This and That and Some Promotion

FIRST AND FOREMOST: Welcome to my blog tour--my first ever. Interview is up, plus we'll be offering some give-aways of the War Gate. I also have three $9.95-valued e-book gift cards in exchange for a purchase of the $2.99 War Gate. Notify me by email that you've made a purchase and I'll send you your pick of one of the following:

Planet Janitor Custodian of the Stars

John Carter (The complete Barsoom Series)

Sherlock Holmes, The Complete and Illustrated Novels, Plus all 56 Short Stories

Chris Stevenson: stevenson_333@msn.com

Reviews are not necessary, but it sure would be nice. Please head on over to Farah's Blog Tour at:

http://www.farahevers.com/pr-media/g...ers-book-tours

Well, for the last two weeks the book sales have been pretty flat. Sold one full-price hard copy of Planet Janitor, which was a surprise, and also sold a way out-of-print copy of Word Wars, my first SF debut seven years ago. My frontline books have suffered. And so has my requirement to meet my internet bill, which means this might be a last post until we switch providers. I've got a total of 38 submissions out there to some token-advance and semi-pro paying publishers. My agent has quite a few out there for my last YA title, The Girl They Sold to the Moon. The Girl...is also in negotiation for a film option from an indie producer at the moment. My agent is handling that one. So you can see how losing the internet for me would be a stressful proposition. That's why I thought I would run my available titles up the pole and see who salutes them. I think sales from The War Gate would offer me the best salvation as far as income.

Now, I have some e-book gift cards that I received from my publisher. They're hard cards and have a code number on the back end. Once you have the code number, or once I give it to you via email, you can turn that into my publisher (or the gift card provider) for credit on the card. The titles available on the cards number three--John Carter, The Complete Barsoom Series, The Complete and Illustrated Sherlock Homes, and Planet Janitor: Custodian of the Stars. Now, for every purchase and review of The War Gate, I'll offer one of these cards to you (the code), and you can turn it into my publisher (or provider) for credit. You also must name your reading format. Just get a hold of me and tell me about your purchase and review and I'll send out your pick of the gift card title, along with the code. The e-book gift cards have a $9.95 cover price. Sound like a deal? There's only three. So first come first serve. 

My email:  stevenson_333@msn.com

Here are my Amazon titles, including The War Gate.

THE WAR GATE, A PROFESSIONALLY-EDITED BACKLIST PARANORMAL TITLE, NOW SLASHED TO $2.99! Full-length, 332 pages of thrills, romance and chills. Available on Amazon Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/The-War-Gate-ebook/dp/B008SDVEQU/ref=sr_1_5?s...

Tag Line: Through a miraculous conception, Avalon Labrador must give birth to herself before she is executed, to solve her husband’s murder and her own wrongful conviction.

When the reincarnated Avy Labrador is kicked out of her stepfather’s house on her 18^th birthday, she has no idea that the man who raised her framed her mother to cover his murder so he could acquire a major software empire. Now, years later, with the help of her magician boyfriend, Sebastian, Avy is about to discover that her birth was otherworldly and for a purpose. The ancient Roman God Janus was so appalled by the heinous murder of Tom Labrador by his brother Drake that he opened up a War Gate. Avy has received half of her mother’s soul light and half of a God’s essence. Her mission is to put the real killer behind bars. The only catch: she must learn to “Gate-Walk”, that’s time traveling to the layman. She soon finds out that she is a drunk driver on the space/time continuum super highway.

“This was a solidly written tale with a trace of fantasy and complex thought used in defining the concept of leaping from one time gate to the next—excellent job of structuring.”

Terrie G, Bitten by Books, 4 out of 5.

“The War Gate is a captivating book. Mystery, magic and the paranormal blend together in a perfect mix. I would thoroughly recommend this book to fantasy enthusiasts who also like romance.

Orcid, Aurora Reviews, 5 out of 5.

War Gate Author's Note: The antagonist character, Wax Man, is not for the squeamish. I warn you ahead of time that he is the most disgusting, vile creature/human you're ever likely to read about. Not for younger readers under 13.

PLANET JANITOR CUSTODIAN OF THE STARS--Starship Troopers meets Robinson Crusoe on Mars. A must read for classic and Golden Age Fans!
 

Captain Zachary Crowe and the crew of Planet Janitor Corporation are adept at handling environmental clean-ups and close system jumps to collect precious ores and space trash. The problem is they have yet to complete an assignment without a mishap to add to their not so stellar record. Scraping the bottom of the barrel, Orion Industries contracts Planet Janitor for a clandestine operation that no one else wants, offering them more money than they could spend in three lifetimes. The mission entails a 12 light-year trip to a newly found habitable planet in the Tau Ceti system. The crew will lose 26 years on Earth due to the cryo jump, but that is the least of their problems. What they find on Tau Ceti will rattle their wits, test their courage, and threaten their very survival.

Review

"Planet Janitor does deliver an interstellar romp that hearkens to the best of Robert Heinlein or Philip José Farmer... A rollicking plot-driven adventure... The dangers are intimidating, the wonders evocative and the thread that ties it all together is always just a little more tangled than it seems." --The Canadian Science Fiction Review, December 13, 2010

"An intriguing and exciting cross between Aliens and 10,000 Years B.C. - Stevenson shows us a future filled with proof that we should listen to Stephen Hawking's warnings about alien life forms and what they want to do to us." --Gini Koch, author of `Touched by an Alien' & `Alien Tango', December 1, 2010

"Stevenson's book considers the possibility of an elite industry of environmental cleanup specialists who take on all sorts of bizarre environmental jobs... Clearly, this is a timely topic that hits home in the wake of the Gulf oil spill." --SF-Fandom, September 21, 2010

From the Publisher

A great deal of care went into the quality of this book, with case laminate library binding, wrap around cover art, and 26 illustrations.

Welcome to THE WOLFEN STRAIN. Half Jurassic Park, half Wolfen. A Beauty and the Beat tale flipped and ripped on its ear. Still reduced to 4.49!
 

Product Description

In a remote compound in Wyoming a geneticist created the first female human-wolf hybrid and adopted her as his daughter. When Melina Salinger discovers who and what she really is she escapes her father's domain and sets out into the wilderness—any other life would be better than the one that was forced upon her.



Seth Anson, a ranger stationed at the Wheeler Ridge watchtower, is trying to get over a bitter divorce—working in the majestic Shoshone forest is the only way he knows how to get on with his life. Consequently, he is unprepared for the strange and mysterious woman he accidentally shoots and then must nurse back to health. As Seth and Melina form a close bond that leads to something deeper—they have no idea that the geneticist’s other creation—the result of a DNA cloning experiment gone horribly wrong—is bent on finding Melina and committing a monstrous ac t

The Ineffectiveness of Social Media?

You might like to read a recent article concerning the subject of this blog post title--about the ineffectiveness of social media. Here it is:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/30/tweet-about-cats-just-write


I think that I can rightfully comment on the theory that social media in all aspects of sales -push for books is not really cracked up to what it's touted to be. And may in fact be much worse than currently evaluated. I just self-published for the Amazon Kindle Select program, and this time I watched my numbers very closely after initiating certain media campaigns. I have to stress that I didn't, nor will I ever pay for ads or any type of publicity. I'm not into tagging, buying reviews or spamming my family and friends for likes and purchases. I have a very small family-relative population, and not that many close social  friends. It's interesting to note that FaceBook and Twitter (per the article), two of the largest social media platforms, are very unlikely to produce any sales at all, no matter if you have 100 or 10,000 friends. Their pages are swamped, awash with hints and outright pleads to "buy my book." It seems that Facebook and Twitter have become the default bookstores and have been so for quite some time. They were actually designed as meet-up locations for people as social platforms for conservations, views and introductions.

Interesting that the article claims that there are now about 1.1 million self-published books out there, all of them competing with each other for front-row-center attention at the same time. That's a hell of a lot of head-knocking. It also seems very plausible that about 10% of all those authors are the ones doing most or all of the selling, with about 50% making less than $500 a year. There is another collective who claim to be the mid-list self-published who can rope in $2000 to $5000 a month—we don't have actual figures on this yet.

After 70 days of exposure, my own title has made about 14 sales and two borrows. And this has been the result of a massive promotion campaign which ate up about three hours a day, each and every day nonstop. I doubt the average self-published author even came close to what I did, where I went and how I used the different social media resources. It's just too much time away from writing. I did not spam FaceBook and Twitter, hardly mentioning my book on either more than once per day. But the fact remains that my posts there did amount mostly to book adverts, with an occasional “how y'all doing?” type post.

I'm certain that about four to five sales came from direct buyers from writing groups, and the rest resulted from free book giveaways. All that media blasting, about 210 hours, sold a mere four or five titles that copped about nine dollars. Add in the freebie books sales for a grand total of about $24, factoring in the 35% and 70% royalty rates. Can I say that social media doesn't work? From my position and what little notoriety I had, it did not work in any way, shape or form like I expected to. A very painful experiment. But an honest and sobering evaluation. It seemed everywhere I went I found others just like me listing every title they had, if not once, multiple times over days and weeks. All of us crowding for the same front-row-center platform.

Major or minor caveat: I'm in the Select program. I don't have all the other e-tailers stoking my coffer. That includes Smashwords, Goodreads, Kobo, BookStrand, Fictionwise, B & N and all the others.

Am I disappointed? Yes. Surprised? No. I went into this with my eyes open. The article mentions a real eyeopener; those who have become rich and famous pretty much got in on the ground floor of Amazon self-publishing, or at least in the last year. That makes sense and I heartily believe it, because that's where the low prices, particularly the $.99 ebook sprang from. At that time it was all the rage, causing a tsunami of purchases from readers who packed up their devices with every free and cheap title out there.

Another thing that was not so surprising: Most of the self-published titles out there are short stories and novellas. They are all listed as books, which can create some confusion. Even the true full-length books that I saw were all typically under 300 pages, with most of them in the 140 to 220 range. I have no doubt where the majority of the claims of “write as fast and as many as you can” came from. They are short titles, and they're written by very fast and tireless writers. And damn it! Wouldn't you know it? I don't write lean or short. I'm 300 pages and upward, except for true YA titles. So where does that leave me? Right now, outside the winner's circle.

As for the “bubble” thing. I hate to say it, but this is a current gold rush apt to be sapped for everything it has until the streams are dry and the disappointed miners bow their heads in disgust and vacate their claims. Anywhere when you have such competition, gluttony and over supply, you're headed for an implosion. And I don't wish to see this. Is is possible this self-publishing bubble will burst in 18 months? Yes. I'd add another six months to that doomsday figure, but I believe we're headed for it. It's simply not true that there are enough readers to consume all of these books and stories at the rate they're gushing into the marketplace. If we don't have a bubble burst, we'll see a decline in self-publishing because the average author won't be able to get a foothold at all. And this is happening right now. Crowd the market more and it's not going to get any better. Chasing algorithms, tagging, fake reviews, likes, bagging friends, email blasting, spamming are just some of the desperate devices being used to drive sales for the almighty buck, which is happening right now. What's next besides all of the publicity departments and companies out there that want your dollars because they offer “The Ultimate Program to Help you Attain Ebook Riches.”

So what about the advice of writing and listing more and more books, books in series, serial novels, novellas, shorts and special single editions? Type until your fingers fall off? And when you discover that doing this is not working anymore, or not working like it used to, will you pull back and reevaluate your career direction? Who will be profiting from this in the future? Answer: Amazon and the reader. You will have to work harder and faster than ever before. You might finally realize that typing speed does not equate to great literature and sales, but that just maybe, quality, patience and perfection does.

I've heard self-publishers rant time and time again that they don't need agents and publishers to stand in their way of writing success. It's true. But they don't need you either, bub, and probably won't for the rest of your self-publishing life. That's because they have only to scan and acquire the best-selling self-published authors, you know, that 10% club that you don't belong to? So that will leave you kicking and squirming in the trenches with the rest of us.

I hope you have a huge fan base with a ton of blog subscribers. I hope you have thousands of friends on Twitter and FaceBook who really like you as a person. I hope you've written a really neat series of full-length novels in your favorite genre. I hope that you've already jumped aboard the self-publishing train before it started to clog up, and that you already have a solid reader group who can't wait for your next installment. I hope you are in that 10% club at this moment. I hope that you continue to write and publish thoroughly edited quality prose. I hope you never resort to chicanery and hitting below the belt when it comes to self-promotion.

As for me, well I hope that someday, maybe in the near future, I'll have a turnaround and my book takes off and makes some sales. But I'm not holding my breath. I have to go back to my agent and a few publishers, who've I neglected for the past couple of months. I don't owe them an explanation. I owe myself one.

Do Free Books Net Sales? Update

Well, it's been close to five days after the free trial period so I thought I'd splash some ink about it. The rank for The War Gate was sitting right at 550,000 before the trial. Right now it's at 103,000. It's dipped up and down about seven or eight times. I've recorded six sales for TWG and one other sale for a trade title, which has an unrelated genre. I'm guessing that someone might have made a quick read of the free book then went hunting for something else of mine. So I can definitively say that a giveaway works. No question. I'm claiming seven sales as a result. The first sale came in about 10 hours after it went live. It doesn't look like it's slowing down so I'll keep an eye on it and see if there is any type of momentum. I did notice two new library borrows, and since we get paid for that, I'll bring the total up to nine.

Nine copies in about five days. Roughly two a day. Now that wouldn't be anything to sniff at if it stayed that way.  I'm told by others that this is how it begins to climb each and every month. If you sell 40 copies in your first month out of the gate, then the next month climbs to 75, then the third month might hit 220 copies, and then it begins climbing higher and faster after the third, fourth and fifth month and so on. I've never heard a book go in reverse. It's supposed to take even up to six months to show a steady chart climb.

The total downloads were 580 from the US, 80 from the UK and 10 from Germany, for a total of 670. Now that's only a little more than the last two-day free trial two months. So that squares up as being consistent. Here's the kicker; 85% of the downloads were on the FIRST day! What does that tell you? It's very obvious that I wasted a free trial day. Not entirely, but damn near. I would say single trial days might be enough.

 What really boggles me is, that when I researched other authors on the Kindle boards, I found all of their numbers much higher than mine. I wrote down some of the totals, taking samples from single books, novellas, series and shorts. I found 15,500, 11,000, 9,000, 5,700, 4,550, and the lowest one was 3,200 downloads. I couldn't find any authors that would list anything lower, certainly not in the hundreds. These were all two-day or single day free trial events. Some of the authors ran for five days straight, taking up their maximum allotment. Those five-day trials pulled some very high download numbers. I think I saw a 24,000 and a 33,000 claim. 

No reviews. Yet. Some people might review when they get around to reading it. That's another thing I'll watch for. 

There it is--reality from a single title in a very popular genre, and with what I would consider an average cover, title and blurb. I'll do a followup in another five or so days and see where we stand. I'm really interested in this momentum thing, aren't you. We'll see it for real, won't we? Hah! If it happens.

Do Free Books Net Sales?

I belong to the Kindle Select program which allows an author client to offer five free trial days for a 90-day period. I've already used up two days about a month back. The results were meh. I really didn't know what I was doing. Ya know, for good results you're supposed to advertize or announce that fact that you're intending to offer a free trial before the fact. You should do this a few days or more in advance. This builds anticipation, especially with your peers, friends and reader group (if you have one). Well I did no such thing. I announced on the day of the giveaway, and I don't remember hitting all of my groups and sites; the ones I normally visit and interact in.  So I didn't see any great leaps and bounds in rank and sales. It's no wonder.

This time is a little different. I announced two days in advance, the next day, and today I'm on free trial and announcing again. Since I have two days running free, I'll be blasting the word out tomorrow too. I hit just about every site and group I could think of, particularly places where I'm established as a contributor--there will be no fly-bys or spamming. I'll comment and interact as I normally do, then drop a hint or a BTW comment. Nothing intrusive. And always in the proper places. Otherwise you get moderators climbing all over you sending you those specials "warning" email messages, and/or pulling your posts. And that's happened to me a couple of times. I had to revisit those sites, where I voluntarily struck or redirected my messages. 

When I woke up this morning I had no preconceived notions on what the rank would look like. But nosy me, I checked it. It sat at around 4,700 for overall rank. Not real spectacular, but not anything to be ashamed about. Now you should know this is where your reviews (if any), genre, your book cover, synopsis and title really come into play when you lay down your Amazon link. The first thing the reader will do, to see if this book is worthy of file space on their e-reader, is peruse all of that good stuff. They also might click on the "Look Inside" feature and read a chapter or two. Cripes, I have four free chapters up for sample, and I don't know how or why Amazon decided on that major chunk of text. I'd heard and seen smaller samples. So, with all those ducks in a row, you can expect a free download. And that doesn't mean you're going to be read right away or even reviewed. I've only had a few reviews resulting from free books, out of five current titles. 

I tried to forget about the sales rank and went about my announcements. If you've read this blog, you know where I go--all over hell's half acre and then some. It's now 9:30 PM, same first free trial day, and my rank has gone to 639, with a #84 position for mysteries and thrillers, if I'm reading that right. That's quite a jump. For Amazon.UK it's even better--583 overall, and #41 in Fantasy, Futuristic and Ghost, and #55 in Thriller. Truth be told, I can't even begin to understand why England is looking this good, unless my membership in the SFF Chronicles is responsible for it, which is primarily a huge group of British writers. If so, bless the Limeys from across the pond!

Now, The War Gate is a single title, a paranormal romance/thriller, and I believe it to be just as structurally and entertainingly sound as Amanda Hocking's first paranormal title. And if it is, then word of mouth should eventually carry it into some sales. And I say some sales at first, and eventually a few more down the road. That would be a typical snowball effect. But the question is, or what's on everybody's mind, does free sales work at all right after the free trial period ends and the paid status returns. Well I'm going to find that out. 

Nine months ago my publisher did the free thing with one of my titles and it worked very well. Maybe 40 to 60 copies sold after the first couple weeks. I've been hearing complaints lately that it's not working all that well anymore. Of course there are a lot of variables you have to consider, one of them being the day/days that you launch. I hear Mondays are best, but it could very well be Saturdays, when people have their checks in hand. It's a seasonal thing too, with the later Summer months being a bit slower, and the Holiday season doing much better. I think the Kindle Fire just launched recently, so this might have a bearing on overall downloads, compared to months ago. 

Anyway, I'll report on my findings and list the data when the smoke clears. It will be interesting to know just how viable and effective a free trial period has on sales. Now if I had a series, I would watch my other titles for sales jumps just after going to paid status. I can see where a push to other titles could result if the book was read immediately. 

Oh, some thoughts on the A-list self-published e-book stars like Darcie Chan. I did some digging around because, as was mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted to know what some of these authors were doing to drive-up massive sales with debut e-books. I pretty much came up empty, except for the recent "buying hundreds of reviews" scandal, but instead read a USA today news release on Darcie Chan. 

Hmmm...

It seems that not all e-book stars can claim that they did nothing to gain fame and fortune. Chan sprung for over $1,000 in page placement and banner adds, $575 for a paid Kirkus reivew, $35 for an e-reader news ad, and Lord only knows what else. I'm glad I got that information. I suspected it, but couldn't prove it. Should have done more investigative reading. It's really up in the air what the others have done, but won't admit to. You know that I will not pay for promotion, as already stated. So I can now see that I'm at a self-inflicted disadvantage. But truthfully, how many of you have $1,500 or more to spend on book adds? I'm sorry. I just don't have it. I have to buy ruled tablets, pencils, pens, antivirus programs and internet bills. Oh, and lots of antacid pills when I start reading all my rejections. I should own Tums.

Until we meet again...

The Rise of E-Book Gift Cards?

Here is a letter I just received from my publisher regarding a new e-book outlet that might end up becoming a ground-breaking resource for all e-book sales at bookstores. I think this is a revolutionary step in the right direction. You might mention this to your publisher and see what they think about it. It occurs to me that this might catch on in a very positive way. I''ll also try to include the contents of my e-book card.

"I do have a new avenue for sales. I had a conference call last week with the folks at Enthrill eBooks. They sell eBook gift cards in bookstores and other retailer outlets like grocery store checkouts. They are a startup company, and their eBook cards are mostly in Calgary at the moment. Here is a short video that shows their distribution model http://www.enthrill.com/edistribution/video-presentation

I am the first publisher to join and sell eBooks as a wholesaler. Which means that I will be the first publisher to have eBook cards at a convention. Other publishers have joined their retail distribution, however I am looking at the wholesale program as getting my foot in the door for their retail end of the business. This new type of eBook business should help save bookstores from closing with the rise of eBook sales.

I ordered 100 eBook cards for Planet Janitor, and I put a list price of 9.95 on the cover. I plan on raising the price on Amazon for the week of the convention. I don't want to undervalue the hardcover, with a 2.99 ebook. However, what I will be doing at the convention is offering 50% off of the eBook cards as a VCON special. I think this will help drive sales, having a 50% off deal. My goal is to sell as many as possible, so that Enthrill will be interested in pitching Planet Janitor to retailers (they will be watching the sales numbers from the convention). I've attached the PJ, eBook card so you can see what it looks like. I also included both short stories on the eBook card as an added incentive to buyers at the convention. If we can get this into bookstores it should be huge!

Let me know what you think,"

                                            *                                *                          *

 

 Planet Janitor: Custodian of the Stars
Chris Stevenson
Engage Books | Copyright © 2013 | ISBN: 978-1-926606-80-4
Enthrill Distribution Inc. and its licensors make no express or implied warranties with respect to the Card, the endpaperengine.com website or the availability of products or services. For Card activation information call 1-855-368-4745 or visit endpaperengine.com. Issued by Enthrill Distribution Inc. All rights are reserved. Terms for Card may change without notice. Please visit endpaperengine.com/terms. Images and copyright are held by the owner.
• Visit www.endpaperengine.com
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Getting your ebook is easy!
Your redemption code:
$9.95
SCIENCE FICTION
Captain Zachary Crowe and the crew of Planet Janitor Corporation are adept at handling environmental clean-ups and close system jumps to collect precious ores and space trash. The problem is they have yet to complete an assignment without a mishap to add to their not so stellar
record. Scraping the bottom of the barrel, Orion Industries contracts Planet Janitor for a clandestine operation that no one else wants, offering them more money than they could spend in three lifetimes. The mission entails a 12 light-year trip to a newly found habitable planet in the Tau Ceti system. The crew will lose 26 years on Earth due to the cryo jump, but that is the least of their problems. What they find on Tau Ceti will rattle their wits, test their courage, and threaten their very survival.
INCLUDED ARE 25 ILLUSTRATIONS & TWO FREE SHORT STORIES
Planet Janitor: The Moon is not Enough
While surveying the damage to a lunar mining facility caused by a meteor shower, a second job proposition proves too sweet to turn down. Captain Zachary Crowe must now enter the devastated base. But will the reward be enough to outweigh the consequences of taking on such a risky mission.
Planet Janitor: Journey Interrupted
The Planet Janitor crew are on the tail end of a salvage mission in the asteroid
belt when they encounter a ghost ship. Faced with a volatile substance onboard, the crew race against the clock to commandeer the vessel before it reaches the Exon Refueling Station. What they find on the ship will stress their abilities to the limit, and put their lives in imminent danger.

 

Note: I couldn't get the book cover to show, but you get the idea.

Abandoning Your Book?

I liken my current WIP to a date. I owe it to her and myself to have a good time and leave with her after the party is over. I chose her for a reason; I was attracted to her; I wanted to hear what she had to say. I wasn't preoccupied with what she might offer. I only wanted to take that small adventure in time with her and appreciate the ride. Oft times a flirt comes along and tries desperately to get my attention, calling out to me with wind songs and coy invites. I'm dancing right now--I can't be bothered to see what's greener on the other side of the mountain. If I'm too fickle, I'll never enjoy my date all the way through to completion, but instead have an array of disconnected flirtations with something that I end up fantasizing about. The flirtations are cheap time and flashes in a Kodachrome minute. My real date is solid and a very much worthwhile journey. I owe myself the dignity of a having a quality date and seeing it through to the end. Else, I'll hurt her feelings and waste my time. 

Do this: try and recapture that mood you had in the moment of conception--when the idea sparked and lit your mind on fire. It sounded pretty good then, didn't it? IT WAS FABULOUS. Unless you were drunk or hopped up on pills. What's really changed? Nothing has changed. You're letting seeds of doubt bust into nasty little buds and begin to take root. You're talking yourself out of it. Asking questions and giving yourself negative answers. You're warming to failure and cooling to success. Or are you making excuses because you believe you're truly blocked? Or are you just lazy right now? Procrastinating? Have you just read a book where the writing, plot and premise totally blew you away, and you're unconsciously comparing yourself to that author? 

Get real. Climb down out of that hyper-imagination tree and plant your feet on solid ground. The story hasn't changed--you have. You've derailed your creative muse, stuck pins in your own voodoo doll. Cease and desist. Unless you truly believe with all your heart that you've made a huge error and this story has no chance because EVERYBODY says so besides you.

Get right back on that baby and give her a whirl around the floor! Don't you know she's waiting for you?

                                 *                 *                *

Welcome to THE WAR GATE, a paranormal fantasy/thriller. SPECIAL REDUCED PRICE @ $2.99 (FULLY EDITED BACK-LIST TITLE). Reviews are greatly appreciated!

http://www.amazon.com/The-War-Gate-ebook/dp/B008SDVEQU/ref=sr_1_5?s...

Tag Line: Through a miraculous conception, Avalon Labrador must give birth to herself before she is executed, to solve her husband’s murder and her own wrongful conviction.

When the reincarnated Avy Labrador is kicked out of her stepfather’s house on her 18^th birthday, she has no idea that the man who raised her framed her mother to cover his murder so he could acquire a major software empire. Now, years later, with the help of her magician boyfriend, Sebastian, Avy is about to discover that her birth was otherworldly and for a purpose. The ancient Roman God Janus was so appalled by the heinous murder of Tom Labrador by his brother Drake that he opened up a War Gate. Avy has received half of her mother’s soul light and half of a God’s essence. Her mission is to put the real killer behind bars. The only catch: she must learn to “Gate-Walk”, that’s time traveling to the layman. She soon finds out that she is a drunk driver on the space/time continuum super highway.

“This was a solidly written tale with a trace of fantasy and complex thought used in defining the concept of leaping from one time gate to the next—excellent job of structuring.”

Terrie G, Bitten by Books, 4 out of 5.

“The War Gate is a captivating book. Mystery, magic and the paranormal blend together in a perfect mix. I would thoroughly recommend this book to fantasy enthusiasts who also like romance.

Orcid, Aurora Reviews, 5 out of 5.

War Gate Author's Note: The antagonist character, Wax Man, is not for the squeamish. I warn you ahead of time that he is the most disgusting, vile creature/human you're ever likely to read about. Not for younger readers under 13

 

Gaming the Amazon System?

I'm a son-of-a-bitch. Of all that is holy and decent, I remember 

slaving and disparaging over a past blog post about how the 

self-publishers might be gaming the system to run their rank and 

sales numbers up into the stratosphere. I was dumbfounded, 

exploring every theory and method I could think of and coming up 

with zip--nada. Even my commentators explained that it was just 
 
too difficult to do, and that there were security measures in place. 

Forget about begging for likes to drive your popularity up. I kind of 

suspected that tactic but refused to believe that it had any effect on 

rank and sales. I'm sure I'm wrong again. 

Here's the original post, which made me look like a real horse's ass. At least I felt that way.

http://guerrillawarfareforwriters.blogspot.com/2012/06/self-published-e-book-riches-how-in.html


So John Locke buys 300 fraudulent reviews and has them posted on Amazon. Just fu...king great. And this is the guy who wrote the book on how he sold a million copies of his book in five months, but conveniently left out the part about how he really did it, or at least got the momentum up to accomplish the task.


First and foremost, friends, I'm a self-published author right now--a brand new one. I've got that new car smell all over me. I started off with nothing and pushed my promotion so hard I wore myself out in two weeks. Read my posts on THE ADVENTURES OF SELF-PUBLISHING PARTS 1, 2, AND 3. Then come back here. Back yet? Okay.

No one on this bloody earth is going to tell me that their book, sequels, series or collection of short stories just magically climbed the bestseller lists and started selling hundreds or thousands of copies in a day or week without lifting a finger. Oh, yeah. I've heard that one scores of times "But I didn't do anything in promotion or marketing!" And they were unknown. And they had no website or blog. And they had no large families or fan base. And this was their first book. And it only took six months or a year. And they can't explain the phenomenon because it took them by complete surprise. And on and on and on...


I've sold seven books in two weeks. That's reality, pard. And I have a fan base. And I have a blog. And I have a website. And I've been writing for 35 years, publishing for the last 24 years. And this is my 13th book in the last seven years. And I belong to over 45 venues, including free add sites, display sites, resume sites, and writing and fan groups. And I've had four major television appearances, over 40 radio shows, hundreds of book reviews and author interviews. And I've Twittered and FBed until my fingers are raw. And...you get the picture. Seven books.

You want to tell me what's wrong with this picture, and how I think it's dangerous to be sending out this kind of signal to writers who are contemplating self-publishing, when the claims and declarations spotlight fame and fortune in self-publishing?  Now, does somebody want to tell me that setting up multiple accounts or persuading dozens of friends to buy your book, while you pay them back for doing so, isn't possible? I actually thought about experimenting with this--dropping my price to $.99 and then paying out $100 to friends to make purchases, simply to drive my rank into temporary bestseller status. I just couldn't do it. It's wrong. I didn't earn it.  

Systems are inherently designed to be gamed. If there's a will there's a way. Some of these gaming tactics are beginning to expose their ugly heads and we'll seeing and hearing a lot more about them in the future.
I just have one message: Don't do it. Don't even think about doing it. Do this: rely on the quality of your story. Insure that it's edited to hell and back. Pick your blurb carefully. Attract the public with the best eye-catching cover art you're capable of producing or buying. Seek out honest, non-bias reviews. Get yourself interviewed.

Then stay poor like the rest of us. Or at least, me.

Adventures in Self-Publishing Part 3

All right. It's been around ten active days since that The War Gate has been on sale for $1.99. I have a total of six sales--one crept in there from England. Now to me, this appears about average or slightly above. I've talked to several authors who've not made any sales, or just a few in that time frame. I'm announcing the book at all my regular channels, concentrating more on it than the other two titles. One of the other titles was featured in a guest blog at one of the very big romance sites, so I thought it might pull its weight and reap something off that exposure. Nada, so far. The other book received a glowing review in one of the semi-pro SF magazines...again, nothing came about as a result of that exposure.  This tells me that very high readership in publications like those are no guarantee that your purchases will increase. 

I've tried changing up the book blurb, the one that appears on the Amazon page. It seemed too long and extended off the page. I shortened it to accommodate a quicker attention span. I don't need to lose anyone while they're reading the description, which should have maximum punch and effect. I'm thinking about going back to the $2.99 price point. This seems to be the popular asking price amongst most self-published authors and I think Joe Konrath mentioned this. Below three dollars makes me feel like I'm in some kind of a low-quality gulag, for some reason and I can't shake that feeling. I've also mentioned that this is a back-list title that has had profuse editing. I'm not sure what effect that will have on attitudes and buying decisions. I've just heard that when in doubt change it up somehow. I don't have another stand-by cover, so that's out of the question. Although I've heard that changing the cover art can attract new buyers.

I know nothing about give-aways and lending at this point. Give-away announcements can be successful if you use your blog as a main station for holding the event. I've seen blog tours reap the buyers also, and I'm not quite sure how to hook up with a tour sponsor. That's another angle that needs investigation. Every once in a while I get offers for shared advertizing spots. Some of these ads can run upwards of $100 or more. I made a vow that I would not spend money pushing this book. I wanted to take the average route and see exactly what happens when social media is used. I still use FB and Twitter, but that's only for a few spots a day--you don't blast Twitter and FB multiple times a day without getting on your friend's nerves. Best to keep those announcements down to a whisper and hint, rather than begging and crying full-out for help. I think I'll update my FB author page as this seems to draw comments and viewers every so often.

And so we continue. Today will be a heavy promotion day. I'll list in all my regular spots and see if I can't dig up a few new sources. I'll report on anything that works other than what I've already tried.

Adventures in Self-Publishing Part 2

I chose the Select program because I'd learned in the past that books offered for free could initiate sales once they'd gone back to paid status. This works because if you have hundreds of downloads over a period of a day or days, those people eventually get around to reading the book. When they read the book it's usually during or after the free trial has expired and the price has been reinstated. Those readers who enjoy the book and talk it up to their friends or colleagues drive that traffic to find the book, and usually, but not always, a few of those second-hand contacts purchase a copy. It almost works like a bait and switch, where the first customer gets the book free gratis, mentions it to others, and drives those others to the listing where they have no other option than to buy it. If the reviews are extraordinarily great you'll reap some sales.

So I put The War Gate on a 48-hour free trial period and sat back to watch the numbers. You can find the numbers in the report field at the top of the Amazon author's page. The first day I had something on the order of 300 downloads, most of which came from the United States. The UK came in second with a couple dozen, and then Germany came in with a handful. After the second day and the closeout of the free trial, I had just 540 free downloads. The overall free download rank came out at 654, and it hit the #87 slot for mystery/thriller, breaking a top 100 list. Of course, I announced this free trial 24 hours before it went active, and did very heavy promotions during each day of the free trial.  I decided to drop the price to .99 at the end of the trial. But because of the larger book file size, I was forced to set the price at $1.99. It was still a discount of a dollar from the previous paid listing

When the dust settled I'd sold two more copies, for a total of four paid. The total paid days, so far, are six. So that's four copies in six days. What really surprised and irritated me me was that I did not see a hefty sales spike for the two days after the free trial expiration. I'd seen massive jumps in rank and sales with a previous SF title, sending it into the top 100 paid genre lists at least six to eight times. Every time the SF book went up for free, the following paid days showed very good sales spikes which lasted for three or four days running.

I did not see that for The War Gate. I know my promotion for The War Gate was much more extensive than the SF title. I also believed that the genre popularity of paranormal romance/thriller interest would beat the SF genre and its sub-genres hands down. I was wrong. I did some investigation and inquires and came up with the general explanation that the month of August was a poor book seller in comparison with the beginning of the year, the time when the SF novel hit. I still didn't believe it. I was denial. So I entered the Kindle boards and did some heavy promotion there, joining in on as many discussions and topics as I could tolerate. 

Today, there's still no change. Four copies sold. The rank sits at 182,000. Consequently, all my other books and stories have hit the doldrums too, with no sales for the past eight days. 

Where did my sales come from? I know that three sales originated from members of two large writing groups, where I'd been a member for some time. I know this because they told me they'd bought copies and began reading. I have no idea where the fourth sale came from. Perhaps a fluke sale from a display site. It might have been a browser/spontaneous sale. 

What have I learned? 

It seems that all the self-promotion in the universe is nearly useless. That's a fact. For the amount of time and energy spent on blasting the media since the book's first release, the returns were pitiful. But...I do consider that average--a truly sobering reality. Right now I'm compiling more possible media outlets, venues, display sites and writing forums. But you just don't sign up somewhere and plug your book out of the gate. YOU HAVE TO INTERACT AND SOCIALIZE FIRSTHAND. Nobody wants a used car salesman crashing their cozy little party. So any new memberships will take some careful cultivation and etiquette. I'll look for sig line optimization and use that. I'll find the specific promotion, goals and press release threads, and list in them properly and by the rules.

It's been said that if you give up early in the game, then you never wanted or believed you deserved it in the first place. I don't quit. So see you next time with hopefully better news.

To be continued... 

Adventures in Self-Publishing

I thought it would be a pretty good idea to document my Amazon adventure in self-publishing so I had a small archive to refer to. It also might help the average person make a decision on whether to pursue this type of publishing or not. I say average, because that's about what I am. I do have two other novels and two short stories up on Amazon, but those are there compliments of trade publishers. Those books pull average rank and sales numbers, sitting anywhere from 95,000 to 450,000 in rank and sell maybe one or two books each a week. Boringly average. I have a newish blog, you're reading it right now, that is about five months young and has almost 5,000 pages hits and 70 subscribers--boringly average. I think a 1000 hits a month is average.

My decision to self-publish was an arduous decision. I'd read all the Joe Konath brough-ha-ha, and then I read the other side of the coin--the side of the coin that spelled out disaster, failure or very tepid sales returns. I just found out that there is a mid-list self-published sect and these authors claim that they pull anywhere from $500 a month to $5,000 a month, with a mean average settling in about $2,000 or so. Most of them admit that these mid-list figures result from multiple books, stories or novellas. Now, me, I've really got that new car smell. I'm putting up one book, and one book only. Okay, so we can either fly out of the gate with huge sales numbers (realistically unlikely), take the slower road to mid-list, or our book can disappear into the huge swamp of ten million books on Amazon. My wish is/was to hitch a ride on the mid-list train and gradually build a reader base.

I knew from the beginning that I had to start with a popular genre and a great book. For my experiment I was going to try a back-list title which had already seen the limelight but died a swift sales and rank death. It was pretty easy for me to ask my publisher for an early release and a rights reversion. I decided early on that a fresh title would be too risky--that's why I wanted this back-lister. Besides, my agent would probably sneer at me if I didn't offer her my newest projects. 

I decided on Gate Walker, a paranormal romance. Sub-genres were thriller and YA. YA since my MC was an 18 year-old female, and the reviewers had stated that it qualified for such. This book was published by a small e-press that is pretty well known. It carried the third highest publisher ranking for six months then moved to the number sixth position for another three months. It had one four and one five-star review from Bitten By Books and Aurora. I can't remember how many author interviews I did, where I plugged it, maybe five or six. Oh, and it had a dynamite storyline and fairly unique concept. I sold about 60 copies of this book in the first quarter of publication, then nothing for 18 months. And I pushed the promo on it like mad for that amount of time. Still nada. Typical? Yep.

I pulled the latest edited version of Gate Walker from my files and went over it and tried to catch every typo that might have been missed. I revised some scenes and paragraphs. Now this book went through five major editorial passes that lasted for six months with the original publisher. I'd gone through it about three times prior, so I knew it was damn close to being very copy-ready. There's always the chance you'll miss something in the text, and I probably have. But the major work was done, and I just put the finishing touch on it one last time. Tip: don't skimp on this editing process. It'll pay dividends later or flat out embarrass you.

I'm a tech idiot. I know word programs and email and that's it. I don't know how to create a cover or format for Amazon, Smashwords or anybody else. I was looking at medium or major expense to have this done. Then a miracle happened. I never asked for help. I only mentioned in some forums that I wished I had the experience of some of these self-publishers who'd done their own work and uploaded their books. Two people took pity on me--a guy who could format with his eyes closed, and a professional cover artist. I'll mention Greg and Farah Evers here as the two angels that came to my rescue. Greg did the formatting in one day, and Farah produced the cover and title even quicker. And there it was, The War Gate--formatted, retitled, re-edited and covered!

I had to register and create an account on Amazon. It was a little daunting but I found all the drop-downs and field boxes that required you to list your name, personal info, blurb, tags, price information, method of payment and the program. It doesn't cost you anything to do this. I started off with the KDP program, which is the basic package. KDP allows you to publish on all the other venues. It seemed pretty straight forward. I'd heard time and time again that the sweet spot price for a full length novel of 100,000 words or so was $2.99. The War Gate would go for $2.99.

I hit the submit and publish button, took a deep breath and then organized all of the target promotion spots I would hit. I wasted no time. I first went to Book Blogs and added some groups to the ones I'd already had. I joined a total of 18 groups, but realized that about 10 to 12 of them were adequate for announcing the debut launch of The War Gate. I simply pasted a refined query letter into the topic box, added a cover that I copied directly off the Amazon page, and listed the price--$2.99. I went to Gather and shared about four announcements in separate groups. I hit LinkedIn, announced there, then GoodReads, Pinterest, Stumbled Upon, Chronicles SF forum, Writers.com. Absolutewrite, SFF Chronicles, Bookwhirl, Shelfari, Red Room, Accentuate Writers, Library Thing, Stage 32, Authors.com, WritersCafe, Bookhitch, Wattpad, Published.com, Booksie, Twitter, FaceBook, SFF World, Published.com, and just about any other YADS (yet another display site) I could think of. I didn't use any PR webs, since they often require a purchase plan. I would spend no money on promotion, marketing or advertizing.  I pushed this campaign for five days straight.

I sold two copies in the first two days. Then The War Gate laid down for a rest for five straight, inactive days. When its rank reached 450,000, I panicked and wondered what in the hell happened. After all that media blasting, I'd managed to sell two copies? OMG. Visions of the Amazon swamp came over me in nauseating reality. How in the name of the Maker could I get out of this mess? What had I done so wrong? Or was this really an average reaction to a new title by an unknown author? Or was it really true that self-promotion does absolutely nothing. I was beginning to have my doubts. Then I had an epiphany. There was another way to skin this cat.

I would join the Select Program and offer The War Gate free to the world. 

To be continued....