W.’s Comments (group member since Apr 01, 2015)

W.’s comments from the Sci-Fi, fantasy and speculative Indie Authors Review group.

I recall not wanting to classify my book as SciFi because the novel deals with family, loss, suicide, faith, and ethics. At the end of the day I classified it as SciFi, and in the Time Travel genre. I did this after realizing my worries were more about it reaching the appropriate readers (i.e. market), and I suspect you have similar concerns. IMHO, trust that the diversity of readers out there will find their way to your book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi1jV...
The Day Time Ended

Oddly enough I LOVED this movie as a kid but couldn't remember the name. Went to the forum of sffworld.com and found a man who goes by the name "Junk Monkey" who identified it for me, ending a 35+ year mystery. Until recently they had it on youtube en toto and I laughed at how bad it really was.

Quite honestly, I think there are very, very few ad options that truly work unless you are a highly recognizable name (which none of us are, given we are here discussing the matter).

Been there, done that. I can say that FB ads are a waste. Google ads are even worse. Fussy Librarian a waste. There are a bunch of free and low cost ads that work decently when coordinated (ex. as part of a price reduction, book tour, whatever), but I have never had any experience with a single success.

The only ad campaigns that ever truly worked were these...
Book Gorilla: If you do the ad you might make your money back. I had one experience where I broke even and one where I made half my money back.

Book Bub: the grand daddy of ads and the single best thing that could happen to your book. Worth borrowing money to cover the costs. Paid for my ad five fold in the first day, and the residual sales from landing on three top 100 lists for months was awesome.

Kindle Nation Daily: this company (which is partnered with Book Gorilla) is not bad at all. I made a small profit on one sponsorship and broke even on another. Worth it in my opinion just because of the exposure and reviews.

Goodreads ads: meh... Keep a small balance in there and what does it cost you? Lunch money. Eat PB&Js.

A book tour - I got good traction with a book tour in conjunction with a bunch of free/low cost ads. Lots of reviews, that's for sure.

One of the moderators from a GR forum messaged me months back and told me she was coming around to reading my book because "I've been seeing it everywhere". I think a lot of readers are like that. If you do one ad and wait to see what the effects are, you probably won't get the impact of when you run a campaign. Because of this, you may want to jump in with both feet. Hammer that Book Bub proposal, and -once booked- schedule ads before and after it. Same thing for Kindle Daily Nation or Book Gorilla. Lay it on thick and your ads will gain traction (probably, I think, I hope, maybe). <--voice of confidence

My two pesos FWIW.

I will make the prediction that Amazon will be unmoved by your appeal to logic and reason. Unfair? Undoubtedly. Worth fighting? Not unless you have nothing else to do.

IMHO book reviews do sell books and reviews in general sell products. It's a lot like voting: one person weighing in on a subject doesn't mean much, but when 100 people say the same thing people pause and reflect.

One of my poor reviews even says, "I bought this book because of so many 4 and 5 star reviews, but..." and then went on to thrash my novel. No biggie, everyone has a right to state their opinion in the wide world of Amazon/Goodreads. My point is that the reviews DID create a sale, and Amazon knows this.

If I had to place bets, I would say that Amazon is doing this for two reasons. Firstly to send a warning shot across the bows, so to speak. This isn't going to end fake reviews, but rules are followed by the majority of people when they see consequences to their actions. I see this at work all the time, and you can see it in many aspects of society. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and whatnot.

Secondly, and probably the big reason... I believe Amazon is doing this to avoid potential class action lawsuits by its partners who would claim to be disenfranchised by fake reviews and further victimized by Amazon's disregard of the problem. Such a suit would have reasonable weight in a civil court if Amazon didn't take these fake reviewers to court. Once again, the adage of an ounce of prevention applies.

I'm still holding out hope for Mars-One.

Speaking of radiation, I read an article where Andy Weir explained that the anti-radiation shielding (or was it drugs? I can't recall now) he spoke about in The Martian are definitely fiction, otherwise he couldn't have written the story. It allowed for the MC to have a LOT more time outside the Hab than would be realistic.

So, it's still science fiction-y. :)

I find it interesting that his profile pic, while available on the thumb size, has been removed. Perhaps not the actual person pictured? Another indication that something is amiss. Posting a picture of a unicorn or a stack of flapjacks is one thing; posting somebody else's picture is a whole new level of creepy.

I could be wrong, of course. I'm not, but I could be.

Richard, I was just doing the breakdown in my head when I read your post. This feels like a really poor business decision for authors who might end up paying more than they get back, and this doesn't include any information about the rental contract which might take longer to cancel than working with a larger, more reputable company. I won't go as far as calling this poaching, but the business model could place an indie author in more risk than just trying it out for $25. I can think of a half dozen better ways to spend $300/year. Although, like the feedback authors get on their books, this is an opportunity for the bookstore to reevaluate their business model and improve, if the goal is to indeed help indie authors along.

C.S. Lakin. Rachel Starr Thomson. Both are excellent and I have had great experiences with them.
www.livewritethrive.com
www.rachelstarrthomson.com/

My editor actually discouraged going through a publisher. She has published both ways and been successful both ways, but she has been burned by publishers in ways that simply can't happen when you self-publish.

It's a lot of work, but when things go my way I find it incredibly rewarding.

I think I read someplace that you could petition Amazon to create a new subgenre category. Never tried it but it might be worth it. And if they agree you would be the #1 book in it till others joined. :)

I think they are associated somehow, but TBH I have no idea to what extent. Filling out a profile won't cost you anything, and you might get a match.

Have you looked into ACX? Amazon's affiliate.

Google is all powerful. So say we all.

Hostile toward a word is fine. Hostile toward somebody you don't know on a thread? I think this is where I say have a good night.

Good point. I still hate it and refuse to use it. :)

I can't help how you read it, I can only tell you logically and linguistically that you only have two words: active and reactive. The make-believe word "proactive" now gives you the option of conflating words like active and reactive in much the same way somebody conflates literally and figuratively, but it doesn't change the fact that, before there was proactive, there was active, and it worked!

Management took active steps to put in place security gates, metal detectors, and machine gun turret defense platforms to stop the shooter. There. It's the same thing, but with a real word.

I feel like I'm at a manager's meeting all over again. Of course, when my manager told me that, in addition to being proactive, I needed to have "omnipresence" at work (another office buzz word), I told him the only one who is omnipresent is GOD. That ended the discussion rather abruptly. :)

Gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. Management could have easily taken actions to stop the shooter.

You looked that up. :)