Amazon/Hachette/Gag

I had this weird thought the other day.

What if (and I know this is edgy) we let the marketplace dictate who wins and who loses?

Before I continue, I think the major contention is the price Hachette wants to set for their ebooks. If that's incorrect, I'm ready to listen.

In my admittedly limited brain, I see an epic fail in Hachette's future given their insistence to price their ebooks outrageously.

Maybe Amazon should simply allow them to work themselves into bankruptcy and everyone could save on attorney fees.


It's all better with friends.

An Open Letter to Authors

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000,000 books are published each year in the U.S. alone. That's more than 83,000 a month.  2,700 a day.

114 books a minute. Every minute. In the time it takes you to read and comment on this post, more than 1,000 books are likely to have been released.

Is it any wonder that it's difficult for new authors to get noticed?

The internet, which has given us wonderful things like Google and Amazon has also given us social networking opportunities like Facebook and Goodreads. There's Twitter and Pinterest and LinkedIn and new things popping up almost every day. As authors, we're are using these things like crazy to try and get the word out about our books.

There's nothing wrong with marketing ourselves. We all have to do a certain amount of promotion regardless of whether we're traditionally published or independently published. Doing nothing pretty much guarantees that your books will languish at the bottom of the pile. And the pile just keeps getting bigger.

Most of us are learning that a constant blast of "notice me" in any form is sure to backfire. But there's more than just the one-dimensional person who is only about Blatant Self Promotion, there are those who are so desperate to get attention they'll do almost anything, including buying followers on Twitter.

Are you kidding me?

There are so many Don't Go There possibilities we've all heard about. From writing fake reviews (positive for you and negative for an author you consider competition) to spreading rumors to calling yourself a "bestselling author" because your book hit the top 10 when it was free.

Here are some of my personal requests to all of my fellow authors:

1. DON'T ask me to vote for your book if I haven't read it. I'm constantly asked to vote for a book or a short story in one competition or another and I'm pretty darned sure the author knows I've never read anything they've ever written. They're desperate and I understand that, but don't ask me to sacrifice my honor for your fake moment of pride. Because it would be fake, wouldn't it?

2. DON'T offer to trade reviews with me. What if I don't like your book? Are you going to dis mine? And don't give me a great review, then send me your book expecting the same in return. That just feels sleazy. And once again, you could be asking me to basically lie.

3. DON'T ask me to "like" a review for a book I haven't read. I hereby announce that I will no longer trade my self-respect for one stupid "like" just because someone I truly do like asked me. And by the same token, don't ask me to say a bad review wasn't helpful for a book I haven't read. Between you and me, those bad reviews can be goldmines for sales. Something to think about.

4. DON'T ask me to "like" every Facebook page your mind can dream up. Some of you caught me unaware and it took me five or six pages before I finally realized you were in serious need of an intervention.

5. DON'T ask me to read your manuscript with the idea you can save money on an edit. I'm not an editor. You need to hire one. Sorry, but you do. And don't go cheap.

These are mostly Facebook and Amazon things, but I'm sure there are plenty of Twitter issues along the same lines.

As a new author, I appreciated the support of those who had gone before me, and I want to do the same. But desperate to the point of total crap doesn't cut it with me.

Authors—what have I missed? What requests or other things make you cringe?

Readers—have you come to be able to see through a lot of these ploys? Is there anything you trust any more?



It's all better with friends.

When Hard Work Meets Luck… and L.J. Sellers

When something fabulous happens to a writer there's a tendency to call him lucky. His timing was perfect so he got someone's attention. She got in the business before the business changed. He must know someone.

But the truth is, she's worked hard. Luck didn't come knocking at her door while she was sitting on her behind. She pretty much lived and breathed to write good books. Every day she showed up for work and took care of business. And one day Luck noticed.

L.J. Sellers is one of the hardest working authors I know. She has always been there to give me some advice or kick around some ideas. She's encouraged me and become a trusted friend. Now she shares some fantastic news. I hope you'll stop by Crime Fiction Collective and congratulate her.

It's all better with friends.

Freakin' Free Frenzy

Photo by Tomboy

Why in the world would a writer want to give away multiple copies of his or her book? There are probably as many reasons as there are authors, but here are a few based on my experiences and discussions. All of them make sense:

• A new release is coming up, so an older title is offered for free to create buzz;
• A new author (a la moi) who wants to give readers a reason to take a chance;
• Lagging sales. Sometimes a little goose will redirect attention to a good author;
• A strong desire to see their book(s) in as many hands as possible;
• A landmark celebration (ie: 1 million books or ten years or The Sinking of The Titanic);
• A poorly written and unedited book that wouldn't make it out in the world any other way.

Red Tide was officially published on March 28th. Between then and now, with a total four Free Days, I've been excited to see about 10,000 copies land in the hands of people who don't know me. My after-the-fact sales have encouraged me and I'm grateful for all of the people who took a chance then found they could support a fledgling author.

There is a lot of conflict among authors surrounding free ebooks. While everyone wants to find readers and give them a good read, there's the question of devaluing a creative work. One figure that's bandied around is that we actually work for about thirty-five cents an hour. I'm in the fortunate position of not really needing to care. I'm not independently wealthy, I simply have other resources. I have the luxury of focusing on doing what I love rather than fearing starvation.

A friend of mine who is a best-selling author recently had to seriously consider finding another job in order to pay the bills. Fortunately sales picked up and we're all better off because she can write another great book.

A huge concern that's bandied about in "Author Land" is that with all of the gazillions of free books, where do ours end up in the queue? When might we find some affirmation? It's tricky, if not downright impossible, to stand out in the crowd. And at about thirty-five cents an hour, it's not the money that drives us—at least not most of us. It's the verbal currency that counts.

In addition to the gazillions of books and the queue, the last reason I listed above, the one about poorly written books, becomes a concern. At least it was until I struck on an idea that sort of solves both worries with one concept.

Here's my working theory: free downloads are like sample downloads. Readers will be able to tell in a few minutes (if not seconds) whether or not they want to invest more time. Because they don't have a greater commitment, it's much easier to acknowledge a DNF (Did Not Finish) and move on. Almost all of those people who have my book would not have it had it not been for free. They would probably have not even bothered with the free sample. I'm trusting that many of the people who downloaded Red Tide and multiple other books will work their way through the poorly written and unedited ones and find their way to a pleasant surprise.

Will there be more free days for Red Tide? I don't have any planned at the moment. I'm hoping that with almost 10,000 copies working their way through the e-readers right now that I'll find a few people who will help spread the word.

Note: I'm hard at work in the initial stages of the editing process for my next book, and that first reason is looking pretty good to me right now.

What do you think about free ebooks? Good or bad or indifferent?



It's all better with friends.

Amazon Tips

A lot of people elect to go the independent route for a variety of reasons. Amazon is a key component. Eddie Jones recently offered a one-hour online seminar covering ways he feels you can obtain amazing results on Amazon.


Here are a few of things worth mulling over:


1. Short non-fiction can help pay the bills. Brevity sells. Understand where your background and experience can translate into a platform for non-fiction. Consider putting together an incredibly easy, short, book to sell on Amazon. Or, if you have more than 200 pages for one of these, consider a series. $$$

2. Optimize your title. Has anyone ever seen a sub-title applied to fiction before? That's my question. It didn't come up in the class, but it could catch some attention. On Amazon, your title is 'shelf space', and the longer the title is, the more shelf space and attention you get. You have 200 characters. Use all of them.

3. Cover. You can do the typical, or you can do the a-typical. A square cover. Square is good because square is different. Different gets noticed. Since there is no hand-selling on Amazon, your cover is very important.

4. The Search Inside feature can be wonderful because the entire book is searched for key words/phrases. (Probably more important for non-fiction.)

5. Ranking. Although this is changing based on the sheer volume of new books, a ranking of 50k - 200k is not quite hot. 50k-10k is a fairly good performer. Better than 10k and you have a winner over time.

6. Customer reviews are key. The more the better. Even if some of them aren't that great. The more reviews you have, the higher your book will appear in the 'relevant' search rankings. 10 reviews or less = not so much. 100 reviews? Way cool, even if some of them are poor. Having a neutral or even a negative review actually increases the credibility overall.

7. Tags. Tags (via votes) will increase your presence in search results. (One online loop in particular had a HUGE push for tagging amongst its authors.) I find that to be one of the cheating/unethical things LJ Sellers referred to on a recent post on Crime Fiction Collective.

8. Author page. KEEP IT CURRENT. Duh. Make sure it reflects not just your bio, but a passion for your subjects and books. Plug your blog with an RSS Feed. Video/Trailer . . . you can ask customers to drop trailers into their reviews, but keep it real. If the trailer was an instigating 'buy' for the customer, cool.

Okay, you guys have the benefit of an hour of my time. I hope there's at least one thing in here that can inspire you and move you forward.

Do you have any tips to add?

NOTE: Through the Memorial Day Weekend, my partners at Crime Fiction Collective are donating their profits to a family in Joplin, Missouri who lost everything. One of my other partners is splitting hers, to include victims of the same rash of tornadoes in Minnesota. Please, please, please . . . if you're looking for a good read (and I can recommend all of them), consider buying either a download or a paper book. Crime Fiction Collective.

CR: Alone by Lisa Gardner.

It's all better with friends.