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.
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$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....

Small Press Warning Signs.

 Just how much promotion and marketing is your small or indie press doing for your book?

Granted, I know from past publisher that the author should participate and do promos (per most of my contracts), but I keep hearing from other authors that their publisher "puts their best foot forward" and does lots of promotion and marketing. Oh, really? And how do you know that unless you Google your book's title and perform a thorough online search to find out if that book is listed in any other venues, like review sites, blog fillers, online retailers, display sites, press release services or paid advertising slots? Has your publisher emailed you and alerted you to these showings and announcements? Publishers who actively promote and market your book will have no problem alerting you to the fact. If you see nothing but listings on your publisher's website, Amazon and nowhere else, you've got a problem.

If you see these problems it is an indication that the publisher's "best foot forward" is going to kick the author in the butt and tell him/her to get out there and sell books.


Just like a recent publisher told me what to do upon a new release. "Get out there now and sell books." All I had to do was Google the other publisher's books to see where they appeared. Then I would have to differentiate between what the publisher had listed and what the author had done themselves. Look for the publisher's distributor. If they have no distributor that actively sells to the libraries and bookstores, they have no significant distribution. They are in what amounts to be online book catalogs.


I took great offense to the publisher's direct order and, frankly, am getting fed-up with hearing these push/shove tactics from small press. I've had my share of grief from these amateur printers, and have delighted in tearing up more contracts than I've signed in the past 12 years


A free sales force is the most enticing aspect of why small mom and pop publishers go into business in the first place. They have to make money to survive. That's understandable. A love of books and respect for their authors comes second, IMO. There are exceptions, but the fine lines are still there.

I don't mean to paint this with such a broad brush. I do have some very involved and aggressive publishers who really know what they're doing. But you have to watch out for the others and perform due diligence during research. It took me a while to spot the lazy or insolvent ones by carefully reading their mission statements. Any excessive author promo and marketing commandments that appear in a publisher's mission statement is enough for me to back off and seriously reconsider. I'm talking about above the normal expectations of what an author is expected to do.

If they ask you to outline how many book readings and personal appearances you're scheduling for the year, how much money you're spending on ads, what is the size of your mailing list, how many books are you prepared to buy and resell, or if you can meet their minimum author book purchases, consider yourself hired on as a non-paid traveling book salesperson. If you see any of this in your contract, don't sign it.   

If you've signed such a contract too hastily, unaware that these nasty little clauses escaped you, start proceedings to remove yourself from the contract and have your rights returned. (Watch out for termination and buy-out clauses that will cost you money upon contract release).

If you're asked to purchase the publisher's promotion/marketing book--run like hell before contract signing. Don't pay for a catalog listing your book.


If you're asked to compile a friends and family list with email addresses, house addresses or phone numbers--refuse it. This request can pop up after contract signing. 


If you get bombarded with instructional emails on how, why, when and where to market and promote your book--beware.


If you're asked to contribute financially to a group ad for the publisher so your book can be included in a major media publication--duck and cover.


If you're asked to guarantee a comprehensive marketing plan and budget--run like hell.


If you are required to do book signings and you must perform a certain amount of signings within any type of a time frame at your travel expense--run like hell.  Especially if you're required to purchase your own books for resale.

If you can see that the publisher sells exclusively from their website, with little or no penetration into the other online retail stores or lists--run like hell.

If you are warned that low sales might be grounds for halting paperback publication and going to out-of-print status--run like hell. If fact, if you have to sell a minimum amount of e-books to qualify for a paperback version, give it serious thought. 

Read that contract and obtain legal advice, preferably from an attorney that specializes in literary contract (law) clauses and publication rights. If you'd had an agent, he/she would have never let you get into this situation to begin with.


ATTENTION:

Welcome to The War Gate, a paranormal romance/thriller. IT WILL BE LISTED ON AMAZON FOR FREE, STARTING AUGUST 9TH AND LASTING FOR TWO DAYS. Reviews will be greatly appreciated!

http://www.amazon.com/The-War-Gate-ebook/dp/B008SDVEQU/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1344083520&sr=1-5

Debut--The War Gate!

 I think I pretty much warned everybody that I was going to self-publish one day. It came sooner than I thought. I couldn't resist when I was offered professional help with the formatting and cover art. I'm glad that was taken care of, because "techless" me, had a hard enough time loading all the book info on the Amazon accounting and registration page. After some glitches and conversion failures, it just went live today. I learned a lot in this process but not nearly enough to instruct anyone else on how to perform the whole download shebang. If and when I do, I'll pass it on here in layman's terms. 

Welcome to The War Gate, a paranormal romance/thriller that will leave you breathless from it's scope and pace. It's now available on Amazon for the reduced price of $2.99. Enjoy the extended three-chapter sample now.

http://www.amazon.com/The-War-Gate-ebook/dp/B008SDVEQU/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1344083520&sr=1-5

“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.

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.

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. You will literally smell him off the page. Not for younger readers under 13.

Are You a Carpet Bomber or a Single Shot?

Talking about submissions here, folks. You know, those nasty little packages you send off to agents and editors. Yep, those. Commonly called the query-go-round, query hell, or jumping on the sub train, we all go through it sooner or later and many of us are stuck on it for a time, or are permanently on it. The questions is, do you carpet bomb--sending off dozens of queries at a time or do you prefer the more conservative approach--picking your targets conservatively and sending out laser-guided missiles in ones and twosies? There's no right or wrong way, but there's a few things to consider before you start.

First establish your genre-genres and consult a good, up-to-date directory of publishers and agents. Query Tracker is a great source for agents, and Preditors and Editors works fine for publishers of books and magazines. Consider all of your sub-genre options. If you have a thriller-suspense novel, does it also qualify for military espionage, action-adventure, or maybe cross over into mystery? How about Romance? What's the sub-genre? Could it be fantasy or paranormal? Could it stand on its own in the fantasy or paranormal genre? Make a list of every genre you think your book or story qualifies for. Don't be stingy, just don't make any obvious attempts to cross over into every genre on the list. Limit it to about three or less. The reason I say this is because you've often heard that once you've suffered about 100 rejections, it's time to put that manuscript on the back burner. What's worse, is that I've heard writers complain that they've used up their submission possibilities with only 30 or 40 sources. Just to give you an example, I had one book that clearly fell into the genres pools of thriller, action-adventure and military espionage. I found no less than 450 agents that took those genres. Did I submit that many? Yes, I did, and it took me over four months to do so. But...big warning here: everyone of those queries and submission packages were personalized. Which brings me to...


You better know something about who you're soliciting. 

By that I mean you'd better address them with their correct proper last name. No first names until you're on a friendly basis. Then what? How do you lead off? Forget about introducing yourself out of the gate, that will be your next sentence or paragraph. You're going to capture your reader in a very personal sense. Read their Twitter or FaceBook profile, if they have one. Go to their website. Read their staff profile. Check the web for any articles or interviews they've participated in or written. Read any one of those little gems, and if something you like catches your eye, comment on it in a kind of "By the way, I was impressed by your mission statement concerning...I happened to read your blog and found your post on such-and-such revealing...I found it interesting that you worked with dogs as a side hobby; I also have a fondness for our canine friends...Hey, I graduated from the same university that you did...I'm glad that you have a priority for distopian tales because it just so happens that... You get the idea. You're setting a hook by showing that you've investigated your target agent or editor. 

You took time out to look them up and get a real feel for them--their likes, dislikes, quirks, talent, phobias, etc. Believe me, nothing can capture an agent's or editor's heart than showing that you labored to know exactly who you're dealing with. This type of opener cannot be cut and pasted. Obviously not. Sorry. You're going to have to work for it. You can paste the rest of your intro and query, if it's generic enough to pass for one and all. A sentence or two, or a small paragraph is all that's needed. Don't go overboard; it's only a tidbit of observation on your part. Avoid asking any personal questions about family, work or marital issues. Try and keep it academic. 


How many queries or packages? First run that query and your synopsis through critique hell. Over and over again until your betas approve with a big thumbs up. Highlight your main character, their goal-goals, the plot and your, let's hope, incredibly unique premise. 

What's a conservative number of submissions, if you're a bit of a chicken? Try six to eight subs. Then kick back and wait. Be prepared to wait from weeks to months. With so little out there, you might only get some of your responses back and that could take up to six months or more. A more firm number would be 12 to 14 or so, and this could be considered about average. If you're dead certain you have a expertly crafted, bullet-proof query or package, up the stakes to 20 or 25--this will show faster results more often. I call this carpet bombing, and it's my practice. Consider that a full 30 to 40 percent of your targets will not respond back, lose you in cyberspace, or spam-kick you out of the universe. Submitting five query-packages a day for five days will take care of your first round, for the 25. Prepare for a second, third or more rounds, depending upon your tally. For the smaller six to eight subs, send them all in one day, if it suites you. Take two to three days for the 12 to 14.


Expect to get form rejections, which are cut and paste rejection responses. These "form Rs" say very little in the way of why the material was rejected. Don't agonize or analyze. Get it behind you. Pay rapt attention to personal rejection responses that point out specific plot points, character issues, pace and style issues. If you have three responses that highlight the same problem, you have good reason to go ahead and revise your manuscript. In that case, stop or curtail your query round and revise as necessary.

If you receive a R & R, or a revise and resubmit request, then weigh the pros and cons for doing so. Always keep your original copy, and knock out the revisions as instructed if it really hits home and makes logical sense. Send it in and cross your fingers. R & Rs are very positive responses--they lean a bit more on the positive side of "maybe."

Good luck in query hell. Or heaven, if that's prerogative.