The Journey of an Indie Author and Free KDP Marketing

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Regina Jeffers

This article comes for David Biddle and A Knife and A Quill. Please visit http://aknifeandaquill.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/the-challenge-with-free-kdp-select-and-selling-books/ for the complete article. It’s well worth reading if you are thinking of offering your book as part of a “free” campaign.

 I recently ran a Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) free day campaign for my novel, Beyond the Will of God. The kickoff was on a Friday, so it got listed here at A Knife and a Quill, in the WTFBF feature. I did some long legwork getting a number of indie websites to include my novel in their “free” listings. I also tweeted the crap out of my offering. And I bombed my FaceBook friends and Google+ buddies with information on these free days.

It all turned out better than I could have hoped for. My little novel was downloaded by over 10,000 ereaders in a three-day period of time. Before that, I’d made 62 e-book sales (at $2.99) and 13 paperback sales (at $15.99).

So, more than 10,000 people can now read my story. That’s incredible. I’m not letting myself think about the fact that I gave away over $30,000 worth of books. I know the value of having my book in the hands of 10,000 people. The idea of the KDP free days promo is to give your novel lift for a while on the Amazon lists and to make it likely that word-of-mouth about your book will pick up. According to Rex Jameson in his article “Preparing for Your KDP Select Free Days,” “It will take 2-5 days for paid sales to start rolling in after a free period.”

Well, we’ll see. I’ve been getting about 10 purchases a day for the past week – not huge, but consistent.

But I realized something pretty important by Sunday morning during my free run: people who download things for free are not the same as people who buy things for real money.

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What To Really Believe About The Ten Rules of Writing

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Regina Jeffers

This article comes from The Saturday Morning Post. To read the complete article and ALL the advice, please visit http://joeponepinto.com/2012/09/22/the-10-most-encouraging-and-the-10-scariest-of-the-10-rules-of-writing-from-28-writers/

The 10 Most Encouraging and the 10 Scariest of the 10 Rules of Writing from 28 Writers

POSTED BY  ⋅ SEPTEMBER 22, 2012 ⋅ 30 COMMENTS

Part 1, because otherwise this blog would be ridiculously long.

In my Internet travels this week I stumbled on an article published in The Guardian, in which 28 famous writers offered their “Ten Rules for Writing Fiction.” The rules are a couple of years old, and the writers mostly British, but some of their suggestions stopped me cold, because they call out some of my biggest writing fears.

Of course, with 28 writers, there’s bound to be overlap—at least a quarter of them suggested a “long walk” as a good way to clear one’s head or solve a plot problem. And there’s contradiction aplenty too. For example, got a piece you just can’t make work? Neil Gaiman says finish it; Helen Dunmore says throw it away. Maybe I don’t need to take these so seriously, but as I write this blog, some of the rules have me reconsidering what and how I write.

Among the 200-plus rules (not everyone offered ten), here were ten I found encouraging.

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Jane Austen and Healing Depression

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Regina Jeffers

This article comes from JoJo Moyes and The Telegraph. To read the complete article and several complementary ones, please visit http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7535768/The-healing-power-of-Jane-Austen.html

I can’t have been the only one taken aback to hear that the apparently cheerful and pragmatic Emma Thompson suffered severe depression after the break-up of her first marriage, and to such a debilitating extent that, in her own words, she “should have sought professional help”.

But her choice of self-medication drew a huge nod of recognition, in this house at least. For Thompson was “saved” not by Prozac, or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, but by immersing herself in Sense and Sensibility, the Jane Austen novel she turned into an Oscar-winning screenplay. “I used to crawl from the bedroom to the computer and just sit and write, and then I was all right, because I was not present,” the actress and screenwriter said. “Sense and Sensibility really saved me from going under, I think, in a very nasty way.”

Obviously meeting the very handsome Greg Wise, starring opposite him in said film, and then marrying him might have provided a little balm to the soul too, but as anyone who loves books knows, fiction – and Austen especially – is a great remedy for the steeper humps of the human condition. In fact, so effective is Austen’s facility for helping people overcome adversity that she has spawned a sub-genre: books like The Jane Austen Book Club – in which characters improve their lives and overcome heartbreak through reading … um …Austen.

Posted in Jane Austen, Regency era | 4 Comments

Writing About the “Senses”

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Regina Jeffers

This article comes from The Editor’s Blog: It’s All About the Words, and it is excellent!!!! To read the complete article and to pick up some excellent pointers, please visit http://theeditorsblog.net/2012/09/09/the-eyes-dont-always-have-it/

Maybe I should say, the eyes shouldn’t always have it.

No, the title isn’t a reference to parliamentary procedures, simply a play on words.

While we learned all about the five senses when we were kids, and while we sometimes read of characters with extra senses, I’ve found that writers often limit their characters to a single sense.

Characters interact with their story world by seeing people and events and objects. They don’t necessarily notice every detail, but they do notice, through the visual, quite often.

That is, they see a lot more than they touch, taste, smell, or hear.

They look over at, look up at, look down toward. They see the expression on another character’s face and correctly conclude that character’s emotional state, often from a single glance (but that’s fodder for another article).

And while they’re always looking, the style or method of looking usually isn’t conveyed to the reader.

Writers tend to use the same words in every scene of every story to show how a character sees, and many times those words are simply too basic or bland. They add no punch to the scene. They fail to take advantage of a character’s emotions, educational background, or experiences. They may be a poor fit for the genre.

The two terms I find used most often for conveying a character’s perception of events or other characters, through sight, are look at and glance at. And those words are repeated many times in most manuscripts.

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Ingrams will Distribute Amazon eBooks to Amazon Competitors

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Regina Jeffers

This article came from paidContent. If you are interested in the complete article, please visit http://paidcontent.org/2012/08/29/exclusive-amazon-ny-to-sell-its-ebooks-through-bn-kobo-other-retailers/

Amazon’s New York-based book publishing imprint, which is headed by publishing industry vet Larry Kirshbaum, has signed a deal with Ingram to distribute its ebooks to other retailers, paidContent has learned. Amazon and Ingram confirmed the news.

The deal, with Ingram’s digital distribution arm CoreSource, will make the ebooks available to Amazon competitors like Barnes & Noble, Apple and Kobo — though, of course, those competitors won’t be required to stock Amazon titles. The idea of Apple selling Amazon’s ebooks is particularly interesting, given the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Apple and book publishers for allegedly colluding to set ebook prices.

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Regency Era Lexicon – Time for the Letter “H”

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Regina Jeffers

Haberdasher – a man who dealt with small items for sewing, such as thread, needles, buttons, ribbons, etc.

Hack – a general-purpose riding horse; not used for hunting or military purposes

Hackney Coach – one for hire; the taxicabs of the early 1800s

Ha-Ha – a landscaping technique; a dug trench or sunken fence, not easily seen unless one was close to it

Hair Ring – a ring made from the hair of one’s sweetheart

Half Crown – an English coin worth two shillings and sixpence

Half Pay – a payment which kept military men on the active list; a step toward retirement

Handsome – a term used during the period to describe women, buildings, dresses, etc. (but not men)

Ha’Penny – a halfpenny

Hardtack – biscuits for sailors

Harrow – a frame with iron teeth which broke up the earth after the plowing was completed

Harvest – the cutting of the corn crop (Note: hay was “made” rather than cut)

Hatchment – a shield bearing the coat of arms of recently deceased person; was displayed on the front of the house and then in the church

Hedgerow – a row of hedge which served as a barrier to keep cattle/sheep from moving about too freely upon the land

Heir Apparent – the heir to property, regardless of any contingencies that might occur

Heir Presumptive – the heir who would inherit if certain contingencies did not occur

Hessian boots – long boots worn by German mercenaries who fought the colonists during the American War of Independence; were popular in the early part of the 1800s

High-Lows – a type of lace up boots

Hob – beside the grate; a place to put kettles to keep them warm

Honeymoon – the honeymoon actually meant the first time a couple had marital relations (not necessarily the journey celebrating their marriage); frequently, the bride’s sister or a close friend accompanied the couple

Honourable – a title used for all members of Parliament; also a “courtesy title,” one not accompanied by any legal rights (bestowed on viscounts and barons and the younger sons of earls)

Horse Guards – the cavalry who guarded the monarch; nicknamed the “Blues”; had barracks at Whitehall

Hostler (or Ostler) – tended to the horses of travelers at inns

Housekeeper – the top ranking female servant in a household

Housewife – a small case for carrying around items such as needles and thread to mend clothing (pronounced “huzzif”)

Hulks – old ships pressed into use in 1776 as “temporary” floating prisons; not abolished until 1858

Hundred – an ancient English unit of government, being the unit next down from a shire

Hunter – a horse bred specifically for fox hunts

Huntsman – the man at a hunt who kept the dogs under control and on the scent

Hussars – a cavalryman who wore a flamboyant uniform

Hyde Park – a 388-acre park in London’s West End; was the most fashionable park of the time

Posted in British history, Jane Austen, Regency era | 4 Comments

Kobo to Sell eBooks Through Indie Book Outlets

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Regina Jeffers

This article comes from CBCNews:Arts and Entertainment. To read the complete article, please visit http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/30/kobo-indie-bookstores.html

Kobo has signed a new partnership with U.S. independent booksellers will give loyal indie customers the option of digital reading, while continuing to support their local bookstore.

The Toronto-based, Japanese owned, e-reader company said Wednesday it has struck a deal with the American Booksellers Association to sell its device and its e-books through independent U.S. bookstores.

“It gives us a new demographic, not so much age but in terms of how these people have typically read,” said Todd Humphrey, the company’s executive vice-president of business development.

Through the deal, Kobo is hoping to convert some of those “true blood readers” who may have been reluctant to make the switch to digital reading.

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Neither Target nor Wal-Mart Will Carry Amazon’s Kindle

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Regina Jeffers

This comes from Laura Hazard Owen at Gigaom.com. To read the complete article, please visit http://gigaom.com/2012/09/20/walmart-following-target-stops-selling-kindles/

Walmart has become the second large U.S. retail chain to announce that it will stop selling Amazon Kindles, after Target made a similar announcement in May. 

Reuters first reported the news, citing a memo that Walmart sent to store managers. “We have recently made the business decision to not carry Amazon tablets and eReaders beyond our existing inventory and purchase commitments,” the memo read. “This includes all Amazon Kindle models current and recently announced.”

Walmart confirmed the change to Reuters and it appears to extend both to Walmart’s website and its stores.

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Building Characters That Sell

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Regina Jeffers

This article comes from Karen Lamb’s Blog. Ms. Lamb has some excellent choices such as Anatomy of a Best-Selling Novel and How Personal Should Writers Get On Social Media. To read this one on Developing Characterization, please visit http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/great-characters-the-beating-heart-of-great-fiction/

Today we are going to talk about character, but I want you guys to breathe and relax. Give yourselves permission to not know everything. Art is not one of those things that we take a few lessons and “graduate” as experts. True artists never stop learning.

We read, take classes, and always push ourselves to the next level. Most new writers do not sufficiently understand plot, but I will say that the key to creating better plots rests in a deeper understanding of character.

But How Do We Come Up with Plot?

Some people naturally think in terms of plot. They are the kind of people who think of a story problem, but then need to cast characters appropriate to the story. Other people think in terms of character, a person who they want to cast, but they need to find the right story. Both ways of thinking are fine, but both require an in depth study of character.

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Breaking Out Authors in Paperback is Still Possible, But More Difficult

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Regina Jeffers

This article comes from Publisher’s Weekly. To read the complete article, please visit http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/53806-do-mass-market-originals-still-work-.html

Despite shrinking sales, declining shelf space, and the rise in popularity of relatively inexpensive e-book editions, mass market paperback is still a category that can be used to break out an author—especially in tandem with other publishing formats. A number of publishers contacted by PW said despite the category’s decline, mass market pricing combined with savvy marketing in the right genres—among them romance, westerns, paranormal, and crime/thrillers—can still lift an author’s sales, significantly.

Nevertheless, the category presents problems. “It has become very difficult to launch a new author in mass market,” said Pocket Books executive v-p and publisher Louise Burke. “It appears that the e-book format has filled that void in some cases.” But other publishers con tinue to look to mass market paperback originals as a way to build a following and establish a writer in the marketplace.

Posted in Industry News/Publishing | 4 Comments