United Colonies race to secure the borders.
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May 22, 2014 22:40
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 18:37 |
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I took a lot of advice from this thread and published a second book using those suggestions. Most of the previous feedback I received was that the book appeared to be a scammy "Get Rich Quick" book instead of a story, so that's mainly what I'm trying to address. If you guys wouldn't mind, I'd like some compare and contrast feedback on the store sites to see if I'm moving in the right direction. First Book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K7KBNAY Second Book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KI59RCO If you guys like the second one more, then I'll change the cover and description on the first to match the style. Thanks in advance for any help! Edit: Just noticed that my top line didn't bold like I wanted it to on the store page. Do you use HTML tags to format? Epic Doctor Fetus fucked around with this message at 15:08 on May 23, 2014 |
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May 23, 2014 15:04
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You're using [ ] instead of < > for the opening line. https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A377RPHW6ZG4D8
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May 23, 2014 15:16
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Yooper posted:You're using [ ] instead of < > for the opening line. Yeah, too much posting on SA. Heh. I made the change, but I guess it takes another 12 hours to show up. Thanks!
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May 23, 2014 15:35
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Epic Doctor Fetus posted:Edit: Just noticed that my top line didn't bold like I wanted it to on the store page. Do you use HTML tags to format?
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May 23, 2014 16:05
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Yooper posted:Five months and three editors later I published my second novel! My Goon recommended Editor came through and he is awesome. Thanks Ravenkult! I owe you man. I liked the typeface and the black text. I would have added a blurred white cloud behind the text to make it pop. And can you PM me the editor? Or just post their name here?
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May 23, 2014 17:12
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Ok, I fixed the formatting issues. First Book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K7KBNAY Second Book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KI59RCO Is the second book presented better than the first (at least in terms of story vs scam how-to)? Any other suggestions?
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May 23, 2014 23:14
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Not only is your blurb's formatting still messed up, but it doesn't sound interesting to me at all. I saw this for the first book: #52 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Humor & Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Gambling > Sports I'm shocked this is actually a category. Looking inside, the #1 book in that category sells about a copy a day. #20 sells about two a week. I think that not only do you need to look up how to write a blurb better, but you've picked a category that really just doesn't sell. Even the best selling books in Humor > Games > Gambling sell about five copies a day. If you're looking for a broad audience for your work, you may want to focus on a different genre.
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May 23, 2014 23:30
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EngineerSean posted:Not only is your blurb's formatting still messed up, but it doesn't sound interesting to me at all. I saw this for the first book: That's a great point on the category. I didn't even think to look at that. I'll change that ASAP. Where are you looking to see how many copies they're selling? As far as the formatting, it looks ok on my end. Are you talking about book 1 or 2 (or both)? I know book 1 needs a lot of work, so I'm mostly looking to see if I'm headed in the right direction with book 2 or if I need to completely rethink things.
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May 24, 2014 00:00
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Epic Doctor Fetus posted:Where are you looking to see how many copies they're selling? It's an estimate based on 100000 / current sales rank. About your blurb, here's what it looks like now: quote:Kill Bill almost Killed My Air Miles Scheme! Unless you like to read things like this usually, you should probably remove all the additional line breaks so that it looks good on every device. edit: In Author Central<br /><br />it might look like<br /><br />this, or maybe</div><div></div><div>like this, so just</div><div></div><div>remove all the garbage HTML code. EngineerSean fucked around with this message at 00:53 on May 24, 2014 |
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May 24, 2014 00:50
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Thanks again. I fixed it through AC, although the changes seem to be taking their sweet time on the store front.
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May 24, 2014 01:31
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It looks better but you still have the problem with four lines of space between each paragraph.
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May 24, 2014 01:57
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Epic Doctor Fetus posted:Ok, I fixed the formatting issues. I pulled up #2 on my iphone and the way you have it formatted totally chops off your blurb. All I get is the bold font opener. Space is at a premium when it comes to the blurb, maximize the position. Get the juicy details upfront, if people need to click to see the good stuff, they won't.
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May 24, 2014 02:45
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Yeah, I fixed the spacing issue in Author Central and it looks fine there. The store front hasn't caught up yet.
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May 24, 2014 03:00
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It looks "fine" as in it is formatted correctly but it still sounds completely uninteresting to me. Why should I care whether David Carradine has enough frequent flyer miles? I assume this is a book about a scam to get more frequent flyer miles but the blurb isn't quite clear about that. Also, I guess this is based on a true story(?) but you might still want to be careful about throwing around David Carradine's name, his estate might get some ideas from the Scarlet Johannsen case that went on recently against a French author who used her name.
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May 24, 2014 19:39
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Finally approaching the time to publish my first book after crawling through the editing process. Been about seven months, but goddamn is it satisfying to finish. I've been lurking this thread for months now and it's pretty much the only thing that got me through it. quote:“This is how I died. I walked into a scene from another world and disappeared without understanding a single thing.” Thanks thread. This is probably the most helpful community on SA. Edit: Definitely gonna swap out the cover before I seriously launch it on recommendations from here and reformat the dialogue. Chickenfrogman fucked around with this message at 16:11 on May 25, 2014 |
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May 25, 2014 05:53
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Chickenfrogman posted:Finally managed to publish my first book after crawling through the editing process. Been about seven months, but goddamn is it satisfying to finish. I've been lurking this thread for months now and it's pretty much the only thing that got me through it. Your cover is not atrocious, but it ain't great either. Looks 100% sci-fi too.
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May 25, 2014 06:19
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ravenkult posted:Your cover is not atrocious, but it ain't great either. Looks 100% sci-fi too. Yeah, I'm not getting any 'magic' vibe at all. An out-of-focus alien chessboard, yes. But not magic.
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May 25, 2014 10:34
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Chickenfrogman posted:Finally managed to publish my first book after crawling through the editing process. Congrats on your hard work. I'm afraid you need to work on your dialogue formatting, though. Have a look here: http://www.mrclements.com/?p=898 and pay particular attention to Point 1. Keeping everything in block paragraphs is exhausting for the reader's eye!
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May 25, 2014 12:07
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Yeah, I've definitely been not fond of the cover on secondary glances. I know why I picked it and I am slightly super broke at the moment, but I am definitely interested in changing it since I can see the sci-fi complaint when it's brought up. The dialogue aspect was a stupid thing on my part, I'll get right on reformatting.
Chickenfrogman fucked around with this message at 16:13 on May 25, 2014 |
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May 25, 2014 16:07
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Chickenfrogman posted:Yeah, I've definitely been not fond of the cover on secondary glances. I know why I picked it and I am slightly super broke at the moment, but I am definitely interested in changing it since I can see the sci-fi complaint when it's brought up. The dialogue aspect was a stupid thing on my part, I'll get right on reformatting. I would also reconsider the lettering. It looks like three different typefaces/fonts and three different colors: WHITE BOLD CAPITAL ITALICS WHITE-TO-BLUE GRADIENT BOLD CAPITAL ITALICS White normal text BLACK CAPITAL AUTHOR ATTRIBUTION I think having the gradient in "HORIZON" works as a representative of a horizon, but the next line is back to white so it undermines that. Consider changing the title, as there is already a book with this title on Amazon, and while it isn't fantasy, it looks more like fantasy than your cover. Check out Edge of Solace above: it communicates a very strong theme. Just glancing at the cover I see big rear end space ships blowing each other up. The blurb identifies some characters and how they're associated with those big rear end ships blowing each other up. I'm gonna read that book if I like big rear end ships blowing each other up. Or go look at another Goon book: Hard Luck Hank. Just looking at the cover you know exactly what the book is going to be about. A lot of great creative decisions went into that cover. Does your book have spells? Show me a dude casting a spell! Show me a gryphon flying over a city. Show me your character putting a rogue wizard in wizard jail. You have a split second to catch someone's browsing eyeball and convince them to click on your thumbnail. If you spent hundreds of hours writing your novel, give yourself dozens of hours to work on the cover/blurb/title.
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May 25, 2014 18:10
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That is a fantastic post and I'm going to do a do-over on the cover with everything you just said in mind.
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May 25, 2014 19:44
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I popped in here to ask a pretty generic question. How the hell do you guys convince people to leave reviews on Amazon? I have stories that have sold hundreds of copies with only one review or no reviews at all. I don't even understand how that's possible. Is there an easier way to get readers to review other than dumb luck?
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May 26, 2014 03:30
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1% review rate isn't uncommon. Message people and ask for reviews in exchange for free copies - that seems to be the easiest way to get them.
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May 26, 2014 03:37
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JibbaJabberwocky posted:I popped in here to ask a pretty generic question. How the hell do you guys convince people to leave reviews on Amazon? I have stories that have sold hundreds of copies with only one review or no reviews at all. I don't even understand how that's possible. I assume you're still working erotica and I'll just say that there is no easy way. A plea at the end of the book is fairly effective but I have a book that has sold in the hundreds of thousands of copies and gave away an equal number through KDP Select free days and my ratio of purchases to reviews is something like 300:1.
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May 26, 2014 03:39
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Yeah, I'm with Sean (though one or two orders of magnitude off) on that one. I gave away 66,000 copies of one of my books through Bookbub and garnered less than 50 reviews for it even when soliciting them immediately after the final page. Two of them were one-stars for using the Lord's name in vain, too!  If you're going to try to get reviews, get them up front. ARC copies have a much higher rate of review than purchased copies because you're connecting personally with the reader, and because they like you enough to want to talk to you about your book in the first place.  I sent out about 60 copies of that same book as review copies in advance of the Bookbub and got over 40 reviews from the ARC readers over the next month -- a much better return rate than Bookbub for the purpose of reviews. (Also, given the first two reviews coming out of the bookbub promo were the one-stars, those ARC reviews also softened the impact on my sales given it was a day-one release promo on bookbub. Don't ask me who I blew to get them to do that.)For erotica, just leave a request for reviews in the back and call it a day.
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May 26, 2014 14:10
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I'll have the new thread ready for Monday night, by the way. I've been fighting with a new dog for a week, and I intended to get it done last night right up until the dog literally broke my keyboard.
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May 30, 2014 14:37
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Sundae posted:I'll have the new thread ready for Monday night, by the way. I've been fighting with a new dog for a week, and I intended to get it done last night right up until the dog literally broke my keyboard. Self-Publishing Goons: Mom, the Dog Broke My Keyboard!!!
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May 30, 2014 17:34
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Something Awful: Updating 'My dog ate my homework' for the 21st century.
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May 30, 2014 17:53
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Self-Publishing Goons: My dog ate my e-book
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May 30, 2014 18:40
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Self-Publishing Goons: How do I wrote book?
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May 31, 2014 03:15
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Epic Doctor Fetus posted:Self-Publishing Goons: How do I wrote book? Self-Publishing Goons: Where's My Goddamn Money?
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May 31, 2014 16:11
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magnificent7 posted:
In my bank account 
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May 31, 2014 16:28
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ravenkult posted:In my bank account magnificent7 fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Jun 1, 2014 |
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Jun 1, 2014 01:52
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Here's a lesson on how not to respond to a review of your furry noir fiction book (see the comments): http://tidbits.com/article/14696
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Jun 1, 2014 16:29
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Oh my god hahaha It's barely proper to respond to reviews at all let alone that many times.
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Jun 1, 2014 17:30
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Oh man, the part where he says he had one of his own fictional characters do a literary analysis of his own book is just... oh gently caress, words do not exist for how amazing that is 
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Jun 1, 2014 17:32
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Blade_of_tyshalle posted:Oh man, the part where he says he had one of his own fictional characters do a literary analysis of his own book is just... oh gently caress, words do not exist for how amazing that is Not just that he had his own character write it. He "had the audacity to let" his fictional character write it. Needles to say his fictional character found his book to be a literary tour de force for the ages.
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Jun 1, 2014 17:48
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moana posted:Here's a lesson on how not to respond to a review of your furry noir fiction book (see the comments): http://tidbits.com/article/14696 Then I got to the comments and it reached a whole new level of special. In other news, first erotica novella just about through editing and ready to publish. I'm nervous...
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Jun 1, 2014 21:50
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 18:37 |
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Good luck and remember not to dwell on it, just write more of it. But also post it here so we can tell you what to fix.
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Jun 1, 2014 22:36
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