Marketing and Reviews

Marketing and reviews.

 Buy my book – buy my book – pleeeease buy my book!

 When my debut novel was published on Kindle, I immediately hit the writers’ forum, enthusiastic and naïve, eagerly asking questions that I now appreciate  had been asked a thousand times before. I also quickly realised how annoying it was when people constantly deluged the forum with promotions of their new book.

 I suspect most writers have been there, especially when trying to promote their very first book. I remember when the first paperback copies of my debut novel arrived, to be picked up, admired, stroked and generally cooed over. At such times, there is a danger of tunnel vision. Objectivity can very easily take wing and disappear into the blue – all that matters is THE BOOK.

 Very few new, unknown authors will achieve overnight success, although we can always dream. Marketing is hard work and it takes time. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint” may sound like a cliché (probably because it is), but when it comes to book marketing it is extremely apt. Without a big organisation behind them, most independent authors have to do their own marketing. For many of us (including me) it is unfamiliar territory. Learning our way around takes time and patience.

 When it comes to reviews, opinions vary as to just how valuable they are to an author. Do would-be readers take notice of how many 5* reviews a book has? Do they actually read them?  I suppose that depends on the reader. I do read reviews – both good and bad – because sometimes it can give me a valuable insight into the book, beyond the blurb and the “look inside.”

 Most authors are understandably keen to get positive reviews. When the book is first published it is natural that friends will want to leave good reviews to help out their mate (a couple of my friends did that). As long as they have actually read the book, that seems fair enough.

 But how far is fair? Is it in order to ask friends to leave a review? I have given this one a lot of thought, and on balance I would say it depends. Putting out a general request on Facebook saying something like ‘hi guys, if you’ve read my book and enjoyed it, I’d be grateful for a review’ seems fine, inasmuch as no-one is put under personal pressure. It would, however, be different to approach an individual and say ‘Hey Bob, will you do me a review on Amazon?’ That can put Bob in a difficult position. He may well have said that he enjoyed the book – he’s your friend. But in reality, he may not have enjoyed it that much. He may not even have read the book.

 

Some authors have been known to go even further and use “sock puppets” to write their own reviews, under different names.

 Sadly, some of these doubtful tactics probably pay off. Readers who are not also writers may simply take reviews at their face value. Most authors will not. I have heard various estimates as to the relationship between the number of books sold and the number of reviews, one oft quoted figure is around one review per hundred books. In reality, I think that is a meaningless figure, because it will be different for each book. Since publication four months ago, my own book has picked up an average of one review (from strangers) per 40 books sold.

There is nothing more suspicious than a book that is published on the first of July, and has picked up a dozen glowing five star reviews by the second of July (unless, of course, the writer is a J. K. Rowling).

 

 

 

 

PUBLISHING - TRADITIONAL OR INDEPENDENT?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00BJPZZ8M

www.copsecornerbooks.org.uk

www.facebook.com/BarricadesByCaShilton

 

PUBLISHING – TRADITIONAL OR INDEPENDENT?

 On the modern writer’s blog, there is a great deal of discussion about traditional publishing versus independent or self publishing - lots of rhetoric, plenty of polarised viewpoints. But it is a fascinating subject, and very relevant to modern writers, be they traditionally or self published.
 

Many supporters of traditional publishing deride all ‘indies’ as writing inferior rubbish. This wholesale condemnation is both unfortunate and inaccurate, but it is also understandable.  I read a great deal, and – in my opinion of course - there are some excellent self-published books. But I have ‘looked inside’ many self-published books on Amazon, and have had no desire to go further. Sad to say, too many of them are indeed badly written, full of typos and atrocious grammar; they are seriously in need of a spell check, a proof reader and an editor.

 

 At this point – whilst the more belligerent indies sharpen their quills – I must state that I am also a self published writer. It is partly because I am a self-published writer that the current situation dismays me. The flood of sub-standard books is doing us a great disservice; I believe the reputation of all self-published writers is suffering as a result.

When discussing traditional publishing, I think there is a danger of self-published authors becoming defensive and even vengeful. Some authors who now self publish  have been traditionally published in the past and may have had bad experiences. The majority of us have never been traditionally published. I freely admit that I tried to get an agent or publisher for my novel, without success. A couple of them made encouraging noises; one hand-wrote a few words on the standard rejection letter saying that she liked the book but they weren’t publishing much historical fiction at that time. A considerate and encouraging rejection, but nonetheless a rejection, which is never a pleasant experience.
 

 Personally I don’t like to see this war of rhetoric, there is something to be said for and against both sides of the argument. An agent who takes on a book won’t earn anything unless they can find a publisher, so they may end up investing a great deal of time (which means money) for no reward. I can therefore understand their need to connect strongly with a book before taking it on. Rejection doesn’t mean that a book is no good, though it is hard for the author to be objective when they see the big self addressed envelope lying forlornly on the mat beneath the letterbox.
 

 Publishers are in the business of selling books and thus making money. They take what sells - or what they think will sell. Hence their tendency to stay with their current best or regularly selling authors, who can be relied on to bring in the dollars or pounds. During the days of large litho print runs, taking on a new writer was a risk, a mistake could be very expensive for the publisher. Of course, turning down a new writer could also be a mistake – there are about a dozen agents or publishers having nightmares every time they read the words “Harry Potter.”
 

 I’m sure most agents and publishers are reasonable people. I do think some could treat potential authors better. When I was researching agents for my book, almost all said they would respond within five to six weeks, with either an acceptance or a rejection. One, however, said that she would only respond if willing to represent me, otherwise I should just wait six weeks, then assume rejection. To me, that smacked of arrogance. How long does it take to send out a polite, pre-worded rejection by email? If I do seek an agent for my next novel, that is one person I will definitely be avoiding.
 

 That brings me to a key question. Do I try for an agent or publisher with my next novel, or go it alone again? To some extent, the answer will depend on the sales of my current novel; if I can achieve a reasonable level of success, I will be more likely to self publish the next book too.
 

 There are advantages - assuming that a traditional publisher can be found - in being traditionally published. The advance on royalties, the assistance with proof reading and editing, the marketing channels and assistance in marketing the book, the kudos of being accepted for publication.  On the other hand, self published writers have full control of their book, and thus ownership of all aspects (cover, blurb etc). They maintain full rights, and are also able to keep a higher percentage of royalties.
 

What is the way ahead for writers and publishers? Already the well trodden track of traditional publishing has divided clearly into two paths, traditional and independent. There are increasing signs that more paths are emerging from the undergrowth, made viable by the enormous improvements made in print on demand technology. An increasing number of authors are taking the route of publishing partnerships, where publishers take on the task of publishing and marketing, but do not pay any advance to the author. Some of these verge on vanity publishing, whereas others appear to offer a viable partnership. There will undoubtedly be other avenues opening.
 

 It’s a fascinating time to be a writer.

 

 





It's a Marathon, not a Sprint!

Promotion and marketing -

Moving from a frantic doggy-paddle to a stamina-preserving crawl.

 

I have only been actively involved in the ‘Indie’ market for a short time, but long enough to realise that the most frequently asked question has to be

HOW DO I EFFECTIVELY PROMOTE MY BOOK?

Most frequently asked, and most difficult to answer. Imagine about two million tiny fish, swimming frantically around the harbour. On the shore is a wonderful lake, filled with everything a tiny fish could possibly need – but how to get there? A few fishermen are trawling, to be sure, but they are catching the bigger fish. In the meantime, a gigantic shark is circling, and gobbling up the tiny fish in their thousands. Things look pretty desperate for those tiny fish!

 So, am I saying that we ‘newbie’ indies are like those little fish. Well, there are similarities. There are probably around two million books on Amazon, many of them by new and/or unknown authors. All of us would like the fishermen – or in our case readers – to find us. The question is, how? But we do have one great advantage over the poor little fish – there is no gigantic shark circling to cut short our sparkling careers with one snap of its jaws. We have time on our side, and according to my research into this subject, allowing time is very necessary. It is, of course, not the sole answer. If we just sit back and do nothing, we can expect to be swimming around for a long, long time!

 There is a tremendous amount of advice available on this subject, some of it extremely helpful, much of it conflicting. But there are a few things on which pretty well everyone agrees –

 Before publishing the book, ensure it is as good as it can be.

That means proof-reading and editing. Not everyone can afford a professional proof reader, but most writers have hawk-eyed friends who can help them out. I can proof-read my own work to a limited extent, generally by reading it out loud. This ensures that I don’t miss mistakes by reading too fast, and also picks up a lot of duplication. But personally, I still need my hawk-eyed friend to pick up inconsistencies in capitalisation and the like.

 The same is true for editing the book. With Barricades, I splashed out on a  professional editor – not too expensive, and worth every penny. When we started, my book draft was 110,000 words. When we finished, it was 96,000 words. Of course I kicked, screamed and wriggled as it was suggested I cull some of my favourite (and often verbose) passages, but there is no doubt that the changes improved the book by cutting out unnecessary padding and generally sharpening up the prose.

 There is no ‘magic bullet.’

It is not unknown for a new, self-published author to ‘go viral,’ quickly, but it is very, very rare. For most of us, it will mean a lot of hard work. It will also need patience – not something that comes easily to me.

 The best way to promote and sell a book is to write another one -

Followed by yet another, and another after that. Very few new and unknown authors achieve high sales for their first stand-alone book.

 

Other than those points, advice is conflicting, depending upon the personal experiences of those offering the advice. Genre also has an effect. Sex, of course, sells well, so authors writing erotica are off to a good start. Vampires, horror, science fiction/fantasy and thrillers appear popular. My own genre is historical fiction (non-romance), which doesn’t appear to be one of the best selling genres.

 KDP Free Promotions (e-books only)

Opinions differ on this one. Some authors will not give away their work on principle. Others find the promotions beneficial. I suppose that if an author is selling well, he or she doesn’t need the free promotion anyway. But for new authors whose work is not selling, or selling very slowly, it can help. I put Barricades on free promotion for three days, and there was a slight sales spike afterwards. I also picked up a 5* review, possibly as a result of the promotion. At worst, it meant that my book was read by several hundred people who would not otherwise have read it.

Writing a blog.

Most authors seem to think it desirable to have an on-line presence, particularly for writers who are just starting out. There is, of course, still the problem of being noticed, but hopefully the followers will come, given time. I don’t yet have a large following, but my circle is slowly growing. I also find the blog helps to consolidate my thoughts, and I enjoy writing it.

 Twitter and Facebook.

Some authors find them useful, others a waste of time. I don’t yet know what my experience will be, but as a new author I feel that any on-line presence has to be of some use. I’m very new to the social media scene, so I am feeling my way and gradually building a network, whilst getting to grips with Twitter and the use of the # key.

 I have just published Barricades in paperback format, so I am planning a launch party next month. I shall be having a big push on facebook, including a modest £10 of paid advertising. I shall let you know the results in a later blog.

Next time - off-line promotions – the personal touch.

 

People DO judge a book by its cover!

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00BJPZZ8M

 

People do judge a book by its cover -

And by its title

 

The title of my first book has gone through a number of incarnations. When I first published in e-book format the title was Barricades – the Road to Les Misérables. Having published, feedback suggested that the inclusion of Les Misérables was something of a two-edged sword. For those readers who disliked the original Les Misérables novel, it would be an immediate kiss of death.

     After some thought, I decided to lose Les Misérables from the title. The novel Barricades stands alone. Some principal characters  are drawn from Victor Hugo’s novel, but there is very little overlap. Also, the writing style is very different. This is not intended as a criticism of Mr Hugo, to whom I owe a great debt, but writing styles – and reader preferences – have changed greatly since Les Misérables was written.

     I finally settled on Barricades – the Journey of Javert. People who know Les Misérables will, hopefully, pick up on the connection. For those who are not familiar with Mr Hugo’s novel, it doesn’t matter. The reader does not need any knowledge of Les Misérables

     For those about to publish with Amazon, a word of warning! If publishing in paperback, it is obviously not easy to change a title, once the publishing process has commenced. But even changing titles on the e-book version is not as straight-forward as it seems. Certainly you can change the title that appears next to your book. Changing the cover of your e-book is also simplicity itself – just upload the new cover, and it will magically appear a few hours later. But when anyone searching for your book enters your title and clicks, the link will display the original title. As far as I can see, the only way to erase that permanently is to unpublish and republish - and that would mean losing all those good reviews and starting from scratch. Learn from my mistakes and give lots of thought to your title before publishing.

      Okay, the title is cast in tablets of stone.  Now for the cover. Most people with some experience and expertise suggested getting a professionally designed cover, but I thought I could design my own. After all, I have Photoshop Elements and I enjoy playing around with drawings and photographs. Since making that decision, I have lost count of the number of cover designs I have tried. My poor friends have been bombarded with endless variations (most with lots of red in them) as I prepare to launch in paperback format.

     My friends have been very patient, but I now realise that for the most part, they have either been guarded in their response, or have told me what I wanted to hear (or maybe I just didn’t hear what they were really telling me). In any case, I settled on a cover that I personally liked, and prepared to go for gold and launch into the world of p-books.

     At this stage – at this late stage, almost the 11^th hour – I was very lucky. A new acquaintance offered to design my cover for me at a very reasonable cost. Since the lady in question is a professional designer, I was delighted to accept. She actually used the same original image  - which is great, because it meant I still feel some ownership of and affinity with the cover. But there the resemblance ends. Rachael’s cover is less complicated and ‘busy’, the text is much better and more balanced. The cover design is extended to the spine (which in a bookshop, may be all that people can see). In simple terms, it looks what it is – a professionally designed cover. One of my more outspoken friends summed it up beautifully –

 Thank goodness the lady volunteered her

services to you and the fiery red is no more!

All the evidence suggests that people DO judge a book by its cover, even if they are not conscious of doing so. Unless you are a professional designer or an extremely talented amateur, I would certainly advise trying to get your cover professionally designed. It is something that I will always do in the future.

 Coming shortly, the hardest thing of all. How can self published indie authors effectively promote their books?

 

 

Learning to Swim

 

www.barricades.org.uk

 

LEARNING TO SWIM

Within a fairly short time of publishing “Barricades” I realised that just publishing the book was the easy part. What happened? Well, really it is more a case of what didn’t happen! Sales didn’t go viral. The book title wasn’t on everyone’s lips. No one rang to suggest buying the film rights.

 When I’m not being impetuous and impulsive, I can be reasonably intelligent. Thinking about it, I was obviously being incredibly naive. I switched on the objective, logical part of my brain (the boring bit!) and asked myself a few questions.

 1.         Marketing! How do people find this book? It’s my first novel. No one outside my        circle of friends has ever heard of me. Amongst an enormous haystack,   how can  I draw attention to one minute little strand of hay?

 2.         If they do find it, why should they buy it?

 Whilst not ignoring the massive issue of marketing, I decided to focus on the second question first. Some years ago, I put my house on the market, but before doing so I made sure that it was as good as it could be. The antiquated storage heating was removed and central heating installed. Everything was cleaned and tidied (hoping they didn’t open the cupboards!) with a lick or two of paint where needed. The garden looked neater than it had for years.

 I think the same principle can be applied to selling most things, whether it’s a house, or a book. Before people looked at my book, I wanted it to be as good as it could be. But surely, I hear you say, that should be done before publishing? I quite agree – and as far as the book content was concerned, it was done. It was edited, proof-read, spell-checked, proof-read, edited, proof-read ….. Well, you get the picture.

 But I hadn’t attached sufficient importance to other aspects of the book. Using the house analogy again, it was no use cleaning up the house if the garden was overgrown with weeds and the garden fence sagging in all directions. If people weren’t attracted by the exterior, it was quite likely that they would turn around and drive away, without even looking at the house.  Applying the same analogy to my novel, people would have no reason to look more closely at my book, unless they were attracted by the cover and the title.

 The title had already been through several incarnations before I settled on ‘Barricades.’ I was, I decided, pretty happy with that title. The cover was something else again. I have read varying viewpoints as to the importance of cover in e-book or paperback publishing. Some subscribe to the view that it matters less with an e-book because in the first instance you are only looking at a thumbnail image. I’m not so sure of that. In order to test my own reactions, I went onto a site where a large number of thumbnail book covers were displayed – in fact, it was a screen full of thumbnail images. I found that I was sub-consciously looking for certain things before clicking on an image. The trouble with the sub-conscious is that it is precisely that, and I found it difficult to pin down what was – or was not – attracting me.

 So I am going to work on that one. More on covers next time.

TAKING THE PLUNGE!

 

www.barricades.org.uk

 

THE EXPERIENCES OF A FIRST-TIME SELF PUBLISHER

 

For me, to help me clarify my thoughts, to assess my progress – or otherwise – and to look back on what worked, what didn’t and what might.

 

For other first-timers who are publishing, or considering doing so – who just might laugh a little, learn a little, and avoid some of my mistakes.   

 

For the world at large – hoping some of you will find my experiences of interest, and maybe chip in with ideas and suggestions of your own.

 

FIRST FALTERING STEPS

 

Publish on Kindle, for free? Sounded too good to be true! I looked into it, and discovered that yes – it is true. Not only true, but publishing looked amazingly easy. I ploughed through the publishing section on the Amazon site and formatted my book as per instructions. A few hitches with the table of contents were quickly sorted.

 

So far, so good. Now for the scary part. I am computer literate to a point – very comfortable with email, word processing, searching the web, ordering goodies on-line - but this was a whole new ball-game. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained!

 

Equipped with formatted book file, computer and IT-knowledgeable friend Elisabeth, I sat down to do the great deed. A moment of panic when the system demanded something called an IBAN in order to pay my royalties. Elisabeth calmed me down and a close examination of my bank statement discovered said IBAN lurking quietly in the top corner. Filled in the rest of the boxes, pressed the publish button, and success! Your book, the system informed me, will be available on the Amazon site in approximately twelve hours.

 

Twelve hours plus one minute later, I raced to the computer and logged in. Yes – there it was! My novel – my very own novel – up there for all the world to see and buy. Starry eyed, I floated up there on cloud nine, my imagination running riot as wonderful visions flashed through my mind – the fantastic reviews, the bestseller list. Move over J. K. Rowling, I’m on my way. When are they making the film?

 

Well, it was very nice up there in the clouds, but then reality set in. Did I say it was easy? Yes, I did – or to be more exact, I said that the publishing part was easy. Enthusiastic, impetuous and incredibly naïve, I hadn’t really thought further than that. But a couple of weeks later, I am just beginning to realise how much I still have to learn.

 

Watch this space!