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a review I wrote yesterday disappeared except via direct link, then reappeared when someone upvoted it
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Jun 23, 2015 18:19
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The second part of my column about DIY book covers is up: https://litreactor.com/columns/diy-book-covers-for-the-self-publishing-inclined-part-2 OP could you drop these two links in the resources list if you think they're cool? e: Ya'll selfpubbers should get on IRC it's cool and fun
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Jun 25, 2015 15:46
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If anyone needs proofreading or copyediting done within the next two weeks, I have one last slot open. All genres (and I do mean ALL genres) welcome. Send me an email at booksidemanner at gmail if you are interested.
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Jun 25, 2015 20:24
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I just want to quickly pop in to provide a reference for Hijinks. She's been line-editing my stuff regularly for 2-3 months now and does a fast, fantastic job. She's well worth your money if you need an editor.
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Jun 25, 2015 21:15
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I'll second that reference. Quick, professional, crisp. A pleasure to work with.
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Jun 26, 2015 13:06
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quote:Dear Jalumibnkrayal, That second sentence is so strange. Bonus points for sending it out after they left the office for the weekend.
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Jun 27, 2015 01:36
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Looking forward to this notification...hopefully it's information I can actually act on
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Jun 27, 2015 02:30
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angel opportunity posted:Looking forward to this notification...hopefully it's information I can actually act on "The upcoming changes to royalties will be about what you could expect."
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Jun 27, 2015 03:05
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"Good news! We're changing things. Let's pretend the payout is 20 cents per page, your 25-page erotica short would then earn $5.00. Cool, huh?"
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Jun 27, 2015 03:18
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We have more exciting news for all writers! From now on each Kindle Select participating author will receive a box of ferrets free of charge!* *Failure to care for ferrets will result in termination and withholding of all royalties.
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Jun 27, 2015 03:21
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Just dropping in to say hi and plug and such. I've just joined SFWA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Fiction_and_Fantasy_Writers_of_America This is the first year they have let self-publishers join. I got to attend the 50th anniversary Nebula Awards. I could have voted on them but didn't have enough time to read. That's me in the blue sports jersey sitting next to guys in tuxedos. https://scontent-lax1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...e02&oe=561A8560 Plug plug. My new novel is out: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B010GKF670 In general, most people at SFWA believe the changes to Amazon are Good Things. Because it actually rewards people for creating content worth reading. Of course, we'll see how it pans out. But my final thoughts, and I've said this a few times here, is that I'm still, *currently* a professional writer. A professional writer of science fiction/comedy/noir/stupid poo poo. I always get a little depressed when I read people who are writing in genres they don't actually like. My neighbor drinks a 12 pack a day so he can keep making GBS threads out the greeting cards and vanity projects that pay the rent. A guy at the Nebulas defined "working authors" as people who have a spouse who is working a real day job. I could be homeless and turning tricks tomorrow, but right now I can buy my bacon and dog food via writing. Via writing I enjoy doing. I'm not talented. Or good looking. Or smart. Or grammar good atly. Professionally, it does me no good to encourage writers to compete with me here at the bottom of the pile, but writers are a weird lot who need to look out for one another.
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Jun 27, 2015 05:10
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How do you maintain your mailing lists with multiple romance pen names? I feel like my work improves enough that I want to go through several as time goes on, but losing all that accumulated contact info every time I switch pen names sounds painful. Or is it not a big deal? I feel like romance readers will be more likely to remember and less likely to forgive a bad early book or three, basically. I don't want to be twelve books deep on a pen name with three or four lovely early books. And I'm guessing that telling my shorter romance readers about my new long romance books / pen name is a bad idea?
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Jun 27, 2015 06:54
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Well that 'Tell your Amazon Followers' thing seems to work. I got one for my newest book - about 3 days after I published it - and within a couple of hours saw a bunch of sales on that book out of an otherwise dead sales day. I just wish there was a way to get some metrics from it, but poo poo, I ain't even confident the new dashboard will work for the first couple of months, so I guess that's a pie-in-the-sky dream.DukeRustfield posted:But my final thoughts, and I've said this a few times here, is that I'm still, *currently* a professional writer. Haha yeah, I was just thinking about this the other day when my wife and I were out for dinner - she leaned over and pointed out someone who used to go to school with us or some poo poo and said that she'd just published a book and signed a deal with some tradpub house. And there I was, bursting to tell her that hell I'm a ~*~professional author~*~ myself, technically having written some poo poo that someone paid with actual money for. I could legitimately buy something with my earnings that would even get me change back. But I promised myself not to tell her until my first cheque was in the bank, so I just nodded. I guess that's what I hate more about the KU payout changes - not that I'll be earning less money in the short term because I'm greedy, but because I know 'HEY WIFE GUESS WHAT I'M A SUPER ROMANCE WRITER' will go over a lot better if I can prove it was worth the time/effort doing it 
Aaronicon fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Jun 27, 2015 |
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Jun 27, 2015 14:53
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The biggest part of Duke's post is that I just realized we moved to the B010 series of ASINs. WWe did it.
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Jun 27, 2015 18:30
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Running a sale over at my cover store, 50% off everything. It's the last one I'm gonna do, come September the only coupon offered will be a permanent 25% off for my newsletter peeps. https://www.store.ravenkult.com Coupon is SUMMER15
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Jun 28, 2015 10:20
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A question: if I've written a 80k word novel, and in doing so thought of a neat spinoff short story that I wanted to write (I'm 5k words into it right now after a day's work), is there any harm in appending it to the end of the novel as a fun bonus? I understand that "free short story attached" is not at all a selling point, I'm just wondering if there's any reason not to do this, like maybe it's worth splitting it off and selling it as its own thing instead. Probably not worth it, but I wanted to hear it from people who know better. Because right now I'm thinking "I have this short story, it's not going to sell on its own. It's related to the novel I've already written, so just staple it onto the end and be like, hey dudes, you've read my book so here's this extra thing if you're cool with it." Do digital authors put extras into their books if they happen to have them? Is that a thing people do or even think of doing? I literally don't know, I haven't been published, digitally or otherwise (though I am putting up my novel on Amazon on July 1st). I have more questions but I'm dead tired and scatterbrained right now, so I'll make that post when I'm less so, including blurb and cover for critique. I just wanted to know what you all think of the above question.
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Jun 29, 2015 04:16
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One thing that some authors do is use that kind of material as a "special bonus" for people who sign up for their mailing list. If you don't intend to do that, appending it to your existing story as a bonus chapter is a fine move.
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Jun 29, 2015 04:26
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I've been reading Let's Get Visible. Is it still relevant or should I forget everything I'm reading about popularity on Amazon?
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Jun 29, 2015 05:40
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fruit loop posted:I've been reading Let's Get Visible. Is it still relevant or should I forget everything I'm reading about popularity on Amazon? It is all still relevant as a whole, as in the way you should think about visibility has not changed dramatically. However, if something sounds wrong or if you have a specific question it is definitely an older book and I will be happy to offer my opinion on something he said two years ago.
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Jun 29, 2015 05:47
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Mr. Pumroy posted:A question: if I've written a 80k word novel, and in doing so thought of a neat spinoff short story that I wanted to write (I'm 5k words into it right now after a day's work), is there any harm in appending it to the end of the novel as a fun bonus? I understand that "free short story attached" is not at all a selling point, I'm just wondering if there's any reason not to do this, like maybe it's worth splitting it off and selling it as its own thing instead. Probably not worth it, but I wanted to hear it from people who know better. Because right now I'm thinking "I have this short story, it's not going to sell on its own. It's related to the novel I've already written, so just staple it onto the end and be like, hey dudes, you've read my book so here's this extra thing if you're cool with it." Do digital authors put extras into their books if they happen to have them? Is that a thing people do or even think of doing? I literally don't know, I haven't been published, digitally or otherwise (though I am putting up my novel on Amazon on July 1st). I would probably just stick it on the end as a bonus (and mention a bonus story in the blurb), but I'm lazy like that. Sean's idea is probably better.
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Jun 29, 2015 14:51
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Yeah, I like his idea too, but I don't have a mailing list apparatus set up just yet. I swear I'll work on that. It definitely sounds like something I'll do when the second book gets published. I'm more or less set to put this first one out on July 1st, so I'll just run the blurb and cover by you guys and see how you feel about it/what you'd suggest I should change in a last minute panic. For a good long while now I've been thinking of writing a series that's kind of a superhero thing with some humor in it. Superheroes are hot, right? Think of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams except not fantasy or scifi or good (haha oh god). It has vampires too. Basically it's a big colorful paean to my wasted childhood of Saturday morning cartoons and nerd poo poo. I know what you're thinking having just read that but I promise I am not an insane internet person who jams Monty Python quotes and memes into a book. Although that does sell, doesn't it. I had a good experience with an editor that was recommended in this thread, and I think the book turned out pretty okay! I hope that I've got a cover and blurb that will convince people to look at it.  quote:CALAMITY CITY: The novel blurb had already been pared down from previous feedback earlier in the thread, the short story one is something that I just tapped out now. I'm going to make this available through KU, but what price should I set for it on the regular market? It's my first, so I've tempered my expectations appropriately. I've just been working on this so long that I want to get it out there and get on the second book in the series, which I'm really stoked to write.
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Jun 30, 2015 04:01
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Mat Morris, self published author and host of the "author strong" podcast, aka the guy who twice did NaNoWriMo in 24 hours, is livestreaming his attempt to write 50K words in June. from June 1-28 he wrote 6K words, so he has 44K to do in the next 28 hours. http://www.twitch.tv/matmorrisauthor
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Jun 30, 2015 04:14
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Mr. Pumroy posted:Yeah, I like his idea too, but I don't have a mailing list apparatus set up just yet. I swear I'll work on that. It definitely sounds like something I'll do when the second book gets published. I'm more or less set to put this first one out on July 1st, so I'll just run the blurb and cover by you guys and see how you feel about it/what you'd suggest I should change in a last minute panic. Your title and byline are nigh invisible. Fix that asap.
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Jun 30, 2015 08:09
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You can set up a Mailchimp account and mailing list form in like 15 minutes, and there's really never a good excuse to hold off on doing that. Seriously, just suck it up and put a damned mailing list link in your first book. Don't wait until your second. It'll still be an equally annoying busywork task then, and in the meantime you'll have missed a bunch of potentially valuable sign-ups. edit: You don't even have to think about newsletters or whatever right now, just get on that first step of capturing (i.e., letting Mailchimp capture) the information of any and all interested parties. Trustworthy fucked around with this message at 14:10 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 30, 2015 13:55
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Yeah, it's quite nearly just free money to have a mailing list and to do a giveaway for people who sign up. Write one thing that you won't ever sell, design a cover for it, write a blurb for it. Put it in the front and back matter of every book you do. The link should have the cover and blurb, then text that is something like: "Click here to join the mailing list and get your FREE book. This book is exclusive to newsletter subscribers and cannot be bought anywhere!" Every time you run a free promo, in addition to the rankings and visibility boosts, you are grabbing tons of newsletter subs. My newsletter statistics--the newsletters I've sent out with sub numbers, open numbers, and click numbers--are below. The bottom ones are the earliest, top are latest. In one month of this method I hit 257 newsletter subs. The click percentage is very likely directly converting to buys and borrows, because they are reading the blurb and seeing the cover from my newsletter, and it's unlikely they will click that and then decide not to borrow or buy. I'm sure it happens sometimes, or maybe they borrow and won't actually read it (or in the new system, read half of it, I don't know), but all of those clicks are free advertising and money that I wouldn't have at all if I didn't do the newsletter. All of this because I wrote one single story that I didn't cash in on immediately.  Every time I do new releases, I also update my welcome message, so the email they get that has the link to the free story also lets them know what I have on free promo and what my most recent new releases are. Make sure your signup link doesn't ask for anything beyond their email. Don't ask for their real name, don't ask why they are signing up etc. 60% of my engagement is from mobile devices. No one wants to click and zoom around multiple forms on their iphone and type in inane poo poo to sign up; the more obstacles you create the more likely readers are to not bother signing up. My latest newsletter had 200 total clicks, split evenly between the three books I listed (70, 70, and 64). One of those was on free promo, but two weren't. Even if somehow only half of those clicks turn into borrows or buys, think of how much extra money that is for something that takes me about 20 minutes per week after the initial hassle of setting it up. angel opportunity fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 30, 2015 17:39
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Okay, just signed up on mailchimp. Thanks for pointing me to that website. Looks simple enough!ravenkult posted:Your title and byline are nigh invisible. Fix that asap. Roger that. 
Mr. Pumroy fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 30, 2015 17:41
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Oh wow. Apparently BKnights noticed they only sold 'a few copies' and refunded me. Pretty impressed with that for service. I'm going to try again on a free promo and see how that goes.
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Jun 30, 2015 22:11
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Mr. Pumroy posted:Okay, just signed up on mailchimp. Thanks for pointing me to that website. Looks simple enough! What's that ByBridge poo poo on top there? Can you remove it? If you can, do it and push the title upwards a bit. Byline still invisible. Try white.
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Jun 30, 2015 22:46
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what are people's opinions on publishing sites like wattpad, inkitt, or kindle's write on? Is working on something and putting it up chapter by chapter on there worth it for the exposure, or is it better to just wait, complete a whole thing, then get it up on amazon?
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Jun 30, 2015 22:50
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Canadian Surf Club posted:what are people's opinions on publishing sites like wattpad, inkitt, or kindle's write on? Is working on something and putting it up chapter by chapter on there worth it for the exposure, or is it better to just wait, complete a whole thing, then get it up on amazon? If you wanna do serials, you might as well do them on Amazon, imo.
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Jun 30, 2015 22:56
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ravenkult posted:What's that ByBridge poo poo on top there? Can you remove it? If you can, do it and push the title upwards a bit. Byline still invisible. Try white. I figured it might be a good way to number books as I progress. Maybe I'm counting my chickens before they hatch. I can cover it over with a clean copy of the art that I have on my pc, but unfortunately the artist is in the middle of moving and can't get to her computer, so moving the title is beyond me.
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Jun 30, 2015 22:58
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Mr. Pumroy posted:I figured it might be a good way to number books as I progress. Maybe I'm counting my chickens before they hatch. I can cover it over with a clean copy of the art that I have on my pc, but unfortunately the artist is in the middle of moving and can't get to her computer, so moving the title is beyond me. It's not essential, but I think it would look better. What does Bybridge mean? The thing with the whole cover you got there is that there's a certain lack of contrast. It looks like a faded paperback. The title doesn't pop out, the byline is illegible.
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Jun 30, 2015 23:03
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ravenkult posted:It's not essential, but I think it would look better. What does Bybridge mean? It's meant to be the name of the series. I'm no artist but I've got an old version of Gimp and I know how to push a contrast button. Does this look better? 
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Jun 30, 2015 23:28
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Man, I think so. I'd like someone else to chime in because I don't want to lead you down the wrong path, but I think the contrast is much better. Remember that your book needs to look good as a thumbnail. At least your title and byline are legible now.
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Jun 30, 2015 23:51
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If that Bybridge thing is the name of the series, it needs to be a lot bigger and a lot clearer. But I agree the higher contrast looks a lot better.
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Jul 1, 2015 00:17
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massive improvement
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Jul 1, 2015 01:07
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Not that we needed any more proof that romance readers are voracious...quote:Scribd took a significant risk putting in place a model that paid authors the same amount as a retail model for each book read by a subscriber. As we all know, romance readers tend to be incredibly avid readers. In trying to cater to this voracious readership while under this progressive payment model, Scribd has put itself in a difficult place. In a bid to better balance these operating expenses, Scribd is immediately slashing the volume of romance novels in its subscription service.
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Jul 1, 2015 03:53
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Get fuckd scribd Bezos is literally getting a boner over this news.
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Jul 1, 2015 03:59
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Canadian Surf Club posted:what are people's opinions on publishing sites like wattpad, inkitt, or kindle's write on? Is working on something and putting it up chapter by chapter on there worth it for the exposure, or is it better to just wait, complete a whole thing, then get it up on amazon? Anecdote: I had a wattpad story featured. It had a ton of reads, a lot of super positive comments, and generally exploded. It was the freebie I was offering as a series starter/loss leader. Literally the best possible outcome with Wattpad. Almost zero conversion to paid sales.
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Jul 1, 2015 06:04
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 02:18 |
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Looks like they flipped over to pages for a little bit and then they reverted to units borrowed. I didn't get to see it but people are saying it just wasn't showing any sales or pages so there must have been some glitch. No news from Amazon, obviously, because it's Amazon
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Jul 1, 2015 12:19
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