When I first published my book (#1) in 2014 Indie reviews weren't really a thing. They may have existed but either I didn't find them or I simply don't remember them. With my second book, I definitely knew they existed but I think I only found about 5 people/sites to request reviews from. There were others but they were all pay sites. None of them decided to review my work so I had to depend solely on my readers.
Then I blinked. Two years later and I am looking for reviewers again and OMG there's a ton! I have just been going through one list (The Indie Review list) and there are 297 entries! Some of them don't count for me since they only do romance or historical or non-fiction but that still leaves a ton.
The community changed a bit. They have a lot of pull. Each site has a review policy and checklist (as required by the Indie Review List). Some have automated contact sheets and are pretty mechanical others want the personal touch. There was one site that wasn't taking reviews but they pointed out that a lot of writers are pretty rude when requesting a review, sending out impersonal request letters that didn't even have their name. They had a good point. Until I went to that site and read that I did the same thing. She suggested at least addressing the reviewer by name. A simple but very personal touch.
Now keep in mind that a lot of review sites are run but groups that don't release their names or enter a queue so you don't actually know who will read your request. Others use a contact form that is straight to the point and no frills. Still, if you are sending a request to a single person this can really change the tone of the e-mail.
Another reviewer had a neat angle. He required you send the contents of page 69 of your book. Apparently, there's a theory that this can decide whether to buy the book or give it a pass. Fortunately, my MC was doing something interesting on that page instead of brushing his teeth or taking a nap. Or researching. He does that a lot, which important for character progress but I suppose would be a somewhat lacking excerpt. Wow, I really dodged that bullet.
Another thing that is new is author interviews. I have no idea what they are but they sound interesting. Well, kinda. I have a hard time imaging people want to hear how I deal with two crazy twins every day but I suppose I could talk about my creative style... or something. Maybe my shopping habit. I did do some question and answers over on Goodreads. Maybe someone read that.
One problem I am doubtless going to run into is that this is book #3. I know that if I was a reviewer I wouldn't want to review a book in the middle of a series on its own merits. Heck, I am not sure I want them to. after I had submitted about 20 requests I realized this and I offered to send them the earlier books. Of course, considering that most of them barely have time to read the book you request I have my doubts they will want to read 2 others first. Still, with over a hundred relevant reviewers, I have hope that some of them will want to jump in.
I have just submitted the third book to the Amazon store! So its almost out. Of course, Amazon has to review the submitted content for horrible errors but they usually do that within a day or so. They say it could be up to 72 hours but I think that's just to allow them some leeway.
Reviewing your own work for errors is always entertaining. Not. I used Grammarly for the initial review. Either this add-on has degraded or my memory isn't as good as it used to be (a given). My second pass review, where I read the entire story from scratch, caught a ton of glaring mistakes that I could have sworn Grammarly used to fix. Perhaps in an attempt to get you to buy the complete version they moved the useful part of the program into the pay only section. As much as I try to review the story, I always have heaps of incredibly useful feedback from readers that catch errors. Thank you for that! The books wouldn't be nearly as readable without your help.
Every time I upload a new book to Amazon, their system has changed slightly. This time I found they have a program where they offer your paperback book to be picked up to alternate distributors. I am not sure who this is... bookstores? Coffee shops? Car parts depots? Probably not the last one. The program is promising until you realize that you get 40% royalties instead of 60%. This plus the base price increase means that you have to increase the book price. Who is going to buy a $20 paperback? Despite this, I signed up for it. After all, no one buys my paperbacks anyway;) Does that count as a Hail Mary pass?
On another front, I joined Amazon Associates. It allows you to place targeted ads on your website that point to specific products. If people click on that link and buy stuff on Amazon then you get something back. I forget how much but a percent or so. I signed up because I have a new (well not so new anymore) website that I wanted to display my books on. I was trying to find an add-on that would display the reviews from Amazon for each book. Needless to say, I failed.
There do seem to be such add-ons in existence but each seems to require you apply for Amazon's API program. Not user-friendly and the requirements for Amazon accepting you into the program are...unclear. The Amazon Associates program allows you to go to Amazon and have them make a targeted advertisement for up to 4 items. This includes a tiny cover graphic, the cost, and the star review rating total. Not exactly what I wanted but it was something.
Anyway, I got kicked out of the program. Apparently, if you don't get a minimum number of sales from this advertisement within 180 days you get kicked out. In other words, you aren't allowed to advertise for them... That's odd logic but it does tell me that no one looks at my webpage;)
Just moved into a new house about two weeks ago. What a huge endeavor. Every time I move I get determined to throw things out. Nothing was done during this time. A few weeks before that I got a new NAS and installed Joomla on it. Joomla is a free Content Management System. Basically a newfangled webpage. It was fun learning how to create a web page ( web.myworlds.icu ) though I still have issues with it saying it's not secure. I am not sure if its a firewall issue or a VPN issue. I'll figure it out eventually. All in all a remarkably unproductive month. I am trying to get back into a routine. I still have those three projects to get out!
I have had a few questions from readers about how far along I am with book 3. I am about 3/5 done (unless it runs longer than expected). I am looking at a release around December. If I can find that Amazon program where I submit it through them I may use that. This would delay the release a few months since you promise Amazon not to publish it separately while they look over your submission. However, I may never be able to find that offer again. Never let it be said that Amazon's publishing program is clear and well documented. I will deny it!
On a somewhat related note, I am also working in parallel on two other books. One is a children's book. I wanted to have it ready for my little girls' 5th birthday, but it is going to be late (already is). I am doing the drawings myself. I used to draw when I was much younger. My talent pales in comparison to a professional artist, however, I think it should be adequate for children's illustrations. I also narrated it and recorded it for my kids. They enjoyed it. I may use this to test out the waters for audio books. It's only a ten-minute story and I can do it myself, so it should be good to get my toes wet. It is a fun side project and I suppose I would be done already if I were working on it for more than an hour a day.
The second project is sorta a lit RPG genre story. This is a crossover genre, generally describing full immersion VR MMO games. I find them frustrating since playing a computer game generally has no lasting real-life impact. I am trying for more of a reality crossover.
I know it looks like I am splitting my time three ways... and I am. However, I also find myself working on them all on regular basis. So, all in all, I have actually increased my writing speed for Book #3.
Wow, been over a year already. Last year wasn't great for my progress. My mother passed away and I got distracted by other projects as well as having to move. Still, I am getting back on track. I am hoping to have the next book done by the end of the year. Amazon has a program where if you haven't published something you can submit it to them. I am not sure of the details but I may try that. If I do I'll let everyone know.
Thanks for all the people asking for statuses. I appreciate your interests and will try to do a bit better with updates.
I submitted my book for review to "Underground Reviews". I have received the following:
"Congratulations on having A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1) selected as a Pitch Perfect Pick Finalist!
Our judges analyzed your book’s pitch, sample content, and several other factors and found it’s initial presentation comparable to other quality books in its genre and market. Once qualified, it had to finish in the top five of all our weekly qualifiers. This is an honor not given lightly.
Your book will be promoted as a finalist on our Facebook page by Monday. The following Sunday, we will add up your Likes and shares on Facebook, as well as the votes on our website. The winner will be published to our Magazine the following week, and the synopsis will go out to our 2000+ subscribers and 2000+ social media followers. The winner will also join the ranks of a select few books that are eligible for entry into our 2017 Novel of the Year competition."
I am not sure how their system works but I think they gave me an award for not having formatting that sucks. A review may or may not happen later. That's encouraging, right?
I recently made a few changes to the web-site. I added a Bloopers page to the allow the reporting of errors from the books. I really hate errors. If I could put a bounty on them I would. I know my readers aren't too fond of them either. Anyway, I don't think posts or changes to other parts of the site get reported like an update to the Blog page, so I am not sure anyone noticed.
Second, I have added a minor animation to the top of the "Projects" page. It was intended to be a tiny icon sized animation, however Wordpress construction tools seem to lack the concept of manual sizing. So it's a bit grainy and cut off when its resized to be the entire top of the page. It still was a cool little thing to put at the top of the page. If I get feedback such as "It crashes my machine!" or "I spent five hours downloading that page!" I will remove it.
A reviewer noted that I had messed up on a 'Find and Replace' while fixing the name Matt. Now all such 'matters' simply don't 'mater'. That's a horrible ryhm but it was mildly amusing when it was pointed out. Embarrassing too;) I have since updated the story and all matters of importance are back in place.
On an unrelated note... I have been doing some research on advertising. Two years ago when I published there wasn't much guidance except to blog, Facebook and Twitter. After I published my second book I did a bit more research. It turns out that the most up to date directions focus on reviews. Reviews submitted before the book is even published! Amazingly enough, there are scads of review sites out there that only will review a book before it's published. I'll have to remember this for book 3.
Amazon has an interesting program as well, where they accept unpublished manuscripts in some sort of contest and if you win they will sponsor your book and guarantee a minimum income over the five-year contract. Again, something to remember for next time.
Since I seem to be a bit behind in the whole advertising and review curve, I have been submitting my story to several book review sites and blogs. From what I have read only the free ones have any real weight, though most of the paid ones don't actually guarantee a favorable rating. It's interesting, I'll have to see if anyone will pick my book to review. It's all voluntary (unless you pay them) so I assume it depends a bit on luck.
There was an interesting tutorial that suggested that in order to have a hundred reviews upon the day you publish, you have to contact five (or maybe it was ten) times that many to solicit reviews. It also had methods to contact reviewers on Amazon and request they review your book. It seemed... exhausting. However, if you follow his advice and get a hundred reviews on the day it's published, you will probably deserve every one of them. Another common suggestion is to request a review at the end of your book. This seems fairly reasonable. Do you think I should add this?
Okay, not as fun as saying 'Book 2 is submitted' but still important. Stewart was kind enough to review the book and add some excellent corrections. He also fact-checked a few things which means I need to make a minor correction to Book 1.
For some reason, the first batch of corrections never got saved, so I had to redo them. However, they are all fixed (until we find more) and the book is uploaded to Amazon for their review process. Thanks, Stewart!
Published on Amazon! Scrubbed it with Grammarly last night. Hopefully, that got the worst of the errors. One of my readers has kindly volunteered to read through it too. Thanks! As before it will get better and better as I clean it up, but my goal was to make it a decent read the first time through. We'll see if I succeeded pretty soon.
Finished Book 2. I just got through proofreading it the first time round. I want to see if I can find another set of eyes to look at it. The last time I published (Book 1) I thought I had most of the errors caught but it took being read by another person and myself an additional two times to actually get most of the glaring errors. Ideally, it would be someone with Word and willing to use "Track Changes". Last time my brother in law graciously volunteered, but he just got a new job so I think he's busy. I'll try Grammarly but I had mixed results last time.
So we all know what happened on Tuesday. Been a little depressed since then, however writing is actually a pretty good distraction. I am about 3/4 to where I want Book 2 to be.
More...
Okay, so it has been a few months since I published on Nook and Apple. Wow, Apple was a bear. I got MacInClouds to work but it was slow. Ignoring that, it is funny that a company that prides itself on easy to use products such as the iPhone can have such counter-intuitive processes. Needs some Usability studies.
Nook wasn't that bad. It had an okay process and except for having to re-format the document, it wasn't bad. Having said that... I am removing my book from both services. While it is probably due to my lack of promoting I didn't actually sell anything. Really, nothing. This is in marked contrast to Amazon, whose sales have petered out, but had some decent activity for a period of time. I bow my head to the Amazon deities and will use their services going forward. On the bright side, this allows me to use Amazon KDP Select again. Whoot.
On to news regarding the book 2. I am on chapter 19. While the first book had only 21 chapters I am findings my chapters are tending to be shorter on average so this is only 2/3 done.
I am also thinking of putting a few of the early chapters of Book 1 up on Spacebattles. I am not sure anyone has ever heard of it. In fact, I never heard of it until about a year and half ago. Think of it as the forums version fanfiction.net with a bit of an obsession with a specific web novel. Wait! You never heard of fanfiction.net either?!? Yeah, most people look at me the same way...
I may also put up an earlier fanfiction story I wrote on Spacebattles, mostly to encourage myself to finish it. It is only a few chapters from completion but it has been stalled for literally years. I learned a lot from writing that story. I think you can see it in my writing as the story goes on. And it was a hoot. I still get people favoriting it, but Ranma fanfiction is pretty dead. Too bad, I still enjoy it.
For anyone unfamiliar with fanfiction, it is taking an existing character belonging to someone else and writing your own story about him. It is allowed by law as long as you don't make any money from it and post a disclaimer.
Just thought I would make an update here. The second book is coming along well. Hopefully, it will get done this year.
On another note, my computer and my wife's computer both went out. She lost her boot drive and my operating system crapped out. Both simple problems but a series of weird circumstances has made it ridiculously hard to fix the simple things. The computers are 7 years old, so this is to be expected. The good news is that no information lost, just a delay as I get my house in order, so to speak.
In other news, my Amazon KDP Select obligation just ran out so I am now in the process of publishing to Barnes and Nobles, Create Space (printed books) and Apple. B&N is as easy as Amazon. Create Space wasn't so bad, though I have some unresolved questions. I now understand why other Kindle books charge $15 for a one-off printing. The less said, the better.
Apple is really tricky. They prefer you use an aggregator so their "help" isn't very helpful. If you don't have a macintosh it is non-existent. Still, it seems there are online converters to the ePub format and there's a service I have heard of called "Macinclouds" where you rent an on-line macintosh. I think I can use this to publish through Apple, but we'll see.
Merry Christmas everyone! Just thought I would give out a status for those who were interested. The bad news, no sequel this year. The good news is that the story is still cooking away. Maybe by next year I'll have something I can publish. I am hoping that when I do I can have it proof read a bit more than my initial book was. Thanks for reading!
I found a new feature in Kindle. Apparently, readers can report errors in books. This, in turn, gets fed back to the writer by Amazon Kindle. A bit embarrassing, but there is no point in pretending my book doesn't have mistakes... The feedback I got was very specific and allowed me to delete several repeated paragraphs! Maybe one day I can pretend!
Anyway, version 6 is published. Once Amazon reviews the changes it will go live. It also has a new cover. I previously mentioned that I bought some royalty free photos. Well, I edited them a bit and I think its pretty decent. I wanted to mix in a cityscape but after several wrist breaking hours with the photo editor, the changes weren't saved. A bit disappointing. I used Cyberlinks PhotoDirector and it doesn't allow saving while removing backgrounds and you can't edit the foregrounds once isolated. Still what I have is better.
As a side note, the original dragon cover is actually a wooden carved figure I own. It was a gift from my wife. Not really a realistic dragon or what I picture my main character to be, however I thought it was decent as concept art. Its actually a varnished brown color but I thought grey scale hid several flaws better.
