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Post by djmills on Feb 2, 2021 21:57:13 GMT -8
Hi all, hope you are all well, and writing loads of stories.
I have published 2 short stories and one short novel in January, 2021. Have written another short story but not published yet. I need to create a cover. Doing some more short courses on various sections of writing to (hopefully) improve my writing, including How to Write Villains. Now planning another few short stories to test some new characters needed for another novel. :-)
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Feb 5, 2021 8:26:52 GMT -8
Hi all, hope you are all well, and writing loads of stories. I have published 2 short stories and one short novel in January, 2021. Have written another short story but not published yet. I need to create a cover. Doing some more short courses on various sections of writing to (hopefully) improve my writing, including How to Write Villains. Now planning another few short stories to test some new characters needed for another novel. :-) Doing good, DJ. Good to hear from someone finally. My last post was THE last post for quite some time! I've been busy converting my ebooks to paperback that I hadn't converted yet. Quite a task, I can say. I'm givin my old stuff a reread, buff and shine, converting and rereleasing. The project nears completion. I published two full-length novels last year, and am hoping to shoot for the same this year. My goal is to focus on two series I have going now, Tales of the Tomahawk, and Prehistoric Tales. We'll see how it goes. Your classes sound interesting. Where are you taking the Villains class, online?
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Feb 5, 2021 8:28:53 GMT -8
Hi all, hope you are all well, and writing loads of stories. I have published 2 short stories and one short novel in January, 2021. Have written another short story but not published yet. I need to create a cover. Doing some more short courses on various sections of writing to (hopefully) improve my writing, including How to Write Villains. Now planning another few short stories to test some new characters needed for another novel. :-) BTW, Gary and I email back and forth. He's pondering converting one of his to audio, and gearing up to write a biography for someone. Drifta's Quest II is coming out in Spring, as I recall.
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Post by djmills on Feb 5, 2021 12:59:14 GMT -8
I purchased the How to Write Villains from Holly Lisle's web site shop [https://hollyswritingclasses.com/shop/shop.php].
I have completed most of her courses, only about 1 or 2 I haven't purchases as already knew that stuff.
I also purchase some from Dean Wesley Smith on advanced writing. And if I support one of his Kickstarters I also receive one or two small detailed area courses, like the vastness of space, or living in space. etc. :-)
Paper is good for two reasons; selling to those who can't or won't read on computers/ mobile phones/ ereaders, etc, and used to compare the cheaper price of ebooks to help the sale of the ebooks. :-)
Series sell, so glad to see you keeping your series going. I usually end my series after 3 or 5 novels, because I get sick of the same characters.
Glad to hear Gary is going OK. And staying away from COVID19.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Feb 10, 2021 9:41:45 GMT -8
I purchased the How to Write Villains from Holly Lisle's web site shop [https://hollyswritingclasses.com/shop/shop.php]. I have completed most of her courses, only about 1 or 2 I haven't purchases as already knew that stuff. I also purchase some from Dean Wesley Smith on advanced writing. And if I support one of his Kickstarters I also receive one or two small detailed area courses, like the vastness of space, or living in space. etc. :-) Paper is good for two reasons; selling to those who can't or won't read on computers/ mobile phones/ ereaders, etc, and used to compare the cheaper price of ebooks to help the sale of the ebooks. :-) Series sell, so glad to see you keeping your series going. I usually end my series after 3 or 5 novels, because I get sick of the same characters. Glad to hear Gary is going OK. And staying away from COVID19. How's the villain class coming, DJ? Sounds promising. I checked out the description. I thought it interesting how she breaks it down to not just evil, but bad, also.
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Post by djmills on Feb 12, 2021 13:29:30 GMT -8
Yes, ready to read the week 3 lesson of the villains course. I have come up with a character, (bad, not evil) for another short story in my new world. Then when I write the next novel, he can appear in that story. Or I might even change him to an antihero, not sure yet. :-)
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Feb 15, 2021 6:31:33 GMT -8
Yes, ready to read the week 3 lesson of the villains course. I have come up with a character, (bad, not evil) for another short story in my new world. Then when I write the next novel, he can appear in that story. Or I might even change him to an antihero, not sure yet. :-) My wife and I got hooked on this Russian show on Amazon Prime called Love in Chains. Intriguing, period show set in the 1850s on the heels of the Crimean War; that aside, the show has a ton of bad guys running the entire gamut from mildly bad to very bad to atrocious to downright evil and villainous. It reminds me of your villain tutorial. After your finished, I'd love to hear your overall thoughts on the class, if it is worth it. If so, I may invest in it. Good, solid villains of every caliber and sort make for the best tales, IMO.
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Post by djmills on Feb 15, 2021 12:57:26 GMT -8
Chris, seriously, take Holly's free course, How to Write Flash Fiction. No cost, but you will see how she teaches. Well worth taking. If you don't like her way of teaching, then any of the bigger courses may not be for you. And, if you want the villain course, or any other courses, now is the time to buy while it is 50% off. You don't have to start the course straight away. It will be there when you are ready. hollyswritingclasses.com/shop/shop.phpI have all the courses except, "Title, Cover, Copy" and "How to Write a Novel" So far, I think this course is good. :-)
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Feb 16, 2021 10:49:31 GMT -8
Chris, seriously, take Holly's free course, How to Write Flash Fiction. No cost, but you will see how she teaches. Well worth taking. If you don't like her way of teaching, then any of the bigger courses may not be for you. And, if you want the villain course, or any other courses, now is the time to buy while it is 50% off. You don't have to start the course straight away. It will be there when you are ready. hollyswritingclasses.com/shop/shop.phpI have all the courses except, "Title, Cover, Copy" and "How to Write a Novel" So far, I think this course is good. :-) Sounds promising! I'll do it and post back. I do like to write a bit of flash fiction now and then anyway, so this certainly can't hurt. Heh, one of the funnest I ever wrote was Conan and Old Crem. The actual story is only like 600 or so words in length, and tells a complete, and I thought funny, Conan yarn of when he was a kid.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Feb 22, 2021 13:15:24 GMT -8
Not much on the writing front, but I have made a concerted effort to publish on a platform that had somehow, in the 4 - 5 years I've been publishing, eluded me. Google Play. Gads, how did I miss it, I dunno. Has anyone on here published on GP? It is a bit different. Expect a 12-day pause on your account (mine is still <12 so nothing has been turned loose). You have to submit your works as .epubs not docs, or PDF, etc. Took a few days to verify tax info, but banking was pretty quick (depends on the method you go with).
This is the message I see currently:
Your account is undergoing a preliminary policy review.
During this time, you can add or edit books for publishing, but changes will not go live on Google Play or Google Books. While we review, your books may be marked as Needs Action. Please allow up to 12 days for review. Learn more.
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Post by djmills on Feb 25, 2021 12:21:28 GMT -8
I have never bothered with Google Books or Google Play. Not sure of the difference between Google Books and Google Play, and don't want to check it out. :-)
The reason was because Google Books/Play used to drop the price of eBooks, and then Amazon would price match. So it was a race between Amazon and Google to drop the eBook prices to $0.00. I "heard" D2D increases the price of the eBook on Google until the "discount" matches the true set price. However, that could have all changed over the past few years, so I am not sure. I only check Amazon for roll out of eBooks on D2D, the rest are distributed through Smashwords. I also use D2D for print books.
I would love to hear if Google is still dropping the price of books, after your books are rolled out. I certainly hope they have stopped.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Feb 26, 2021 5:48:36 GMT -8
I have never bothered with Google Books or Google Play. Not sure of the difference between Google Books and Google Play, and don't want to check it out. :-) The reason was because Google Books/Play used to drop the price of eBooks, and then Amazon would price match. So it was a race between Amazon and Google to drop the eBook prices to $0.00. I "heard" D2D increases the price of the eBook on Google until the "discount" matches the true set price. However, that could have all changed over the past few years, so I am not sure. I only check Amazon for roll out of eBooks on D2D, the rest are distributed through Smashwords. I also use D2D for print books. I would love to hear if Google is still dropping the price of books, after your books are rolled out. I certainly hope they have stopped. I haven't read anything online yet about Google dropping the price that I set. And Amazon, as far as I know, usually waits for someone to push the button on the book page to inform them of a lower price. I don't believe they actively seek out lower prices then automatically match them. Maybe they did in the past? But to publish in 66 countries to the tune of 2 billion potential customers on Google was nothing to sneeze at in my book. It's an experiment at this point, of course. And if it doesn't work out, or I see things that I don't like, a couple clicks and I can unpublish my novels there and be back to where I was before--which isn't saying much, honestly. As far as D2D, that experiment I finally ended. After going on three years at D2D, I'd had 9 downloads in total of free books, and not a single sale. Completely overblown, in my opinion. I know Gary said he received sales on D2D; but for me, anyone would have to admit D2D was a complete bust. I recently updated a few novels with different front/end matter, tweaked covers, etc, and updated at Smash and Amz. But instead of updating D2D I simply pulled the account off life support and unpublished everything. They're as dead to me now as I felt I was with them for the entire last 3 wasted years. As a matter of fact, I'd unpublish from Smashwords due to lack of sales as well but they make it easy by publishing at Apple, B&N etc. Most of my sales come from Amazon, but most of the downloads of my free eBooks come from Smashwords' affiliates (not Smashwords itself, where I rarely see activity of any sort, free or otherwise). And out of the Smashwords' affiliates, 99% of my traffic comes from Apple--but it's only ever the free Conan stories (which, for legal reasons, must remain free) not the priced books. I daresay, if I pulled the two free Conan tales from Smash et al I'd never see a single bit of activity on any of those sites and would probably unpublish at that point. This writing thing was an experiment for me from the get-go, and boy has it been an eye opener. It is easier to go to the moon than to write good stories and get sales. Maybe my yarns are rubbish? I don't know. That's what I'm leaning toward at this point. At least I can say that lack of sales doesn't come from any lack of effort. One sees negative comments on Indie works about sketchy editing--I read and reread my stories and edit the complete and utter hell out of them trying to make them sound, of substance, of unpredictable plot, of interest, of well-worded phrases, of interesting places and characters, of clever invention and so on; so, I'm generally quite proud of them. Because I know, at the end of the day, not everyone could produce a novel. So that's something, I reckon. My current experiment is the belief that having series with several volumes is a draw to customers. At the moment, I have two series that I intend to focus on, building them into multi-volume series. In hindsight, I feel that perhaps it wasn't in my best interest in writing whatever story happened to pop in my head, thereby creating a hodgepodge of disjointed, unconnected stand-alone novels. If someone read one they liked, they didn't have anywhere to go next except to a different story completely unlike the one they just read. I can see where that might not be conducive to coaxing a new reader to read your novels. They seem to want a series they can get into and have several volumes to devour before having to find another series. I've experienced this myself many times with shows on Netflix or Amazon. Only time will show if this experiment is successful or not, and the same with Google Play.
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Post by djmills on Feb 28, 2021 10:18:39 GMT -8
I believe a writer can write in different genres, but must realise that readers need to know the genres are different, by cover image, font choice, and blurb. I am now putting the genre in the blurb in case the cover doesn't portray the genre correctly. And I am putting "Short Story", or "Novella" or "Novel" on the cover or in the blurb so the reader is aware of what they are buying before they pay for the story. Less negative comments that way. :-)
I always sold more via Smashwords to B&N, Kobo, and the rest (more than 70%), then I every sold via Amazon (less than 30% of sales) when I was going direct to Amazon. Got tired of Amz stuffing up, not listing all my series correctly, demanding my personal phone number, etc, so I pulled all my books from them, both print and ebooks.
Now I am selling my print books via D2D, I am getting my print and ebooks back into Amz and actually getting sales again. Of course, Amz algorithms are always forcing my books down into the muddy bottom of the ebook lake, but somehow, readers are finding them. I got 3 sales in Jan, and 7 or 8 sales in Feb from Amz. So that is an improvement on no sales in Nov and Dec last year. I sell about 3 print books through D2D each month, mostly my non fiction book. :-)
I get sales via Smashwords from B&N, Apple, Kobo, and Scribd. So, I am hoping sales holds at 70% Smashwords and 30% Amazon.
I also look at writing as fun, and publishing as a way to reach readers. If I don't publish, readers won't find them. If I don't get sales of some stories, who cares. I had fun writing them, and I love reading them.
I think your covers are good. Maybe you could look at updating your blurbs, to attract more readers. Or, leave them alone, write more and get them published. More books up gives a better chance of readers finding one of the stories, loving it, and buying more. :-)
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Mar 1, 2021 8:52:05 GMT -8
I also look at writing as fun, and publishing as a way to reach readers. If I don't publish, readers won't find them. If I don't get sales of some stories, who cares. I had fun writing them, and I love reading them. I think your covers are good. Maybe you could look at updating your blurbs, to attract more readers. Or, leave them alone, write more and get them published. More books up gives a better chance of readers finding one of the stories, loving it, and buying more. :-) I also enjoy writing as a hobby. It's an awesome creative outlet, and certainly brings a sense of accomplishment to complete a novel from conception to publication. I need to get busy if I'm going to get one or two out this year. We're well into the 3rd quarter and I'm still researching Tales of the Tomahawk Vol III.
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Post by galatea on Mar 14, 2021 11:19:45 GMT -8
I’ve wrapped up my trilogy and am currently launching the first book on different platforms. In the past I only used Smashwords but now I am diversifying a bit. Instead of using Smashwords for distribution I’m publishing directly on Kobobooks, Google Play and Amazon (and some Dutch channels as the books are in Dutch). I only use Smashwords for Apple.
I’m not expecting much of it. These days it’s nearly impossible to be visible on a sales channel. If you look at Apple of Google Play you can see they designed their store to limit the customer’s choice. Try browsing their categories: you will only find established best sellers. Other books can only be found by someone who is directly searching on the name of the book or the author. The glory days where an Indie author could get some attention are over.
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