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Post by garyweston on Jan 1, 2016 5:25:28 GMT -8
I certainly hope so. My promo ends on the 3rd so I'll update how things go, up to and after that. After the 15th I'll go into K U again and repeat the free thing again in any slow periods.
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Post by garyweston on Jan 1, 2016 10:31:08 GMT -8
We have touched on reviews in this thread and I add my first one for this new year. Only 3 stars (to go with the 5 star one with it) but it is an example of what I mean as an unsolicited constructive review. This is the second favorable review of this book which mentions the ending as not quite being what they wanted. The other one was on Goodreads. This should now prompt me to look at the ending to see if I can improve it. The other comment refers to the Kiwi slang. I lived in N Z for many years so was comfortable including them but I did add translations. My main point for including this review is because this was a sleeper book only getting reads since the free Zon promo. This reader will now go on to read others by me. Promo working. Review follows
I really like this book 95 Million Killers until the end. The bioengineered carnivorous possums where in a lot of ways smarter than the people in the story because the military was never able to find the main den. If you like government and business coverups you will enjoy the book. The book is written using some New Zealand slang, which took me a while to get used to. I do not want to give up any spoilers but I can understand why the possums were so easy to kill at the end; when it was extremely difficult to eliminate the carnivorous possums throughout the book. I will definitely read other works by this author. If you like an offbeat 1970s/1980s style of monster story then you will like this book.
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Post by garyweston on Jan 2, 2016 14:50:16 GMT -8
I responded to the review and re-read the whole thing. This gave me the chance to give the thing a little touch up. I still really enjoyed the story. Lots of gore and stuff. The burning question, did I change the ending? Hmm? No. Not really. Just a tidy up but essentially the same. It worked for me. I may not always agree with the readers, but at least I do listen. I have republished the tidier version on Zon, If you want to grab the free one, here it is if that's allowed. I would be interested in your opinions of the disputed ending. www.amazon.com/95-Million-Killers-Gary-Weston-ebook/dp/B00T3436O6/ref=sr_1_19?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1451775092&sr=1-19&keywords=gary+weston762 KU reads so far today and 75 freebies taken up. (plus a few sales) I couldn't understand why some of the K U reads were on a book (last Flight For Craggy) which is free for another day??? Then I realised it had been downloaded on K U before it went free then read once the new years partying was over. The other K U reads are for the rest of the Craggy series, so all good. The promo has done better than expected with hundreds of readers discovering my books. My next K U outing, basically a continuation of this one, starts on 15th Jan and I intend to do another big freebie push at the end of Jan but probably not throwing so much in the pot all at once. Use it tactically, I say.
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Post by garyweston on Jan 4, 2016 5:41:53 GMT -8
Well, that's the end of the first KU freebie fest. Just had another good review for 95 million killers. Must think about doing a sequel. Yes. I would enjoy that. Paid sales are looking ok and sales rankings for a couple of "paid" books heading in the right way. I'm pleased 95 million killers is getting some attention at last. I would like to see more New Zealand readers taking it up and the other books set in NZ. Maybe one day. I'll see if I can find a way to push it that way. So. There you have it. My own K U experience thus far. Warts and all. Any books getting a real roasting with reviews etc, will be unpublished so as not to drag the others down. I will go over these to see where they can be improved then republish them. I'll never win awards for my writing but if I can entertain readers who just like a good yarn, I'll be happy. My one downer with K U is the way the reports come through and although it is possible to see which books are being taken up with KU, it is too fiddly if we have a lot of titles out there. I have no regrets going exclusive and K U now and as long as I use the free option well, things could go ok. What I still regret is HAVING NO ALTERNATIVE (M C and co) and can't accept it is impossible to do. Too late now as Zon has gobbled up so many titles no longer available on the other sites. M C has made a point of there being no alternative in his latest moan, sorry, blog. I predict dramatic changes ahead for self published indies this coming year. I neither discourage or encourage Indies to go K U. If you are still doing ok by not going exclusive, stay with it. Only go this route if you have flat-lined on the other sites as I did, even though I had a following on Zon. And if you do go K U, think really hard about how you use it. Zon has given us the tools. Try to use them to YOUR advantage. Good Luck.
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Post by djmills on Jan 4, 2016 18:03:27 GMT -8
Thanks for the info, and good luck with using Amazon tools to promote your stories. :-)
The one book I put on preorder showed 5 preorders on Amazon, but on the day it want live it showed 8 sales. Not sure if they were purchases on "live" day or preorder count was out by 3. :-) I am assuming "live" sales until I learn different. :-)
Off to check the other sites and see if using preorder made a difference.
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Post by garyweston on Jan 5, 2016 3:17:50 GMT -8
I only tried a pre-order via smash which failed completely. I might try it with Zon on my next book whatever and whenever that will be. I keep starting and shelving projects at the moment. Still, nothing will be wasted in the end, (other than me). Craggy # 7 would be a good bet, but I'd not put odds on it ever being written. I have made a start on 95 million killers #2 with chapter 1 out of the way. If That pans out I might try a pre-order. You are quite right to try different ideas and ways to promote. Martian was a freebie on-line which attracted the interest of a film producer and, well....so anything could work. I have used D B S on fiverr.com a couple of times and that resulted in decent spikes for a few days. Cost 5$. Never give up.
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Post by garyweston on Jan 6, 2016 0:35:33 GMT -8
I've a decision to make now. I still have free stuff and a few dregs left behind on smash and co. These I can turn into 3 or 4 full size books and put exclusively on Zon and in K U, keeping the momentum going. The Davron serial continues to get readers on 3 of the smash sites as does my little detective series, so I suppose this keeps the door open for me. Anything new I decide to add to non-zon sites would be through D2D. (I like to make things as easy for myself as possible). It would take a couple of days to sort the books out then wait for it all to be unpublished elsewhere. What would YOU do?? In the meantime, the sequel to 95 million killers is going well and I have some great new ideas for this one. Blood will flow!!!!
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Post by djmills on Jan 6, 2016 3:24:18 GMT -8
I looked at D2D as an alternative to Smashwords, but decided to stay with SW because SW has more distributors. The only one D2D had was Tolino that SW didn't have. Now SW is distributing to Tolino, Odilo, and Yuzu and others that D2D does not have (unless they added them in the last few months).
Easier on me to manage any changes to published back matter, covers, etc. using SW & Amazon.
But you do what you must to build your readers. :-)
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Post by garyweston on Jan 6, 2016 4:55:58 GMT -8
`99 affiliates selling zero books is still zero sales in my personal experience. I like D2D because they produce a better product with less fuss. Any issues they just deal with them and not toss it back and forth. And don't forget they will sort out paperbacks with createspace which was never as straightforward to do as ebooks. Due to K U, there are less books available for Zon's competition. That could be a snowball getting bigger as it rolls down the hill. But I completely agree, each to their own.
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Post by Ted on Jan 6, 2016 11:07:33 GMT -8
Yes, 'to each his own' sums it up. I'm happy with Smashwords distributing my works, even with the disadvantage of not being paid monthly or paid directly.
I only had a few minor problems in my early years of ebook publishing, some of which were caused by me and some by Smashwords or their distributors. The problems seemed major at the time, as I was expecting perfection from Smashwords and they were providing a service.
Then I experienced my problems with Amazon. Ho-boy, now those were problems and set the bar for poor business practices as related to customer service as an author. Now I could be flying and see engines falling off the airplane and wings being shredded into tiny pieces and not sweat anything about such minor matters thanks to my prior expeiences with Amazon.
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Post by garyweston on Jan 8, 2016 10:47:50 GMT -8
I'm on the opposite side of the coin. In a best to work with list, I put 1. D2D top 2. Amazon 3. Smash. Well, you would say that Gary. I can only speak as I find. The list doesn't reflect sales as D2D would be last for me, but I do like the way they operate. I was pleased that D2D bounced back after Zon spit the dummy with them, and D2D rolled up their sleeves to not only survive, but thrive, at least until K U came along. Complacency crept in at smash and co and changes should have been thrashed out 18 months ago to give Indies a better choice. I don't want Amazon to be the only game in town, for obvious reasons. At least old hands like me have our stuff out there and we have some experience in ducking and diving in the system. I think Newbies will be struggling with their first books and where to go with them. I remember my own confusion and tentative steps into self-publishing and glad I don't have to start today. When confusion reins everywhere, others see opportunity to fleece the unwary. I have always done my best to guide newbies away from certain sites (old hands know who these are) who charge hundreds for just putting an ebook in the system, something most of us can do in half hour. Will these scavengers return in numbers? Please help any newbie at risk. We owe it to the Indies of the future.
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serbanvcenache
SWF Writers
Posts: 712
Joined: Jan 26, 2013 4:50:56 GMT -8
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Post by serbanvcenache on Jan 8, 2016 13:19:22 GMT -8
Coker could emulate D2D by allowing authors (their clients) to complete a tax interview online, thus avoiding the bureaucratic hassle of manually submitting those fiscal papers to them. The only way services like Smashwords & D2D will survive is if their retail partners will put up a fight. Apple is their only partner with enough leverage to take on A-zon. But in order to do that, they have to fight for market share and that means giving authors & readers both a better deal than their competition.
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Post by garyweston on Jan 14, 2016 2:25:41 GMT -8
I'm gearing up for my second quarter into KU. My how time flies when we are having fun. This is good timing with the weekend coming. This also makes for another obvious Freebie marketing tip. Zon's rules and regs say any 5 days per K U period to go free. You want to have ten days (?) to give things a push? Time it right then. Make a book free for the last 5 days of a quarter then immediately make it free for the first 5 days of the next period. 10 days total. Possibly a day for the gears to roll into action but it is one way to extend a free promotion. I plan to make Craggy 1 and Dusty 1 and 2 free again as before with a few of the others free. The rest will be made free spread through the period to keep some momentum going. I recently added a collection of short stories into the K U mix and made it immediately free, just for three days, this being the last. It shot up into the top 5,000 Zon UK, free kindle books which is ok for shorts, notoriously hard to sell. Nothing to do with the nude woman on the cover I'm sure. Shorts to me are tasters for the longer stuff and this collection is the product of several years and usually knocked off very quickly just to get ideas out of the way. Zon emailed me to ask if I wanted to write a little something about the collection they could send on to my followers. (what, both of them?) which of course I did.
So people venturing into or are already ensnared into K U can use the freebie tactic to promote. As usual, I'll let you know how it pans out.
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Post by Julie Harris on Jan 14, 2016 13:18:06 GMT -8
So many books out there and fewer readers willing to pay now. Why should they pay when they can fill the Kindle for free?
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Post by garyweston on Jan 14, 2016 13:43:04 GMT -8
It is tough, Julie. Even tougher for new writers starting out. That's one reason for adding tips to sites like this so they don't feel alone. We have to wear two hats, the fun writing one and the business one. A newbie who crosses my path occasionally based the price of his novella (he thinks it's a novel) on the cost of all the "services" he paid for and not the going rate for such stories. Thus pricing himself out of the picture at twice the price of an A list writers full sized novel. He thinks he's right, so let him get on with it. We have to do whatever it takes to gain readers in this highly competitive business unless we really are indifferent to our books being read or not. If we don't want readers, why bother cluttering up the marketplace? I still enjoy the process, but I do get a kick to think somewhere, somebody is reading something of mine. Not only that, we leave something behind after we have gone. I think there are still opportunities out there but then I am an incurable optimist.
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