Tag Archives: aspiring authors

Jul 25 2013

Publishing Is not a Dog-Eat-Dog Business

I debated with myself whether or not this article would be worth writing. I feel that the majority of writers already realize this, and the minority who exhibit the dog-eat-dog mentality aren’t likely to read this article – and, if they do, be influenced by it. Then I considered that it may provide a little reassurance to the majority, if nothing else. So I have written this article with this possible benefit in mind.

Unfortunately, there are a few unscrupulous authors and publishers out there who incorrectly believe that they can become more successful by making their colleagues look worse by planting negative reviews on similar titles and other unethical practices. We see it happen occasionally. Most of the one-star reviews are from actual customers who simply didn’t like the book, but a few are actually from competing authors or publishers – sometimes directly, and sometimes indirectly by persuading or even paying others to do it for them.

We know it happens from the times that that the author was caught red-handed. Reviews have been removed, accounts have been suspended, and a couple of such authors have been featured in high-profile articles.

Let me stress again that the vast majority of authors do not behave this way. Most authors – both indies and traditionally published – are much more ethical than this. Most authors support one another. I don’t mean to suggest a bad image for authors or books in any way. I hope that you will keep in mind that the vast majority of authors behave professionally and supportively and that almost all books provide much value to readers, and not let the behavior of a few bad eggs adversely affect your image of books and publishing at large.

What I really want to point out is why the dog-eat-dog approach is foolish in the publishing industry: Similar books are generally much more complementary than competitive. Buyers usually buy multiple books (if not all at once, then over a period of months or years). It’s usually not a case of, “Should I buy Book A or Book B?” but, “Where can I find more books like Book A?”

Similar titles help one another through Customer Also Bought lists, word-of-mouth referrals, etc.

If an author succeeds in hurting sales of similar titles by blasting the competition, this author is very likely shooting himself or herself in the foot. Every time a customer buys a similar title, that author’s book shows up as a suggested add-on. So hurting the sales of one book tends to hurt the sales of similar books.

Similar titles tend to feed off of each other’s successes.

Another important point is that a negative review sometimes actually helps sales, instead of hurting them. This is a second reason that the unethical dog-eating-other-dogs mentality is likely to backfire.

No author wants to receive a bad review. But sometimes they help sales rather than hurt them. First of all, every review adds to the total number of reviews. More reviews is a sign of greater popularity. Second of all, a negative review among good reviews may help to provide balance. Occasionally, a negative review does hurt sales, but many times it doesn’t.

We must also give credit to the customer. Shoppers can often tell that there is something funny about an unethical review. If they suspect that the competition has blasted a book, customers are inclined to feel supportive toward the poor author who was blasted. They might even buy the book when they otherwise wouldn’t have.

If a customer recently read the book and was about to post a negative review, upon seeing a harsh negative review already there, the customer often reconsiders this. Thus, a malicious one-star review might not result in more negative reviews, just more obviously malicious ones. When customers see a harsh negative review, sometimes they post a positive review when otherwise they wouldn’t have reviewed the book.

Of course, it takes much time for the author to see what effect, if any, a review has. Occasionally, bad reviews do deter sales. It’s just that the assumption that a bad review will always deter sales is clearly false; sometimes it does, but often it doesn’t.

The vast majority of authors who are scrupulous have a great deal of support on their side. Those few unscrupulous dog-eat-dog authors are missing out on this wonderful opportunity.

Most authors help one another in various ways:

  • We discuss ideas with other writers for writing better, marketing better, publishing better, etc.
  • We provide support through comments and emails.
  • We share recommendations for cover artists, editors, etc.
  • We reveal tricks of the trade to authors we interact with and trust.
  • We support one another emotionally.
  • We offer advice from our experience.
  • We give critical feedback when it is solicited.
  • We buy, read, and review many books.
  • And much, much more.

The self-publishing community is very supportive and resourceful. It’s an amazing team to be on. The community is far stronger than a stray dog going around eating other dogs.

Finally, a few bad authors shouldn’t be casting a bad image for dogs. When I think of dogs, I think of wonderful, furry, loving creatures, who win your love with sad eyes, slurp your face with a salivating tongue, stand up on hind legs and throw their front paws on your chest, and faithfully follow you wherever you go. We could learn a lot by studying the natural goodness exhibited by the vast majority of dogs. 🙂

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Jul 24 2013

To Be Traditionally Published, or not to Be… How ‘bout Both?

Many authors debate whether or not to publish their books with a traditional publisher. The alternative, self-publishing, is becoming increasingly popular.

But you don’t have to choose one or the other. More and more authors are doing both.

Authors love to write. And write. And write and write and write.

However, there is a limit to what you can hope to get traditionally published (unless you have a big name that easily commands interest among publishers).

So if you strictly publish traditionally, some of your writing may not get published at all. If you self-publish, you can publish all of your writing (although all of it may not sell).

But you needn’t choose one or the other. Why not both? If you’re deciding which way to go, that probably means that you see benefits and disadvantages each way. Exploring both options will help keep you from wondering about the road not taken.

Choose one or two ideas that you’d like to traditionally publish, and pursue that. Self-publish your other ideas while you try to achieve this.

You’ll run into one problem right away: Should you use a pen name?

If you self-publish books in your name and try to get traditionally published in the same name, the success (or lack thereof) of your self-published books may factor into the editor’s decision. If you become highly successful with self-publishing, using the same name may be a plus; but if your book flops, it may be a red flag.

It’s easier to market a book published in your own name. You may have a following on Facebook, for example, when you first publish. You have friends and acquaintances who may support you. When you meet people and they discover that you’re a writer, they may become interested in your book.

You can build a following and market effectively using a pen name, but there are some advantages to using your own name. This is something to consider.

Personally, I love the freedom, independence, higher royalties, ease, and other advantages of self-publishing. I’m not exploring traditional publishing at this time. But there are attractive benefits of traditional publishing. There are also benefits to doing both.

Some indie authors and some traditionally published authors seem to feel that it’s ‘us against them.’ This isn’t true: We’re all authors; we all love to write. And more and more authors are fitting into both categories. There are many successful authors of both varieties, and both self-publishing and traditional publishing offer value to readers.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Jul 17 2013

Authors: Dealing with the Downs

Adversity Pic

Sales inherently fluctuate. Even if over time sales grow, there will still be some day-to-day fluctuations. There are also seasonal effects – i.e. any given type of book tends to sell better during some months than others. The economy is a factor, too.

As long as there are some sale every week, there will be some periods where sales are slow and some periods where sales are better. There will be both.

When sales are peaking, you’re thinking, “Now that’s more like it.” But they often don’t stay that way. Even if there is long-term growth, there will be a few periods where sales decline. You can count on it.

When sales are in a valley, you’re thinking, “What happened to kill the sales?” Remember, there will be valleys even when nothing has changed. Don’t panic. Exercise patience. Sales may pick up in a few days. If it’s the end of the month, maybe sales will rebound next month. Some months are also better than others. A downturn in sales for a few days doesn’t necessarily mean that sales have stopped dead.

If sales decline and you also notice something else, like a bad review, your first thought is that the review killed your sales. But it could just be coincidence. Many times, a review doesn’t have the effect that we might predict. Be patient. Sales might just rebound in a few days.

Unfortunately, sometimes sales do decline. Sometimes, a book sells frequently for a short period after its release, and then sales decline. Sometimes, reviews do influence sales. Sometimes, there are external factors that we’re not even aware of – like a change in Customer Also Bought associations and other marketing recommendations online. (Sometimes, though, external factors boost sales, like a recommendation posted somewhere online that you weren’t even aware of; and more often than not, Customer Also Bought lists provide a sudden boost.)

But if you panic that sales are dying every time your sales go through a valley, you’re likely to be causing yourself a great deal of unnecessary anxiety. It can take a couple of weeks or more to properly project sales trends.

Similarly, don’t let each review – good or bad – determine your happiness. Try not to let other people govern your emotions. Hopefully, many of the reviews will be good. See if any critical reviews have merit that can help, then try your best to forget them.

Focus on your next book and on marketing. These activities will keep you busy. And these are the best things you can do to improve sales.

When you’re going through the downs, the worst thing you can do is react emotionally in public and ruin your image as an author – that can have a much worse effect than anything you had been worrying about. Avoid posting complaints: You don’t want customers or reviewers to see them and view this as unprofessional, and you don’t really want to bring others down by spreading negativity.

Sure, you want to receive comfort and support. Try to find private (i.e. not your blog or social media) ways to seek this, or strive to find positive ways to reach out. For example, ask for advice in a tactful way that focuses on encouraging suggestions instead of ranting about the issue. If you need to write a rant to help get it out of your system, keep it private (just as you would if writing in a diary).

Remember that all authors experience the ups and downs of sales and reviews (except for the rare author who has the ability to ignore these things).

Enjoy the ups, and ride out the downs. Keep writing and marketing, and these activities may help make the overall trend grow in the long run.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Jul 14 2013

What to Do When Sales S-T-I-N-K

Flop Pic

There are tens of millions of books to choose from. Only the top couple hundred thousand are selling once or more per day on average.

Sometimes, an author pours much time, effort, and passion into a book, but the sales don’t come. It happens. Too often.

Faced with this situation, the author has three options:

  1. Give up. (Wrong answer.)
  2. Try again. (Last resort.)
  3. Change it. (Pick me.)

There have been books that didn’t sell when they were released, but began selling after making some changes. So there is still hope! 🙂

After putting months into a book and possibly already investing some money only to see the book flop when it finally comes out, it’s important not to sink too much more time and money into the same venture: What if it flops again?

Consider changes that have the potential to make a high impact without too much additional time or expense.

What you should consider changing depends on why the book isn’t selling. If you can obtain honest feedback from your target audience, that may help to point you in the right direction.

Give your book a chance first. You can’t expect it to be a hot seller on Day 1. If a few weeks go by and sales are dismal, that’s different than just having a couple of sales during Week 1.

But if you’re not already marketing actively, it’s never too early to start that. (In the future, pre-marketing would be wise.)

If your book isn’t getting noticed:

  • Maybe the cover isn’t grabbing attention. Try a different design. You don’t want to invest a lot of money in the cover of a book that has already flopped once. But you can find some inexpensive options and you can also try changing it yourself. Ask for suggestions, search for stock photos, and browse covers to see what tends to grab your attention.
  • Are the keywords large and easy to read? Does the font seem to fit the content and create a little interest, without being difficult to read? Is the main image very large, and does it stand out well? Research common cover mistakes and ensure that your cover has avoided these.
  • Maybe the title doesn’t create interest. This is easy to change for Kindle eBooks, but requires disabling sales channels and republishing as a new title for print books because the ISBN is linked to the title. Sometimes, a different title and subtitle attract attention better. Ask for feedback on your title and subtitle.
  • The best thing you can do to get your book noticed is learn how to market effectively. Research marketing strategies and try them out. With tens of millions of books to choose from, it takes effective marketing to help customers learn about your book. If you’re already trying to market your book, try some different marketing tactics. Some strategies don’t work for some books and authors. If it’s not working, try something new. Ask for suggestions. But if the packaging or content have serious issues, you need to make some other change in addition to marketing.
  • Try a marketing promotion. For example, you can make your book free for a day if your book is in KDP Select; but just making it free won’t have much effect unless you also promote the freebie (e.g. maybe you can find some blogs relevant to your genre that sometimes announce freebies). Instead of making your book free, you could temporarily reduce the price; but again, that won’t help your book get noticed unless you also promote the sale. If you have traffic from your target audience at a blog, website, or social media, a contest might get some attention. But for a book that has already flopped, I wouldn’t do a promotion without also changing the packaging (see below).

If your book is getting noticed, but isn’t selling, it could be a problem with the packaging – i.e. a target audience mismatch. If the book is attracting the wrong audience, nobody will be buying:

  • A common problem is a cover that attracts the attention of the wrong audience. For example, if the book is science fiction but the cover doesn’t have any imagery to suggest this, whatever audience is attracted to the cover’s images probably won’t be looking for science fiction. It can be more subtle: If the cover looks like a hot and steamy romance, and the book is romance, but isn’t hot and steamy, that’s also a packaging problem. Browse top-selling books in your specific genre that are similar to yours to see what attracts the interest of your target audience. Ask for feedback. Try to find more suitable stock images. Reconsider your color scheme and its relation to your subject and genre. Consider investing a little money for a more effective cover.
  • Change the blurb. If you’re not happy with sales, change the blurb. Change it again and again. Try several times. Solicit feedback. Study other blurbs, especially of successful books from small-time authors and publishers. Remember, your blurb isn’t a summary and shouldn’t give the story away (then buyers feel it isn’t necessary to read it). The blurb’s main function is to attract the interest of the target audience. Arouse their curiosity so that they have to look inside. When sales pick up, that’s when you stop messing with your blurb.
  • Does your title send a unified message along with your cover? For example, if the title sounds like a mystery, but the cover looks like action, this may create buyer confusion. Packaging works best when the title and cover send the same, clear message about which genre the book is and briefly what to expect. Solicit feedback, and ask specifically about this issue.
  • Buyers see several covers in search results. Your book has just a few seconds to attract the interest of buyers in your target audience. A common problem is that the author is partial to an image on the cover because the author knows it relates to the story, but the shopper doesn’t know this. So if there is some image that really doesn’t belong on the cover – i.e. it’s not clear in three seconds that this image fits the genre and subject – then it may be hurting sales. Look, if sales stink now, it can’t hurt to try a different image, right?
  • Don’t underestimate the importance of browse categories. You want your book to be listed in highly relevant categories and nothing else. Find similar books that are selling well to see which categories they are listed in. Change your categories if needed. If Amazon has added extra categories to your book that aren’t a good fit, contact AuthorCentral and ask politely if they could please be removed, explaining that you feel they might create buyer confusion. This happens: A buyer clicks on a book hoping to read a romance, but sees both romance and action in the categories. “That’s not what I was expecting,” says the buyer as she walks away. If sales are slow, something isn’t working, so it doesn’t hurt to make a change and try it out for a few weeks.
  • You might as well explore a different set of keywords while you’re making other changes.

Sometimes, your cover and title grab attention, and your cover, title, and blurb are attracting the right audience, but the book still isn’t selling:

  • Give your Look Inside a close inspection. Does your book have a slow start? Do the opening paragraphs closely correspond with the genre? Are there spelling or grammatical mistakes? Are there formatting issues? Is there so much front matter that it takes a long time to reach the action (if so, try moving some of it to back matter)? Try to find what might be deterring sales from readers who check out the Look Inside. Better yet, strive to polish the Look Inside and revise it so that it attracts interest. Maybe revise the opening chapter so that it grabs interest and is a close match for the genre. Consider adding a few professional touches, like professional looking design marks (check out the Look Insides of several traditionally published books). Solicit feedback on your Look Inside, especially from your target audience.
  • Reconsider the price. Check out the prices of similar books that are selling well. At least, you could test out a new price for a few weeks and see how that goes. If you drop your price, advertise this on your blog, through social media, etc.; the sale may help to create interest. Price is usually not the main factor, unless the book is very short or way overpriced. Many authors change nothing but the price with no improvement. Save dropping the price (except for a temporary sale) for last. I would try everything else first before lowering the price (unless you are way overpriced, like a $9.99 nontechnical Kindle book). If your price is already low, consider raising the price (it might seem counterintuitive, but many people believe that you get what you pay for, and there are stories of authors who have raised their prices from 99 cents to $3.99 and actually started selling more books). Remember, it’s not just the number of sales that matters, but also the royalty. If you drop the price, you can actually sell more books but earn less money. At 99 cents, you have to sell 6 times as many books just to draw the same royalty as a $2.99 list price at KDP (since the royalty rate changes from 35% to 70%, if eligible – and the fees at 70% won’t be much if it qualifies for 99 cents).

Reviews could be a factor. But reviews often don’t have the effect that authors expect:

  • If you have no reviews, or if you have a small number of reviews that includes a bad review, your book might benefit from more reviews. But it might not. Keep in mind that nothing is better than the natural assortment of reviews left voluntarily by actual customers. It takes more sales to generate such reviews, which means effective marketing. You can hope to solicit reviews from advance review copies – free books given upfront to potential reviewers with no strings attached, where it’s clear that any review (good, bad, or ugly) is welcomed (don’t violate the customer review guidelines). A review from a blogger in your genre may be helpful (even if the review isn’t posted on Amazon). Sometimes, time and patience draw a few reviews that make a difference. Other times, you happen to get a couple of rave reviews, and sales don’t pick up at all. It happens.
  • If you have a small number of reviews, and they’re all good, buyers may be suspicious. If you just have good reviews, you have something to be happy about (that’s a problem many authors would love to have); focus on that. Keep marketing, and more sales will eventually draw more reviews. Hopefully, the new reviews will be good, too – because no author likes to receive bad reviews. Even if you don’t have any bad reviews (which would be sweet), once you have enough reviews, there will finally be a healthy assortment of opinions which helps to provide balance.
  • Does any criticism in any of the reviews have merit? For example, a review might complain of a storyline issue, or describe spelling and grammatical mistakes. If so, it might be worth reworking part of the story or finding an affordable editor. You can’t implement every suggestion made by every reviewer; you have to decide what has merit and what’s reasonable to change. Sometimes a critical review helps the author improve the book.
  • Commenting on reviews carries a huge risk. Especially, if you make the mistake of reacting emotionally or making more than one comment. Once you make a comment, the reviewer can simply ask you a question, which draws you into a conversation. Then suddenly there are several comments. If the reviewer becomes upset, the reviewer can get friends and family to leave reviews and make comments. Only the author’s image is at stake – not the reviewer’s image. Strive to look like a professional author; don’t ruin your author image over a review. If you get a review with wrongful criticism that kills sales, don’t do anything for a few days (this gives you time to calm down and think, and to see if sales are, in fact, slowing – if sales keep up, the best thing is to just leave it alone; reviews often have less effect than we expect). If sales died and you feel that there is nothing to lose, if you feel that a tactful comment might have an impact, if there are no sales, you might feel that trying this is better than nothing – but it must be tactful and you need to let go after that (don’t add more comments later). If the comment has no effect on sales and the reviewer doesn’t respond to the comment, go ahead and delete your comment; but if your is not the only comment on the review, don’t delete it – otherwise, there will be a note saying that the comment was deleted by the author (which means poster, as in author of the post, although shoppers may not interpret it this way). Most authors would advise you not to comment; and most others would say that you must be tactful and stop after the first. Besides, most shoppers will read the review, but not check out the comment. The better thing to do is marketing, trying to improve sales through marketing and promotions, try changing the packaging or content, and hoping that after weeks and months, some new reviews will help offset any bad reviews.

When I first published my conceptual chemistry book, sales really took off in the UK – better than in the US. This was really exciting, until I received my first review. It was a bad one. Often, a bad review has little effect; and sometimes a bad review actually improves sales. But when the only review is one or two stars, many customers won’t even look at the book. And when the review is really short and just vaguely states that there are many typos which could easily confuse the reader, it creates a lot of doubt in buyer’s minds. It sounds like the book is plagued with problems. And the review didn’t clarify whether the problems were typos, differences between American and English notation or vocabulary, mistakes in the content, issues with the equations formatting improperly in the Kindle edition, or what. So, of course, most buyers assume the worst. Sales had been frequent prior to this review, and then sales stopped dead. I’ve had other bad reviews, and most of those have actually improved sales. But this one was a doozy. Fortunately, I had several other books that were selling well (one benefit of publishing multiple books), and this book continued to sell in the US (fortunately, the UK review didn’t carry over into the US). Let me clarify that I have two different chemistry books with similar titles; the one with the blue cover is the far better book, and that’s the one I’m referring to here.

This review cut deep. I had already had about 20 versions of the completed file from plenty of editing. It’s not like the book hadn’t gone through many rounds of editing. I was shocked that anyone could think it was plagued with problems. I’ve read many technical works that are, in fact, loaded with mistakes. I also had a reputation for content knowledge and much teaching experience. And I wasn’t quite sure what the reviewer was complaining about, since the review was quite vague.

So here is my experience with such an issue:

  • I debated with myself over this for some time, then decided to try a single tactful comment. After all, sales were suddenly nonexistent. There was still some risk, however, because I had other books and a reputation to uphold. The reviewer didn’t respond (it would have been nice to receive a little clarification – but reviews are primarily there to benefit shoppers, not authors), so I removed my comment. Hindsight shows that this option wasn’t worth exploring in this case.
  • I re-read my book a few times. I did find a handful of silly mistakes in Chapter 2, and a couple of other issues. So I fixed those. Then I had an issue with the equations; I knew that they formatted better on a few electronic devices than others. So I retyped every equation and formatted it as text with subscripts and superscripts, in color, so that there wouldn’t be any problems with the Kindle formatting of equations. This took a great deal of time (every compound mentioned anywhere in the book was written with equation formatting, like H2O), but now I knew the equations would all format nicely. I checked them repeatedly for possible mistakes. (Wish I had thought of this the first time, but I was focused on the paperback first.)
  • I revised the book, calling it a new edition in the copyright page, corrected the mistakes and some other minor issues, and reformatted the equations for the Kindle edition. I revised the blurb to mention that it had been updated and when (since the review is dated, this allows for logical deduction; and I didn’t want to call attention to past problems in the US). This led to a trickle of sales in the UK and a slight improvement in the US.
  • I visited AuthorCentral and reformatted the blurb to include bullets and boldface. This had a small effect, too.
  • Then I added a line near the top of the blurb describing my qualifications. That was the magic answer. Why hadn’t I thought of this before? (Well, I often put any relevant expertise into the blurb, but not often near the top.) Who had more credibility? An author with a degree in the subject or a reviewer who didn’t specify any credentials? Some UK buyers took a chance once I thought of doing this; the US sales improved, too. Eventually, with the sales, a couple of good reviews came, too. The main thing that worked in my case was revamping the blurb and exercising patience (it took weeks before the rebound came).

If things are really bad, you might need a fresh start. You could unpublish and republish later (wait at least 30 days). If you do this, you have to make some dramatic changes (otherwise, you shouldn’t expect any improvement the second time). Keep in mind that I’ve never unpublished and republished a book myself, so I don’t have direct experience with this. But I have seen others do this:

  • Note that your book may remain on AuthorCentral even if you unpublish. If it’s available in print, the reasoning is that some customers may have used copies to sell. So you probably can’t have a print book removed from your AuthorCentral profile. If your book is only available in eBook format, you could ask if this is possible, pointing out that nobody will have a used copy to sell.
  • When you republish, it’s possible for your old reviews to get reattached to the republished book. If this happens to the eBook, contact KDP and explain that you’ve unpublished, revamped the book (explain how), and politely request a fresh start. Keep in mind that the original reviewers may leave new reviews on the new book if they discover it.
  • You can try a new title, cover, and blurb. But if you had any buyers the first time, they might be frustrated to buy what they believe to be a different book that turns out to be the same book again (but if sales had been slow, it’s probably worth the risk and there weren’t too many buyers in the first place). You can also try changing the content, getting the book edited or formatted, and improving the Look Inside.

On the other hand, if sales are good to begin with, don’t fix what isn’t broken. Maybe you are wondering if sales could be great instead of good. But what if you change something and sales go south? It’s not easy to recover when sales slip. So if you’re content with sales, I recommend not changing anything now. If sales slip in the future, consider making your changes then. (Also, if sales are good to begin with, any drastic changes – like a new cover – might fool a previous customer into buying the same book again, which may frustrate the buyer.)

Finally, not every book idea has an audience, and occasionally there may be an audience, but it’s really hard to get the book to that audience. Repackaging and marketing can’t help every book. Some books have ideas that just don’t interest readers. Other books are so highly specialized and only interest a very narrow audience (many specialized books have a significant audience; I’m talking about an extreme case here). Once you have given it your best shot, if sales still don’t come, all you can do is start over. If that’s the case, next time do some research prior to writing your book. Try to find similar books to see if a possible demand exists for your book idea.

Remember, all books that had good intentions surely go to Book Heaven. 🙂

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2, now out, includes several marketing, pre-marketing, and packaging suggestions)

Jul 13 2013

Amazon Customer Book Reviews: Author Controversies

Reviews Pic

Most authors are customers, too.

As customers, we want to see actual reviews written by actual customers, find a variety of balanced opinions, and be able to trust Amazon’s customer review system.

As authors, we see the benefits of having more customer reviews. Of course, we always cross our fingers that the reviews will be positive. However, we realize that we can’t please everybody, and we know that what’s good for the customer is good for authors and publishers, too.

If the reviews aren’t balanced or if customers aren’t able to trust the review system, then the system isn’t benefiting anyone – customers, authors, publishers, or Amazon.

Authors write many book reviews. That’s because authors are readers, too, and nobody understands how important reviews are more than authors.

So it’s important for authors to understand what is or isn’t allowed, and why.

Violations can lead to deleted reviews, loss of review privileges, account suspensions, books being unpublished, etc.

(1) Review Swapping: Jack reviews Jill’s book and Jill reviews Jack’s book.

Unfortunately, Amazon doesn’t spell it out by saying, “Review swapping is not allowed.”

But it can be deduced from the guidelines (see References 1-3) as follows:

  • You’re not allowed to offer compensation for writing a review. If Jack offers to write a review of Jill’s book in exchange for a review of Jack’s book, then Jack is offering Jill compensation. This is a clear violation of the guidelines.

Amazon may catch it (perhaps through cross-referencing). If not, customers who observe it may report it to Amazon. There are stories of authors who have lost reviews and privileges.

What’s wrong with this? Doesn’t the I’ll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-my-back idea seem unscrupulous? How would this look to a customer who noticed what was going on? It doesn’t matter that the reviews could, in principle, be written objectively. The problem is that the review is written with compensation in mind, which provides an incentive for writing an unbiased review. It’s the incentive that matters, not the intent (incentive is also much more clear).

It is possible for a review swap to come about in other ways. For example, Jack might review Jill’s book. Jill checks out Jack’s profile and discovers that Jack is an author. Jill reads Jack’s book and reviews it. They didn’t agree to scratch each other’s backs. But how would Amazon know the difference? It still looks like a review swap.

If another author reviews your book, you might feel like reciprocating. But then it will look like a review swap. Instead, pay it forward: That is, read a book by someone you don’t know, and review that book.

Of course, it’s possible for two authors to review each other’s books and not even know it, especially if they don’t use their real names on their review profiles. The chances of this happening accidentally, however, are very slim. It still looks like a review swap to Amazon.

There is yet another way for a review swap to come about. Jack is an author who knows Jill. Jack asks Jill to read and review his book. Jill does. Months later, Jill has written a book. Naturally, Jill wants Jack to return the favor. Doesn’t this still look like a review swap?

(2) Advance Review Copies: Dave gives out free copies of his book, hoping to receive some reviews.

This may be legitimate. This is the one exception to compensating reviewers: Authors or publishers may give one free copy of the book to each potential reviewer. Publishers often have mailing lists for advance review copies. Goodreads has a giveaway program to help authors distribute advance review copies for print books.

However, there are restrictions:

  • You must make it clear that you welcome all feedback – positive or negative. For example, you’re not allowed to give a free book in exchange just for a good review.
  • You can only offer one free book. You can’t offer products, discounts, entries into a contest, bonus material, etc. as an incentive for writing the review.
  • You can’t tell the reviewer what to write, tell the reviewer to write a review if the feedback is positive but just email you any negative comments instead, etc.
  • The book must be given free up front; it can’t be contingent upon writing the review.

Giving out advance review copies encourages more reviews. More customer reviews is good for everyone, but only if they are unbiased.

Note that such reviews won’t show as Amazon Verified Purchases. (There is a possible exception. For example, if your book is free through KDP Select and the reviewer downloads your book when it’s free, and the reviewer checks the box to mark it as an Amazon Verified Purchase.)

(3) The Friend and Family Plan: Jane asks her many family members and friends to review her book.

If all authors did this, most of the reviews would be biased. Amazon can’t say that it’s only allowed if the reviews are unbiased: How can Amazon tell, in general? They can’t.

So instead, Amazon has guidelines for what is or isn’t allowed:

  • Definitely, anyone who shares a household with the author isn’t allowed to review the book.
  • Close friends aren’t allowed to review the book. (What makes friends ‘close’? Good question.) This surely includes close family members who don’t live with the author, too.
  • Anyone who has a financial interest in the book isn’t allowed to review it: spouse, children, publisher, editor, cover designer, etc. (Even if the cover designer doesn’t receive a percentage of royalties, the success of the book may help the cover designer through referrals.)
  • Obviously, the author isn’t allowed to review the author’s own book.
  • You’re not allowed to post reviews on behalf of others. For example, if you sell a book to someone in person who has no internet access, if they ask you to review the book on their behalf, you’re not allowed to do it.

Amazon blocks and deletes reviews that are suspected of being on the friend and family plan. They may have a program that checks for common addresses, IP addresses, etc.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/nov/05/amazon-removes-book-reviews

In addition to Amazon, there are external parties checking reviews. For example, there are people publishing research who are examining the writing style of multiple reviewers to see if they may have been written by the same person, scrutinizing books with many reviews but only a few sales, etc. There are published cases of review abuse that have been discovered and exposed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/apr/23/historian-orlando-figes-amazon-reviews-rivals

(4) Dogs Eating Dogs: Bob slams the competition by giving them negative reviews.

Authors are not allowed to review similar titles. This very clear from the guideline that says you can’t review a book if you have a financial interest in it. So if Bob gives Eric a bad review and that bad review might improve the sales of Bob’s book, that review is in violation of Amazon’s policies. You’re not allowed to slam the competition.

Aside from being unscrupulous, it’s just plain foolish to slam the competition. Most books are more complementary than competitive. Customers usually buy multiple books that are similar (if not all at once, then spread over time). It’s usually not Book A or Book B; it’s often both. So if you do something to cause similar books’ sales to decline, it might hurt your own book’s sales through Customers Also Bought and other marketing associations.

You’re also not allowed to give positive reviews of similar titles, since a good review of a similar book might improve the sales of your book through Customers Also Bought lists.

(5) Paid Reviews: Cindy pays Jeff to write a review of her book.

This clearly violates the rule about receiving compensation, with one exception.

Editorial reviews, such as Kirkus reviews, may be paid for. These appear as editorial reviews, however, and not as customer reviews. There is a separate section for editorial reviews, and they can be added through AuthorCentral. Editorial reviews don’t necessarily need to be written by editors and experts in the field, as explained in Note 4 of Reference 3.

https://authorcentral.amazon.com

Note: All of the names used to illustrate examples (Jack, Jill, Dave, etc.) are all fictitious. These names do not refer to actual people. If there happen to be authors with those names who have done the things described (or have been accused by others of doing so or who may have done related or similar things), it is purely coincidental.

References

1. Kindle Direct Publishing Newsletter, May 2013, Volume 26, Featured Resource, “Q & A on Amazon’s Customer Review Policies.”

http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/816983/84997531d8/ARCHIVE

2. Amazon.com: Customer Reviews Submission Guidelines.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-help/customer-reviews-guidelines

3. Customer Reviews Guidelines Frequently Asked Questions from Authors

http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-help/customer-review-guidelines-faqs-from-authors

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Jul 10 2013

Branding Sounds for Authors

Branding Sounds Pic

Authors primarily strive to brand an image (front cover, author photo, or logo) and a few words (short title, author name, or strapline).

It’s important to realize that sounds can be branded, too.

When you say the words “ee eye ee eye oh” aloud, does the song “Old McDonald Had a Farm” come to mind?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_MacDonald_Had_a_Farm

If you say “fee fie foe fum,” chances are that you will think of the story “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk

The greeting “na-nu na-nu” was very well branded in the sitcom, Mork & Mindy, featuring Robin Williams as an alien.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mork_%26_Mindy

You may recognize “nyuk nyuk nyuk” from Curly of The Three Stooges.

Those are some sounds from the content. But there are other ways to brand sounds besides coming up with a unique sound that gains wide appeal.

Another way to brand a sound is with a slogan, strapline, title, or subtitle that has a catchy jingle to it.

The books in the Pinkalicious series all end with –icious.

http://amzn.com/0060776390

C I N: “Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin. You never come out the way you went in.” is a book with a title that features a catchy jingle.

http://amzn.com/1451539584

A widely popular book title that rhymes is The Cat in the Hat.

http://amzn.com/039480001X

Especially, with children, the word’s might just be silly, but fun to say, as in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

http://amzn.com/B0011EU0NG

Consider the possibility of branding sounds through your characters or in your titles, for example. When branding sounds in the title, you must also consider the target audience; childish noises, for example, probably work better in titles for children’s books than serious adult books.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Hem

Jul 6 2013

What Authors Need to Succeed

Confidence Pic

Here is a riddle for you:

What is a factor common among all sorts of authors, which can have a huge impact on success?

It’s something that all authors need, any author can have, but which can’t be bought.

Ponder this for a moment.

It’s not the drive to write; most authors have a natural inclination toward this.

It’s not a fantastic plot; most fiction writers can come up with a storyline, and it’s easy to research what kinds of plots attract readers. A good, complete storyline does matter, but it’s not a part of all writing.

It’s not great characterization; this can be developed over the course of time, along with a writing style that helps portray it. It is quite important in fiction, but not common to all authors.

It’s not the writing skills; the ideas themselves are more valuable than the technique, and there is editing help or writing development available, where needed.

It’s not an incredible cover; this is very important for many books, though not all, and there is cover design help available for authors.

It’s not a business plan; although researching a book beforehand, proper packaging, and ideas for how to sell the book can greatly enhance sales, authors need something else in order to carry this out. Much writing is also highly creative and artistic, where the best reading doesn’t come from words written in a business fashion.

It’s not an innate knack for marketing; this definitely helps, but marketing can also be learned, and there is an abundance of free advice to read up on.

It’s not money; there are many free marketing ideas to choose from, some of which can be implemented effectively.

It’s not good looks; readers are looking for stories or information, not buying a book hoping to date the author.

It’s not celebrity status; this is not realistic for everyone to have, at least when starting out.

It’s much simpler than that.

It’s often overlooked.

It’s incredibly important.

It’s something that comes from within, at least it can.

Give up?

Ready or not, here it comes…

Okay, I’ll hide the answer at the end of this paragraph, in case you weren’t ready to see it yet. It’s confidence.

That’s it!

There are two parts to this: Why is it so important for authors, and how can every author attain this?

(1) Why is it so important for authors?

Actually, it’s not just for authors. It’s many things in life.

For example, I see it all the time among physics students. When learning new concepts that seem strange or intimidating, many students proceed tentatively. They sometimes give up when they were proceeding in the right direction; they just lacked the confidence to keep going. They sometimes give up when they get the wrong answer, assuming that they solved the problem incorrectly, when all they did was make a simple mistake; they just lacked the confidence that the solution was correct to check it carefully. When you doubt your solution, you wonder if it’s worthwhile to check it over.

The top students tend to be much more confident. They carry out their solutions fully because they’re sure they’re solving the problems correctly. Instead of doubting their solutions, when they get the wrong answer, they check their solutions carefully. Confidence makes a big difference.

Are you more likely to give a good speech if you approach the podium timidly or confidently?

Do you want to hit a long drive down a tight fairway, sink a critical putt, strikeout a tough hitter, hit a homerun, or serve an ace? Confidence and positive visualization play a significant role in this.

Have you ever tried to do something mechanically, like turn a crank, pull a handle, or push a button on a device that’s new to you? If you’re tentative about it, sometimes it doesn’t work, and later when you ask for help, someone else does the exact same thing that you did, but it works. Why? You didn’t try hard enough because you approached it uncertainly. The other person was simply more confident.

There is also the danger of being overconfident, and breaking the device because what you did is wrong. The line between confident and overconfident is just as important as the line between tentative and confident.

Here are ways that confidence benefits authors:

  • You’re more likely to fully invest your time, effort, thought, and resources into a project if you have full confidence in it. If you’re going to do it, go for it. Don’t make finding a good cover or seeking editing help conditional upon success; strive for success in the first place, else it may be very hard coming.
  • The author who is confident in the book is more apt to market diligently and to learn effective marketing strategies. The author who is uncertain about the book worries that marketing may be a waste of time, and just pokes around at it, hoping, usually without much success.
  • Uncertainty shows up in the marketing itself. Speaking to others about your book, you must look both confident and passionate about your work. If you can’t sell your book to yourself, how do you expect to convince others to read it? Your confidence impacts others when it shows.
  • It takes confidence to do effective premarketing over the course of months, to strive to build buzz for your book, and to get neutral feedback. Premarketing can make a big difference.
  • You must be confident to exercise the patience needed to market successfully. It can take a year or more for effective marketing efforts to reach their full effect. It takes time for people to discover your book, to buy your book, to start reading your book, to finish reading your book, to recommend your book to others, to write a review, etc. And only a fraction who discover it will buy it, who buy it will read it, who read it will finish it, who finish it will like it, who like it will recommend it. It takes a lot of sales and a lot of time. You must be very confident to market diligently over such a long period of time, especially if you don’t see instant results.
  • At a reading or signing, the confident author charms everyone and looks the part. The tentative author is nervous and doesn’t quite seem to belong there. It’s your event, you need to own the place and function as a proper host. Nervousness versus confidence will even show in your speech and mannerism.
  • Positive visualization helps. It helps you maintain a positive outlook. You’re more motivated when you’re optimistic. You work more diligently toward the positive outcome when you are able visualize it. Positive visualization even helps you subconsciously; it’s subconscious to you, but you’re doing things that others can perceive through your behavior (e.g. nervousness may show up as being fidgety).
  • Authors tend to make a lot of mistakes (such as unprofessional behavior) when they behave out of fear. Confidence leads to more professional behavior, which is important for long-term success and positive branding.

But overconfidence is a problem for authors.

People are more likely to buy your book if you look like you believe in it; that’s confidence. People are less likely to buy your book if you come across as arrogant or if you brag about your book; that’s overconfidence.

The confident author will let people discover his or her book and then talk about it passionately until the subject naturally changes. The author who introduces his or her book to someone who isn’t expecting this is overconfident that anyone who hears about it in any context will buy it. People are more likely to show interest in things they discover than things that are advertised.

Be confident enough in your book to market it effectively, but try not to be overconfident.

We also tend to make more mistakes when we feel overconfident. If we feel too confident, we may not practice as much as we should or we may not give the matter enough attention.

(2) How can every author attain this?

It’s not easy for everyone to show confidence; some people have more trouble with this than others. But everyone can become confident.

It’s not just a matter of saying you’re confident. There’s much more to it than this.

Suppose you don’t know a word of Russian and suddenly wander down the streets of Moscow telling yourself you’re confident you can easily pick up on the language. Not gonna happen. (Maybe someone will speak English, but you’re not going to instantly pick up Russian no matter how confident you are.)

You can become confident through experience.

Again, this doesn’t just apply to authors. I see it with my students. The student who hasn’t practiced or studied enough definitely lacks confidence. The top students know they have practiced plenty and studied hard, so they show confidence. Then there are good students who worked and studied hard, but don’t show confidence; instead, they show much anxiety and make nervous mistakes. These students didn’t first convince themselves that because they’ve worked and studied so hard, they do know how to solve the problems. They had every reason to be confident. Maybe they have done poorly on tests in the past, and this prevented them from showing the needed confidence.

There is a way for students to overcome exam anxiety. One step at a time. Try to solve one small problem by yourself. Then work your way up to exam conditions. Start with self-check exercises, try practice quizzes, make a practice exam. Put yourself in positions where you experience exam anxiety, where it starts out easy and becomes progressively more challenging. It takes a will to find the way.

Authors can take a similar approach:

  • You become confident in your writing when you receive positive feedback. You might find friends, other authors, and family members to help give you this initial support. The next jump is feedback from neutral readers. If you discover that there is an audience who appreciates your writing, this lends you some needed confidence.
  • You have to learn to deal with criticism. When you receive neutral feedback, you may encounter this. If not, when you publish, you might receive it from reviews. You have to realize that no book pleases everyone. After a couple of days, examine the criticism for anything useful that may help you grow as a writer. If you make any changes that help you improve as a writer, this should give you confidence that your writing has improved. It will, if you just look at it this way. Once you overcome the emotions involved in criticism, this should give you the confidence that you can handle more criticism in the future. It’s very important to work toward this because fear of criticism creates all the problems of being uncertain. You can achieve this in small steps, if necessary. Find ways to confront criticism little by little, starting with friendlier situations.
  • If you need more confidence in your writing, try to learn the craft better. Reading classics can help you master the language. Sometimes reading good writing is better than working on mechanics because you’re not bored in the lesson – it just occurs naturally – and it also conveys a sense of style. Reading grammar and punctuation guides can help, too, even if just a little here and there. Practice writing in a journal every week, working on something specific. If you feel that your writing is improving, it will lend you confidence.
  • Get a good support group. Authors can feed off one another’s confidence and help one another overcome problems that arise. Emotional support can be quite valuable, too.
  • Learn about editing, formatting, cover design, marketing, or anything else that you wish you could be more confident about. The more knowledgeable you become, the more confident you become. If you feel tentative about marketing, for example, research it.
  • Research similar books. Read the top sellers in the genre. See what is common among their storylines and characterization. Research those authors to see what they’re doing to become successful. Learn what readers expect in the genre. The results of your research can help you become more confident in your own book.
  • In addition to learning more about marketing, take one step at a time. Start out with something simple that you feel comfortable doing, get it started, and see how that goes. Then try something new. Eventually, you will develop a following and feel that you’re making a concerted marketing effort.
  • Study the covers and blurbs of top selling books in the genre to learn the art of proper packaging. This will help you become confident that your book will attract the interest of your target audience. Also read up on cover design and blurb writing.
  • Exercise, eat right, and sleep well – all those things the doctors say you should be doing for better health. What? This can affect your ability to show confidence, too? And maybe some confidence will help you get a better night’s sleep.

You can do it if you work at it. Make it a priority to develop and show the confidence you need, while avoiding overconfidence. It is that important. 🙂

¯ A little bit of confidence is all you need,

To give people something that’s sweet to read. ¯

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Jul 6 2013

Cover Design Checklist

Cover Problems Pic

Check for these possible issues when designing a cover:

  • Random imagery. There isn’t an obvious connection (to someone who knows nothing about the book – i.e. the customer browsing search results) between the images. Sending a unified message with a clear signal (i.e. clear in about three seconds) tends to be more effective.
  • Imperfect images. The cover concept is clear, but it doesn’t quite work with the images used. Would a great movie be the same with lousy acting? Finding the right images can make a difference.
  • Photobombing or transparency. An image seems out of place – instead of being a natural part of the scene – or you can see through an image (other than a ghost). This can be quite distracting. Strive for unity.
  • Facial expressions. The model may show the wrong facial expression for the occasion or wear a look of disinterest. A model’s disinterest may carry into the customer. This is a very important element that is often overlooked. Do you see looks of disinterest on popular magazine covers or commercials? Will those models display the wrong emotions?
  • Instamatic. A cover is not merely a snapshot – especially, an ordinary looking snapshot. A fantastic cover doesn’t get the buyer thinking, “Gee, I could have done that.”
  • Refrigerator art. Most hand-drawn images – especially, pencils and crayons – give the impression that the author wished to feature his or her child’s artwork. This may be harsh, the art may be quite good, it may be paid for, it might not be drawn by a child, and the artist might not be related to the author. But it’s the impression that counts. It’s not the quality of the art that’s at stake. Your cover doesn’t need a Picasso. It’s the age of graphic arts. This technology has many amazing possibilities and can help your cover look professional.
  • Bulletin board. Two or more images are put together as if stuck on a bulletin board with thumbtacks. That is, it has this layout, even if it doesn’t look like a bulletin board and there are no thumbtacks. How will such detail show on the thumbnail? One main image will be easier to see, send a more unified message (which is more effective), and aid in recall (part of branding).
  • Photography mistakes. Perspective problem, inconsistent lighting or shadows, red-eye, and blurriness, for example. Don’t distract the buyer.
  • Boring. Bored shoppers don’t buy. Grab the attention of your target audience.
  • Busy. Too much going on. For one, it’s distracting. Also, a single unified message tends to work better. One main image helps with unity and branding.
  • Alignment. An image is off-center, but visually seems like it should be centered. One more distraction to avoid.
  • PhotoShop issues. Aspect ratio, filter issues, too many layers, and pixilation, for example.
  • Cut and paste. Looks like the images were simply found and thrown together, perhaps like a collage. A natural looking scene is less distracting and helps send a more unified message.
  • Deformed creatures. Humans, animals, aliens, or other creatures don’t look quite right. This includes mannequins, avatars, and drawn imagery, for example. This distracts the buyer.
  • Huh? Concept isn’t immediately clear. An effective cover quickly attracts the target audience and sends a brief unified message about what to expect.
  • Sexy. On a cover where this isn’t expected in the genre, or where the appeal is stronger than expected. This appeal may backfire where it’s not expected. Who is your specific target audience? That’s who you want the cover to attract. When a cover attracts the wrong audience, it greatly deters sales.
  • Color clash. The colors don’t coordinate well together. It’s ideal to use three main colors that work very well together: primary 60%, secondary 30%, and accent 10%.
  • Readability. The font is hard to read. A nonstandard word or name is hard to read. Text reads vertically or is otherwise oriented in a hard-to-read way. Wrong words are emphasized (like “the”). L-e-t-t-e-r-s appear individually such that it slows the reading. Text is too small. Buyers browsing search results may decide whether or not to click in just a few seconds. Make it easy to figure out what the text says.
  • Too much text. The text dominates the front cover. In the thumbnail, a few keywords from the title and the author’s name (although this can be smaller than the title, unless you’re famous) should be easily visible, while a main image should dominate the cover. A single main image is your best chance of grabbing attention, signifying the genre and content quickly, and aiding in recall (“I’ve seen this before,” is a key part of branding).
  • Poor font choice. Boring (plain font), doesn’t suit the genre or content, upsets many readers (like Comic Sans), hard to read, or too many different fonts used. One or two fonts that fit the genre and content help to send a unified message. A font that creates interest, yet is easily readable, helps the cover as a whole grab attention. This is a very tough balancing act, and more important than often realized.
  • Mismatch. Cover signifies the wrong genre or subgenre and doesn’t obviously relate to the content (i.e. to a potential buyer who knows absolutely nothing about the book – and won’t read the description to find out because the cover failed to grab his or her attention). This is a very important point, but is also a common mistake.
  • Typo. Spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistake. Oops! A mistake on a title certainly doesn’t bode well for a book with tens of thousands of words.
  • Credit placement. Traditionally published covers often give credit to the cover designer on the back cover with a small font (name and website) as well as on the copyright page (so people who like the cover and blurb will find it on the Look Inside). This is common among professional cover design. What’s common on self-published covers is for this acknowledgment to appear on the front cover in a large font. If the cover looks professional, this will be obvious at a glance; it won’t be necessary to declare this on the front cover.
  • By. Using the word “by” prior to the author’s name. It’s obvious who the author is, so this is superfluous. Some customers perceive this as amateurish. Avoid possible distractions.

It’s far easier to criticize a cover than to design a perfect cover.

There are so many mistakes to make that a few are almost inevitable.

But the best covers tend to avoid almost all of these mistakes.

I’ve made some of these mistakes myself. I certainly didn’t have all this in mind when I designed my first cover.

Publishing Resources

I started this blog to provide free help with writing, publishing, and marketing. You can find many free articles on publishing and marketing by clicking one of the following links:

Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

Jul 5 2013

How Do You Measure Self-Publishing Success?

Measuring Success Pic

If you write a book and choose to self-publish it, you want to know whether or not it was successful.

Not all authors publish for the same reasons. Most just love to write. Some saw a need and are trying to fill it. Others are exploring something new. A few write as part of a business plan.

All books aren’t created equal. A few authors researched the genre thoroughly. Some books are well-edited. Others have fantastic covers and blurbs. There is a larger target audience for some books than for others, and it’s easier for the target audience to discover some books. Some authors have a strong reputation and large following before they publish. A few books receive independent reviews. Not all writing is equal, either.

But despite all of these differences between authors, books, expectations, goals, qualifications, and such, there is a simple, common way that all authors can measure success.

One step at a time.

The first step is when you finish writing. This is worthy of a round of applause.

The second step is when your book is published. Please, take a bow.

Your first sale. Treasure it always and forever.

The first time you make X dollars in one day. Or month. Or year.

The first time you sell Y books in one day. Or month. Or year.

Improvement.

If you steadily improve, that’s continued success.

Every time you break your own record for the number of books sold or the total royalties for one day, month, or year, you’ve improved. You’ve become more successful.

You have separate records for CreateSpace, Kindle, and anywhere else you publish. So if Kindle is down, but CreateSpace is up, you have some success to smile about.

There are seasonal effects. So if July’s sales are down compared to June, that’s okay. But maybe 2013 is looking better than 2012. That’s successful.

Your first good review. Congratulations!

The first time you’re featured in a paper. Wow!

The first time a bookstore agrees to stock your book. Incredible!

Your lowest sales rank. Way to go!

Your best author rank. Fantastic!

When other authors speak of making bestseller lists, don’t be disappointed or jealous. When other authors complain of no sales, don’t feel superior.

Don’t compare yourself to them.

Compare yourself to your old self. Try to improve upon your previous self. Success isn’t about being  better than others. It’s about being better than you were before.

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self,” according to Ernest Hemingway.

Success isn’t just measured in numbers.

If you publish a second book and you improved upon mistakes that you made in your first, this is success, regardless of what the numbers show.

Gaining experience and showing wisdom are measures of success, too. Even if the numbers go down.

Supporting your colleagues is also a measure of success. If your sales go down, but you’re more actively making positive contributions to the community, that’s still successful.

Don’t just look at the numbers. Think of ways that you’ve grown as an author. These qualitative measures of success may be even more important than the numbers.

That’s important to remember. Because if your happiness depends on numbers, you may spend much of your life being unhappy.

Worse, you may make your life miserable working too hard toward improving your numbers.

Don’t let numbers rule your emotions.

Do your best to grow as an author. Strive to improve your numbers. But remember, the numbers involve chance. Your growth as an author is a truer indicator of success.

As you write more books… as you learn more about marketing… as you learn to market more effectively… as you gain a greater following… you improve your chances of growing your numbers.

Do the best you can, and be happy with that.

If the numbers improve, smile. You’re successful. 🙂

If the numbers don’t improve, but you grew as an author, still smile. You’re still successful. 🙂

If the numbers don’t improve, you didn’t change as an author, but you helped other authors grow, you should still smile. This was successful, too. 🙂

Jul 4 2013

Self-Publishing Freedom (My Story)

Freedom Pic

Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day, here in the United States. So it seems appropriate to write about some form of freedom today.

This post is far more personal than usual. But it relates to self-publishing and freedom.

I have been writing avidly for over twenty years, but I only published my first book in 2008. I had considered publishing my first book around 1990.

Back in 1990, publishing wasn’t nearly as easy. To put things in perspective, in 1990, I had a beat up old typewriter and a computer that was basically a fancy word processor. No internet, no email, hardly any memory. Still typed with two spaces, not one, after a period.

That didn’t stop me from writing, though. But compared to today, publishing was a far greater challenge.

I didn’t realize that self-publishing was possible then. Well, for me, it wasn’t. I didn’t have the money to order a thousand or more books up front and didn’t even have a garage in which to store them. Even if I did, how was I going to sell them? I wouldn’t have self-published in 1990 if I had known how to do it.

The idea of publishing also seemed much more intimidating twenty years ago than it does now.

I had no idea how to get published. I didn’t know any published writers. So what did I do?

Went to the bookstore, of course. Compared to today, there weren’t nearly as many books about how to get published. I wound up spending an arm and a leg on a huge book called Writer’s Market.

That book was intimidating, too. Partly, because it was enormous. Also, it seemed very formal. And it emphasized the importance of query letters and book proposals. And self-addressed, stamped envelopes; the good old SASE.

First, you browse through all of the publishers listed in Writer’s Market. The places where you really want to publish your book have closed doors. Most of the big boys weren’t looking for first-time authors. And they didn’t want to hear from the author, they wanted to work with your agent.

Big dilemma: Should you search for a publisher or an agent? And was it worth going through some small publisher whom you’ve never heard of before?

I wrote frequently. Nonfiction, mostly math and science. Short stories. I loved writing. I had no shortage of creative ideas back then. I felt sure that a publisher would be interested in one of them.

But contacting a publisher, that was the hurdle. Which idea to present? You have to choose wisely.

You’d hate to write the whole book, then never get published. You’d hate to write a hundred page book proposal and not have anything to show for it thirty rejection letters and one year later. You could write a whole book while all that time was being wasted.

It didn’t seem very efficient. Just imagine what first-time authors could do if they could just focus on writing.

And what if they stole your idea, or your whole book? Maybe this was rare, but I had heard stories. True or not, those stories scare you. Our books are our babies. We must protect them.

Writing didn’t seem very practical, so I was studying physics. I wrote my homework as if I were writing a textbook. I didn’t just put the math together. I wrote sentences in between the lines, explaining the steps. I numbered figures and wrote captions below them.

If I couldn’t get my writing published, maybe I could publish a textbook someday. I was practicing for it.

In the late 1990’s, I made a variety of math worksheets. Mostly arithmetic. It was for family. I formatted the problems to fit on the page and provided room to work in. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about making a math workbook. But the way they were formatted, a math workbook could easily be made from them.

I started teaching as a graduate assistant in 1994. I loved typing up handouts, from syllabi to problems to lab manuals to notes to supplemental material.

By 2000, I had written numerous short stories, a few books, several math worksheets, tons of lecture notes and other handouts, and a very long dissertation for my Master’s thesis in physics. In the next few years, I would add another long dissertation for my Ph.D. thesis and publish a half-dozen articles on the collider phenomenology of large extra dimensions.

I started writing complete lab manuals for physics in 2003 and put together a book of creative physics problems. I typed all of my lecture notes.

Did I mention that I was a very avid writer? I have always loved writing. And I have always been organized and efficient. Plus, I can’t sit still for long. I have to do something. One thing you can do regardless of the weather (thunderstorms, ice, rain, snow, hail, too hot and humid – doesn’t matter) is write. So I wrote. And I wrote an awful lot.

There was also a very lonely period of my life in there. A couple of years where there was nothing else to do but write. Writing will always be there for you.

But what was I going to do with all of my writing? Fortunately, I was able to share it with students. Would that be it, or would there be more?

I decided to see if I could get some of my writing published. I had always enjoyed contemplating the fourth dimension, ever since I discovered Rudy Rucker’s book on the subject. Then when I was working on my Ph.D. in particle physics, the subject of large extra dimensions just started to become popular. It was a match made in heaven.

Thus, my first serious book, for which I became determined to publish, would be a book on the fourth dimension. At first, I called it Searching for Extra Dimensions. Later, it turned into The Visual Guide to the Fourth Dimension. And it grew into two separate volumes.

I made a serious search for a publisher or agent when this book was more than half finished. I wrote several drafts of query letters and book proposals. I even sent some out.

Rejection is painful. It’s not just being rejected. It’s often what they say when they reject it.

I had a Ph.D. in particle physics. I had published a half-dozen papers on the collider physics of large extra dimensions. I taught physics to eleventh- and twelfth-grade geniuses at a specialized school for math and science. I had been explaining difficult math and physics concepts to students for 15 years. I had contemplated a fourth dimension of space since I was a teenager. Was I not qualified to write a popular book on the subject of the fourth dimension?

Apparently not. I submitted a hundred page book proposal, including a sample of the book. I had even made a cover myself where the title looked four-dimensional. The cover featured a three-dimensional construction of a four-dimensional tesseract. In color. I thought this cool cover would give it an edge over all of the dry nonfiction science book proposals out there.

The publisher could have been open and honest from the beginning and saved me a great deal of time. There was only one page on that proposal that seemed to matter: My resume. Why ask for a book proposal when there is only one page of interest?

I taught physics to gifted students at one of the premier high schools in the country. Students from around the state came to this school, living in a dorm while attending. These kids earned a ton of scholarship money. Many went to top universities and thrived there. The physics course I taught to those high school students was more rigorous than any university course I have ever taught.

But to the editor, it was no different than any other high school.

So I had written a book on the fourth dimension, but didn’t know what I was going to do with it. My publishing dreams had been smashed, shattered, crushed…

Then, one day in 2008, I logged onto Amazon as I often did. I have been a loyal customer for a long time. I loved books, and with the used book prices, I could afford to buy more books from Amazon. And I could buy more books by reselling some of my used books; the ones I was willing to part with, anyway.

I can’t remember why I scrolled down to the bottom of Amazon’s homepage. I just did. And then I noticed it. In small letters. Self-publish with us.

What does that mean? Self-publish with whom?

That’s when I discovered CreateSpace.

CreateSpace offered me the freedom to self-publish. With no up-front cost. Without having a thousand books stored in my garage. And to have my book available on Amazon. It seemed too good to be true.

  • The freedom to write and publish regardless of my resume.
  • The freedom not to have to cater my book to the needs or expectations of an editor.
  • The freedom to write my book the way I want.
  • The freedom to focus on writing the book, not query letters or book proposals.

I had to learn how to format my own manuscript, convert to PDF, make my own cover, market my book, and a thousand other things I could never have imagined.

But it was worth it. I’d rather invest my time and effort perfecting my own book and getting it out there than to put all of that time into query letters and book proposals. Self-publishing is a sure thing; your time won’t be wasted. Your book will be available. It might not sell, but it will be published.

I decided that I needed some experience before I published my work on the fourth dimension. I had made some sheets for keeping track of golf statistics in the past. So I made a few books like The Golf Stats Log Book. These were easy to make, especially since I had made several worksheets like these in the past. They were useful for me, so I figured they could be helpful for other golfers. I turned these into books, formatting the interiors and making covers for them. This was good practice for my book on the fourth dimension.

I published several books in 2008, including the first volume of my book on extra dimensions. It was really cool to find my books on Amazon. To see my book in print. To show friends and family. To send my books to friends and family. To sell my first book. To get a sales rank.

Would these books sell? Every author has the fantasy of selling hundreds of copies per day and eventually becoming a bestseller. Before you publish your first book, you already have a fancy sports car and beautiful mansion picked out, right?

Well, you read something about advances that publishers pay. You were dreaming of tens of thousands of dollars up front if you traditionally published. Dreaming. Because they’re more likely to pay that to celebrities and already highly successful authors. You might get a modest advance, and that might be all you get. You were also thinking that if you sold 50,000 copies or more, you’d get 15% of the royalties. Hoping. Dreaming.

So when you self-publish, you have that advance (that you never got) and that huge royalty check (that you never got) in your mind. You’re comparing with what you had hoped for.

But you also have to be realistic. You’re not sure you’ll sell any books at all.

What would a reasonable expectation be? Maybe, if I could buy a car? Maybe, if after 10 years, the total royalties would be good enough that I would stop wondering if traditional publishing would have paid better? Maybe.

$200 per month would be $2400 per year. That wouldn’t be much after one year, but after 10 years, that would be pretty big. And if sales held steady, your book becomes a retirement plan. Well, we can dream; there are no guarantees.

I started publishing in July of 2008. From August, 2008 thru February, 2009, sales were dismal. Just a few copies here and there. I should have quit, right? It clearly wasn’t working out. My books weren’t being discovered. They weren’t selling. No reviews.

But I didn’t give up. I knew that I just needed to give it time. I was confident in my book on the fourth dimension. There had to be other people like myself who appreciated this subject, who would enjoy some cool concepts and diagrams from my book.

And I kept writing. I had ideas for other books, and worked on those. I have since discovered that most indie authors employ this trick: Keep yourself busy writing to keep your mind off everything else. There is also the hope that the next book will do better. And it should, because you’re wiser and more experienced.

Then in March, 2009, it happened. All of a sudden, out of the clear blue, people were starting to buy my books. I released Volume 2 of my extra dimensions book in March. That did it.

Maybe people were waiting for both volumes to be out. Maybe somebody reviewed my book. (One reader had contacted me by email, asking me when Volume 2 would be out. Was he a book reviewer? I always wondered, but never investigated.) The second book related to string theory, so it was in the string theory category at Amazon. In March, Volume 2 showed up in the New Releases section of Amazon. Maybe there were a lot of readers checking out new releases in string theory back then. Most string theory readers probably didn’t know about self-publishing in early 2009, and so wouldn’t have realized that my book wasn’t traditionally published. Maybe Volume 1 had finally sold enough copies to gain visibility through Customer Also Bought lists. Who knows?

But whatever happened, it was amazing. Prior to March, 2009, I had never made $100 in royalties in a single month. In March, 2009, I almost busted a $1000. I took a snapshot of my sales rank on Amazon. It peaked at about 5,000 and held onto this for several days.

So I took my family out to dinner to celebrate. Thinking, finally. This is awesome. I started having more of those fantasies of being a successful author. That’s when sales started to drop off somewhat. Why does a little celebration kill your own sales? Are we not allowed to celebrate for an hour? Really? After months and months of hard work?

But even after sales had stopped skyrocketing, they still came. Not as frequent as the first two weeks of March, but far, far better than they had before. And they have steadily grown from that point forward. If you keep publishing books, your sales can grow. Similar titles may help one another.

In the summer of 2009, I got an idea. I could make a series of math workbooks. Heck, I had already made math worksheets several years before. Thus started my Improve Your Math Fluency Series. These math workbooks have been among my most successful books. And they help students improve their math skills. I’m a teacher at heart. For me, helping others learn is the most important thing. Here, I had a chance to do this through writing and publishing.

I’ve learned a great deal about writing, formatting, cover design, and especially marketing. I had been a salesman for 9 years while working my way through college, so I knew something about marketing. But marketing books is different.

With what I know now, I would do things differently. I would have marketed more from the beginning. I was fortunate. I published nonfiction and I had qualifications. I had also had years of experience of trying to format pages to look like books, including drawing illustrations on the computer. I have learned much, much more about marketing, and started marketing my own books more and more.

I can’t help my former self. But now that I have achieved some modest success, I can help others. They had a great concept in that movie, Pay It Forward. I see it in action frequently in the self-publishing industry – i.e. experienced authors helping new authors. New authors are fortunate to find a lot of support from others. There is more and more free material to help authors learn about formatting, marketing, editing, and so on. And there are many helpful authors in the self-publishing community forums. It makes me smile to see all of the helping hands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_It_Forward

I try to see the good. It’s easy to see the bad. It’s more challenging to find the good. Look for it. It’s more rewarding than looking for the bad. And it helps you stay positive. And it helps improve the ratio of bad to good. If you have a chance to help fix the bad, even a little, then try it. But don’t dwell on the bad.

Amazon, CreateSpace, and Kindle Direct Publishing have given me the freedom to self-publish. Amazon gave me my chance. And I’m forever grateful for that.

I have a writing voice, and my voice has been heard. It might be a whisper, but it’s a voice nonetheless.

And WordPress. I’m glad I finally discovered WordPress. I love it. 🙂

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers