Advice to Newbie Indie Authors

As a blanket rule I have begun only "fanning" authors that I have read and am actually a fan of on Goodreads. The readers on this sight are savvy people and they are serious about their book reviews and who they choose to fan. As an author you can lose face with them if you try marketing ploys like fanning other authors indiscriminately. You must also NEVER outright suggest they read your book. Don't even hint at it. Some of them are nice and just ignore you. Others will unfriend you and tell their friends how annoying you are. 

I know it's a big thing to spend a lot of time engaging other authors. Don't. Some time is fine, but not the majority of it. Engage potential readers. Who do you write like? Go to that author's page and friend request their fans, those people obviously already enjoy that style of writing. DO NOT solicit to these people either. Take an interest in their posts. Be sincere. Respect their intelligence. 


Secondly, a book giveaway is the best thing you can do as a new author. List a giveaway, it can be small. Five books. Blog about it, post links to your blog on twitter with the hashtag #bgrt #bookgiveaways. In two weeks my unknown book gathered 1100 entries. Be relentless, be engaging. Drink a lot of caffeine. 

If you have $30-40 to spend create a carefully targeted and worded Facebook Ad. Do you have a Facebook Page? You should. Not a profile, a page. You can advertise your page to drive up numbers but often times people will like your Facebook page and never buy your book. That's a waste of money. I run one ad for Barnes and Noble and the other for Amazon. Make sure to include the price, that way people already know what they'll be spending and you don't waste any clicks (it's pay per click). For targeting, again, list authors similar to you, this also helps ensure that you'll have people who are a good fit for your book clicking on your ad. 

It takes time. It's frustrating, I know. Hang in there. Don't throw your energy into things that don't work. These readers don't care if you have a zillion fans, they care if you write well. I use to do the tag my book and fanning other authors...it doesn't work. Do a giveaway, run an ad on goodreads or Facebook (which is really cheap, just make sure to set your overall spending limit AND your daily budget so your ad doesn't run off with your wallet). The best advertising is free. Word of mouth. Get those first, excited readers and you'll slowly be off and running! Blog, facebook, twitter, goodreads...link everything. And somehow find time to keep writing and revising. When you don't have the big bucks to dump into big, flashy ads that are constantly running, YOU have to be the one that is constantly running. Make sure you're spending your energy wisely. 


And do not try to hop on the coattails of other indie authors. It's rude.

Good luck.

Crisis Averted

All right kids....

Thanks to a very helpful thread on Amazon's Createspace and a guy who knew just the right thing to say, we now have page numbers! Woohoo! Page numbers have never been this exciting! Also, whilst finding the solution to our page number woes I also discovered something most of us probably don't even pause to consider: Chapters always start on the right-hand page. Never thought about it, but it's so true! So....we have page numbers and our chapters begin on the right-hand page. Folks around here will probably be a little sad that I have things figured out. I've been giving away the proofs that weren't quite right. Not that there is a hoard of people following me and demanding copies, but there are several people who have been waiting. So, cross your fingers, this may really be it! And, now at 394 pages the book will be $15.99. Maybe that sounds ridiculous but if you bought Filter at your local bookstore that would earn me $0.82. So no, I'm not trying to get rich quick! That's just what it is. If you want to save $15, you can download the ebook for $0.99! It doesn't need page numbers!

Ex-Indie Novelist

It may be temporary, it may be permanent, but I have pulled my ebook off the web. I have unpublished myself. Why? It takes too much time and energy to self-publish. And money, which I don't have. I also don't know the right people. I've been spending all of my so-called free time marketing myself to people who don't want to pay for an eBook from an unrepresented author. This means that I haven't had time to write on Book Two or ponder the weaknesses of Book 1.

Yes, I nearly have a degree in Business management and one in Marketing. But I don't like doing those things. I like to write, to spin webs and create emotions. 

So I have yanked my book in an effort to find an agent and/or publisher so that they can do the nasty promotional work while I spin another web. 

More Cowbell

This use to be my husband's shirt. He thinks it still is.
Silly man.

Filter~Prologue

Prologue
Vienna, Austria
1866

“That monk is a doddering fool.”

He remained bent over the microscope, speaking more to his Petri dish than the imbecile who had come to question him.

“Yes Doctor, but what you’re working on…”

“Will ensure Austria’s power for eternity.”

The man scoffed. He had heard of the scientist’s maniacal zeal. His mother had warned him that being intelligent was admirable and, if utilized properly, profitable but there came a point when it was nothing but a detriment. Genius was often followed by madness, she had said. Looking at the frenzied younger man, Dr. Rochenstein fully appreciated the wise woman his mother had been.

“The University,” he continued. “Needs more assurance of the potential success of your work.”

A bitter laugh resonated within the form hunched over the microscope. “You mean they would like to know when my work will begin repaying their generosity.”

It was not a question.

Everyone knew of the lavish expenses of the professor, but no one was certain of what the money was being spent on. There was gossip and speculation that perhaps he was building some great invention, but this was circulated only among those who did not know his particular field was biology.

(c) 2010 Gwenn Wright

Library of Congress

Going to Print

It would be really helpful if people leave some more reviews of filter. I've had 200+ downloads on Smashwords and only three at Amazon. It's really disheartening. Everyone wants six or seven months' work for free, which makes me feel as though they don't think my story is worth $2.99. And if they don't think it's worth that as an eBook I'm certainly not putting out the cash to get it printed. No way.
I don't think people realize how important reviews are from a sales standpoint. Before self-publishing I never really thought about it that way. It was just a way to tell other readers what they should and shouldn't spend their money on.
Now I know, for the indie writer customer reviews are paramount.
I'm really tired and bummed and shouldn't be blogging right now.
My husband refuses the idea of us having a baby while we're living at my parents' house. We can't move out of my parents' house because we're trying to pay off certain debt created by a certain loco ex. And in a few months we have to start paying off his school debt. And I only make a few hundred working at the university as a studio tech. It's like being a teenager. But I'm 30 and I've had my own house and I have a husband and three kids.....So, I reckon that when I graduate I will start grad school (masters in journalism and/or social media) and juggle that with having a job, preferably with a newspaper or radio station or tv news station. Which means I won't have time to write book two, which really bums me out.
Ignore the woman behind the screen she's just a shameless self-promoter dealing with a lot of crap right now.

An Illustration ~ The Fabulous Life of an indie writer

It isn't fair to call us shameless self-promoters. A lot of us work our tails off without ever knowing if it will pan out. I'm working my butt of to sell my book for a whopping $2.99. Tired of being called shamless. I guess if we hired other people to do it for us (an agent) that would make it okay. The fact that we're doing all our own marketing, reading whatever we can, working on our next books, and running our daily lives (because we aren't necessarily making money off writing...you're right, we're shamless. 

Fan Page

Is it not kosher to promote another fan page while on another site?
I don't even know.
You can join my little group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=108780859177556&ref=ts

A friend of mine read the first few chapters of Filter: Book 2 the other day and he tells me, "That character eats Cap'n Crunch." So I went back and changed it from "cereal" to "Cap'n Crunch." That was so fun! I would love to do more of that. Obviously not with anything that would interfere with my plot, but the small details that add depth...I wouldn't mind taking suggestions from people who have read the first book. It's a neat idea. We become so familiar with characters we read that we want to contribute from our own personal visions, like what kind of cereal he would eat. 
So if you read Filter, please feel free to give suggestions for the little things. Maybe Raquel likes striped socks or something. I think that would be cool as a reader to read something and know, that was put in there because of me.
So give me some small details here or on Facebook and we'll see what we can do!
And don't forget, at Amazon you can try before you buy!

Am I Officially A Novelist?

My sons' open houses were last night.
As it is inevitable that someone there, usually their teachers, will ask,  "What do you do?" I inquired of my son on the way, "So when people ask, do I tell them I'm a novelist? Or do I have to stick with the usual, `I'm finishing up my degree?'"
My nine year-old paused to puzzle over this.

His first reaction was going to be, "Eh, I don't think so."
After all I haven't even made twenty bucks selling novels.
Even though in the 12 days that it's been up 187 people have downloaded the book that took me four months to write. Only three have been willing to pay $2.99 for it at amazon. I bumped the price up to .99 at Smashwords and no one wanted to pay for it despite two very good reviews. I'm beginning to get this feeling that unless you've been blessed enough to rise about the slush pile people don't consider your work worth their money.
That hardly seems fair. I've only sent my book to one agency. And they get thousands of submissions a month and I'm also relying on my marketing skills to pitch my book. I am not a pitchman. I'm also holding out. There's an agency I REALLY want to represent me so I'm willing to take my time. MEANWHILE, I need to make money. I would love to offer it free forever ( it is free here http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/20957 )to teens but there is a practical side to this. And it's a struggle for me. I long for the day when YA girls are reading my stories and falling in love with William and Viktor and are just excited about talking about them as I am. That's my main motivation. But I also long for the days of having my own home (we live with my parents) and being able to fix my stupid broken tooth that hurts so much.
I've worked harder at being a writer than I have ever worked at anything (well, besides being a wife and mom....and I've worked pretty hard and filming and editing.) Sometimes (when the boys and the man are gone) I'll work from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. And my poor body is not any better for it. But this is what I love so it's okay. Just because I don't have an agent and I don't have a big publishing house behind me doesn't mean I'm not a real writer. It doesn't mean that I don't have mad storytelling skillz. It just means that the one literary agency I took a chance on hasn't called back yet, maybe my pitch wasn't good enough. Isn't that ridiculous? To base my storytelling skillz on whether or not some overworked literary agent could assess my overall work through a one page letter? One letter among hundreds and thousands? I'm not good at concise self-promotions. I'm a long-winded kind of gal. Just do me a favor, give the indie writers a chance. We're real writers too.