Dishonest Reviews and Blackmailers

I read about something on FB yesterday and then again on a friend's blog this morning about a writer who is being blackmailed.  She got an email from some unknown person telling her that if she didn't pay, they were going to flood her books with bad ratings/reviews.  She didn't pay, and they did it.  (On Goodreads, at least.)  This dropped her new book from probably a 5-star average to a less than three star average - so far.  

First, this is a total shit thing to do.  They're screwing with a woman's livelihood here.  

Second, as readers, we should all be aware that not all ratings/reviews are honest.  In this case, it's blackmail.  In other cases, it's individuals with an axe to grind against the author.  And there are always the 'paid for' good reviews we should all already be aware of.  

If you're a reader, going off reviews and ratings helps you decide which book to lay down your hard-earned cash for.  And like many, you probably don't have the time to parse through stuff to figure out what's a real review and what's not.  Here are a few steps you can take to help you decide what's true.

Are all the questionable reviews lumped together in a short span of time?  

Do the reviewers have any kind of information about themselves on their own Goodreads pages?  No bios and no pictures are a big flag.

If there are reviews, do all the lumped reviews contradict all the other reviews?  Do they sound canned like the person couldn't have possibly read the book in question?  

Be a dear and spend a little time.  If you read the blurb and the book sounds interesting, check out the reviews themselves instead of going by the star average.  Read a little of the 'look inside' at Amazon (even if you don't buy your books there).  If the book still sounds interesting, give it a chance.  You can always return the book if you find it's not for you after all.  

And if you hear this has happened to a writer, I know the urge is to then go and give her a bunch of 5-stars to offset the bad ratings.  But this would be dishonest, too.  If you're interested in helping, shine a light on the practice so these cockroaches have nowhere to hide.  If that's not enough, and you have the spare cash, maybe buy the book and see for yourself if it's any good.  If it is, tell loads of people about it.  And then give it 5-stars.  

I hope this never happens to any of my friends.  Personally, if they tried that kind of blackmail on me, I'd have to fall over laughing.  You can't squeeze water out of a dry sponge.  Or maybe I'd turn it around and tell them that they need to pay ME a load of money so I don't report them to the authorities.  (Which I would still totally do, but hey, turnabout is fair play.)

A Model Curse - Sale

Good morning, Everyone.  I promised a sale and it's finally arrived.  Starting today and running through Sunday, the first two books of the 'A Model Curse' series are on sale for 99c/99p each.

Unfortunately, my brain is not in a place for zippy marketing stuffs.  I really should've done stuffs like that over the weekend, but I forgot and then this morning arrived and I am oatmeal - bland and uninspiring.  And I don't feel like I can do these books justice, because they are definitely neither bland nor uninspiring.  

I mean, come on.  Jeni Braxxon, burgeoning supermodel, gets smacked with a curse that strips her beauty away every night.  Throughout the day, she gets better looking until WHAM, ugly, when midnight hits or she falls asleep, whichever comes first.  And she's got a lot to learn about herself, life, magic, etc. while trying to figure out who did this to her and how to stop them.

This review says it better than I can right now...  "Buy the whole series and enjoy Jeni's journey from shallow to swimming in the deep end of her emotions. Plus, talking cats and hellhounds. What's not to enjoy?!?!"

Anyway, these books were loads of fun to write and early results show they're loads of fun to read, so I hope you'll give them a whirl.

WTF Amazon?

Okay, so I started noticing this about a month ago, but Amazon has started letting people leave 'ratings' without leaving reviews.

And it sucks.

Wish in One Hand now has two single star ratings that drag down the overall star average without any explanation or user ID or anything.  No clue as to why they left a bad rating.  No clue if they even bought the damn book.  (Which I suspect they might not have since I hadn't sold any copies of WIOH this year prior to last week, and the rating came before the sales.)  No reasons, just slammed with shitty stars.

Goodreads, of course, has been doing this all along.  It sucks there, too.  I suspect, though, that people don't pay as much attention to the rating average on Goodreads when buying a book.  On Amazon, stars are critical to sales.  You see all five little yellow stars filled or partially filled and you're more likely to click through.  You see only four stars and the fourth star isn't even filled in, and you might just move on to something with more star power.

I mean, let's face it - people are lazy.  You have to grab them immediately and encourage them to put forth the effort to click through and read the blurb.  Stars do that.  More stars = more click-throughs = more chances to make a sale.  And the reverse of that is also true.

Gah, as if selling books wasn't hard enough.

And it's not like people won't abuse that rating thing.  Noooooo.  At least when someone had a bone to pick with you before, you could maybe contest the bad review they left.  This?  I'm not sure how anyone does anything about a random anonymous bad rating.

Not sure what the fuck Amazon thinks it's doing there.  I just hopes it goes away before it does too much more damage.  

Make it Easy

The other day I was scrolling down my FB feed when I saw a link to the review of a book that sounded really interesting.  I clicked over, scanned the review, and found it more interesting.  At the bottom of the review, there were links going to various ways to access the author.  But no link to the book.

That was the first mistake.

Okay, still interested in the book, I clicked the link to the author's Amazon page.  Umm, it went to my author page.  I checked the URL and it was the general 'author page' link, not a link to that particular author.

And that was mistake #2.

So, I clicked the link that would take me to the author's Facebook page, still hoping I'd find a place where I could actually access the book in question.  And it sat there, trying to load but not actually loading.  I waited and waited...

Mistake #3 and I gave up.

While none of these mistakes are necessarily the author's fault, they lost the author a sale.  (Or at the very least a future sale because I would've at least wishlisted it.)

All of this brought something to mind, though.  I see a lot of posts where the link is broken or there is no link at all or it takes forever to load or... something.  My point is that authors need to make it easy for readers.  You put all that work into marketing your book, from creating a really grabby blurb to writing the marketing copy to creating pretty graphics that encourage readers to click through, don't waste it.  Post a link that goes directly to the place where they can buy.  OR at the very least to a page where there are additional links that go directly to a place where they can buy.

As for the reviewer thing... if you have someone reviewing your book, make sure they have all the right links.  Check their links and let them know if they're broken.  Say 'hey, thanks for the awesome review, but the link to my author page should be X' or something.  Anything.  (Of course, this only works if you know they reviewed your book.)  If you are a reviewer, check your links so you're not putting up that awesome review and then frustrating the readers.

Just sayin'.  And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go check all my links and make sure I'm not being a damn hypocrite.

Oh, and I updated the photo on my About Me page here.  Gotta remember to do that stuff every now and then.

Speaking of making it easy, I almost forgot... Blink of an I is free now through Friday worldwide.  If you haven't read it yet, now would be a good time to snag a copy. 

A Little Bit of Pixie Dust

I was sitting here last night, looking at the numbers for last week's sale and trying to figure out how to boost sales for next month.  And I was all like "I haven't done a sale for Project Hermes in a while.  I'll just set up an ad with..."

Which was when it occurred to me that PH doesn't have enough reviews to set up ads with almost anyone I'd like to advertise with. 

Which brings me back around to wondering how to get reviews without paying for them or begging for them. 

A while back, I took the 'please review my book' verbiage out of the ends of all my books and replaced it with 'please buy the next book'.  Figuring if readers only had enough time to do one thing, it was better to have them buy something than write something nice.

And that worked.  Kinda.

Now, please understand that I had the 'review' wording at the ends of my books for a long time and it didn't seem to help much, so I didn't think taking it out would hurt much.  Right now, I'm not sure if it did hurt.  All I know is that I haven't seen a new review for any of my books in a while.

I know my regulars here have reviewed as much as they are able.  And thanks to each one of them for doing so.  I just wish a higher percentage of my readers would do the same.  I'm not asking for a book report.  All I really need is some stars and a few honest and positive words.  "I enjoyed this" would be a nice thing to say.  (Although, I'm not sure if Amazon has the word minimum thing or not these days.  I've left some really short reviews, but I could be wrong.)

Anyway, if you're here and you're a reader, please understand that a lot of things hinge of the number of reviews a book has - advertising, sales, whether Amazon pushes your book or ignores it, etc.  Writers need your help.  I need your help.  We all need your help - especially indie writers who don't have a publisher behind us helping get reviews. 

So, if you would be so kind, take a moment out of your day to help a writer out by leaving an honest review for a book you've read and enjoyed.  It'll be like a little bit of pixie dust sprinkled over our day.  Trust me.

How Can You Trust Reviews These Days?

The other day, I was scanning through the ebook newsletter and FB posts as I often do, looking for new books to add to my growing TBR list.

I found a book that sounded interesting, so I dug a little deeper (so I don't get burned by a bad book).  Ten reviews.  Cool.  Fits my 'underappreciated' requirement.  All the reviews were 4 or 5 stars.  Also cool.  Scanned through the reviews.  None of them said 'verified purchase' and none of them had any specifics which would lead me to think the reviewer actually read the book.  Sniff test failed.  Move on.

I found another book that sounded interesting.  Repeat the process.  Low review count.  Check.  The majority of the reviews were verified and sounded like they'd read the book.  Except for one - the lone two-star review.  Unverified and almost totally unreadable.  It was one long sentence that barely passed for English - but not in an 'English isn't my first language' way.  More like a 'I'm American, but I failed every English class I ever took' way.  Sniff test on that review failed.  Downloaded the book.

How does one even know whether to trust any reviews anymore?  In the first case, it looked like friends and family reviewing a book they never read.  In the second, it looked like someone with an axe to grind or a warped bent to trash the author reviewing a book they hadn't read.

Just about every day, I see posts to one of the FB book groups offering to review books - either for free (if you send them your book for free) or for a small fee.  I see authors begging for 'review exchanges' - I'll review your book if you review mine. 

I get that not all reviews can be 'verified' reviews.  Authors regularly send books out to have them reviewed, so it stands to reason, the reviewer wouldn't necessarily purchase the book.  But I also see people offering to give 'verified' reviews for a small fee.  So, basically, you're paying them to buy your book and review it. 

I've talked before about seeing a virtually unknown book/author with thousands of reviews.  I shy away from those automatically.  Sure, they could be legitimate, but I don't want to risk wasting my time if they aren't. 

But Amazon won't let me review a certain author's books because they've determined we're friends.  (Umm, I don't love her books because we're friends - we're friends because I love her books.  I can't be friends with someone whose books I don't like.  Duh.)  And because of stuff like this, I know people who shy away from even trying to review books because they don't want their reviews to be rejected.  No one likes to be rejected.  Blerg.

It's all messed up. 

Jus' sayin'.

Kindle Unlimited and Reviews

I don't know about the rest of you, but I never seem to see reviews from Kindle Unlimited readers.  I can see them reading my books, sometimes one after another, but there never seem to be any reviews left afterwards.

Maybe it's just me.  :shrug:

Still, one would think that KU subscribers are hard-core readers.  I mean, I'm an avid reader, but I can't spare the scratch to subscribe, so them that do must be really into reading to spare $20 a month.  And one would think that being hard-core readers, they would want to see the books they read succeed.  And in order to succeed, books need reviews.

Again, maybe it's just me.  I review pretty much everything I read - especially when the book I finished needs reviews.  (Not so much on books that don't need reviews - big name authors, famous books, etc.)  Might not always be an Amazon review (I'm working on that) but almost always a Goodreads review.

Now, my reviews probably aren't the best.  I usually just write a review with my reaction to the book.  I don't summarize the stories.  But you don't need to write lengthy reviews.  It's not the size of the reviews, it's the quantity of them that propel book sales. "Loved this."  "Cute and fun."  "Super thrilling."  Takes like a minute and you make the writer so happy.

I'm typically loathe to ask for reviews.  One time I did that on Twitter and the next day I got my wish - a low-star review left by someone who obviously hadn't read the book.  So nice of them to stop by.  Sort of a 'that'll teach her to ask for reviews' thing.  Well, it sure did teach me.  Bleh.

So, I'm not asking for reviews here*.  I'm just pondering why KU subscribers seem to be the last ones to leave them.  (Present company excepted, of course.)

Any thoughts?  Is it just me or do you see reviews after you see a bunch of page reads?  If you subscribe, do you leave reviews?

Just trying to figure things out here.



*Although I certainly wouldn't be adverse to getting reviews if you happened to read and enjoy my books.

Unequal is LIVE.

Despite my certainty this book would not be out on time, Unequal actually went live yesterday.  It was the full-on, blitz attack I did on Saturday that put me over the finish line.  Big thanks to Hubs for putting up with me through it. 

Actually, I uploaded it in the morning and it was live a couple hours later, but I didn't receive my email notification until last night.

For a limited time, it's $2.99.  After the first of the year, the price will go up and stay at $4.99. 

I thought about doing a sale on Blink of an I - because it's also dystopian - but I don't have the energy or the brain power to focus on that right now.  And I've got that other sale starting Christmas Eve. 

Anyway, today should be all about Unequal, so let the party begin.  Woohoo!

As you probably know, this one was a bear for me to edit.  But I got it done and it's out in the world.  I hope readers enjoy it.  It's one of those books where I can only hope I was a good enough writer to convey what I wanted it to convey while still making it a suspenseful, entertaining read.

I have PDF copies available for a limited amount of people.  If you want one, tell me in the comments.  If we get more asks than copies, I'll do a drawing.  Fair enough?  I know I'm not supposed to ask for reviews in exchange, so don't worry about it.  But it you do happen to want to post a review, I would be eternally grateful.

Reviews are like prezzies you don't have to wrap.  ;o)

Paying it Sideways

Okay, if you follow me over at The Writing Spectacle, you may have read that I do this thing where I find new-to-me, underappreciated authors, buy their books, read them and review them. 

I do it because I like to help authors like me.  I also do it to find new and interesting things to read.  Books the establishment wouldn't give a whit about.  Books readers might not necessarily gravitate to because the author is unknown or the premise is slightly different from what they're used to.  (For example, a book about a guy who creates magic using garbage or a book where the zombie is the hero.) Books people might not want to take a chance on because they are unknowns and they have so few reviews. 

I don't like the phrase 'paying it forward'.  And I don't think it necessarily applies here anyway.  Maybe this is paying it sideways.  I get a book to read, they get a review and maybe it encourages them keep writing books for me to read.

Sometimes I hit on a dud.  Buying books this way can be a crapshoot, whether they're self-pub or trad-pub.  More often than not, though, these are good books that haven't taken off yet.  Occasionally, I'll download a book that meets the criteria, but by the time I read it, it has taken off.  I'm okay with that, too.

Every rare once in a while, the author will contact me after I review.  I've gotten some positive exchanges from them.  And once, after the author contacted me and thanked me, he read the whole SCIU series in KU.  He liked DE and wrote a review.  Yay.  Not what I'm hoping for with this, but hey, I'm not against that, too. 

Now, I don't want you to think every book I download gets a review.  Sometimes, like I said, they're duds.  I don't finish books I don't like and I don't review books I don't finish.  Plus, I don't want to harsh an author that way, especially when it's subjective.  One bad review could tank the author's sales, or worse, tank their ability to keep on facing this business we're in.  Why do that to someone?

Mostly, I snag the books while they're free.  I'm a tightwad, okay?  They offer a free book, I give them a review.  Win-win.  Sometimes I'll buy them, if budget allows.  If they're really good, I'll buy the other books in the series.  (If they have other books.  Sometimes, they're so new they only have the one book, in which case, I hope my review gets them to write more.)

Anyway, it's a thing I do as a writer and as a reader.  I've already read ten of these kinds of books this year.  I try to average about one a month, so I'm on track for this year.   I'll definitely reach 12 for the year. 

I hope you'll join me this coming year.  It really is fun and I like to think it helps all us little, low-list authors.  Paying it sideways, eh?  ;o)

Stuffs

I am making progress on my edits.  Slow progress, but hey, it's progress. 

The sale is over.  Sleeping Ugly is back to $2.99.

I was thinking about something this morning.  I saw a book posted on FB with thousands of reviews and I was immediately suspicious.  It was an author I'd never heard of and a book I'd never seen before.  Thousands of reviews?  Umm, right.  Which is kind of sad.  Those could be perfectly legitimate reviews.  Then again, they could be hinky.  These days, you can't tell, though.  =o(

The other day, I took a paperback copy of Sleeping Ugly into the bank to show a friend of mine.  One of the other gals said 'Ooo, she looks mean', which immediately made me wonder if the mean look of Jeni is turning people off of what is actually a fun book.  I told the gal "She's not mean.  She's pissed because she's a model who's cursed to turn ugly every night.'  But I can't be out there to tell everyone why Jeni looks so mean. 

Over at the smoke shop, I gave a copy of Dying Embers to the manager.  I'd never given her a book before - oversight on my part.  I signed it with some lame comment thanking her for keeping me supplied with nicotine.  She laughed, so I guess it wasn't that lame.  Anyway, the new guy was working the cash register.  He looked seriously irritated I didn't give him a book, too.  I told him 'I don't know you well enough to give you a book yet' and flashed him my winning smile.  Not sure that helped.  The last time I talked to the dude, though, he said he only reads fantasy.  Big fan of RA Salvatore.  Can't help him there.  Fantasy is one of the few genres I don't write.  And hardcore fantasy readers don't do urban fantasy, I guess.  :shrug:

I really need to put together some new marketing materials.  I don't have any that show my last three books.  Derp.  I also have a huge amount of old, out of date, marketing materials lying around.  My spare room is like a defunct bookmark repository.  Ugh.

That's about it for me this morning.  Got anything to add?  Comments to make?  Talk to me.

Lamenting Lost Reviews

Over the weekend, I lost all the reviews from a single reviewer.  That means one less review for about a half dozen of my books.

Since I have so few reviews, I know exactly which reviewer it was.  The name associated with all of the reviews was Linda.  I have no clue who Linda is.  So, she's not a friend or an associate or anything.  She was just someone who read my books and reviewed them.  And now her precious reviews are gone.

I don't call them precious because they were all glorious 5-stars praising the awesomeness of my writing.  In fact, she kinda hated In Deep Wish.  (Or rather, hated Jo in that particular book.  She didn't wait around to see how the character arc worked out.  :shrug:)   I called them precious, because when you only have single digits in the reviews, every one of them is crucial.  Hell, less than a hundred or so reviews* makes them all precious.

Reviews are harder to get than a winning lottery ticket.  (If you figure in the low-dollar winners.)  And I earned the reviews.  It wasn't luck that dropped them in my lap, that's for sure.  Oh, I could probably shell out some money to have my book distributed as freebies to reviewers.  (Not paying for reviews, but paying for the opportunity to get reviews.  Or something.)  Except I can't bring myself to do that. 

I'm not sure, and I have no way of knowing, what happened.  They were there on Friday.  Saturday, they were gone.  I lost some reviews earlier in the year, too.  DE dropped from 30 reviews to 29 reviews.  AD dropped from 10 to 9.  Now, they have 28 and 8.   Poor IDW had 6 and now it has 5.  Even if the star average went up a little, I can't be happy about that.

Whether it's Amazon policing fake reviews, or for some reason the person just deleted them, or somehow the person lost their Amazon account...  :deep sigh:  They're gone.  Probably forever.  Which makes me sad. 

Poor little lost reviews.  =o(

Anyway, if you've read any of my books, please review them.  If you've already reviewed them, thank you thank you thank you!  If you haven't read them, give them a try and then review them.  (Do not leave a review, ever, for a book you haven't read.  That's just wrong.)  Every honest, organic review helps*.

-B.E.

*I'm assuming that once you get more than a hundred reviews, you lose track of them and missing one won't crumple your sales.  I could be wrong, but I have no way of knowing at the moment.

**Okay, even bad reviews.  Because it's the number of reviews, in addition to the star average, that helps with marketing.  And marketing sells books.  And book sales are how writers keep writing more books.

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Reviews

You may have heard that some Amazon reviews are disappearing.  In their defense, they're trying to get rid of fake reviews and scammers to make Amazon a better place to shop.  A noble endeavor, but unfortunately, there has been collateral damage during this bloodbath.  Actual, legitimate reviews are getting caught in the crossfire.  And actual, real, honest authors are taking a hit.

First off, you can't review a book if Amazon thinks you're friends with the author in question.  Because, in their minds, friends can't be objective.  And to use their verbiage it might be 'perceived as bias'.  I've had some reviews I've written suddenly disappear and others get rejected for this very 'reason'.  And it pisses me off.  I am friends with some writers - BECAUSE they write good stuff.  And I review their books because the books are GOOD.  derp.  If that's bias, then I guess I'm biased toward a bunch of awesome writers I don't even know.  I'm not shining readers on.  I'm not faking my enthusiasm, so my friends can get more sales.  I'm geniunely enthusiastic about good writing.  Always.  I'm not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes.  For Amazon to delete or reject my reviews is insulting as hell.  Not a damn thing I can do about it, though.

Harrumph. In case you can't tell, I got a 'you can't review this... ever' notice when I tried to post a review for a friend's book that I honestly loved.  GAH!

Yesterday morning, an acquaintance of mine posted to Facebook that Amazon had deleted ALL the reviews she's ever written.  Which explains why Accidental Death had 9 reviews and now only has 8.  I've known this gal since before either of us were published - when we were both part of a group of writers encouraging each other... so like 2006.  She made it going traditional and I'm indie, but we made it.  And now, suddenly, Amazon has decided her reviews are faked.  I hope she's contacting Amazon and pitching a fit.  It sucks for her.

But, yeah, this hurts me.  AD didn't have that many reviews to begin with and I've got a big marketing thing going on starting the 19th.  Every review counts.  And that one I lost was a 5-star.  :sniffle:

Then again, fake reviews hurt us all.  Actual fake reviews.  I'm hoping that once this storm is over, the honest reviewers can get their reviews reinstated.  I'm also hoping that once the storm has passed, and the majority of the shithead scammers are gone, the rest of us will reap the benefits.  We just have to survive this and ride it out.

Hang in there, folks.  It's likely to get worse before it gets better.  Until then, if you want to review a book but Amazon won't let you, go post it to Goodreads.  I'm hopeful this will out get fixed eventually.  Hopeful is all I can be right now.

Marketing Stuff Again

Mornin' Folks.

With a lack of anything else on my mind right now, I thought I'd talk a bit more about my marketing efforts, how they're working for me, and what's next.

First off, I realize you have to have money to do marketing.  At least any effective marketing.  I mean, there are Facebook groups you can post to that sometimes can bring you sales without you having to shell out any dough, but that's rare.  And it's inconsistent.  Hit or miss, if you will.

But, not every outlet will break the bank.  There are some nice little venues that can give you at least an equal ROI.  (You pay $6 and you make about $6.)  You might even make a little money over and above, which is always nice.  And it helps the soul to see people actually buying your books, even if the money isn't rolling in.

Last month, I had that ENT ad which cost me $40 and a smaller ad with PUFB that cost $8.  I'm still seeing residual sales from those.  Mostly in page reads with Kindle Unlimited, but hey, those page reads bring in money, so they count as sales.  I've already had almost as many page reads this month as last month and this month beats every other month but May this year.  And it's only the 6th.

Plus, I'm still seeing some page reads for DE and that sale was in April.

I'm not making money hand over fist, but I'm about 2/3rds of last year's total sales over the first 5 months of this year.  And last year I did very little advertising.  Because the money to do it just wasn't there.  But that's another story, eh?

Looking ahead, I've got Kindle Countdown Deals set for the 19th thru the 26th of this month on Accidental Death and Natural Causes.  I've already set up an ad for AD with a place called ebooksHabit on the 21st ($10).  And I'll set up something with Author Billboard for both AD and NC for the 22nd (she only runs her newsletter on Fridays) which will cost me $6 ea.  We'll see how those work. If I sell at least 32 books and pay for the ads, the rest is gravy.

I don't care what the dieticians say, gravy is good.

In August, I'll run sales for the Once Upon a Djinn books again with as much advertising as I can swing in anticipation of the release of Sleeping Ugly - which isn't part of the genie series, but its a paranormal, so I hope I'll get some crossover readers there.

What I really need is more reviews because there are lot of advertising venues that won't accept an ad for books with less that 5 Amazon reviews (or under 4 stars, but that's not a problem right now).  Which means I can't push ads for the majority of my books at those outlets.  I wish all the people reading my books on KU would write reviews.  Not sure why they don't.  =o(

I could also use a big lottery win.  I think reviews will be easier to get.  But only slightly.

I Suck at This

Monday I wrote the following status update on my personal FB page: "If you've read any of my books, it would be really helpful if you could drop a review for the ones you've read. Doesn't have to be a long review. Just something like "I enjoyed this book" works. Of course, if the spirit moves you to talk about what you liked and how it made you squee with excitement, that would be awesome, too. ;o) "

And afterwards, it occurred to me that it is REALLY hard to ask people for reviews.  And then it occurred to me that it is REALLY hard to promote anything having to do with my writing, because, in a way, I'm promoting myself.  And I stink at that.

In my view, I either come off as pathetic or big-headed.  Look at that status update up there.  First part, pathetic.  Second part, big-headed.  

Maybe I'm being too hard on myself.  I dunno. 

But I need reviews.  I was thinking about marketing again and I'm once again faced with the quandary of needing to have reviews to market books.  I'd love to splash around some ads for Fertile Ground, for instance, but it only has two Amazon reviews.  Most places require at least five.  The big places that garner more sales definitely require at least five reviews, unless it's a new release and then they require at least five for previous books.  Which might have worked if I'd advertised when FG first came out, but it's been out now for a while, so that's flat out.

The reviews I do have are pretty good, so I'm kinda sure it's not the books.  I mean, I do have the occasional not-so-good review, but those are par for the course.  Not every reader will like any given book.  But overall, it's not like the books stink enough to make people not want to even bother reviewing them.

Of course, once I posted a requested for reviews on Twitter and someone hopped over to give me a low-star review that seemed like she hadn't actually read the book. The nature of the beast, I guess. 

And then there's the whole 'Amazon won't let certain people review your books because they might actually be friends with you and they cannot possibly be objective', which I think is BS.  But I get that other people have played the system that way and now we all have to suffer for it.  Also, the nature of the beast.  Bleh.

Okay, that's probably quite enough whining for today.  If you have reviewed my books, thanks bunches.  You rock.  If you've read any of my books and haven't reviewed them yet, drop a review - if Amazon will let you.  I'll be eternally grateful. 

And if I've read your books and haven't posted an Amazon review for them yet, let me know.  Sometimes I forget to migrate my Goodreads reviews over to Amazon.  (And a few times I have, but Amazon rejected the review because I knew you.  Again, BAH.)

Addressing Amazon Issues and Myths

If you're an author publishing through Amazon - and let's face it, that's about all of us - there is apparently some issue with the reports.  I've been getting an error message for the past week or so. I did some research last night by going into the community forum at KDP and it's not just me.  Loads of people are getting the same message with a subsequent drop in reported sales.  No need to panic.  I'm sure they're addressing the issue.  Also, some actual sales are showing up as free in the reports, even when your books are not free.  This morning the graph is telling me I gave away three books. None of my books are free right now.  However, the month to date report is showing them as sales, so it's all good. 

It does bring up an interesting quandary, though.  How do writers know whether the actual royalty deposits are correct when the reports are off?  No clue.  But there wasn't really a clue before.  I did see one person claiming this was a way for Amazon to steal from us.  Umm, and they call me paranoid. 

I guess we just have to trust that someone somewhere is keeping an eye on it.  Because, seriously?  There are certain people who are so hot to damn Amazon, you know darn well the company would be in deep shit if they tried to fudge this stuff.  So, it would be stupid of them to do it.  And they don't seem stupid. 

So, anyway, hang in there.  I'm sure this stuff will get cleared up eventually and we'll all get the money that's due us. 

In other Amazon related stuff, I saw a new report that Amazon is screwing us in the reviews.  The person posting this even had a link to Amazons terms for reviewing books, and guess what?  I read them and they don't seem any different than they were the last time some arm-waving fearmonger claimed Amazon was screwing us out of reviews.  Again, no worries here.  Yeah, reviews seem to be down, but it's across the board, not just at Amazon.  I think it has to do with people not wanting to write a review.  How many of us have a boatload of Goodreads ratings without corresponding reviews?  Yeah.  So, again, I don't think this is anything to get excited about. 

Hell, maybe the fearmongers who keep saying 'Amazon won't let you review that' are actually keeping people from trying to review books.  Jus' sayin'. 

Oh, and the whole thing about having to spend $50 at Amazon to be able to write a review?  It's not new and it's not stopping people from reviewing your books.  For one thing, it's cumulative across the entirety of your online purchasing lifespan and includes everything you've ever bought at Amazon (except gift cards, I guess.  :shrug:).  If you've never in your whole life bought more than $50 worth of stuff at Amazon, you can't write a review.  Who hasn't bought $50+ worth of stuff through Amazon??   I see this as a non-issue.  So, if you want to review a book at Amazon, go for it.  If they, for some reason, deny your review - reword it and try again later.  (I had a couple reviews get denied because they had curse words in them, so I fixed it and resubmitted and it worked.) 

Any other Amazon issues out there that need to be addressed?  Anything you've heard/read but haven't had time to confirm/deny yet? 

Let's Talk Numbers Again

It's been a while since I talked numbers here on the blog.  But since I passed a milestone this past month, now is as good a time as any. 

This month, I rolled over $2K in gross earnings.  Yeah, it doesn't sound like much.  But I know there are authors out there struggling worse than I am, so I'm going to be content with that for now. 

Here's how that shakes out. 

First a look back at 2015:

Books sold: 1016.77
Dying Embers: 514.25
Accidental Death: 421.24
Wish in One Hand: 63.52
Blood Flow: 17.75

Now a look at this year so far:

Books sold: 556.57
Dying Embers: 297.23
Accidental Death: 45.28
Wish in One Hand: 98.73
Blood Flow: 7.04
In Deep Wish: 37.46
Fertile Ground: 62.28
Up Wish Creek: 8.55

Yeah, not quite the banner year I was hoping for, but I haven't really done much in the way of advertising this year.  Of course, it's hard to obtain advertising without reviews.  It's also hard to spend money on advertising when you don't have money, but that's my problem.  To make $2K since I started this whole endeavor, I spent around $7K.  The larger portion of that was spent in the first year, so I'm not as deep in the hole this year as I was last year.  So I got that going for me.

Lastly, if you're interested in review numbers, here they are:

DE:
Amazon: 27 reviews (4.7 stars)
Goodreads: 53 ratings / 17 reviews (4.13 stars)

AD:
Amazon: 7 reviews (4.9 stars)
Goodreads: 24 ratings/ 6 reviews (4.29 stars)

WIOH:
Amazon: 7 reviews (5 stars)
Goodreads: 13 ratings / 7 reviews (4.46 stars)

BF:
Amazon: 3 reviews (5 stars)
Goodreads: 4 / 2 (4.75 stars)

IDW:
Amazon: 4 reviews (4.25 stars)
Goodreads: 6 / 4 (4.17 stars)

FG:
Amazon: 1 review (5 stars)
Goodreads: 2 / 2 (5 stars)

UWC:
Amazon: 2 reviews (5 stars)
Goodreads: 4 / 3 (4.75 stars)

This is only for Amazon US.  I have additional reviews at Amazon UK that shake out about the same way.  No reviews on any other Amazon country site as far as I know.  I had a few reviews at B&N when I sold there.  And I know I have reviews at some of the pirate sites.  (yay, reviews... boo, book piracy)

Anyway, my books are well-received for the most part, so that's good.

Not sure where I was going with all this.  I hope it helps other writers see what's possible (although my numbers my not be indicative of anyone else's success or failure).  I hope it helps readers better understand the self-publishing thing.   

Any questions?