Tag Archives: Deatri

When A Writer Doesn’t Write by Deatri King-Bey

DeatriThere are times that months go by that I don’t write one word toward a manuscript, outline, research or anything for my future titles. The first time I did this, my family became worried, talked about “writer’s block” and plotted on how to break me out of it.

I kept explaining that I didn’t have writer’s block. I just didn’t feel like writing.  Shooooot, truth be told, I could use a good dose of writer’s block at times. Maybe that would make the characters in my mind be quiet. <SMILE>.  Back to the family and the case of writer’s block. Three weeks in, they decided I must be depressed and that’s why I had writer’s block. I’m lucky I didn’t get locked up, y’all. I was tempted to write something for pleasure (actually pressure because they were pressuring me) to keep them from sending me to the padded room on the psych ward.

I was not under any quick approaching deadline with a publishing house. I was free and enjoying it. I could write—and I thought NOT WRITE—at my own pace. I go through phases. At times I’ll write every free second I can squeeze out of the day and create extra seconds to write some more. Other times I’m happy with the two hours I set aside a day. Then there are times when I don’t want to write at all. I may go days or even weeks without writing a word. Note to self—never Ever EVER allow family to find out you’re in the no-writing phase.

I absolutely LOVE my no-writing phase. When I’m in it, I read like nobodies business. I’m talking a book a day (and don’t forget the full time job, children, husband, pets, grandbaby who most think is my son, volunteer work…) I’m up all night and going to work sleepy, but I don’t even care.

When I write, the stories come easily for me, but all of that creativity is draining in ways that are hard to explain. The no-writing phase keeps me from experiencing creative burn-out, which will lead to writer’s block. I become a creativity vampire ready to take a bite of the next novel. My no-writing phase rejuvenates me by overfilling my creative cup.

So if you haven’t heard from me in a while, could one of you please check the psych ward for me, because my family just doesn’t get it <WINK>.

So let’s look at the other side. What if you actually do have writer’s block.

“Oh no! My characters have stopped talking to me, and I have no idea what to write next. It’s just not coming to me. I’ll never finish this book.” –Author with writer’s block.

First, do you actually have writer’s block or do you just not feel like writing? As I explained above, there is a difference. I know there are those out there who believe you must write every day, but my creative self, my muse would be very unhappy with me if I forced it to work daily without giving it a break every so often, and it doesn’t matter that my muse loves what it does. In my opinion, overworking the muse can cause it to go on strike and leave you with writer’s block.

So let’s say you actually do have writer’s block. How can you get out of it? You’ll need to see what works for you.

  • Take a break: Go do something enjoyable that doesn’t include writing. Some have found it helpful to take a vacation from writing with an end date they’ve set, then find themselves craving to write before the end date arrives.
  • Freewriting: Write or type whatever comes to your mind without form or reason. Just write. It doesn’t have to make sense, have a format, follow the rules of grammar…
  • Read books in the genre you are writing.
  • Read books in any genre except the one you are writing.
  • Talk the plot point out with someone, brainstorm through the issue.
  • Ensure you aren’t trying to FORCE the plot to places you want it to go instead of where it should logically go. The muse fights back and the next thing you know, you have writer’s block and/or a clunky plot.
  • Step away from your current work in progress for a day or two then begin reading it from page one.
  • Work on your marketing plan for the novel or some other aspect of the novel. Do some research, conduct an interview. How is the Website looking?
  • Stop forcing the creativity if you don’t want it to revolt.

Much Joy Peace and Love

Deatri King-Bey

If you found this post helpful, please use the Share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for?Become A Successful Author is used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or$9.99(print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

Rethinking Reader Events by Deatri King-Bey

DeatriI know authors who refuse to attend reader events where they will not sell enough books at the event to cover the majority of their costs. I have always thought they were being too narrow in their definition of a successful event, and with the popularity of eBooks ever increasing, they should rethink what they expect to gain from reading events.

Let me tell you about a conference I began attending many, many years ago when I was merely a reader of romance and women’s fiction, the Romance Slam Jam (RSJ). Back then there were no eReaders, no Facebook and no Amazon. I know that’s hard for many of you to imagine, but there you have it.

The first time I attended the RSJ, I was intimidated. There I was, little ol’ me, surrounded by authors whose books I couldn’t get enough of. That up close and personal time with authors and others who enjoyed reading what I was addicted to was AWSOME. So awesome that in the eighteen years of the conference’s history, I can count on one had the times I’ve missed it.

At the conference, there is a Mega Book Signing. Back in the day, readers would literally bring tote bags, roller bags, duffle bags of books with them that they had purchased over the years for the authors to sign. They would also bring books they’d purchased at the conference, but not nearly as many. Over the years as eBooks became more popular, the amount of books brought to the signing decreased drastically as did sells in the conference’s bookstore. The Mega “BOOK” Signing has turned into more of a “Mega Signing” where attendees collect autographs and such for their scrap books.

I told you this story to point out two items.

  1. The main purpose I, as a reader, attended this event was not to purchase books at the event. I can purchase books any day of the week. I attended the event to mix and mingle with authors whose work I enjoy year around and other readers such as myself.
  2. The main purpose I, as an author, attended this event was not to sell books at the event. I want readers to purchase my books all year around, even when I’m not in front of them. I attended to build relationships and make MEMORIES with readers and network with my peers. This is a key element in growing that loyal base who will spread the word about your high quality novels without you having to ask. They know YOU, sign up for your opt-in mailing list and will tell readers about you. It goes deeper than them seeing you at a book signing table. It’s a totally different level.

Attending in person events is very important for authors. But just like you shouldn’t jump onto every type of social media out there, you shouldn’t try to attend every reader event. Select the major event for your genre and attend every year or at least every other year. Get to know the attendees for that conference. You’ll bump into many of the same people year after year. This is a good thing. This is how you build relationships and memories.

Many authors forget to look locally for events and readers to build relationships with. Use sites such as http://www.meetup.com to find writing groups and reader events in your area. Become a member of the literary community locally and let the readers get to know you so your popularity can grow.

So am I saying that when you attend a reader event, you shouldn’t care if you don’t sell any books? Of course not. I’m just saying that selling books at the event shouldn’t be your only or main goal. With the increase in popularity of eBooks, it’s time to rethink why you attend reader events and what you should expect from them.

On a side note. If you haven’t read the article Are Amazon and Facebook Your Publishing End All And Be All? I suggest you do.

Deatri King-Bey

 

If you found this post helpful, please use the Share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for?Become A Successful Author is used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or$9.99(print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

Talk To Me—The Author’s Secret Weapon by Deatri King-Bey

DeatriI know the secret to optimizing your creativity while satisfying that little editor who sits on your shoulder as you type your manuscript. Okay, so maybe it isn’t a “secret,” but many authors are about to have an “aha” moment.

When writing your manuscript, did you know that hand writing, dictating and typing each tap into the creativity center of your brain differently, thus giving you different results?

I’ll give you one guess what I’m about to tell you to do next. Yep, you need to do all three when writing your manuscript. I can hear it now. “She must be crazy. Who has time to do all three?” You do. Hang in there with me. I’ll tell you how in a minute, maybe less if you’re a speed reader.

Many authors type their manuscripts because it’s faster than having to transcribe something that is handwritten or dictated into a recorder. I fully understand this and have been there. But faster isn’t always better. You want your manuscript to be the best it can be. How many times have you heard that you should read your manuscripts aloud to ensure the flow and dialogue are on point? Okay, I’ll stop trying to convince you. Let me tell you about the author’s secret weapon—speech recognition software.

So here is the process I’d like you to follow for the next chapter of your book. Write it by hand. It will take you a little to get into the flow of it. Turn your internal editor to low and allow your creativity to flow. Soon you’ll be carrying a notebook with you everywhere to go to write. If you want to write more than a chapter, GREAT. Go for it.

Now it’s time for your speech recognition software. It’s not as expensive as some think. Windows 7, Windows 8 and several other operating systems come with speech recognition software. Many times it’s as simple as plugging in your headset, then going into the Accessibility area of your computer’s Control Panel and turning on the recognition program. I’ve used the Windows 7 & 8 recognition software and they worked very well. There are also vendors that sell speech recognition software such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, which is my preferred speech recognition program.

As you are dictating what you wrote, you’ll change the wording, catch items and improve the flow. There are other benefits to speech recognition software:

  • The software is a great speller.
  • If you do any type of public speaking, using speech recognition software will help you with your diction, enunciation and pacing. It makes you more aware of how you sound. Note that most of these software programs learn your speech pattern. For example, I have a character named Tex, but the software thought I was saying “text.” I could have corrected it as I went along and eventually the software would have automatically written Tex instead of text. I chose to slow down my pace of reading just a tad. I stopped acting like I was in a race and was very happy with the results. When I was a speed racer, the software kept up, but because I wasn’t speaking as clearly, it typed what it sounded like I was saying, but not what I wanted. Slow down.

Last but not least, it’s time to turn your internal editor to high and use your word processor to make updates to your manuscript. One of the downfalls of speech recognition software is homonyms such as to, too and two. Read through your chapter and make corrections and update as needed.

Will this process take more time? Maybe. Many people find they don’t have as many writer’s block issues when they write by hand or dictate. I don’t worry about time. I worry about quality. I want my novels to be the best they can be. This method usually improves your writing because you are tapping into that creativity center three different ways. Picking up benefits of each along the way. You’ll be shocked at how much your writing improves. For those of you worried about your hand writing. My hand writing was horrible, but now it’s just bad. I write my entire book, then dictate.

Now that you know the secret, optimize your writing time by incorporating all three methods of writing your manuscripts.

Deatri King-Bey

If you found this post helpful, please use the Share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for?Become A Successful Author is used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or$9.99(print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

 

Know Your Numbers by Deatri King-Bey

DeatriHow many units (books) did you sell last year? Did you make your sales goal for the year? Did you make a good return on your investment for each title? How were your sells compared to the previous year? Those are just a few questions you should be able to answer about your business (yes, publishing is a business).

Every February, I take stock of my numbers for the previous year, and I set my goals for the current year.  I can tell you how many units of each title I sold, the amounts made, the amounts I spent on production for each title, marketing cost… Everything that is needed to calculate if my business is making or losing money. If it is growing, stagnant or dying. I can see areas of leakage and can take steps to fill the holes.

I know it’s not fun. Not fun at all, but you need to know your numbers. Each seller provides some sort of royalty statement and thankfully, most of them use Excel. For those that don’t use Excel, you’ll need to determine the best way to easily turn those statements into usable information.

Okay, let’s take an easy one (you’ll need to do this for each of your sells channels)—Amazon’s ebooks.

  • Each month download your royalty statement and save it in a file for that year. I use a naming convention. For example 2012AmazonJan, 2012BNJan, 2012CreateSpaceJan… That way when I look in the file, it is easy for me to see the different statements per sells channel. I place all of the statements into one file for the year, but you do what works for you.
  • Copy each of the Amazon statements (or whatever sells channel you are using) into a book (a page) on a spreadsheet. I like Excel. So you will have all twelve months worth of statements on one book (page) of the spreadsheet. Yes, I know I said to save each statement in the file also. Hang with me.
  • Now sort the spreadsheet. This will alphabetize the entire sheet. Yes. All of your titles will be sorted for the year.
  •  I place two blank lines between each title
  • Use the Auto Sum function (use the Help feature in Excel. It’s easy to do) for each area of the statement you want numbers for so you can see exactly how many units of each title you sold, how much you made on each title, how many returns you received per title…

I’ve cut and pasted the eBook sales of one of my titles on Amazon as an example: Sample

So now you know how to calculate how much in royalties you made in this sells channel for the year. You need to do this for all of the channels (sells outlets) you use. Print and ebook. Yes it is time consuming and you may want to hire an assistant to do it for you. I know one who will do this for a very reasonable price. You could also just add onto your spreadsheets each month as you save your royalty statements, then do a sort after you get your last statement of the year. It’s quick going once you get everything on a spreadsheet. Get it done.

So let’s pretend that you only sell a short eBook on Amazon. You’ve done your sort and see that in the year you made $1000 in royalties for one of your short story. Congratulations! But did you make a positive return on your investment? Now you need to calculate how much you actually made on this title.

Royalty — $1000

Now subtract production costs. Here is a very basic example of what your production cost may look like:

  • Copyright — $35
  • Editing (developmental, copy, proof) — $250
  • Cover –$100
  • Marketing — $50

Now subtract your production cost from your royalties: $1000 – $435 = $565

Congratulations, you made $565! I’ll take it. And don’t forget most of your production costs are tax deductible (yet another reason why you should itemize).

Now calculate your earnings and costs for each of your titles. Once you know your total earnings, you can set your sales goals for 2013.

Okay, I don’t want to throw you into information overload. Collect your sells information in a spreadsheet, use the automatic sort for the titles, then do an Auto Sum on each title for the columns you are interested in. Set goals for the year and work toward them.

Know Your Numbers!

Deatri King-Bey

If you found this post helpful, please use the Share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for?Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99(print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

Are Amazon and Facebook Your Publishing End All And Be All? by Deatri King-Bey

DeatriWithout a doubt, Amazon is the number one retailer of books, but what about the other retailers who have billions in annual sells? How are your sells going for you on Barnes & Noble and in the iStore? Are your sells so great on Amazon that you don’t care about other online retailers? You don’t care about expanding your audience?

Understanding what Amazon has done above and beyond other retailers to capture the overwhelming share of book sells is important. You have to think the same way about your business. What are you doing above and beyond to capture market share.

  • eBlast – My experience as a reader and author has shown me that Amazon is the best game in town when it comes to selling and buying books. As a reader, they send me alerts to books I may be interested in that actually interest me, and I can change my preferences at any time. As an author, they give effective free advertising, showcasing my books to people who may actually want to purchase it.
    • When you are promoting your title, be sure to ask readers to “Like” your product and author pages. In my opinion, this is more important than reviews because the algorithm Amazon uses to send out email blast to readers for books they might be interested in use those “Likes” and the majority of readers I’ve asked say that reviews factor little to not at all if they will be purchasing a book.
    • KDP Select – In this program, you give Amazon exclusive rights to sell your eBook for three months. You can’t even give your ebook away free. In exchange for exclusivity, Amazon adds your title to their Prime Library and when members check out your title, you are paid a certain amount that is determined quarterly. This program has pros and cons. There are tons of blog post out there revealing authors’ experiences so I won’t debate that here.
      • If you do the KDP Select program, I highly suggest you do not use it for your new title. Instead, release your title on ALL of the platforms available to you and give ALL of the readers a chance to purchase your book, then once sells slow, do KDP Select.
      • I do not suggest you permanently keep your titles on KDP Select. Why would you keep all of your eggs in the Amazon basket? That’s not good business. You want to expand your readership to as many platforms as possible.
      • KindleBoards – Amazon has done an excellent job of creating a Kindle user community of readers and authors. Consider becoming a part of the community, without becoming a walking billboard.

With the ease of selling and buying on Amazon, I understand why many authors don’t sell their titles on other platforms, I just don’t agree with them. Publishing is a business. As a self-published author, you are the CEO, CFO, and every other O of your company, and you have to look at more than short term gains. You have to plan for the long term success and expansion of your company.

A few paragraphs ago, I said you shouldn’t only use the KDP Select program to sell your eTitles. Let’s examine Amazon’s motivation behind the KDP Select program. Amazon works to dry up the self-publishing market from other eBook retailers so Amazon will be the only game in town. Amazon is a business and thus doing what is best for its interest. Is that good for your business as an author? Someone who sells eBooks using Amazon’s distribution? No. Amazon has already started testing out only allowing publishers to receive the 70% royalty if they have their titles in the KDP Select program in certain markets of the world. How much more market share do you think Amazon needs to capture in the U.S. before they start that here? Am I saying you shouldn’t use the KDP Select program or Amazon to distribute your eBooks? Heck no. I’m saying don’t ONLY use Amazon and the KDP Select program. Build your audience on other platforms also.

I can hear it now. I have “tried” to sell on other platforms, but I get nothing! Granted, Amazon sells the most, but from what I’ve seen time and time again from authors is them promoting their Amazon product page instead of maintaining a website (not Facebook wall) and having ALL of their purchase links for various vendors of their titles so readers can easily select their print or eReader preferences in purchasing. I see authors nurturing their relationships with Amazon customers, yet promoting to other retailers as an afterthought. Newsflash, your promos should be about your book, not Amazon. Authors give Amazon way more free advertisement than Amazon is giving them by sending out the occasional eBlast.

So what do you do? Upload your book to as many “legitimate” retailers and possible. If you don’t have a website, get one. You are in BUSINESS and should have a professional website that showcases your work. Create a separate page for each of your titles and ensure you have the purchase links on it. Then when you promote your title, send readers to that page instead of to Amazon.

So now that you’ve decided that it’s best to sell your titles on more than one platform and promote your website for purchasing links instead of sending customers to Amazon, let’s talk social media.

Facebook, like Amazon is by far the fastest way to reach a large audience. Facebook has created communities of authors and readers and has given authors a way to build their own following! Great stuff, huh? I can’t tell you how many authors have put all of their eggs into the Facebook basket when it comes to communicating with their readership. Now they have thousands of “Friends” who follow them. Who hooo!

Except, they seemed to forget that Facebook is a business and of course going to do what will make Facebook the most money. I’m not mad at them. My publishing company is also a business, and I do the same thing.

So let’s get back to your thousands of followers on Facebook. Let’s say you are not one of those authors who “friend” everyone and ask everyone to join your group. You are focused on quality instead of quantity. Quality being people who would actually be interested in purchasing your titles. It may have taken you a year or two to grow thousands of quality followers. Guess what happened a few months ago. Facebook changed their policy so posts from fan pages only show on 10% of your followers’ walls. If you want it to show on more of your followers walls, you have to pay a fee.

Oh, and let’s not forget, everyone is getting more followers (even the average person), yet many people, like me, do not scroll down to the bottom of their newsfeed to see what posts they have missed, so the chances of someone seeing your post have gotten much slimmer.

You’re not worried, because instead of creating a fan page, you have the regular user page that limits you to 5000 friends, but it’s all good. You tell people to “Subscribe” instead of befriend, and since subscribers don’t count, you’ll never reach 5000. You’ll just promote on your wall. HOLD UP! Facebook is starting to warn authors and delete accounts of those who fill up their walls with promos. That’s what fan pages are for.

Now what do you do?

Never, ever, ever have all of your eggs in one basket. Especially a basket someone else owns. Just as I said you should have purchase links on your website, you should also have an opt-in mailing list sign-up on your website. You should be building your opt-in mailing list so that when you need to reach your fan base, you can actually reach them.

Am I saying you should skip Amazon and Facebook or other social media? Of course not. But you need to maintain as much control over your product and contact with your customer base as you can. Now get out there and take over YOUR business.

Deatri King-Bey

If you found this post helpful, please use the Share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for?Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99(print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

Proper Planning Testimony: A Key To Publishing Success by Deatri King-Bey

DeatriI began working in the publishing industry over a decade ago in editing and marketing departments of various publishers where I learned the business from the inside out. Whether you choose to go the traditional, small publishing and/or the self-publishing route, one of the keys to building a successful career is planning. I know you’ve heard a million times that publishing is a business and you should plan, but what does that mean?

To give you a better idea of how planning plays a key role in the success of your writing career, I’ll show you an example using myself. Don’t worry, I won’t tell you every detail of my plan, but I’ll give you enough so you can see the benefits of planning.

Full disclosure: I write under several names. The only names associated to Deatri King-Bey are Deatri (romance and women’s fiction) and L. L. Reaper (suspense).  As Deatri my debut novel was released early 2006. A little over a year later, I left the author side of publishing as Deatri with four titles released. I was just getting a following as Deatri but decided to be a reader. Thus Deatri the author went into early retirement.

In 2009 I decided I wanted to learn about eBooks and ePublishing. So I signed onto a small ePublishing company as an editor and author to learn ePublishing. I didn’t like it there. That company turned out to be a rip off, but I learned about the eBook process. My books were out a few months there. Needless to say, I got my rights back quickly (which isn’t always easy) and took the knowledge I gained about eBook publishing with me.

Why did I give I give you so much background information, because it all went into my preparation to self-publish. So there I was. I had knowledge about ePublishing, traditional, independent and small press publishing and marketing. I had a stock of books that were submission and publish ready. My pen name L. L. Reaper didn’t come into existence until mid-2011 so that was a non-issue.

When I went on what I thought was early retirement but turned into a three year hiatus back in 2007, MySpace was popular. When I decided I’d step back into the game in 2009, Facebook was quickly becoming king of social media.  So there you have it.

I hadn’t had a real release since 2007 and I didn’t have a web presence. I was starting over. I’m sure there were readers who remembered me, but they weren’t looking for my titles any longer. They were probably like, “Where did that girl with the odd name go?” LOL.

The first order of business was to plot out a five year plan for my brand and individual books and set realistic goals. I took into account marketing, production costs (ie: editing, distribution, ISBN, copyright, cover design, printing…), timelines, schedules (including a writing schedule)… everything that goes into advancing my publishing career.

Again, even if you are going the non-self-publishing route, you should still plan. If you don’t self-publish, the production costs are in the hands of the publisher, but you are the main one responsible for every other facet of your writing career.

Notice I said I was plotting a five year plan for my brand (Deatri King-Bey), not my publishing company or my imprint. Though imprints and publishing names are important to authors, in general, readers don’t care. They don’t care who the publishers of Nora Roberts, Beverly Jenkins, James Patterson or Steven King’s books are. They buy the books because they enjoy the author’s writing. Now don’t get me wrong. Companies such as Harlequin have done an excellent job at training their reading base to pick up just about anything with the Harlequin brand on it. Good for them, but I encourage authors to self-publish and publish through legitimate publishing houses. You want readers to look for you by the author name (your brand), not by who produced the title because the producer can change several times over your career.

Let’s talk about costs. Why is it important to know costs and include them in your plans?

  • Needing additional funds is one surprise we can all do without.
  • If you are self-publishing, you need to know how much money it will take to release your titles. This will help you set the price of the final product and help you gauge how many titles you can afford to release (eBook/print) in the coming year. So if you can afford three titles in the next twelve months, then you can plan your production, marketing, writing, editing schedule and cost and for three books.
  • Your plan will have estimates on costs. I choose to overestimate by 10% for each step. You will need to record actual costs of everything you spend on your titles so you can calculate your return on investment. For example, let’s say your production, distribution and marketing costs for one of your titles was $1,000. A positive return on investment is everything you make after the $1,000 investment in your title has been earned. Now how long it takes you to make a positive return on your investment is a topic in itself.
    • Once you have actual costs, be sure to go back into your plans and make adjustments.
    • When I calculated the various costs, I did not estimate how much I’d take in for the first two years. Instead, I pretended that I’d make nothing. So if I didn’t sell one book, I’d still be able to afford to release titles for two years. There was method to my madness. Stick with me and you’ll understand in a bit. Please note. What works for me will not work for others. Make a plan that works for you.

So I’d done my research and knew which professionals I’d hire for what, and I got on their schedules and/or made note of how far in advance I’d need to contact them for each project.

I had a marketing plan for each title I would release and also one for my brand. In less than a year, I planned on releasing my first title, and I had no web presence and the small following I’d had from previous years had no idea I’d be coming back more terrifying than before.

The first phase of my plan was online presence. I set up a Facebook account, re-launched my website as a blog, attended reader events for my genre, started building an opt-in mailing list and networked with readers through my book club. By the way. I am an avid reader and always will be. I read an average of a novel a week. As a “reader” who also happens to be an author, I participate in a few groups on Facebook.

I have very limited time, so I chose Facebook as my main online hangout. Join as many networks that work for you, but I encourage you not to spread yourself too thin. You should spend more time writing than anything else.

Whatever spots you hang out in, be sure to actually participate. You’ll get much more bang for your “time” buck than if you hop from place to place and the readers don’t connect to you, thus ignore your posts.

So let’s fast forward to Oct. 2010, when my first release was to come out. Along with always releasing a high quality product, I encourage authors to self-publish and publish through a legitimate publisher (traditional, independent, small press…) This is the fastest way to reach pockets of your target audience you may not have otherwise. Once you are happy with the size of your loyal reader base, you may decide to only self-publish.

I chose to only self-publish as Deatri. Do what works for you. Nothing is set in stone and you can always submit to publishing houses while you grow your base through self-publishing. I often tell authors that self-publishing has become the new “agent” of the industry.

Back to my brand and novel plans. I set measurable goals such as:

  • Number of titles released
  • Size of opt-in mailing list
  • Number of guest post on my blog
  • Number of guest appearances (online and in person)
  • Number of Facebook followers
    • On followers in general. I am not a big hound on quantity. I want quality. That is why I do not request friendships. That is why I do not add people to my mailing lists or groups.

Do you see anything missing? How about sells numbers? I barely promoted any of my releases for my first ten months and did not have sells goals for the first two years. Sounds crazy, but again, there was method to my madness.

Sells numbers go back to return on investment and the knowledge I have about readers’ buying habits. If a reader picks up a book by an author that is new to them and they love the book, the reader has a tendency to go back and look for the author’s previous titles.

As a new author, you don’t have a back list (previous titles). Now what works for me, will not work for everyone. My five year brand plan has phases and my second phase was to become a master of self-publishing, to put what I had learned into practice and fix any holes in my system. This went for print and electronic titles. I released quality work and knew readers would go back and purchase the back list eventually.

Sounds crazy, but again, there was method to my madness. I’m in this for the long haul. Unlike many authors, I had a reserve of titles. Some had been released, others not. So I could take the ten months to get the lay of the land, experiment with different marketing techniques and make adjustments to my novel and brand plans as needed. I released high quality titles and allowed minimal promotion and word of mouth to make sells.

So did I have a sells goal? Yes.

  • By Oct. 2012, I wanted my royalty checks for eBook sells to be up to $2000 total per month. I went in knowing my first year of sells would be low, and I was okay with that. Again, there was method to my madness. Though I was wading through the self-publishing side of the world, I still released high quality products. With little promotion, I slowly built a reader base and a buzz started about this author named Deatri. About my brand.

July 2011 I planned to release the first book of a four part series. This would begin my next phase where I stepped up marketing a little. By stepping up marketing, I don’t mean I joined a million social media groups and posted “buy my book” type post numerous times in the groups. Did I do some promotion in social media? Yes. I participate in a few groups and I have Facebook and Twitter accounts.

I had connected with readers before I started talking about my books. With the series, I literally allowed the readers to decide what order I wrote the series in. I also increased blog appearances (for various titles). Organized “Sale” events with other authors and used cross promotion. I continued increasing my opt-in mailing list and meeting with readers.  Sounds like a lot, but it doesn’t take a lot of time when planned properly. And yes, you do need to keep track of how much time you spend on promoting/marketing/ non-writing activities and make adjustments where needed.

Part of my promotion budget is free reads. I know many of you think giving away titles is a sin, but publishing companies have been giving away books for years because it’s one of those promotion tools that work. Before eBooks, many authors kept free reads on their websites. This is nothing new.

I’m not saying give away full length novels. But consider writing a few short stories and/or a novella to give away. Ensure they are properly edited and have great covers. Something your brand can be proud of give them away on your website and in any online store you can get them in to.

I use Smashwords for my free titles. I upload there and allow them to distribute. It took months, but Amazon and Barnes & Noble eventually matched the free price on the titles I’d submitted through Smashwords. Note that Amazon goes back and forth with having the titles free at times and .99 at others, but that’s out of my control. I have three free reads (well, free most of the time. Dang blasted Amazon) that are a short story, compilation of short stories and a novella. In December 2011, my titles became free on Barnes & Noble. It took until May 2012 (almost a year) before they showed free on Amazon. I didn’t think it would take that long. Lesson learned.

So let’s look at the numbers. Do you think I’ll be paid $2000 in Oct. 2012 for my eBook titles? I published my first eBook Oct. 3, 2010, so received my first royalty December 2010. Did minimal marketing until Jul. 2011, then stepped it up a little.

I’m rounding down to dollar amount. Rows in bold are the months I released a title (new, re-release of back list, and/or a free read). FYI: Currently, I sell my titles at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I have other options, but did not want to pursue them in the first two years.

Amazon

 Barnes & Noble
Oct. 2010

 

  
Nov.
Dec. $34 $1
Jan. 2011 $40 $9
Feb. $31 $20
Mar. $39 $11
Apr. $17 $32
May $503 $33
Jun. $396 $33
Jul. $213 $30
Aug. $154 $28
Sept. $145 $58
Oct. $108 $42
Nov. $89 $12
Dec. $88 $15
Jan. 2012 $85 $72
Feb. $128 $298
Mar. $686 $269
Apr. $966 $241
May $562 $239
Jun. $715 $275
Jul. $1245 $284
Aug. $1059 $238
Sept. $2944 $414
Oct. $2735 $408

As you see, I met my two year ebook royalty goal. I love the saying: Work smarter, not harder. I created a plan of action and followed through with adjustments here and there as needed. I don’t do a lot of promotion, but I do promote. My main focus is releasing a high quality product.

Wrap Up

I won’t tell you how your brand and novel plans should look or how many titles are the key to success.  Here are a few items to remember when you write your plans.

  • Do your research and learn the publishing business. Besides being a downright excellent author, you need to become an expert in production, marketing and distribution. Especially where it pertains to your company so you can incorporate these elements into your plans. I chose to only release my ebooks on Amazon and Barnes & Noble because I wanted to learn the ins and outs of the two largest eBook sellers first then expand.
  • We all may have madness, but have method to your madness.
  • Do not cut corners. Always release high quality products (books) and indicate the cost into your plans. This method will cost you more up front, but in the end, it usually pays out nicely when accompanied with a good marketing plan.
  • Return on investment (ROI) is extremely important.  You are in the publishing game for the long haul. Use all three types of marketing: those that show results short, mid, and long term.  ROI also counts for your time. How much time are you spending on your various marketing campaigns? Are you getting your bang for your buck (ROI)? What about your editors? Are they qualified? Covers anyone…?
  • Know your product and your target audience.
  • Formats of your title(s), print run and distribution
  • Set sells and marketing goals
  • What markets will you sell in?
  • Create action plans to reach your sells and marketing goals.
  • How many titles will you release and when?
  • Where are the pockets of your target audience and how will you find/reach them?
  • How will you market yourself?
  • What makes your title(s) different than others in the genre? What sets your brand apart?
  • Will you write under one name or numerous? For example, many readers who enjoy traditional romance do not enjoy horror. So if you write both genres, you may want to have pen names by genre.
  • What are your expansion plans? How will you reach new markets and when should you begin expansion?
  • How will you maintain contact with your loyal reader base?
  • How will you grow your reader base?
  • What is your continuing education plan?

Do an Internet search on “book marketing plan” and I’m sure you’ll find lots of examples. Initially, planning is time consuming, but in the long run it is time well spent.

Good luck

Deatri King-Bey

If you found this post helpful, please use the Share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for?Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99(print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

A Tale Of Four Reader Groups by Deatri King-Bey

DeatriI enjoy four reading groups on Facebook. I participate in them and have gotten to know the other participants well. Three of them focus on my favorite genres and one of them is for people who love their Nooks (Yes, I’m a proud Nookie). Do I promote in these groups? Not much. I’m mainly there because I’m a read-aholic and have always liked to talk book.

Of the four groups, two of them had restrictions on promoting and two didn’t.  All four had great member participation until recently. A few months ago, the two groups that didn’t have restrictions gained a few members who loved to post promo after promo. A new trend in social media is authors hiring “readers” to promote their titles in reading groups, so the promos increased even more. Why do I bring this up?

Because the readers in both of those groups began complaining about… Guess what? Yep, you’ve got it, too much promoting in the readers’ groups. It didn’t matter if it was authors filling up the groups or surrogates of the authors filling up the groups, readers were turned off and slowly stopped participating. So about two months ago members of one of the groups that had become overrun with promos began posting threads complaining about too many promos and they contacted the admins. The admin listened to the members and set up limits on posting promos. Slowly the group began to come to life again.

Let’s move on to the second group that had a drop in participation (non-promo participation). Again, the members began to complain. They missed how much fun they used to have in the group before it became overrun with promos. Calls to “Take Back Our Group” rang out loud and clear. Next thing you know, the admins decided it was time to start limiting promotions.

Seeing what was going on in the two groups that didn’t have promos limited, I decided to take a little tour of the numerous reader groups I belong to on Facebook but rarely enter and guess what I found. In the groups that didn’t limit promos, quite a few of them were having some form of the “too many promos” discussion.

I do not want any of you to be caught in the backlash that is coming. I know you have to promote, but readers are tiring from promos. They want interaction with authors without feeling bombarded by “buy my book,” “review my book,” “like my page,” “read my blog,” “listen to me on blog talk radio,” … and image after image after image of your cover.

Promotion is a necessity, but you must also be mindful of how your promotions are being received by the readers in the group. You know, the people you want to purchase and spread the word about your titles. Bad news spreads much faster than good news, and you do not want to be known as bad news.

So what to do, what to do? How do you promote in groups without becoming bad news.

  • When you join a group, read the guidelines and follow them. You’d think this was a given wouldn’t you? Unfortunately, it isn’t.
  • Look at the membership of the group and watch the group posts for a while. If the group is mostly authors, is this your target audience? Probably not. If the group feed has more promos than reader related posts, then if the readers haven’t pulled away yet, they probably will soon.
  • Know your genre and only join groups that fit your target audience. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard authors say, “My book is for all readers.” News flash, the majority of readers like certain genres and group together by those genres. Can you join a group with a focus on women’s fiction and find a few horror lovers in there. Of course you can, but why waste your time trying to find those few horror lovers or trying to convert the women’s fiction readers when you should be spending that time in a horror lover’s group?
  • When you join a group, actually join the group. I know we are all busy, so don’t join 100 groups. Instead join a few groups in your genre and actually participate in them. Get to know the readers and let them get to know you. Talk about more than yourself and your book(s). Join discussions and start them. That way when you release a title, the group members will be more willing to purchase your book and spread the word about it. You’ll get a lot more bang for your buck by joining a few groups you enjoy than doing drive by promos in numerous groups and you’ll save time.
    • Don’t fake the funk (SMILE). I’ve read in a few groups that readers do not like it when authors come in with “fake” participation questions. It’s really bad when the authors use programs such as Hootsuite to post the questions and promos in groups.
    • Though I write fiction, I’m realistic most of the time (SMILE). Even I have joined groups that I have no intention on participating in. When my new title is out, sometimes I do a promote by (that’s like a drive by shooting except you go from group to group and post your promo). This only takes a few minutes so you may get lucky and pick up a sell here and there. From speaking with readers in groups, they would rather an author do this than the fake participation questions and bombarding their groups with numerous promos.
    • When it’s time to promote your title in the groups you’ve been participating, show restraint and don’t be redundant. Don’t continually post the same promo over and over (especially on the same day). One day maybe post a blurb and purchase links to your title. Another day a review, Another day a blog appearance. Another day an excerpt… There is also no need to put down someone else’s book to promote yours.

So there you have it.  There’s no big secret. Now go join groups in your genre and have a good time.

Deatri King-Bey

As Featured On EzineArticles

If you found this post helpful, please use the Share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for?Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99(print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

 

Amazon KDP Select Experiment by Deatri King-Bey

DeatriMany have asked me why I haven’t hopped on the Kindle Select bandwagon. That’s because the majority of my titles have nice Nook sells and I want my books to be available to my supporters. Granted, I know you just pull your books off other vendors for 90 days (minimum), so be sure to take that into consideration. You can always go back to selling your books everywhere. Anywhooo, I just don’t find the program is good for me. I still received numerous questions about the program, so I decided to do a KDP Select Experiment so I can give you first-hand experience instead of just opinion.

For those of you who don’t know, if you enroll your eBook in the Amazon KDP Select program, you say that you will sell and give away your eBook on Amazon.com only. You give them complete exclusivity. You can’t even give the eBook away on your website. In exchange for your making your eBook exclusive to Amazon, you are allowed to give your book away for free for five days and your book is placed in Amazon’s library for its Prime Members. When a Prime Member borrows the eBook, you are paid a certain amount.

When KDP Select started, the units downloaded for free counted toward your sales ranking when the book went back to regular price. The result, traditionally published books were being knocked out of “Best Sellers” list left and right. They lost visibility, thus sells, so I knew the publishing industry wouldn’t let that last long. Publishers complained and now free downloads barely count towards paid download ranking. That’s not the end of the story. You can still make money using the Amazon KDP Select program.

I think the Amazon KDP Select program is especially great for authors who don’t have many sells outside of Amazon, have a series (I suggest putting the first book of the series), multiple books out or have older titles that aren’t selling as well anymore. I think the program can give LOTS of exposure and the possibility of numerous new readers.

Onto the experiment.

I have decided to place two titles on the KDP Select program. Neither of these titles have sold a copy on Barnes & Noble in over a month, so though I’m still uncomfortable about being exclusive to Amazon for 90 days, I’m going to suck it up and do it. I just need to remember that this will increase the visibility of these titles and that’s the whole point in making them available to the public.

Step One (May 28): I logged into Pubit and took my two titles (The Other Realm and Picture Perfect) off sell. I’ll admit, that hurt. It’s processing and I should probably wait until the process is over before enrolling into the KDP Select, but let’s see what happens. I also updated my webpage to take off the Nook direct buy links.

Step Two (May 28): I logged into KDP and contemplated if I truly wanted to have my two titles exclusive on one site for 90 days. I’m not happy about this, but it’s only 90 days—at least that’s what I keep telling myself. It’s not the 90 days that bothers me. It’s the exclusivity. I don’t like that for even a second. Get over it. I read through the FAQs, several times. I’m anal about this type of thing and you’d best believe I’ve spoken with authors who are in the program.  A few new items I learned from the FAQs:

  • KDP Select-enrolled titles are automatically renewed for another 90 days unless you opt not to automatically renew. So you know I will hop on over to the “Edit book details” page and uncheck the box next to “Automatically renew this book’s enrollment in KDP Select.”
  • You can un-publish your KDP Select-enrolled titles at any time during the term. So if it is really driving you crazy that your book is only available on Amazon, you can remove it from there also. BUT you still cannot sell it other places either for the 90 days. So your book will not be available anywhere until the 90 days is up.
  • If you get cold feet, you have 3 days to get out of the program. I think all contracts work like that, don’t they? You get a 72 hour cooling off period.

There’s a lot more information on the FAQs. Be sure to read them.

I enrolled my two titles into the KDP Select program.  I looked at my term date and have to leave my books exclusive until 25 August. If these two titles were the same genre, I wouldn’t have done them at the same time, but since one is fantasy and the other women’s fiction, the target audiences (though overlap at times) are different enough. Now I’m off to uncheck that auto-renew (into the program) feature. Okay, I’m back and didn’t see where to not automatically enroll. I still have three days to get out of this program, so maybe that option will appear after that time. I’ll be back.

I’m back (June 5). Did you miss me? I am now able to uncheck the auto-renew.

Step Three (May 28): I’m not in a hurry to select my free days.  I know that I will do the free reads promo in three sets. Two Wednesday/Thursday sets and one Thursday set. I choose to do it this way because I’ve been told numerous times that the free downloads increase your sales ranking. No one knows how much. So let’s see if how much of a bump my numbers get just before the weekend. I’ll do the free day promos three weeks in a row because I’m trying to get it over with. Yep. I said it. This is an experiment and I just don’t feel like spreading the five free days spread out and having to report on each one. So I’ll group them and report on each group. If you are serious about the KDP Select program, I think it would be best to spread your five free days out.

I’ll be on vacation the second half of June, so I reckon I’ll start my free day promos then. There’s also another reason I’m choosing June to do the free promos. The 4th of July is vacation time. Lots of summer reading will be going on so this is a good time to have my books out there. Here are the dates I’ll schedule the free days for:

  • June 13, 14
  • June 20, 21
  • June 28 (FYI: I ended up cancelling this date for both)

Originally when the KDP select program started, it was said that the free downloads would count toward your rankings, but from what I’ve seen, that doesn’t seem to be true. I’ll let you know for sure at the conclusion of this experiment.

First I need to create a plan on how to promote my free days. My Facebook, Twitter, reading groups I belong to and mailing lists are givens, but there are other online avenues that promote free reads. I hear they are hit and miss. Let’s see what happens.

Here’s a tool that submits your promo information for your free days to various websites:

http://authormarketingclub.com/members/submit-your-book/

Step Four (May 28): My followers who wanted the titles I’ve entered into the KDP Select program have most likely already purchased them, so it’s time to maximize on the exposure and find new pockets of my target audience. Sounds like a great time to set up a blog tour. I only have the one fantasy book, which I entered in the KDP Select program, and in all honesty have neglected it. Thus I need to find places to be a guest blogger or be interviewed. I’d do my women’s fiction title also, but I just don’t have time to do it with all the other things I have going on in my life.

(June 4) I did some research into the sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal romance world and have sent blog appearance request to nineteen to appear on their blogs near the end of June. They’ve probably never heard of me before but oh well. Nothing beats a failure but a try.

(June 4) I’ve already heard from several of the authors I emailed this morning and have four guest posts lined up (fantasy) and one blog talk radio. Cool. I did receive an odd email from one of the authors. I’ve been in the business a long time, and I know some authors can be a tad bit snobbish, but such is life. One of the replies to my request was from an author who said something on the lines of, “I rarely allow guests authors on my website, and when I do, they are my peers.” Did that sound snooty to you? I’ve been turned down many times for interviews and such. It’s no big deal, but that seemed like the author’s nose was high in the air and stick stuck way up her behind. Authors, remember tone is important when responding to people. For one thing, you should always be polite because it’s the right thing to do, and also because you never know who you’re speaking with, especially online.

(June 13-14) I forgot all about my books being free until I checked my KDP stats this morning, which I do every morning. Only 6 a.m. and already a few hundred downloads for both books. Cool. My next step was to go onto Facebook and announce the free books in the reading groups I belong to and also on my author pages. By the way, I ended up with a seven spot blog tour for The Other Realm. Not bad, huh?

Next I’m off to see what locations ran my free tour. I know some places must have since I already have so many downloads and it’s early in the day.

I did a search on Twitter for “The Other Realm by Deatri” and BAM, @FreeEbooksDaily had indeed posted it. Thank you, Mom, for giving me an uncommon name. Next I searched for “Picture Perfect by Deatri” and BAM, @sylviahubbard1 had Tweeted it. It’s still early so I’ll check again later.

Next I moved onto Google and did a search of “The Other Realm by Deatri” and BAM, I saw both books on http://ereadernewstoday.com/free-kindle-books-17-free-books-for-6-13-12/6714313/

The Other Realm also made it to: http://www.facebook.com/kindledailydeal

Picture Perfect: Kindle Daily Deal

http://thekindledailydeal.com/bargain_preview.cfm?bargain_id=804

Wednesday 13 June I got 4262 downloads on Picture Perfect and 2536 downloads on The Other Realm.During the course of the day, The Other Realm ended at #4 on the free downloads for fantasy. Picture Perfect ended up #56 in free downloads overall.

(June 15) I was anxious to see what the ranking of the titles would be after the free promotion. I had been told that Amazon counts the free downloads towards your actual sales ranking. Not one for one, but they do help substantially. When I would ask for what substantially or a lot meant (I’m a numbers person. Those I understand), I could never get what they meant. Before this experiment started, both of my titles were over a million in the sells ranking. If you sell, one or two books, your ranking can go to around 150,000 range, so let’s see how “substantially” the free downloads worked on my rankings.

Picture Perfect finished with 8112 free downloads.

And the ranking this morning is: Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,829

 

The Other Realm finished with 3984 free downloads

And the ranking this morning is Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #364,856

Let’s put this into perspective. The Picture Perfect ranking is okay. It would translate to I’d sold a few books in the past couple of days. The Other Realm ranking looks as if I sold a book or two a few days ago.

This is very good information to know because I’ve read and been told numerous times by those in the program to run your free days Thursdays so your rankings will be higher come Friday when people purchase.  Keep it in perspective folks. From speaking with others who have participated in this program, and looking at the ranking on Amazon, I did extremely well on the download volumes. So well that Picture Perfect was the 56th most downloaded book of ALL of Amazon’s free titles, and though The Other Realm didn’t break the top 100 list for most downloaded free books on Amazon, it did get to 106 of the thousands of free books offered on Amazon. So you’d need a heck of a lot of free downloads to really increase your sales rank. Side note: Here is an excellent article about Amazon Sales Ranking. Please note that the ratio of Frees that count toward your sales ranking is not 10 to 1. It’s not even 1000 to 1.  Meaning for every 1000 free downloads that would count as 1 sell in the rankings.

You may now be thinking, what’s the point in giving away 12,000 books. Exposure. If even 10% of these people read the books, that’s up to 1200 people who have been exposed to my work who had probably never heard of me or considered reading my work. Hopefully, they will enjoy the titles and go back to purchase more. This is why the KDP Select program works better for people with a few titles released and those with a series (I suggest putting the first installment of the series in the program).

But more importantly, and an item I haven’t seen discussed in any of the articles I’ve read about the KDP Select program, is the Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought element of product pages. Over the years, I’ve had readers contact me who said they’d never heard of me but discovered my books through that Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought.

Picture Perfect had a total of 8112 downloads. That means 8112 Amazon customers’ book purchases are now linked to Picture Perfect. So on some of the product pages of books they have purchase, Picture Perfect will show in the Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought section. That is a heck of a lot of free advertising and a major strength of this program that I believe many overlook. I believe the Customers Who Bought section is one of the main strengths of the KDP Select program.

I need to write a few articles and submit the interviews for the mini blog tour I set up for The Other Realm. I’ve been neglecting this poor little title so long. Shame on me. Optimally, I would have set up a tour for Picture Perfect also during my free promo period, but I have a new romance coming out next month and will be touring then so just don’t have the time to promote both of these titles as I should. Be sure to always take into consideration your time constraints.

By the way, when I announced the free days in social media groups I belong to, I asked people to like the product page. People rarely hit that like button on anyone’s page, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. I ended up with 20 additional likes on both pages.

(June 16) I’ve had a few sells of both titles which I shall credit to the KDP Select program since I hadn’t had sells for these titles in over a month. FYI: It looks like borrows count as sells in the ranking.

As of this morning:

Picture Perfect (Women’s Fiction) –  3 sells and 1 borrow, Amazon ranking: #33,650

The Other Realm (Fantasy Romance) – 3 sells, 3 borrows, Amazon ranking: #39, 586

(June 17) I haven’t been promoting either title but still received a few sells. Since the sales rankings for the books aren’t high enough to be placed on any list, I think the sells stem from the Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought section of the product page of Amazon.

Picture Perfect (Women’s Fiction) –  5 sells and 2 borrows, Amazon ranking: #36,365

The Other Realm (Fantasy Romance) – 7 sells, 4 borrows, Amazon ranking: #29,650

I’m curious how people find out a title is available to borrow unless they happen upon it while browsing Amazon. I’ll have to ask someone in the program I guess.

(June 18)

Picture Perfect 7 sells, 3 borrows Amazon ranking: #33,041,

The Other Realm 8 sells, 4 borrows, Amazon ranking:  #43,921

Don’t worry, I’m done giving the daily report. I think the borrows and sells will go down between free days because I’m not promoting the books. I suggest you promote the books for additional sells so you’ll, hopefully, get on some of the best seller list on Amazon to be more visible

June 19 Evening

The Other Realm #109,392 Paid in Kindle Store

Picture Perfect # #65,904 Paid in Kindle Store

August: Okay, I think you get the picture of how the KDP Select program works. The virtual tour of The Other Realm that I went on started near the end of June and went nicely, but by the time I’d started the tour, the bump in ranking I’d had was gone. So take that into consideration when you schedule your free days.

In conclusion, I think the KDP Select program is a good marketing option to boost your sells of older titles. If you have a new title, I do not suggest you place it into this program. FIRST, get the majority of the sells from the eBook, then enter the program so those who are downloading it for free wouldn’t have bought it anyway. You want to use this program to gain new readers, which is also why you want to have more than one eBook out (preferably in the same genre) when you enter this program.

Has this experience changed me into a KDP Select person. Nope. Don’t get me wrong. The titles I entered have received at least 20 sells each since I ran those free days and it is a way to get your work out there to people who may not know about your books. Once readers begin reading those free downloads, I’m sure many will come back for more. This program just not for me, that doesn’t mean it’s not just right for you.

Deatri King-Bey

If you found this post helpful, please use the Share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for? Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99 (print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

BLING! Can You Pimp My Website by Deatri King-Bey

DeatriA few days ago, an author friend of mine asked if I could help pimp his website. The reasoning—little to no traffic because it was boring and in major need of jazzing up. He found a really snazzy looking template he wanted to use and needed guidance.

In one of my other lives (yes, I have several), I’m a web coordinator for the second largest employer in my state. I maintain high traffic websites, and I know a little about web optimization and all that techy web-stuff. I also maintain several websites of my own and have built websites for others. Enough about me, let’s get back to adding BLING to his website.

I had to be honest with my friend. What good would I be if I weren’t honest, right? Before he went through all of this work and shelled out dollars that could be used elsewhere, I had to ensure he understood the true reason why his website had little traffic—stale content.

He had his website/blog up for two years and maybe did three posts in all that time. And those posts looked more like Tweets than posts. When he had a new title come out, he’d place the new cover up, but beyond that, nodda-dang-thang.

I pointed out that my personal websites are nowhere near jazzed up, but are simple sites that have ever changing content that users return to see. Don’t believe me, here are a few of my websites:

I asked him how many websites he visited to see the bling on the site as opposed to the content. He couldn’t name one. Does this mean your website needs to be as simple as my websites? Of course not. I just want you to keep in mind that content is more important than BLING!

Back to the template my friend had chosen (a template is a premade design for websites you can customize for your needs).  The template was nice, but the service provider also had lots of bells and whistles he could add to the site. Bells and whistles are a good thing, when used in moderation. You don’t want to add so much “stuff” to your website that it distracts from the most important part—your ever changing content that keeps your readers coming back for more between your releases and for new releases. My friend had music, things flying across the screen, videos, pop ups, animations… I couldn’t even find the purchase links to his books. YIKES!

What to do, what to do? Before you pimp out your website, make sure you have your content ready. Below are not “pages” but types of content.

  • Author Information – Who are you—the author? Tell something interesting about yourself.  OK, so come of us are more interesting than others. What do you write? What is your writing known for? If you are writing non-fiction, what makes you qualified to write whatever it is you write? What are your literary accomplishments… I know a few authors who write under a pseudonym, and their About page is completely made up. I have a few pseudonyms, and I don’t do an About page for those.
  • Contact – How will your readers reach you, and how will you stay in contact with your readers? Will you use some sort of contact form for your readers to email you? Will you have readers subscribe to a mailing list using the services such as Mail Chimp or Constant Contact. If you have a blog, will your user be able to sign up for the blog? Don’t forget about social media. Make it easy for your reader to link to your Twitter, Facebook and other social media.
  • Purchase – How will your readers purchase your books? Where will you have links to purchase your books?  On every page, a dedicated page… Note: Make it easy for readers to find your purchase links.
  • Showcase – Will you have a page to showcase all of your titles? How will you organize this page? Will you have book blurbs, covers, videos, purchase links, reviews…
  • Repeat Offenders!—What will you do to keep your readers coming back for more? This is extremely important. You must keep the content on your website fresh. Most of us do not have a new book come out every month, so how do you keep your readers coming back for more between books? Are you going to have feeds to your Twitter, Facebook and or other social media? Will you be running contest? Are you going to blog? Will you have guest interviews or posts? Keep your content fresh if you want people to return.

Once you get your content together, figure out how you will organize it on the site and a way to continually draw readers to your site, you may now add the bling. There is nothing wrong with the bling, but don’t ever allow it to overshadow your content.

So did I pimp my friend’s website? Nah, once he stepped back and put things into perspective, he reorganized his website and added enough bells and whistles to jazz it up without turning it into a circus.

Here are a few other quick things about websites I’d like to touch on before I end this piece.

  • Try out several free website service providers such as Weebly, Wix, WordPress.org, WordPress.com, Blogger and Tumblr and see which one you are most comfortable using. Be careful, not all providers have full functionality on all internet platforms. Meaning, some people use browsers other than Internet Explorer. You want to read a wide audience.
  • Once you decide on who will host your website, purchase your domain name. Do not stick with the free one because it usually requires you having the companies name in the URL (web address). This is your business. Do not have someone else’s name in your business’s URL address.
  • Utilize the statistics functionality of your website. Keep track of where your traffic comes from and what links within your site are being clicked and when, then adjust accordingly.

Whew, I think that’s enough for now. Now go pimp your website.

Deatri King-Bey

If you found this post helpful, please use the Share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for? Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99 (print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

Seven Deadly Sins of Self-Publishing

DeatriThe publishing industry is a dangerous place. I read an article the other day that stated the overwhelming majority of self-published authors don’t even sell 500 copies of their titles. Scary huh? What can authors do not to be in that number? I have my opinions on the subject, but called in additional experts (self-published authors) to give their two cents on what self-published authors’ worst enemy is. I received lots of great responses that pretty much fell into the below deadly sins.

Arrogance ­– There are authors out there who have done decent to quite well selling books and get to smelling themselves (as my grandmother would say). What these authors see as confidence, others often perceive as a funky and/or dismissive attitude. As my good friend author J’son M. Lee would say, “It’s best to keep it humble.”

Distribution Issues –  Unfortunately, many authors do not know or understand what their different distribution options are. This goes deeper than just who is shipping your book where (electronic and print). Many also do not understand how ISBNs work and why your publishing company should own its ISBNs. Yes, it takes research. Start with Bowker, the only official source of ISBNs in the United States, and learn everything you can about ISBNs. Don’t be afraid to contact their support if need be.

Know exactly what your distributor can and can’t do for you. Will they offer marketing of your title to regional book sellers and libraries? Will your print titles be returnable? What seller and warehouse catalogues will your title(s) be listed in? Are they print on demand? What is print on demand? Are they taking a percentage of each sell…?

Speak with authors who have distributed in different ways and ask what worked and didn’t work for them. Research, research, research then make informed decisions. It’s okay if you change your mind later on in the game. You may do it this way for now and another way later, but at least you truly know what you’re doing.

Doubt – This one came up a lot. Not only self-doubt, but the doubt of others in us that we’ll make it. Fear of failure and of disappointing our loved ones has stopped many from reaching for their dreams. There is no easy way to say this, so I’ll just put it out there. If you do not try, you have failed yourself. The desire for this dream is in you for a reason. Nurture it by writing, learning the craft and business and doing your best to see your dream to fruition.

Gullibility – It breaks my heart every time I hear an author has been taken advantage of by a supposed editor, publisher, distributor, book seller, cover artist… The list goes on and on, including fellow authors. I have been in the business for over a decade, but don’t listen to every word I say. Do your own research. Same goes of other experienced authors, industry insiders and those who are supposedly in the know. There are a lot of good people out there who truly want to help you, but there are also a lot of cons who do not want you to succeed for whatever reason or who want to take advantage of your dream. Be careful.

Instant Gratification – There are self-published authors who want their book out there now, now, now. They don’t want to wait until they have enough money to properly produce their books. Many don’t want to take the time to have their book properly produced. Many don’t want to invest time in learning the craft and business. Many don’t want to invest time in creating and implementing marketing plans. Many don’t want to invest in the time it takes to have reviews (from legitimate review teams and publications) before their book is released. Many don’t want to invest the time in truly building a relationship with their base. Many won’t even decide who their base is… It goes on and on.

Laziness – There are authors who just want to write the book. Forget about the research that goes into writing their book(s) or learning the craft or business. Money is tight so everyone is trying to save costs, but some authors are so lazy that they won’t even learn how to properly format their book (which is easily found online).

Poor to No Planning – You’ve written this book, now what? Many have not set aside production and marketing budges or created a marketing plan. They haven’t been nurturing their relationship with readers and networking. They haven’t pinpointed how to connect with their target audience or even know where or what their target audience is… Publishing is a business. For a better chance at success, it pays to have plans for your business and each product you release.

There you have it. The Seven Deadly Sins of self-publishing, but as I went through them, I think some of them carry over to traditionally-published authors also. Be careful out there. The publishing world is dangerous!

Deatri King-Bey

As Featured On EzineArticles

If you found this post helpful, please use the Share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for? Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99 (print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

Book Distribution—The Necessary Evil

DeatriHaving your book professionally edited isn’t the only necessary evil you must deal with in your journey to becoming a successful author. Don’t forget your book’s distribution. This article will focus on print distribution.

You’ve written what you know will be a best seller and done all of the other production legwork, and now you’re holding a copy of your finished print book in your hand. Yes, there are still billions of dollars in sales per year for print titles and you want your chunk of it. But how do you get your title to the point of sell? Oh no, you skipped an important step–distribution. In order to talk distribution, we need to talk printing also.

Print On Demand (POD) Printing

POD Printing is used for small print runs. Publishers have been using this technology for over a decade for Advance Review Copies and when they want to do small print runs. Using this method is more expensive per book than using offset printing (which is used for large print runs), but you don’t have to pay the storage and insurance fees you do for large print runs or risk having large amounts of books, that you’ve paid for, taking up space (space is money) if they don’t sell.

Self-Distribution

Many printing companies offer POD Printing services. Create Space and Lightning Source are two popular ones, but there are also companies that do offset printing (large print runs) such as Bang Printing that offer POD Printing. In self-distribution, you’d have the company print however many books and send them to you to sell from your home, website, storefront and so on. You’d make contact with book sellers for your book’s inclusion in their catalogues. You’d submit your book to wholesalers such as Baker and Taylor and Ingram (at least six months before your book’s release). You’d do it all. If you go this route, be careful of signing consignment agreements with book sellers. In consignment agreements, the author sends the seller an agreed number of books. The book seller then sells the books and is supposed to give the author his/her agreed upon royalty for those sells, and the books that don’t sell are supposed to be returned to the author. Unfortunately, numerous authors have been ripped off by signing consignment agreements. Many do not receive their pay or return of their books. Be sure to speak with other authors who have had their titles with the seller and do your research before you sign anything and/or ship your books.

POD Distribution/Publishing

With POD Distribution, you work with a POD company such as Create Space or Lightning Source for the printing and distribution of your title. The company utilizes POD printing combined with its distribution channels to have your title listed in book sellers’ catalogues (for example Baker & Taylor, Ingram, Barnes & Noble). When a customer orders your title online or from the physical store, a copy of your book is printed and shipped to the customer or seller, depending on the arrangement between the POD company and the seller. Once the sell is complete, you will receive a royalty on that sell.

Many authors (and some publishing houses) use POD distribution/publishing because of the low upfront cost, but there is a major downside that you must understand. Numerous book sellers will not carry your title in their establishment because if the copies do not sell, the book seller can not return them (which is common practice in the industry for unsold books).  It does not matter that your title is listed in Baker and Taylor or Ingram, they still will not be returnable when working through most POD distributors/publishing.

Some POD publishers, such as Lightning Source, have an arrangement with the wholesalers such as Baker & Taylor to allow returns. The author, of course, pays the POD company additional fees for this. The great thing about this is more stores will be willing to stock your title on their shelves. The downside is, outside of being listed in catalogs and websites, there is little to no additional marketing from the POD publisher and distributor. It’s up to the author to make those connections.

Traditional Distributor

A distributor stores your print run, markets your titles to the booksellers (chains) and works to ensure your title will be on as many store shelves as possible. This is the main type of distribution traditional publishers use and is very costly, which is why many self-published authors do not go this route.

Having a marketing team promote your books to major book sellers and your title being returnable is HUGE. Granted, you’ll still need to market your title to get readers to the bookstore (online and physical) to buy your title, but at least it will be on the shelves.

Not all traditional distributors are created equal. Some of the smaller ones do not market your book to book sellers. If they aren’t going to market your book to the major chains and book sellers, I suggest you go a different route.

Final Words 

It’s important that you know your options where distribution is concerned so you can make informed choices. The publishing industry is ever changing and so are the roles of distributors. Do your research and know what you are getting into.

Deatri King-Bey

As Featured On EzineArticles

If you found this post helpful, please use the share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for? Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99 (print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

Unplug and Write

DeatriA few weeks ago, I was speaking with a fellow author about writer’s block. She said she didn’t know what was wrong. For some reasons the stories weren’t coming to her like they used to. “Writer’s Block,” she claimed, but that didn’t sound right to me. The stories were coming to her as always. She had concepts and would go on and on about plots, but when it came to sitting at the keyboard and bringing the characters to life—nothing. Or even worse, the writing felt flat. It was time for a major shake-up. I couldn’t allow my girl to go out like that.

Did you know that writing by hand, speaking into a recording device and typing into a word processor each tap into your brain differently? It’s faster to type your manuscript than having to transcribe something that is handwritten or recorded, so that is the method many of us use. My author friend lived and planned on dying by the word processor. When I suggested tapping into her creativity using handwritten or oral methods, she said she didn’t have all of that time.

I told her to indulge me. Turn off the computer—which she hadn’t been able to do much more than surf the Internet on when she was supposed to be writing—pick up the writing utensil of her choice and start writing the book she’d told me about during our walks.

She came over to “visit” me, but I will go to my grave saying she actually came over to “torture” me while we both wrote using pen and paper. This was also an exercise for me, because I hadn’t written this way in years. I’ll give you one guess what happened? It started out rocky and she worked my last nerve, but within an hour, we were both writing demons. After we typed out what we’d done, we critiqued each other’s work and her writing had that umph again. Don’t get me wrong, her books were still good but they were missing some of the zeal of the past. And yes, I’ll tell on myself. She said the same types of things about my writing.

I wrote so much faster this way that I believe I still came out ahead time wise by writing by hand then typing it into the word processor. This got me to thinking—WHY? Why was my writing freer? I also recorded a few scenes as I took my walk, and they also flowed easily. I have no scientific evidence to support what I’m about to say, but in addition to tapping into a different portion of my brain for creativity, using a pen and paper unplugged me from two huge distractions.

Distractions:

  • Easy access to the Internet is a HUGE distraction. Be honest, how much of your writing time do you spend surfing the net, on social media, checking emails…  If you must write using your computer, be sure to turn off your Internet connection. Granted, it is easy to turn log back on, but resist the urge. And don’t make excuses like I need to check the dictionary or look something up. You may need to, but instead make a list of items then set aside time to do that research. Every time you stop writing to do whatever, you interfere with the flow of the work and it’s hard to get into a good rhythm.
  • Spelling/grammar check and your internal editor. I know you are thinking I’m crazy, but I noticed this the other week when I was writing a scene. As I’m typing, if I make a mistake, I go back and fix it right then and there. This messes up your flow.

Though life itself can be quite a distraction, at least I wouldn’t have either of these distractions when I write by hand or record scenes. I don’t worry about spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax… I just write. I’m free. Then when I transcribe the scenes using the word processor, I massage them a little, and I’m good to go.

I know we are in the electronic age and many of you are thinking there is no way you will take the time to handwrite or record then transcribe but I want you to give it a try. In the long run, you may save time and release new parts of your creativity.

Deatri King-Bey

If you found this article helpful, please use the share buttons to spread the word.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Deatri will be conducting a FREE Character Development workshop for people who are signed up for my monthly newsletter. Workshop: Character Cake Cost: Free Date: Apr, 28 2012 Time: 4-5 p.m. Central Location: Become A Successful Author Website (link and password will be given the day before the event)

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for? Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99 (print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

Who’s Telling This Story—Point of View

DeatriI remember the first novel I wrote. I had been an avid reader for years and just knew the book I wrote would take historical romance to a whole new level. After I completed the novel, I sent it to the person who would become my biggest fan—my mom—for her opinion. Now don’t laugh, I know you are thinking you NEVER send your manuscript to family and friends if you want an honest critique, but I was new to the game, didn’t know anyone and my mom, who happens to be an avid reader, will tell me if something I do sucks. She’ll just say it in a nice way. So she read the book and said the plot was very good and so was the setting, but there was something wrong with the flow that she couldn’t pinpoint. This would be my first lesson in the difference between a great storyteller and a writer. I needed to learn the craft so my stories would translate to written word without driving my readers crazy.

I’ve been reading a lot of self-published books lately and have come across some great storytellers, but something is wrong with the flow of some of these works. These authors are having the same issue I had with my first novel—they have no concept of point of view outside of first, second and third person.

Allow me to apologize now. Point of view (POV) is not an exciting subject, but it is a concept you MUST master. Point of view can become complicated, and there are many “correct” and “incorrect” ways to utilize its concepts, so I’ll give you the basics.

The part of POV that most authors understand is first, second, or third person. This aspect of POV is used in the narrative between the dialogue. Most authors stick with first or third person throughout the manuscript. I have never read a manuscript that uses both, but I’m told they are out there.

  • First Person speaks from the I perspective. First person is as close to the narrator that you can get because the narrator is the one telling the story—I couldn’t believe his dog was loose again.
  • Second Person speaks from the you perspective. I like to call this the “author intrusion” point of view because the narrator is speaking directly to you—You know how it angers you when people allow their dogs to run the streets. Second person is often used in business and nonfiction writing. I’m using it right now in hopes you feel you  are being spoken to directly. I’m about to act like second person doesn’t exists in fiction. It does and I want you to be aware of it, but I’ll spend my word count on the two POVs you’ll use most, first and third.
  • Third person speaks from the he/she perspective. Third person gives you distance between the narrator and the characters. In third person the narrator can possess characters and tell you what they think, sense, feel…—He couldn’t believe that jerk let his dog out of the yard again.

Whew, that was easy, wasn’t it? Now comes the aspect of POV many new to the game don’t know about. The perspective character(s). Who is telling this scene, this chapter, this story? There are a few ways to portray perspective in your story, but we will stick with the main two used in fiction—limited and unlimited.

Limited POV

In limited POV, the narrator tells the story from the perspective of one of the characters of a scene, chapter or the entire novel. This character is known as the perspective character. The narrator may be the perspective character, thus will use first person (I) during the narration, or the narrator may possess the perspective character, thus will use third person (he/she) in the narration.

As the narrator for the perspective character, you know everything the perspective character knows, thinks, hears, sees… Sounds easy enough, huh? Let’s say your perspective character—Jane in this case— is looking out the window watching the sun set and someone walks into the room. Jane hasn’t had a visitor in years and didn’t expect to have visitors anytime soon. What can you tell us about the person who came into the room? Remember, Jane is facing the window. I’m serious. Take a few seconds to answer before you continue reading.

Lately, I’ve come across several books that have the perspective character narrating things they shouldn’t be able to. It’s like they have eyes behind their head and read minds. In limited POV, if the perspective character can’t see it, taste it, hear it, feel it, think it, know it… then you can’t narrate it. Let’s put Jane back at the window. Dick could walk into the room, but since Jane’s back is turned to the door, she can’t see who came in. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read a book that was supposed to be in limited POV tell me what was happening behind a the perspective character’s back or even in a different location all together. For example if Jane were on the phone, the narrator then says what is happening on Dick’s end of the line. When Jane’s back is to the door, don’t say: Dick walked into the room. Use senses that Jane can actually use and the narrator can tap into.

Jane can hear footsteps approach. Does she recognize whose steps they are? Is this person so quiet she doesn’t hear them approach, but smells their cologne? Does the person come into the room and clear his throat?

Let me give another example of this type of POV slip (error). Let’s say Jane (who is still our perspective character) is looking out the window, and she knows Dick is sitting on the couch waiting for her reply on something. As the narrator, can I say: Dick drew his gun a pointed it at Jane’s back? Not if you want to do limited POV correctly. Instead, you can have Jane see him draw the gun in the reflection of the window. Or if he fires the shot, she can hear the bang and feel searing pain rip through her back.

Let’s try this again. Our perspective character, Jane, is at the window and hears someone approach. She’s shocked because she hasn’t had visitors in years, and she’s startled because who would walk into her home uninvited. She spins around and sees Dick. What can you tell us about Dick? Go ahead answer.

Outside of their history, information Jane knows about him and his physical appearance, nothing that I can think of at this time (Yeah, I put that qualifier in there. SMILE). I’ve come upon several books that were supposed to be written in limited POV that tell me what characters other than my perspective character are thinking. For example, Jane turns and sees Dick. Dick hadn’t seen Jane in years and still held animosity toward her. Does Jane read minds? How would she know this? Jane can look at his stance, his facial features and can try to read his emotions and say what she THINKS is on his mind, but she can’t tell us what is actually going through his mind.

To explain perspective character further, I’ll move Jane and Dick to the kitchen for coffee and to catch up with each other. Jane is still our perspective character. She pours coffee into each of their cups. Dick picks up his cup. What can you tell us about Dick’s perseption of the coffee? Can I say: Dick picked up the mug, and it burned him? (I hope you wouldn’t say this anyway because it’s telling and not showing, but that’s a different exercise.) Yes, you can say it, but it would be a slip in POV, an error. SMILE. Jane is the perspective character and can not feel for Dick. She can interpret his reactions to picking up the coffee. He may jerk his hand back. He may turn up his nose to the smell…

Time to pick on Jane one more gin (as my grandmother would say).This time we’ll touch on something controversial where point of view is concerned. Jane is our perspective character. What can you tell us about her physical features. For example, could I say, Jane combed her long, dark hair. Or if writing in first person could I say: I combed my long, dark hair.

This is where the controversy comes in and is difficult to articulate. Many editors believe perspective characters should not describe their physical features because you write the narration as if you are the character (first person) or you have possessed that character (third person), and when you comb your hair you wouldn’t think of your hair as long and dark. Or if you were tall, you wouldn’t think I’m six foot three. Instead, you should sneak in these elements. For example: Jane stared at her reflection in the mirror and drew her fingers through her long, dark hair, thinking it was time for a dye job and cut. See the difference? There is a reason she’d take note of her hair.

Personally, I think you should try not to have your perspective character describe themselves. Figure out ways to sneak in their physical characteristics.

Unlimited POV

In unlimited POV, you can have more than one perspective character per scene, chapter and/or novel. Unlimited POV is more difficult to master than limited POV, but the form most new authors attempt to write in. When writing in unlimited point of view, you’re not limited to Dick or Jane’s perspective. You can tell everything from both of their perspectives. Well, that’s not quite true.

To move from one character’s perspective to another is called a shift in perspective. If you continually shift from one character to another and back and forth and every which way, this is called head hopping. That was the problem with my first book. I was telling all of the characters’ thoughts and just about every action in every room, even if the characters were in different rooms speaking to each other. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the  picture. I see this a lot in self-published books.

So how many characters’ perspectives can you display in unlimited POV during a scene, chapter or novel? There is no magic number, which is why this perspective is so difficult to master. It’s not cut and dry. I think of it like this, each time you shift perspective, the flow of the novel is shaken. If you have too many “shakes” close to each other, you’ll give your novel “shaken novel syndrome.” Do not shake your baby (novel).

Many traditionally-published romance novels are written using unlimited POV. When the author shifts from one perspective to another, it’s a smooth transition. For example a sex scene may start out from the male’s perspective, then shift to the female’s perspective. I wish I could tell you exactly when, where and how many times is acceptable to shift, but I don’t have those answers. I can give you a few pointers when writing in unlimited POV:

  • Read traditionally published books that are written in unlimited POV and study the authors’ techniques. I know traditionally published books are not perfect, but like it or not, their overall quality is higher than self-published books and when learning, it’s best to go to the best available.
  • Decide what POV you will be writing in and stick to it. For example, if you’ve been able to write the first three chapters of your manuscript using limited POV, don’t write in unlimited POV for chapter four, then go back to writing in limited POV. And yes, I have seen this happen in a few books.
    • There are exceptions to this. Limited and Unlimited have different feels to them. So let’s say you are writing a fantasy where there are two realms that are completely different. To further display these differences, when your characters are in one realm, you may use unlimited POV, when in another you may use limited POV. Wait until you fully understand both forms before mixing and matching. Let’s say you are doing a murder mystery. You may do the scenes from the murder’s perspective in limited POV and scenes from the investigative team in unlimited.
  • Set the tone for which POV you are using early in the novel. I read a novel the other week that was in unlimited POV for the first two chapters, then switched to limited for the rest of the novel. This was a mistake. I was like, why didn’t the author just go back and rewrite the first two chapters in limited?
  • Don’t take unlimited literally. No head hopping. Switch perspective characters only when needed.  There is RARELY an occasion where you MUST tell only one or two lines from someone else’s perspective. I’m serious. I’ll be reading a chapter that has been in limited POV the entire time, then switch to unlimited for two lines to tell you what another character was thinking, then switch back. This is a POV slip (error).

Information Overload

I don’t want to overwhelm you, so I’ll stop here. I hope I was able to give you enough of a glimpse into POV to get you started. Now you have homework. In the future when you read novels, pay attention to the different aspects of POV.

I’ve read a few books that focus on point of view, and most of them gave me a headache. There is more than one way to execute point of view (did you catch the double entendre), so I say learn the basics and then expand your wings. If you come across helpful books or articles regarding point of view, please come back and list them in this thread for others.

Happy Writing,

Deatri King-Bey
As Featured On EzineArticles

If you found this post useful, please use the Share links to spread the word to other authors.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I’ll be conducting a FREE eBook formatting workshop for people who are signed up for my monthly newsletter. Topic: eBook Formatting Basics for Fiction Titles Cost: Free Date: March, 24, 2012 Time: 3-4 p.m. Central Location: Become A Successful Author Website (link and password will be given the day before the event)

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for? Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author (eBook) for only $4.99 from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble  or print copies for only $7.99 by using the Contact page of this website and tell Dee know how many copies you’d like and shipping address. She’ll email the ordering information. Or you can purchase the print version from any book store for $9.99.

Readers Speak Out: Authors’ Online Marketing Techniques

DeatriThough I’m an author, I always try to view my actions in social media type groups from the perspective of a reader. To ensure I’m not allowing my author status to taint my view, I often ask readers for their opinion/habits on items. Last month I took it to the people (readers) and asked several questions I believe authors need to hear the answers to. My sample came from reading groups of romance, multicultural-romance, urban lit, chick lit, sci-fi, fantasy, mainstream fiction and general reading groups from social media sites such as Yahoo groups, Facebook, MySpace, Kindleboards…

Instead of placing all of the replies in this post, I will give you the strong themes I saw repeated in the replies of each question. I also asked if the respondents were authors and/or aspiring authors and threw out those responses if they were.

I started off easy:  For those of you who own an iPad, where do you purchase the majority of your eBooks?

  • Only 32 people answered this question. All of them said Amazon and quite a few purchase their eBooks from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Only two said they also purchase from the iBookstore.

Next came the tough questions:

What behaviors in groups (ie: Yahoo groups, Facebook) do authors have that turn you off from purchasing their book(s).  There were two common themes that just about all of the respondents had. I’ve picked two reader responses that capture the essence of the 200+ replies. (Note: I have done a little proofing of the replies and edited out group names.)

  • Turn-offs for me are when authors constantly post a link to their books saying “Buy my book” and pressure me to buy their books if I haven’t purchased them yet. So I’m supposed to buy your book because you’ve flooded my group with your cover and buy link? How about announcing your book once, then posting something more interesting like an interview or a review at later dates? I stress “a review” because I get tired of authors coming in with every review they get, and I also get tired of authors begging for reviews. I’ve had to leave many groups because they’ve been taken over by author promotions.
  • When authors network with your group “until” you purchase their book, and then afterwards they hardly have time to even say “hello.”

Here are additional strong sentiments from readers I polled. Again, I’ll pick a few of the responses that capture the essence of the reader’s feelings:

  • I hate it when an author adds me to groups and their email lists without my permission. I hate, hate, hate, hate this! Did I say I hate this?
  • Things that turn me off from purchasing an author’s book is when you are a fan of that particular author and you give them a compliment or a shout out on a book they’ve written. You take the time to buy the book, read it, rate it and express to them how much you love their work, and they basically ignore you. I’m not saying they need to bend over backwards or anything or you should be some kind of stalker, but just an expression of gratitude that someone is actually paying their money to support you in your endeavors to spin your craft would be nice.
  • Authors who have absolutely no clue what the group is about. I belong to a Nook reading group. We all own Nooks and Nook is in the name of the group. So why do authors post Amazon links to Kindle books that aren’t available on Nook? Because the authors don’t care, they just push their books.
  • Drive by promoters. Authors who ask to be my friend, then instead of even asking how my day was, they start posting “like my page,” or “buy my book,” all over my feed. I also don’t like it when authors join groups and the first thing I see from them is “buy my book.” That’s all they have to say. How about joining the conversation? How about getting to know us and letting us get to know you?
  • I’m in a group where I swear every comment this particular author has goes back to her book. I’m serious, it’s like every email is somehow related to her book.
  • I gave an author a negative review because I didn’t like her book. She was in one of the groups I belong to complaining about my review and how she’d gotten 25 great reviews and mine was the only negative one, so I must not know what I’m talking about. I don’t think she realized I was in the group and the one who wrote the review. I was so angry. A few others jumped into the conversation, but I remained quiet and decided not to purchase this author’s books again. I would have given the author a second chance, but not after this.

What motivates you to click an author’s purchase link? (Note: I only received around 50 responses to this question.) Here are two responses that capture the essence of the responses.

  • I’ve belonged to a group on Yahoo for three years now, and there are certain authors who actually participate in conversations, give and take. It’s about more than their book. I usually buy these authors’ books.
  • What motivates me to buy an author’s book is feedback, reviews, reading the synopsis and reading the samples. Also if they’re a new author overall promotion (friendly in groups) will help in making me more willing to give them a try.

Let’s say you read a novel. Now what about the novel makes you not want to read another book by this author?

  • Over 100 answered this and almost all of them said poor editing. I’m an editor so followed up with many of the respondents and asked what they meant by editing. The majority of them said the manuscript needed to be proof read. Many of them said the plots had holes or inconsistencies and such.
  • There were a few responses such as the back cover blurb didn’t match the book, but otherwise, the readers said they just didn’t like the author’s style.

What do you think about free and $ 0.99 eBooks? I received mixed reviews on this question. Of the 77 who answered, here are the replies that captured the main themes.

  • I like the cheap books to get to know an author. I find a lot of them are poorly edited. I’ve noticed a lot of free eBooks on Amazon lately that aren’t too bad. Much better than the $0.99 eBooks.
  • I will not purchase another $ 0.99 eBook or download a free eBook unless I know the author. I can’t stand another poorly edited book.

I’m sure none of the responses were a surprise, and this was by no means a scientific study, but many times we (authors) get so in the promote-promote-promote mode that we don’t realize we are turning off our readers. Learn from what’s been said by the readers.

Deatri King-Bey

Please help your fellow authors by sharing posts you find helpful.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for? Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author (eBook) for only $4.99 from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble  or print copies for only $7.99 by using the Contact page of this website and tell Dee know how many copies you’d like and shipping address. She’ll email the ordering information.

Make It Easy For Readers To Buy Your Book

DeatriMany authors believe they are making it easy for readers to purchase their books, when in reality, they aren’t.  When I’m on social media sites I often see promos from authors on the lines of “1-Click” for a great read and there’s a handy-dandy link to the Amazon product page. Great job.

This is where most authors stop. And I feel confident saying “most” because I belong to a lot of reader groups, and the overwhelming majority of authors only promote the Amazon product page link for their books. I was in that crew. Shame on me.

I’m also an avid reader who owns a Nook Color. When I see a book that I like, I get the pertinent information from the author’s promo (which usually leads to Amazon), then I hop my happy little electronic butt on to Barns & Noble and download the book onto my Nook if it is available. I never gave it a second thought. Not until one of my readers complained that my books weren’t available on Nook.

I was completely confused. My eBooks are on Kindle and Nook. This reader had been introduced to my writing through my print editions and now followed me on Facebook so saw my announcements when eBooks became available. After a short discussion, I learned that when she sees a link on social media for a book, if it is for a Kindle book, she moves on because she has a Nook. Hmmmm, this got me to thinking.

I conducted an experiment. The month of December when I promoted my eBooks, I gave the link for the Amazon and the Barnes & Noble product pages, and guess what? My Nook sells took off. I had been averaging $30 a month in Nook sells. My December sells were almost $300. Needless to say, I was floored. Now in all fairness, I place the majority of my titles on sale the month of December so the number of sells usually increases for that month, but I drop the price of the books $2-4 to $1.99 so I make a lot less per sell. Also, the previous December, I made $35.

Your title may be available from several sites. Find the audience for each of those sites and let them know your book is there. Make it easy for readers to buy your book.

Let’s talk about another trend I’ve been seeing that as a reader I find annoying. Authors who only have a Facebook, Twitter and/or some other social media account. As a reader, I do not want to have to play detective to purchase your book. I saw this really nice cover the other day on Facebook. I was like, “Okay, where’s the rest of the information, such as where to buy it.” I had extra time so went to the author’s Facebook page and again saw the cover splattered several times on this author’s wall. She must have placed her cover on several of her friends that we share. Anywhooo, still no information on how to buy this book. So instead of going to Barnes & Noble, I decided to read the author’s information tab in hopes she had a link to her website where I could view all of her books and maybe learn a little something about her. I get there and there was no website. Okay, soooooo, I head on over to Barnes & Noble, and the book isn’t there. Next I head onto Amazon and wha’la, the book was available in print.

Many newer authors are starting to use social media such as Facebook to replace having a website. In my opinion, this is a big, Big, BIG mistake. Your website is the showroom for your titles. From your webpage, I should be able to purchase your book, join your mailing list, learn a little something about you, follow your career… I have a friend who posts things to her Facebook page, then gets upset when people don’t know what she posted. Many people do not read though their newsfeed daily. Same concept applies to other social medial.

While we are on the subject of webpages, the concept of “make it easy for readers to buy your book” still applies. I visited a few authors’ websites over the past month and was amazed at how many times I was tempted to hire a detective to help find the purchase links. You don’t need to place a huge red button that says “Click Here To Buy My Books,” but don’t hide the links. If possible, have a purchase or access to the purchase links on every page of your site.

In the end, remember, make it easy for readers to buy your book.

Deatri King-Bey

Please help your fellow authors by sharing posts you find helpful.

 

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for? Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author (eBook) for only $4.99 from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble  or print copies for only $7.99 by using the Contact page of this website and tell Dee know how many copies you’d like and shipping address. She’ll email the ordering information.