This post is intended for those young authors who grew up in an era when English teachers did not teach this kind of thing. As surprised as I am that they just don't know, I thought I'd take the time to explain a couple things, just two, that really irritate me when I'm reading. I'm just a typical reader in some ways. But in this way, if you don't know this, you should. You should know how it's making my blood temperature rise.
First, don't change your time strategy mid-stream. That is, you can tell a story in present (I wake up, I look out the window, I see snow) or tell a story in past (I woke up, I looked out the window, and I saw snow), but don't tell your story in both. How did it happen that people don't know this? I have my own explanation. It became clear over the last twenty years or so that both are acceptable; in fact, you can have the same result with either - a good story. Present is more immediate, more dramatic, more in-our-face. But it's a perfectly good way to tell a story. The problem is when you switch back and forth. We can't handle that. We are still paying attention to the time. EIther it happened, or it's still immediate. But not both!
Second, if your parents have a house, it is your parents' house. That's because they own it together. It is very unlikely that you can write about your parent's house, because if you have only one, it's more likely to be your mother's house or your father's house. Possible, but unlikely. What happened to putting the possessive apostrophe on a plural? People just don't do it anymore. They didn't learn it. But they should.
We readers are tasked with figuring this stuff out, getting meaning from it. Telling us you have two parents and then that one of them has a house buy you're not willing to tell us which one, or you're willing to let us guess that apostrophes are totally random in this book and just don't matter - sorry. that's like hitting me in the face. You're a writer. Get this stuff together. If you have any questions, just ask. I hate sitting around getting mad at you.
Saturday, October 29, 2022
Friday, October 28, 2022
100 percent indie
I've started using the tag #100percentindie on twitter, because I am. I don't pay anyone to do anything for me. The hardest two things are covers and proofreading. I thought proofreading would be easy, since I'd done it for years for other people. No, proofreading my own work is incredibly difficult.
Just plain marketing is a problem too. There's a steep learning curve. I'm finally in the position where I can get a few Amazon ads, but I haven't done it; the whole thing intimidates me. I did try it once, and learned a lot, but really I should keep at it to get better at it and to really see it have results. I've never made a sale from an Amazon ad; maybe I can change that.
An interesting experiment would be to target a certain market with an Amazon ad, say amazon.co.ne, or perhaps es or it. By certain market I mean those who would buy something in English, but through that Amazon. I would probably do ok in the UK, Australia or Canada too. But I'd have to understand Amazon ads well before I started.
I find authors with all kinds of strategies. Generally, if you get yourself out there, you find results; if you do nothing, you get nothing. I worry sometimes that in the big picture, what I've done hasn't amounted to much. This is true, but I had to start somewhere. I've got more now than I had before I started.
Twenty seven books, an Amazon page, a few good ratings, and something to do during retirement.
Just plain marketing is a problem too. There's a steep learning curve. I'm finally in the position where I can get a few Amazon ads, but I haven't done it; the whole thing intimidates me. I did try it once, and learned a lot, but really I should keep at it to get better at it and to really see it have results. I've never made a sale from an Amazon ad; maybe I can change that.
An interesting experiment would be to target a certain market with an Amazon ad, say amazon.co.ne, or perhaps es or it. By certain market I mean those who would buy something in English, but through that Amazon. I would probably do ok in the UK, Australia or Canada too. But I'd have to understand Amazon ads well before I started.
I find authors with all kinds of strategies. Generally, if you get yourself out there, you find results; if you do nothing, you get nothing. I worry sometimes that in the big picture, what I've done hasn't amounted to much. This is true, but I had to start somewhere. I've got more now than I had before I started.
Twenty seven books, an Amazon page, a few good ratings, and something to do during retirement.
Monday, October 24, 2022
interesting friends
I've made a lot of really interestng friends in this business. That's actually a huge perk because I've got ten kids, spaced out over forty-four years, and I've become a little tired of school recitals, shuttling kids across town for this or that, my poor wife's endless complaints about things I've forgotten or neglected. It's good to know there's a whole world out there and people are doing interesting things.
Some are like me - have the ability to put together a novel, crunch it through the KDP system, come out with a kindle version and a paperback version, in some cases a hardback version, and then go out and present themselves as a novelist. It's actually kind of a miracle that I got this far, given the situation. At times I take a breath and look up and say, I'm ok, splayed out all over the ratings as I am with my 27 books.
I have no hardback copies, none at all. All my books now have both kindle and paperback version, but in some cases one or the other isn't doing so well. they at least exist. I have friends who produce only on kindle; others who just don't worry about paperback versions. They are somehow able to make a living anyway.
I can't in any way say I'm making a living. I had a good month and I'll be lucky to get a couple of steak dinners out of it. That's no problem though, I've been working all my life, and anything I get totally out of something I created myself, is well worth it just for the sake of having something to show for it.
But back to the friends. They are in scattered places and I'd love to meet them. Some are a little vague about exact location since their writing might offend some people - some are at the cutting edge of producing what is now allowed now that gay marriage is accepted. Sure, all that stuff was always out there. But now it's gone a little more mainstream and I admire the people that are cranking it out.
To them, I'm kind of old school. But at least I read their work, and like it. It's an interesting world. I'll keep you informed, got to run.
Some are like me - have the ability to put together a novel, crunch it through the KDP system, come out with a kindle version and a paperback version, in some cases a hardback version, and then go out and present themselves as a novelist. It's actually kind of a miracle that I got this far, given the situation. At times I take a breath and look up and say, I'm ok, splayed out all over the ratings as I am with my 27 books.
I have no hardback copies, none at all. All my books now have both kindle and paperback version, but in some cases one or the other isn't doing so well. they at least exist. I have friends who produce only on kindle; others who just don't worry about paperback versions. They are somehow able to make a living anyway.
I can't in any way say I'm making a living. I had a good month and I'll be lucky to get a couple of steak dinners out of it. That's no problem though, I've been working all my life, and anything I get totally out of something I created myself, is well worth it just for the sake of having something to show for it.
But back to the friends. They are in scattered places and I'd love to meet them. Some are a little vague about exact location since their writing might offend some people - some are at the cutting edge of producing what is now allowed now that gay marriage is accepted. Sure, all that stuff was always out there. But now it's gone a little more mainstream and I admire the people that are cranking it out.
To them, I'm kind of old school. But at least I read their work, and like it. It's an interesting world. I'll keep you informed, got to run.
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
One Woman's Voice
Now on ACX
Narrated by Yarnell Henrie
https://www.amazon.com/One-Womans-Voice-Biography-Elocutionist/dp/B0BH69D2M1
Narrated by Yarnell Henrie
https://www.amazon.com/One-Womans-Voice-Biography-Elocutionist/dp/B0BH69D2M1
Friday, September 23, 2022
Watching the ratings
If you have been watching Amazon ratings as closely as I do, you will know that spot where your book is at its peak, which means its rating is as low a number as possible. There are two ratings that matter the most - overall kindle rating, and overall paperback rating. The ratings in the subcategories (US Short Stories, for example) are based basically on the overall rating, so it fluctuates in the same way but appears differently.
When someone buys or downloads your book, it is at its peak or lowest rating about five hours later, on kindle. On paperback, the rating changes five hours or so after they buy it, but you don't find out about it in your dashboard until a couple of days later when they finally print the book and send it out. So if you happen to be trolling your own ratings (as I do regularly) you might catch the fact that someone has bought something, and conversely if you are only looking at the dashboard, you will be too late: you'll see that one was bought, and you got the credit and the money, but you missed the rating peak (lowest possible numbers) by a day or two, and it is already starting its relentless climb up into the higher numbers.
Generally all my books have their leveling spots in the millions, and I measure this way: 1.6 million, 2.3 million, etc. Some are actually so high that Amazon doesn't include it in the product description - why list a rating of 17 million? They assume I would be embarassed to let people know that. But in my newer books, all my kindle ratings are below 5 million, and many of them are below 2 million. By "leveling spot" I mean that, after you sell one and it gets as low as it can get, it will start its steep and rapid journey back to its leveling spot, but by the time it gets there (say 1.7 million), its rate of increase will only be about 30,000/wk. on kindle, which is nothing compared to what it was losing when it first got to its peak.
So for example a book I have on ku (actually all my books are on ku) just got downloaded and read, and immediately (because I was there, about five hours later) the kindle rating was 152,958 and 115 on US Short Stories. That is actually pretty good for me, for any of my stories, and reflects the fact that the book has had relative success both in the long term (it's been around for ten years or so) and also in the past year. Now that it's at 152,958, though (a relatively low number for me), it will pick up almost a million a week, then about 600,000 a week, until it gets to its leveling spot, which is about 2.3 million. Once it gets there it will slow down its ascent to maybe 100,000 a week, and then down to about 30,000 a week, reflecting that it has found its leveling spot or place where it belongs. Other books will shoot right past it up into the 4.5 mil range or higher because they don't have the overall strength (total sales, total reads, etc.) that this one has.
Now Amazon tends to favor the newer books. They want everyone to see my new one, Devour that Spaghetti, and their algorithm will favor it by working in a higher rating even with less sales. So it was downloaded around the same day, same time, but incredibly enough got a rating of 101,042 and #67 in US SHort Stories. This could have reflected the fact that two people downloaded it in the same hour or very close to the same time. If people don't keep downloading it, it will begin its rapid and steep ascent up to wherever its natural leveling spot will be. If on the other hand, if people keep downloading it (which I hope of course, once they find out it's out there) we will not find its true leveling spot for a while. I have one book, published in April, and it has actually never settled into a true leveling spot, in either kindle or paperback, as it gets bought or downloaded every time it gets close. And that of course is what I hope for this and every book. Keep it in the air as you would a pingpong ball or volleyball that you, with friends, just try to keep suspended. Of course when you are shooting for low numbers instead of high ones you have to turn yourself around a little to envision what's actually happening.
But in the big picture, 101,042/#67 could be about the best it gets, and I wouldn't be surprised at that for several reasons. One, I'm just not that well known. The world finds out it's out there, ok, but that doesn't mean everyone rushes to read it. I'm still a relatively unknown author in the big picture. And, it would take frantic and pointed (this book only) marketing to get two people to download it in the same hour or same afternoon, again, like they just did, apparently. Finally, the "just published" glow falls off, and that's a statistical thing. Once it's been around a week or two, Amazon's not going to push it anymore, period. And that's a statistical/algorithmic statement - it's worked right into their calculation.
Congratulate me. Raise a glass somewhere. 67 is actually not so bad. Maybe somebody, in that hour, read through the top hundred short story books, and saw it. If so, I have some fame, at least for a moment there.
When someone buys or downloads your book, it is at its peak or lowest rating about five hours later, on kindle. On paperback, the rating changes five hours or so after they buy it, but you don't find out about it in your dashboard until a couple of days later when they finally print the book and send it out. So if you happen to be trolling your own ratings (as I do regularly) you might catch the fact that someone has bought something, and conversely if you are only looking at the dashboard, you will be too late: you'll see that one was bought, and you got the credit and the money, but you missed the rating peak (lowest possible numbers) by a day or two, and it is already starting its relentless climb up into the higher numbers.
Generally all my books have their leveling spots in the millions, and I measure this way: 1.6 million, 2.3 million, etc. Some are actually so high that Amazon doesn't include it in the product description - why list a rating of 17 million? They assume I would be embarassed to let people know that. But in my newer books, all my kindle ratings are below 5 million, and many of them are below 2 million. By "leveling spot" I mean that, after you sell one and it gets as low as it can get, it will start its steep and rapid journey back to its leveling spot, but by the time it gets there (say 1.7 million), its rate of increase will only be about 30,000/wk. on kindle, which is nothing compared to what it was losing when it first got to its peak.
So for example a book I have on ku (actually all my books are on ku) just got downloaded and read, and immediately (because I was there, about five hours later) the kindle rating was 152,958 and 115 on US Short Stories. That is actually pretty good for me, for any of my stories, and reflects the fact that the book has had relative success both in the long term (it's been around for ten years or so) and also in the past year. Now that it's at 152,958, though (a relatively low number for me), it will pick up almost a million a week, then about 600,000 a week, until it gets to its leveling spot, which is about 2.3 million. Once it gets there it will slow down its ascent to maybe 100,000 a week, and then down to about 30,000 a week, reflecting that it has found its leveling spot or place where it belongs. Other books will shoot right past it up into the 4.5 mil range or higher because they don't have the overall strength (total sales, total reads, etc.) that this one has.
Now Amazon tends to favor the newer books. They want everyone to see my new one, Devour that Spaghetti, and their algorithm will favor it by working in a higher rating even with less sales. So it was downloaded around the same day, same time, but incredibly enough got a rating of 101,042 and #67 in US SHort Stories. This could have reflected the fact that two people downloaded it in the same hour or very close to the same time. If people don't keep downloading it, it will begin its rapid and steep ascent up to wherever its natural leveling spot will be. If on the other hand, if people keep downloading it (which I hope of course, once they find out it's out there) we will not find its true leveling spot for a while. I have one book, published in April, and it has actually never settled into a true leveling spot, in either kindle or paperback, as it gets bought or downloaded every time it gets close. And that of course is what I hope for this and every book. Keep it in the air as you would a pingpong ball or volleyball that you, with friends, just try to keep suspended. Of course when you are shooting for low numbers instead of high ones you have to turn yourself around a little to envision what's actually happening.
But in the big picture, 101,042/#67 could be about the best it gets, and I wouldn't be surprised at that for several reasons. One, I'm just not that well known. The world finds out it's out there, ok, but that doesn't mean everyone rushes to read it. I'm still a relatively unknown author in the big picture. And, it would take frantic and pointed (this book only) marketing to get two people to download it in the same hour or same afternoon, again, like they just did, apparently. Finally, the "just published" glow falls off, and that's a statistical thing. Once it's been around a week or two, Amazon's not going to push it anymore, period. And that's a statistical/algorithmic statement - it's worked right into their calculation.
Congratulate me. Raise a glass somewhere. 67 is actually not so bad. Maybe somebody, in that hour, read through the top hundred short story books, and saw it. If so, I have some fame, at least for a moment there.
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Devour That Spaghetti
Thursday, August 25, 2022
Little Free Libraries
Since I got to Illinois, I have become fascinated by little free libraries. These are free-standing boxes that people fill with books; they have two or three shelves in them, and maybe a see-through door; people are encouraged to bring books and take them at will. The question is: do people use them? It's an interesting question.
I have very weak paperback ratings; nobody buys my paperbacks except my own family, and not even them usually (excuse my casual syntax). So I was thinking, maybe I should make more of an effort to get my books out to the market by putting some in little free libraries. An aggressive campaign to get them out there. But it wouldn't much do to put them out there if in fact nobody's reading them. I need to study the market, obviously.
A few years back, maybe ten, the Rotary took up the cause in this town (Galesburg, Illinois), and put up a number of them. Of those, I have found three or four. Only one appears on the LFL guide; that one is just up the street. One a street over is in disrepair; its door is hard to open. I found one in a park about four blocks away and I read about one in a park downtown. Finally, I saw one way over on the east side on my way out to the interstate, going to Peoria. So, five altogether that I know of, only one on the official register.
They also have them in Monmouth, a small town near here, where, while I lived there, I found about five. Small towns I would think would be better because that's where people have time and get bored, and kids grow up reading in the absence of trouble to get into. Most of the spare books I have sitting around are haiku; I was never able to get anyone to buy them either, and I think if I scatter them in these libraries they will most likely just sit there. But that's ok; I'm getting more story books to distribute as time goes by, and all my books get new covers, so my plan is to systematically get books out into the LFL's, and in return bring home some books to study. I also have a houseful of books that I've never thrown away, and even moved this far, yet nobody reads; these are not by me, but might be useful in some LFL or another.
I know they had them in New Mexico; I know they were a national phenomenon. What I don't know is how much of an active system they represent. Do people actually notice or see what's in them? I actually saw someone using the one on my street the other day; they had a subaru-type vehicle, they walked up to it with a few books, and walked back with a few more. When I walked past it today, my own book was in a visible place (I had tucked it in among other books, but somebody had apparently at least looked at it). I'm not sure what to think of this.
The point I think would be to be well-equipped when I travel, and willing to take the time to find them and stock them wherever I go. I have always been a bit shy about giving them away. But having new covers on some of them actually gives me others that I won't sell anymore, won't even try. I am experimenting with covers and therefore rendering lots of the books in my possession obsolete.
Some authors would never stoop to giving books away when they intend to make money on the whole deal, and need to keep up an image of being of high value. I have the opposite approach, more like Andy Warhol. I figure, on some level, many people have to know who you are before you get anywhere at all. You have to blanket the world, if only by starting in this little corner of western Illinois. If this system of little libraries scattered around towns like Galesburg or Monmouth is any indication, people still read books enough to have them out in their front yards in little house-shaped boxes. I'm not sure it really means anything at all; lots of them are in poor repair; some don't seem to have any books anymore. But some, I think, are being used and used well.
People I think enjoyed the no-due-date aspect of it. You could read part of a book and just sit on it for a while. Has this been going on for years? I'd like to meet people who are into actively transfering books. I'm also curious about the quality of books in them. I found stories by Kafka in one here in Galesburg - is that because of the college? Are there people who are trading Kafka for steamier fare?
What you see here is me developing hypotheses about ways to market. Any progress is real progress, no matter how incremental. I left my book on the top of its little stack - and will check on it in a day or two, maybe add some stories to that one. I have books of stories, that are just sitting there, making my moving harder. There was no reason to hang on to the books I did hang on to, and even less reason as time goes by.
Out of a total of thousands of readers, only a fraction will read, then finish, then like your books - and only a fraction of those will pick up another one you wrote. I'm not sure if it's ok to drop off older, outdated, or even imperfect (older version) books when that would just decrease, presumably, my odds. But this is a town where I can at least observe LFL customer behavior and see whether it's worth my time at all. My strategy (small towns are better) may or may not be misguided. But my travel plans will not be based on it anyway. I'll only be hitting the LFL's in the towns where I'm going anyway.
I have very weak paperback ratings; nobody buys my paperbacks except my own family, and not even them usually (excuse my casual syntax). So I was thinking, maybe I should make more of an effort to get my books out to the market by putting some in little free libraries. An aggressive campaign to get them out there. But it wouldn't much do to put them out there if in fact nobody's reading them. I need to study the market, obviously.
A few years back, maybe ten, the Rotary took up the cause in this town (Galesburg, Illinois), and put up a number of them. Of those, I have found three or four. Only one appears on the LFL guide; that one is just up the street. One a street over is in disrepair; its door is hard to open. I found one in a park about four blocks away and I read about one in a park downtown. Finally, I saw one way over on the east side on my way out to the interstate, going to Peoria. So, five altogether that I know of, only one on the official register.
They also have them in Monmouth, a small town near here, where, while I lived there, I found about five. Small towns I would think would be better because that's where people have time and get bored, and kids grow up reading in the absence of trouble to get into. Most of the spare books I have sitting around are haiku; I was never able to get anyone to buy them either, and I think if I scatter them in these libraries they will most likely just sit there. But that's ok; I'm getting more story books to distribute as time goes by, and all my books get new covers, so my plan is to systematically get books out into the LFL's, and in return bring home some books to study. I also have a houseful of books that I've never thrown away, and even moved this far, yet nobody reads; these are not by me, but might be useful in some LFL or another.
I know they had them in New Mexico; I know they were a national phenomenon. What I don't know is how much of an active system they represent. Do people actually notice or see what's in them? I actually saw someone using the one on my street the other day; they had a subaru-type vehicle, they walked up to it with a few books, and walked back with a few more. When I walked past it today, my own book was in a visible place (I had tucked it in among other books, but somebody had apparently at least looked at it). I'm not sure what to think of this.
The point I think would be to be well-equipped when I travel, and willing to take the time to find them and stock them wherever I go. I have always been a bit shy about giving them away. But having new covers on some of them actually gives me others that I won't sell anymore, won't even try. I am experimenting with covers and therefore rendering lots of the books in my possession obsolete.
Some authors would never stoop to giving books away when they intend to make money on the whole deal, and need to keep up an image of being of high value. I have the opposite approach, more like Andy Warhol. I figure, on some level, many people have to know who you are before you get anywhere at all. You have to blanket the world, if only by starting in this little corner of western Illinois. If this system of little libraries scattered around towns like Galesburg or Monmouth is any indication, people still read books enough to have them out in their front yards in little house-shaped boxes. I'm not sure it really means anything at all; lots of them are in poor repair; some don't seem to have any books anymore. But some, I think, are being used and used well.
People I think enjoyed the no-due-date aspect of it. You could read part of a book and just sit on it for a while. Has this been going on for years? I'd like to meet people who are into actively transfering books. I'm also curious about the quality of books in them. I found stories by Kafka in one here in Galesburg - is that because of the college? Are there people who are trading Kafka for steamier fare?
What you see here is me developing hypotheses about ways to market. Any progress is real progress, no matter how incremental. I left my book on the top of its little stack - and will check on it in a day or two, maybe add some stories to that one. I have books of stories, that are just sitting there, making my moving harder. There was no reason to hang on to the books I did hang on to, and even less reason as time goes by.
Out of a total of thousands of readers, only a fraction will read, then finish, then like your books - and only a fraction of those will pick up another one you wrote. I'm not sure if it's ok to drop off older, outdated, or even imperfect (older version) books when that would just decrease, presumably, my odds. But this is a town where I can at least observe LFL customer behavior and see whether it's worth my time at all. My strategy (small towns are better) may or may not be misguided. But my travel plans will not be based on it anyway. I'll only be hitting the LFL's in the towns where I'm going anyway.
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