Self-Publishing Goons (Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, etc)

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Self-Publishing Goons (Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, etc)

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Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

I need advice, I'm currently in the process of putting together a novel called a Clear and Feathered Danger which I'm self publishing on Kindle, which a goonette is so kindly proofreading and I'm soliciting for cover art in SA mart.

The description is:

quote:

In the technological dystopia of New Delta, the Avian Syndicate, a criminal empire made up entirely of a race of large purple birds, wants to be more than just thugs. To get it, the avians need the one thing they don't have, citizenship. To get it, they find a kindred soul in an abused goblin shaman named Eluna, cast out from her suffering people. Together, the Syndicate and Eluna devise a daring plan that nobody would see coming.

Standing in their way is Alfonso Deegan, a grizzled but inexplicably married private detective, and his three associates: Quintanelle Fillion, a young elven mage far from home trying to overcome her racist brainwashing. Mordridakon, a red dragon with few social skills and an endless appetite. And Trogg the Genius, the world's only professor of Ogre Studies.

Together the detectives must work quickly to diffuse the situation before the Syndicate destroys New Delta, or long standing prejudices do it for them.

My audience is high-fantasy fans looking for something different than your stereotypical trilogy adventure where a bunch of W.A.S.P.s run off to destroy a evil guy summoning an ancient evil and high elves are goodie-two-shoes and goblins only exist to get slaughtered by our heroes and dragons horde treasure in caves.

Any ideas of how to go about promoting it beyond SA obviously? This is different, but maybe a little too different.

Edit: My long term goal is to turn this into a series. I've even started on the next one while this one is being proofread, where the heroes discover a megacrop's dark secret. That 3 centuries earlier, they released a pathogen that wiped out the once mighty goblin tribes, allowing the rest of the continent to exploit them for cheap labor.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Jun 3, 2011

# ¿ Jun 3, 2011 17:33

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 22:07

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

FingerbangMisfire posted:

Promoting is tough, but you seem to know your audience. Thus: set up a twitter account and start following authors you dig, as well as following his followers. Most folks will follow you back out of courtesy. Use your twitter to promote your stuff (but don't spam).

That's the thing, I frankly can't stand to read most recent sci-fi and fantasy because they're overwritten generic garbage which leaves me saying "Get to the goddamn point. I don't care about the loving shadows or the carvings on the wall!" I've even taken to reading graphic novels because there, they show you the details instead spending ten pages describing them.

My writing style, therefore, closely mirrors James Patterson, not most known fantasy writers. Its to the point with short chapters and quick pacing, though I developed it before I even heard of James Patterson(not that he wasn't writing best seller after best seller when I was doing it). In fact, if you boil down my book, it's just a James Patternson-esque thriller set in a unique take on High Fantasy.

Therefore my book reads like a mainstream thriller, but is not mainstream fantasy. I'm sort of stuck in this wired limbo.
So should I go after James Patterson readers, or stick to fantasy readers? Both? Any ideas.

quote:

Reddit is a HUGE resource (and also full of nerds). Subscribe to our very goony http://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/ as well as http://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/ & http://www.reddit.com/r/fantasy Tons of potential readers there.

How do I use Reddit exactly?

# ¿ Jun 4, 2011 17:15

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2011 00:40

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

It's finally online, yay!

quote:

In the technological dystopia of New Delta, the Avian Syndicate, a criminal empire made up entirely of large purple birds, wants the one thing they can't steal. To get it, they recruit an abused goblin shaman, cast out from her people; with her help, they devise a daring plan that no one sees coming.

Standing in their way is Alfonso Deegan, a grizzled but happily married private detective, and his three associates: Quintanelle Fillion, a young elven mage far from home trying to overcome her racist upbringing; Mordridakon, a red dragon with few social skills and an endless appetite; And Trogg the Genius, the world's smartest ogre.

Together the detectives must work quickly to defuse the situation before the Syndicate destroys New Delta, or long standing prejudices do it for them.

Find out want they want to steal for the low low price of .99 cents!
---
This is the first book in a planned series, the second is being edited as we speak and I've just started on the third. The genre is a fantasy thriller with heavy cyberpunk elements.

And yes, I've really written a book featuring purple macaws with arms as the villains, and they work quite well because I know parrots quite well. Later books won't all feature fairly original villains obviously, but I decided to use them to start off with a bang.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Jun 18, 2011

# ¿ Jun 18, 2011 15:33

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

FingerbangMisfire posted:

That's too weird not to buy. *clicks button*

Thank you for your purchase. I hope more people are like you.
I believe I can carve a niche in the fantasy thriller market(if one even exists). So I'm promoting like mad. I've got my twitter, my facebook page my amazon author page and my official site blog. They are under the K23 Detectives name. There's not much to them yet, but It's a start.

Next installment, about a megacorp with a dark past, entitled What Lies Within, should be out in a few weeks. Third book by the end of the summer.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Jun 18, 2011

# ¿ Jun 18, 2011 17:18

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Fenarisk posted:

The only other fantasy/dystopian thrillers I know of would be the Eberron novels or anything Shadowrun related (hahahahahaha you'll have no competition there), neither of which have been very recent.

I'm well aware of shadowrun, except my world and shadowrun is different. Shadowrun is standard cyberpunk with high fantasy elements added in. My world is high fantasy with cyberpunk elements added in. There's a difference there.

Actually its more than cyberpunk, there's also steampunk(underground home of dwarfs and gnomes, setting of third book) and post apocalyptic(one of the four continents is a perma-war zone with another being stripped of life by the deity of chaos) but its easier to describe if I just stick to the main setting of the series.

In other news You can now purchase this at smash words

# ¿ Jun 19, 2011 04:37

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Kallisti Applecore posted:

There's a gal doing a blog called "Why Is My Book Not Selling?" on the Kindle Boards if anyone is having issues and wondering about them.
Though I guess our anthology isn't having the issues I thought it was (turns out, a lot of fellow KB authors have the same amount of first month sales), it was still nice to get some pointers...not to mention a bit of exposure.

I've had thirty-five books sold in the first 2.5 weeks, which is far more than five I was expecting. Should pick up once the second comes out in two weeks and reviews start coming in.
What everyone has been saying is the key to big sales is to get more books out there.
I've also gone full blown with Twitter, blog, Facebook(need 22 more fans to get a handle) and Goodreads. I've also started submitting to fantasy sites, most haven't gotten back to me yet.
In linkedin helpful?
Here's my book trailer for the second book What Lies Within. It's not very good, but that's kind of the joke.
--
In other news, I've bought a Kindle and found its text to speech function does wonders for my self editing accuracy. Before it was poo poo, now I'm getting out almost all the typos. Here's my blog post on the topic.
And does anyone know any editor who can edit my stuff on the cheap, 100, 200 dollars maximum?

Roshi fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Jul 5, 2011

# ¿ Jul 5, 2011 15:08

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

FingerbangMisfire posted:

:cough:

Added your link.

Where are links to my books?

This first one is in this thread(check around June 17th), this is the second:

New Deltan megacorp Biogenomics sends Alfonso Deegan, Quintanelle Fillion, Trogg the Genius and Eluna across Hominia to a remote city-state called the City of Sands to expose a dangerous blackmailer. Meanwhile, Mordridakon must stay behind to solve a related murder of a private detective.

But when it very quickly becomes clear who the real villain ultimately is, they all turn their focus to stopping Biogenomics. But taking on Biogenomics isn�t like taking on the Avian Syndicate. A megacorp has the political means to stop the detectives without resorting to destruction.

And if those avenues fail, they can really get nasty in order to prevent their horrifying secrets from being revealed�

Smashwords Edition
Amazon Edition

Roshi fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Jul 11, 2011

# ¿ Jul 11, 2011 23:45

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

FingerbangMisfire posted:

A lot of folks PM me. That's the only way to ensure I don't miss something. There are a lot of goon books in the master list. I don't try to lose track, but sometimes I do.

PM of the first book sent!

# ¿ Jul 12, 2011 00:03

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

I finally got around to putting a cover, real copyright notice, and a contact page ala John Locke, for my two books. Putting a cover in the kindle book is a pain in the rear end because you have to save it as HTML(what I upload my stuff as), then modify it using notepad.
But having them in makes them look that much more professional.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2011 21:52

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

If you need reviews: go here http://hampton-networks.com/
It's a list of indie book blogs. Find the list of blogs in your genres and start submitting away. It will take awhile, most will ignore you, but occasionally you'll find someone who will bite. I'm in line to reviewed on Fantasy Cookie next month.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Jul 19, 2011

# ¿ Jul 19, 2011 20:59

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Flopstick posted:

I've got a dumb question. When it comes to offering review copies, how do you guys go about it? Do you just send the reviewer a mobi file / .prc / whatever?

Read the guidelines, almost all review blogs have one, they'll tell you what they want.

And my god, many of these blogs are ugly.

Myrddin Emrys posted:

Smashwords coupons are your friend.

You can make a coupon code for 100% off your book. Then just hand out the code and they can choose how to download it themselves.

Some want the actual ebooks. Read the guidelines.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Jul 19, 2011

# ¿ Jul 19, 2011 22:12

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

clockworkjoe posted:

So question for the twitter users: How important/useful has Twitter been in promoting your book/getting sales? I have twitterfeed.com to autopost stuff from the ZOTW blog (and my podcast) but I'm not sure how else I can use it to promote the book. I try to reply to people that mention me but what kind of thing works and what doesn't?

I use it as an easy way to network and meet other authors and potential readers.
Here's my feed A mixture of discussions, blog posts, advertisements and random comments. I find it more useful than facebook.

It is also a good way to get GoodReads Friends

Roshi fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Jul 25, 2011

# ¿ Jul 24, 2011 20:39

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Fenarisk posted:

Any tips how? I've followed a good number of genre blogs, ebook blogs, and other authors and none of them have followed me back even when I make a mention @whoeveritis.

You have to be somebody interesting with an interesting feed. I've been gaining followers who I didn't seek out because my twitter feed is set around my brand.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Jul 25, 2011

# ¿ Jul 25, 2011 00:44

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

tarepanda posted:

Most people follow authors because the authors are interesting, not because they want book news.

Correct.
It's the reason I get followers like Denver Deal Finder, Fire Wax Candles or Chris Levison the administrator the real life law firm in Erin Brockovich was based on.

FingerbangMisfire posted:

Post tits. You'll get followers. hurf

Most erotica authors get more followers than they follow.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 12:39 on Jul 25, 2011

# ¿ Jul 25, 2011 12:34

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Myrddin Emrys posted:

Just remember that people aren't dumb. If you just sell your book and retweet your own blog entries, people won't follow you.

This is true, I also make sure to converse and such. Mix the type of posting up.

Essentially, there has to be a human on the other side, not a spam bot.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2011 19:21

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

So the third book got released:

quote:

The Cromag Underground is in chaos. The Krung, a gang of violent goblins from New Delta have taken over a valuable ore mine, and stabbed its owner, Mitch Harkin. The monarchs of the twin cities of Brocenback and Alkhan are facing constant death threats from various angry factions over their plan to unite the cities under one throne.

Worst of all, the Armagdan Acolytes, the followers of the forbidden deity of destruction and disorder, have resurfaced after a thousand years. The mind controlled legion now led by a twisted shaman named Qub, they seek nothing less than the destruction of the entire world.

Standing in their way are the K23 Detectives. Called to the Underground to deal with the Krung and the death threats, they quickly find the Acolytes can become more powerful the worse situation deteriorates. Forming an uneasy alliance with Mitch Harkin, they must work quickly to find Qub and stop him before the Acolytes can launch a devastating attack on the cities.

But among the giant steam machines, clockwork automatons and twisting tunnels, the detectives find themselves out matched by an enemy with power unforeseen. This time, not all of them will survive�

Amazon edition for .99 cents.
Smashword edition, also 99 cents.
This one is steampunk, as that what the setting within my world is. The cover is by the same goonette, who is really, really good, and is of the book's villain's a goblin named Qub.
I'm thinking for the 4th K23 book down the line,I might have them feature some heroes for a change.

Now I have 3 out now and should really start marketing the gently caress out of them. The nice thing is, they're all completely different. A Clear and Feathered Danger is a fantasy thriller with an original villain, What Lies Within is a slower corporate espionage story and The Impending Darkness is Steampunk. I use the setting and characters for the story I want to tell.

To help me sell them, I've created this:

quote:

Enjoy the following K23 Detectives books:
A Clear and Feathered Danger
What Lies Within
The Impending Darkness

These three inventive fantasy thrillers tell the story of Alfonso Deegan and colorful associates as the try to prevent destruction by five-foot purple parrot gangsters, a megacorp run amok, and the mind-controlled legion of a warped goblin.

They are not alone, however. Joining them are:
The Cybernetic Dragon
The Hidden Chasm

These novels were written four to six years before K23 Detectives, they contain many of the same characters in the same general world, except are fantasy adventures. Never before published, these two novels can only be found in this collection and are absolutely free!

K23 Detective Three Pack with Bonus Novels for $2.99
The two add-ons, part of an unfinished trilogy called Cybermagic, long time goons might remember(Myrddin Emrys mostly, as I think I sent them to him). I recycled the K23 world from them, and decided to tack them on to make the Pack more enticing.
Formatting this thing for Smashwords is going to be insane, so don't hold your breath on a Smashwords Edition any time soon.

Now I'm slowing down a bit, working on a non-k23 title, K23 4(which may or may not end the series depending on sales) and publish some K23 side stories.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Aug 8, 2011

# ¿ Aug 8, 2011 01:51

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

I'm not kicking rear end so much, only 6 sold so far in August, but that's because I'm at a disadvantage due to being so.... different, but most who read my stuff actually like it. Still I keep asking myself if I should sell out and write a zombie story or whatever the hell else is selling right now. Nah, then I wouldn't be the author I am.
I've got the trilogy out and I am going to release something completely different, sometime in September/October and then if K23 Detectives still isn't selling by then, I'll still write a fourth book to tie up the cliffhanger at the end of the third, just it will be the final one unless they mysteriously start selling. Why write 5, 6 and 7 if nobody is reading 1, 2 3 and 4?

In other news, I have joined the The Independent Author Network which will help me market my stuff for me. Is any other goon a member?

# ¿ Aug 9, 2011 16:11

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Soulcleaver posted:

I've sold 4 copies total, all to friends and family. I'm signing up for that Independent Author Network.

It's most helpful if you have multiple books(ie serious indie authors), as you can list each book, its description and cover all on one page. Also note it's 25 dollars to join and more if you have more than 6(requires a page upgrade). Instead of advertising each book in a single tweet, I do all at once.
To also get the most out of it, you have to tweet the link to it at least once a day.

Myrddin Emrys posted:

My sales have significantly dropped off, unfortunately. One trickles in every few days or so. I've applied for a bunch of those review sites that people were talking about but not one has gotten back to me

Do what I'm doing and write another book! Repeat until sales.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2011 22:11

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Soulcleaver posted:

Already working on my second one. I will make a living with my writing come hell or high water.

As will I, even if K23 detectives doesn't sell, something else might, which is why I'm writing something different, a YA superheroine novel. If that doesn't work, I'll try a cyberpunk western sports novel, if that does work, a political thriller set in a world where every non-racist conspiracy theory is accepted historical fact,if not that post-apocalypse novel where the apocalypse was environmental degradation. One of those has to sell.

Can I twenty-five goons to like my facebook page so I can a separate login. http://www.facebook.com/pages/K23-Detectives/216577915032153

# ¿ Aug 10, 2011 13:33

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Soulcleaver posted:

Friended you all on Facebook. Here's mine: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=628700402&ref=name

I can't promise I'll read it anytime soon, but I bought a copy of A Clear and Feathered Danger. Looks interesting.

Thank you!

# ¿ Aug 11, 2011 00:20

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

I took some advice from other I am writing what I call K23 Sides Stories, very short stories that show the everyday goings on in my world.
I've posted the first two:
The Tale of Mr. Alumooney
Bedtime for Elves
Do people do anything similar?

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 15:54

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

FingerbangMisfire posted:

Ah, fuckery. Didn't see that. Someone did post an aggregate site a few pages back that had links to a veritable butt ton of review blogs, though.

That would me and that would be this:
http://hampton-networks.com/

# ¿ Aug 24, 2011 19:18

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

People are finally starting to buy, slowly, I'm about a book a day now. I'm also going to push the Three Pack with Bonus Novels pretty hard. The reason is simple, I make about twice as much per three pack sold than each of the K23 novellas separately. At 99 cents I get 35 cents back for a total of 1.05 if somebody buys all three, which is not a done deal. But if I charge 2.99 I get about 2.00 back and they have all of them. So every three pack = six .99 cent books in terms of money I make.
Plus in addition, remember I tacked on two other novels(the cybermagic ones) with doubles the word count for about 164,000 words. Excellent value.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2011 16:07

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Azure_Horizon posted:

Though, 90% of all self-pub authors aren't selling at all right now, so it's still very early to see if it's truly going to be a valid financial avenue.

That's because right now there's a deluge of content, everything from spam books to kids uploading their short stories they wrote for class. Everyone who wanted to be an author now can be author.
Its pretty hard to stand out right now unless you market the poo poo out of it and even then its not a done deal. Heck there's this guy ranting in a poorly written 2.99 ebook about how you not sell a million copies. Read the sample, is irony at its greatest.

Then there's the issue of what's considered to be "good writing" is not the writing that sells. People think James Patterson sucks, but guess what, James Patterson is currently the world's highest paid writer. At the end of the day, getting books into people's hands is what counts and he does it better than anyone else.

My writing style is similar to Patterson's, fast paced and minimal extraneous bullshit, although even it differs. Read the K23 Side Stories for samples of how I write.
It may not be "good writing", but it's far easier to sell. My problem is the stories I write are somewhat original(gangster parrots) and people like familiarity. That's why I'm almost done with an YA novella, something that sells a little bit better(though even it is pretty unique).

Roshi fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Aug 30, 2011

# ¿ Aug 30, 2011 15:03

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

chrysoula posted:

That's the theory, anyhow. Tell a good story, with comprehensible writing, promote it a bit, find your audience, keep writing, make a living.

That's is the current theory and trend, I was merely talking about John Locke level Ebook sales, to achieve that, you pretty much have to write like Patterson(which Locke does) or be Stephenie Myers(Amanda Hockings wrote twilight with trolls)

# ¿ Aug 31, 2011 12:05

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Myrddin Emrys posted:

My sales have essentially dropped off to near zero, which sucks. I've tried the book review sites you guys have used but so far in like 4 months or whatever not a single one has responded.

That's demotivating.

Sift Book Reviews have just got back to me, A Clear and Feathered Danger will be reviewed... in March 2012. I'm trying to see if she'll review all three current books at once instead of waiting until 2013 for Impending Darkness review at this rate.
And dude, write another book... and get a better cover.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2011 21:27

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

I got my first interview, well sort of. On Twitter, every Friday from 2-4pm, there's #scifichat. A bunch of authors and readers get together and chat about Scifi. It has proven to be one of the best sales tools around as I always snag a few sales from every time I show up.

On Friday October 7th, I'm highjacking as its the day I release Barbarian Girl, my YA superheroine novel, which a teenage girl gains superpowers, turns into a roid feak, teenage angst follows, except if she doesn't snap out of it fast, her town will be devoured by an army of wendigos, led by her former tormentors.
Like ACAFD, it's also the first of a series because the Barb Girl World is as complex as K23, just based on our own this time.

The first half will be how to write superheroes, 3:00 interview, 3:30 Q&A.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2011 00:14

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Fenarisk posted:

Oh man where is the fantasy/pulp version of that

Fantasy pulp version of Barbarian Girl, sorry Ebook only. It's actually a novella. The sequel will probably be full length though as Barb Girl is really the origin story.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2011 01:37

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

FingerbangMisfire posted:

I think he means the chat.

It would have helped if referred to what he was asking about.

There's a #fantasychat that is on sunday nights, but its open and unstructured unlike scifichat And Scifi chat is more than just scifi. Last week was horror, week before that was dragons. Next week is steam punk.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2011 03:41

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Flopstick posted:

2-4pm what time zone?

Eastern Standard Time.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2011 11:59

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

I'd submit a K23 Side Story, but they don't make a whole lot of sense out of context by themselves.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2011 00:58

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

I'm finally managing to sell some books, well 10 K23 three packs, but that's more than I sold on amazon for the last two months. I DM my twitter followers(at 200 a day) code: BF57Q for 33% off at Smashwords(yes that code is public and anyone can use it before it expires on 10/7). Surprisingly, reception has been better than I expected because people read their DMs, while tweets can just fly by.
I'm so busy pushing the three pack this week, I sometimes forget I'm release a new non-k23 novella next Friday:

Its a young adult superheroine novella where our adolescent heroine turns into:

and her self-esteem plummets. There's also action scenes and other teenage girls cutting themselves to bond with an evil spirit from another dimension and transform into wendigos.

It's based in the same world I used for The Sapphires, the first long fiction I ever wrote, was a piece of poo poo, and ridiculed endlessly in this very forum.
Based on early reports, Barbarian Girl is actually quite decent, the problem is the one I have for K23, its so different, its a tough sell.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 12:42 on Sep 30, 2011

# ¿ Sep 30, 2011 12:35

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

My smash words code deal has netted 21 sales, not too bad for me. But the real fun is just starting.

On Friday I'm being interview on #scifichat on twitter at 3pm.
Also, Barbarian Girl is getting a review on https://www.science-fiction.com. If its good and gets posted, with 5000 readers a day = very good things.

Also, I'm guest blogging on Bernadette Marie blog next week and I'm trying to set up a blog tour where I exchange guest posts with other indie authors. They guest on mine, I guest on theirs. I'll probably end up doing this with a woman named NV Binder. If any goons want to do a guest post exchange, let me know.

Also my twitter feed has gained 500 followers in the past week, over half that within the last 3 days. Last Tuesday I was at about 1974, today I'm around 2496. I would actually have more, but I'm using Twitcleaner to throw out the junk and so people are unfollowing me if unfollow(but don't let the door hit you on the way out). I'm starting to average 100 new followers a day now, hopefully Barbarian Girl will have a nice launch.

MattDaddy posted:

gently caress that. I'm one unprofessional son of a bitch, and I don't care. Plus, there's no such thing as bad publicity when you're a nobody.

Stop it if you wish to stop being a nobody. If you establish yourself as an unprofessional jackass, you won't get the critical contacts such as other authors, most of whom have blogs, reviewers and even loyal readers, who you will need to gain publicity and a readership. The opportunities that are now opening up for me I would not have gained if I acted like a jackass.
Ok I acted like a jackass to Ijustine and this happened but my followers loved it and considering the Ijustine followers who did follow me, I'm glad it didn't drag on.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Oct 4, 2011

# ¿ Oct 4, 2011 23:03

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Fantasy Cookie reviewed What Lies Within and gave it five stars. However, there was a problem, she got the plot wrong, got the so plot completely wrong it was like I was reading a different book. She basically contradicted the book description which was posted on her review page by failing to mention the antagonists at all, in any form. It's as if she reviewed a Clear and Feathered Danger without mentioning the gangster parrots(which she thankfully didn't).

Edit: Here're the details: Biogenomics, a gigantic megacorp discovers that two hundred years before, they created a virus which destroyed goblin civilization so a Dwarven mining conglomerate can use them for cheap labor. The corp tries to cover it up and help themselves by tricking detectives into committing industrial sabotage on their main competitor by pinning their own deeds it on them. This spectacularly backfires, naturally.
The reviewer says "The detectives are investigating a plague, which may claim of one of own." The plague is a maguffin, I could have Biogenomics performing experiments on children and the plot would be more of less unchanged.

I've become aware of a problem where readers distrust lone 5 stars reviews on self-published books. And with a review so poorly written as hers was originally, that review will fall into that trap. I'm actually the same way to be honest. There have been cases where I won't purchase a book if reviews are badly written.

So I sent her an email about it, stating: "I don't mean to complain about 5/5 rating, but here's some advice, get the plot right on books you're giving 5/5 stars to.[See spoilers for details on what I told her] Again, thanks for the review, but it will simply confused readers if the actual plot and book description don't match up."
Instead of ignoring it or rewriting the reviews she writes, "I'll take it down so there's no further confusion. Sorry that my reviews have so far been unsatisfactory to you, as I was genuinely enjoying the K23 series." And takes it down.

This right here is textbook, "what not to do as a reviewer."
I'm currently taking a break from but I'll go back to after this week to my Xbox Indies Reviews. I've gotten letters from numerous developers over stuff I got wrong, even in good reviews. Instead of throwing a hissy fit, I go back and fix the review. What I don't do is go "Sorry you don't like it. No review for you!!!" I'd rather have one well written four star review as opposed to a five star poorly written one.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Oct 6, 2011

# ¿ Oct 6, 2011 21:07

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

tarepanda posted:

Yeah. "But here's some advice, get the plot right" is very... direct and demanding.

True, both you and Myrddin are correct, I was a little confrontational, But if you read this woman's review, you'll get why I was. This is just a problem with my review. She'll do stuff people complain about here, such as give a lower star rating with no explanation(I had to email to ask her why she gave A Clear and Feathered Danger 4 stars, which was because I didn't flesh out one of the main characters, which was talked about nowhere in it). Just because she gives positive publicity doesn't give her a free pass to do a bad job at it. I should know, I'm in the same boat she's in with Xbox Indies.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2011 00:37

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

tarepanda posted:

Just because she gave a bad review doesn't give you be a free pass to be that confrontational with a customer. That's what she really is -- an ongoing, paying customer. I know what you want to say and that the review was really irritating, but your response wasn't very professional.

She didn't write a bad review of my work, she gave it 5/5 stars. What she did was a egregious factual error about the plot which basically renders it useless to readers, and I pointed it out. Did I word it right? no, hardly, but her reaction says far more about her than it does about me.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Oct 7, 2011

# ¿ Oct 7, 2011 01:38

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Myrddin Emrys posted:

She's reacting to how you said it, not what you said. If you had politely pointed out the errors I bet she would have fixed it. You really are coming off very unappreciative of a positive review and exposure.

It sounds like you're both fanning each other's flames here.

That's just like... your opinion man... now I get it, I just have aspergers so it's very hard for me to grasp things like that.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2011 02:14

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

FingerbangMisfire posted:

Still catching up with some stuff, but, Roshi, I'd consider sending an apology. Just to smooth the seas. Say you spoke out of turn. Hell, you were drunk.

I did I was a jackass to her and I realize that and I'm sorry for that. But I'm not sorry for standing against a poor quality review and my opinion is not going to change on that. But since I have a new book out today, I'm going to keep my mouth shut for now.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Oct 7, 2011

# ¿ Oct 7, 2011 13:58

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 22:07

Roshi: Sep 25, 2002; Somebody from CC wasted $10 on a guy who does not give a shit what they think, so I'm re-purposing it because I'm too lazy to come up with another one.

Now I've got a different issue. I've got a furry asking me to sell K23 to furries because of the avians in A Clear and Feathered Danger. Having learned my lesson, after learning that indeed he considers the avians furry material, I've told no thanks and simply leaving it at that. I'm not going to tell him if I start pandering to furries, its only a matter of time before furry fanart/fan fiction starts surfacing and I don't want that.
If he doesn't go away, what do I do?
Edit:
Oh and he said this:

furry posted:

Apparently the Nazis made dogs who could speak to mess with the Jews.

Edit2:
as for my blunder, I'm not salvaging it, she actually removed everything, including her Clear and Feather Danger reviews. Not worth the trouble. So to get back the reviews in a short time, I'm using Book Rooster for A Clear and Feathered Danger and Barbarian Girl Pay them $67 per book, they'll submit review copies to ten different people to get amazon customer reviews.
I'll let you guys know how it goes. And even though their website hasn't been updated for awhile, they're still active.

Roshi fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Oct 9, 2011

# ¿ Oct 9, 2011 22:22

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Self-Publishing Goons (Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, etc)

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