Tag Archives | self publishing

Indie Life – Taking advantage of the impulse purchase.

By on June 12, 2013 in publishing industry, Writing

Welcome to Indie Life. This monthly theme is a creation of the Indelibles. Click on over for the complete linky list to read up on everything Indie.

Yes, I’m a writer, but this is coming purely from a reader’s perspective.

I’ve always loved browsing in bookstores, but these days, more often than not, I browse on Amazon. Lately, I’ve found very specific reasons on why I click on a book and then why I purchase it.

1. Cover

Definitely at the top. But not even close to why I actually purchase a book. So if you want people to at least click on your book to give it a try, then go for an appealing cover that represents your story.

2. Blurb

Even if you have a great cover, I won’t click on the Look Inside feature, if I’m not crazy about the premise. This is very subjective. So hook your reader by being concise and getting to the heart of your story.

3. Rank and Reviews

After the cover, after the blurb, I check out the rank. Is the book selling? I also check out the reviews.

4. First page

I have very specific tastes. Voice, tone/mood, the writing – all comes into play. I know almost right away within the first page, the first paragraph, if I want to buy it.

5. Price

What turns this whole process into a purchase is the price. If I’ve loved everything so far, and the book is on sale for 99 cents, then it’s usually a definite impulse purchase.

If the book is 2.99/3.99, I wait and think about it. If I keep thinking about it, then eventually I’ll buy it and read it.

Final conclusion: Even though the cover, blurb, rank, and price play a role, the first page is most important. Because even at free or 99 cents I won’t buy a book unless I really want to read it.

Want an example? Here’s my latest impulse purchase. Note that this book dropped in price to 99 cents. This kind of price pulsing worked on me. Check it out here. (This is a New Adult book with sexual situations.)

 

 

What was your last impulse purchase? And why?

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From dark to humorous to falling in love.

By on June 3, 2013 in book reviews

I’ve been reading a bunch of great books. And since I’ve been reading way more books than ever thanks to ebooks, libraries, and self-publishing, I love to share my findings with my readers.

By the way I read about 50% traditional books and 50% self published. Give or take.

More so than any other month, my sampling of books that I read (not counting the ones that I didn’t finish because I kept falling asleep) represents me as a reader and a writer. The aspects in these stories are everything I love. From dark and emotional to fun and breezy.

First lets talk about funny. As an adult, I’m a picky middle grade reader. After all, they are meant for kids. Right? So I end up loving the middle grades that have great writing, heart, humor, and a story to tell. Ha. Don’t we all?

When I read my first illustrated novel, thinking these really were just for kids….I was wrong. So I decided to try I, Funny. Loved it. It surprised me. It was not only a humorous story, but it had a lot of heart, snuck in when no one was looking.

I downloaded The Peculiar during an ebook sale. Loved it. The writing is superb and even though the plot was simple, the story was fast paced, bouncing back and forth between a boy and an adult, it was really the writing that kept me reading, more than the storyline.

I also love literary ghost stories. Filled with gorgeous writing and heart. So when I read Notes from Ghost Town, I knew on the first page, I’d love it. And I did.

Where there are ghosts, often there is murder. This leads to my next book, which I downloaded during a free promotion. Yes, an adult book. I Think I Love You by Stephanie Bond. I loved the sibling relationship, murder mystery and the love subplot. I will definitely read more of her books.

So, onto stories with love and romance being the central story.

I’m getting tired of this kind of reality TV show plot, but for all its faults, this series is fantastic. It comes down to the writing and the relationships. Reading The Selection was fast, easy and good. Reading The Elite was the same way. I’m looking forward to the conclusion next year. Kiera Cass does a fantastic job with character and relationships.

My last book was a fun, flirty, sweet romance. I Kissed The Boy Next Door. Love! Love! Loved it!

Yes, I write and read about spies, murder and mystery. But it’s really so much more than that. And that’s reflected in my writing and reading.

**Two books I read, worth mentioning, are Unravel Me and Life After Theft. Good but not great.

What have you been reading?

 

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Indie Life – Be encouraged!

By on May 8, 2013 in publishing industry

Indie Life was started and is hosted by the Indelibles. This is a chance to talk about any aspect of publishing or writing you want: to encourage, share news, offer tips. It takes place the second Wednesday of every month. Feel free to join us!

Indie Life

I want to talk about the hedges in the front of my house because they take some major abuse over the winter.

The hedges lie not only underneath my roof but next to the driveway where my hubbie snow blows. These hedges are piled with heaping mounds of snow every year.

Plus, these hedges are shielded from the sun by a small screened in porch, so quite often, the snow turns hard and icy.

Company often comments that these hedges are just going to shrivel up and die one of these years…and I wouldn’t be surprised.

But they don’t. Year after year, they spring back to form, the perfectly trimmed square hedges they should be (almost always perfectly trimmed.)

Right now, gazing out my window, they look great. It didn’t happen right away, but it happened.

Never let the ups and downs of the publishing industry keep you down for long. Be patient. Give yourself time. Just like my hedges.

On a side note, this Saturday I’ll be at the Cape May Author Fest from 2-5 p.m. selling and signing A Spy Like Me and Heart of an Assassin! If you live in the area come by and visit! There will be close to thirty fantastic authors of picture books, middle grade, and young adult.

Visit the Indelibles blog for another Indie Life post and the list of links! A great chance to meet new people!

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Ups and Downs of Publishing.

By on May 1, 2013 in publishing industry

As most of you know I published a middle grade novel with Pugalicious Press last November. I barely got to marketing. I have a companion novella written and edited, ready to self publish.

It’s called How To Survive Pirate Curses and Tainted Treasure. I hadn’t written these characters in a couple years, so I loved returning to them. Especially as a writer with more experience. I had a blast.

Sadly, Pugalicious Press recently closed with my novel barely even out.

I’m not as disappointed as I thought I’d be. Self-publishing definitely has taught me that in this industry, as with life, stuff happens. We can’t control what works, what doesn’t work, what sells and what doesn’t sell.

So I shouldered this news with a shrug. From what I can tell this kind of thing happens all the time in the traditional industry. Books are orphaned, never picked up, or go out of print.

The good thing is that I know I can re-release them in the future. But I’m going to wait. There’s too much on my plate right now, but I loved these stories, so I see it happening at some point.

As with any news: good or bad, it’s important to MOVE FORWARD, even changing course at times if needed.

Do you have good news? In what ways have you had to adapt to the industry?

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Indie Life – publishing will look different, possibly forever.

By on April 10, 2013 in publishing industry, Writing

 

Though I’d share a couple links for Indie Life today.

In the future, will everyone be a publisher? by Nathan Bransford

Go ahead and read it.

Interesting, huh?

This quote jumped out at me.

 For now, publishers can still rely on those services and their print distribution to attract authors. In the future, they won’t have that. And as those services become the central differentiator, you have to wonder if the adversarial approach publishers occasionally take with authors (slow payments, lack of transparency) will give way to a true service-oriented approach.

What about you? Can you already see the industry changing and not being quite what it used to be? I look at all the digitals imprint and contracts being offered that are ebook only until the sales warrant a print version.

I hope big publishing, self publishing and everything in between sticks around for a while. But there’s no arguing the publishing world will look different, possibly forever.

For further reading, here’s a Hugh Howey post that should be a must read for any writer. (If you haven’t already read it.)

Click back to the Indelibles blog for a list of all the links!

 

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