Expanding my Horizons to Google Play

Good Morning. With all the news of impending doom surrounding publishing, specifically e-publishing, I've taken a hard look at where I'm downloading these days.

If you don't follow http://ebookbargainsuk.wordpress.com/ these boys from Britain, you probably should. They have an ear to the ground and expound on their findings so you/we have a better understanding of what's happening behind the scenes.

Their latest entry, the debacle that is now Amazon, reports that Amazon is steadily losing ground, money, and interest in their ebook revolution. I can attest to that. My sales have slipped noticeably since May. To say I'm disappointed is putting it mildly. They used to pay my mortgage.

However, being a smart entrepreneur, I diversified a long time ago through Smashwords. Yes, their meatgrinder is a bitch, but it's well worth it to publish with them because they aggregate books to other book sellers -- Kobo, Nook, B&N, OverDrive, Flipkart, Oyster, Amazon, and a couple of others. You might think it's not worth it to go through all the trouble, but it is.

Yet, the only problem with that, is it's a hit-or-miss proposition. I've been published with them for nearly three years. Only now have I seen any noticeable movement through their channels. But that's okay, it's all about the long tail.

However, I've been thinking that since Amazon had been my breadwinner, and now they're not, I needed to find another source of income that would take their place. Not easy in this world of five billion books. And so I decided to research the market a little bit and with the recommend from the ebook boys, I decided on Google Play.

I only uploaded yesterday, and not my whole repertoire, (I'm waiting to see what happens), but I'm happy that I did. Yes, it's a pain to set everything up, yes, another pain to make sure the epub files are clean, yes, it's kind of daunting (but they have straightened out a lot of the mystery surrounding how to upload) but I think it was a good decision for me.

I don't expect overnight success with this venture, but at least now I'm there. With over something like 65 countries they publish in, I'm sure I will be able to sell one or two of my little books. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Where do you publish? Just Amazon? B&N? Kobo? Smashwords? Have you gotten to Google Play yet?

Anne Gallagher (c) 2014

Revisions, Re-writing, Re-Publishing in the Digital Age

Good Morning. Well, I never expected to be gone for this long, but it's been a wild ride the last few months.

I've been writing, of course, and revising, naturally, then re-writing, what else, and then re-publishing.

Re-Publishing. What a concept. Thirty years ago that would never have happened, unless you wrote a scholarly tome, and the changes that occurred would have demanded a re-write. You know, Second Edition, with a new forward, index, glossary, what have you.

These days, rewriting and republishing are almost second nature. I've done it myself I don't know how many times.

Writing my series The Reluctant Grooms has been a challenge these last few months. I'm finally at the end of it with one more novella, one more novel, and possibly one final final short story to give the entire thing complete closure. (I say final final because I keep finding more stories to tell. Yikes!)

Here's the thing -- As I wrote the last novella, I kept finding little things that needed to be tweaked in the other stories to make the series work as a cohesive whole. If a reader wanted to start at THE LADY'S MASQUERADE and work her way through the series in order, (and has a really good memory) the ending wouldn't make much sense. Some of my earlier dates were wrong, some of my characters names have changed, some of the information I imparted means nothing now. Even though I wrote everything as a stand-alone, there is a sub-plot that runs through each of them that ends with the final novel.

To take another example, I started reading Sue Grafton's Alphabet series (you know -- A is for Alibi with Kinsey Milhone), but I stopped somewhere around L. I can't remember exactly why, I only know it had something to do with her family. By L, they either weren't there or had changed so dramatically I just didn't get it. I was disappointed because I really liked those books. Perhaps it had to do with the publisher (she is a famous cash cow) and they didn't want her bogging down the main plot. I don't know. However, because of that, I won't finish reading them. (Okay, maybe someday when the series is finished, but not now. I like to read in order.)

In my latest novella LADY OLIVIA'S UNDOING, Lady Olivia receives an invitation to the Duke of Straford's holiday ball, which was also an engagement party for his brother. Well, according to the novella that I wrote about his brother, this engagement party could not happen because Dorcas and Daniel did not get engaged until the following summer.

Well, I went back into LADY CADORET'S LONGING, and not only did I tweak the dates, I also revised and rewrote what was necessary for LADY OLIVIA'S UNDOING to be correct and true. I did the same for LOVE FINDS LORD DAVINGDALE, another story that held content for the ending of the series.

Yes, it was a pain in the neck. Literally. I spent the better part of eleven days
hunched over the computer, re-reading, revising, rewriting all to allow the ending to make sense. And also to not have some reviewer slam me for mixing up my dates.

You may ask, does it really matter? Oh, YES! Series readers are quite fanatical about information. They REMEMBER even the slightest mistake. As I did with Sue Grafton. If you lose them half-way through, they may never come back no matter how many glowing reviews you have.

I also added the first chapter for each succeeding novel, to the novels I had already published. Remember in the old days that was how publishers got you to buy the next novel in the series. A little tease for what was to come next. Well, I hadn't done it because none of my books were ever published in order according to the series. I had to wait five years for that to happen, and now that is finally has, I decided it was time to keep the order straight.

Also, I found that my writing has changed over the years. Words and phrases that I used five years ago were cumbersome and sometimes just plain wrong. I also found typo's (egads that just about slayed me because I have four critters and two betas) so I took those out. Little changes that allowed the books to become more polished so NEW readers won't be deterred from giving up on the series. You know.

Re-publishing. What a concept.

Tell me -- Have you ever republished? How long did you wait between publication dates? Are you writing a series like me and found the beginning didn't match the ending?


I also wanted to say that for some reason Blogger is being mean to me and I find I can't comment on some blogs. I joined Google + thinking that would help, but it didn't. I've spoken to a few people and they can't figure it out either. I know I'm not the only one. If anyone has a clue why Blogger won't let me comment, please tell. Thanks.

Anne Gallagher (c) 2014

The Phenomenon of Bad Reviews and Being Number One

And first, let me just say, this is NOT an April Fool's joke.

Last week, I mentioned in my post on Responding to a Negative Review about this crazy phenomenon that is happening. Because of my bad review, I decided to check out other books in my genre and price range. And what I found is mind blowing. (And this is only on Amazon.)

Now, I have a couple of novellas that are priced at 99 cents. I also have one at $1.29, and one at $1.49. I like to stagger them this way because, well, I do. Stores use this tactic all the time. They lure you in with the cheap, then offer you another item at a slightly higher price. Then they give you the big gun at the even higher price. I call this Good, Better, Best.

Anyway, because of my bad review, I went searching to see if this reviewer had left other reviews on other books. (And no, my reviewer was not listed among any of these bad reviews.) However, in the midst of my searching I nearly had a heart attack. Because what I found time after time was that the books with the most bad reviews were ranking in the top 10. Which means they had more sales.

WTF? No seriously. W.T.F.?

Nearly every single book in the top 20 of my genre (Regency romance) in the short story category were these books with sometimes 10 or 12 bad reviews. And they were selling a lot. (You can tell how they're selling by the rank in which they hold, right under the product description.)

#607, #1,235, #58, #362. In order to have numbers like that, you have to at least, AT LEAST sell around 40-50 copies per day.

My rankings are no where near that. I hover generally, between the 25,000 - 70,000 mark. Which is good. On really good days, I get back into the teens. And I can honestly say, I don't usually go over the 100K threshold. So I'm lucky.

But after reading all this, and all the reviews, I couldn't help wonder what it was that made these books sell. ALL of the reviews, ALL OF THE REVIEWS, on ALL of the books I looked at (25 at least)  were written by different people, but they all said the same thing -- bad editing, typos, crazy plot, bad characters, no research -- so my question was, why did they bother to read them? (And those that had a single five star, you know were written by the author's mother or BFF.)

I'm likening this phenomenon to a bad car crash. You know, you're cruising down the highway at 70mph and then BLAM, cops everywhere, you have to slow down, and as you drive by the wreck, you can't help but look.

So all these readers decided they HAD to read the book to see if it really was as bad as the first reviewer said it was? And this in turn prompted them to write a bad review? And so on and so forth.

There is this little thing on every book called "Look Inside". It gives you a preview of what the first few pages look like. Allows you to make an informed decision on whether or not you'll like it and then buy it. So these people just didn't do that? Or they did and bought the book anyway?

What is up with that? Do these people have money to burn? Or are they trolls? (You know those parasitic reviewers who are actually authors out to trash other authors in their genre.)

However, even still, it doesn't account for the ranking. Obviously, someone, actually a LOT of someones are buying those books and reading them. And the more people who buy them, cause that author to move up in rank, and the higher in rank you are, the more exposure you get. The more exposure you get, the more money you make.

I don't get it. I really don't. I bust my ass (as you saw last week) to put out a quality product to entice readers to read my stuff. I price my books accordingly. I think I'm fair. I have a Good, Better, Best attitude. I strive to make my books the best that they can be. So why am I not in the top 20? Hell, why am I not even in the top 100?

And you know, I won't even get into the discussion on the covers of these books either. They were all "hand-made" and some were just plain awful. What is up with THAT? I'm no cover expert, but I designed my covers with a particular idea in mind. I don't do my own, I have an awesome designer, but I have done covers for other people, and I know how to do lay-out and composition. And the stuff I do produce isn't "professional" (there's a subtle art to design) but the covers I do make don't look "home-made". Let's call them "semi" professional. (If I had the right program I could make them even better.) But that's neither here nor there.

The only way I think I can wrap my head around all this is that, when you're on a book page, there is the scroll of "People Who Bought This, Also Bought..." with page after page of other books. Amazon makes it easy to click and buy, so perhaps these other people were duped into buying. I don't know.

So, in summing this all up, what I've found (in my genre anyway) is that it doesn't really matter what you write. Someone, somewhere is going to buy your book. Even if it's bad. Even if the cover is lousy. Even if all your reviews are 1 star. And you will become the next #1 bestseller.

Makes me wonder if I made a mistake taking the time to rewrite my novellas. Makes me really think of chucking every thing I know about writing out the window, and writing a bad book. Just to see what happens. A kind of social experiment maybe. Who knows, maybe I'll make it to #1. (Wouldn't that be really something?)

So how about you? Do you bother to read a book with more than 2 bad reviews? Or are you in the rubbernecking category? Do you "Look Inside" before you buy?

Anne Gallagher (c) 2013

Responding to a Negative Review

Okay, if you've self-published, we've all heard, NEVER EVER respond to a negative review. And as someone who's gotten more than her fair share, I never did. I was lucky enough to get reviews in the first place so I just figured any review was better than none. And it's true for the most part. People who buy books, look at reviews as a gauge. First it's the reviews, then it's the price.* (more on this phenomenon next week, because it's a fascinating topic.)

A couple of weeks ago, I received a review that was more like a rant and picked apart every single thing I did wrong in my stories. Now, I don't claim to be the next Jane Austen, and my critique partners don't read Regency romance (except mine and I like it that way) so the things the reviewer picked apart were - I hate to admit - dead on.

(Truthfully, this review had my blood pressure through the roof because she also claimed I didn't do enough research. OMG this tore me up inside. I have spent countless hours on research.)

These were not editing mistakes, or typos, or formatting, these mistakes were within the context of the story that Regency writers should know. (Which I did, but chose to ignore because, well, actually there are too many excuses to list. Suffice it to say, I wanted to write my books MY way and not be like everybody else.) Which I will never do again.

That being said, I decided to tackle the monumental task of rewriting all of my novellas. It's not so much using "find and replace", it's the task of rereading every single word and changing what needs to be changed. I spent three 12-hour days doing this. Because as you know, once you revise, then you have to republish.

(And if you want to know what's actually involved in that enterprise, take a look at my Anne Gallagher blog, because I've spelled it out quite concisely. For those of you who are thinking about self-publishing, you might want to read this because it will tell you that you really really really need to make sure you have an excellent copy to publish on the first go-round.)

For those of you who have a publisher behind you, you know what it means to have copy edits and galleys, and other revisions you need to do to get the book perfect before anyone sees a word of it. For a self-publisher (on a budget) I rely on my critique partners. I have one for grammar and punctuation, one for overall story content, and one I rely on as a copy editor. As I have stated, they are totally made of awesome and I wouldn't change them for the world.

Anyway, I revised all the stories. Then I republished them. Then I wrote a disclaimer and tacked that up front and center on my Amazon author page as well as the book pages and into every single book I revised.

To My Readers ~

In writing any kind of book, research is needed. In writing an historical romance novel, research is critical. In all my books, I have done exhaustive study into the era known as the Regency Period. I strive to make the historical facts I intersperse throughout my stories interesting for you. That I sometimes take liberties with those facts is my right as an author, because, after all, this is fiction.

That said, I do not hold strictly to the more formal aspect of addressing titled characters with their proper designation. Nor do I firmly adhere to other elements of the period – clothing, food, rank, or architecture. For some purists of the genre, they find this unacceptable. I find it makes for easier reading. However, I try to keep as much to the era as possible.

My books are meant to entertain and written with that purpose in mind. I hope you like them for what they are – and what they are intended to be. An enjoyable diversion from your everyday lives.

Now, because I thought this was kind of a drastic measure, (this review was hurting my sales, and no one is going to mess with my sales) I wrote to one of the leading professionals in the business to see if this was a stupid idea or not. She said it was a ballsy move, but thought it might work. "Try it and see what happens" was the response. (I also spoke with a few other friends and they agreed.) What could it hurt.

I also decided to "comment" to the reviewer and tell her what I'd done. Another thing you should NEVER EVER do. And she responded kindly, and said that she didn't mean to rant about it, but it was driving her crazy. Which, when I read some big authors out of New York, the stuff they throw in their books makes me fling them across the room. So I know how she feels.

I'm trying my best to put out a quality product. That said, in this new publishing world, with the ability to revise and republish, hey why not. New readers come along every single day. And if I can snag a few more fans, then 36 hours work to rewrite them is a drop in the bucket.

And some of you may ask, "Well, why didn't you put out a quality product in the FIRST place?" And my answer is -- I thought I had. I don't know about you, but after reading a manuscript 10,000 times, the only thing I want to do when I get it back from my critters is make the changes and upload it. I'm sick of looking at it and I want to move on.

When I first saw this review, I thought seriously (for about an hour) to write to you all and ask for your help, either writing your own reviews and posting them, or clicking on the "does this review help you" button at the bottom of the review and saying no. But that's just childish. I mean, yeah, this review was devastating, but I'm not in high school anymore. I can fight my own battles.

Now, I also know, what I've done might not help you. Some people are going to leave bad reviews no matter what you write. One 2 star reviewer of mine insisted I wasn't anything like Mary Balogh. Yeah, and? I'm not her and don't write like her, nor will I ever write like her. I'm me. Other 2 star reviewers have complained my novellas are too short, that they should be turned into novels. Uh, no. They're called novellas for a reason. And then I have the people who say "same old same old, boy meets girl, they fall in love, so what..." Makes me want to scream, "Well why did you buy it if you KNOW how it's going to end?" So, you have to take the good with the bad. But the upside to this post is, if I didn't respond to this reviewer, I never would have gotten the stories revised and who knows how many other readers I'd have lost because of a few simple mistakes.

So, the old "rule" of not responding to negative reviews, in my case anyway, worked. I think. I hope. I pray.

Tell me -- What do you do about negative reviews? Do you go back in and change your stories? Or do you just leave them the way they are and hope for the best -- because they're YOUR stories and no one is going to tell you how to write? (I dealt with this anguish as well. It was not pretty to admit I dropped the ball.)

Anne Gallagher (c) 2013

Hitting the Refresh Key

Well, Good Morning. Here I am once again, as you all probably knew that I would be. I know, I know, I say I'm going to quit blogging, and then I always come back. I love you guys too much to stay away.

I can't say it was a relaxing month, I still worked. I formatted and uploaded my last two books into paperback. I wrote up a boatload of blog posts. I spring cleaned my house. Ugh! Windows, carpets, got a shiny new Bot-Spot to shampoo my favorite chair and the love seat. I also started chopping down the trees in my backyard for the fence I'm going to build. Yup, I don't know what it is with me and fences, but I just gotta build them.

I've also finished THE LADY'S MASQUERADE. I had to make a lot of changes to it, so it will work with the last book in the series. It's in the hands of my fabulous critique partners now. However, I'm not rushing it. I'm not putting myself in that stressful environment again. When it looks good, I'll publish it.

I've also been toodling around with KATE, another romantic women's fiction. I love this book. It's kind of like REMEMBERING YOU, but not. You know. A lot of stuff happens to Kate and she needs to find herself before she can figure out what she wants. I do have the title, but sorry, I'm not sharing. Let me just say branding has become my middle name.

Anyway, what I've decided for the next several months is to start posting again M-W-F. Like I said, I've written up a load of posts, some I've reworked from previous posts, and I've also brought back my Friday's at the Piedmont Grille series. I have some fantastic authors to spotlight with new books, and interviews, so I hope you'll all stick around for those.

I also wanted to let you know, that this is the tentative schedule until around Memorial Day. I promised Monster a long time ago, I would only "work" when she was in school. When she's on vacation, then I'm on vacation. But I kind of think this is a good schedule. I can see the end of the tunnel as far as blogging goes -- a couple of months on, a couple of months off -- and I like it. Maybe I won't burn myself out.

So, that's all I've got. Oh, well, one more thing... about commenting. I believe that's where my trouble with burned out blogging started. I couldn't get around to all the blogs to comment. I like to reciprocate when you guys stop by here. But when I don't, I feel guilty, and it eats at me. So, I'm going to tell you now, when you comment on my blog, I will comment back here. I can't promise you I'll show up with any regularity on your blogs, but I will try. I'm not particularly fond of those bloggers who post and then never comment anywhere. I think it's rude. But if you comment on this blog, I will answer you. And rest assured, I will read your blogs as time permits. I like to keep my nose in everybody's business and Google Reader and I have become friends once again.

It's good to be back.

Tell me -- What have you been up to? Get an Agent? Requests? Published? Any shiny new ideas?

Anne Gallagher (c) 2013

My Next Big Thing

I know, unusual for me to post on a Wednesday, but here I am.
Rick Daley tagged me for this meme (and sent me an email to boot) so I just had to participate.

What is the title of your next book?

THE EARL'S ENGAGEMENT.

Where did the idea for the book come from? 

As Monster says when she gets ideas, "From my brain." No, seriously, when I was writing THE LADY'S FATE, I found the Earl of Bailey so intriguing, I just had to write a story about him.

What genre does your book fall under?

Historical romance, or Regency romance.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Rosamund Briden

Earl of Bailey

Lady Briden

Lord Briden

Gibbs, the butler

(All photos courtesy of the International Movie Data Base and PBS and A&E Movie website.)


What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Good question. I have no idea. I haven't worked that out yet.

When Lord Bailey decides to act as fake fiance' for a friend, falling in love with her was not part of the plan. 

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Self-published.

How long did it take you to write the first draft?

I'm not quite done with it yet. About 30K more words to go. I started it back in May, but with moving and fixing up the old house it was a rough summer. I've had more time in the last two weeks and have been banging out amazing word counts (even for me) because I just want to get it done.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Hmmm.... I don't really know. I don't think I've read anything like it recently. Then again, I haven't actually had time to read anything in a long time. It's a stand alone novel but within a series. It's considered a sweet romance because there's no sex, but there is lots of yearning. 

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

When I met Lord Bailey, I always knew I wanted to use him in his own book. But I had no real story. Then last Christmas I heard from my childhood best friend. I asked after her parents (the Bridens) and they had both passed away. Incredibly sad for me to hear. They were such great people. So I decided to use George and Mildred as the parents of my heroine so they will live on in my memory (and I suppose the annals of history.) This book will be dedicated to them. (And the "real" Lord Bailey. He too is a real person.)

What else about the book might pique the readers' interest?

This is not a fluffy light sweet historical. This particular book deals with some very real present day issues like old age, poverty in the midst of wealth, family dynamics, sexual harassment, and what strengths we use to overcome diversity.



I'm trying to get the e-version out right after Christmas. It will also be in paperback in the spring.

Thanks for stopping by.

How Much Are You Worth?

Good Morning.

Today I want to discuss e-book pricing. While I was away, I read some "big name author" opinions on the subject, and I have a few of my own I'd like to share. Not because I'm a "big" author, but I think they're valid points and if you're heading into the e-publishing sphere, you might want to take some of this into consideration.

As a whole, I think it depends on what kind of story you've written. For my short stories, I priced them at .99cents. I thought that was fair. I tried $1.29 for one of them for two weeks and I didn't sell one copy. As soon as I dropped my price back to .99, they sold.

(Now, some authors price their shorts at $1.99, their novellas at $2.99, novels at $6.99. Which might work for them, but it doesn't work for me. These are mostly big name authors who've made their mark in the self-publishing arena and can do whatever they want.)

In my Regency series, my novellas and short stories are .99 cents. My novels, I started off at $2.99, and then I raised the price to $3.49. I'm selling the exact same amount from when they were .50cents cheaper. It's my opinion, if people like what they see in the cover copy and the "inside peek" they'll buy it no matter what the price. Especially if you've found a fan base.

Now, some "insiders" say to price your first book cheaply in the beginning to gain an audience and use it as a "loss leader." (We discussed this last week on the Is Free the New Black post.) If you're writing a series, and don't write short stories, this can work for you. .99 is an enticement to get readers to stick around for the rest of the series especially if the first book is well-written. When the second book comes out, the price you decide upon is up to you.

And here's the crux of it. How much do you think your book is worth? Only you can determine this. I don't know about you, but I've worked long and hard on my books, crafting them, revising, rewriting, editing, formatting, all the stuff we do as writers on our way to publication. How long did it take me to write the book? God only knows. If I broke it down into actual man hours, it seems like a million. Do I really want to charge .99cents for something that took me almost a year to write? I feel I'm worth more than that.

In today's competitive market (strictly e-books here) you want your book read, you want your readers to feel satisfied they didn't waste their hard earned money on something they hated. (Which in that case, they'll ask for a refund.) I could have charged $6.99 for my novels like the big name authors do. But I'm not a big name author. I also want to be competitive. I also want to make some money for all my hard work, which is why I chose to start out at $2.99, the lowest price point to garner 70% royalties.

Now some of my readers in their reviews were disappointed to find that what they bought for .99 wasn't a novel. But they wouldn't pay $2.99 for one. So that either means, they're cheap, used to Free, or on a limited budget. Which in today's economy is fair to say. However, if I put my novels at .99 then that devalues ME as an author. I work hard on my books, have great covers, edit them, re-edit them, and make sure they're free of typo's and all the other junk. I feel I'm distributing a pretty good product.

I'd love to sell my novels for $6.99. Why don't I? Because I'm still new at this. I feel the more I write, the better I get, and possibly someday, after I've sold 50,000 copies, I just might. But for now, raising the price .50 cents is my way of giving myself a raise and telling consumers I value what I do. And so should they.

My books aren't crap. I've put probably a thousand man-hours into research. I've spent years rewriting and revising. I think I know what I'm doing, and with help from my critters and betas, I put out what I think is a damned fine book. Of course, there are better writers than me, I know that. But you know what, I've read some stuff that's come out of New York and I wouldn't waste my hard-earned money on it. You get what you pay for. And I think $2.99 is a pretty fair price. It's less than a cup of coffee sometimes.

So that's that. My thoughts on E-Book Pricing.

Any questions, comments, thoughts, ideas, personal experience you want to share....

Free is the New Black...Or Is It?

We've all heard the stories of authors putting their books up for free, clocking thousands of downloads, and then once the promo is over, selling thousands of copies. One author I know about bought a new car after her free promotion. Another paid off her mortgage.

Well, guess what, that doesn't happen every day. It depends on the book, the genre, the writer, why you're doing it, as well as the day of the week, and the position of the moon. Yeah, no not really, but luck like that is very rare. Also a back list is worth a thousand downloads.

I'll tell you my story, and you can decide if you want to put your books for free or not.

We all know I write Regency romance. In the beginning I wrote a novel -- THE LADY'S FATE. But I didn't know how to promote it. I decided to write a short story to give away as a loss leader. You know, like the prize in the box of Cracker Jacks. Give something else away for free, to get them to buy what you really want them to buy.

I gave away A WIFE FOR WINSBARREN when I launched LADY'S FATE. This was before the days of Amazon's KDP Select. It was a win-win for me. When I launched THE DUKE'S DIVORCE, I also gave away copies of A HUSBAND FOR MISS TRENT. Another win.

All my books shot up in the rankings, got me sales, made me delight in my forethought and cunning that I was so smart to do so. I thought I was the golden child of the Regency world.

But all that soon came crashing to a nasty halt. Amazon caught on to the game (If you uploaded to another venue, Smashwords for instance, and offered your book free before they went to Premium status, the spam bots at Amazon couldn't track you.)

Last December they decided to install KDP Select. Which would give you the option to offer your book for free on Amazon for 5 days. It also allowed its Prime members to borrow your book for free, but you would still get paid. Which sounded like a good deal. Everyone was still making money, and you could also use those 5 days for a loss leader promotion. It was only 90 days and if you wanted to re-up or not, that was your decision.

Well, the first month, everyone and their brother tried it. It worked for me too with WINSBARREN. I took it off Smashwords, enrolled it in KDP and although I never put it for free (as I had already done so) I did get a lot of hits off the Prime membership.

But now, we come to the big bad Amazon (in March) changing their algorithms. (Okay does anyone know how to spell that word? Really? I've seen it spelled like 3 different ways.)

For those who don't know what algorithms are, I don't actually know either. But to hazard a guess, it's a scientific analytical spreadsheet that marks (in Amazon's case) how many books are sold by genre, by price, by author, then makes calculations based on how, when, and where they're selling, then takes all that information and plugs it into another spreadsheet and figures out who's going to sell more, who's going to buy more, and who's going to make more money. (Amazon.)

Anyway, once Amazon plugged FREE into their algorithms, authors were shooting up to #1 with a bullet. Everyone was talking about it. Everyone was doing it. Authors were getting on lists, authors were selling more books, people were reading more books. Amazon was making more money. (Because that's what Amazon does.)

But then, as with every good thing that's too good to be true, authors began to suffer from lackluster sales after their free promotion. They'd hit #1 or #2 during, but after, nothing. You know why? Because everyone else was giving their books away for free so why should they buy yours. People were grumbling, authors were in uproar, marketing analysts were writing articles in the NYTimes and Huffington Post. Oh my.

So here we are, 8 months after the initiation of the KDP Select program and what's happened is Free is now the norm. Authors who are having lackluster sales decide to offer their book FREE in the KDP Select program after it's been out for awhile. You know what that does. Makes people wait to buy your book. Because they know eventually, it will be free. That's why there are lackluster sales. They're waiting. Everyone loves a bargain.

Free is what you make it. In my opinion, offering a book free at the launch would be the way to go. Making that free list, getting higher in the rankings, garnering some reviews. Then set your price and stick with it. (Which is what I did with REMEMBERING YOU. I'm waiting for the dust to settle and then once I have all my notes in place, I'll tell you what happened with that book. Probably in late August, early September.)

In my opinion, once you publish a book, instead of trying to sell it forever, write the next book. If people buy your first book and like it, they want more. It's called a fan base. (Unless you have a 1000 followers on your blog and Twitter, you don't have a fan base yet.) Perhaps write a short story and offer that as Free, possibly for the launch of the next book instead of the book itself. It couldn't hurt. And besides, how long did it take you to write the 80k words in your novel? How long did it take you to write the 15k words in your short story, or 25k words in your novella? Which would you like to take a loss on?

I think, and again this is only my opinion, now that Amazon has changed its algorithms again (June) free is not what it once was. Sure it might get you to #1 for a few days, but after that, you go back to where you used to be. Rankings don't follow the free promo anymore. So save yourself, and your sanity. Think about your loss leader before you go offering anything for free.

And again, this is only based on my experiences on what I've done. Comments, questions are welcome. No spam please. Next week I'll discuss price points.

When a Cover Isn't Working

As a published author, I'm constantly checking the stats on my sales reports. It's part of an OCD behaviour, I think most indie authors acquire after they've self-published. It's not a bad thing, per se, but just part of what naturally happens.

Now, my Regency romances have always sold well. (Thank you to all who've bought and reviewed them.) It's an amazing feeling to think that so many people have read them and I appreciate all the support. These aren't the problem.

If you were around a couple of weeks ago, (maybe 6) I was just getting ready to upload the long awaited REMEMBERING YOU, my contemporary women's fiction/romance. My topic of conversation revolved around the use of my name. Should I publish under Anne Gallagher, or some other form of that, or should I possibly have a different pen name altogether.

For the informal poll I posted, you overwhelmingly thought I should publish that under the name Robynne Rand. However, there were good arguments to be had in that, I built my Regency brand under Anne Gallagher, and I should take some of that juice and use it for the women's fiction.

Well, I thought and thought and thought, and took all the opinions under consideration. I decided to publish under A.R. Gallagher. It seemed the best of both worlds. I published that almost a month ago. I asked a writer, who doesn't read women's fiction to write a review, (which she did, and for someone who doesn't read w-f, she loved it.) So I thought it was all good. I mean, I had a 5-star review listed for it the day it came out. It was also listed on my author page on Amazon, so my Regency readers would see I had something else out there.

To date, I have sold one copy. (And I know who bought it.) One copy. To say this doesn't hurt is an understatement. I love this book. I cried when I wrote this book. I cry every single time I read this book. This is the one that is closest to my heart. And nobody wants it. This, my friends, is a writer's worst nightmare come true.

Now this isn't a plea for anyone to buy it. ABSOLUTELY NOT. This is a statement of what I am now going to do with it so that if any of you are experiencing the same thing, perhaps you will find comfort in that you are not alone. (See what I did there with the bold and italics and font color. This is not a plea. Besides, by the time you read this post, this incantation of this book will probably not even be up for sale anymore. (**note, it's not as of 5/10/12)

I am changing the cover. Now, this cover above is a picture of Bristol Harbor, Rhode Island where the book is set. I thought this was a good cover. Yeah, good. Not great, not wow, but I thought it did the novel justice. But, I've been thinking it's just not doing it for me, and obviously it's not doing a damn thing for sales.

I'm also going to republish it under the name Robynne Rand. I had a gut feeling about this, right from the get-go, and although the discussion was persuasive for the other, I should have listened to my guts. (Believe me, sometimes guts are the best thing to go on, no matter who says what.)

And thirdly, I'm going to market and promote this book, something I didn't do for my Regencies. I don't believe in cramming things down people's throats. But I think this is a good idea for this one. My Regencies speak for themselves, you know what you're getting just looking at the cover. This is a whole different animal. (So if any of you would like me to interview, or guest post, or whatever on your blog, now would be the time to email me. piedmontwriter at gmail dot com  Anne R. Allen had a post a few weeks ago, that said I should be the one to ask. I didn't know that. I thought YOU were supposed to ask ME. I hate to be pushy. But now I'm asking.)

With the advent of self-publishing, you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, and if that means unpublishing and republishing, hey, it's not that hard and it only takes a few clicks of the mouse. But once it's all said and done and republished, I'm hoping that this little experiment will be a viable one, not only for me, but other indie's out there. I'll keep you posted.

Tell me -- If you are self-published, have you done this? Changed a cover? Changed your name? And even if you're not, what is your opinion on what I'm about to do? Do you think it will help in any way? I mean, what have I got to lose, right?

As of yesterday, this is the new version of the cover and pen name that is now published on Amazon. What do you think? Do you like this one better?  I do.

Friday's at the Piedmont Grille

On Today's Menu -- A Meme

A couple of day's ago, Laurel Garver (Laurel's Leaves) passed me a meme. I've seen it around, it's called the Lucky 7 (or something like that) where you go to page 77 in your manuscript and pull out the first 7 sentences, (or 7 paragraphs). I'm supposed to tag 7 people to do the same, but I'm not going to. (I don't like to be pushy.) So, I'll tell you what, if you want to do this, (and I think it's kind of fun) just say you found it here. How's that? No pressure.

I thought this meme was especially fortuitous as I've just published REMEMBERING YOU, my contemporary women's fiction I've been hanging onto for a couple of years. I finished this book in 2009, was in fact, the second book I've ever written ( should clarify - I've written many, this is one I actually finished). I used to post excerpts from time to time. It's about Genna who goes home after a ten year absence and what she finds when she gets there. Remember Tony, and Pete, and Uncle Sally, and Aunt Fortuna. Yeah, that book.

Anyway, here's my meme. I'm doing 7 paragraphs. And funnily enough, this is one of the most highly charged scenes in the book. Angie, Genna's cousin, just finds out she has breast cancer.

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The hopelessness in her cousin’s voice unnerved Genna. Angie had never backed down from anything before. Not to Sal and Fortuna when Angie wanted to go to art school and there was no money for tuition. Not to Michael when he said he wanted a stay-at-home wife. Not to her mother-in-law who found fault with everything Angie ever did. Genna didn’t know much about cancer, but she knew if Angie gave up the fight to win the battle over it, she was as good as dead. She wanted to slap Angie, hard, right across the face. Knowing her cousin would reach full-blown hysteria in less than ten seconds, Genna did the only thing she knew to get her cousin grounded.

“Oh, Angie, why can’t you just do what you’re supposed to do instead of wallowing in all this hysterical self-pity? It doesn’t do anybody any good, least of all you.”

Angie looked up wide-eyed, snot mixing with her tears.

“God Angie,” Genna said. “Deal with the facts, not the unknowns. You know, you used to be one of the strongest women I ever knew. You wouldn’t take crap from anybody. Now I can understand how this whole cancer thing might knock you for a loop, but you’re bigger than it, and once you get through all the chemo, you’ll be fine. Once Fortuna goes to her doctor and we have some more information, she’ll be fine. As for Michael, well, that’s none of my business, obviously, but when I talked to him the other day at my party, I could tell he still loves you. Sure, he might have been upset about the affair, but who wouldn’t be? Ang, you’ve got to get it together. Now is not the time to fall apart. People are depending on you not to give up. You need to fight, not surrender.”

Genna hoped her little speech would knock some kind of sense into her cousin. If not, Angie would be completely useless. She’d become paralyzed within her own fear, and indulging in what-ifs would only lead to more hysteria, which no one needed.

The birds didn’t seem to care the two women were dealing with emotional overload and chirped in the branches of the trees overhead, although the silence at the table was deafening.

“You’re right,” Angie finally said. She sat back in the chair and dried her face with the bottom of her shirt. “You’re absolutely right. I need to get it together.” She stared over the back yard.

*****

Now of course, there's a whole lot more to this than I've presented here. Genna isn't as hard hearted as some of you may think. As a matter of fact, during the next few paragraphs, Genna gives Angie all the love and support she needs and by the end of the scene, both women end up laughing as Genna grosses out her cousin with her unshaved legs.

So that's that.

*****

On another note, for those of you who hate the new blogger look, I found a button (the one on your new dashboard that looks like an inner clock works -- if you hit that, you can find the tab that allows you to go back to the old blogger dashboard style. They say they're going to change it to the new one eventually, but I'm keeping the old one for as long as I possibly can.

*****

I hope you all have a great weekend everyone!

Marketing Quietly

Good Morning. As most of you know I self-published several short stories and two novels to Kindle/Amazon with a third on the way. It's been a truly life changing experience in more ways than one. Yes, I am exceedingly proud of all I've achieved with my writing. I've also learned how to upload, download, fix html codes, and all kinds of other "fun" stuff I never in a zillion years thought I'd ever do. (With the help of some very dear friends, I might add.)

When I first uploaded A WIFE FOR WINSBARREN to Kindle back in October, I had no idea what "ranking" was or "best-seller lists" or any of that. However, as I uploaded more books, I found my ranking was getting higher. Now, one of my dear friends said that being at #63 was an amazing achievement.
I even wrote about it here on my blog.

As of this writing, I'm on three different best-seller lists, with that one book, at #5, #16, and #52 respectively. People are actually buying my books and reading them. (And these rankings change HOURLY so what may have me sitting in astonishment one moment, has me plummeting to the dregs of the earth in another.)

Now there're all kinds of ways to get to the top in a short amount of time. Here are three I've heard about. Put it free, get tons of reviews, do a blog splash. I never did any of those. As a matter of fact, WINSBARREN sat with the same 3 reviews it had, written by dear friends, for the first 4 months it was out. It now has 4. (Two stars I might add.) So reviews don't have anything to do with ranking as far as I can tell.

As of this writing, THE LADY'S FATE has 5 reviews. My other two short stories and novel have none. And quite honestly, I don't care. They're all selling. Quite well I might add. So as far as I'm concerned, word of mouth is selling my books. Either that OR the fact I have so much reading material out there
I did do "free" on one of my other books (A HUSBAND FOR MISS TRENT), but I did that the wrong way, using Smashwords for the "free" instead of Amazon/Kindle, hence, a lesson learned.

As for a blog splash (or marketing blitz) nope, didn't do that either. Not that I couldn't, but quite frankly, I just didn't want to. With so many people complaining (myself included) about people shoving their books in your face on every social media site known to man, I just couldn't do it. As a matter of fact, I hardly did anything -- I believe 2 interviews and a guest post and that was it. Some very nice people wrote some very nice things about my books and posted them on Goodreads, but I didn't ask them to do it. I Tweeted once and only once for each book release. That's it. I posted once for each book release on both of my blogs. That's it.

(The one thing that I haven't done, that I really want to do, is get bookmarks and/or postcards made. I'm waiting on my third novel to go out before I do that.)
As for my actual stats on how many I've sold, well, that's kind of personal, like asking what religion you belong to, or if you ever inhaled. I want to tell you, really I do, but I'm not going to. You know why, because my sales will be different than yours. There are all kinds of reasons why -- different genre, different publication dates, different marketing strategies, hey, even different covers. And we can't compare. ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY CANNOT COMPARE. It wouldn't be fair to you or I, or any of the other writers out there.

Yes, some people have sold 50k in the last year. Some only 100 books. You have to find what works for you to be able to sell. You have to find your own marketing groove and go with it. J.A. Konrath suggests playing with pricing. David Gaughran suggests putting books out for free. K. K. Rusch suggests putting excerpts up on your blog. And all of these are really great ideas. And yes, I've done them. Some worked, and some didn't. But only you can make the decision of what works best for you. Sometimes it's just the difference of changing the cover.

What I do know, however, is that putting out great content, with a pretty decent cover, keeping the typo's and mistakes to a minimum, and keeping that momentum going, will see your sales grow over time. This isn't a race. There's a long tail on this roller-coaster. What sells today, might not sell next year, or even next week. Who knows. Then again, even if you don't sell this year, in five years, you might be the next gazillionaire.

I guess what I'm saying is, you don't have to beat people over the head to buy your books. I didn't and I'm making a nice living now. I keep my nose to the grindstone and write. I guess you could say I "Market Quietly", and just do what I think is best and let the chips fall where they may. But then again, I'm not you and you're not me. We each have our own way of looking at things.

Tell me -- What are the most effective ways you've seen writers market? What are some of the most detrimental? What are some of your marketing techniques?

A Publishing Logo

Day two of the new/old schedule. So far so good.

Today I want to discuss publishing logos. You know, those little piccies on the spines of books that most of the major publishers have.

Back in the old days, when there were only like six publishers (waaaayyyy back in the old days), a logo would mean, you knew exactly what you were getting from the publisher without even having to crack the book open or look at jacket copy. A yellow star with a blue background meant it was romance, and sweet romance to boot. No boobies hiding in there. A captial H with a diamond for the the crossbar meant something else. Two red waves, different publisher, same genre. A capital P with a star in the middle, different genre, same publisher. You get my drift.

In the world of self-publishing, there's so much to think about, a logo just doesn't seem necessary. Especially as most self-publishers aren't even thinking of "physical books". With the advent of the e-book revolution, I mean where would you even put something like that. There's no spine. On the title page? On the copyright page? In the back matter somewhere?

Besides, most self-publishers don't form their own companies, and if they do, don't necessarily think about a logo for it. I know I never did. Until I started thinking about publishing to paperback and someone asked me what my logo would be. I was like, why bother? But then I started thinking, I used to have a logo for my catering company. And my cards and brochures were passed around like candy. Back in the day, my name meant something, and the people who hired me knew exactly what they were getting as soon as they saw my logo.

(Sorry for the tilt. I couldn't quite get it to scan right.)

And so now, with a little push, and help from my very dear friend, I have a new logo to accompany Shore Road Publishing. (I so wanted to have Beach House Publishing but that was already taken.)

What do you think? Kind of cool isn't it. I think it's quite snappy. (Although I might change it to the same color blue as my original business card.)

And look, I didn't even have to ask, this just magically appeared in my inbox.

And I didn't even realize when I drew it out, but the RP is actually my real name. So I think that's a really good sign/omen/portent for the paperback versions of my books. 

Tell me -- Have you ever thought about your own logo?  What would it look like?

PS I've got a great guest for an interview on Friday at the Piedmont Grille so I hope you'll stop by.

A MUST READ BOOK!

Good Morning. I was recently given a gift by the lovely Anne R. Allen of the book INDIE CHICKS an anthology of personal stories from Indie women writers.





If you are woman

A writer

A Mom

A survivor

If you are overwhelmed, prone to anxiety, unsure, or just have no clue how to manage writing and the stress of real life at the same time

This book is for you.

Twenty-five personal essays from women Indie Writers that will leave you laughing, crying, shaking your head, and saying, "Oh my God, that is so MY life."

Not only are there the personal essays, but sneak peeks into the latest books of the writers and where to find them on the interwebs. I put so many books on my TBR list just compiled from this anthology, my reading list will take me into 2014 I'm sure.

This book is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC and I can't rave about it enough.

Also, all proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen foundation for cancer research, so it's a win-win all the way around.

You can buy it here on Amazon.

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In other news, I'm posting tomorrow on a special cause that won't cost you anything but a click of your mouse, so please, please, please stop by. Here's a hint... and with that face, you won't be able to say no.




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And I'll be at Nicki's on Wednesday for another interview, and she found my favorite song in the whole world on You Tube, so I hope you'll swing by for that.