Steven Orlowski's Blog: Steve O's "So What?" Blog - Posts Tagged "kindle"

Well, my book has been available at Amazon.com and Smashwords.com for almost three months now and sales have been disappointing.

However the people that have read it and given feedback have been very positive and seem to genuinely like the book. The only real criticism was because of a few typos and a formatting issue in the earlier edition which have been corrected.

I've been trying to promote it via Facebook and Twitter and recently here at Goodreads and I am now resorting to paid promotions, one of which began yesterday and will run through July 23.

My book is listed as a sale item (regularly $3.99 now just $0.99) at Digital Book Today (http://digitalbooktoday.com/daily-kin...).

It looks cool seeing my book cover on that site featured among several others. It'll be way cooler if sales pick up.

If any readers out there have experience successfully promoting their books elsewhere I'll certainly appreciate any advice you can provide me. At the end of this experiment I'll let you know how well this promotion worked.

Well, I just watched a YouTube video of the heavy metal band Gwar Trick-or-Treating in New Jersey last year...

For anybody that's keeping track, I'm a home-grown New Jerseyan, through and through.

Now, New Jersey gets a bad rap sometimes, but trust me, 98% of the bad stuff dispensed through the media about New Jersey is false anyway, although the taxes do suck...so it ain't cheap to live here.

And there are a lot of talented, and in some cases legendary, people who can wave the flag of the Garden State with pride...

Bruce Springsteen, of course, but also Frank Sinatra, Jon Bon Jovi (maybe) and, for us readers and writers, the great Harlan Coben.

What does this have to do with Halloween? Nothing. Except I just got back from taking my little ones Trick-or-Treating through our neighborhood...

Had a glass of wine once they were safe in bed...

Stumbled upon the Gwar video on Facebook...

And realized I hadn't posted here in a month.

You see, I self-published my first novel on Kindle in April of 2013...unfortunately, as of now, my book sales have stalled.

But I'm finishing up the next and looking forward to unleashing it upon the handful of loyal readers I've amassed (mild sarcasm intended).

Plus, I recently discovered the new Kindle Countdown Deals promo.

Unfortunately you can't use it if you've changed your books price within the last 30 days (which I have, like yesterday).

But I wonder if any of you have used it...

And if you've had success with it.

If you care to share, please let me know.

Happy Halloween.

There's a whole lot of blogging going on in the "indie publishing" camp, most of it aimed at the monopoly in book publishing commonly referred to in the US as the Big Five...

For the record, I am a self-published author, indie if you like, because I couldn't get an agent or a publisher for my novel. And like most, I presume, I figured what the hell, there are a handful of writers making boatloads of money self-publishing, in many cases only eBooks and only at Amazon.com for Kindle, I might as well give it a go.

And I have sold far more books to date than I would have had I continued to pursue representation and a traditional book publishing deal - or have I?

And therein lies the quandary. Among the handful of authors making a lot of money self-publishing are a handful of authors who equally good or even better at marketing than they are at writing. I know because I've read their books.

And one way to succeed is to get everybody on your side, like they belong in an exclusive club. Make them believe that you and they are part of a team. "My success is your success"...

Is it really? Not quite, but I do not begrudge them their success. And I do thing some of the most successful indie authors who also happen to have volunteered to lead the charge believe they are doing so not just in self-interest but for the betterment of the publishing industry as a whole.

And this is normal. Many other industries have gone through similar tumult. But my advice for authors is to not get too far invested in the idea that in order to succeed today you need to self-publish, and to hell with the Big Five. The publishing landscape is changing as if it were perched on the San Andreas fault on a particularly volatile day.

History shows us that the pendulum of change often swings too far and then has to correct. In other words, there may end up being a lot of authors who naively bet their house on indie publishing that end up getting hurt.

The end result of this quantum shift in the publishing biz will be somewhere in the middle ground between the author/agent/publisher relationship of the past century or so and the free-for-all indie publishing bonanza of today.

I read an article recently about the cookbook publishing business. In that corner of the publishing market there was concern that the internet would have a big negative effect on cookbook sales because recipes by the gazillion are available for free online.

What they found, however, was while recipes were readily available for free online it was difficult to determine which ones were good and which one sucked. The recipes were not curated, and web-chefs found the effort needed to determine good versus bad recipes was significant enough that the internet has had practically no effect on cookbook sales.

I think world of fiction publishing has felt the impact but I think it possible that eventually the lack of "curation" will swing the pendulum back the other way.

So far, the indie publishing successes are such that they are manifesting great change in author relationships with agents (some don't have one) and publishers (print only contracts where the author retains all digital rights).

When I was a younger man I wanted to be a professional musician. Some would say I wanted to be a rock star, and I guess that's true, but I took my craft very seriously. I practiced a lot and worked hard and felt that I was a better guitar player than many of the players in the bands whose songs my bands covered.

Back then, before the internet, in order to get signed you had to play a lot of shows. Bands would also record demo's at their own expense and send them out to agents and record companies and radio stations in the hope that someone, somewhere would recognize your talent and sign you to a record deal.

These days if you want to be a rock star your best option is probably to post a video on YouTube and wait for an email offering you a deal. How many bands today are signed before they ever play a single live gig together?

Publishing today is in some respects like trying to become a rock star was in the Eighties.

You write a book, publish it at Amazon.com (at your own expense) and hope someone reads it and likes it enough to boast about it online and gets the mega-sales snowball rolling.

But in other ways it's also a lot like become a rock star is today. There's no need to write three of four books before you get published. There's no need to get rejected by some butt-hole agent or publisher. "F' the man" say the front-runners of the indie publishing revolution. Write it, publish it and write another, ad infinitum...

Here's why indie authors need to be cautious about flipping the bird at mainstream publishers and their agents - many of the indie authors are not that good.

Now, I am not saying that I am great (although I might be), but I've got a reasonable command of grammar, punctuation and the storytelling process - it's all about the fundamentals baby...

And I thank the god of publishing every day for the ability to download samples before buying a book. But I gotta tell you I am shocked sometimes at how poorly written some of the books are that are published by what appear to be successful indie authors.

And that is the force that will drive the pendulum.

Right now there are, I don't know, trillions of eBooks available on Amazon.com.

Does anybody really think most of them are good? Good is subjective, but I've bailed out on many books when the author demonstrated a complete lack of understanding as to the mandatory components of a SENTENCE (or misspell their own protagonists name on page 2)!!!!!

And then there are the ones where the story is just bad. I do not, for the record, think that these writers should not publish, I think they need to be a little more self-critical. And maybe I do too.

But similarly to online recipes, the indie publishing universe may become too flooded with books, many bad and not enough good, and readers might eventually find difficult and frustrating to determine what to read and what to avoid.

I don't know what this middle ground between the indies and the Big Five will ultimately look like, but do not be surprised when it occurs.

If you are serious about a writing career then I hope you continue to work at your craft. If you are not working at your craft it doesn't matter whether you are indie or trying to get a deal with a publisher, your career is not liely to thrive.

There have been more than a few flashes in the pan since the indie revolution started a few years ago; authors who succeeded despite their shortcomings and temporarily gave indie publishing a bad name.

Some are still here, some have disappeared. I'm happy to say a few of the front-runners today deserve their success, but not all.

Marketing skills will make a handful of writers financially successful in the short run. Good writing will keep even fewer around in the long run.

I certainly haven't broken out as an indie publishing success yet. Maybe it's my first book's topic (alien abduction). Maybe it's my marketing (I haven't done much, hoping my writing would get me there). Maybe it's my writing skills (or lack thereof).

If it is my writing, I'm not worried. I work at it everyday and I know I'm getting better. I just hope that my fellow indie authors are focusing as much effort on their writing skills as they are their social media and marketing skills.

Or maybe I should hope they don't...

11 months after I self-published my debut novel in various (although now exclusively Kindle) e-formats, "Pilgrimage" is now available in paperback.

I'm excited. It is very cool having my book in physical form. Seeing Pilgrimage on my Kindle and in the Kindle store at Amazon.com is one thing, but feeling it's weight, having a front and back cover, turning the pages - it all adds another level to the feeling of accomplishment.

Plus I added some graphics to the front and back of the book. The original cover of Pilgrimage is now the first page of the paperback. I added two images to the back as teasers to upcoming books I plan on releasing in the late spring and in the fall of this year.

It's been inspiring too, that as I announced the publication of the paperback, I also started promoting the next book. I just put a couple of images on my Facebook pages. I was thrilled to hear from readers of Pilgrimage who are excited for the next book to be published. Repeat readers, huh? Do I have fans?

In conclusion, I will paraphrase the legendary and misquoted line from Sally Field at the 1985 Oscars "You like me, you really like me!" this way - "Someone likes me, someone really likes me!" And it feels good.

Stephen King is one of my favorite authors. He has also written what may be my favorite book in any genre, On Writing.

It's a great look into the mind of a great writer. And it is more autobiography than it is reference material for wannabe writers.

Writing is a creative endeavor. And Mr. King leaves much of the technical writing considerations to the vast amount of other books on writing. He provides a more meaningful insight into the life of one of the greats of American letters.

So I hacked his book's title for this blog post. That's because I have recently come to recognize the need for authors to have editors.

My best friend was reading my novel Pilgrimage recently. When we got together last weekend he glibly pointed out several errors in the book. I don't mean to suggest he was happy there were errors; just that he was happy he found them.

The errors were nothing terrible, just basic oversights like misspelled words and misplaced punctuation. But that meant I had to go back through the manuscript once again. So as I work on completing my next book I am back to reediting Pilgrimage.

It's a bummer, but it needs to be done. I don't want readers to avoid future books of mine because of sloppy editing in the version of Pilgrimage they read (earlier versions had more errors. Unfortunately, as far as I can determine, Amazon does not automatically update the books on your Kindle with the most recent, revised edition. I hear that is coming, however).

Which brings me to professional editing. I think authors, being the creative minds that I presume we all are, tend to get lost in the story even when editing. It is too hard for us to look at the manuscript objectively, and therefore are prone to missing things that need correction.

But it is expensive to hire an editor. And I'm sure it is a challenge to qualify one unless the editor has been referred to you.

So for now I'll be reediting Pilgrimage myself. But it must be nice to have an editor like Stephen King does. To know that someone will be checking the manuscript for you before publication eliminates much of the worry and presumably allows the writer to focus exclusively on the story.

Someday. Someday.