Introducing A New Middle Grade Novel

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Renée Pawlish

Every once in a while I get to toot my own horn :) .  I’ve just published a new middle grade novel, and I’m very excited about it.  Now I know most of my followers read this blog for publishing advice, or the occasional post about film noir, so I hope you’ll stick with me…

A Special Kind of Middle Grade Novel

middle grade novel This War We're InI’m thrilled to introduce This War We’re In:

This War We’re In is a story about friends and family, forgiveness and redemption.  Ten-year-old Bobby Klocker questions why his Japanese friend Richard is treated differently than other kids.  When Bobby’s older brother, Edward the bully, accuses Richard for something Bobby and Edward did, Bobby must wrestle with doing what is right versus facing his brother’s wrath, though he is ultimately determined to defend Richard.

Set in the fall of 1943, This War We’re In is about a boy learning about prejudice and the atrocities of war during the tumultuous times of World War Two.  Intertwined in the story is the forced internment of the Japanese, and a little-read-about piece of history, the United States housing of German prisoners of war.

Okay, that’s the official blurb, but allow me to share a bit more about this story and why it’s special to me…

My Father The Storyteller

Growing up, my siblings and I would often ask our dad to tell us stories about his childhood on a small farm in southeast Colorado.  Dad had us in stitches when he’d talk about how they saddled the horses, smoked my grandfather’s cigars and then got sick (and in trouble), and more.  And one of the stories that always stuck with me was an incident involving a German POW (you’ll have to read This War We’re In to find out more).

There’s A Novel Here…

A couple of years ago, I got the idea to turn Dad’s stories into a middle grade novel.  I was aware that many people knew little, if anything, about the United States housing German and Italian POWs during World War II, and I also saw no children’s books that dealt with the Japanese internment during the war.  So I combined some of Dad’s stories with this historical background, and This War We’re In was born…

I’m pleased with all my books, but this one is special to me.  I hope you’ll check it out, and maybe get it for your kids or grand-kids.  You can read a sample on Amazon.

Review Copies

Also, I am giving away ebooks to the first ten people that contact me and agree to review This War We’re In.  I only ask that you review it on Amazon and Goodreads, and that you give an honest review.

Thanks!

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Indie Authors – Think Quality Editing Doesn’t Matter?

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Renée Pawlish
indie author handbook

Indie Author Handbook

I teach a class on self-publishing at a local community college, and the subject of editing comes up often.  And the more I work with indie authors, the more I’m amazed that many seem to think that editing doesn’t matter that much (in this post I’m discussing more grammatical and punctuation editing versus content editing).  Now before you say wait, Renée, I do edit, let me explain.  There’s a difference between indie authors trying to edit themselves, and even those indie authors who hire someone who says he/she is an editor, but these editors clearly don’t know what they are doing, versus those that hire a quality editor.  Read on…

Indie Authors – What Readers Say About Poorly Edited Books

If you think editing doesn’t matter, spend a few minutes on Amazon and read some of the one and two star reviews.  I have, and here’s a sampling:

Good Character development.  Predictable too early in story.  Very poor editing.  Looks like just they used spell check on the computer versus checking for context.  This made the story stumble and there are too many good books out there to waste time if the author doesn’t take time to ensure quality.  Will not try another book just for the editing.

——————–

Editing and grammatical errors were distracting.  I am not planning to read more in the series.

——————–

I could not get past the juvenile writing style and errors.  Don’t waste your money.

I could go on.  I see many that reference indie authors, and how the readers wish they’d known the book was self-published.  I know you’ve heard it all before.  But since the these kind of reviews keep coming, it bears repeating – get a quality editor for your book(s).  You’ll be glad you did.

Indie Authors – What To Do

You can’t do anything about reviewers that just didn’t like the story.  Heck, if your books start to sell, you’ll get those reviews.  You can do something about books that are poorly edited.  And you should want to, because if you don’t, you are losing book buyers.  It’s as simple as that.  So find a good editor.  Don’t just rely on yourself or your friends.  You need someone who is trained and/or experienced at editing.

Indie Authors – Where To Find A Quality Editor

The question of where to find a quality editor is one I get asked a lot.  In my case, I got lucky.  My editor is a friend of a friend, and she’s amazingly good.  She used to work for the state, editing political and legal documents.  She knows what she’s doing.  Even so, I went through a process with her, where we talked through what I expected and what she could deliver.  Some places you might look for an editor are:

  • a local university or community college
  • local writing/critique groups
  • from other author recommendations

You can certainly look on the internet or Twitter, but I’d be careful to vet the editor (see below).  And yes, you will have to pay.  If you want quality in your work, you should expect this.

Indie Authors – What To Look For In An Editor

If you’re looking for an editor, these are some questions to ask:

  • what are your qualifications?
  • are there other published works that you’ve edited, so I can see if there’s anything in the reviews about the quality of the editing?
  • do you have references, other authors who will vouch for your editing?
  • how much do you charge? and if I find that you’ve made numerous mistakes, what recourse do I have (I’ve never had to do this, but given the quality of some of the editing I’ve seen, I’d ask this)?

You’re paying this person to help you, so it’s in your best interest to vet the editor carefully.  If the editor is above-board, he/she shouldn’t have a problem with any of these questions.

Indie Authors – If You Insist On Going It Alone

If, however, you decide you don’t need an editor, here are some things you can do that might help you prevent the glaring errors that many readers complain about:

  • don’t rely on yourself only – you will miss things
  • have someone who is extremely meticulous read your manuscript carefully to catch errors
  • better yet, get a few meticulous people to read your manuscript
  • be aware of mistakes you are prone to make and check for these (for example, I frequently write the word peak when I mean peek)
  • read your work out loud, slowly…if you do, errors have a tendency to point themselves out to you
  • if you’re not sure about something, look it up
  • and this one seems obvious, but spell-check, multiple times (I truly think some authors don’t do this, based on what slips by)

Be careful of letting family or friends help, unless you are sure they can be honest with you.  I’m paraphrasing JA Konrath, who says you need to find someone who will tell you where your book stinks, and where the errors are.  You don’t want the friends who will tell you that your book is great.

I’ve been told I’m anal with my works, from editing to prepping the books for release.  I take this as a compliment.  I also know that things slip through, but at least I’ve made every effort to get a perfect book out there :) .

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A Reed Ferguson Mystery In Spanish

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Renée Pawlish

One of the things I hear a lot is if you can get your ebooks translated into other languages, then you might be able to sell better because there is less competition in foreign markets for ebooks, and certainly ebooks by indie authors.  I don’t know how accurate this is, but I’m going to test the waters with a Reed Ferguson mystery, a short story called Elvis And The Sports Card Cheat.  In Spanish, it’s called Elvis Y El Estafador De Cartitas Deportivas.  How cool is that :) .  Here’s the cover image:

Elvis Y El Estafador De Cartas Deportivas

I’d like to thank Ryan Bibby, my graphic artist, for translating the title information into Spanish.  I’d also like to give a huge shout-out to Arturo García, a friend of mine.  This humorous mystery tale wouldn’t have been possible without his hard work.  He did a fantastic job of translation.  Check out his books when you get a chance :) .

I’ll be doing a post shortly about the pros and cons of foreign translations, because it’s not as easy as using Google translator, but for now, I just wanted to share the news!

I’d love to know if any of you have translated your works into foreign languages, and if so, what kind of success have you had?  Let me know…

____________________

PS – This Doesn’t Happen In The News continues to sell well, and the other mystery novels in the series are selling well, too.  It’s obvious that Reed Ferguson is a hit, at least with some readers, because they’re stating in their reviews that they will read more in the series.  This is exactly what I hoped for.  I’ve not hit JA Konrath numbers, but we all have to start somewhere :) .  I also don’t know what will happen throughout the rest of the month; will sales tank or stay steady?  Who knows?  I haven’t been able to crack the Top 100, but the sales rank continues to climb, so we’ll see…

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KDP Select – What Happened After The Freebie Days

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Renée Pawlish
indie author handbook

Indie Author Handbook

My free days are over – many thanks to all who downloaded This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies.  I greatly appreciate your support, and if you would leave an honest review on Amazon, I would be grateful.  Now to the nitty-gritty of Free Day Three and beyond…

Analyzing KDP Select – Day Three

In my previous post (Analyzing KDP Select – The Latest Results Of My Free Days) I talked about why I jumped back into KDP Select, and how days one and two of my free campaign fared.  At the end of Day Two I had 33,775 downloads and a number of sales on the other stories in the mystery series (Reel Estate Rip-off, The Maltese Felon and the short story Elvis And The Sports Card Cheat).  Day three was not as spectacular as day two, but I still saw a lot of downloads.  By the end of day three, I ended up with over 42,000 downloads of This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies.  Not bad…

Analyzing KDP Select – And Analyzing My Goals

In the previous post, I listed my goals:

  • to, at least, make back the advertizing dollars I spent on the campaign
  • to get at least 20,000 downloads
  • to get more reviews (hopefully positive ones)
  • to increase sales of This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies
  • to increase sales of the other mysteries in the series
  • to garner attention for my other books

Looking at those goals, I’d say I did pretty well.  It’s early, but I’ve made back the money I spent at Bookbub.  I doubled the download amount goal.  So far, I’ve had four reviews (all positive) in two days, all of whom said they would read more in the mystery series (and that hits the goal of increasing sales of the others in the series).  I’ve also seen those not in this mystery series selling more.  So I hit all of my goals.

On a side note, on day two, as I was watching the number of downloads increase, I would This Doesn't Happen In The Movies - Number Oneswitch between Amazon US and Amazon in other countries, and then switch back to US, taking just a second.  And the number of downloads would change by 40-50 or more.  It was wildly exciting :) .

Also, This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies has all positive reviews, except for a single 1 star review where the reviewer said she didn’t even finish the book, and she also commented that the title had nothing to do with the book.  The sarcastic side of me has wanted to comment and say if you read the whole book, you’d know where the title came from.  I’d also love to at least question her leaving a poor review on a book she didn’t finish.  But I know this only leads to trouble :) .  However, now that there has been more exposure, I’ve seen others challenge this reviewer in the comments.  That made me smile.  PS – Don’t get me wrong, this reviewer is entitled to her opinion – my own personal opinion is a reviewer who critiques character development and such should read the whole book first :) .

Analyzing KDP Select – Digging Deeper

In looking at the results, it’s hard to know exactly how well I did.  At first glance, it’s spectacular.  But what if the sales are only in the hundreds in the days and weeks following the free campaign?  Is this not good?  Do I have to hit JA Konrath numbers for it to be considered successful?  I think sometimes we indie authors think that unless we consistently have huge sales, we’re not considered successful.  I don’t see it that way…

Analyzing KDP Select – Some Perspective

Back in the day of legacy publishing, selling 500-1,000 of a title, in total, would be considered successful.  Most legacy published authors don’t hit it big.  And guess what?  Most indie authors don’t either.  For every indie author who has huge, or even moderate sales, there are thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) who make next to nothing.  That’s just the way it is.

This is a marathon for me.  If this run gets more exposure for my mystery series, then I’m happy.  If I make some money, then I’m happy.  If readers notice my other books, then I’m happy.  I long ago gave up the idea that I must have the same sales numbers as other indie authors or I’m not successful, or that my marketing campaign wasn’t successful.  Our journeys are all different.  What works for you may not for me.  You have to evaluate for yourself what will work, whether you have a good book for sale, what resources you have to promote your book, what your expectations are, what time of the year it is (this affects sales) and more.

Analyzing KDP Select – What Affects Your Free Days

I believe there are a number of things that will help, or hurt, your free days:

  • your product – if you have a poorly written book, a bad cover, and a blurb that’s not enticing, you hurt your chances of getting downloads
  • the amount of reviews your book has – This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies had 35 4-5 star reviews, and that lone 1 star review, before the start of the free days – the more you can get great reviews before you use KDP Select, the more it will help
  • whether you have reviews from prominent review sites – This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies garnered a great Kirkus review and this is prominent on the book page
  • whether your book has won awards – This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies is a Reader’s Favorite Finalist in mystery; again, this is prominent on the book page
  • how much exposure you get – I relied heavily on book sites that promote free days, and not much on Twitter, Facebook and my other social media sites – besides Bookbub, I submitted This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies to 27 sites that feature free books (by the way, I personally wouldn’t spend money on social media ads, blasts, and the like – I don’t believe the money is an effective way to sell books)
  • how much you educate yourself on what to do – I’ve studied how to make my KDP Select days successful, I’ve asked questions of others, and I’ve incorporated that into my campaign
  • whether you use Bookbub or not – from everything I’m hearing, this is the site to use to promote your free days – it’s not cheap, but it’s worth it
  • luck – this is one none of us can control, but I know it plays a role

A bit more on Bookbub.  When I submitted to Bookbub, I asked to promote on April 29-30.  This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies was free on April 28.  All of the other sites had April 28-30 as the free days.  I saw decent downloads (2,000+ at the end of day one), but it wasn’t until the Bookbub listing kicked in that I saw the huge jump in downloads.  Who knows how the campaign would’ve done without Bookbub, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have been as good as it was.

Analyzing KDP Select – Where To Promote Your Free Days

I’m sure you’re wondering what other sites I used besides Bookbub.  It would be too much to list them all individually, but you can go to these sites for lists:

I cherry-picked the sites they list.  I skipped sites that required me to sign up first.  Some links were broken.  Some sites didn’t appear to have a lot of followers and I skipped those.

I also had some very nice people offer to feature me on their sites:

I also want to thank Anthony Wessel (Digital Book Today), and authors Jeff Bennington, Toby Neal, and Sandy and Patrick Jones.  They have shared their KDP Select experiences and tips with me, and I am better for it.

Thank you all!  If I missed anyone, my deepest apologies.  Also, if anyone promotes free days, please list your site in the comments and I will create a post with these sites.

This is a long post, but I hope you’ve found it helpful.  If you do a free campaign, feel free to send me a tweet (make sure you read my post about how to format those tweets :) ) and I’ll retweet it for you.

Thank you all for your support.  I am greatly appreciative.

Posted in Indie Author Handbook, Promoting Your Books | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Analyzing KDP Select – The Latest Results Of My Free Days

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Renée Pawlish
indie author handbook

Indie Author Handbook

As all my regular readers know, I have been outspoken about the KDP Select program.  I don’t like how Amazon demands exclusivity in order to have an ebook in the program, and I don’t think that using the program is a good long-term solution for book marketing (what happens if and when Amazon decides to cancel the program? will those on other platforms be at an advantage if/when that happens?).  So the obvious question is why did you enroll in it again?  And I’m sure you’re wondering what the results are…read on…

Analyzing KDP Select – My Reasons For Jumping Back In

I won’t spend a lot of time on this, and you can call me a hypocrite for writing one thing about KDP Select and doing another…but I don’t think I am.  I’ve cautioned using KDP Select, but I never said absolutely don’t use it.  Just know what you’re getting into.  For me, the decision came about in part because of what JA Konrath and Anthony Wessel (Digital Book Today) said.  First Konrath:

If other platforms want to lure me back, they can.  They’ll just need to do more for me than Amazon is doing.  If they don’t want to woo me and other authors over to them, or feel they shouldn’t have to, then they aren’t taking into account the importance of writers–something publishers are also famous for.

How is this any different than having competing job offers?  If more than one company wants to hire you, they need to make you a better offer than their competition.

It isn’t my job to help other platforms succeed.  It is their job to lure me to their platform.

And Wessel:

Selectively incorporating KDP Select into a comprehensive marketing plan can be a real plus for the indie author.

Remember, ARC’s (Advanced Reader Copies) have been given away by authors and publishers for the past 40 years.  Now indie authors can also do it with no cost.  When I worked in the retail book industry, ARC’s were always available in the backroom of bookstores.  Sometimes they actually had to be thrown out because there were too many of them.

Those are good points.  Now, I am not jumping in with both feet and offering all my books for free, just one.  I did this to see if I can get a boost in sales.  And I’ve taken a very strategic approach to this.  My goals are:

  • to, at least, make back the advertizing dollars I spent on the campaign
  • to get at least 20,000 downloads
  • to get more reviews (hopefully positive ones)
  • to increase sales of This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies
  • to increase sales of the other mysteries in the series
  • to garner attention for my other books

Now we’ll see how it all turns out…

Analyzing KDP Select – What Happened On Day One

I’m going to share mostly numbers here, and in another post I will go into the specifics of my marketing strategy.  The first free day was interesting.  I submitted This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies to a number of sites that advertize free books (all these sites were free).  At 10 AM This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies had downloaded 600 copies.  The book was ranked 3,853.  Nothing to shout about.  863 at noon, climbing to 1,500, and now it’s ranked at 52 in the mystery and thriller category.  1,451 at 4:15, 534 and 31 in mystery.  It kept climbing and was 101 and 7 in mystery at 10:30 with 2,459 downloads.  Not bad, but not what I hoped for.

Analyzing KDP Select – Welcome To Day Two

One of the things I’d heard authors discussing was Bookbub.  Bookbub boasts over a million subscribers.  You can submit a book that will go out to targeted readers…this is HUGE because now your book is going to the audience you want it to (for example, you don’t have to worry about romance readers picking up your horror book for free – and then not buying more of your books, or worse, giving you a bad review).  Targeted marketing is a huge advantage in selling your books.  Bookbub ain’t cheap.  This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies is a mystery.  Bookbub has almost a half million mystery/thriller subscribers, so I paid $240 for the listing.  Was it worth it?  Read on…

Analyzing KDP Select – Day Two – Stellar So Far…

At the time of this writing, it’s almost the end of day two of my free listing (one more to go).  This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies had downloaded 2,459 at the end of day one.  At 7 AM it was at 2,834 downloads, with an overall ranking of 74, and 5 in mystery.  Oh boy, was this going to be bad?  Was my Bookbub promo not going to work?  It was slow for a bit (3,106 at 8:45), and then things started happening…fast.  Here is the breakdown, listing the time, the number of downloads, main Amazon book ranking, and genre rank:

  • 10:15 – 7,665 – 61 – 3 (every time I refresh the page, a 100+ downloads)
  • 12:00 – 8,056 – 61 – 3
  • 2:15 – 14,324 – 50 – 3
  • 5:00 – 27,400 – 1 – 1 (the book page says 50 and 3 but this is incorrect)
  • 5:30 – 28,120 – 1 – 1
  • 8:30 – 33,251 – 1 – 1

As you can imagine, I’m stunned, and very pleasantly surprised.  I had hoped to hit 20,000 downloads.  This figure is one that I hear other indie authors say is a good result.  And if you think from a marketing standpoint, where about 1-2% will actually read the book (and become fans and buy the other mystery novels in the series), getting 20,000 downloads would be nice.

On a side note, I’d read where it appears Amazon has different servers, and your search results reflect this.  I saw this.  If I exited out of the Amazon browser and came back in, I would see different results on the rankings.  And as I stated above, I saw a delay in the ranking results.  My mystery novel was actually ranked higher on the Top 100 list than it was on the book page.  It took Amazon some time to catch up on the book page…but it did.

And that’s not all…

Analyzing KDP Select – Day Two – My Other Books

This Doesn't Happen In The Movies - Number OneWhat I find interesting is that I’ve already seen a boost in sales of my other books.  My thinking was that This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies would get a lot of downloads and then, in the coming days and weeks, I would see sales of the other mystery novels in the series.  But I’m already seeing sales of all my other books increase dramatically.  Even the Reed Ferguson short story (Elvis And The Sports Card Cheat) is seeing sales.  This I was not expecting so soon.

Analyzing KDP Select – Day Three

So, I have one final day in this campaign.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring…I hope a bunch more downloads, but I have no idea.  Will the Bookbub effect go away?  Will I drop out of the rankings?  What will actual sales be like?  One thing you can count on – I will let you all know…

Posted in Indie Author Handbook, Promoting Your Books | Tagged , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Try A Reed Ferguson Mystery At No Cost

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Renée Pawlish

I don’t normally put out blog posts that are blatantly a selling pitch, but this one is.  Until the end of the month, the first mystery novel in the Reed Ferguson mystery series is free until the end of the month.  So if you’ve thought maybe you want to read This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies but you didn’t want to spend any money, now’s your chance to get it for nothing :) .

mystery seriesNow, I know I’ve talked a lot about my concerns about Amazon’s KDP Select program.  And yes, I still have concerns that I will address that in another post, and also what has prompted me to give KDP Select another chance (at least with one book), and what I did to advertize the book, and the results.  But for now, let me share a bit about This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies…

This novel is a Reader’s Favorite Finalist in mystery:

This is one witty, hilarious detective story that will keep the reader glued to the pages till the very end.

You can read the review here.

Kirkus Reviews says:

A promising start to a good-humored mystery series worth following.

Norman Goldman, Bookpleasures Publisher and Editor, says:

There is little doubt that Renée Pawlish is a promising new voice to the comic murder/mystery genre.  Quite noticeable…is Pawlish’s adept development of the plot coupled with her ability to contrive clear, concise and playful prose with almost perfect pacing.

This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies has numerous 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon as well.  Have I convinced you to take a chance and download a great mystery novel?  It’s free :) .

Either way, check back for my post on why I enrolled this novel in KDP Select again…

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How To Sell A Book – Guest Post By Jason Halstead

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Renée Pawlish

I’ve blogged quite a bit about book marketing, and in particular, Amazon’s KDP Select Program.  I’m also interested in what other authors are doing to help sell books, and I recently reached out to Jason Halstead to see what he does to sell so many books.  Jason has kindly provided a post about this.  So without further ado, here’s Jason…

How to Sell a Book

indie author Jason Halstead

Jason Halstead

I’ve found a couple of ways to accomplish this often difficult task. The first involves candles, a sharp knife, and a chicken (preferably a virgin chicken). Your results may vary, however. Another way is to write another book. Indeed, for many writers the task of writing a book is the easiest part of the process. The third means to the sell-my-books end is to promote and market the crap out of it. I’m here to tell you what’s worked for me thus far.

I haven’t tried it all, but I have tried a lot of different things. I blog regularly, I tweet incessantly, I post on Facebook, and I write. Of those items I would say ‘I write’ takes top billing. For over a year I’ve been averaging a book a month. Since I put my books through a third-party editor and cover artist they end up taking about 6 – 8 weeks, start to finish, so that means I’m always working on the next one.

For promoting, I rely on social media these days. That includes my blog, which I use ad nauseam to slip in references to books I’ve written, just released, or am working on. Just watch, before this post is over I’ll have slipped in a link or two here as well. And since this is a guest post and most of you probably haven’t heard of me, you might just be curious enough to check it out. All I’ll promise is that you won’t be disappointed if you do.

I’ve tried paying a little bit for promotion, including some ads in magazines and on websites. Complete waste of money. In fact I paid for some Goodreads advertising in late 2011. I bought a pay / per click package and a year and a half later I still haven’t exhausted the $50 I put into it! Talk about major suck.

I’ve also spent a lot of money on a promotion plan. I coughed up $3k on a 3 month marketing campaign that was very impressive. I was wowed by the amount of work that went into it, both on my end (writing up blog posts, recording an audible sample chapter, etc.) and on the end of the advertising agency. I track my sales to a level that is downright anal so I can tell you with absolute certainty that during the three-month period of this campaign the sales on that particular book DECREASED. Yes, they went down. Not significantly, but it wasn’t selling all that great in the first place (hence the attempt to boost it). It’s an awesome book too, but ultimately it’s all about visibility. Yet my attempt to boost my visibility met with astounding failure.

Back in spring / early summer of 2012 I had some runaway sci-fi titles that sold as much as 5500 copies in a month (combined, not each). Not freebies, those were paid copies. Shame they were only $.99 each, but that lofted them into the top 10 lists of the sci-fi section. Then the jealous and angry writers hit me with bogus reviews that dropped them back down into obscurity. These days I’m happy if I can sell 10 copies of one of those titles in a month. To try to revitalize them I loaded them into KDP Select.

Using the 5 free promotion days (meaning I have 5 days out of every 90 I can assign it to be free on Amazon) I’ve arranged each of the 7 titles to go free for a five-day period  at a time (different periods, of course). My hope was to give away lots of them and increase interest in the others. I have not, however, done a good job of advertising when these freebies would be available. Shame on me, I know. As a result of that my Vitalis novellas (New Beginnings, The Colony, Parasites, Screamer, Squatter’s Rights, Evolution, and Matriarch) have increased to that 5 – 10 copy / month / title level though. A far cry from what they once did, but that’s why I keep writing.

KDP Select is a potential godsend for cheap books. My $.99 titles bring in a whopping $.35 every time one is bought. But if an Amazon Prime member borrows one I typically get $2 or more, depending on the fund Amazon has set aside for them. Now that’s pretty cool! Unfortunately amongst the 7 KDP Select titles in this series I’m averaging 2 – 5 borrows a month.

jason halstead vitalisI just put another book into KDP Select yesterday, my Vitalis Omnibus. This one contains all seven of the aforementioned novellas and it is a bargain compared to the price of buying each episode for $.99. I recently reduced the price to $2.99 in fact, in hopes of driving up volume. The results have been minimal. It does, however, give me the opportunity to get about as much for a borrow on it as I would for a sale. And yes, I’ve already had one borrow against it. Either that’s a good sign or an outlying data point. Oh, and speaking of this book it’s going on a 5 day freebie promo this Friday, April 19th, through Tuesday April 23rd.

The downside to KDP Select is exclusivity. For that 90 day period when the title is enrolled it cannot be available anywhere else as an ebook, in whole or in part. I learned the latter part when I left my Vitalis Omnibus available on Barnes & Noble, Nook, Smashwords, iTunes, and Sony and Amazon smacked me in the back of the head for it. I had to take it down from those other sites or risk having all 7 bumped out of the program. I realized I might as well put the omnibus in KDP Select too, although it took me a while to reach that conclusion (I started the other books in late February and only yesterday put the latest one into KDP Select).

Considering that exclusivity the question a writer must ask themselves is whether it’s worth the lost income from those venues. For me it’s a no brainer – I make less than 4% of my monthly income from writing from B&N and Kobo. iTunes and Sony do me fairly well, but it’s still less than 5% of the monthly net. And for the titles in question it’s probably less than $200 a quarter (+/- $60 a month). So with negligible numbers like that it’s an easy button to press for me. Based on borrows alone it doesn’t seem to be worth it, but if the free book promo days are boosting sales then maybe it’ll work out – I wish there was some way to know.

Other tactics I use involve Twitter and Facebook. Every two to three hours I send out a tweet about one of my books with a link to Amazon. It’s random as far as which of my preconfigured tweets to send and infrequent enough I hope I’m not pissing off any of my followers. I’m up to almost 18,000, so I think I’m doing okay. I do know that Twitter has helped me sell some books in the past. Not massive amounts by any stretch, but every sale helps. The trick is moderation, I think.

Facebook is a great tool for reaching out to my readers. Or at least the ones interested enough to like my page. Outside of the campaigns to generate likes I’ve got a handful of what I call super-fans. These people are great – they own every one of my titles and eagerly devour the next as soon as it comes out. I often interact with them as well, but that doesn’t stop me from interacting with anyone else. In fact I’m proud to say I’ve responded to every single reader that’s ever reached out to me, and I’ve done so in a timely manner. And yes, I’ve had quite a few of them (more than I can count, to be honest). Dialogue between writer and reader is essential.

Facebook does not generate new readers though. It’s a vehicle to communicate to my fans and that’s it. Sure there’s Facebook advertising but I know I completely ignore ads on Facebook and from all the bad things I’ve read about those who have tried it, I’m not interested in throwing my money away.

That’s about it for promotion. As for marketing, that’s less about trying to be seen and more about making it easy for people to find my books. To that end I keep up-to-date lists in every book I publish of all the other books I’ve written. Not just lists, but links. These are ebooks, people can click on the links and be taken to the new book. Or to my website, email, blog, or twitter feed. The more available I make myself and my books the better my chances of selling a book are.

To make a long post longer, I’ll talk about genre a bit. I am primarily a science fiction and jason halstead wantedfantasy writer. My first runaway series was called Wanted and it took off when I made the first book in that series (Wanted) free. Sales of the second book skyrocketed and while they’ve fluctuated over time they hold reasonably well over time. I released a third book to finish the trilogy early this year and sales of that book have done reasonably well also. The end result of the study proves that it is possible to make money off of free.

At the same time I released a space fantasy series called Voidhawk. It’s kind of a cross between sci-fi and fantasy, although mostly fantasy. I ended up making Voidhawk, book 1 in that series free as well and over the years it’s been out (since 2009), it has been my bestselling series and I continue to put out new books in it (just released book 6, Voidhawk – The Edge of Forever early this month). I have a few other series, science fiction and urban fantasy, that are clipping along under the radar. They do okay, but definitely mid-list at best. Great books, but they haven’t found their niche yet. Then I have a new fantasy series (Blades of Leander) I started late last year. I finished the first trilogy earlier this year and it’s doing phenomenal. None of the four books (trilogy + omnibus) have hit the top 100 fantasy lists but I’m optimistic that they’ll become serious contenders for my best series by the end of the year. I’m trying to solidify that by writing another book that starts up a new series (probably another trilogy) a year after the first one ends.

So, in my experience, fantasy is the bestselling genre. Having said that, I know it’s not the biggest genre in terms of fans. Romance and smut take that crown. I think mystery and suspense ranks higher as well, but I’m honestly not sure. I’m trying out a new series that is a combination of romance / smut / and espionage in hopes of tapping into those markets. The first book has yet to be edited and hit the virtual shelves yet though, so the jury’s still out.

In case it’s not apparent, I’m a multi-genre writer. I don’t believe in boundaries and I don’t like to paint myself in a corner. Writers aren’t confined into the hidebound roles traditional publishing once confined us to, so why not branch out and explore?

So in summary, I believe that books sell books. Meaning if you write it, they will read, provided you keep writing more of them. Of course they need to know it exists, so that’s where cross-linking and posting about it wherever possible come in handy. And then there’s that poor chicken. No, I don’t advocate any sort of rituals or superstitions, I simply mean blind luck plays a role.

That and never, ever, underestimate the power of free. Whether it’s giving away free books or having your books pirated. What it means is more people are seeing them and that means more people are buying them. Even my books that are on file sharing torrents I’m okay with – more people are seeing them that way. In many cases those people wouldn’t buy them anyhow, but once they read them maybe they’ll like them enough to talk about them to others or buy the next one themselves for the sake of convenience.

To learn more about Jason Halstead or to look into the books he’s written, head over to his website at http://www.booksbyjason.com or look him up on Facebook at http://www.facebooks.com/booksbyjason.

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Thanks, Jason, for such a thorough post.  Stay tuned for more posts about KDP Select.  After much deliberation, I am going to put one of my books back in the program to see if I can generate more sales.  What I do, and what I learn, I will share with you all :) .

 

 

 

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There Are Still Good People Out There

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Renée Pawlish

I was going to title this post When Tragedy Strikes, Remember The Good.  That’s probably an okay title as well…but I wanted to focus on people.  As I drove my dad to the airport this morning, a radio personality commented that, in the midst of the tragedy in Boston, we see so much good from people, and that we need to focus on the good every day, not just days like yesterday.

It’s Happened Again

I can’t believe I’m writing again about tragedy in these United States.  I never posted anything on what happened at Sandy Hook (what can you say, really), or other recent tragic events, and I wasn’t going to say anything on my blog about Boston, but that comment from the radio has stuck with me all day.  It would be easy to focus on the negative.  The horrific event; the state of our country and the world; the economy…or we can focus on the good that comes out of something so bad.  Or just the good in general.

We keep hearing about heroes in Boston, and that is so cool.  We hear about the victims, may they find peace in this awful time.  We need to hear more about all of them.  On this, I don’t know what else to say…

Paying It Forward

I will leave more thoughts on Boston to more eloquent writers than I.  In this post, I want to focus on people.  I started writing almost twenty years ago.  I began blogging almost two years ago, at the same time I started selling my books.  I’ve met a great many authors, both indie authors and mainstream authors, who have helped me along the way, shared what they’ve learned, supported me, or just shown a kindness to me.  In light of recent events, I thought that, like the radio announcer said, I can pay it forward, just because…so I’m going to acknowledge those that have helped me along the way, those that have done something good for me:

Mainstream-published authors:

  • John Dunning
  • Diane Mott Davidson
  • G.M. Ford
  • Kinky Friedman
  • Sue Grafton
  • Rick Hanson
  • Dennis Lehane

Indie Authors (and those that support us):

  • Jeff Bennington
  • Rob Blackwell
  • Bert Carson
  • Christina Carson
  • Jack Durish
  • Betta Ferrendelli
  • Melissa Foster
  • Arturo Garcia
  • R.S. Guthrie
  • Gary Henry
  • Andy Holloman
  • Sandy Jones
  • Patrick Jones
  • Robert McDonnell
  • D.E. Morley
  • Toby Neal
  • Philip Neale
  • Magda Olchawska
  • Matt E. Patterson
  • Joanna Penn
  • Caleb Pirtle
  • Sharon Pollock
  • Jon Reisfeld
  • Jay Squires
  • Jo Von Bargen
  • Anthony Wessel

I’m sure I’m forgetting people, and I do apologize for that.  Know that I thank you.  Thanks also to all the people who have hosted me on their blogs, for the Triberr community, the Twitter community, the Facebook community and more.  Thanks to all my readers, too.

Thanks to everyone who visits this blog.  And for those of you who have let me know how helpful it is to you, I sure appreciate hearing that.

I hope that you all go forward with kindness in your hearts.  You all have certainly blessed me, and I say one final thank you for that.

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The Best of Film Noir – Clash By Night

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Renée Pawlish

Best of Film Noir - Clash by NightThis week in the Best of Film Noir, we’re taking a look at a classic movie, Clash By Night, starring the incomparable Barbara Stanwyck.  Some might think that Clash By Night is not film noir, but it has everything that noir is in it: a noir hero, a femme fatale, love, betrayal, violence, power, control and more.  Even if you disagree with me and say Clash By Night is not noir, it’s still a powerful movie…

The Best of Film Noir – The Femme Fatale

I normally start by talking about the noir hero, but in Clash By Night, it’s the femme fatale who is the show.  Barbara Stanwyck plays Mae Doyle, a woman who’s taken a beating from life.  Mae returns to her hometown and shacks up with Jerry (played by Paul Douglas).  You’d think this would be enough, but a femme fatale doesn’t make the best choices, and Mae is no exception.  Even though she is with nice, stable Jerry, Mae embarks on an affair with a hard-drinking, woman-hating man, Earl (played by Robert Ryan).  Stanwyck is stunning in this role, capturing the sexual frustration, desperation, and selfishness of Mae.

The Best of Film Noir – The Noir Hero

Robert Ryan is our noir hero, a misogynistic, violent man.  Ryan is wonderful in the role of Earl.  He’s brutish and cruel, but there’s also an anguish in him.  He’s troubled and cynical, and underneath it all, he knows it.  He cracks at one point, crying to Mae: help me, Mae, I’m dying of loneliness.  Earl hates women, and yet he cannot stop his dependence on them.  And it’s his downfall.

The Best of Film Noir – The Ending

Clash By Night has an interesting ending, one that has prompted a lot of discussion.  Is the Barbara Stanwick Robert Ryanclash between Mae and Earl just about power and control?  Or is there more to it, a possibility of redemption or forgiveness (as critic Tony D’Ambra says)?  Do we see Mae finally examine her the poor choices she’s made, and the consequences of those choices?  Some think the ending is soft, that violence between Mae and Earl would’ve been more in character.  I’ll leave that to you to decide.

The Best of Film Noir – Great Direction and Writing

Clash By Night was directed by the great Fritz Lang, adapted from a screenplay by Clifford Odets (Tallulah Bankhead starred in the stage play).  Lang did a phenomenal job of creating a documentary-like quality to the film.  Mae’s hometown is a small fishing village, and Lang captures all the details of day-to-day life of the fishermen and cannery workers.  Lang, through camera angles, shows us the complicated relationships at play in the film.  The ending itself, where we find ourselves wanting to look, and also turn away, is staged to leave us wondering, and mulling over what it all meant.

Clash By Night is full of lonely, sad people…and yet they are very realistic.  Modern noir author and scholar Megan Abbott perfectly captures that sense of slaughter that pervades Clash by Night in an essay she wrote for Noir of the Week: the fever that pulses through the movie is the same one that burns through most classic film noir: that constant, brooding fear of sexual betrayal and loss of power.  In fact, few movies better capture the post-war mood of gender anxiety and rage.

The Best of Film Noir – Trivia And Goofs

This is one of Marilyn Monroe’s first starring roles, where she got billing before the title credits.

When Mae and Jerry are in the movies, Mae tells him this is where we came in and they walk out.  It was common in the 1950s for viewers to walk in during a picture, watch it till the end and then wait for the picture to play again and leave when it gets to the part they came into the theater.

Thanks to IMDb for those!

Film noir or not, do not miss Clash By Night.  It’s one-of-a-kind, and you’ll be glad you watched it.  So grab your popcorn and settle in for a treat :) .

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Want more film noir with a dose of humor?  Try reading the Reed Ferguson mystery series.  The first in the series is This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies.

From Kirkus Reviews:
The promising kickoff to Pawlish’s comic mystery series, starring far-from-perfect PI Reed Ferguson. Pawlish earns high marks for plot construction, with twists and turns naturally unfolding as Ferguson, inexperienced but not incapable, feels his way through the case. A good-humored mystery series worth following.

From Readers’ Favorites:
This is one witty, hilarious detective story that will keep the reader glued to the pages till the very end.

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Free Kindle Book Downloads And More From Digital Book Today

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Renée Pawlish

Digital Book TodayIf you’re an indie author who likes or wants to take advantage of free kindle book downloads, then you need to know about Digital Book Today.  This wonderful site is run by Anthony Wessel, and I have been deeply impressed by Anthony’s book industry knowledge and his incredible generosity.  Since I first came into contact with Anthony, he has been nothing but kind and helpful, and Digital Book Today has been a great resource for me, not only as a place to advertize free books, but book advertizing in general and tips on the publishing trade.  I’ve been saying I wanted to interview Anthony for a while, and I’m delighted to say that’s finally happened.  Read on…

What is your book/publishing background and how did you end up there?

I spent 8 years as a District Sales Manager for Borders/Waldenbooks from 1994-2002.  This was the time period where both Borders and B&N (B.Dalton) started to aggressively add big box stores while the number of mall-based bookstores was shrinking.  Amazon came into the picture at this time.  Amazon actually did special order fulfillment for Borders and Waldenbooks.  That time was a great learning experience as I was exposed to many parts of the book industry (distribution, sales, marketing, selling, the book sales cycle, local authors [indie authors]), and the yearly trends of the book industry which are not really any different now then they were 40 years ago.  Just the delivery of the book has changed.

What was your inspiration for starting Digital Book Today?

I was always a book reader, and I just wanted to get back into the book industry.  As a stay-at-home dad, I was (and still am) running two other non-book websites on the print-on-demand websites CafePress and Zazzle.

What do you think of KDP Select and free days?

Top 100 Free Kindle Book ListFor small and starting authors it is a great opportunity to use the marketing muscle of the world’s largest bookseller for free.  Selectively incorporating KDP Select into a comprehensive marketing plan can be a real plus for the indie author.

What is the positive/negative about the program for indie authors?

There are many indie authors who just think putting their book up for free is all they have to do.  Again, it takes a planned marketing program to make it work.  Unless an author is already making a steady monthly income from book sales, why would you not want to participate?  Remember, ARC’s (Advanced Reader Copies) have been given away by authors and publishers for the past 40 years.  Now indie authors can also do it with no cost.  When I worked in the retail book industry, ARC’s were always available in the backroom of bookstores.  Sometimes they actually had to be thrown out because there were too many of them.  A bit of trivia: J.K. Rowling had ARC’s of both Harry Potter #1 and #2 available at book expos that were sent to bookstores.  I actually have an ARC of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Bk #2) on my bookshelf.  I wonder if it has any value?

Do you have a crystal ball – what’s your predictions on where publishing will go from here?

Don’t underestimate the big publishing houses.  They are still making money and the book industry still follows the same sales trends and cycles.  The major change is where books have been bought in the past 40 years.  First it was indie bookstores.  Then it was mall based bookstores.  Followed by the superstores.  Then online through Amazon.  Now a majority of the books are being sold digitally.  However the sales trends have not really changed.  The Christmas holiday season is the biggest time to sell books.  There are minor sales spikes for Easter, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, summer beach reads, and Halloween — just like there has been for the past 40 years.  A hot book or series will dominate for a few months — Harry Potter, Goosebumps, Shades of Gray, Lord of the Rings, Oprah (remember her book club – automatic #1 bestseller).  Digital books have not really changed the sales cycle.

Are there any special plans you have for Digital Book Today?

A lot of new competition is being added daily on the web.  We’ll need to continue to expand our offerings and readership.  We have several ideas that are being developed (details in the future).  Our Top 100 Best Free Kindle Book List will continue to be a component of our business plan.  While we have a minimum requirement for books to be put on this list, it does allow an authors’ free book to be seen for more than one day.  We have stayed away from the common strategy on many other sites of mainly providing a search function listing, in many cases thousands of books broken down by genre.  Our Top 100 Best Free Kindle Book List is more like walking into a bookstore.  The bestsellers are right up front and genres are mixed together.  This allows a book of one genre to be exposed to a reader who may not usually read a different genre.  As the old saying goes one size does not fit all.  We consistently see downloads of books to the same person but from different genres.

What’s your best piece of marketing advice for indie authors?

1) Keep writing.  The more books you have the better.

2) Have a marketing plan.  It does not need to be in place every day.  There’s nothing wrong with a rotating effort every 6-10 weeks for a week or two.  In the off time, focus on writing your next great book.

Thanks, Anthony, for those insights!  And I’ll bet that Harry Potter ARC is worth some money :) .

Check out The Top 100 Best Free Kindle Books List and support great indie authors and Digital Book Today.

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