The Journal of Spartan_Warrior

[Spartan_Warrior]

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[Chad]

Book is 9/14 complete.

Nice. Sounds like you are making good progress on the 2nd one.

[Spartan_Warrior]

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[Spartan_Warrior]

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[Spartan_Warrior]

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[5to9]

I am not a marketer or a writer, so this advice might be wrong, but I'll give it anyway because this is the internet

The fear of failure is a very real stumbling block, but I think a lot of that is in how you mentally frame success. Marketing in particular should be viewed as just a series of experiments, you try advertising on site X, measure the traffic that drives, and iterate. Set yourself a marketing budget for each book and figure out what works. A marketing campaign that doesn't work isn't a failure, it's an experimental result that helps refine your strategy.

Personally I would view building a fan base and particularly a mailing list as my number one priority in your shoes. Don't focus on the cash flows until you need them. I have watched, and supported many book launches for authors that I like through no more effort on their part than an email blast when the new product is available. Some of them are more strategic, offering extra rewards for pre-orders, etc. It's not easy to get me on a mailing list, but once I am, it's much more valuable than $4.99 in the pocket today.

And lastly, having read through your first book last night, I'd agree that you are writing at a quality level at or above much of the self-published stuff I've seen out there. One strategy that seems to work well for many is to make books build on each other, often times developing the same characters throughout, but making sure each book is readable on its own. This would allow strategies like making the new release really cheap in hopes that new readers buy your back catalog, etc. Cliffhangers like your first book are good if I happen across them in order, but I'm guessing that if I read the sequel first, I won't have much incentive to go buy the first book.

Anyway, you're out there, writing quality stuff, I think you should consider that a major success. Attack the marketing / revenue building as a puzzle to solve over time, not to be won or lost in a single try.

[Chad]

And lastly, having read through your first book last night, I'd agree that you are writing at a quality level at or above much of the self-published stuff I've seen out there.

I completely agree with 5to9. The quality is there. I would be surprised if you don't at least have some success as an author. From my vantage point, it would appear to just be an matter of perseverance.

I would be happy to help you out. Not sure if you liked my review for your last book or not, but if you thought it was helpful I can read the new one in the next two weeks.

[Spartan_Warrior]

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[Chad]

Another advertising method, would be to reach out to other self-pub authors who write similar books and put a chapter from one of your books or a one page ad/synopsis in the back of their book. You might have to pay them initially, if you don't have a personal relationship with them already. Eventually, you could trade space at the end of your book for theirs once you get a few buys.

[Spartan_Warrior]

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[Chad]

Glad I could help. That seems like a solid plan. The marketing part of a book is something I have thought about a little, as I plan to self-publish. I had some of the same thoughts, but few others (Of course, this might be completely stupid and no help to you at all, so feel free to ignore it. Plus, I'm sure I will rethink and rework this plan over the next 5-6 months.):

- Get my ebook into as many libraries as possible. Depending on how much work this takes I might just focus on large population areas. this should be relatively cheap, as I would do it with all electronic copies. No paper. Personally, I borrow a ton of ebooks and audiobooks from my library via download. No late fees and you never have to go to the library.

- I plan on using someone like these guys http://www.derangeddoctordesign.com/ for the cover along with all the graphics I need for a larger marketing campaign. Specifically, I plan on using the "Full Package" and the "DDD's Special" or something similar from someone else. I will then use this for my Facebook page, Twitter, blog, and other social media. This would include buying ad space on certain blogs that focus on the genre I'm interested in, as well as potentially buying ads on certain podcasts. I know that in general ads aren't known for selling books, but most of this seems to be coming from publishers who blasted untargeted ads on TV or in newspapers.

- I plan on making up a publisher and putting it on the book cover. I want my books to look as "professional" as possible. Like they have been pre-approved by a publisher, as some people still need that foolishness.

- I can probably get 5-10 legit reviews from immediate friends and family for the initial push (probably a lot more, but I'm being conservative).

- My only paper versions will be special hard backs with signature that could be collector's items. I won't do this until I have a little success. I don't think paper has a future unless you can get into Wal-Mart or unless you publish non-fiction.

- Focus on blogs/websites dealing with my main characters. For instance, your main character is a strong female with a child in danger. I would try to get that in front of feminists, for the lack of a better word, and mothers.

There are other ideas I have that I can't think of right now. Overall, I plan on spending a couple thousand to push my book, but I probably won't do the big spending until I have at least two novels to sell, if not three. I have no idea if this will work or just be wasted effort and money. No way to know for sure until I try it, but I have spent money on far dumber things. The risk reward ratio is strongly in favor of spending the money. If it works, I get to quit my job or at least quit it sooner. If not, I work an extra month to recoup the couple grand.

$60 - Ereader News Today (ENT) Book of the Day ad. (http://ereadernewstoday.com/authors-pro ... ooks-here/) Requires 7 Amazon reviews with minimum average rating of 3.5, so, again, requires substantial momentum. They don't seem to allow you to select a desired date for the promotion, so I would also have to forgo it if it turned out they didn't have any openings available in the first two release months. (I also have some concerns regarding ENT's rather lengthy reservations about "graphic sex scenes"; though I wouldn't consider anything in the series pornographic, tastes vary). We'll see about this.

Your previous book wasn't any more pornographic than Barry Eisler's books and he isn't consider pornographic by any menas. I would think yours would be fine.

[5to9]

If you are going to drop the first book to free, there are a lot of websites out there to promote free kindle books. Might make sense to push to get on as many of them as you can around the time of the second book's launch. One my wife uses a lot:

http://www.pixelofink.com/

The Kindle Countdown Deals sounds like a good way to promote your book, maybe more effective than just a low entry price:

https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=201293790

[Spartan_Warrior]

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[Chad]

@Chad:
Re: covers and design, yeah, I'm trying to do all that crap myself with my limited PhotoChop skills, though I am second-guessing myself now as I've grown increasingly less fond of the cover for SDB1. In retrospect, it's somewhere between amateurish and downright offputting to the target audience (though it appeals to my own demographic of 18-30 year old males, I'm not sure what mothers/women 35+ think about a naked model waving a gun--come on, it's empowering, right? ). Remaking/rereleasing that cover is something I've been toying with too. Maybe not changing the entire concept but polishing it or sophisticating it somehow.

I wasn't really thinking about the cover when I made the feminist/mother suggestion. No, the current cover probably wouldn't work for them.

I actually enjoy the process of making my own covers, ads, and other graphics, so that makes me reluctant to outsource as well. But we'll see what necessity dictates.

I enjoy this kind of work too, but my skill level isn't to where I need it to be.

Indifference of friends/family is one of the reasons why I now have a "no hard sells" rule (that I occasionally break, usually to my sorrow) prohibiting me from directly asking any particular individuals to read, review, or otherwise assist. I post general ads and announcements only and no longer bother asking specific friends/family. IMO it's about as awkward, humiliating, and typically unproductive as trying to collect a debt from a friend.

Yeah, I expect a few won't do it, but I already have 5-10 who have committed to doing it. A few of those won't do it, but most probably will as they have volunteered as proof readers.

[Spartan_Warrior]

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[Spartan_Warrior]

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[spoonman]

Among other things, this is making me reconsider my $50 bribe plan since if any reviewer mentions it, not only would it look bad, but it would probably run afoul of this review policy. Not pissing off Amazon seems to be a good business rule of thumb at the moment.

Haha!

[jacob]

@SW - It certainly seems that amazon's review policies are anti-author. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn't.

I think the censor policy comes from the sock puppet scandal a few years ago when an author publicly admitted to having generated several accounts to review and hype his own books. I think everybody in this space is also aware of a certain person hiring virtual assistants from India to write positive reviews. Whether that's still true, he certainly has that reputation now and so people don't trust those reviews as much.

At least in the fiction-department, there are, apparently, also several authors who believe that book consumption is a zero-sum game, whence if they can destroy their alleged competitors in the reviews, they will get more sales for themselves.

This works because amazon customers don't read the reviews critically. What I have noticed is that my sales are dinged slightly whenever the last review I received is negative. The other 130+ reviews don't matter nearly as much as the last one. Many people don't read them all. They simply look at the star rating. A string of bad reviews can destroy sales. I've seen several frustrated blog posts from authors who were carpet bombed by a competitor, while amazon apparently does nothing to fix the situation.

In addition, sales follow the Matthew-effect. Books that sell more gets pushed higher up on the lists, and since many people only look at best-seller lists, they sell even more. A book doesn't have to be the best book to sell the most. It only needs to be pushed onto a top-50 list. If it's high on the list, it will likely stay there. Momentum matters!!! This is why scheming authors do "launches".

Finally, while amazon is happy to protect consumers, they do practically nothing to protect authors. I have a couple of negative reviews of my books by people who have admitted to not even reading the book. I have reported these as abuse, but amazon has done nothing. Maybe they need more than 1 person to report it or maybe they need someone other than the author. In any case, they're not exactly vigilant in THAT department.

PS: In my opinion, a lot could be salvaged, if amazon would 1) not display any stars; 2) quit with the best-seller lists and mix things up more; 3) eliminate the Matthew effect when it comes to "helpful" reviews---again, the "most helpful" reviews are not necessarily the best reviews, rather they are the oldest reviews which have received upvotes simply because they are the few ones being read and upvoted.

PPS: If you haven't already, you should also register on goodviews. Stars mean a lot less there and people are fairly active.

[GandK]

It sounds like you're all set at present, but if you'll need a reader in December, let me know! I'm trying like crazy to prepare my own work for publication by EOM October, and November will be NaNoWriMo... will you participate this year?

Also, I'm a 35+ woman and I didn't have any problem with your Book One cover art. It fit the story nicely. The ladies who would be offended by the cover wouldn't read crime novels anyway. I wouldn't bother pandering to an audience that you're not targeting.

And +1 to Jacob... I use Goodreads exclusively when looking for new reading material. IME it's the best place online to find new authors that fit what I'm looking for.

[jacob]

Also, I'm a 35+ woman and I didn't have any problem with your Book One cover art. It fit the story nicely. The ladies who would be offended by the cover wouldn't read crime novels anyway. I wouldn't bother pandering to an audience that you're not targeting.

That doesn't mean that [unintended audiences] can be avoided entirely. And when they trip over the wire, they might leave a negative review simply because they were offended by the cover. For example, I have a review from someone who was deeply offended because I consistently used the standard "he" impersonal pronoun rather than the politically correct "he or she" without explicitly pointing out that "yes, women can also retire early". They are somewhat rare, but they do exist and they sometimes treat these issues as a personal crusade. It's a bummer to get negative reviews simply due to some random person's idiosyncratic politics. Note that as per above they do not even need to read the book to review it.