I woke up this morning to a huge number of page reads, or at least huge for me. Very rarely do I have any in the morning, though often I have some; it depends really on whether people have started reading off in Australia, or England, or whether some Americans read so late in the night that it was actually counted this morning.
Last night it appeared to be a combination; five different books, one read both in India and Australia, one only downloaded with just one page read. One was read in Canada but probably late at night. Here, after all, it is only 8 am, and it's not that different in Canada.
Sometimes you get a huge number dumped at once; this was the case last night. Before I went to bed, at about eleven, a woman told me she had read my book and actually showed me the review. At that moment, zero, but this morning, all of them. It's like she plugged her kindle in online, and it took Amazon a while to grab all those pages and count them. When they did, it was already morning.
As the new year rolls in, it's good to have things happening. Often it is in return for a promise I've made to read something of somebody's, but that's what the New Year is all about, or at least one of the things it's about. It's snowy and cold outside, no fun being out there, and though I've promised to clean out the garage again it's not happening, too cold, and I am much happier in my chair.
On the global scale I much prefer .com reads because they pay better and I primarily see myself through my .com ratings. In that regard it's good to have decent ratings going into the new year (I feel like taking a photo of my ratings log just for new years' sake), but, I also feel that it's good just on prinicple to be read in Australia, India and UK, and I wouldn't mind if somebody in France or Spain picked up my books too.
The downside is simple. My mere obsession with this - the fact that I know it at all, that I write it down, that I pay close attention - comes at the expense of my writing itself. I have done almost none over the Christmas holiday. And it's not even a "holiday" here, although my kids are out of school. They don't bug me at all. I could probably be writing another book, or several, but I'm not; I'm sitting here obsessing about my ratings, and reading other people's work. It's mixed. Usually I enjoy it. I've read lots of different kinds of things. I've found new audiences.
I wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year. I can't say mine is exactly "prosperous," but it's at least starting with a little hope.
Sunday, December 31, 2023
Sunday, December 3, 2023
local author's fair
I had a minor success at the library's local author fair. Really it has more to do with my image of myself as an author than sales. In sales, I sold three and traded three; I'll take my $24 bucks and plow it back into the business one way or the other.
I got all thirty books out there this time, all on the table at once. That alone was a kind of organizational miracle. Of course I had been planning for it as last year there were some key ones I didn't have. This time I had them all. And though I had to put some beneath others, it was good knowing they were there and being able to see them all out.
There were a lot of people who didn't really want to visit much; they kind of tolerated what I had to say, but in the end they were all about moving on. Perhaps they had bought one earlier (I was not the first author for anyone; being virtually in the middle, almost everyone had talked to at least three or four authors before me). Maybe I should rethink my placement next year, as I might have done better with better placement. I sold two of the crime stories book, which leads me to believe that people looking to Christmas shop for others are basically looking for something quick, easy, light, pleasurable. They were buying gifts. Sometimes they were having them wrapped.
As I sat there, my thirty books splayed out in front of me, I had time to reflect on my act - what I brought to the fair, the way I presented myself. Some authors did better than me that way. They had little metal book-holding shelves, or cards, or little laminated things that presented their press. One had put my review on her bookmark, and I took that bookmark as a souvenir. Lots were giving away candy. I had no freebies, no cards, no nothing. A plan, I told everyone: I have a plan to make this better for next year.
If charm could have won people over, I still would have sold only a half-dozen; there just weren't that many people there. As it was I was lucky to sell three. And I no longer have much charm. What I have is eagerness to talk about all the work I've done. But people don't care about that.
In a way, I was representing Galesburg. We had a dozen authors; we were there; we sold books. Galesburg has a writing scene; we were it. I am basking in the glow.
I got all thirty books out there this time, all on the table at once. That alone was a kind of organizational miracle. Of course I had been planning for it as last year there were some key ones I didn't have. This time I had them all. And though I had to put some beneath others, it was good knowing they were there and being able to see them all out.
There were a lot of people who didn't really want to visit much; they kind of tolerated what I had to say, but in the end they were all about moving on. Perhaps they had bought one earlier (I was not the first author for anyone; being virtually in the middle, almost everyone had talked to at least three or four authors before me). Maybe I should rethink my placement next year, as I might have done better with better placement. I sold two of the crime stories book, which leads me to believe that people looking to Christmas shop for others are basically looking for something quick, easy, light, pleasurable. They were buying gifts. Sometimes they were having them wrapped.
As I sat there, my thirty books splayed out in front of me, I had time to reflect on my act - what I brought to the fair, the way I presented myself. Some authors did better than me that way. They had little metal book-holding shelves, or cards, or little laminated things that presented their press. One had put my review on her bookmark, and I took that bookmark as a souvenir. Lots were giving away candy. I had no freebies, no cards, no nothing. A plan, I told everyone: I have a plan to make this better for next year.
If charm could have won people over, I still would have sold only a half-dozen; there just weren't that many people there. As it was I was lucky to sell three. And I no longer have much charm. What I have is eagerness to talk about all the work I've done. But people don't care about that.
In a way, I was representing Galesburg. We had a dozen authors; we were there; we sold books. Galesburg has a writing scene; we were it. I am basking in the glow.
Friday, November 17, 2023
Harvardinates
John Leverett, first secular President of Harvard (1708-1724), used Harvardinates (sons of Harvard), instead of Sons of the Prophets, to refer to Harvard alumni. That was his way of saying, we educate all men, not just divinity students (yes it was boys only at that time). This is the story of opening up Harvard, and all higher education in North America, to a wider audience - which is still a trend in progress.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CND89PZS
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CND89PZS
Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Hooray!
Nov. 14 is an auspicious day - I just finished, and uploade, a new book. It's called Harvardinates. You will see it exploding on social media, etc., tomorrow. You're hearing about it first, here.
My wife said, get me a proof copy, and I'll proofread, fast, I can do it really quickly. She can, though she doesn't like my style, and will give me a hard time about such things as commas. I will get her a book, but I won't hold my breath. Same with my brother. He's really one of my best careful third eyes. I value his advice.
But, the problem is this. You spend a few months on it, you do tedious research, you get all finished, toward the end there's a big rush of all-consuming days as you finished, and it's all like a dam. You have a thousand gallons of water waiting, dying to get through. On the other side it's dry - nothing produced in a long time. No reads. No sales. No nothing. You've been neglecting all that so you could finish writing. Well, the balance is too tipped. I can't wait another minute. I have to have it out there.
Now fortunately one can still change a book after one publishes it. I am counting on that. This time, I have this one pretty good, I think. I've got most of the proofing errors, although I know of two already in the paperback copy. They're small. If they were a problem I'd just change them on the spot. One of them you have to read all the way to the last page, and read the notes (which are actually a very interesting part of the book).
It's partly because I've gotten a little discouraged in proofreading my own books. I find it virtually impossible. So why not let my wife do it? Simply because I can't wait. And she won't want to do it, once she knows it's published. To her, that's the last step. You have to proof before you publish. If you don't it's like dealing with rotten fish.
One last reason is that I'm dealing with a truly ancient computer on the Word end of it. Here I have a pretty good one - on the blogs, on the graphics, on the promo - but when I write, it's ancient. It blanks out a lot. The space bar has become unreliable. I have to use incredible patience and grit to get through anything. In the end, if I have a misspelling or something, I don't want to go through the whole process of uploading, changing, etc. I'll let it wait until the last minute or just forget about it.
Ah but I'm done. If you buy the paperback, watch out for the sachem and the archaeologist. I misspelled them both. But it'll be fixed soon - as soon as I find a few more. It's only a matter of time.
My wife said, get me a proof copy, and I'll proofread, fast, I can do it really quickly. She can, though she doesn't like my style, and will give me a hard time about such things as commas. I will get her a book, but I won't hold my breath. Same with my brother. He's really one of my best careful third eyes. I value his advice.
But, the problem is this. You spend a few months on it, you do tedious research, you get all finished, toward the end there's a big rush of all-consuming days as you finished, and it's all like a dam. You have a thousand gallons of water waiting, dying to get through. On the other side it's dry - nothing produced in a long time. No reads. No sales. No nothing. You've been neglecting all that so you could finish writing. Well, the balance is too tipped. I can't wait another minute. I have to have it out there.
Now fortunately one can still change a book after one publishes it. I am counting on that. This time, I have this one pretty good, I think. I've got most of the proofing errors, although I know of two already in the paperback copy. They're small. If they were a problem I'd just change them on the spot. One of them you have to read all the way to the last page, and read the notes (which are actually a very interesting part of the book).
It's partly because I've gotten a little discouraged in proofreading my own books. I find it virtually impossible. So why not let my wife do it? Simply because I can't wait. And she won't want to do it, once she knows it's published. To her, that's the last step. You have to proof before you publish. If you don't it's like dealing with rotten fish.
One last reason is that I'm dealing with a truly ancient computer on the Word end of it. Here I have a pretty good one - on the blogs, on the graphics, on the promo - but when I write, it's ancient. It blanks out a lot. The space bar has become unreliable. I have to use incredible patience and grit to get through anything. In the end, if I have a misspelling or something, I don't want to go through the whole process of uploading, changing, etc. I'll let it wait until the last minute or just forget about it.
Ah but I'm done. If you buy the paperback, watch out for the sachem and the archaeologist. I misspelled them both. But it'll be fixed soon - as soon as I find a few more. It's only a matter of time.
Saturday, November 4, 2023
Knee-deep in reading, having started a read-marketing site (yes, consider joining us if you are an author), now, I'm a little burnt out on reading and unable to enjoy concentrating on the usual. It's partly because I'm not a huge horror fan, and got a little too many horror ones in the spirit of the season, and just got tired of them. But it's also because my home life is a kind of a horror, so that just piles up horror on top of horror.
So, I delved back into the Puritan colony of late seventeen-hundreds Massachusetts, and that helped me get through it. I actually made progress organizing my book and getting it on the ground. It's a long, difficult book, and it flies through the witch trials because they only indirectly affect what happens at Harvard and the relationship between the people that run Harvard and the Mathers, Increase and Cotton. Interesting that, out in Salem, nineteen people are being executed, while at Harvard, one of my relatives is cranking out logic books in Latin and keeping mum. He dislikes Cotton Mather; he probably isn't big on spectral evidence; but you don't want to speak out against the big honcho especially when, at the time, he was directly employed by Increase.
Engrossed in my own little Puritan world, I care even lesss for the stuff I'm reading, although some of it is well-written. My read-only site has generated a little action but keeps threatening to stall. I don't quite know what to do about it, and, oddly enough, the other Read-Only site disappeared almost immediately after I opened mine. It's like that admin, who had done quite a good job, was just so sick of it, she was grateful to be out of there. She had kind of half-heartedly said, "maybe after the new year," and I found that to be unacceptable (waiting), which led me to start mine. But she apparently was very glad to just slip completely out of sight. Why? It's a mystery to me.
So far I don't find running the site to be that bad. I'm not one for disciplining people: telling them to do this or do that, or your book is too long, or inappropriate, or whatever. I will have to, of course. I might as well gear myself up to do what I have to do.
We all pick up an hour either tonight or tomorrow, sometime. I'll use mine doing the witch trials maybe.
So, I delved back into the Puritan colony of late seventeen-hundreds Massachusetts, and that helped me get through it. I actually made progress organizing my book and getting it on the ground. It's a long, difficult book, and it flies through the witch trials because they only indirectly affect what happens at Harvard and the relationship between the people that run Harvard and the Mathers, Increase and Cotton. Interesting that, out in Salem, nineteen people are being executed, while at Harvard, one of my relatives is cranking out logic books in Latin and keeping mum. He dislikes Cotton Mather; he probably isn't big on spectral evidence; but you don't want to speak out against the big honcho especially when, at the time, he was directly employed by Increase.
Engrossed in my own little Puritan world, I care even lesss for the stuff I'm reading, although some of it is well-written. My read-only site has generated a little action but keeps threatening to stall. I don't quite know what to do about it, and, oddly enough, the other Read-Only site disappeared almost immediately after I opened mine. It's like that admin, who had done quite a good job, was just so sick of it, she was grateful to be out of there. She had kind of half-heartedly said, "maybe after the new year," and I found that to be unacceptable (waiting), which led me to start mine. But she apparently was very glad to just slip completely out of sight. Why? It's a mystery to me.
So far I don't find running the site to be that bad. I'm not one for disciplining people: telling them to do this or do that, or your book is too long, or inappropriate, or whatever. I will have to, of course. I might as well gear myself up to do what I have to do.
We all pick up an hour either tonight or tomorrow, sometime. I'll use mine doing the witch trials maybe.
Monday, October 30, 2023
Authors' Read-Only Trains - no reviews
The best read-only site closed for the holidays, November and December both, saying if they get enough members they'll open up again. I was a little disappointed and decided I couldn't wait until the new year to market my books.
So I started my own site, Authors' Read-Only Trains which you can see. Please join me. I need active members and I need other people to be on there besides me. Right now I have five books on five trains.
Read-only trains keep you insulated from the hassle of reviews, and also the against-the-rules nature of review site activity. It's only against Amazon rules if two people review each other's, or if you review your friend's, or if you're a writer. Unfortunately all of these are true for all of these sites, it seems. And I'd rather just avoid the whole mess. Let the reviews come when they come.
Because Amazon's algorithms now know who is your friend and who is not, they are becoming more aggressive about flagging and removing reviews done by friends for friends. This is a problem since a lot of my friends are writers, and generally I like my friends' work. That's why they're my friends. It puts me in a pickle with Amazon.
But I'd rather not even think about it, and I feel like there's nothing wrong with letting the reviews gather as they gather. There's nothing especially wrong with a book that has no reviews, or has only a few. So what? It doesn't take away from what the book is, what it does, what's good about it. In the end I'm willing to wait for reviews.
But reads, that's a different story. Anytime I can get anybody to read anything of mine, that's good.
So I started my own site, Authors' Read-Only Trains which you can see. Please join me. I need active members and I need other people to be on there besides me. Right now I have five books on five trains.
Read-only trains keep you insulated from the hassle of reviews, and also the against-the-rules nature of review site activity. It's only against Amazon rules if two people review each other's, or if you review your friend's, or if you're a writer. Unfortunately all of these are true for all of these sites, it seems. And I'd rather just avoid the whole mess. Let the reviews come when they come.
Because Amazon's algorithms now know who is your friend and who is not, they are becoming more aggressive about flagging and removing reviews done by friends for friends. This is a problem since a lot of my friends are writers, and generally I like my friends' work. That's why they're my friends. It puts me in a pickle with Amazon.
But I'd rather not even think about it, and I feel like there's nothing wrong with letting the reviews gather as they gather. There's nothing especially wrong with a book that has no reviews, or has only a few. So what? It doesn't take away from what the book is, what it does, what's good about it. In the end I'm willing to wait for reviews.
But reads, that's a different story. Anytime I can get anybody to read anything of mine, that's good.
Saturday, October 14, 2023
Monday, October 9, 2023
This is one of those days when things aren't going so well and I'm complaining about the whole racket. I sit and watch my "dashboard" and nothing comes in. They don't want to read or buy my work? What's the problem?
One problem is that I'm checking it too much. Another is that I'm not actively creating something, which sometimes can take my eyes off of it for a few hours at a time. Finally, I'm full up on things to read so can't actually go out and create new reads myself by reading more, and if they aren't just coming out of nowhere to read my stuff then there just isn't going to be anything up there happening.
All of that is a little depressing. A Monday of reading a wide range of things, whatever I can handle, and trying to attend to other business, and coming back to find it all very slow on my own board. But I am making progress, albeit slow; I'm doing better this year than I was doing at this time last year; I can feel the progress and on some level it gives me encouragement to keep on going.
One thing that's discouraging is when the reading I am doing is difficult. Sometimes it's difficult because it's written in a literary way, with long sentences that require work to figure out. Sometimes it's difficult because it's just a little too shallow, or silly, or unbelievable. I have a vampire one right now that qualifies; I don't mind believing in vampires in the course of a book, but if their conversation is banal what's the benefit of living forever? I have one book that I would call modernist. I have trouble making sense of it. And I don't really like that; if I'm working to figure out what's going on, how am I supposed to enjoy the action? You can't do both at once.
br> Why not put it down and do my own writing? Well, I have John the Younger being born in Boston in 1662; somehow I'm stuck on that, right around the time of his birth (it's a matter of organization). Then there are the Disney stories; I have to read a bit to get the hang of Disney, but it's worth it. And I have half a dozen other projects, half-done. I should be able to do something. But I'm not.
A few other things hang over my head. I'm typing a son's novel. I'm making Quaker pamphlets and having printer problems. I'm getting the house ready for winter, I hope.
Mostly not. I've just had a bit of an earache and was in just enough pain to not even enjoy indie writing.
One problem is that I'm checking it too much. Another is that I'm not actively creating something, which sometimes can take my eyes off of it for a few hours at a time. Finally, I'm full up on things to read so can't actually go out and create new reads myself by reading more, and if they aren't just coming out of nowhere to read my stuff then there just isn't going to be anything up there happening.
All of that is a little depressing. A Monday of reading a wide range of things, whatever I can handle, and trying to attend to other business, and coming back to find it all very slow on my own board. But I am making progress, albeit slow; I'm doing better this year than I was doing at this time last year; I can feel the progress and on some level it gives me encouragement to keep on going.
One thing that's discouraging is when the reading I am doing is difficult. Sometimes it's difficult because it's written in a literary way, with long sentences that require work to figure out. Sometimes it's difficult because it's just a little too shallow, or silly, or unbelievable. I have a vampire one right now that qualifies; I don't mind believing in vampires in the course of a book, but if their conversation is banal what's the benefit of living forever? I have one book that I would call modernist. I have trouble making sense of it. And I don't really like that; if I'm working to figure out what's going on, how am I supposed to enjoy the action? You can't do both at once.
br> Why not put it down and do my own writing? Well, I have John the Younger being born in Boston in 1662; somehow I'm stuck on that, right around the time of his birth (it's a matter of organization). Then there are the Disney stories; I have to read a bit to get the hang of Disney, but it's worth it. And I have half a dozen other projects, half-done. I should be able to do something. But I'm not.
A few other things hang over my head. I'm typing a son's novel. I'm making Quaker pamphlets and having printer problems. I'm getting the house ready for winter, I hope.
Mostly not. I've just had a bit of an earache and was in just enough pain to not even enjoy indie writing.
Sunday, October 1, 2023
The day my rating went over a cliff
I checked one day on my crime book, A Dozen Crime Stories from a well-known, big box, discount, retail chain, and it had gone over a cliff: from about five million to eleven million, overnight. I panicked! What's up with this? It took me a while but I figured it out.
That's one of my older books; early, inspired, relatively short. Once I took it and sold it on consignment at a LUbbock bookstore, and someone stole it; I never got my money. What could one do? Stop selling books on consignment. It complicated my life too much.
But the answer to my question was this: it was an old book, maybe ten years old, and had just gone over that mark. A lot of its sales had happened immediately after I produced it, and I myself bought quite a few of them. So all those sales went over a line where they weren't counted anymore, after ten years. If your book doesn't have enough sales in the last ten years, it has a rating like eleven million.
The thing is, as an author, you live in fear that some demon in the heart of Amazon is just there to punish you, and tack six million onto your rating just because you have the audacity to keep cranking out books like that. Nobody at Amazon has reached out to give me punishing threats or anything like that. I've been lucky. They consider themselves lucky to have me exclusively, too. It's odd, but the chances they've had to punish me or come after me, or suspend my account, they haven't. I'm grateful and try not to break their rules.
A cliff is just a cliff. All you can do is sell a few more books, and, if necessary, to yourself.
That's one of my older books; early, inspired, relatively short. Once I took it and sold it on consignment at a LUbbock bookstore, and someone stole it; I never got my money. What could one do? Stop selling books on consignment. It complicated my life too much.
But the answer to my question was this: it was an old book, maybe ten years old, and had just gone over that mark. A lot of its sales had happened immediately after I produced it, and I myself bought quite a few of them. So all those sales went over a line where they weren't counted anymore, after ten years. If your book doesn't have enough sales in the last ten years, it has a rating like eleven million.
The thing is, as an author, you live in fear that some demon in the heart of Amazon is just there to punish you, and tack six million onto your rating just because you have the audacity to keep cranking out books like that. Nobody at Amazon has reached out to give me punishing threats or anything like that. I've been lucky. They consider themselves lucky to have me exclusively, too. It's odd, but the chances they've had to punish me or come after me, or suspend my account, they haven't. I'm grateful and try not to break their rules.
A cliff is just a cliff. All you can do is sell a few more books, and, if necessary, to yourself.
Saturday, September 23, 2023
For the ACX Narrators
Auditioning for a book is tough business. I just opened my book Devour that Spaghetti and got about fifty auditions in a couple of weeks. I numbered them all and wrote their names, then I looked them up in the ACX database to see what else they had recorded.
There was a wide variety there - some had nothing, some had a dozen samples; some had a background and picture, some had very little. I tried not to hold it against newcomers as I was going to listen to all fifty auditions anyway.
But I will say, before it's over, being able to see your face and know a little about you will help me distinguish you from the other forty-nine. If you have the chance, work on that page that ACX provides you. When it was over ACX removed the auditions and I needed that page just to contact you and offer you a pdf. Once again, it helped to see your picture.
When I got to listening to each of the fifty auditions, I had another surprise. My sample was a little long, and a lot of auditioners were unable to keep the same good pace throughout. Toward the end they'd be faster, or more jumbled, or less lively. I began using the end of their audition instead of the beginning. I was looking for a consistent sound that I liked, that I would keep liking even after five minutes or so. Often they just couldn't sustain it.
Narrators are sometimes worried that their reading is too choppy or something. This was never a problem for me. They made good sentences and for the most part I understood them clearly. In that sense Ijudged purely on the sound and if they gave me their true best sound, I would say, there isn't much you can do to improve that. You gave it your best. Someone will find you and like you.
If on the other hand there was background noise, I heard it, because my hearing aids amplify that kind of thing. I have trouble with about a third to a half of what I hear in normal life anyway, so it was important for me to get someone for whom that wasn't an issue. I had to be able to get 100% at the beginning, 100% at the end, and 100% even of their sample from the ACX page. If there was whirring or background sounds or something like that, they were out.
You may wonder if contacting the author outside of the audition is helpful or pestering. In job situations I think it's helpful and this is a kind of job situation; it shows your interest. In my case I don't think it influenced me one way or another. To some I think they consider it pestering. I'm really not sure what to tell you. I can say confidently that it didn't make that much difference to me. I enjoy having a professional relationship with people but I'm not always good at it myself. Sometimes it presses me and I'm not sure I can answer on time, etc. So it touches some insecurities and besides it puts you a little outside of the usual way of relating to the other forty-nine. Still, I didn't hold it against you.
There were some people that were so late they lost out altogether. I have to admit I favored people who got it in within 3-7 days over people who got it in 7-20 days into it. There's probably not much you can do about that. But I'll guess the guy who sits on his ACX page and gets them in within 1-2 days does more business than most of you. The further up the line you are, the better. I listen to them in order and believe me, it's the last ones that sound like the same-old same-old.
I may be unusual in that my hearing is somewhat weak, but I used to be a musician so I know what it's like to struggle to make something sound really good. I also know what it's like to listen back to yourself and say, I can't believe it sounds like that. But believe it; if it is you at your natural rhythm being as clear as you can, it's probably the best you can do. And I will judge it accordingly.
Some people mentioned actual training they got in voice-overs etc. I don't recall that having anything to do with my decision. I did it pretty much based on sound and my own response to that sound. Although in some cases I knew a little about the person before I listened, I tried to listen to all fifty auditions purely on the basis of sound. When I had narrowed it down to about seven or eight that were good enough for the final cut, I went back and reviewed what I knew about them. Those seven or eight were all good enough to go with in the end; I'd have been happy with any of them. There were a lot of good auditions in there. The competition is stiff.
Good luck to all of you and thanks for auditioning!
There was a wide variety there - some had nothing, some had a dozen samples; some had a background and picture, some had very little. I tried not to hold it against newcomers as I was going to listen to all fifty auditions anyway.
But I will say, before it's over, being able to see your face and know a little about you will help me distinguish you from the other forty-nine. If you have the chance, work on that page that ACX provides you. When it was over ACX removed the auditions and I needed that page just to contact you and offer you a pdf. Once again, it helped to see your picture.
When I got to listening to each of the fifty auditions, I had another surprise. My sample was a little long, and a lot of auditioners were unable to keep the same good pace throughout. Toward the end they'd be faster, or more jumbled, or less lively. I began using the end of their audition instead of the beginning. I was looking for a consistent sound that I liked, that I would keep liking even after five minutes or so. Often they just couldn't sustain it.
Narrators are sometimes worried that their reading is too choppy or something. This was never a problem for me. They made good sentences and for the most part I understood them clearly. In that sense Ijudged purely on the sound and if they gave me their true best sound, I would say, there isn't much you can do to improve that. You gave it your best. Someone will find you and like you.
If on the other hand there was background noise, I heard it, because my hearing aids amplify that kind of thing. I have trouble with about a third to a half of what I hear in normal life anyway, so it was important for me to get someone for whom that wasn't an issue. I had to be able to get 100% at the beginning, 100% at the end, and 100% even of their sample from the ACX page. If there was whirring or background sounds or something like that, they were out.
You may wonder if contacting the author outside of the audition is helpful or pestering. In job situations I think it's helpful and this is a kind of job situation; it shows your interest. In my case I don't think it influenced me one way or another. To some I think they consider it pestering. I'm really not sure what to tell you. I can say confidently that it didn't make that much difference to me. I enjoy having a professional relationship with people but I'm not always good at it myself. Sometimes it presses me and I'm not sure I can answer on time, etc. So it touches some insecurities and besides it puts you a little outside of the usual way of relating to the other forty-nine. Still, I didn't hold it against you.
There were some people that were so late they lost out altogether. I have to admit I favored people who got it in within 3-7 days over people who got it in 7-20 days into it. There's probably not much you can do about that. But I'll guess the guy who sits on his ACX page and gets them in within 1-2 days does more business than most of you. The further up the line you are, the better. I listen to them in order and believe me, it's the last ones that sound like the same-old same-old.
I may be unusual in that my hearing is somewhat weak, but I used to be a musician so I know what it's like to struggle to make something sound really good. I also know what it's like to listen back to yourself and say, I can't believe it sounds like that. But believe it; if it is you at your natural rhythm being as clear as you can, it's probably the best you can do. And I will judge it accordingly.
Some people mentioned actual training they got in voice-overs etc. I don't recall that having anything to do with my decision. I did it pretty much based on sound and my own response to that sound. Although in some cases I knew a little about the person before I listened, I tried to listen to all fifty auditions purely on the basis of sound. When I had narrowed it down to about seven or eight that were good enough for the final cut, I went back and reviewed what I knew about them. Those seven or eight were all good enough to go with in the end; I'd have been happy with any of them. There were a lot of good auditions in there. The competition is stiff.
Good luck to all of you and thanks for auditioning!
Monday, September 4, 2023
This site is one of several that are getting a lot of visitors these days. It's possible that the stories that are buried deep within it (available on the template) are still popular amongst my old esl students and people that they knew. People who know about the trasure of hidden stories would understandably come back whether Google has brought them here or not.
It's my understanding that Google does not bring people here, because long ago I told it not to. That's why I so freely complain and gripe about the writer's life here, because I know that it's kind of a secret, not too well hidden, but hidden from Google in any case. But maybe people like writer's gripes. They might like to listen in on bitter complaints about cranking out good stuff and getting almost no sales in return. Or maybe they find me because they are clicking on writer's faces in the other blogs - the writer's faces will bring them here. Hemingway and friends kind of attract those clicks, maybe.
I don't know what it is. If I'm providing some entertainment for a thousand people a month, I'm ok with that. I'm just sitting here, complaining, musing about the writer's life, getting a little annoyed by the stuff I read (right now, for example, I'm reading about schizophrenia, and all the while dealing with mental illness in my own family - it's enough to push me over the edge, but, having agreed to read it, the best course is to plow on). Blog views are up. Does anyone care? I have this network of blogs out there, some of it having to do with writing, and it could provide entertainment if that's what you're up to. Or wait for my next short stories, which I believe will be called Writer's Block and will be about writers' lives. You think it's an advantage to sit in your chair at home and do your work? Not this chair. We have manic dogs that can't get along, and, as I mentioned, mental illness in the house. I go out, driving around, doing errands as a break, and what I think about is the stuff I forgot to do back here. Ah well, more of the same.
It's my understanding that Google does not bring people here, because long ago I told it not to. That's why I so freely complain and gripe about the writer's life here, because I know that it's kind of a secret, not too well hidden, but hidden from Google in any case. But maybe people like writer's gripes. They might like to listen in on bitter complaints about cranking out good stuff and getting almost no sales in return. Or maybe they find me because they are clicking on writer's faces in the other blogs - the writer's faces will bring them here. Hemingway and friends kind of attract those clicks, maybe.
I don't know what it is. If I'm providing some entertainment for a thousand people a month, I'm ok with that. I'm just sitting here, complaining, musing about the writer's life, getting a little annoyed by the stuff I read (right now, for example, I'm reading about schizophrenia, and all the while dealing with mental illness in my own family - it's enough to push me over the edge, but, having agreed to read it, the best course is to plow on). Blog views are up. Does anyone care? I have this network of blogs out there, some of it having to do with writing, and it could provide entertainment if that's what you're up to. Or wait for my next short stories, which I believe will be called Writer's Block and will be about writers' lives. You think it's an advantage to sit in your chair at home and do your work? Not this chair. We have manic dogs that can't get along, and, as I mentioned, mental illness in the house. I go out, driving around, doing errands as a break, and what I think about is the stuff I forgot to do back here. Ah well, more of the same.
Tuesday, August 8, 2023
I decided to change it up a little and concentrate my marketing energy on a single book, the 26-page epiphany coup haiku. I had several reasons. One, my attention span is short these days due to personal problems, so by reading short ones all the time, in return for others reading this, I can dispatch things quickly and get what I want. Second, the time is ripe: Trump is getting indicted almost every day, for one thing or another, so people are in the mood to take a lighter more poetic view of things. They are not averse to reading haiku, just not used to it.
My method of marketing haiku is simple, gathered up after years of futility. Nobody will buy it or even read it off the shelves if they don't know you a little. But once they know me as a friend or as an author of something else, they might try it. It's like pushing it around at a party. Wait 'til everyone's sloshed and somewhat friendly. Then give it to them at a moment they can't refuse.
So I got the haiku book read three times in three days, and maybe the third was due to the fact that, at one point, it made it into the top 25. Now it is in the top 10, due to being read three times in three days, but it won't be there for long; it was #9 in Japanese Poetry and Haiku this afternoon, and #10 this evening. Tomorrow, gone. But no matter, it's a victory to have it there, because it's likely some people will find it just by checking out the top ten or so in the JPH.
There are two downsides to this strategy; first, I've been forced to neglect my other books, but second, 24 pages is not a whole lot of pagereads, so I'm kind of taking a hit on the income side of things. No matter, top ten is a kind of rush. I advertized it on all the social media and my facebook - to be honest, that will not amount to much, but at least gives me something to say. I have to always be proud of my haiku, as part of promoting it.
Which reminds me, 9-11 is coming. Time to pull together my 9-11 book. I have a title, but it escapes my mind at the moment. The title itself will be a haiku. The problem is coming up with a total of a hundred, all with their focus on the disaster. And the season, of course.
More about this later. Time to step up to the plate.
My method of marketing haiku is simple, gathered up after years of futility. Nobody will buy it or even read it off the shelves if they don't know you a little. But once they know me as a friend or as an author of something else, they might try it. It's like pushing it around at a party. Wait 'til everyone's sloshed and somewhat friendly. Then give it to them at a moment they can't refuse.
So I got the haiku book read three times in three days, and maybe the third was due to the fact that, at one point, it made it into the top 25. Now it is in the top 10, due to being read three times in three days, but it won't be there for long; it was #9 in Japanese Poetry and Haiku this afternoon, and #10 this evening. Tomorrow, gone. But no matter, it's a victory to have it there, because it's likely some people will find it just by checking out the top ten or so in the JPH.
There are two downsides to this strategy; first, I've been forced to neglect my other books, but second, 24 pages is not a whole lot of pagereads, so I'm kind of taking a hit on the income side of things. No matter, top ten is a kind of rush. I advertized it on all the social media and my facebook - to be honest, that will not amount to much, but at least gives me something to say. I have to always be proud of my haiku, as part of promoting it.
Which reminds me, 9-11 is coming. Time to pull together my 9-11 book. I have a title, but it escapes my mind at the moment. The title itself will be a haiku. The problem is coming up with a total of a hundred, all with their focus on the disaster. And the season, of course.
More about this later. Time to step up to the plate.
Monday, July 17, 2023
My luck has changed a little, but which direction, it's hard to tell. As I get more wrapped up in marketing, I get less able to actually finish what I'm trying to write. So, a little bit of good marketing luck, is bad writing luck.
It's absolutely addictive, trying to wipe a couple of million points off of my "boards," what I call my chart of 28 books, a kindle rating and a paperback one for each, and a similar page for international rankings, which span six or seven countries, with a few paperback ratings there as well. I mostly stare at the .com ones, trying to discern how I can get a single rating to jump (knocking off a couple million), or to be more precise, how to knock enough millions off of the chart to make up for the few millions it's going to add naturally in a given week.
The week I came back from New Mexico I'd had a bad week, and hadn't knocked off a single million. The boards pick up a few million naturally every week so there's a kind of minimum, but with nothing knocked off, it was all losses. So I looked at it over and over again. Finally my luck changed over the weekend. Got a few million knocked off of there. Today, a few more. Altogether I can say I will knock off about eight million and it's not even Tuesday, so that makes it a good week. And it ensures that the grand total (if I should add up all the ratings, at least on the .com boards) will be lower than it was.
But alas, it's my puritan book that is hurting. I look back at that and find things I didn't even know as I was writing. I'd kind of left it in the lurch, as I went to New Mexico, and let a few facts flail in the air. Now I try to write, and it's not easy.
I do know quite a bit about the subject matter, which involves early-1700 Harvard, but I confuse my facts if I'm away from them for a while, and then it's actually dangerous to sit down and try to write on it. Instead, I should gather all my facts first, and then pounce.
And, while in the middle of a huge fact feast, I find myself impatient with writing fiction. Yes I have a novel almost done. It's inspired and I even have some ideas for it. But at the moment I can't even spin a good fiction.
One of the books I'm reading is full of glamours and the like. I have like no patience with that. It gets worse when fantasy is piled upon fantasy; glamours squared. I can't take it. You can pull my imagination with a little bit of that stuff, but, it makes me want to go back into Puritan New England, where everyone is just balls-out nuts, and it's all real. Who needs glamours?
Late at night, and I'm here complaining. The blogs are hurting too. Usually I have a dozen by now; this month, I lost my strongest week. A whole week of blogging down the drain. I'm playing make-up ball.
And the Guardians got stomped in Texas. But now they're in Pittsburgh, and maybe their luck will change.
It's absolutely addictive, trying to wipe a couple of million points off of my "boards," what I call my chart of 28 books, a kindle rating and a paperback one for each, and a similar page for international rankings, which span six or seven countries, with a few paperback ratings there as well. I mostly stare at the .com ones, trying to discern how I can get a single rating to jump (knocking off a couple million), or to be more precise, how to knock enough millions off of the chart to make up for the few millions it's going to add naturally in a given week.
The week I came back from New Mexico I'd had a bad week, and hadn't knocked off a single million. The boards pick up a few million naturally every week so there's a kind of minimum, but with nothing knocked off, it was all losses. So I looked at it over and over again. Finally my luck changed over the weekend. Got a few million knocked off of there. Today, a few more. Altogether I can say I will knock off about eight million and it's not even Tuesday, so that makes it a good week. And it ensures that the grand total (if I should add up all the ratings, at least on the .com boards) will be lower than it was.
But alas, it's my puritan book that is hurting. I look back at that and find things I didn't even know as I was writing. I'd kind of left it in the lurch, as I went to New Mexico, and let a few facts flail in the air. Now I try to write, and it's not easy.
I do know quite a bit about the subject matter, which involves early-1700 Harvard, but I confuse my facts if I'm away from them for a while, and then it's actually dangerous to sit down and try to write on it. Instead, I should gather all my facts first, and then pounce.
And, while in the middle of a huge fact feast, I find myself impatient with writing fiction. Yes I have a novel almost done. It's inspired and I even have some ideas for it. But at the moment I can't even spin a good fiction.
One of the books I'm reading is full of glamours and the like. I have like no patience with that. It gets worse when fantasy is piled upon fantasy; glamours squared. I can't take it. You can pull my imagination with a little bit of that stuff, but, it makes me want to go back into Puritan New England, where everyone is just balls-out nuts, and it's all real. Who needs glamours?
Late at night, and I'm here complaining. The blogs are hurting too. Usually I have a dozen by now; this month, I lost my strongest week. A whole week of blogging down the drain. I'm playing make-up ball.
And the Guardians got stomped in Texas. But now they're in Pittsburgh, and maybe their luck will change.
Friday, June 9, 2023
Ten Quaker Closet Plays
For reflection and discernment
and for adult education and quarantine zooms...
read about Fox, Nayler, Rufus Jones, Hoover, Nixon, and even Smedley Butler (Nixon and Butler grew up Quaker, but weren't Quakers as adults).
On Amazon
Paperback $5.40 + shipping
Kindle $1.99, or free on Kindle Unlimited
Hardcover $12.80 + shipping
Profits go to Cloud Quakers or Quaker Voluntary Service
Saturday, June 3, 2023
As you know I use this site to complain about read-marketing, mostly because it's known to some people but not all and my bitter complaints do not appear on google because I originally hid a lot of my writing here (it's still here; my students know where to find it). I need to complain, though, because I do a lot of reading.
Of course I complain about bad grammar, insipid plots, poorly constructed character, etc. But most of what I read is actually pretty good. And in fact at the moment I am reading seven (finished one this morning), and most of them are good.
But seven is, in fact, too many. I can't keep track of the intricacies of each one when I'm reading maybe twenty, thirty pages of each every night. When I begin to lose track, I lose the love of it. It seems like the words are swimming out there and I get discouraged.
How did it happen? Compulsive jumping on opportunities. You go through dry spells, where there's nothing you can read, and you reach the point where if it's good, you take it. You can get a book-read out of it. In the case of my favorite BBE site, you get reads and sales in a general way and, as I did this weekend, sometimes you just have to jump in there and take one. I'm currently reading three from that site. But lots of people on there are like me. I'm not the only one a little behind.
So tonight I'm complaining about actually enjoying it too much. This morning I picked up my first book and read it to the end. It like others was good. It made me tired by the time I finished some semblance of reading 10% of seven others; in fact I still haven't finished. One book I barely started; another I didn't start at all. Seven is too many. I just couldn't get to them. Got tired.
Meanwhile the Guardians are on the computer, and might win tonight.
Of course I complain about bad grammar, insipid plots, poorly constructed character, etc. But most of what I read is actually pretty good. And in fact at the moment I am reading seven (finished one this morning), and most of them are good.
But seven is, in fact, too many. I can't keep track of the intricacies of each one when I'm reading maybe twenty, thirty pages of each every night. When I begin to lose track, I lose the love of it. It seems like the words are swimming out there and I get discouraged.
How did it happen? Compulsive jumping on opportunities. You go through dry spells, where there's nothing you can read, and you reach the point where if it's good, you take it. You can get a book-read out of it. In the case of my favorite BBE site, you get reads and sales in a general way and, as I did this weekend, sometimes you just have to jump in there and take one. I'm currently reading three from that site. But lots of people on there are like me. I'm not the only one a little behind.
So tonight I'm complaining about actually enjoying it too much. This morning I picked up my first book and read it to the end. It like others was good. It made me tired by the time I finished some semblance of reading 10% of seven others; in fact I still haven't finished. One book I barely started; another I didn't start at all. Seven is too many. I just couldn't get to them. Got tired.
Meanwhile the Guardians are on the computer, and might win tonight.
Friday, May 19, 2023
Lately I've become somewhat obsessed with the people who have bad intentions with the read-marketing trains. There are several and several kinds; one or two are even admins, and still don't recognize the value of plain dealing.
By plain dealing I mean, I read yours, you read mine, or, I read yours, you read somebody's. Maybe they got stuck with mine and really didn't want it. But it seems to me that if they put their book under mine, they agreed to read it. And many times they still don't.
I think phones could be responsible for this and I think that, if it's a review site in particular, they feel that if they give me a review, it doesn't matter. Like I don't really care about the reads, only the review. And that's partly because they could read my whole book and I'd still only get less than fifty cents. But in fact, I care about the reads more than the review. I have enough reviews. I'm looking for readers. So when they stiff me, I'm taking it personally. Often they stiff me for the review too. Why am I acting all honest on these sites? (I read their whole book and give a review)...don't know. To me, I'm a plain dealer.
So what I've found is that, over time, I don't feel good about leaving my fives all over the place for people who are basically dishonest. I'd rather just get the five out of there, or better yet, make it a four or even a three, if they're going to be rude about it. Notice I don't say two. A two, I figure, is a personal insult, a slap to the face, a disrespect. A two is even worse than a one, if that's possible, although mathematically it's not as bad. But my situation is this; I'm not mad enough to slap them in the face, but I'm too mad to let a five sit there and walk away. I'll take them down a notch or whatever I have to so that I don't hold anything against them anymore.
It's like anything else - you want to keep good relations with the people around you, just on general principle. You never know when you might need them. I've made a lot of really close friends doing this and I value them. THere are a lot of other people who I value but I intend to keep good relations with them, too, as much as possible. The shysters, why do I even need them? The less I invest in them the better.
By plain dealing I mean, I read yours, you read mine, or, I read yours, you read somebody's. Maybe they got stuck with mine and really didn't want it. But it seems to me that if they put their book under mine, they agreed to read it. And many times they still don't.
I think phones could be responsible for this and I think that, if it's a review site in particular, they feel that if they give me a review, it doesn't matter. Like I don't really care about the reads, only the review. And that's partly because they could read my whole book and I'd still only get less than fifty cents. But in fact, I care about the reads more than the review. I have enough reviews. I'm looking for readers. So when they stiff me, I'm taking it personally. Often they stiff me for the review too. Why am I acting all honest on these sites? (I read their whole book and give a review)...don't know. To me, I'm a plain dealer.
So what I've found is that, over time, I don't feel good about leaving my fives all over the place for people who are basically dishonest. I'd rather just get the five out of there, or better yet, make it a four or even a three, if they're going to be rude about it. Notice I don't say two. A two, I figure, is a personal insult, a slap to the face, a disrespect. A two is even worse than a one, if that's possible, although mathematically it's not as bad. But my situation is this; I'm not mad enough to slap them in the face, but I'm too mad to let a five sit there and walk away. I'll take them down a notch or whatever I have to so that I don't hold anything against them anymore.
It's like anything else - you want to keep good relations with the people around you, just on general principle. You never know when you might need them. I've made a lot of really close friends doing this and I value them. THere are a lot of other people who I value but I intend to keep good relations with them, too, as much as possible. The shysters, why do I even need them? The less I invest in them the better.
Saturday, May 6, 2023
OK I'll admit, I'm slogging. I was carrying five books when I woke up; one I finished fairly quickly, as it was a kids' book; the other was a very formulaic but well-written crime thriller; I finished that too. It was very lively, I'd even call it good, but I was a little disturbed by the formula.
Then I set to the business of the day, which was a couple of read-onlies that I am slogging through. It's more because it's not my genre than it is because they are poorly written, though both authors have grammatical faults. I have come to be used to some grammatical problems; they don't irritate me as much as they used to; but I still have trouble with non-sentences and wrong-word situations (then/than, bare/bear) than anything else. And apostrophes; those are like the plague.
One of them is a book that simply tells you how to be happy. Now I know my wife has read dozens of these, and she's still not happy, but I'm relatively happy already, and have never read a single one. That's because, many of the things she mentions, I stumbled upon in my own search. A lot of it is what goes on in your mind, and how you handle such things as jealousy, anger, etc. Not taking this from the book, but really you're kind of like standing on the bank of a river letting some things go by and pulling others out of the river. But the river just keeps coming back around so you have to get in good habits of choosing what you let go by.
The other is your typical violent fantasy. Death is a very handsome guy, a ruthless killer, but oh what abs. Now this I find kind of funny while I talk about it but while I'm reading it, I find the narrator to be somewhat naive and reckless. This must certainly appeal to young people a lot.
There is yet one more book, a coming-of-age edgy kind of book like mine, and I actually like that one, but because it has a generous time limit I'm feeling more obligated to do the two read-onlies, which are probably overdue or at least soon will be.
Why do I get so far over my head? Basically I'm avoiding doing what I should be doing, which is pulling together one of four or five books that are waiting to be finished. I don't like to work on them when I'm feeling kind of sick, as I am now, or when I'm highly distractable by kids and life. But I will finish those, I promise!
Then I set to the business of the day, which was a couple of read-onlies that I am slogging through. It's more because it's not my genre than it is because they are poorly written, though both authors have grammatical faults. I have come to be used to some grammatical problems; they don't irritate me as much as they used to; but I still have trouble with non-sentences and wrong-word situations (then/than, bare/bear) than anything else. And apostrophes; those are like the plague.
One of them is a book that simply tells you how to be happy. Now I know my wife has read dozens of these, and she's still not happy, but I'm relatively happy already, and have never read a single one. That's because, many of the things she mentions, I stumbled upon in my own search. A lot of it is what goes on in your mind, and how you handle such things as jealousy, anger, etc. Not taking this from the book, but really you're kind of like standing on the bank of a river letting some things go by and pulling others out of the river. But the river just keeps coming back around so you have to get in good habits of choosing what you let go by.
The other is your typical violent fantasy. Death is a very handsome guy, a ruthless killer, but oh what abs. Now this I find kind of funny while I talk about it but while I'm reading it, I find the narrator to be somewhat naive and reckless. This must certainly appeal to young people a lot.
There is yet one more book, a coming-of-age edgy kind of book like mine, and I actually like that one, but because it has a generous time limit I'm feeling more obligated to do the two read-onlies, which are probably overdue or at least soon will be.
Why do I get so far over my head? Basically I'm avoiding doing what I should be doing, which is pulling together one of four or five books that are waiting to be finished. I don't like to work on them when I'm feeling kind of sick, as I am now, or when I'm highly distractable by kids and life. But I will finish those, I promise!
Friday, April 28, 2023
Got a good break this week when a friend posted a raving review on a site that is actually well-traveled; it's his; he's the son of the owner of Black's Gaslight Village and does his best to keep its memory alive. It was not the mention of the Village in the book that got him; it was a true incident involving Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre. But in any case I got some sales out of the deal that is huge for me; my sales record is pretty dismal.
I have to say, the novel does better than all the other books combined, and keeps doing better. It's like everyone knows what a novel is, and most people are in the groove of reading them. They are about the right length. I had always thought short stories were more appropriate for the modern lifestyle and people who just have ten or fifteen-minute chunks of time, but short stories seem to have their own limited audience which I haven't found, whereas my novel just went out there and found its own audience. Life tells me to make another novel.
And I've tried that, but I keep getting stalled. Times like now, I just can't pick it up. It's afternoon, got the puppy on my lap, nobody's hocking me, and still, I'm here instead of there. So goes it.
It's a kind of writer's block, because I have three writing projects, count 'em, three, and can't seem to pick up any of them.
I have to say, the novel does better than all the other books combined, and keeps doing better. It's like everyone knows what a novel is, and most people are in the groove of reading them. They are about the right length. I had always thought short stories were more appropriate for the modern lifestyle and people who just have ten or fifteen-minute chunks of time, but short stories seem to have their own limited audience which I haven't found, whereas my novel just went out there and found its own audience. Life tells me to make another novel.
And I've tried that, but I keep getting stalled. Times like now, I just can't pick it up. It's afternoon, got the puppy on my lap, nobody's hocking me, and still, I'm here instead of there. So goes it.
It's a kind of writer's block, because I have three writing projects, count 'em, three, and can't seem to pick up any of them.
Sunday, April 9, 2023
The underside of what I'm doing is the fear that somehow, someday I've run afoul of one of the zon's rules. A friend of mine got her account suspended because she'd had another account. Is that all it takes? Lots of people have or at least use two accounts. Am I then not allowed to operate out of two different log-ins?
I'll admit that's probably a way of gaming the system, and it's a way I've never done, pretty much. I considered it, but never did it. And it's probable that lots of people use that system one way or the other. And, I don't really know the rules. I've never read them completely.
It could be that they target people who are prominent, who move in lots of social circles, so that when they cancel their account everyone knows about it. It could be that after a week or so on the phone, they'll put your account back in the running. I have no idea how they do it. I'm terrified of it, of course. My account, with its measly 27 books and income of about $20 or $30 a month, could be endangered.
For the most part I've gotten all my reviews legitimately. The zon sometimes wants to know if I'll review my own (since I've read them), but I always politely decline. Of course I am one of my own best customers - I always read my own work on kindle, because I always want to know how it comes out. I long ago let myself do that, because it was pretty obvious the zon didn't care.
So you get to read your own work. And you get to buy it too - lots of people do that. Here they set up an "author's price" - buy it cheap, but then they charge you up the yinyang for postage, so by the time it's done it's cheaper to just buy it. You get it faster, and you get the ratings jump, and you get some of the royalties back eventually. It's a way of investing, or hiding, money. You put it into your own books, and eventually you can turn those into money.
hope the zon's not too worried about that.
I'll admit that's probably a way of gaming the system, and it's a way I've never done, pretty much. I considered it, but never did it. And it's probable that lots of people use that system one way or the other. And, I don't really know the rules. I've never read them completely.
It could be that they target people who are prominent, who move in lots of social circles, so that when they cancel their account everyone knows about it. It could be that after a week or so on the phone, they'll put your account back in the running. I have no idea how they do it. I'm terrified of it, of course. My account, with its measly 27 books and income of about $20 or $30 a month, could be endangered.
For the most part I've gotten all my reviews legitimately. The zon sometimes wants to know if I'll review my own (since I've read them), but I always politely decline. Of course I am one of my own best customers - I always read my own work on kindle, because I always want to know how it comes out. I long ago let myself do that, because it was pretty obvious the zon didn't care.
So you get to read your own work. And you get to buy it too - lots of people do that. Here they set up an "author's price" - buy it cheap, but then they charge you up the yinyang for postage, so by the time it's done it's cheaper to just buy it. You get it faster, and you get the ratings jump, and you get some of the royalties back eventually. It's a way of investing, or hiding, money. You put it into your own books, and eventually you can turn those into money.
hope the zon's not too worried about that.
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Made a bunch of deals with people who didn't come through - said they'd download my book, but didn't, put their book on mine in a train but didn't download it, etc. What a bunch of shysters. I'm saving my comments for later; I have nothing good to say about this crowd now.
Goodreads is saving every review I make, which is every one. I put them all on both Amazon and Goodreads, and it's figured out and connected automatically, and I'm not sure I like that. For one thing I give way too many fives; you can see that at a glance. Maybe I should find a few suckers and give them threes, just so there's a little more variation in my table.
Review after review, there are hundreds of them. It's almost like Goodreads is a record-keeping service. I haven't quite figured out what happens if you say different things on GR and Amazon, or even if you have different stars marked. Do they notice? Do they care? I actually removed a few of my reviews. I don't want to be seen giving some people fives, when they have basically blown me off. I care more about this on GR than Amazon, for some reason. On Amazon it seems like it counts more; that's where the world sees your rating and holds you up in comparison. But really if people have wronged me, I don't want association with them in either place.
Just getting cranky. Tired of people putting me down.
Goodreads is saving every review I make, which is every one. I put them all on both Amazon and Goodreads, and it's figured out and connected automatically, and I'm not sure I like that. For one thing I give way too many fives; you can see that at a glance. Maybe I should find a few suckers and give them threes, just so there's a little more variation in my table.
Review after review, there are hundreds of them. It's almost like Goodreads is a record-keeping service. I haven't quite figured out what happens if you say different things on GR and Amazon, or even if you have different stars marked. Do they notice? Do they care? I actually removed a few of my reviews. I don't want to be seen giving some people fives, when they have basically blown me off. I care more about this on GR than Amazon, for some reason. On Amazon it seems like it counts more; that's where the world sees your rating and holds you up in comparison. But really if people have wronged me, I don't want association with them in either place.
Just getting cranky. Tired of people putting me down.
Monday, March 6, 2023
Ups and downs on the read-marketing circuit. Here's the up: with Japanese Poetry & Haiku, a fairly easy category, epiphany coup haiku was number seven today. Today only - I had to look fast, as tonight it's 41 already. But hey, sevy,en is not bad. If certain people check the top ten ever, or if those people checked it this morning, there I was.
Actually, my luck was good in general, or has been lately. I'm getting a lot of books read, as I have a reputation. Even if it's not people's favorite read, they at least know it'll be ok, so they jump on these trains; they read mine; I read someone's, someone reads theirs; it all works out.
On the downside you have people who will sit on your book for a few days. They grab it and put it on their TBR list (as it's called) and then it sits there for a while. You have no control. You wait for a pageread or a ratings bump that never shows up, or takes days. By the time you see either you've forgotten what you'd been hoping for, or you'd moved on in some other way. I have an occasional sale that the zon doesn't pick up, doesn't give me a ratings bump for; I'm left wondering if it's in some other category, like library sale or expanded distribution or some such thing. You sit here waiting for a score that never comes.
It's the price of addiction - in my case, to ratings.
Actually, my luck was good in general, or has been lately. I'm getting a lot of books read, as I have a reputation. Even if it's not people's favorite read, they at least know it'll be ok, so they jump on these trains; they read mine; I read someone's, someone reads theirs; it all works out.
On the downside you have people who will sit on your book for a few days. They grab it and put it on their TBR list (as it's called) and then it sits there for a while. You have no control. You wait for a pageread or a ratings bump that never shows up, or takes days. By the time you see either you've forgotten what you'd been hoping for, or you'd moved on in some other way. I have an occasional sale that the zon doesn't pick up, doesn't give me a ratings bump for; I'm left wondering if it's in some other category, like library sale or expanded distribution or some such thing. You sit here waiting for a score that never comes.
It's the price of addiction - in my case, to ratings.
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
An opportunity
There's an interesting site, Best Book Editors, and I won the spin of a wheel there, so that my book One Woman's Voice is the Book of the Month, and I get to hawk it all month. I'm not sure if I will get any sales or downloads off of this, but the moderator of the site downloaded it right off the bat and others will hopefully follow. There is a reward for downloading, reviewing, and proving you did these, and that is the possibility that you too will be chosen for a book of the month. It's how I got it.
My strategy is to engage the authors on the site in conversation. I've really come to value friendship more than the pure reads. Most of these folks are busy, writing and reading for other purposes, as I was, and I don't expect them to read mine just for a chance at a gamble. But I've also reached the point where the read-marketing game on the other sites has reached a point of limited returns, so if I could get enough true exchanges (you read mine, I'll read yours) on this site it would keep me busy and be more than enough. I am no longer even particular about what of mine they read, as if ten read this book, and none read any other, how is that different from distributing it? Not so different, a read is a read. And I'm equally eager to push all my work but actually enjoy people choosing what they want to read.
Besides, I have questions that only authors can answer. They are a unique audience in many senses. On this particular site many are really good. The site has a lot of things going on and reading each other's work is a pretty high priority.
It's good news here, bear with me. I'll work it out, and use the site appropriately.
My strategy is to engage the authors on the site in conversation. I've really come to value friendship more than the pure reads. Most of these folks are busy, writing and reading for other purposes, as I was, and I don't expect them to read mine just for a chance at a gamble. But I've also reached the point where the read-marketing game on the other sites has reached a point of limited returns, so if I could get enough true exchanges (you read mine, I'll read yours) on this site it would keep me busy and be more than enough. I am no longer even particular about what of mine they read, as if ten read this book, and none read any other, how is that different from distributing it? Not so different, a read is a read. And I'm equally eager to push all my work but actually enjoy people choosing what they want to read.
Besides, I have questions that only authors can answer. They are a unique audience in many senses. On this particular site many are really good. The site has a lot of things going on and reading each other's work is a pretty high priority.
It's good news here, bear with me. I'll work it out, and use the site appropriately.
Tuesday, February 7, 2023
Bogged down...I signed up for several books; I'm reading three full ones at once, plus another I promised to do for a friend. Two are not bad; the third is ok too except hard to follow. What I really need for that third is an entire evening to concentrate on it, and not keep leaving it out of frustration for having it be hard to follow. It's taught me to always make my books easy to follow. Characters, easy to picture. Action coming from previous action. A direction where it's going.
Forgive the sentence fragments; they are a product of frustration. Really, the grammar I'm dealing with at the moment is much better. I've learned to pick up bad-grammar signals from the blurbs themselves, and, if someone can put bad grammar in a blurb, know that it's not going to get better in the book itself. I no longer hold out hope for books that sound ok in the blurb but show signs of a writer's lack of purpose, or lack of attention to basic sentence structure.
Aside from that, my main frustration with this read-marketing biz is that I can't seem to do enough of it. I try to make time for it at night and in the morning, but I try to make time to write also, and haven't done enough of that. And the writing has two kinds, the organizing (which includes the research), and the writing itself. In novels, the organizing is my weak point. If I don't know what's going to happen, I can't sit there staring at the page; I get blocked. With the biography, I have to go out of my way to find the kind of thing that's appropriate to read.
I'm working on my general writing pattern, trying to find a balance, and do enough of each. It could take a while. Meanwhile it's a cold February, and there isn't much else to do. The afternoon sun comes in my window now. I think warmly of my author friends around the globe, who are struggling with the same issues.
Forgive the sentence fragments; they are a product of frustration. Really, the grammar I'm dealing with at the moment is much better. I've learned to pick up bad-grammar signals from the blurbs themselves, and, if someone can put bad grammar in a blurb, know that it's not going to get better in the book itself. I no longer hold out hope for books that sound ok in the blurb but show signs of a writer's lack of purpose, or lack of attention to basic sentence structure.
Aside from that, my main frustration with this read-marketing biz is that I can't seem to do enough of it. I try to make time for it at night and in the morning, but I try to make time to write also, and haven't done enough of that. And the writing has two kinds, the organizing (which includes the research), and the writing itself. In novels, the organizing is my weak point. If I don't know what's going to happen, I can't sit there staring at the page; I get blocked. With the biography, I have to go out of my way to find the kind of thing that's appropriate to read.
I'm working on my general writing pattern, trying to find a balance, and do enough of each. It could take a while. Meanwhile it's a cold February, and there isn't much else to do. The afternoon sun comes in my window now. I think warmly of my author friends around the globe, who are struggling with the same issues.
Saturday, January 28, 2023
So I made about the best pop-art ad in my history; it was a classic and at least one friend pointed that out. It led to a page advertising all ten of my short stories. This was a short-story campaign. I put it on Facebook, Twitter, my blog promotion site, and on various Facebook sites. On Facebook I had found about twenty sites that accepted book promos and even welcomed them, and I put it on each one. A great ad, a great launch page, and even a kindle promo (99 cents on the newest and best of the stories) to throw into the deal.
In short, it was a wash. I only got nine views of the launching site altogether, no sales. Whether anyone clicked from the launching site into my various Amazon book sites, I don't know; if those nine even become more familiar with my work I can at least say there was a benefit. Some of my Facebook friends are already familiar with my work but may have gone in there just out of idle curiosity. Most people didn't click the link. They liked the pop art; they put a "like" on the posts, if they saw them, but they didn't buy anything.
Should I just accept this as the price of doing business? I knew that idea of blanketing the Facebook kindle sites was kind of hot air, a bunch of noise on a pile of noise. I am not sure anyone is really using those sites to buy or read books and I know that the authors who dump stuff on there, myself included, are too busy to check out anything anyone else dumps on there.
On Twitter you have a few people who systematically retweet anything an author puts out. They seem to be grateful that I have ten books of stories with one on sale and they are glad to tell all their audience, no matter how wide, about it. I myself have a thousand followers, of whom maybe a hundred will see it, depending on when they get on there I assume, but to most of them it's random noise too. I don't often get readers from Twitter, though I've gotten a few.
My next campaign is haiku, and it will go on the haiku and poetry sites as well as the big three (my FB, Twitter, and blog promo), and the twenty or so abovementioned Facebook sites. I am not going to get on Tik Tok or Instagram (maybe I should?) but rather just feel like the short story audience is somewhere else, still eluding my fine pop art and collection of ten sets of short stories, all reasonably good in my opinion.
It's something to think about.
In short, it was a wash. I only got nine views of the launching site altogether, no sales. Whether anyone clicked from the launching site into my various Amazon book sites, I don't know; if those nine even become more familiar with my work I can at least say there was a benefit. Some of my Facebook friends are already familiar with my work but may have gone in there just out of idle curiosity. Most people didn't click the link. They liked the pop art; they put a "like" on the posts, if they saw them, but they didn't buy anything.
Should I just accept this as the price of doing business? I knew that idea of blanketing the Facebook kindle sites was kind of hot air, a bunch of noise on a pile of noise. I am not sure anyone is really using those sites to buy or read books and I know that the authors who dump stuff on there, myself included, are too busy to check out anything anyone else dumps on there.
On Twitter you have a few people who systematically retweet anything an author puts out. They seem to be grateful that I have ten books of stories with one on sale and they are glad to tell all their audience, no matter how wide, about it. I myself have a thousand followers, of whom maybe a hundred will see it, depending on when they get on there I assume, but to most of them it's random noise too. I don't often get readers from Twitter, though I've gotten a few.
My next campaign is haiku, and it will go on the haiku and poetry sites as well as the big three (my FB, Twitter, and blog promo), and the twenty or so abovementioned Facebook sites. I am not going to get on Tik Tok or Instagram (maybe I should?) but rather just feel like the short story audience is somewhere else, still eluding my fine pop art and collection of ten sets of short stories, all reasonably good in my opinion.
It's something to think about.
Friday, January 6, 2023
This actually falls under the category of fanatic constant monitoring of somewhat pointless author ratings, which I've become obsessed with. I actually had a victory in this regard which i am inclined to document, if only because so much of this is, as I said, pointless. Amazon sucks us into wanting ratings to keep improving - well, I can't really blame Amazon, they just make the ratings and we are sucker to them naturally. All the work I do - I actually read all these other books - I do so that I will get readers and the main benefit of getting readers is getting ratings. When you appear to be more successful you get more business just by that appearance.
It is my hope that people don't look at my reviews and say, "these were all done by other desperate indie authors," because sometimes I look at them, and say something very similar to that. I have some non-author fans out there, but not many, so the vast majority of them are done by other indie authors who have in effect traded reading mine for having someone read theirs. I still learn from it; I enjoy it; I don't mind the reading. Sometimes it wears on me. Sometimes I wish I could just wake up and have my books selling off the shelves.
So anyway working the read-marketing lists I put my opus, epiphany coup haiku, 80 haiku from an unusual day , on one of the lists and it's possible that two people snagged it at once; in fact those two may have been from the UK. the book is doing well these days although not as well as i'd want given that it is actually january sixth today so if it going to do well, now would be the time. because perhaps two people snagged it at once, it became #1 in Japanese haiku in the UK for a short while. This was the first time I'd ever been #1 in anything, anywhere, so that calls for a celebration.
I should put a little qualifier in there. First, Japanese haiku in the UK is one of the easiest categories to win, as it just doesn't have all that much action. Sure, there's haiku in the UK, and people know what it is, but it turns out that if a couple of people read your book that's all it takes for it to rise to the top. Second, we all know it isn't going to stay that way and by nightfall some other haiku book will be bought on kindle and totally replace it. My books are not being bought, they're only being read, so they are not going to stay #1 for long. But the main point is, I was at the top of that list for a minute.
Now back to the grind. I have like four books on the table, in return for which, someone is out there reading something.
It is my hope that people don't look at my reviews and say, "these were all done by other desperate indie authors," because sometimes I look at them, and say something very similar to that. I have some non-author fans out there, but not many, so the vast majority of them are done by other indie authors who have in effect traded reading mine for having someone read theirs. I still learn from it; I enjoy it; I don't mind the reading. Sometimes it wears on me. Sometimes I wish I could just wake up and have my books selling off the shelves.
So anyway working the read-marketing lists I put my opus, epiphany coup haiku, 80 haiku from an unusual day , on one of the lists and it's possible that two people snagged it at once; in fact those two may have been from the UK. the book is doing well these days although not as well as i'd want given that it is actually january sixth today so if it going to do well, now would be the time. because perhaps two people snagged it at once, it became #1 in Japanese haiku in the UK for a short while. This was the first time I'd ever been #1 in anything, anywhere, so that calls for a celebration.
I should put a little qualifier in there. First, Japanese haiku in the UK is one of the easiest categories to win, as it just doesn't have all that much action. Sure, there's haiku in the UK, and people know what it is, but it turns out that if a couple of people read your book that's all it takes for it to rise to the top. Second, we all know it isn't going to stay that way and by nightfall some other haiku book will be bought on kindle and totally replace it. My books are not being bought, they're only being read, so they are not going to stay #1 for long. But the main point is, I was at the top of that list for a minute.
Now back to the grind. I have like four books on the table, in return for which, someone is out there reading something.
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