I write of legends
Kicking off the Age of Heroes
Followed by one left behind
Vampires rule the night
Slumberlords and hero thieves
A continent has been found
War between the fallen ones
While children hunt for long lost gods
Hunters of monsters and slayers of wraiths
Two seek the abandoned throne
Lost angels and half-demons
Blood no longer on his hands
Protectors of the psychic child
Awoken when sealed heroes rise again
Tales of gods and warriors
Until the Great Cataclysm struck
Changing Windemere to present day
Ancient secrets held by a lonely man
Cocky warriors bond within their schools
A zombie seeks her life’s goal
Robots, spies, and fairies
Altered mercs and soulless beasts
An abandoned child among the stars
All leading to the final hour
Where hero faces the maddest villain
This is my legacy
The stories I strive to tell
Before I sleep eternal
And enter Windemere forever
So I’ve been . . . do I really have to explain the picture and bad joke? No? Good then let me continue here. I’ve been looking at sites to try and figure out more about the algorithm Amazon uses. This has proven to be a foolish endeavor because I’m one of the least mathematically-minded people in the world. All I can figure out is the following:
Amazon factors in amount sold in a 24 hour period and price.
Free downloads no longer factor in or only talk 10% of the consideration.
.99 cent books have been obsoleted.
.99 cent books are still viable.
Once you get on the list, you’ll be able to stay there for a long time.
Amazon changes the algorithms 2-3 times a year.
This does explain how a new book can race up the rankings and leave older books in the dust. If it didn’t work that way then new books would rarely reach the lists. So, you have to make the algorithm look more at current activity instead of the past sales. Still, this thing is an utter mystery to me.
It makes me wonder my old question about price, which I’ve discussed a few times. I hear people saying that .99 cents isn’t selling, but then I hear that $2.99 eBooks aren’t doing any better. I planned to boost Prodigy of Rainbow Tower to $2.99 after Labor Day, but now I have no idea. How do the successful $2.99 authors get up there? Is it the Summer Slump that I’m seeing? I’m nervous about the price jump even though I currently intend to go through with it.
Even stranger, I see to sell more when I’m asleep. The Facebook Groups helped out, so I might make a FB Group posting schedule. That way I post my books on each group once a week in a rotating schedule. Except I only have 4 sites right now, but I’ll just double it a few times. That reminds me: does anyone know the limit before Facebook bans you for promoting your stuff and not giving Zuckerberg a cut of the profits?
How are the other authors that debuted around this time doing? Have you noticed any trends or seasonal effects so far?
I just started looking into these and I realized how many they are. Some even lead to cheap advertising sites. I’m looking at one site that has a $5 package where you get posted on their Facebook page and a Tweet to their 8,000+ followers. They also have a $10 package that includes a cover shot on their site. Finally, they have a $20 package that has all of the above and the site runner buys your book to make an honest review. That’s pretty damn cheap and the site is called Indie Author Anonymous. I’m waiting to hear back from them for more details.
Here is what I’m putting under my Advertising Sites link for Facebook Groups:
There are several Facebook groups that you can promote on. The ones that I use are Novelspot Readers, Heroic Fantasy, Authors and Book Lovers Discussion Group, and Indie Author Book Promotion Page. There are hundreds of others if you go hunting and I’m still picking a few up. Follow their rules and promote your book for a few sales and exposure. I haven’t figured out how best to use them and how often to post. Maybe once every 2-3 days to avoid over doing it.
I’ll say this. I posted on Authors and Book Lovers Discussion Group. Somebody told me they downloaded a copy of Beginning of a Hero before I even finished posting about Prodigy of Rainbow Tower. Something to think about there.
So, I’ve been doing good with the sales considering it’s the summer. The free weekend isn’t doing as hot as the previous one even with more advertising. I’m learning my lesson not to release a book in the summer until I have such an amazing fan base that I can do no wrong.
Here are a few things I learned so far:
I have no idea what works and what doesn’t, so I don’t want to cut anything out.
Real life friends and family have been oddly silent this time. Probably pissed most of them off with constant book-related Facebook posts.
No idea if .99 cent price is helping the sales. Tempted to jack up to $2.99 earlier, but I should stay the course. Make Labor Day the final .99 cent day and try to bill that weekend as a sale.
The big push that happened to the first book seems to have been caused by getting onto the Top 100 Lists. I’m on the Hot New Release lists, which helps. It’s those big lists where you see the big names. That’s my goal and I’m not sure how to reach it.
That’s the big question here. What does an indie author do to get more exposure when they’ve already signed up with all the sites they can find, guest blog, interview, and constantly tweet during the day? The book trailer fell through for now and I don’t know how to make one with the pictures that I have. It’s confusing because I still don’t know how I made my way onto the list for the first time and I’ve been told this is a superior book. Maybe I need more reviews, but that’s beyond my control.
Guess this week will continue being a nerve-wracking adventure. Any other authors find some trends or tricks that seem to really work?
Now that you’ve decided to be an author, I’m sure you have a marvelous idea. Can I hear it? Oh, like Twilight. Not like Twilight? Explain more. So, it’s like Harry Potter? Don’t give me attitude. Oh, like Romance of the Three Kingdoms. You never heard of it? It’s about the unification of . . . get off the window ledge and sit down. All hope is not lost, you big baby. Stop trying to eat your notebooks. Sit and listen while I explain another dark side of writing:
Somebody did it before you.
There’s no way around it since humans have been telling stories for years. Lion King is Hamlet. Anything with a son overthrowing the father can be connected to Zeus and Cronus of Greek Mythology. Our species has been around so long that all basic stories have been used. Key word there, little author, is BASIC. We’re at a point where, as the wise TJ Therien sort of said, it’s about personal expression in art and not about originality since every thought has been thunk. Who is TJ? Go visit his blog and figure it out because I’m not his biographer.
This gives you a lot of influence to work off of and a lot of research that can be done, but it has that nasty dark side: The Fan of Someone Else! You may have met these people that can never be won over. They want you to write exactly like their favorite author because that’s ‘how it should be done’. Your unique flair offends their standards and you should be publicly mauled by a polar bear for your transgressions. Think writing exactly like their favorite author will save you? Ha! Then they accuse you of plagiarism and demand that you be publicly mauled by a grizzly bear for your theft. What I’m trying to say, kid, is that you can’t win everybody over.
That’s the horrible truth that authors have to live with. People will despise what you write because it either doesn’t fit their standards or fits them too well. Half the time the arguments don’t really make sense. I once heard a fan try to explain how Game of Thrones ripped off Harry Potter because they both have dragons. I’ll wait while your brain stops screaming in agony. Back with us? Sorry about that, but you can see how even the slightest similarity can be snatched by a person determined to prove how their favorite book is superior to everything ever written. Time doesn’t even factor into some of these people like, brace yourself brain, a person claiming Romeo & Juilet is a copy of Twilight. Wow. That scream is loud. Think happy, fluffy thoughts and we’ll continue.
You might be asking what you can do as an author to avoid this. Well, you can’t, so stop asking about it. Those that follow the trends will always be dubbed copycats of the popular titles whether they deserve the title or not. Those that stand out in the open will forever be compared to the others and told why they’re an insult to their genre. You simply can’t win over everyone without a movie starring Anthony Hopkins, Robert Downey Jr. Emma Watson, or Morgan Freeman. Even then I’m sure the people who hate stuff to be cool will be an issue.
Let’s face it, kid. As authors, we put our dreams and hearts out there and people were put on this planet to attack. They want something fresh and original while watching or reading the rehashing of an old theme. Guess that’s how it works. Whatever we love is original and fresh. Whatever we hate is cliche, stolen, and stale.
Cheers and good luck, kid. You’re going to need it.
A noble quest By every living artist To be the first With nothing from the past Everything is new And fresh from your mind
Is it even possible? Hunger Royale and Avatar Gully Game of Politics Always a hint of influence A touch of the past Just ask Merlin Potter
If everything is done How does one go on? Condemned to a world Where only fan-fic thrives? We can’t all be Tolkien And his ring from mythos past
The quest should be good story With characters that thrive Draw the reader into your world Those that hate will find flaws Because you failed To write the book they already read
I’m working on a tongue-and-cheek post about why people would hate a book. This wasn’t set off by a bad review or anything, but I feel like being funny. It’s going to take some time, so I thought I’d toss out this poem. I truly believe that the basic story of everything has been told and the trick is to work with worlds and characters. If you’re cunning, you can connect new stuff to anything. Heck, you’re doomed once you claim a genre. Anyway, this tends to be a heated topic and I’m going to hit it with some humor later.
Thank you to S.K. Nicholls for letting me write a guest blog for her blog. I am Charles E Yallowitz and I’m the author behind the new fantasy series Legends of Windemere. I asked for a topic and my generous host suggested weight loss. Everyone is trying to lose weight, but I was a little hard-pressed to tie this into my new book’s release. Then it hit me that so many characters are thin and in shape. What is their secret? I’m here to share some of those secrets.
Fire Magic– You think spellcasters only learn fire magic for destroying their enemies? I don’t think so. Cast enough fire magic in an enclosed room and you heat it up to sweat the pounds away. A little water magic to make some mist and you have a sauna.
