Megan Thomason's Blog
December 9, 2013
Measuring success as a writer
The nicely formatted version with pictures is here:
As it has been a year since I published daynight and 2013 is coming to a close, I have been thinking a lot about what constitutes “success� in the publishing industry, whether I have achieved it, and if it matters.
“Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.� —Winston Churchill
It won’t do any good for me to compare my success to those who have “won the publishing lottery� any more than it will be to feel overly confident about the success I have had. Yet, I all too often compare myself to my peers and those who have found immense success. I’m an over-the-top type A personality and used to working hard and achieving success. So, I stress about daily sales and rankings, and I wonder what to do to keep things on the right trajectory.
I consider these to be some baseline parameters for success:
- Indie authors need to be prepared to invest in their business and fight for every sale. It is as much work post-publishing as it is writing the book.
- Sure, there is an element of luck involved. But, a book’s chances of success are better if it is a) a good idea that is executed well (including having been professionally edited and proofread—a lesson I had to learn the hard way), b) has a good cover and blurb, c) has positive reviews, and d) has enough marketing behind it to get visibility.
All that said, an author can still do “everything by the book� and still consider their efforts a failure because they are comparing themselves against an impossible standard. It is success alone in finishing a full-length novel and publishing it! It is success to get people other than friends and family to buy a book, to get positive reviews, to be ranked, and to amass any number of fans.
So here’s my pep talk to myself about my accomplishments for 2013.
Sales
There is no consistent, industry standard barometer that will tell an author if they have achieved success. I, like many people, suffer from feeling unworthy after comparing myself to others when the only truth is that there will always be people who are more successful, and there will be people who are less successful.
I can usually find anything on the internet. However, the information on book sales is lacking, and what is there is inconsistent.
“Most self-published books will sell less than 100 or 150 copies.”—New York Times
I’ve had a few days where I have been lucky enough to sell that many books in a single day. So, I can safely say my books are above average for an Indie book—yet far from what those in the top 100 on Amazon sell.
“Average e-book earned just $297 last year…at $300 each, you’d have to publish 48 books per year just to make minimum wage � if you could write them in all in your waking hours.”—MikeCooper.com
My husband jokes all the time about my 50 cent an hour job. Even with good sales, once expenses are taken out, there is not a lot left.
“A survey of 1,007 self-published writers � one of the most comprehensive insights into the growing market to date � found that while a small percentage of authors were bringing in sums of $100,000-plus in 2011, average earnings were just $10,000 a year. This amount, however, is significantly skewed by the top earners, with less than 10% of self-publishing authors earning about 75% of the reported revenue and half of writers earning less than $500. Romance authors earned 170% more than their peers, while authors in other genres fared much worse: science-fiction writers earned 38% of the $10,000 average, fantasy writers 32%, and literary fiction authors just 20% of the $10,000 average.”—The Guardian
I think that dystopians perform a little better than science-fiction on average, and that dystopian romances have broader market appeal than a standard dystopia. But they are also not as hot as New Adult or Contemporary romances. Using the standard average, I can say that I’ve done above average here.
“I usually say that the average book sells 10,000 copies with a major publisher.”—SteveLaube.com
This one I can get excited about. My books are no �50 Shades,� but at least I know they are selling in the realm of those from major publishing houses.
Rankings and bestsellers
“There are somewhere between 600,000 and 1,000,000 books published every year in the US alone, depending on which stats you believe.”—Forbes
Yikes. That is a lot of competition when looked at it that way. Amazon has 2,305,692 Kindle books available (1.3 million are non-fiction). Thankfully, there are sub-categories which much more manageable numbers of books in each. For instance, there are currently 7,635 Teen & Young Adult romance books but only 318 dystopian romance books. There are 11,648 YA Science Fiction & Fantasy books but only 2,988 YA Science Fiction books and 742 dystopias within that category. Picking the right category is crucial to success and have a shot at being in the rankings.
daynight has been as high as #1-#10 in many categories—YA Science Fiction, YA Romance, YA dystopian romance, YA dystopia, Children’s Science Fiction, and more.
arbitrate has been high in the rankings for YA dystopian romance and YA dystopia, has been in the “hot new releases� list for its first month (#3, behind mass-market novels such as Allegiant and The Selection), and is in the top-rated books for its categories (currently #8 for YA dystopian romance).
My books have been as high as #1000 paid (top 50 when free) and tend to hover in the #2000s to #5000s (out of 2.3M+ books, that’s not half bad), though without any promotion (price or marketing) they can plummet in the rankings quickly.
“And in 2010 more than 2.7 million "non-traditional" titles were also published, including self-published books, reprints of public domain works, and other print-on-demand books.”—Huffington Post
Bowker counted 391K self-published books with an ISBN published in 2012. This does *not* include Amazon books that use an ASIN instead of an ISBN, so the number is actually much higher. (Source: Self Published Author by Bowker)
Yeah, yeah, yeah…we get it. There are a lot of books published.
Net profits
I have known several people who think it would be “great� to write a book to “augment their income.� Some people think it is an “easy� way to make money.
Writing a book is hard, time consuming, and expensive. And it is apparently the second most competitive profession in America.
To make money, you have to spend money. Indie authors have to pay for all their own expenses—book covers, editing, marketing, advertising, blog tours, and giveaways to name a few. I have spent thousands on editing and proofreading alone (in my opinion, it is critical to have a polished book). Blog tours cost hundreds of dollars. It all adds up fast.
There is nothing more depressing than working hard and losing money. Even with the lag in Amazon royalties, I can happily say that I made more money than I spent in 2013. Since I don’t write for the money, I have tried to use those profits to give back to my readers through giveaways and to the community through donations.
Social media
According to Forbes, to be successful as an Indie author, we all have to be like Guy Kawasaki and create a monster social media platform (). Easy for him to say. I do think that it is useful to have a place to interact with fans. For my author colleague, David Estes, that platform is ŷ. For me, it is Facebook (). For Guy Kawasaki, it is Twitter. Other authors—like Susan Kaye Quinn and Jillian Dodd have blogs with large followings. Here is my advice:
- Have a presence on multiple platforms, but “invest� in one.
- Include links at the back of your books to your social media links and to where readers can sign up to be notified of new releases (only use this list to notify readers of new releases).
- Personally respond to readers when possible. As books become more popular, this doesn’t scale well, but I know that I really enjoy hearing from and interacting with my readers. I have gotten to know some of them well and am the better for it.
As I said above, the social media platform that I use the most is Facebook. I do regular giveaways, post my teasers there, and share news about my books (and other books as I see fit).
Publishing output (how many books are cranked out)
I know several authors who are able to crank out a book every 3-4 weeks. That is not something I am able to do. With five kids, my life is very busy. And, the books in the daynight series are extremely complicated (3 main characters, with things happening in the past and present across two planets + dozens of sub-plots) and take me a long time to write and polish. daynight took more than six solid months of writing and even longer to edit. arbitrate was released just shy of a year after daynight. I did release clean slate complex as both a standalone novella and part of the anthology, Darkest Worlds between.
It is definitely true that the more titles an author has, the greater the chance of success for a “breakthrough hit� and greater opportunity for a steady income. I’m feeling a little behind the curve on this one.
Reviews
When I first published daynight, I had a hard time getting friends and family to read it. I’m sure they assumed it would suck and did a whole lot of eye-rolling. So, I decided to get professional opinions from Kirkus Reviews (an industry leader), BlueInk Review, and ForeWord Reviews. This is like rolling the dice. You hope that you can get enough positive snippets to use in marketing. Professional reviews can be extremely harsh. I lucked out and got overall positive professional reviews across the board.
About a month later (and after contacting dozens of blogs and being turned down), I learned about blog tours and signed up for my first one with Kathy from Book Blasts, Blog Tours. I got a lot of great reviews from this tour—as well as some excellent feedback.
Does everyone love them? No—nor do I expect them to. Everyone’s tastes vary widely. I’ve found that most middle-aged men do not enjoy my teen dystopian romance, nor do lovers of erotica (shocking, I know). There are people who don’t read my books and have personally attacked me. This happens to every writer. I’ve stopped reading reviews for the most part, finding that it isn’t good for an author’s blood pressure or productivity.
Personal reward
This is perhaps the most important thing. Is writing personally rewarding? For me, it is. When I wrote daynight, writing was an excellent escape for me. Now, to be honest, writing feels like a job. I have professional editors and proofreaders and have deadlines to adhere to. However, I find it rewarding to write—particularly when, as with arbitrate, I can look back and be genuinely happy with the results. I receive notes from readers often who love my books and that always makes my day—as much, if not a whole lot more, than great sales or a high ranking.
The income I have made has allowed me to make large contributions to both Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (in honor of my daughter who had a bone marrow transplant) and to the Red Cross Philippines relief efforts. In addition, I organized a Holiday Giving Tree which helped more than 35 families with over $4,500 in gifts distributed (with help from friends, readers, and fellow authors). That is enough reward in and of itself.
Conclusion
If we look for failure, we will find failure. If we look for success, we will find it. We may find success in the rankings and still not be able to put food on the table with our earnings. We may have a book with a killer idea that no one experiences because it is lost in the sea of alternatives. We may get critical acclaim and fall short on our sales goals. The high sales we receive may be offset by huge expenses. There will always be room for improvement.
So, ultimately, I think that an author needs to write because they love to…because they have to…because they are haunted by each story until it is written. Anything on top of that is a nice bonus.
As it has been a year since I published daynight and 2013 is coming to a close, I have been thinking a lot about what constitutes “success� in the publishing industry, whether I have achieved it, and if it matters.
“Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.� —Winston Churchill
It won’t do any good for me to compare my success to those who have “won the publishing lottery� any more than it will be to feel overly confident about the success I have had. Yet, I all too often compare myself to my peers and those who have found immense success. I’m an over-the-top type A personality and used to working hard and achieving success. So, I stress about daily sales and rankings, and I wonder what to do to keep things on the right trajectory.
I consider these to be some baseline parameters for success:
- Indie authors need to be prepared to invest in their business and fight for every sale. It is as much work post-publishing as it is writing the book.
- Sure, there is an element of luck involved. But, a book’s chances of success are better if it is a) a good idea that is executed well (including having been professionally edited and proofread—a lesson I had to learn the hard way), b) has a good cover and blurb, c) has positive reviews, and d) has enough marketing behind it to get visibility.
All that said, an author can still do “everything by the book� and still consider their efforts a failure because they are comparing themselves against an impossible standard. It is success alone in finishing a full-length novel and publishing it! It is success to get people other than friends and family to buy a book, to get positive reviews, to be ranked, and to amass any number of fans.
So here’s my pep talk to myself about my accomplishments for 2013.
Sales
There is no consistent, industry standard barometer that will tell an author if they have achieved success. I, like many people, suffer from feeling unworthy after comparing myself to others when the only truth is that there will always be people who are more successful, and there will be people who are less successful.
I can usually find anything on the internet. However, the information on book sales is lacking, and what is there is inconsistent.
“Most self-published books will sell less than 100 or 150 copies.”—New York Times
I’ve had a few days where I have been lucky enough to sell that many books in a single day. So, I can safely say my books are above average for an Indie book—yet far from what those in the top 100 on Amazon sell.
“Average e-book earned just $297 last year…at $300 each, you’d have to publish 48 books per year just to make minimum wage � if you could write them in all in your waking hours.”—MikeCooper.com
My husband jokes all the time about my 50 cent an hour job. Even with good sales, once expenses are taken out, there is not a lot left.
“A survey of 1,007 self-published writers � one of the most comprehensive insights into the growing market to date � found that while a small percentage of authors were bringing in sums of $100,000-plus in 2011, average earnings were just $10,000 a year. This amount, however, is significantly skewed by the top earners, with less than 10% of self-publishing authors earning about 75% of the reported revenue and half of writers earning less than $500. Romance authors earned 170% more than their peers, while authors in other genres fared much worse: science-fiction writers earned 38% of the $10,000 average, fantasy writers 32%, and literary fiction authors just 20% of the $10,000 average.”—The Guardian
I think that dystopians perform a little better than science-fiction on average, and that dystopian romances have broader market appeal than a standard dystopia. But they are also not as hot as New Adult or Contemporary romances. Using the standard average, I can say that I’ve done above average here.
“I usually say that the average book sells 10,000 copies with a major publisher.”—SteveLaube.com
This one I can get excited about. My books are no �50 Shades,� but at least I know they are selling in the realm of those from major publishing houses.
Rankings and bestsellers
“There are somewhere between 600,000 and 1,000,000 books published every year in the US alone, depending on which stats you believe.”—Forbes
Yikes. That is a lot of competition when looked at it that way. Amazon has 2,305,692 Kindle books available (1.3 million are non-fiction). Thankfully, there are sub-categories which much more manageable numbers of books in each. For instance, there are currently 7,635 Teen & Young Adult romance books but only 318 dystopian romance books. There are 11,648 YA Science Fiction & Fantasy books but only 2,988 YA Science Fiction books and 742 dystopias within that category. Picking the right category is crucial to success and have a shot at being in the rankings.
daynight has been as high as #1-#10 in many categories—YA Science Fiction, YA Romance, YA dystopian romance, YA dystopia, Children’s Science Fiction, and more.
arbitrate has been high in the rankings for YA dystopian romance and YA dystopia, has been in the “hot new releases� list for its first month (#3, behind mass-market novels such as Allegiant and The Selection), and is in the top-rated books for its categories (currently #8 for YA dystopian romance).
My books have been as high as #1000 paid (top 50 when free) and tend to hover in the #2000s to #5000s (out of 2.3M+ books, that’s not half bad), though without any promotion (price or marketing) they can plummet in the rankings quickly.
“And in 2010 more than 2.7 million "non-traditional" titles were also published, including self-published books, reprints of public domain works, and other print-on-demand books.”—Huffington Post
Bowker counted 391K self-published books with an ISBN published in 2012. This does *not* include Amazon books that use an ASIN instead of an ISBN, so the number is actually much higher. (Source: Self Published Author by Bowker)
Yeah, yeah, yeah…we get it. There are a lot of books published.
Net profits
I have known several people who think it would be “great� to write a book to “augment their income.� Some people think it is an “easy� way to make money.
Writing a book is hard, time consuming, and expensive. And it is apparently the second most competitive profession in America.
To make money, you have to spend money. Indie authors have to pay for all their own expenses—book covers, editing, marketing, advertising, blog tours, and giveaways to name a few. I have spent thousands on editing and proofreading alone (in my opinion, it is critical to have a polished book). Blog tours cost hundreds of dollars. It all adds up fast.
There is nothing more depressing than working hard and losing money. Even with the lag in Amazon royalties, I can happily say that I made more money than I spent in 2013. Since I don’t write for the money, I have tried to use those profits to give back to my readers through giveaways and to the community through donations.
Social media
According to Forbes, to be successful as an Indie author, we all have to be like Guy Kawasaki and create a monster social media platform (). Easy for him to say. I do think that it is useful to have a place to interact with fans. For my author colleague, David Estes, that platform is ŷ. For me, it is Facebook (). For Guy Kawasaki, it is Twitter. Other authors—like Susan Kaye Quinn and Jillian Dodd have blogs with large followings. Here is my advice:
- Have a presence on multiple platforms, but “invest� in one.
- Include links at the back of your books to your social media links and to where readers can sign up to be notified of new releases (only use this list to notify readers of new releases).
- Personally respond to readers when possible. As books become more popular, this doesn’t scale well, but I know that I really enjoy hearing from and interacting with my readers. I have gotten to know some of them well and am the better for it.
As I said above, the social media platform that I use the most is Facebook. I do regular giveaways, post my teasers there, and share news about my books (and other books as I see fit).
Publishing output (how many books are cranked out)
I know several authors who are able to crank out a book every 3-4 weeks. That is not something I am able to do. With five kids, my life is very busy. And, the books in the daynight series are extremely complicated (3 main characters, with things happening in the past and present across two planets + dozens of sub-plots) and take me a long time to write and polish. daynight took more than six solid months of writing and even longer to edit. arbitrate was released just shy of a year after daynight. I did release clean slate complex as both a standalone novella and part of the anthology, Darkest Worlds between.
It is definitely true that the more titles an author has, the greater the chance of success for a “breakthrough hit� and greater opportunity for a steady income. I’m feeling a little behind the curve on this one.
Reviews
When I first published daynight, I had a hard time getting friends and family to read it. I’m sure they assumed it would suck and did a whole lot of eye-rolling. So, I decided to get professional opinions from Kirkus Reviews (an industry leader), BlueInk Review, and ForeWord Reviews. This is like rolling the dice. You hope that you can get enough positive snippets to use in marketing. Professional reviews can be extremely harsh. I lucked out and got overall positive professional reviews across the board.
About a month later (and after contacting dozens of blogs and being turned down), I learned about blog tours and signed up for my first one with Kathy from Book Blasts, Blog Tours. I got a lot of great reviews from this tour—as well as some excellent feedback.
Does everyone love them? No—nor do I expect them to. Everyone’s tastes vary widely. I’ve found that most middle-aged men do not enjoy my teen dystopian romance, nor do lovers of erotica (shocking, I know). There are people who don’t read my books and have personally attacked me. This happens to every writer. I’ve stopped reading reviews for the most part, finding that it isn’t good for an author’s blood pressure or productivity.
Personal reward
This is perhaps the most important thing. Is writing personally rewarding? For me, it is. When I wrote daynight, writing was an excellent escape for me. Now, to be honest, writing feels like a job. I have professional editors and proofreaders and have deadlines to adhere to. However, I find it rewarding to write—particularly when, as with arbitrate, I can look back and be genuinely happy with the results. I receive notes from readers often who love my books and that always makes my day—as much, if not a whole lot more, than great sales or a high ranking.
The income I have made has allowed me to make large contributions to both Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (in honor of my daughter who had a bone marrow transplant) and to the Red Cross Philippines relief efforts. In addition, I organized a Holiday Giving Tree which helped more than 35 families with over $4,500 in gifts distributed (with help from friends, readers, and fellow authors). That is enough reward in and of itself.
Conclusion
If we look for failure, we will find failure. If we look for success, we will find it. We may find success in the rankings and still not be able to put food on the table with our earnings. We may have a book with a killer idea that no one experiences because it is lost in the sea of alternatives. We may get critical acclaim and fall short on our sales goals. The high sales we receive may be offset by huge expenses. There will always be room for improvement.
So, ultimately, I think that an author needs to write because they love to…because they have to…because they are haunted by each story until it is written. Anything on top of that is a nice bonus.
March 22, 2013
The importance of being edited
Originally posted at:
The editing process has been on my mind lately, both because I’ve been spending a lot of time editing � and reading things that maybe skipped a few (or all) steps in the editing process. I also have an AWESOME new professional editor who is helping me get up to speed on current standards (let’s just say I might have had a teacher and professor or two who drilled some incorrect concepts into me—but hey, I’m adaptable).
On the reading front� for fun or research or out of curiosity or whatever� I decided to read a bunch of the “top 100� Kindle books over the last couple weeks. Okay, maybe “reading� is a generous term, as I ended up skimming or skipping parts here and there that weren't my thing. There are definitely some gems in the top 100. But from an "editing perspective" my overall my first impression was “Wow. The bar has officially been lowered.� If you get exposed to something enough (eg. poor editing) does one become immune to it? Or for the right kind of “content� do people turn a blind eye?
What struck me is that there was a missed opportunity in a few cases to turn a good product into a great product.
I think of a book like a famous model--before and after makeup, styling and Photoshop... still pretty, but the transformation is quite amazing!
A big disclaimer: I do not claim to have perfected any of this. Quite the contrary! I have to continually remind myself to do all of this and often still fall short in execution.
Quantity over quality trap
In today’s market, I think we as authors have one major thing working against us � the most effective way to become profitable is to churn out as many books as quickly as possible. From a financial standpoint there’s no question � an author needs multiple books out to maximize their earning potential. The more books an author cranks out, the more books they are going to sell every day, and thus more money in the bank. No one’s going to get rich off of selling one book, even if that book is selling an average of 20 or 30 or 40 books a day. But have 5 or 10 books doing that � that becomes real money.
It’s really easy to get caught up in the desire to have multiple offerings � and to perhaps take some shortcuts to get the books out in a timely fashion. Maybe there are a few authors out there that can sit down and write the “perfect� book on the first try in two or three weeks. But for mere mortals I’d suggest taking what might be a decent “first draft� (or maybe the “skeleton� of what will be a masterpiece) and spending at least the same if not more time re-writing and editing as was spent writing in the first place. daynight took me a solid six months to write and probably double that time to do rewrites and edits. And it is *still* far from perfect. Granted I am pretty OCD about editing (and sloooooow � so it will not take everyone that long).
Content editing versus proofreading
There’s two sides of the virtual editing coin: content editing and copy editing (or proofreading). Both are critical. Typically a writer will write. Then re-write over and over again until the content is right, fixing any mistakes they see as they go along. But at the very end every book should be proofread. By someone other than the author. Preferably someone who is an actual proofreader. Trust me, I’ve been burned by this. The brain is a remarkable thing and can turn every misused “my� into a “me.� Most books will be run through a grammar and spellchecker (I say most because there are actually a surprising number of books that don’t appear to have even had this done to them). But that will not catch all the errors—not even close.
One CONTENT editing approach: “multi-pass�
Every author will have their own approach to editing, but I like to go through my book dozens to hundreds of times, each focusing on something different. I also do passes that look at the entire thing to make sure everything is consistent and flows well. For each book I make a list of passes I want to make, plus I’ll add make a list of things to go through and check. For instance I might note “progression of bruises.� If my character got injured did I play the whole story out or did the character have a “miraculous and instant� recovery because I forgot about it? Or I might make the note “What are [unnamed character’s] motivations for doing that?� if I feel like I didn’t adequately explain.
Note that I found as I adopted this process my writing got better. I’m constantly thinking about all these things as I write, so I have less work (far from no work) when I do my passes. I’ve listed some (but not all) of the passes I do on each book below. These are what came to my currently migraine-addled mind. I’ll update as my mind becomes less fuzzy :). Note that these can be done relatively quickly if you stay focused on the task at hand.
Dialogue
1. Is the dialogue necessary?
2. Is what you considered to be witty the first time around still witty? (I never published my first three books. When I go back and re-read I am amazed at how many pieces of dialogue I thought were hysterical are flat and not funny at all.)
3. Are the “says� or “saids� varied with other tags? This is one my editor pointed out to me. I had read that the reader’s brain just ignores the “says�, so to not try to “fancy them up.� But now that my editor pointed this out to me � it can make good dialogue flat when it turns into a back and forth “he says� “she says� thing.
Character development (one character at a time).
1. Consistent voice. This can be tough. Example: my upcoming novella features a girl who dropped out of school at sixteen and has been living in a van. I had to do a full pass to dumb down the language. The character isn’t dumb. But I had some (well ok � many) words in there or phrases that she would never use. It took a full day to do this, but it now reads true to her character. Time well spent.
2. Backstory. I think every character, even the most minor, deserve an interesting backstory. That doesn’t mean every detail needs to be revealed to the readers, but touches here and there will give characters dimension.
3. Flaws. Everyone has flaws. Characters need flaws to be interesting and realistic.
4. Growth. In real life experiences mold people. Trials help people grow. Thus characters should also grow and develop throughout a story.
5. Physical characteristics. Is each character described adequately (both physically and mannerisms/quirks/memorable qualities)?
Action
Action scenes should have a different feel and tone to them. Sentences should be shorter. Here’s a blog post on writing action scenes: .
Romance
If you’d like to remove a few things from my personal pet peeve list (you know� so that when I read your book I will sing its praises and not be pounding my head against the wall and causing further brain damage &/or warped thoughts to occur):
1) If there’s a love triangle, each “candidate� should be equally interesting and a viable option. One option should not be an afterthought to the other.
2) Avoid insta-love. Insta-attraction is ok, but does the relationship build? Do they have obstacles to overcome? Build up some tension!
3) If two characters start out disliking each other (this can be an effective plot device, but�) � why do they dislike each other? What’s the backstory? How do they overcome it? Again, make this gradual and not instantaneous.
4) How does the relationship progress? Does it make sense? Is it realistic?
Setting
Is every scene well described (without being overly described)? Will readers be able to picture where things are happening?
Pacing
Pacing is one of the trickiest things to get right. The story has to move. It has to keep people hooked and wanting to turn pages. Here’s a decent post about pacing: .
Twists
I’m a big fan of having twists � both ones that readers can and should see coming, and ones they may not see coming. There’s a lot of twists in daynight. For each one there is foreshadowing—some rather blatant, some very subtle. Foreshadowing is important. It rewards readers who are paying close attention. Think of how much time has been spent analyzing the ending in the movie Inception. There was a *ton* of foreshadowing, much of it very subtle.
Some twists may be plotted out from the beginning, while others will arise organically while writing. If I add a twist while writing, I go back to add foreshadowing and do a full pass to make sure I get the level of subtlety correct.
Show vs. Tell
Wherever possible, unveil things to readers while they are “showing� vs. elaborating through extended prose. In fact, there’s a whole section in daynight where I’m unveiling Thera that I’d like to go back and do differently. “Telling� will halt forward momentum and can bore readers. It’s important to keep things moving and having the characters doing something at all times. Here’s a post on this: and a great post by Maria Snyder (author of Poison Study, a fantastic book): .
World-building
Every book is in essence building a world. This becomes even more important when the author is building an actual new world (in my case I had to build the new world of Thera and the dystopia who controlled it). Avoid information dumps. Gradual reveals are better. Here’s wikipedia’s take on it: .
Humor/comic-relief
I believe that well placed humor can make an enormous difference in a book. Think of how much Effie and Haymitch added to The Hunger Games. Particularly when dark material is involved, humor can lighten things up a little and give readers a break from all the gloom and doom. I added two full characters to daynight to up the comic relief factor.
Consistent tone
- Each character should have a unique voice that stays consistent
- The overall tone of the book should stay consistent
Continuity & removing loose ends
I always do full run throughs to look for problems in continuity or loose ends that need to be wrapped up. Sometimes I’ll find things while doing other passes and will make a list and address in a later pass.
*Note that if a change is made to do a full pass to make sure that the “butterfly effect� is addressed. Every change will impact things that happen later in the book, so make sure to adjust accordingly.
“Clever� commentary on life
Are the characters making observations about their situation or life that will connect with readers? You know � the kinds of things that readers highlight.
Chapter & story arcs
1. Is something interesting happening in every chapter? Does the tension build? Does the situation resolve?
2. On a global level, is the story building to the climax? Do all the loose ends get tied up and does it have a clean resolution at the end (without ending too briefly)?
Entertainment factor
What are you going for? Awards or blockbuster sales? Literary genius, pure entertainment or something between? Everyone’s got a different style. Some people can paint vivid, compelling pictures of the most ordinary things. Other focus on an action-packed plot. Whatever an author’s style is, the audience has to be kept in mind. Will your readers be entertained? Are there sections that will bore them? Compelling sections that could be amped up even more?
Suspension of disbelief
A story needs to be written so that a reader can become fully immersed in your “world.� Are there any stray elements in your book that might cause a reader to see a huge disconnect? A dramatic example (technology vs. setting mismatch): the book is set in the Victorian era and someone’s on their cell phone � wouldn’t make any sense. A fun article on this: .
Smells
Whether the hot guy smells like cinnamon or the dumpster smells like rancid milk, smells will give dimension to any book.
Sounds
The world is far from silent. Thus the world in any book should be bustling with activity, too.
Verb tense
A book is typically written in present tense or past tense. Pick one and stick with it. If writing in present tense and speaking about things in the past then make sure the past tense only extends to that scene. I read a book a while back that had no fewer than twenty tense changes per page (and I was reading on my phone lol). The writer had a good and important story to tell, but it was completely ruined by lack of consistency in verb tense.
Cut the fat
A full pass should be dedicated to eliminating any and all extraneous things. Sounds awkward? Reword or cut. Doesn’t move the plot forward or provide an important plot detail? Cut. Too much information? Cut. Nothing should be “untouchable.� My husband cut 100 pages from his middle grade novel on one pass. I’m not that talented at it, but strive to be better.
Big picture pass
After all the little things are addressed, read through the entire book (at least once � preferably multiple times) to make sure everything flows and works together.
What to do with a better idea?
Write it. Write it even if it impacts the entire book.
Beta it!
At some point an author has to let their work be read. I highly recommend that happen before it gets published. I think once an author is well past the “first draft� phase and to the “I’m pretty happy with this� phase, it’s time to send the book out to beta readers. Note these should not solely be family and friends. Bloggers and fellow authors would make good beta readers. You want these folks to be able to give you high level feedback on what works and doesn’t work.
With daynight I didn’t give my betas out broadly enough. There were important things that got missed that some bloggers picked up later. While I wished these things had been caught earlier, I was still grateful for the feedback and made changes to fix the problems.
Consider beta feedback carefully. You will get diametrically opposed feedback in some cases. Look for common threads and address those issues. If one person loves action and another loves romance you will have to make a judgement call on the balance for your particular book.
When is enough enough?
Let’s face it. The editing process could go on forever. At some point an author needs to decide “enough is enough.� That’s the point to get the proofreader involved and work on polishing what’s there rather than making changes. It took an extraordinarily long time for me to get there with daynight. I felt something was missing and I pondered what that was for a long time. Then last fall the light bulb went off. I did the re-write that it needed and focused on polishing. And then I finally felt like it was “ready.� Some things to consider:
- Have you addressed all major issues that came up in the beta reads?
- Are you personally happy with the story?
- Do you feel like anything is missing?
- On the proofreading front: did you use someone other than yourself to proofread your book? Someone who has a really good grasp of current standards and has trained their brain to find errors? In particular, I highly recommend the first 10% be scrubbed every which way as many people will decide whether to purchase based on a sample of your book. How embarrassing would it be to have a major error 5 words in (an author friend encountered such a book recently)? Or within the first few pages?
Changes post-publishing
As far as I’m concerned it’s worth updating a book for a single error. I did an update solely to change a “my� to a “me.� I addressed some common threads that came back from early readers. I’d rather every new reader have a better experience than to leave errors in my book. It’s exceptionally easy to make updates (especially if you are compiling formats in Scrivener) and I see little downside. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Just fix it. I find errors in mass market books all the time. The difference is � there are usually only a handful as compared to hundreds. If enough changes get made then it is worth asking Amazon (or equivalent) to make the update available to readers.
References
The gold standard is William Strunk’s The Elements of Style. A must read for all authors.
Since most people can’t afford (or just don’t want to spend the money on) an editor, buy a current grammar guide and reference often.
The editing process has been on my mind lately, both because I’ve been spending a lot of time editing � and reading things that maybe skipped a few (or all) steps in the editing process. I also have an AWESOME new professional editor who is helping me get up to speed on current standards (let’s just say I might have had a teacher and professor or two who drilled some incorrect concepts into me—but hey, I’m adaptable).
On the reading front� for fun or research or out of curiosity or whatever� I decided to read a bunch of the “top 100� Kindle books over the last couple weeks. Okay, maybe “reading� is a generous term, as I ended up skimming or skipping parts here and there that weren't my thing. There are definitely some gems in the top 100. But from an "editing perspective" my overall my first impression was “Wow. The bar has officially been lowered.� If you get exposed to something enough (eg. poor editing) does one become immune to it? Or for the right kind of “content� do people turn a blind eye?
What struck me is that there was a missed opportunity in a few cases to turn a good product into a great product.
I think of a book like a famous model--before and after makeup, styling and Photoshop... still pretty, but the transformation is quite amazing!
A big disclaimer: I do not claim to have perfected any of this. Quite the contrary! I have to continually remind myself to do all of this and often still fall short in execution.
Quantity over quality trap
In today’s market, I think we as authors have one major thing working against us � the most effective way to become profitable is to churn out as many books as quickly as possible. From a financial standpoint there’s no question � an author needs multiple books out to maximize their earning potential. The more books an author cranks out, the more books they are going to sell every day, and thus more money in the bank. No one’s going to get rich off of selling one book, even if that book is selling an average of 20 or 30 or 40 books a day. But have 5 or 10 books doing that � that becomes real money.
It’s really easy to get caught up in the desire to have multiple offerings � and to perhaps take some shortcuts to get the books out in a timely fashion. Maybe there are a few authors out there that can sit down and write the “perfect� book on the first try in two or three weeks. But for mere mortals I’d suggest taking what might be a decent “first draft� (or maybe the “skeleton� of what will be a masterpiece) and spending at least the same if not more time re-writing and editing as was spent writing in the first place. daynight took me a solid six months to write and probably double that time to do rewrites and edits. And it is *still* far from perfect. Granted I am pretty OCD about editing (and sloooooow � so it will not take everyone that long).
Content editing versus proofreading
There’s two sides of the virtual editing coin: content editing and copy editing (or proofreading). Both are critical. Typically a writer will write. Then re-write over and over again until the content is right, fixing any mistakes they see as they go along. But at the very end every book should be proofread. By someone other than the author. Preferably someone who is an actual proofreader. Trust me, I’ve been burned by this. The brain is a remarkable thing and can turn every misused “my� into a “me.� Most books will be run through a grammar and spellchecker (I say most because there are actually a surprising number of books that don’t appear to have even had this done to them). But that will not catch all the errors—not even close.
One CONTENT editing approach: “multi-pass�
Every author will have their own approach to editing, but I like to go through my book dozens to hundreds of times, each focusing on something different. I also do passes that look at the entire thing to make sure everything is consistent and flows well. For each book I make a list of passes I want to make, plus I’ll add make a list of things to go through and check. For instance I might note “progression of bruises.� If my character got injured did I play the whole story out or did the character have a “miraculous and instant� recovery because I forgot about it? Or I might make the note “What are [unnamed character’s] motivations for doing that?� if I feel like I didn’t adequately explain.
Note that I found as I adopted this process my writing got better. I’m constantly thinking about all these things as I write, so I have less work (far from no work) when I do my passes. I’ve listed some (but not all) of the passes I do on each book below. These are what came to my currently migraine-addled mind. I’ll update as my mind becomes less fuzzy :). Note that these can be done relatively quickly if you stay focused on the task at hand.
Dialogue
1. Is the dialogue necessary?
2. Is what you considered to be witty the first time around still witty? (I never published my first three books. When I go back and re-read I am amazed at how many pieces of dialogue I thought were hysterical are flat and not funny at all.)
3. Are the “says� or “saids� varied with other tags? This is one my editor pointed out to me. I had read that the reader’s brain just ignores the “says�, so to not try to “fancy them up.� But now that my editor pointed this out to me � it can make good dialogue flat when it turns into a back and forth “he says� “she says� thing.
Character development (one character at a time).
1. Consistent voice. This can be tough. Example: my upcoming novella features a girl who dropped out of school at sixteen and has been living in a van. I had to do a full pass to dumb down the language. The character isn’t dumb. But I had some (well ok � many) words in there or phrases that she would never use. It took a full day to do this, but it now reads true to her character. Time well spent.
2. Backstory. I think every character, even the most minor, deserve an interesting backstory. That doesn’t mean every detail needs to be revealed to the readers, but touches here and there will give characters dimension.
3. Flaws. Everyone has flaws. Characters need flaws to be interesting and realistic.
4. Growth. In real life experiences mold people. Trials help people grow. Thus characters should also grow and develop throughout a story.
5. Physical characteristics. Is each character described adequately (both physically and mannerisms/quirks/memorable qualities)?
Action
Action scenes should have a different feel and tone to them. Sentences should be shorter. Here’s a blog post on writing action scenes: .
Romance
If you’d like to remove a few things from my personal pet peeve list (you know� so that when I read your book I will sing its praises and not be pounding my head against the wall and causing further brain damage &/or warped thoughts to occur):
1) If there’s a love triangle, each “candidate� should be equally interesting and a viable option. One option should not be an afterthought to the other.
2) Avoid insta-love. Insta-attraction is ok, but does the relationship build? Do they have obstacles to overcome? Build up some tension!
3) If two characters start out disliking each other (this can be an effective plot device, but�) � why do they dislike each other? What’s the backstory? How do they overcome it? Again, make this gradual and not instantaneous.
4) How does the relationship progress? Does it make sense? Is it realistic?
Setting
Is every scene well described (without being overly described)? Will readers be able to picture where things are happening?
Pacing
Pacing is one of the trickiest things to get right. The story has to move. It has to keep people hooked and wanting to turn pages. Here’s a decent post about pacing: .
Twists
I’m a big fan of having twists � both ones that readers can and should see coming, and ones they may not see coming. There’s a lot of twists in daynight. For each one there is foreshadowing—some rather blatant, some very subtle. Foreshadowing is important. It rewards readers who are paying close attention. Think of how much time has been spent analyzing the ending in the movie Inception. There was a *ton* of foreshadowing, much of it very subtle.
Some twists may be plotted out from the beginning, while others will arise organically while writing. If I add a twist while writing, I go back to add foreshadowing and do a full pass to make sure I get the level of subtlety correct.
Show vs. Tell
Wherever possible, unveil things to readers while they are “showing� vs. elaborating through extended prose. In fact, there’s a whole section in daynight where I’m unveiling Thera that I’d like to go back and do differently. “Telling� will halt forward momentum and can bore readers. It’s important to keep things moving and having the characters doing something at all times. Here’s a post on this: and a great post by Maria Snyder (author of Poison Study, a fantastic book): .
World-building
Every book is in essence building a world. This becomes even more important when the author is building an actual new world (in my case I had to build the new world of Thera and the dystopia who controlled it). Avoid information dumps. Gradual reveals are better. Here’s wikipedia’s take on it: .
Humor/comic-relief
I believe that well placed humor can make an enormous difference in a book. Think of how much Effie and Haymitch added to The Hunger Games. Particularly when dark material is involved, humor can lighten things up a little and give readers a break from all the gloom and doom. I added two full characters to daynight to up the comic relief factor.
Consistent tone
- Each character should have a unique voice that stays consistent
- The overall tone of the book should stay consistent
Continuity & removing loose ends
I always do full run throughs to look for problems in continuity or loose ends that need to be wrapped up. Sometimes I’ll find things while doing other passes and will make a list and address in a later pass.
*Note that if a change is made to do a full pass to make sure that the “butterfly effect� is addressed. Every change will impact things that happen later in the book, so make sure to adjust accordingly.
“Clever� commentary on life
Are the characters making observations about their situation or life that will connect with readers? You know � the kinds of things that readers highlight.
Chapter & story arcs
1. Is something interesting happening in every chapter? Does the tension build? Does the situation resolve?
2. On a global level, is the story building to the climax? Do all the loose ends get tied up and does it have a clean resolution at the end (without ending too briefly)?
Entertainment factor
What are you going for? Awards or blockbuster sales? Literary genius, pure entertainment or something between? Everyone’s got a different style. Some people can paint vivid, compelling pictures of the most ordinary things. Other focus on an action-packed plot. Whatever an author’s style is, the audience has to be kept in mind. Will your readers be entertained? Are there sections that will bore them? Compelling sections that could be amped up even more?
Suspension of disbelief
A story needs to be written so that a reader can become fully immersed in your “world.� Are there any stray elements in your book that might cause a reader to see a huge disconnect? A dramatic example (technology vs. setting mismatch): the book is set in the Victorian era and someone’s on their cell phone � wouldn’t make any sense. A fun article on this: .
Smells
Whether the hot guy smells like cinnamon or the dumpster smells like rancid milk, smells will give dimension to any book.
Sounds
The world is far from silent. Thus the world in any book should be bustling with activity, too.
Verb tense
A book is typically written in present tense or past tense. Pick one and stick with it. If writing in present tense and speaking about things in the past then make sure the past tense only extends to that scene. I read a book a while back that had no fewer than twenty tense changes per page (and I was reading on my phone lol). The writer had a good and important story to tell, but it was completely ruined by lack of consistency in verb tense.
Cut the fat
A full pass should be dedicated to eliminating any and all extraneous things. Sounds awkward? Reword or cut. Doesn’t move the plot forward or provide an important plot detail? Cut. Too much information? Cut. Nothing should be “untouchable.� My husband cut 100 pages from his middle grade novel on one pass. I’m not that talented at it, but strive to be better.
Big picture pass
After all the little things are addressed, read through the entire book (at least once � preferably multiple times) to make sure everything flows and works together.
What to do with a better idea?
Write it. Write it even if it impacts the entire book.
Beta it!
At some point an author has to let their work be read. I highly recommend that happen before it gets published. I think once an author is well past the “first draft� phase and to the “I’m pretty happy with this� phase, it’s time to send the book out to beta readers. Note these should not solely be family and friends. Bloggers and fellow authors would make good beta readers. You want these folks to be able to give you high level feedback on what works and doesn’t work.
With daynight I didn’t give my betas out broadly enough. There were important things that got missed that some bloggers picked up later. While I wished these things had been caught earlier, I was still grateful for the feedback and made changes to fix the problems.
Consider beta feedback carefully. You will get diametrically opposed feedback in some cases. Look for common threads and address those issues. If one person loves action and another loves romance you will have to make a judgement call on the balance for your particular book.
When is enough enough?
Let’s face it. The editing process could go on forever. At some point an author needs to decide “enough is enough.� That’s the point to get the proofreader involved and work on polishing what’s there rather than making changes. It took an extraordinarily long time for me to get there with daynight. I felt something was missing and I pondered what that was for a long time. Then last fall the light bulb went off. I did the re-write that it needed and focused on polishing. And then I finally felt like it was “ready.� Some things to consider:
- Have you addressed all major issues that came up in the beta reads?
- Are you personally happy with the story?
- Do you feel like anything is missing?
- On the proofreading front: did you use someone other than yourself to proofread your book? Someone who has a really good grasp of current standards and has trained their brain to find errors? In particular, I highly recommend the first 10% be scrubbed every which way as many people will decide whether to purchase based on a sample of your book. How embarrassing would it be to have a major error 5 words in (an author friend encountered such a book recently)? Or within the first few pages?
Changes post-publishing
As far as I’m concerned it’s worth updating a book for a single error. I did an update solely to change a “my� to a “me.� I addressed some common threads that came back from early readers. I’d rather every new reader have a better experience than to leave errors in my book. It’s exceptionally easy to make updates (especially if you are compiling formats in Scrivener) and I see little downside. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Just fix it. I find errors in mass market books all the time. The difference is � there are usually only a handful as compared to hundreds. If enough changes get made then it is worth asking Amazon (or equivalent) to make the update available to readers.
References
The gold standard is William Strunk’s The Elements of Style. A must read for all authors.
Since most people can’t afford (or just don’t want to spend the money on) an editor, buy a current grammar guide and reference often.
March 7, 2013
Thou Shalt Not Read Reviews of Thy Own Book
Originally posted at: .
Once upon a time I wrote because I found it relaxing. I enjoyed being able to escape into another world of my own making. It brought me great joy. I could write up to 14 hours a day, lost in a haze. I dreamed and daydreamed about my characters. I got inspired in the middle of the night, and didn’t mind typing notes into my phone so that I wouldn’t lose those thoughts.
Then one day everything changed. I decided to publish my 4th novel I’d written. After writing for 6 months & editing for 6 months; shelving for even longer and periodically doing full rewrites� and then more months of beta testing, proofreading, and final revisions, I had a story I was happy with.
The first few weeks after publishing were tough. How do I get people to read and write reviews? How do I promote it? I figured those things out, got my professional reviews back—which were all positive, had a successful blog tour, and then the book started selling. And then selling more and more each week. A dream come true, right?
That part, yes. But there’s one thing I never took into account. People can be hateful. I mean seriously. It’s shocking actually. More on that later.
I admit it. I tempted fate. Not intentionally, but I did. When I hit 100 reviews on Amazon, I posted a picture on facebook (which thanks to twitter integration also got tweeted) that included the ratings distribution (which at the time had no 1 or 2 star reviews). I commented that the chart might be deceiving, because I knew there were people out there who didn’t like my book (thanks to goodreads, the existence of which is meant to banish any modicum of pride in an author). I mean, I don’t like every book I read. I don’t expect everyone to like mine.
Apparently that was like sending out an open invitation to bash, nitpick, insult, berate� Hmmm.
So after writing for eight solid hours yesterday on my upcoming novella with great success, I saw a flood of hate. It’s like you have the very best job�. one that makes you happy, relieves stress, is a great outlet� But then you go into your performance review and get panned. Not so fun anymore. So, frankly I was kind of done with it all. I quit in dramatic fashion to my family. My twelve year old daughter cried (she’s a little obsessed with daynight & my older daughters lectured me for letting the haters get to me.) So, I decided to sleep on it. Woke up. Still felt like quitting. Went back to bed. And well, now I’m neutral :).
I finally decided (even before receiving some awesome supportive email from a great friend) that I’m adding a new commandment for me and for my sanity: Thou shalt not read reviews of thy own book.
Honestly, I’m a little sad about it. Some of the critical reviews I got early on were such a great help. I was able to look at the common threads and make great and important changes before the book got out there widely based on their feedback. I’ll talk about what I plan to do to still get the same effect, without the stress of being exposed to the hate.
The Review system
OK, so I spent 12 years working on the software industry with great success. I was all about getting great reviews, getting promoted quickly, and moving up the corporate ladder. Reviews were done on a 5 point scale (like the books). 5s almost never happened. 3.5 was about average. If you were getting 2s/2.5s/3s, you were probably on your way out (actually, the company rarely fired anyone� they just sent them to bog down some other part of the company). I usually got a 4 or 4.5 on my reviews, plus a couple 5s. I’d go in� meet with my singuarl boss. I’d be told what I was doing well, and get a list of things I could do better. Very reasonable process. I took to heart the things I needed to do better, and actively worked to fix those things. I’d go back into my next review with a sense of accomplishment.
Well, now I feel like I have thousands of bosses. But they’re all giving completely different feedback! Conflicting feedback even! That’s tough to process. If I follow one boss’s list, I’m going to infuriate another one. The epitome of a “can’t win� scenario.
Bipolar nature of reviews
Sometimes I wonder? Are they all reading the same book? Surely a book that garnered 4 positive professional reviews couldn’t be hated could it?
Well, yes, apparently it can. (And I know I’m not alone� everyone author sees this to some extent).
As I said above, I got some critical reviews early on that were a *huge* help. There were common, consistent threads, and I completely agreed with the feedback. I’m really grateful, because those reviews helped improve my book. I know it.
But here’s a variety of examples� some are easier to process and address than others. I’m going to paraphrase:
- The way your world, Thera, is introduced reads like a textbook or brochure. This is a valid criticism. Granted, it’s only a few pages worth (I think all readers, me included have become a little ADHD/impatient while reading)� but if the plot is fast-paced, fast-paced, fast-paced, and then comes to a bunch of telling that slows everything down� completely valid. Hard to address a few months after publishing, but valid. I think I’m going to have my editor help me to fix this one.
- A common one: The Blake flashbacks destroyed the book’s pacing. Equally as common: I *loved* the Blake parts. He felt like the most real character to me. Completely opposite feedback.
- There are pacing issues (examples are contradictory, since each person likes different aspects).
- The book is pushing sex, drugs, and bad decision making. Hmmmm. Interesting opinion. Read my post on the Controversy of Dystopias. By nature, a dystopia takes something in society (in this case a moral issue) and pushes it to its extreme, to see how people react and to shed light on the ridiculousness of it. Sorry folks, but it is a cautionary tale about all those things, not encouraging them. But bash away, because I won’t be reading it :).
- The Cleaving/sex stuff made me really uncomfortable so I hated the book. It is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable. That’s the point of a dystopia, right? Did anyone get immense pleasure watching kids kill other kids in The Hunger Games? Probably not (if you did, then might I suggest a one-way ticket to the Capitol lol?)
- I want more action. I want less action. I want more romance. I want less romance. The characters were well developed and flawed, making them real. The characters were cliche. The plot was completely fresh and exciting. I saw everything coming a mile away. I think you get the point. That’s the kind of bipolar feedback that’s tough to process.
Perils of Modern Communication
I communicate electronically all the time. I text, facebook, twitter, email, post� I’m always plugged in, and prefer to communicate that way a lot of the time (particularly since it can be done when I have time). I’m always firing off things quickly, since I have a lot to respond to. Back when I was working in the software industry, we were all know for sending “flame� mails. We’d be curt & not very nice when giving directives, often forgetting that there is a real person with real feelings receiving those things.
After hurting people’s feelings more than a few times, I became more cautious about this. After publishing, I even went through and scrubbed my goodreads reviews and ratings� because I realized that even if I don’t like a book, slamming someone’s hard work isn’t a constructive thing. But occasionally, I still screw up. I misinterpreted an email from a colleague this week, and jumped all over them (and had to spend a lot of time apologizing). I’d felt deceived by someone who sold me an advertisement, and jumped all over them (and again, spent time apologizing). I get it. It happens. We all make mistakes.
But, I’d just like to encourage all of us, including me, to remember that every communication does have another person on the other side. Sure, maybe you absolutely despised my book or someone else’s book. But making it personal through insults, bashing the writing, or whatever� not really cool. Constructive, specific criticism is awesome (this section reads like a textbook). Hating (I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hated this book and the writing. What was the author thinking? They should be ashamed that they are promoting X, Y, and Z. etc, etc.) is really just that� hating.
What I can control
So, I’m not one to go around reciting the serenity prayer or whatever. But, I’ve got to say that I think the idea of “working on what you can control� and “ignoring the stuff you can’t� has merit. I can’t control reviews. I can’t control people bashing or hating on me. What can I control are the following:
- I can do my very best job writing.
- I can make sure all future writing efforts have professional content and copy editing/proofreading. Will this keep me from getting negative reviews? Absolutely not. But, I’ll feel like I have done my very best effort. I may even have daynight go through the professional editing process and re-release. It seems drastic given that most people are enjoying it, and it has a lot of momentum going. But, if I ever feel like to cross a threshold from good success to great success that I need to do this, I will.
- I can send out ARCs to a wide variety of people & address common threads. On the bipolar views, I can guesstimate where the majority lies, or go with my gut, knowing there will be some people who disagree with the balance I choose.
- I can stop reading reviews that will hamper my love of writing. Because, here’s the thing� I don’t have to be writing. There’s all kinds of things I could be doing with my time. I’ve been very active helping out in the community. I’ve got five kids who need my love and attention. So, if writing stops being enjoyable and fun� it won’t be worth it to me anymore. If I wanted a lucrative job, I could return to the software industry. For me, it’s about doing what I love. And up until recently, I really loved it. To recapture that love, I’m cutting off the diseased limb.
- I can love and appreciate the fans who do support me and my work. I can reward them with “extras�, “teasers�, “giveaways�, and my genuine thanks.
To summarize a (long-winded) post� I’m going to try my very darndest to not read any more reviews. Or maybe I’ll occasionally glance at the positive reviews on Amazon (because positivity does have a good impact). But, my goodreads tab is closed. The haters can bash and I’ll be happily oblivious. When occasion warrants, I’ll have a friend or my daughters summarize the common threads for me. And, I’m going to be heads down finishing my novella and book 2, and hopefully happily doing so :).
Once upon a time I wrote because I found it relaxing. I enjoyed being able to escape into another world of my own making. It brought me great joy. I could write up to 14 hours a day, lost in a haze. I dreamed and daydreamed about my characters. I got inspired in the middle of the night, and didn’t mind typing notes into my phone so that I wouldn’t lose those thoughts.
Then one day everything changed. I decided to publish my 4th novel I’d written. After writing for 6 months & editing for 6 months; shelving for even longer and periodically doing full rewrites� and then more months of beta testing, proofreading, and final revisions, I had a story I was happy with.
The first few weeks after publishing were tough. How do I get people to read and write reviews? How do I promote it? I figured those things out, got my professional reviews back—which were all positive, had a successful blog tour, and then the book started selling. And then selling more and more each week. A dream come true, right?
That part, yes. But there’s one thing I never took into account. People can be hateful. I mean seriously. It’s shocking actually. More on that later.
I admit it. I tempted fate. Not intentionally, but I did. When I hit 100 reviews on Amazon, I posted a picture on facebook (which thanks to twitter integration also got tweeted) that included the ratings distribution (which at the time had no 1 or 2 star reviews). I commented that the chart might be deceiving, because I knew there were people out there who didn’t like my book (thanks to goodreads, the existence of which is meant to banish any modicum of pride in an author). I mean, I don’t like every book I read. I don’t expect everyone to like mine.
Apparently that was like sending out an open invitation to bash, nitpick, insult, berate� Hmmm.
So after writing for eight solid hours yesterday on my upcoming novella with great success, I saw a flood of hate. It’s like you have the very best job�. one that makes you happy, relieves stress, is a great outlet� But then you go into your performance review and get panned. Not so fun anymore. So, frankly I was kind of done with it all. I quit in dramatic fashion to my family. My twelve year old daughter cried (she’s a little obsessed with daynight & my older daughters lectured me for letting the haters get to me.) So, I decided to sleep on it. Woke up. Still felt like quitting. Went back to bed. And well, now I’m neutral :).
I finally decided (even before receiving some awesome supportive email from a great friend) that I’m adding a new commandment for me and for my sanity: Thou shalt not read reviews of thy own book.
Honestly, I’m a little sad about it. Some of the critical reviews I got early on were such a great help. I was able to look at the common threads and make great and important changes before the book got out there widely based on their feedback. I’ll talk about what I plan to do to still get the same effect, without the stress of being exposed to the hate.
The Review system
OK, so I spent 12 years working on the software industry with great success. I was all about getting great reviews, getting promoted quickly, and moving up the corporate ladder. Reviews were done on a 5 point scale (like the books). 5s almost never happened. 3.5 was about average. If you were getting 2s/2.5s/3s, you were probably on your way out (actually, the company rarely fired anyone� they just sent them to bog down some other part of the company). I usually got a 4 or 4.5 on my reviews, plus a couple 5s. I’d go in� meet with my singuarl boss. I’d be told what I was doing well, and get a list of things I could do better. Very reasonable process. I took to heart the things I needed to do better, and actively worked to fix those things. I’d go back into my next review with a sense of accomplishment.
Well, now I feel like I have thousands of bosses. But they’re all giving completely different feedback! Conflicting feedback even! That’s tough to process. If I follow one boss’s list, I’m going to infuriate another one. The epitome of a “can’t win� scenario.
Bipolar nature of reviews
Sometimes I wonder? Are they all reading the same book? Surely a book that garnered 4 positive professional reviews couldn’t be hated could it?
Well, yes, apparently it can. (And I know I’m not alone� everyone author sees this to some extent).
As I said above, I got some critical reviews early on that were a *huge* help. There were common, consistent threads, and I completely agreed with the feedback. I’m really grateful, because those reviews helped improve my book. I know it.
But here’s a variety of examples� some are easier to process and address than others. I’m going to paraphrase:
- The way your world, Thera, is introduced reads like a textbook or brochure. This is a valid criticism. Granted, it’s only a few pages worth (I think all readers, me included have become a little ADHD/impatient while reading)� but if the plot is fast-paced, fast-paced, fast-paced, and then comes to a bunch of telling that slows everything down� completely valid. Hard to address a few months after publishing, but valid. I think I’m going to have my editor help me to fix this one.
- A common one: The Blake flashbacks destroyed the book’s pacing. Equally as common: I *loved* the Blake parts. He felt like the most real character to me. Completely opposite feedback.
- There are pacing issues (examples are contradictory, since each person likes different aspects).
- The book is pushing sex, drugs, and bad decision making. Hmmmm. Interesting opinion. Read my post on the Controversy of Dystopias. By nature, a dystopia takes something in society (in this case a moral issue) and pushes it to its extreme, to see how people react and to shed light on the ridiculousness of it. Sorry folks, but it is a cautionary tale about all those things, not encouraging them. But bash away, because I won’t be reading it :).
- The Cleaving/sex stuff made me really uncomfortable so I hated the book. It is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable. That’s the point of a dystopia, right? Did anyone get immense pleasure watching kids kill other kids in The Hunger Games? Probably not (if you did, then might I suggest a one-way ticket to the Capitol lol?)
- I want more action. I want less action. I want more romance. I want less romance. The characters were well developed and flawed, making them real. The characters were cliche. The plot was completely fresh and exciting. I saw everything coming a mile away. I think you get the point. That’s the kind of bipolar feedback that’s tough to process.
Perils of Modern Communication
I communicate electronically all the time. I text, facebook, twitter, email, post� I’m always plugged in, and prefer to communicate that way a lot of the time (particularly since it can be done when I have time). I’m always firing off things quickly, since I have a lot to respond to. Back when I was working in the software industry, we were all know for sending “flame� mails. We’d be curt & not very nice when giving directives, often forgetting that there is a real person with real feelings receiving those things.
After hurting people’s feelings more than a few times, I became more cautious about this. After publishing, I even went through and scrubbed my goodreads reviews and ratings� because I realized that even if I don’t like a book, slamming someone’s hard work isn’t a constructive thing. But occasionally, I still screw up. I misinterpreted an email from a colleague this week, and jumped all over them (and had to spend a lot of time apologizing). I’d felt deceived by someone who sold me an advertisement, and jumped all over them (and again, spent time apologizing). I get it. It happens. We all make mistakes.
But, I’d just like to encourage all of us, including me, to remember that every communication does have another person on the other side. Sure, maybe you absolutely despised my book or someone else’s book. But making it personal through insults, bashing the writing, or whatever� not really cool. Constructive, specific criticism is awesome (this section reads like a textbook). Hating (I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hated this book and the writing. What was the author thinking? They should be ashamed that they are promoting X, Y, and Z. etc, etc.) is really just that� hating.
What I can control
So, I’m not one to go around reciting the serenity prayer or whatever. But, I’ve got to say that I think the idea of “working on what you can control� and “ignoring the stuff you can’t� has merit. I can’t control reviews. I can’t control people bashing or hating on me. What can I control are the following:
- I can do my very best job writing.
- I can make sure all future writing efforts have professional content and copy editing/proofreading. Will this keep me from getting negative reviews? Absolutely not. But, I’ll feel like I have done my very best effort. I may even have daynight go through the professional editing process and re-release. It seems drastic given that most people are enjoying it, and it has a lot of momentum going. But, if I ever feel like to cross a threshold from good success to great success that I need to do this, I will.
- I can send out ARCs to a wide variety of people & address common threads. On the bipolar views, I can guesstimate where the majority lies, or go with my gut, knowing there will be some people who disagree with the balance I choose.
- I can stop reading reviews that will hamper my love of writing. Because, here’s the thing� I don’t have to be writing. There’s all kinds of things I could be doing with my time. I’ve been very active helping out in the community. I’ve got five kids who need my love and attention. So, if writing stops being enjoyable and fun� it won’t be worth it to me anymore. If I wanted a lucrative job, I could return to the software industry. For me, it’s about doing what I love. And up until recently, I really loved it. To recapture that love, I’m cutting off the diseased limb.
- I can love and appreciate the fans who do support me and my work. I can reward them with “extras�, “teasers�, “giveaways�, and my genuine thanks.
To summarize a (long-winded) post� I’m going to try my very darndest to not read any more reviews. Or maybe I’ll occasionally glance at the positive reviews on Amazon (because positivity does have a good impact). But, my goodreads tab is closed. The haters can bash and I’ll be happily oblivious. When occasion warrants, I’ll have a friend or my daughters summarize the common threads for me. And, I’m going to be heads down finishing my novella and book 2, and hopefully happily doing so :).
March 2, 2013
daynight novella to be released April 22 (Earth Day)!
I will be releasing clean slate complex (a daynight novella) on April 22. This novella will explore what The Second Chance Institute is up to on Earth (surely nothing good). April 22 happens to be both Earth Day (so very appropriate) and the start of my next blog tour. I am very excited to share this next chapter of the daynight saga with you. arbitrate, book 2 in the daynight series, is still scheduled to be out by late summer, even if I must sacrifice sleep :).
I will still be posting my blog posts here, but have moved everything over to my website (posts will go up there first). There's a new arbitrate teaser up there, too.
I will still be posting my blog posts here, but have moved everything over to my website (posts will go up there first). There's a new arbitrate teaser up there, too.
February 17, 2013
The Controversy of Dystopias
I’ve had a couple excellent critical reviews of my YA dystopian novel daynight recently that make me chuckle, and more importantly think about the controversies caused by dystopian novels (not just mine). Every time I see someone rant about The Hunger Games promoting violence, I think "Really? That was your takeaway?" But every reader will interpret a piece of writing differently, and the fact is that every opinion is valid.
More than a few readers think that daynight should be renamed Cleaving or Hormones. I love the fact that the book is causing such controversy, and will say that a) it was fully intended, and b) I’m not apologetic for it in the slightest :). Sorry if that offends anyone, but it's the nature of writing a dystopia. Any well written dystopia will, by nature, be controversial.
I’ll have to admit that I’m a dystopia purist. The very best thing about dystopias is that the author will dial a certain element to its most extreme to see how those subject to the dystopia will react. The extreme could be lack of food or resources, or zero individuality or personal choice. I would hope that no one would be fully comfortable with such extremes. The bigger questions are whether the reactions presented are realistic to the extreme presented and how the extreme parallels our current society.
Note that I’m going to borrow heavily from a guest post I did on my recent blog tour on “dystopias�, but will extensively elaborate on the dystopia used in daynight: . I was originally asked: What draws you to the dystopian genre and what are some of your favorite books (in this genre)?
Dystopian governments-the real star?
The dystopia category is pretty broad these days. By definition a dystopian world must have extremely bad living conditions due to deprivation, oppression, or terror. I personally prefer dystopias that explore interesting societal and moral dilemmas to catastrophic conditions/survival stories (though, if the entertainment value is high, I’ll still read the latter).
The very best dystopias, in my opinion, have a well formed government enforcing extremes. I’m fascinated by these entities, and in particular:
- What events drove them to shift the way they governed? In The Hunger Games the government instituted the games to punish and remind the districts of their former rebellion (and failure to succeed).
- What results are they looking to achieve? In 1984, the desired result was control over every action and thought. In Brave New World the government desired peaceful coexistence and happiness for its citizens.
- What methods do the governments use to achieve the desired result? The capitol in Hunger Games uses the games to terrorize its citizens into subservience, and tightly controls resources by segregating districts and limiting what each could produce. In 1984 the Inner Party uses surveillance (telescreens, microphones everywhere), controls information (in fact, rewriting history to support claims in the ultimate form of censorship), and all citizens are indoctrinated to be whistle-blowers on those committing “thought crimes� (any thought contrary to the government. In Brave New World, the government breeds and then conditions (through their sleep) citizens to be in (and only desire to be in) a certain caste, to be sexually promiscuous, hate solitude, and to down the drug “soma� if any contrary thought occurs.
Character development in the dystopia
Equally interesting is how the characters in the novel react to the dystopian government. Do they acquiesce? Do they rebel and in what ways? Outwardly? Inwardly? Each well done dystopia will have characters that question the status quo and their actions will cause us to reflect upon our own, and how we would react in a similar situation. Katniss in The Hunger Games defies authority by bringing out a handful of berries and in essence, depriving the Capitol of a winner—and ultimately, forcing her desired outcome on them. Winston and Julia in 1984 both commit thought crimes and engage in an illicit affair, but are outed by an informant and tortured into both subservience to Big Brother and ratting out each other. John (the Savage) in Brave New World is so disgusted when he caves to societal immorality that he takes extreme measures to escape.
daynight’s dystopia and the controversy of “Cleaving�
The Second Chance Institute reigns supreme on Thera, the main setting for daynight. The SCI is an interesting entity, being in the business of providing second chances. But instead of nurturing and fostering the downtrodden, they use the Second Chancers as science experiments for new political ideas they want to push on Earth. Book one explores one idea they are testing-Cleaving (in Garden City, Thera). Cleaving is an extreme enforcement of morality. In Garden City, anyone who reaches the age of 18 (without having previously Cleaved), will be “Cleaved� for life. “Cleaving� refers to a lifetime union between two people that cannot be broken. The Cleaving is consummated by having sex. Thus, if two people have sex prior to 18 they are automatically Cleaved for life. Violation of Cleaving results in exile or death.
This contrasts Brave New World’s approach, where the government conditions people to be immoral. Although, interestingly enough� as the SCI desires everyone to be Cleaved, they push immorality to get people to Cleave, but then expect the newly Cleaved to adopt a strict moral code thereafter.
The main characters in daynight are thrust into an environment where they are surrounded by almost 18-year olds. These almost eighteens are bombarded with reminders that if they don’t pick their Cleave, that the government will pick for them. So, Cleaving is top of mind for these kids. They either choose for themselves (that’s a lot of pressure at that age to pick a lifetime mate) or have the government choose for them (equally, if not more scary). This also brings out some rather reprehensible behavior it in some of the guys, who want to “sample the waters� so to speak, so that they can choose “the best� Cleave for them. Many readers have mistaken all the Cleaving discussion for pushing sex. On the contrary, it is all about who you end up with for life. Yes, there are two ways to achieve a Cleaving (have sex and end up Cleaved; or be Cleaved by the government and forced to have sex immediately to consummate), but Cleaving in and of itself, is not equivalent to sex. Obviously, had the main characters been living amongst adults it would be as if they were around a bunch of normal married people (with the exception that any violation of the marriage would result in death or Exile� there definitely is no divorce or adultery allowed in Garden City).
Seventeen year old, SCI Recruit Kira Donovan thinks that all the “Cleaving talk� is ridiculous. At one point her friends are chanting “Cleave, Cleave, Cleave� and she thinks quote-unquote:
Find some friends for the singular thought in your brain, people. I know their eighteenth birthdays are all staring at them in the face and the prospect of a lifetime with one person is huge, but honestly, I’m done with the Cleaving talk. Even if they are referring to the “lifetime commitment� instead of the “consummation� it still makes them sound like a bunch of freaking sex-starved robots.
The question is, given the dystopian concept of Cleaving, are these teens a bunch of “hormonal� nightmares or are they reacting as they would? In Brave New World “everyone belongs to everyone.� People are expected to have sex with anyone and everyone, and ostracized if they don’t. Those who have feelings for and want to pursue a relationship with “one person� are ridiculed. Author Aldous Huxley dialed the societal morality meter to “extreme� on the promiscuous front to shed light on our increasingly promiscuous society.
Extremes are extreme by nature and intended to shed very bright light on societal parallels and make the reader think, feel uncomfortable even. There might be a few people who’d like to live in Aldous Huxley’s world, but I think most people would be a little disgusted by the expectation of having “no choice� in the matter, especially if attraction is taken out of the equation. In the case of Cleaving in daynight, I wanted the reader to think about (note that the idea is to get people thinking� not to get everyone to come to the same conclusion):
- How would behavior change if the equivalent of Cleaving was introduced (if there were extreme consequences for commonplace actions)? What would the impact be on marriage and divorce rates?
- All actions have consequences. On Thera, if two people have sex, they are Cleaved for life. How is this different from making the same decision, getting pregnant, and being responsible for a child for life?
- How does the use of mind-altering substances affect judgment?
- How prevalently is sex discussed amongst teens today? Is the level appropriate? If the phraseology were as obvious as Cleaving, would it seem as ridiculous as it does in daynight?
- How does our current societal focus on sex (whether by action, books, pornography, music, TV, movies) affect our perceptions?
- Is there a cautionary tale here?
Did I have to pick "Cleaving" to focus on? No, nor will the follow-on books to daynight focus on Cleaving (The Second Chance Institute has many controversial agendas they are testing on Thera, and in the case of book 2, arbitrate bringing to Earth). Did I know it would be controversial? Yes, though perhaps not to the extent it has been. In my mind, Cleaving meant "irrevocable lifetime union". Because many readers equated Cleaving with sex, that obviously caused more issues than I intended. But, the general principles still apply. Extremes bring out the very worst in society and shed light on the "worst" happening in our own society.
Is the level of focus on "Cleaving" ridiculous or amount of talk about it over the top? Well, yes, but isn't that the point? (again, it is meant to be extreme, jarring, disturbing, unsettling & to piss people off)
Some of the other things that went through my mind that I intended readers to think about while reading daynight with regards to The Second Chance Institute and its dystopia were:
- Freedom of being able to do whatever we want vs. consequences of our choices
- When is it appropriate for the government to intervene in moral issues?
- How should the government enforce rules? What is acceptable/not acceptable for enforcement?
- When does “research� cross the line? Is it ever OK to have test groups, when subjects don’t know they are a part of the research? Does our government “use� certain segments of our population to press their agendas?
- Can altruistic purposes get so skewed they are no longer altruistic? The SCI claims to be giving people a second chance at life. Despite this being true and seemingly noble, is it ok if they are only do it to further their own agenda, and not to truly benefit the Second Chancers?
- Is there ever an appropriate time for a government to play Big Brother (as in 1984)? Does our government do this to us? Where’s the line between societal protection and personal violation?
Of course, Cleaving merely scratches the surface of what the SCI is up to, what they are testing & how far they are willing to go to push their agendas on Earth. The SCI’s actions and agendas in book two of the daynight series will have a lot of real world parallels-but will not focus on Cleaving.
In addition to the dystopia itself, daynight explores a lot of personal behavioral extremes intended to have readers think about what they would do if placed in a similar situation. As I wrote daynight, here are some of the things I thought about:
- At what point is it appropriate to forgive?
- If a person has no memory of an action, can you still hold them accountable?
- How would we personally react when in difficult circumstances or around people making bad decisions?
- Kira is extremely loyal. Loyalty is an admirable quality, but how does her loyalty affect her negatively?
- Is revenge ever appropriate?
- How does a child maintain respect for and obey their parents while still making their own choices? What if their parents expect them to do things inconsistent with their own moral compass?
- When should we toe the line versus make a stand?
- Are second chances truly a second chance if we can’t learn from our mistakes?
You can read a sample of daynight here: . (I always recommend reading a sample first to make sure you like the writing style and direction a book is headed. Not every book is for every reader. In the case of daynight the reader has to glean clues as they read along, much like the TV show "Lost", though not near as confusing... though I am the first to admit to having "lost" some readers along the way :). The vast majority of readers have liked the approach, but not everyone will and I respect that.)
What does the dystopia ultimately communicate?
This is where author intention and reader interpretation can vary immensely!
Suzanne Collins intended The Hunger Games to show how deplorable violence can be, yet if you go read the reviews of The Hunger Games a good chunk of the reader think that it promotes violence. There's also excellent enlightenment in The Hunger Games about food, fashion, class structure, governments not being black or white good or evil, and dozens of other topics (love it!).
Aldous Huxley intended Brave New World to show how disgustingly promiscuous our society was getting, yet many think it promotes promiscuity.
George Orwell shows not only the extremes of excessive government control and surveillance with 1984, but the dangers of mob mentality. Yet there are haters who think it promotes "pessimism" and "shock value".
The point is, that because the intention of a dystopia is to make people think, that vastly different interpretations should be expected and encouraged. While one person may think I am promoting "teen drama" and "sex" with daynight, another reviewer may "get" the intention of the dystopia (a cautionary tale). Foreword Reviews "got it" as I intended, but that doesn't mean it is the only appropriate interpretation:
"Thomason’s description of Thera’s totalitarianism will make fans of Brave New World shiver. The author is adept at creating situations in which the bravest thing the protagonists can do is acquiesce to preserve their sanity. Such situations paint courage in a new light by showing that going along with the enemy may be the most courageous thing one can do... SCI, her fantasy corporation, has disturbing parallels to actual companies and regimes that claim to do good while harming people."-Foreword Clarion Review
Dystopian novel recommendations
Any great dystopia will not only provide an entertaining story, but cause you to reflect. The Hunger Games (a personal favorite) has a full book of essays written on the underlying themes. Some other exceptional dystopias I recommend are Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Wool by Hugh Howey, and The Giver by Lois Lowry.
Some contemporary dystopias with considerable merit are Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Maze Runner by James Daschner, The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Legend by Marie Lu, Delirium by Lauren Olivier, and Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi.
I also did a guest post on “How to survive a dystopian society� which can be found at .
Comments always welcome!
More than a few readers think that daynight should be renamed Cleaving or Hormones. I love the fact that the book is causing such controversy, and will say that a) it was fully intended, and b) I’m not apologetic for it in the slightest :). Sorry if that offends anyone, but it's the nature of writing a dystopia. Any well written dystopia will, by nature, be controversial.
I’ll have to admit that I’m a dystopia purist. The very best thing about dystopias is that the author will dial a certain element to its most extreme to see how those subject to the dystopia will react. The extreme could be lack of food or resources, or zero individuality or personal choice. I would hope that no one would be fully comfortable with such extremes. The bigger questions are whether the reactions presented are realistic to the extreme presented and how the extreme parallels our current society.
Note that I’m going to borrow heavily from a guest post I did on my recent blog tour on “dystopias�, but will extensively elaborate on the dystopia used in daynight: . I was originally asked: What draws you to the dystopian genre and what are some of your favorite books (in this genre)?
Dystopian governments-the real star?
The dystopia category is pretty broad these days. By definition a dystopian world must have extremely bad living conditions due to deprivation, oppression, or terror. I personally prefer dystopias that explore interesting societal and moral dilemmas to catastrophic conditions/survival stories (though, if the entertainment value is high, I’ll still read the latter).
The very best dystopias, in my opinion, have a well formed government enforcing extremes. I’m fascinated by these entities, and in particular:
- What events drove them to shift the way they governed? In The Hunger Games the government instituted the games to punish and remind the districts of their former rebellion (and failure to succeed).
- What results are they looking to achieve? In 1984, the desired result was control over every action and thought. In Brave New World the government desired peaceful coexistence and happiness for its citizens.
- What methods do the governments use to achieve the desired result? The capitol in Hunger Games uses the games to terrorize its citizens into subservience, and tightly controls resources by segregating districts and limiting what each could produce. In 1984 the Inner Party uses surveillance (telescreens, microphones everywhere), controls information (in fact, rewriting history to support claims in the ultimate form of censorship), and all citizens are indoctrinated to be whistle-blowers on those committing “thought crimes� (any thought contrary to the government. In Brave New World, the government breeds and then conditions (through their sleep) citizens to be in (and only desire to be in) a certain caste, to be sexually promiscuous, hate solitude, and to down the drug “soma� if any contrary thought occurs.
Character development in the dystopia
Equally interesting is how the characters in the novel react to the dystopian government. Do they acquiesce? Do they rebel and in what ways? Outwardly? Inwardly? Each well done dystopia will have characters that question the status quo and their actions will cause us to reflect upon our own, and how we would react in a similar situation. Katniss in The Hunger Games defies authority by bringing out a handful of berries and in essence, depriving the Capitol of a winner—and ultimately, forcing her desired outcome on them. Winston and Julia in 1984 both commit thought crimes and engage in an illicit affair, but are outed by an informant and tortured into both subservience to Big Brother and ratting out each other. John (the Savage) in Brave New World is so disgusted when he caves to societal immorality that he takes extreme measures to escape.
daynight’s dystopia and the controversy of “Cleaving�
The Second Chance Institute reigns supreme on Thera, the main setting for daynight. The SCI is an interesting entity, being in the business of providing second chances. But instead of nurturing and fostering the downtrodden, they use the Second Chancers as science experiments for new political ideas they want to push on Earth. Book one explores one idea they are testing-Cleaving (in Garden City, Thera). Cleaving is an extreme enforcement of morality. In Garden City, anyone who reaches the age of 18 (without having previously Cleaved), will be “Cleaved� for life. “Cleaving� refers to a lifetime union between two people that cannot be broken. The Cleaving is consummated by having sex. Thus, if two people have sex prior to 18 they are automatically Cleaved for life. Violation of Cleaving results in exile or death.
This contrasts Brave New World’s approach, where the government conditions people to be immoral. Although, interestingly enough� as the SCI desires everyone to be Cleaved, they push immorality to get people to Cleave, but then expect the newly Cleaved to adopt a strict moral code thereafter.
The main characters in daynight are thrust into an environment where they are surrounded by almost 18-year olds. These almost eighteens are bombarded with reminders that if they don’t pick their Cleave, that the government will pick for them. So, Cleaving is top of mind for these kids. They either choose for themselves (that’s a lot of pressure at that age to pick a lifetime mate) or have the government choose for them (equally, if not more scary). This also brings out some rather reprehensible behavior it in some of the guys, who want to “sample the waters� so to speak, so that they can choose “the best� Cleave for them. Many readers have mistaken all the Cleaving discussion for pushing sex. On the contrary, it is all about who you end up with for life. Yes, there are two ways to achieve a Cleaving (have sex and end up Cleaved; or be Cleaved by the government and forced to have sex immediately to consummate), but Cleaving in and of itself, is not equivalent to sex. Obviously, had the main characters been living amongst adults it would be as if they were around a bunch of normal married people (with the exception that any violation of the marriage would result in death or Exile� there definitely is no divorce or adultery allowed in Garden City).
Seventeen year old, SCI Recruit Kira Donovan thinks that all the “Cleaving talk� is ridiculous. At one point her friends are chanting “Cleave, Cleave, Cleave� and she thinks quote-unquote:
Find some friends for the singular thought in your brain, people. I know their eighteenth birthdays are all staring at them in the face and the prospect of a lifetime with one person is huge, but honestly, I’m done with the Cleaving talk. Even if they are referring to the “lifetime commitment� instead of the “consummation� it still makes them sound like a bunch of freaking sex-starved robots.
The question is, given the dystopian concept of Cleaving, are these teens a bunch of “hormonal� nightmares or are they reacting as they would? In Brave New World “everyone belongs to everyone.� People are expected to have sex with anyone and everyone, and ostracized if they don’t. Those who have feelings for and want to pursue a relationship with “one person� are ridiculed. Author Aldous Huxley dialed the societal morality meter to “extreme� on the promiscuous front to shed light on our increasingly promiscuous society.
Extremes are extreme by nature and intended to shed very bright light on societal parallels and make the reader think, feel uncomfortable even. There might be a few people who’d like to live in Aldous Huxley’s world, but I think most people would be a little disgusted by the expectation of having “no choice� in the matter, especially if attraction is taken out of the equation. In the case of Cleaving in daynight, I wanted the reader to think about (note that the idea is to get people thinking� not to get everyone to come to the same conclusion):
- How would behavior change if the equivalent of Cleaving was introduced (if there were extreme consequences for commonplace actions)? What would the impact be on marriage and divorce rates?
- All actions have consequences. On Thera, if two people have sex, they are Cleaved for life. How is this different from making the same decision, getting pregnant, and being responsible for a child for life?
- How does the use of mind-altering substances affect judgment?
- How prevalently is sex discussed amongst teens today? Is the level appropriate? If the phraseology were as obvious as Cleaving, would it seem as ridiculous as it does in daynight?
- How does our current societal focus on sex (whether by action, books, pornography, music, TV, movies) affect our perceptions?
- Is there a cautionary tale here?
Did I have to pick "Cleaving" to focus on? No, nor will the follow-on books to daynight focus on Cleaving (The Second Chance Institute has many controversial agendas they are testing on Thera, and in the case of book 2, arbitrate bringing to Earth). Did I know it would be controversial? Yes, though perhaps not to the extent it has been. In my mind, Cleaving meant "irrevocable lifetime union". Because many readers equated Cleaving with sex, that obviously caused more issues than I intended. But, the general principles still apply. Extremes bring out the very worst in society and shed light on the "worst" happening in our own society.
Is the level of focus on "Cleaving" ridiculous or amount of talk about it over the top? Well, yes, but isn't that the point? (again, it is meant to be extreme, jarring, disturbing, unsettling & to piss people off)
Some of the other things that went through my mind that I intended readers to think about while reading daynight with regards to The Second Chance Institute and its dystopia were:
- Freedom of being able to do whatever we want vs. consequences of our choices
- When is it appropriate for the government to intervene in moral issues?
- How should the government enforce rules? What is acceptable/not acceptable for enforcement?
- When does “research� cross the line? Is it ever OK to have test groups, when subjects don’t know they are a part of the research? Does our government “use� certain segments of our population to press their agendas?
- Can altruistic purposes get so skewed they are no longer altruistic? The SCI claims to be giving people a second chance at life. Despite this being true and seemingly noble, is it ok if they are only do it to further their own agenda, and not to truly benefit the Second Chancers?
- Is there ever an appropriate time for a government to play Big Brother (as in 1984)? Does our government do this to us? Where’s the line between societal protection and personal violation?
Of course, Cleaving merely scratches the surface of what the SCI is up to, what they are testing & how far they are willing to go to push their agendas on Earth. The SCI’s actions and agendas in book two of the daynight series will have a lot of real world parallels-but will not focus on Cleaving.
In addition to the dystopia itself, daynight explores a lot of personal behavioral extremes intended to have readers think about what they would do if placed in a similar situation. As I wrote daynight, here are some of the things I thought about:
- At what point is it appropriate to forgive?
- If a person has no memory of an action, can you still hold them accountable?
- How would we personally react when in difficult circumstances or around people making bad decisions?
- Kira is extremely loyal. Loyalty is an admirable quality, but how does her loyalty affect her negatively?
- Is revenge ever appropriate?
- How does a child maintain respect for and obey their parents while still making their own choices? What if their parents expect them to do things inconsistent with their own moral compass?
- When should we toe the line versus make a stand?
- Are second chances truly a second chance if we can’t learn from our mistakes?
You can read a sample of daynight here: . (I always recommend reading a sample first to make sure you like the writing style and direction a book is headed. Not every book is for every reader. In the case of daynight the reader has to glean clues as they read along, much like the TV show "Lost", though not near as confusing... though I am the first to admit to having "lost" some readers along the way :). The vast majority of readers have liked the approach, but not everyone will and I respect that.)
What does the dystopia ultimately communicate?
This is where author intention and reader interpretation can vary immensely!
Suzanne Collins intended The Hunger Games to show how deplorable violence can be, yet if you go read the reviews of The Hunger Games a good chunk of the reader think that it promotes violence. There's also excellent enlightenment in The Hunger Games about food, fashion, class structure, governments not being black or white good or evil, and dozens of other topics (love it!).
Aldous Huxley intended Brave New World to show how disgustingly promiscuous our society was getting, yet many think it promotes promiscuity.
George Orwell shows not only the extremes of excessive government control and surveillance with 1984, but the dangers of mob mentality. Yet there are haters who think it promotes "pessimism" and "shock value".
The point is, that because the intention of a dystopia is to make people think, that vastly different interpretations should be expected and encouraged. While one person may think I am promoting "teen drama" and "sex" with daynight, another reviewer may "get" the intention of the dystopia (a cautionary tale). Foreword Reviews "got it" as I intended, but that doesn't mean it is the only appropriate interpretation:
"Thomason’s description of Thera’s totalitarianism will make fans of Brave New World shiver. The author is adept at creating situations in which the bravest thing the protagonists can do is acquiesce to preserve their sanity. Such situations paint courage in a new light by showing that going along with the enemy may be the most courageous thing one can do... SCI, her fantasy corporation, has disturbing parallels to actual companies and regimes that claim to do good while harming people."-Foreword Clarion Review
Dystopian novel recommendations
Any great dystopia will not only provide an entertaining story, but cause you to reflect. The Hunger Games (a personal favorite) has a full book of essays written on the underlying themes. Some other exceptional dystopias I recommend are Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Wool by Hugh Howey, and The Giver by Lois Lowry.
Some contemporary dystopias with considerable merit are Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Maze Runner by James Daschner, The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Legend by Marie Lu, Delirium by Lauren Olivier, and Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi.
I also did a guest post on “How to survive a dystopian society� which can be found at .
Comments always welcome!
February 4, 2013
Anatomy of Amazon Freebie/Book Blast/Blog Tour
I just finished up a big promotional push for daynight and thought I’d share my results with other authors looking to promote their books. I had a lot going on at once, so it will be difficult to pin down exactly where downloads, sales, twitter follows, goodreads adds, facebook likes, etc. came from, but the overall campaign was very effective.
For reference:
- My free days were January 21, 22 & 23 (I had used two days earlier in the 90 day period)
- My book blast (organized by ) was January 21, purposely positioned to coincide with the first day of the freebie. I provided a banner for use by the book blast hosts to let people know of the free book dates.
- My blog tour (also organized by ) started January 22 and ran through February 1
Anatomy of an Amazon KDP Free Giveaway and Book Blast
Amazon does not promote a book’s free days, so it is *crucial* to get the word out as broadly as possible. This is going to get detailed, so bear with. In addition to promoting my free days through the book blast, I had the following promotions running each day�
Day 1: Monday, January 21
Bargain Book Hunter 18.5K Facebook reach + on web page: ($5)
Free Kindle Fiction 7,600 Facebook + featured on web page: (featured post $12)
Digital Book Today 2,700 Facebook + front page slot: Digital Book Today: variety of free and paid options $5 guaranteed post.
Awesome Gang 616 Facebook + front page slot: Also can post on their Facebook page, day of.
Book Goodies front page slot (had been running since 1/13, though didn’t seem to do much?): BookGoodies: $5 per day; $35 for two-week home page sponsorship
The eReader Cafe featured on home page + 22.7K Facebook (listed in a bundle):
Free Books Daily book of the day + 1,210 Facebook: (can pay for guaranteed feature & book of the day $5)
Free Kindle Books & Tips home page + 30K Facebook (bundle): (must have average rating of 4+)
Kindle Finds home page and sidebar (supposedly 122K followers):
EBook Lister home page: Can submit in advance
Tuesday, January 22
Digital Book Today� promotional boost: variety of free and paid options $5 guaranteed post.
Wednesday, January 23
EBooks Habit book of the day:
(free book form)
The Frugal Find of the Day: $50
**Should have also used (pricey, but apparently very effective): Book Bub
On each free day I *also* posted on the following Facebook pages:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1... (must join group)
And, I used twitter from my own account, plus you can tweet to these accounts and they RT (instructions on their page):
@EReaderblast
@Free_book_promo
I believe you can compose a tweet at too.
Results, end of day 1
>3K downloads*
20079 entries in the book blast
On Amazon: #1 Teen SciFi; #2 Teen SciFi/Fantasy; #2 Teen Romance; #5 Teen; #104 Kindle Store
Results, end of day 2
~3K downloads*
26372 book blast; 1644 book tour
Twitter ~250 adds (didn’t keep track on day 1); Facebook (>300 adds; also didn’t track day 1); goodreads (~500 adds)
On Amazon: #1 teen scifi; #1 teen romance; #77 overall (got up to #69 overall)
Results, end of day 2
**Note� I definitely think by day 3 I was hitting some saturation
~2K downloads*
30714 book blast; 2288 book tour
+~100 twitter, facebook, goodreads adds
#1 teen scifi; #2 teen romance, #120 overall
*Note that some books get much higher download results; some lower. There are a *lot* of variables here, so I don't want to compare/contrast, but some of the variables will be a) amount of promotion & whether the promotion evenly spaced across the days (I front-loaded mine; should probably have spread); b) number of total days (gain momentum, particularly as you go up the rankings... some folks think wiser to do the full 5 days at a time); c) attractiveness of the book cover (it's like eye candy; book hoarders want to collect pretty things... just guessing lol); d) number of reviews (I had 50+ reviews with a 4.6 average at the time of my first day of the freebie).
Anatomy of a Blog Tour
I won’t go through the day by day results (much too long and boring), but will discuss the shift from FREE back to PAY, as well as the overall results of the book blast & blog tour.
Overall impressions of the “Freebie�
To be honest, I’m mixed. Note I have no issue with giving my book away for free� I write because I love to write, not for an expected lottery-sized payday, fame or notoriety. Yes, there is no question that you can unload thousands of copies of your book through KDP Select. But, do you hit the right target market for your book? Yes and no (and perhaps mostly no). I’m a little skeptical that those thousands will download my book (and if they do� how will they review it? Will it be fair if they aren’t a YA reader? Don’t know the answer to that one yet). Here are some of the other books that showed up (and some are frustratingly still on) my “Customers also bought� list after the freebie (note daynight is a young adult dystopian novel:
“Cayenne Pepper Cures�, “How to Dress a Pear Shaped Body and Look Fabulous�, “Snack Time: Lite and Tasty Snack Recipes�, “Don't Let An Old Person Move Into Your Body�, “Ultimate Money Saving Hacks for College�, “We All Married Idiots: Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage and Ten Things You Can�, “Set Your Boundaries Your Way: 7 Easy Ways to Say No to Difficult People�. “Romantic Dessert Recipes,� “Flat Tummy Yoga,� “Home Organization for Stress Free Living: How to Organize Your Home One Day at a Time and Keep It That Way�, “Armed Gunmen, True Facts, and Other Ridiculous Nonsense: A Compiled Compendium of Repetitive Redundancies�, “Desserts Under 250 Calories! 51 Delicious Desserts That Won't Hurt Your Diet�, �31 Delicious and Nutritious Vegetarian Appetizer Recipes (The Ultimate Guide to Vegetarian Cooking)�, and “Beauty Gone Wild! Herbal Recipes for Gorgeous Skin & Hair (Herbs Gone Wild!)�.
I think you get the picture, right? There are folks who will download any free books, whether or not they’ll ever read them. So, how does doing the giveaway help? From what I understand, Amazon treats every 10 freebies as a “sale� for determining ranking in the “Popular� lists. So, if you unload a bunch of freebies, it helps you move up in the rankings. Of course, this is a rolling 30-day average, so to stay high in the lists, you need to have a steady stream of “pay� business after your freebie. Also, hopefully, of the thousands, at least some sizable percentage of those who downloaded will read books in your target market. This will help you pop up on other “Customers also bought� lists, which is the ultimate goal.
Book Blog Tour Results
OK, so day after the freebie daynight was at #53 on the “popular� list for teen scifi (different than sales ranking—this is the list Amazon points people towards). I started out at about #44K in paid ranking (overall Kindle), which isn’t surprising. I’d just given away a whole lot of copies :). By the following day I was back in the top #100 teen scifi paid book lists, had moved up the “popular� ranking and was at about #15K for overall paid books.
Throughout the tour the sales numbers and rankings for daynight varied. At the peak, daynight hit #63 on the teen scifi list and about #10K overall, but has mostly hovered around #75 & #10-15K. Steady daily sales.
An important note, I decided to drop the price of daynight from $3.99 to $2.99 a couple days after the freebie ended through the month of February. I’m testing it out and may keep it at that price. As per the above, I don’t care about the money� I want to build a fan base, and want to make the entry price as reasonable as possible for readers. To be enrolled in the KDP Select program, $2.99 is as low as you can go. I *did* see an uptick in sales at the lower price, but with everything else going on, I can’t say for sure it is due to the price change.
Final numbers:
- Book blast had 55K entries (that’s a lot of exposure!). Note my giveaway was a $75 Amazon.com gift card and a pair of Amazon EarPods.
- Blog tour giveaway at 5800 & counting (3 more days). Note giveaway is a $50 Amazon.com gift card, a signed first edition of Insurgent by Veronica Roth & a signed copy of daynight.
- Twitter (+~650 total); Facebook (+~700 total); goodreads (+~1100 adds total)
- +~500 likes on Amazon sales page
- +25 reviews on Amazon (many from the awesome tour bloggers)
- ~Double the number of goodreads reviews on ratings (I didn’t get jot down starting numbers, unfortunately)
- Book mentioned in too many tweets to even begin to track
- Almost all 5* and 4* reviews (well-written, fair & honest, with valid criticisms). I tell you� these bloggers are *exceptional*. Two bloggers found errors my two proofreaders had missed, so I was able to get them fixed! Several expressed some minor concerns that I was also able to address & update. I am so grateful to all the bloggers who hosted daynight, whether they read and reviewed, posted guest posts/character interviews/bonus scenes/top tens, or tweeted and posted on other social networking media!
Blog Tour Schedule & Entries
Blog Tour Day One:
Author interview:
First review 5 stars!
Top Ten (don't laugh for those who know me) Homemaking/Organization advice here:
A final (for the day) author interview:
Blog Tour Day Two:
Review (4*/5):
Author Interview:
Top 10 Favorite Book Moments:
Author Interview:
Blog Tour Day 3:
Review 4*/5:
Interview:
Top 10 world cities seen at night:
Book Tour Day 4:
- Guest Post 'The Fallacy of Having it All' + Review (4*/5 on goodreads):
- Interview (about my teenage years... hope my mom doesn't read or retroactive grounding may be involved):
- Interview:
- 5*/5 Review & Interview:
- Interview:
Blog Tour Day 5:
NOTE These are all excellent, well-written reviews, but there are some SPOILERS.
- 5*/5 Review:
- 5*/5
- 4*/5
- 4*/5
- Author interview:
- One more: 3.5*/5 Review:
Blog Tour Day 6:
Review (4* goodreads):
Bonus review (unscheduled... she picked up a free copy, read & reviewed between surgery cases!!) 4*/5:
Guest post (about dystopian novels):
Guest post (on reading):
Blog Tour Day 7:
Review 4*/5:
Author interview:
Review 4*/5 + Ten Favorite Book Characters:
Character Interview (with Kira):
Guest post on why I wrote a dystopian novel:
This made my day... an unsolicited review from Sydney at Rattle the Stars blog :) 5*/5:
Blog Tour day 8:
- BONUS SCENE that can be enjoyed whether or not you have read 'daynight' yet :).
- Very positive review (some spoilers) "This book simply blew me away.":
- Top Ten gadgets (real or fictional):
- op Ten songs to write to:
Blog Tour day 9:
- Positive review "If you like Dystopian(s) then you will LOVE this book" + Top Ten Sci-Fi movies:
- Top ten things that make my heart flutter and a smile to creep across my face (lol, awkward one):
- Review:
- Author interview:
Blog Tour Day 10:
Two superbly written reviews!! Love all these awesome bloggers who so generously give of their time to read & write reviews (even the critical ones), as well as those who post interviews, guest posts, top tens & other information to get the word out!!
- 5*/5 Review "Whether viewed as a modern parable or a thrill ride, Daynight was the most compelling and intense book I’ve read since Free Souls by Susan Kaye Quinn."
- 4*/5 Review "Let me start out by saying the writing is superb. The Author's narrative was spellbinding and I was sucked in from the very first page... Overall I am highly recommending you pick a copy of Daynight up and give it a go. Perfectly paced writing combined with superb narrative, likeable characters, and fantastic world building will no doubt leave Daynight on many Top Ten book lists this year. Yeah, it was that good. "
Interview:
- Top Ten favorite movies:
- Professional review from Foreword Clarion came in on this day (4*/5). "Thomason’s description of Thera’s totalitarianism will make fans of Brave New World shiver." "SCI, her fantasy corporation, has disturbing parallels to actual companies and regimes that claim to do good while harming people." "daynight, skillfully blends the genres of dystopian science fiction and teenage romance with intriguing results. The author deftly appeals to both romance-loving teens as well as those intrigued by young adults fighting the establishment." "the novel’s stellar attributes will have the audience hankering day and night for the sequel."
Blog Tour Day 11:
- Positive review "This was a very unique book. I found the concept behind it enthralling. The story keeps you on your toes. Dystopian books are kind of overdone these days, but it's always nice to find a book with a unique concept. This book definitely fits that bill. There is also a huge love triangle, and even that manages to avoid being too predictable. This book is worth checking out. It will take you for a ride and leave you ready to find out more.":
- Guest post "How to survive a dystopian society":
- Top 10 Indulgences & Review 3/5 whales (yes, not everyone is going to love it and that's OK... I very much appreciate different viewpoints & she may like book 2 better, since it won't focus on cleaving) "I really liked all the other components of this book. The relationships, though very twisty and turny, were great and the characters had a real depth. All the different people working for their own goals added something to the story and if you take out the cleaving/sex/babies stuff, which unfortunately wasn't my thing, then I would've really, really liked this story. As it was I still enjoyed this book but it wasn't quite the book for me. I know many people have enjoyed it so if you're a fan of sci-fi/dystopian then you should give this book a shot!"
- Last Professional review posted @ Self-Publishing Review 4.5*/5 "The writing is impressive and the story is a real page-turner. Thomason’s young adult dystopian novel weaves a complicated tale together seamlessly that sucked me instantly. So many twists and turns... I'm hooked... I can't wait for the next installment to come out...4.5 out of 5 stars ":
Recommendation for Kathy from Book Blasts/Blog Tours
The book blast and blog tour that Kathy arranged for daynight has had a direct impact on the book’s exposure, Amazon ranking, and sales. For the duration of the blast and tour, I kept detailed logs to track the impact. From start to finish I saw: a 7x increase in twitter followers; an 8x increase in facebook likes; > 1,000 goodreads adds; and >500 likes on the Amazon sales page. The book blast, timed in conjunction with a 3-day free promotion on Amazon, shot daynight to the #1 teen science fiction book, #1 teen romance book, #2 overall teen book, and #63 overall Kindle book. As the freebie ended and the tour continued, sales skyrocketed from what they had been pre-tour, with daynight hitting #35 on most popular teen sci-fi list.
Kathy is organized, professional, and easy to work with. She provides assignments (author interviews, character interviews, guest posts, and top ten lists) ahead of time, tracks progress, and gives reminders. I was very impressed with the blog sites Kathy arranged for the tour. Those who reviewed daynight were honest, fair, and thorough. Many of the bloggers also posted to goodreads and Amazon.com, increasing the number of reviews and lending credibility to the daynight franchise. These exceptional bloggers not only promoted daynight on their blogs, but tweeted, and posted to facebook and google+.
I have already recommended Kathy to several people, and give my unqualified recommendation to all authors for her services. In today’s tough market where titles compete for mindshare with over a million other alternatives, no author can afford to skip this concentrated, valuable, promotional campaign.
Final Thoughts
- Book blast/blog tour. Best promotional money spent to date!
- Kindle freebie. Mixed, but probably think the boost in the “Popular� list was worth it. To get the huge numbers of downloads though, it requires a whole lot of promotion, some paid (so you are basically paying to give your book away, which doesn’t seem very intuitive).
- It is important to have a post-tour promo plan. I threw a quick banner ad up on , and am looking into other options.
* Update as of 2/17/13
- Overall sales up significantly in February, compared to January pre-tour/promo period (though varies immensely day to day.) Some days I see shockingly high sales; others equally shocking low sales. I can't even seem to see a consistent "day of the week" pattern. One week I'll have highest sales on Friday; next Saturday; the next on a Monday. Go figure. Weekends are reported to be best for sales.
- Sales have been high enough to bump daynight onto quite a few of the current top sellers' (in teen dystopian/sci-fi) "Customers also bought" lists (though typically down on page 9 to 15 & no guarantee that it will take up permanent residence)
- I tried a couple cheap promo opportunities on Author Marketing Club & Digital Book Today that didn't really seem to have any impact on sales. Looked at advertising on blogads, but a wise person told me that it would not be worth the $$. Anything like this does increase overall exposure, so may help long-term, but doesn't guarantee a short-term bump in sales.
- I did a Valentine's day giveaway on the daynight facebook page which was reasonably successful (I had no particular goal other than to give back to fans, but I had some very kind bloggers offer to read & review my book; got more facebook page likes; and generally happy fans).
Questions & comments welcome!
Thanks,
Megan Thomason, author of
For reference:
- My free days were January 21, 22 & 23 (I had used two days earlier in the 90 day period)
- My book blast (organized by ) was January 21, purposely positioned to coincide with the first day of the freebie. I provided a banner for use by the book blast hosts to let people know of the free book dates.
- My blog tour (also organized by ) started January 22 and ran through February 1
Anatomy of an Amazon KDP Free Giveaway and Book Blast
Amazon does not promote a book’s free days, so it is *crucial* to get the word out as broadly as possible. This is going to get detailed, so bear with. In addition to promoting my free days through the book blast, I had the following promotions running each day�
Day 1: Monday, January 21
Bargain Book Hunter 18.5K Facebook reach + on web page: ($5)
Free Kindle Fiction 7,600 Facebook + featured on web page: (featured post $12)
Digital Book Today 2,700 Facebook + front page slot: Digital Book Today: variety of free and paid options $5 guaranteed post.
Awesome Gang 616 Facebook + front page slot: Also can post on their Facebook page, day of.
Book Goodies front page slot (had been running since 1/13, though didn’t seem to do much?): BookGoodies: $5 per day; $35 for two-week home page sponsorship
The eReader Cafe featured on home page + 22.7K Facebook (listed in a bundle):
Free Books Daily book of the day + 1,210 Facebook: (can pay for guaranteed feature & book of the day $5)
Free Kindle Books & Tips home page + 30K Facebook (bundle): (must have average rating of 4+)
Kindle Finds home page and sidebar (supposedly 122K followers):
EBook Lister home page: Can submit in advance
Tuesday, January 22
Digital Book Today� promotional boost: variety of free and paid options $5 guaranteed post.
Wednesday, January 23
EBooks Habit book of the day:
(free book form)
The Frugal Find of the Day: $50
**Should have also used (pricey, but apparently very effective): Book Bub
On each free day I *also* posted on the following Facebook pages:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1... (must join group)
And, I used twitter from my own account, plus you can tweet to these accounts and they RT (instructions on their page):
@EReaderblast
@Free_book_promo
I believe you can compose a tweet at too.
Results, end of day 1
>3K downloads*
20079 entries in the book blast
On Amazon: #1 Teen SciFi; #2 Teen SciFi/Fantasy; #2 Teen Romance; #5 Teen; #104 Kindle Store
Results, end of day 2
~3K downloads*
26372 book blast; 1644 book tour
Twitter ~250 adds (didn’t keep track on day 1); Facebook (>300 adds; also didn’t track day 1); goodreads (~500 adds)
On Amazon: #1 teen scifi; #1 teen romance; #77 overall (got up to #69 overall)
Results, end of day 2
**Note� I definitely think by day 3 I was hitting some saturation
~2K downloads*
30714 book blast; 2288 book tour
+~100 twitter, facebook, goodreads adds
#1 teen scifi; #2 teen romance, #120 overall
*Note that some books get much higher download results; some lower. There are a *lot* of variables here, so I don't want to compare/contrast, but some of the variables will be a) amount of promotion & whether the promotion evenly spaced across the days (I front-loaded mine; should probably have spread); b) number of total days (gain momentum, particularly as you go up the rankings... some folks think wiser to do the full 5 days at a time); c) attractiveness of the book cover (it's like eye candy; book hoarders want to collect pretty things... just guessing lol); d) number of reviews (I had 50+ reviews with a 4.6 average at the time of my first day of the freebie).
Anatomy of a Blog Tour
I won’t go through the day by day results (much too long and boring), but will discuss the shift from FREE back to PAY, as well as the overall results of the book blast & blog tour.
Overall impressions of the “Freebie�
To be honest, I’m mixed. Note I have no issue with giving my book away for free� I write because I love to write, not for an expected lottery-sized payday, fame or notoriety. Yes, there is no question that you can unload thousands of copies of your book through KDP Select. But, do you hit the right target market for your book? Yes and no (and perhaps mostly no). I’m a little skeptical that those thousands will download my book (and if they do� how will they review it? Will it be fair if they aren’t a YA reader? Don’t know the answer to that one yet). Here are some of the other books that showed up (and some are frustratingly still on) my “Customers also bought� list after the freebie (note daynight is a young adult dystopian novel:
“Cayenne Pepper Cures�, “How to Dress a Pear Shaped Body and Look Fabulous�, “Snack Time: Lite and Tasty Snack Recipes�, “Don't Let An Old Person Move Into Your Body�, “Ultimate Money Saving Hacks for College�, “We All Married Idiots: Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage and Ten Things You Can�, “Set Your Boundaries Your Way: 7 Easy Ways to Say No to Difficult People�. “Romantic Dessert Recipes,� “Flat Tummy Yoga,� “Home Organization for Stress Free Living: How to Organize Your Home One Day at a Time and Keep It That Way�, “Armed Gunmen, True Facts, and Other Ridiculous Nonsense: A Compiled Compendium of Repetitive Redundancies�, “Desserts Under 250 Calories! 51 Delicious Desserts That Won't Hurt Your Diet�, �31 Delicious and Nutritious Vegetarian Appetizer Recipes (The Ultimate Guide to Vegetarian Cooking)�, and “Beauty Gone Wild! Herbal Recipes for Gorgeous Skin & Hair (Herbs Gone Wild!)�.
I think you get the picture, right? There are folks who will download any free books, whether or not they’ll ever read them. So, how does doing the giveaway help? From what I understand, Amazon treats every 10 freebies as a “sale� for determining ranking in the “Popular� lists. So, if you unload a bunch of freebies, it helps you move up in the rankings. Of course, this is a rolling 30-day average, so to stay high in the lists, you need to have a steady stream of “pay� business after your freebie. Also, hopefully, of the thousands, at least some sizable percentage of those who downloaded will read books in your target market. This will help you pop up on other “Customers also bought� lists, which is the ultimate goal.
Book Blog Tour Results
OK, so day after the freebie daynight was at #53 on the “popular� list for teen scifi (different than sales ranking—this is the list Amazon points people towards). I started out at about #44K in paid ranking (overall Kindle), which isn’t surprising. I’d just given away a whole lot of copies :). By the following day I was back in the top #100 teen scifi paid book lists, had moved up the “popular� ranking and was at about #15K for overall paid books.
Throughout the tour the sales numbers and rankings for daynight varied. At the peak, daynight hit #63 on the teen scifi list and about #10K overall, but has mostly hovered around #75 & #10-15K. Steady daily sales.
An important note, I decided to drop the price of daynight from $3.99 to $2.99 a couple days after the freebie ended through the month of February. I’m testing it out and may keep it at that price. As per the above, I don’t care about the money� I want to build a fan base, and want to make the entry price as reasonable as possible for readers. To be enrolled in the KDP Select program, $2.99 is as low as you can go. I *did* see an uptick in sales at the lower price, but with everything else going on, I can’t say for sure it is due to the price change.
Final numbers:
- Book blast had 55K entries (that’s a lot of exposure!). Note my giveaway was a $75 Amazon.com gift card and a pair of Amazon EarPods.
- Blog tour giveaway at 5800 & counting (3 more days). Note giveaway is a $50 Amazon.com gift card, a signed first edition of Insurgent by Veronica Roth & a signed copy of daynight.
- Twitter (+~650 total); Facebook (+~700 total); goodreads (+~1100 adds total)
- +~500 likes on Amazon sales page
- +25 reviews on Amazon (many from the awesome tour bloggers)
- ~Double the number of goodreads reviews on ratings (I didn’t get jot down starting numbers, unfortunately)
- Book mentioned in too many tweets to even begin to track
- Almost all 5* and 4* reviews (well-written, fair & honest, with valid criticisms). I tell you� these bloggers are *exceptional*. Two bloggers found errors my two proofreaders had missed, so I was able to get them fixed! Several expressed some minor concerns that I was also able to address & update. I am so grateful to all the bloggers who hosted daynight, whether they read and reviewed, posted guest posts/character interviews/bonus scenes/top tens, or tweeted and posted on other social networking media!
Blog Tour Schedule & Entries
Blog Tour Day One:
Author interview:
First review 5 stars!
Top Ten (don't laugh for those who know me) Homemaking/Organization advice here:
A final (for the day) author interview:
Blog Tour Day Two:
Review (4*/5):
Author Interview:
Top 10 Favorite Book Moments:
Author Interview:
Blog Tour Day 3:
Review 4*/5:
Interview:
Top 10 world cities seen at night:
Book Tour Day 4:
- Guest Post 'The Fallacy of Having it All' + Review (4*/5 on goodreads):
- Interview (about my teenage years... hope my mom doesn't read or retroactive grounding may be involved):
- Interview:
- 5*/5 Review & Interview:
- Interview:
Blog Tour Day 5:
NOTE These are all excellent, well-written reviews, but there are some SPOILERS.
- 5*/5 Review:
- 5*/5
- 4*/5
- 4*/5
- Author interview:
- One more: 3.5*/5 Review:
Blog Tour Day 6:
Review (4* goodreads):
Bonus review (unscheduled... she picked up a free copy, read & reviewed between surgery cases!!) 4*/5:
Guest post (about dystopian novels):
Guest post (on reading):
Blog Tour Day 7:
Review 4*/5:
Author interview:
Review 4*/5 + Ten Favorite Book Characters:
Character Interview (with Kira):
Guest post on why I wrote a dystopian novel:
This made my day... an unsolicited review from Sydney at Rattle the Stars blog :) 5*/5:
Blog Tour day 8:
- BONUS SCENE that can be enjoyed whether or not you have read 'daynight' yet :).
- Very positive review (some spoilers) "This book simply blew me away.":
- Top Ten gadgets (real or fictional):
- op Ten songs to write to:
Blog Tour day 9:
- Positive review "If you like Dystopian(s) then you will LOVE this book" + Top Ten Sci-Fi movies:
- Top ten things that make my heart flutter and a smile to creep across my face (lol, awkward one):
- Review:
- Author interview:
Blog Tour Day 10:
Two superbly written reviews!! Love all these awesome bloggers who so generously give of their time to read & write reviews (even the critical ones), as well as those who post interviews, guest posts, top tens & other information to get the word out!!
- 5*/5 Review "Whether viewed as a modern parable or a thrill ride, Daynight was the most compelling and intense book I’ve read since Free Souls by Susan Kaye Quinn."
- 4*/5 Review "Let me start out by saying the writing is superb. The Author's narrative was spellbinding and I was sucked in from the very first page... Overall I am highly recommending you pick a copy of Daynight up and give it a go. Perfectly paced writing combined with superb narrative, likeable characters, and fantastic world building will no doubt leave Daynight on many Top Ten book lists this year. Yeah, it was that good. "
Interview:
- Top Ten favorite movies:
- Professional review from Foreword Clarion came in on this day (4*/5). "Thomason’s description of Thera’s totalitarianism will make fans of Brave New World shiver." "SCI, her fantasy corporation, has disturbing parallels to actual companies and regimes that claim to do good while harming people." "daynight, skillfully blends the genres of dystopian science fiction and teenage romance with intriguing results. The author deftly appeals to both romance-loving teens as well as those intrigued by young adults fighting the establishment." "the novel’s stellar attributes will have the audience hankering day and night for the sequel."
Blog Tour Day 11:
- Positive review "This was a very unique book. I found the concept behind it enthralling. The story keeps you on your toes. Dystopian books are kind of overdone these days, but it's always nice to find a book with a unique concept. This book definitely fits that bill. There is also a huge love triangle, and even that manages to avoid being too predictable. This book is worth checking out. It will take you for a ride and leave you ready to find out more.":
- Guest post "How to survive a dystopian society":
- Top 10 Indulgences & Review 3/5 whales (yes, not everyone is going to love it and that's OK... I very much appreciate different viewpoints & she may like book 2 better, since it won't focus on cleaving) "I really liked all the other components of this book. The relationships, though very twisty and turny, were great and the characters had a real depth. All the different people working for their own goals added something to the story and if you take out the cleaving/sex/babies stuff, which unfortunately wasn't my thing, then I would've really, really liked this story. As it was I still enjoyed this book but it wasn't quite the book for me. I know many people have enjoyed it so if you're a fan of sci-fi/dystopian then you should give this book a shot!"
- Last Professional review posted @ Self-Publishing Review 4.5*/5 "The writing is impressive and the story is a real page-turner. Thomason’s young adult dystopian novel weaves a complicated tale together seamlessly that sucked me instantly. So many twists and turns... I'm hooked... I can't wait for the next installment to come out...4.5 out of 5 stars ":
Recommendation for Kathy from Book Blasts/Blog Tours
The book blast and blog tour that Kathy arranged for daynight has had a direct impact on the book’s exposure, Amazon ranking, and sales. For the duration of the blast and tour, I kept detailed logs to track the impact. From start to finish I saw: a 7x increase in twitter followers; an 8x increase in facebook likes; > 1,000 goodreads adds; and >500 likes on the Amazon sales page. The book blast, timed in conjunction with a 3-day free promotion on Amazon, shot daynight to the #1 teen science fiction book, #1 teen romance book, #2 overall teen book, and #63 overall Kindle book. As the freebie ended and the tour continued, sales skyrocketed from what they had been pre-tour, with daynight hitting #35 on most popular teen sci-fi list.
Kathy is organized, professional, and easy to work with. She provides assignments (author interviews, character interviews, guest posts, and top ten lists) ahead of time, tracks progress, and gives reminders. I was very impressed with the blog sites Kathy arranged for the tour. Those who reviewed daynight were honest, fair, and thorough. Many of the bloggers also posted to goodreads and Amazon.com, increasing the number of reviews and lending credibility to the daynight franchise. These exceptional bloggers not only promoted daynight on their blogs, but tweeted, and posted to facebook and google+.
I have already recommended Kathy to several people, and give my unqualified recommendation to all authors for her services. In today’s tough market where titles compete for mindshare with over a million other alternatives, no author can afford to skip this concentrated, valuable, promotional campaign.
Final Thoughts
- Book blast/blog tour. Best promotional money spent to date!
- Kindle freebie. Mixed, but probably think the boost in the “Popular� list was worth it. To get the huge numbers of downloads though, it requires a whole lot of promotion, some paid (so you are basically paying to give your book away, which doesn’t seem very intuitive).
- It is important to have a post-tour promo plan. I threw a quick banner ad up on , and am looking into other options.
* Update as of 2/17/13
- Overall sales up significantly in February, compared to January pre-tour/promo period (though varies immensely day to day.) Some days I see shockingly high sales; others equally shocking low sales. I can't even seem to see a consistent "day of the week" pattern. One week I'll have highest sales on Friday; next Saturday; the next on a Monday. Go figure. Weekends are reported to be best for sales.
- Sales have been high enough to bump daynight onto quite a few of the current top sellers' (in teen dystopian/sci-fi) "Customers also bought" lists (though typically down on page 9 to 15 & no guarantee that it will take up permanent residence)
- I tried a couple cheap promo opportunities on Author Marketing Club & Digital Book Today that didn't really seem to have any impact on sales. Looked at advertising on blogads, but a wise person told me that it would not be worth the $$. Anything like this does increase overall exposure, so may help long-term, but doesn't guarantee a short-term bump in sales.
- I did a Valentine's day giveaway on the daynight facebook page which was reasonably successful (I had no particular goal other than to give back to fans, but I had some very kind bloggers offer to read & review my book; got more facebook page likes; and generally happy fans).
Questions & comments welcome!
Thanks,
Megan Thomason, author of
January 21, 2013
Stop the hate-Sample it! Save time & money!
Would you buy a house without seeing it first? As an English major, take a Robotics course without auditing it? Book a band for your wedding without listening to them?
I'd surely hope not. So why then do we buy books without sampling them first? I've been pondering this as both a reader and a writer.
I used to scan the description and reviews, and if the book looked interesting enough I'd give it a chance. If I loved the book, score. If not, I'd be pissed. Particularly for the books that had tons of 5 star reviews.
Then I started downloading samples on Amazon before reading the books (you don't have to download... you can just scan the first few pages in 'Look Inside' on your computer). The sample is typically the first 10% of the book. If the author can't capture your (or my) interest in the first 10% of the book it probably isn't worth reading. Does that mean other people won't enjoy the book? No. Others may love the book. And that's ok! Things to look for in that sample:
- Do I like the writing style?
- Do I like the premise?
- Is it boring or did the plot immediately grab my attention?
- Do I like the characters?
- Is this a genre I enjoy? (it's OK to take a chance, but make sure you like that sample!)
Can I book go awry after the 10% mark? Yes. I read two books recently that started out compelling. Both hit one of my biggest pet peeves after I'd read the sample and purchased: boy and girl go from despising each other to loving each other in a nanosecond (particularly bad when there was no good reason for them to hate each other in the first place). One book I found so offensive I stopped reading. The other had enough else going for it that I continued. The sample test will never be perfect. But it will certainly eliminate a lot of duds.
We all like different things
I love young adult and new adult fiction... particularly dystopias, romance, and fantasy. I also enjoy adult thrillers, some adult fantasy, and a smattering of everything from middle grade to classics. There's books I have loved that others hate, and books I really didn't enjoy that are immensely popular.
No one book will appeal to everyone. After 'Bob', an adult male who likes adult thrillers told me he disliked my book recently, I thought to myself "Shocking. Bob, the adult thriller lover, didn't like a young adult dystopian romance." I do believe I chuckled. It's OK. I didn't write my book for Bob, and Bob doesn't need to like my book. I'm not sure I understand why Bob bought a young adult dystopian romance without reading a sample first, but alas, despite my desire to read people's minds I am unable.
The fact is... some people prefer romance. Some prefer fantasy. Some prefer action. Some prefer books that make you think deeply and provocatively. Thank goodness we aren't all the same and like all the same things. That would be horribly boring, don't you think? If one book tried to be everything to everyone, it would do a terrible job across the board. The romance lovers wouldn't get enough romance; the action lovers enough action, etc. When I sent out ARCs of my book, I got the same thing. Some readers wanted more romance, less action. Some more action, less romance. Some more deep symbolism. Some less description, some more. You get the picture. I picked the balance that I felt best told the story and set up for future books, but invariably it will fall short for many readers (who wanted more romance or more action or more deep symbolism or whatever else they were looking for). I'm thankful that a lot of readers thought I hit the perfect balance, but completely empathize with those that think I didn't.
Don't hate if you don't sample
I'm sure many will disagree with me here. But, I think hating on a book that a person would never have purchased if they read the sample first isn't cool. I do admit that I've broken my own rule a few times and purchased a book based on a ŷ review from someone I respect, a preponderance of positive reviews on Amazon, or by mistake (sometimes I hit the 'Purchase' button instead of the 'Download a sample' button... my bad.) In the cases where I purchase before reading a sample, I don't rate or review if I dislike the book. It doesn't seem fair to the writer, since I'd have never purchased if I'd taken the time to sample it first.
One such book (which shall remain nameless) had over 50 reviews on Amazon, almost all 5 stars; was selling really well. I figured if that many people loved it, it had to be good. Truly the worst book I read out of 600+ last year. I felt like it was written in a different language and I failed to get the interpreter with my downloaded copy. I went back and read the reviews more closely... it was obvious that friends and family were supporting this writer. I should have done my homework aka sample it. I didn't post a rating or a review.
I'd also say... don't rate or review if you didn't finish the book. By sampling first, we can avoid a lot of reading train wrecks. But if for whatever reason we buy (eg. if the book was free) and stop reading, it doesn't seem fair to post a rating or review. There have surely been some books I've read that start out slowly, but finish with a bang. We'll never have the full picture if we don't read the entire book.
Ratings and Reviews
Professional reviews... generally reliable, critically written... but still no guarantee that you will like the book.
Amazon reviews... Amazon has tried to eliminate bogus reviews from the picture (paid for reviews or family/friend reviews), but their system isn't perfect (I've had reviews from people I have never heard of deleted and didn't pay anyone for reviews). Scanning the reviews can give you a sense for the book, but still won't tell you if the book is for you.
Blogger reviews. I'm really impressed with the bloggers I've encountered. They donate their time to reading and reviewing books, a big service to the reading community. But a few things:
- Whether paid or not, it's still a job. With a job comes a different mindset. If they feel like they have to review a book (because they are part of a blog tour they are participating in or got a request), rather than choosing to read the book, it will invariably influence their opinion (in my opinion). It's like all the books I had to read in high school and college. I loathed some classics at the time because they were assignments. I've gone back and re-read several recently and loved them. Different timing, different mindset, and it being my choice made all the difference. Personally, I'd love it if bloggers also sampled the books before agreeing to review, but that's not my choice... it's theirs. And I fully believe in free choice.
- They are critically minded (and are supposed to be critically minded... and frankly true critical reviews are very helpful to writers). Things that may bother them may not bother the average reader. So, when in doubt, sample it!
ŷ reviews. I think I got taken aback when I got my first imperfect ratings on ŷ. Then I looked at the 'favorite books' for these readers, and like 'Bob', they typically aren't my target audience. Or maybe they are and my book wasn't for them. Again, that's OK! I'd preferred they sample it first, but I always remind myself that every single one of my top 100 all time favorite books have lots of 1 star and 2 star reviews.
Critical review vs. hating
There's a big difference between a well written, objective critical review and hating. Critical reviews point out flaws in plot, characters, writing, pacing that can be fixed if the writer so chooses. All writers can find glorious nuggets of gold in critical reviews that they can use to fix their current book, or improve their writing in the future. I had some early critical reviews of my book that were incredibly helpful. Because let's face it, perception rules intention every time. If I intended my character to be in shock over an event, but the character unintentionally comes across as callous and uncaring... that is very useful to know and something I, as a writer, can fix. Other things I may choose to ignore (conflicting input: add more detail; delete the detail). Again, not every book will fit every reader.
Hating is a negative rating with no detail to back it or use of harsh tone, insults to the writer or readers of the book eg. "This book sucked. You'd have to be a complete idiot to read it. What a waste of time."
The Contrarians
These are the folks that want to go against the grain. If everyone is loving X, they're going to hate X and love Y. They will approach a book with a bias, and it's not going to turn out well. I'm ashamed to say I've done this! I'm a big Hunger Games fan. I read an article a while back that said Great New Dystopian Release was better than Hunger Games. To me, a sacrilegious statement lol. I read that book start to finish comparing it to the Hunger Games. Proving to myself it wasn't worthy to even be mentioned in the same article. With that kind of attitude going in, of course I didn't love the book. Note that I recently read book two of the same series and loved it--because I approached it with a different attitude. Rather than comparing, I appreciated it as a standalone entity.
Expectations can be a real buzzkill. We can up the enjoyment factor by either reducing or eliminating pre-conceived notions and expectations.
Stop the hating
I personally think there's enough hate in the world, and that none of us should add to it. I am not suggesting that we self-censor. I'm suggesting we self-select by sampling before we buy. If we don't read a book, we save ourselves time (that we'd never get back otherwise... and who has time to waste?) and money. We save the writer the heartache of reading a negative review.
If we have critical feedback to give, let us give it in such a way that we aren't derogatory or insulting.
Sample it!
Some books I read recently that passed my sample test (doesn't mean will pass yours):
(re-read of one I read back in school)
(another re-read of one I read back in school)
(took two reads of the sample... gave it another chance after reading a goodreads review and glad I did)
You can read a sample of my book, daynight here: . It is FREE 1/21-1/23, but I still always recommend to SAMPLE IT :).
I love these quotes (knowing that people will continue to buy without sampling, and hating without mercy):
“Behind every sucessful person lies a pack of Haters! I love my haters!�
� Gloria Tesch
“Haters are my favorite. I´ve built an empire with the bricks they´ve thrown at me. Keep on hating...�
� CM Punk
I'd surely hope not. So why then do we buy books without sampling them first? I've been pondering this as both a reader and a writer.
I used to scan the description and reviews, and if the book looked interesting enough I'd give it a chance. If I loved the book, score. If not, I'd be pissed. Particularly for the books that had tons of 5 star reviews.
Then I started downloading samples on Amazon before reading the books (you don't have to download... you can just scan the first few pages in 'Look Inside' on your computer). The sample is typically the first 10% of the book. If the author can't capture your (or my) interest in the first 10% of the book it probably isn't worth reading. Does that mean other people won't enjoy the book? No. Others may love the book. And that's ok! Things to look for in that sample:
- Do I like the writing style?
- Do I like the premise?
- Is it boring or did the plot immediately grab my attention?
- Do I like the characters?
- Is this a genre I enjoy? (it's OK to take a chance, but make sure you like that sample!)
Can I book go awry after the 10% mark? Yes. I read two books recently that started out compelling. Both hit one of my biggest pet peeves after I'd read the sample and purchased: boy and girl go from despising each other to loving each other in a nanosecond (particularly bad when there was no good reason for them to hate each other in the first place). One book I found so offensive I stopped reading. The other had enough else going for it that I continued. The sample test will never be perfect. But it will certainly eliminate a lot of duds.
We all like different things
I love young adult and new adult fiction... particularly dystopias, romance, and fantasy. I also enjoy adult thrillers, some adult fantasy, and a smattering of everything from middle grade to classics. There's books I have loved that others hate, and books I really didn't enjoy that are immensely popular.
No one book will appeal to everyone. After 'Bob', an adult male who likes adult thrillers told me he disliked my book recently, I thought to myself "Shocking. Bob, the adult thriller lover, didn't like a young adult dystopian romance." I do believe I chuckled. It's OK. I didn't write my book for Bob, and Bob doesn't need to like my book. I'm not sure I understand why Bob bought a young adult dystopian romance without reading a sample first, but alas, despite my desire to read people's minds I am unable.
The fact is... some people prefer romance. Some prefer fantasy. Some prefer action. Some prefer books that make you think deeply and provocatively. Thank goodness we aren't all the same and like all the same things. That would be horribly boring, don't you think? If one book tried to be everything to everyone, it would do a terrible job across the board. The romance lovers wouldn't get enough romance; the action lovers enough action, etc. When I sent out ARCs of my book, I got the same thing. Some readers wanted more romance, less action. Some more action, less romance. Some more deep symbolism. Some less description, some more. You get the picture. I picked the balance that I felt best told the story and set up for future books, but invariably it will fall short for many readers (who wanted more romance or more action or more deep symbolism or whatever else they were looking for). I'm thankful that a lot of readers thought I hit the perfect balance, but completely empathize with those that think I didn't.
Don't hate if you don't sample
I'm sure many will disagree with me here. But, I think hating on a book that a person would never have purchased if they read the sample first isn't cool. I do admit that I've broken my own rule a few times and purchased a book based on a ŷ review from someone I respect, a preponderance of positive reviews on Amazon, or by mistake (sometimes I hit the 'Purchase' button instead of the 'Download a sample' button... my bad.) In the cases where I purchase before reading a sample, I don't rate or review if I dislike the book. It doesn't seem fair to the writer, since I'd have never purchased if I'd taken the time to sample it first.
One such book (which shall remain nameless) had over 50 reviews on Amazon, almost all 5 stars; was selling really well. I figured if that many people loved it, it had to be good. Truly the worst book I read out of 600+ last year. I felt like it was written in a different language and I failed to get the interpreter with my downloaded copy. I went back and read the reviews more closely... it was obvious that friends and family were supporting this writer. I should have done my homework aka sample it. I didn't post a rating or a review.
I'd also say... don't rate or review if you didn't finish the book. By sampling first, we can avoid a lot of reading train wrecks. But if for whatever reason we buy (eg. if the book was free) and stop reading, it doesn't seem fair to post a rating or review. There have surely been some books I've read that start out slowly, but finish with a bang. We'll never have the full picture if we don't read the entire book.
Ratings and Reviews
Professional reviews... generally reliable, critically written... but still no guarantee that you will like the book.
Amazon reviews... Amazon has tried to eliminate bogus reviews from the picture (paid for reviews or family/friend reviews), but their system isn't perfect (I've had reviews from people I have never heard of deleted and didn't pay anyone for reviews). Scanning the reviews can give you a sense for the book, but still won't tell you if the book is for you.
Blogger reviews. I'm really impressed with the bloggers I've encountered. They donate their time to reading and reviewing books, a big service to the reading community. But a few things:
- Whether paid or not, it's still a job. With a job comes a different mindset. If they feel like they have to review a book (because they are part of a blog tour they are participating in or got a request), rather than choosing to read the book, it will invariably influence their opinion (in my opinion). It's like all the books I had to read in high school and college. I loathed some classics at the time because they were assignments. I've gone back and re-read several recently and loved them. Different timing, different mindset, and it being my choice made all the difference. Personally, I'd love it if bloggers also sampled the books before agreeing to review, but that's not my choice... it's theirs. And I fully believe in free choice.
- They are critically minded (and are supposed to be critically minded... and frankly true critical reviews are very helpful to writers). Things that may bother them may not bother the average reader. So, when in doubt, sample it!
ŷ reviews. I think I got taken aback when I got my first imperfect ratings on ŷ. Then I looked at the 'favorite books' for these readers, and like 'Bob', they typically aren't my target audience. Or maybe they are and my book wasn't for them. Again, that's OK! I'd preferred they sample it first, but I always remind myself that every single one of my top 100 all time favorite books have lots of 1 star and 2 star reviews.
Critical review vs. hating
There's a big difference between a well written, objective critical review and hating. Critical reviews point out flaws in plot, characters, writing, pacing that can be fixed if the writer so chooses. All writers can find glorious nuggets of gold in critical reviews that they can use to fix their current book, or improve their writing in the future. I had some early critical reviews of my book that were incredibly helpful. Because let's face it, perception rules intention every time. If I intended my character to be in shock over an event, but the character unintentionally comes across as callous and uncaring... that is very useful to know and something I, as a writer, can fix. Other things I may choose to ignore (conflicting input: add more detail; delete the detail). Again, not every book will fit every reader.
Hating is a negative rating with no detail to back it or use of harsh tone, insults to the writer or readers of the book eg. "This book sucked. You'd have to be a complete idiot to read it. What a waste of time."
The Contrarians
These are the folks that want to go against the grain. If everyone is loving X, they're going to hate X and love Y. They will approach a book with a bias, and it's not going to turn out well. I'm ashamed to say I've done this! I'm a big Hunger Games fan. I read an article a while back that said Great New Dystopian Release was better than Hunger Games. To me, a sacrilegious statement lol. I read that book start to finish comparing it to the Hunger Games. Proving to myself it wasn't worthy to even be mentioned in the same article. With that kind of attitude going in, of course I didn't love the book. Note that I recently read book two of the same series and loved it--because I approached it with a different attitude. Rather than comparing, I appreciated it as a standalone entity.
Expectations can be a real buzzkill. We can up the enjoyment factor by either reducing or eliminating pre-conceived notions and expectations.
Stop the hating
I personally think there's enough hate in the world, and that none of us should add to it. I am not suggesting that we self-censor. I'm suggesting we self-select by sampling before we buy. If we don't read a book, we save ourselves time (that we'd never get back otherwise... and who has time to waste?) and money. We save the writer the heartache of reading a negative review.
If we have critical feedback to give, let us give it in such a way that we aren't derogatory or insulting.
Sample it!
Some books I read recently that passed my sample test (doesn't mean will pass yours):
(re-read of one I read back in school)
(another re-read of one I read back in school)
(took two reads of the sample... gave it another chance after reading a goodreads review and glad I did)You can read a sample of my book, daynight here: . It is FREE 1/21-1/23, but I still always recommend to SAMPLE IT :).
I love these quotes (knowing that people will continue to buy without sampling, and hating without mercy):
“Behind every sucessful person lies a pack of Haters! I love my haters!�
� Gloria Tesch
“Haters are my favorite. I´ve built an empire with the bricks they´ve thrown at me. Keep on hating...�
� CM Punk
January 15, 2013
daynight's Garden City, Thera fashions
As a thank you, for every 25 reviews posted for daynight on Amazon.com, I post an 'extra' for daynight or a teaser for the sequel, arbitrate (targeted for summer 2013).
At 25 reviews I posted pictures that inspired the characters
daynight just hit 50 reviews! I'm pleased to reveal full color, full character sketches of the fashions in daynight. Emma Connelly, up and coming costume designer/producer, spent her winter vacation putting my words to pictures and they are fabulous. You can see them
Next up will be a teaser for arbitrate at 75 reviews!
Thanks to all of daynight's 'early adopters' who read, reviewed, and shared with their friends! I'm grateful for each and every one of you.
At 25 reviews I posted pictures that inspired the characters
daynight just hit 50 reviews! I'm pleased to reveal full color, full character sketches of the fashions in daynight. Emma Connelly, up and coming costume designer/producer, spent her winter vacation putting my words to pictures and they are fabulous. You can see them
Next up will be a teaser for arbitrate at 75 reviews!
Thanks to all of daynight's 'early adopters' who read, reviewed, and shared with their friends! I'm grateful for each and every one of you.
January 14, 2013
For authors & aspiring writers (hard-learned best practices/I did your research for you :))
This is post is for aspiring writers or current authors. I’m no expert, but I’ve been working around the clock to try to figure it all out. I've done a ton of research--particularly into promotional opportunities, and want to share what I've learned and hopefully save you some time (it was terribly tedious and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone)! Feel free to comment with your own best practices or things that have worked and not worked.
I wanted to mention something up front: there are no shortcuts for hard work. Oprah isn't going to magically run across your book and be singing your praises. Your facebook friends aren't going to start a viral campaign that will catch on and make your book sales go through the roof. You can expect to make slow but steady process if you continually work hard to promote your book to to the right people.
Writing—pen or computer?
No contest for me. I can’t stand even hand writing a letter or filling out paperwork. If there ever is an EMP or anything that wipes out all electronic devices, I’m toast. I have serious co-dependency issues with my 11� MacBook Air and iPhone.
I use Scrivener for my writing (I couldn’t and wouldn’t go back to Word or equivalent, even if paid). It does have a learning curve and it’s a pain in the booty to move existing projects from Word. Benefits:
- Can outline entire book, chapter by chapter, scene by scene and makes it easy to move scenes and chapters around
- Auto generates table of contents
- Allows you to keep all notes and research (including pictures and links) with your book for easy access
- Compiles every imaginable electronic and hard copy book type for you (though be careful to review� often needs tweaking of the standard settings)
- Keeps track of statistics (word count, estimated page count, etc.)
You can check out Scrivener here (both Mac and Windows versions available): . Best of all� free trial and approximately $45 (USD) to purchase (cheaper for students).
Writing process
1) Read! If every author read every book in their genre (or at least the highly rated ones), there would be a lot less rehashed stories, better writing, and fresh concepts. I read 600 books in the last year. You can find my top 50+ favorites in my earlier blog post here: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_....
2) Plot! Certainly, there have been some successful books written off the cuff, but to have good pacing, story development, character development, building of tension, etc. it typically takes good plotting.
3) Flexibility! Revise, revise, revise. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Don’t get so stuck on your initial concept that you reject an even better idea.
4) Edit! Editing is hard. I typically go through my book over a hundred times, looking for something different each pass.
5) Proofread! Yes, I list this separately from editing. Have someone (or even better, many someones)—other than you—someone with a sharp eye and very keen grasp of the English language, proofread your book. The brain compensates for missing words, extra words, etc. and they are very hard to find. If problems are found after publishing, fix and update. So, so many books these days are released without even moderate proofreading.
6) Work hard! If you thought the writing was time-consuming and hard, promoting your book takes as much, if not more time. Put in the hours.
7) Thicken your skin! It is unlikely you like every book you read, so you can’t expect everyone to like your book. I’ve adopted the saying: "If you're trying to please everyone, then you're not going to make anything that is honestly yours, I don't think, in the long run."--Viggo Mortensen.
8) Start writing the next one. Your chances increase exponentially of having a ‘hit�, the more offerings you have.
Pre-publishing
1. Work on cover, author bio, author picture, synopsis concurrently with doing your final editing and proofreading. CreateSpace and other self-publishing houses offer (pay for services) to help you create your cover and get your final product ready, if needed. This bears repeating. Do not proofread your own work.
2. Give out advance reading copies (ARCs)� You can do through ŷ forums or to your ŷ friends; Kindle forums; setup a blog launch tour and send ARCs out to reviewers as part of this; or to friends and family. This helps with a couple important things� more eyes on it to look for inconsistencies and errors; you will have people ready to review at launch. Ask for fair and honest reviews. It only will hurt you in the long run if you have all your friends and family post bogus reviews that don’t match the general consensus.
Post-publishing
Sit back and relax and watch the books fly out the virtual door, right? Not even close. When you self-publish, you get to do all the promotion.
1. If you want the professional review houses to review your book, get it sent out right away. Note, these all cost (a lot). These are hard-core reviewers, so make sure your book is ready for their scrutiny. And they require a long lead-time. Some allow you to expedite at extra cost, but still, don’t expect anything back for 4-6 weeks. If you are planning to use your (hopefully positive review) as support for a promotional campaign, plan accordingly. Kirkus Reviews, Blue Ink Review, and Foreward Reviews all do professional reviews for a fee, and you can submit your book to a Publisher’s Weekly supplement for a fee and they choose 25% to review from the submissions.
2. Facebook fan page for the book. Create one. To have a friendly name, need 25 fans.
*Special facebook note: harassing your friends and family to buy, read or review your book by facebook is *not* an effective promotional method. It's surely fine to invite them to read, let them know when the book is free, or offer them a free copy in exchange for a fair and honest review. You can share book successes by your facebook fan page to keep your book's name out there. But, there should be no expectation for facebook friends to do marketing for you. If they love your book and choose to share with others in the natural order of things, excellent!
3. Twitter. Use, but don't abuse. I am a definite twitter newbie, and to be honest the constant stream makes me a little nuts. Twitter can be an excellent networking tool and can get your book's name out there, but no need to tweet every minute imho.
4. Add your book to ŷ and sign up for an author page. Schedule a giveaway of your paperback book (can do from your author dashboard)—this gets great exposure for your book and potential readers can add the book to their ‘to read� shelf directly from the giveaway signup. Signed copies get more interest than unsigned copies.
5. Create an Amazon author page.
6. Schedule a blog tour (these cost). If you didn’t schedule one for your launch (like me), then schedule far enough out that a) you have a chunk of reviews up on Amazon and ŷ, and b) you have professional reviews back. Note that the preparation for the blog tour for the few weeks prior is grueling as you are asked to prepare author interviews, character interviews, top ten lists, and guest posts on various topics.
7. Look for local opportunities to showcase your book. Does your library system showcase local authors? Are there any independent bookstores that will host signings or other author events?
Spend money to make money
Although I took a lot of English and literature classes in college, I was a business major. So this concept comes naturally to me—you can never expect to make money without investing money. Since your book isn’t on display at a local bookstore or on a giant Costco display, you have to work to get your book’s name in front of people. The hope is that after a lot of people have bought your book that you end up on the hallowed ‘Customers also bought� lists on Amazon or equivalent, and then your book sales become self-perpetuating. But to get there, you must promote. There are a number of places that allow you to post your book for free, but many of these places (for preferred placement, to be ‘Book of the Day�, etc.) require a $5 or 10 or $25 or $50 or more investment on your part. Do some research to figure out what will work best for your particular genre. There are a lot of different promotional and advertising options—from twitter campaigns, to facebook posts, to on-site advertising. Unless you have unlimited funds you’ll have to pick and choose. Things you can reasonably expect to spend money on are:
- Cover (if it isn’t eye catching, you lose a chunk of potential buyers right off the bat)
- Editing/proofreading
- Blog tour
- Promoting your ‘freebie�
- Promoting your ‘pay for� book
- Professional book reviews
Key influencers
- Bloggers. I am so incredibly impressed with the book blogging community. These gracious people will often read and review or otherwise promote your book (eg. author interviews, cover reveals, guest posts)� for free. They do it because they love reading, love discovering the hidden gems, and genuinely want to support authors. Please treat them with the utmost respect (regardless of whether they become your book’s biggest fan or not) and don’t make demands. Most of them have ‘to read� lists hundreds of books long. Unless you are part of a scheduled book tour, you cannot expect them to read and review on your timetable.
Each blog has hundreds to thousands of followers that respect that blogger’s opinion. So every time your book is featured on a blog your book is not only exposed to a lot of people, but the right people. First, their followers all read a lot of books! Second, they read your book’s genre. You can’t get a more highly targeted promotion than that.
- Professional reviewers. Professional reviews have a lot of sway, both with readers and with industry decision makers (from libraries, to agents and publishers). Definitely worth pursuing if you believe your book will merit positive reviews.
- ŷ community. ŷ is another excellent place to promote your book. Where else can you find millions of readers looking for their next purchase? Plus, through the various ŷ forums (which are targeted to specific genres) you can find people willing to write a fair and honest review in exchange for a copy of your book. You can notify friends and fans of upcoming events (like a blog tour, signing, or new release). You can do book giveaways to help get exposure. And they have reasonably priced (you set a daily limit) self-serve, targeted advertising to drive people to your giveaway, place of purchase, or ŷ book page so that people can add it to their bookshelf.
Special promo tips (general and for KDP Select—The Freebie)
I naively assumed that if I signed up for KDP Select that Amazon would promote my book on my free days. Ha. Joke was on me. Below are both free and paid opportunities to post your freebie offer or pay-for book. Some listings are done day-of the freebie, but most have to be scheduled way in advance, so plan accordingly. And many require a minimum number of reviews on Amazon with an average rating of 4.0 or higher.
I recommend reading this w/r/t KDP Select (great post from an author who has very successfully used the KDP Select program):
Places to post KDP Select giveaway (some do more than freebies)
*=newly added
Addicted to Ebooks:
(Register. Need 5 reviews.)
Author Marketing Club:
(One of the most important links as it has submission forms for 19 different sites, though not all work through their site, so I’ve listed them all individually below)
EReader News Today:
The books that will be posted will be the books with the highest ratings and the most reviews. If your book has a small number of reviews (0 � 3) or low ratings (below 4.0) it will not be posted. We will not repost a free book within 60 days of the previous free book posting.
Pixel of Ink:
If your book will be listed as Free ($0.00) on Amazon.com in the next 30 days, then please let us know by filling out the form below.
Books on the Knob:
FreeBooksy $50 feature (50-60K reach). 48 hours notice.
Bargain eBook Hunter: $5 for guaranteed placement. Must be 3 days out and can not run same title more than once in 30 days.
Snickslist: List day it goes free and run for as many days as the promo! Tracks number of views.
Variety of sponsorships. $9.99 alert for freebies: Free alert: (did pick of the week $19.99; 5 days total)
Free Kindle fiction:
(guaranteed post $5)
(featured post $12)
Indie Book of the Day:
Nominate for Indie Book of the Day:
Free Book Dude:
Digital Book Today: variety of free and paid options $5 guaranteed post.
Awesome Gang: Also can post on their Facebook page, day of.
BookGoodies: $5 per day
(where submit book info) (done)
(to submit book for review) (done)
(author interview) (have not done)
(paid sponsorship) ($35 for two week home page sponsorship)
Kindle Book Promos:
eBooks Habit:
(free book form)
The eReader Cafe:
Book Goodies for Kids:
(Have not done)
Kindle Author Boards. Must create account. This link is to add a freebie:
Centsible: (have not done paid feature; think filled out free form)
(pretty sure they pull directly off Amazon & there is no form to fill out)
Flurries of Words: (did not do� need to do. Read down for very specific instructions). UK-based.
Free Books Daily: (can pay for guaranteed feature & book of the day $5)
Ask David:
Free Kindle Books & Tips: (must have average rating of 4+)
Kindle Finds: Needs 10 reviews average 4.0+
Can submit in advance
Kindle Mojo Free & Paid options
Black Caviar Book Club Can put up a free listing.
*Book Daily
*Daily Free EBooks
*Book Deal Hunter
*Zwoodle
Paid
The Frugal eReader: $50
Good Kindles: $7 or advertising
Kindle Nation Daily (highest reach, highest $$):
World Literary CAfe: ~$40
Book Tweeting Service: 50K followers; 1 day $29; 2 day $56; 3 day $81; 4 day $104; 5 day $125
All on Fire Social Media posts $19.99 for one day up to $149 for 7 days
*Story Finds
*Book Bub
Facebook sites to like and spam day of freebies
*
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1... (must join group)
Twitter (instructions on their profile page of how to tweet your freebie)
@EReaderblast
@Free_book_promo
An Incomplete List of Absolutely Awesome Bloggers (most for YA)
Please support them by visiting their blog and following via facebook, twitter, google+ or other methods listed.
(Sigh, serious html tag overload!)
I also highly recommend the . They list indie-friendly blogs by category that you can send review requests to.
This compilation of promotional sites & blogs took many, many hours to compile. I'm sharing it to help those who work full time or otherwise don't have time to do the vast amount of research (and trial and error) that I had to do. If you do choose to use the information, I invite (not require, of course) you to repay in kind by supporting my YA dystopian book, by purchasing a copy here. Cost is $3.99. ŷ link to add to your bookshelf is here.
Thanks for visiting and I hope there's a nugget or two in here you found helpful. And again, feel free to comment with things I missed (I'm sure there are *many*--I'm still a newbie at this!). I will continue to update this post as I discover new ways to achieve success at self-publishing.
Megan
I wanted to mention something up front: there are no shortcuts for hard work. Oprah isn't going to magically run across your book and be singing your praises. Your facebook friends aren't going to start a viral campaign that will catch on and make your book sales go through the roof. You can expect to make slow but steady process if you continually work hard to promote your book to to the right people.
Writing—pen or computer?
No contest for me. I can’t stand even hand writing a letter or filling out paperwork. If there ever is an EMP or anything that wipes out all electronic devices, I’m toast. I have serious co-dependency issues with my 11� MacBook Air and iPhone.
I use Scrivener for my writing (I couldn’t and wouldn’t go back to Word or equivalent, even if paid). It does have a learning curve and it’s a pain in the booty to move existing projects from Word. Benefits:
- Can outline entire book, chapter by chapter, scene by scene and makes it easy to move scenes and chapters around
- Auto generates table of contents
- Allows you to keep all notes and research (including pictures and links) with your book for easy access
- Compiles every imaginable electronic and hard copy book type for you (though be careful to review� often needs tweaking of the standard settings)
- Keeps track of statistics (word count, estimated page count, etc.)
You can check out Scrivener here (both Mac and Windows versions available): . Best of all� free trial and approximately $45 (USD) to purchase (cheaper for students).
Writing process
1) Read! If every author read every book in their genre (or at least the highly rated ones), there would be a lot less rehashed stories, better writing, and fresh concepts. I read 600 books in the last year. You can find my top 50+ favorites in my earlier blog post here: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_....
2) Plot! Certainly, there have been some successful books written off the cuff, but to have good pacing, story development, character development, building of tension, etc. it typically takes good plotting.
3) Flexibility! Revise, revise, revise. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Don’t get so stuck on your initial concept that you reject an even better idea.
4) Edit! Editing is hard. I typically go through my book over a hundred times, looking for something different each pass.
5) Proofread! Yes, I list this separately from editing. Have someone (or even better, many someones)—other than you—someone with a sharp eye and very keen grasp of the English language, proofread your book. The brain compensates for missing words, extra words, etc. and they are very hard to find. If problems are found after publishing, fix and update. So, so many books these days are released without even moderate proofreading.
6) Work hard! If you thought the writing was time-consuming and hard, promoting your book takes as much, if not more time. Put in the hours.
7) Thicken your skin! It is unlikely you like every book you read, so you can’t expect everyone to like your book. I’ve adopted the saying: "If you're trying to please everyone, then you're not going to make anything that is honestly yours, I don't think, in the long run."--Viggo Mortensen.
8) Start writing the next one. Your chances increase exponentially of having a ‘hit�, the more offerings you have.
Pre-publishing
1. Work on cover, author bio, author picture, synopsis concurrently with doing your final editing and proofreading. CreateSpace and other self-publishing houses offer (pay for services) to help you create your cover and get your final product ready, if needed. This bears repeating. Do not proofread your own work.
2. Give out advance reading copies (ARCs)� You can do through ŷ forums or to your ŷ friends; Kindle forums; setup a blog launch tour and send ARCs out to reviewers as part of this; or to friends and family. This helps with a couple important things� more eyes on it to look for inconsistencies and errors; you will have people ready to review at launch. Ask for fair and honest reviews. It only will hurt you in the long run if you have all your friends and family post bogus reviews that don’t match the general consensus.
Post-publishing
Sit back and relax and watch the books fly out the virtual door, right? Not even close. When you self-publish, you get to do all the promotion.
1. If you want the professional review houses to review your book, get it sent out right away. Note, these all cost (a lot). These are hard-core reviewers, so make sure your book is ready for their scrutiny. And they require a long lead-time. Some allow you to expedite at extra cost, but still, don’t expect anything back for 4-6 weeks. If you are planning to use your (hopefully positive review) as support for a promotional campaign, plan accordingly. Kirkus Reviews, Blue Ink Review, and Foreward Reviews all do professional reviews for a fee, and you can submit your book to a Publisher’s Weekly supplement for a fee and they choose 25% to review from the submissions.
2. Facebook fan page for the book. Create one. To have a friendly name, need 25 fans.
*Special facebook note: harassing your friends and family to buy, read or review your book by facebook is *not* an effective promotional method. It's surely fine to invite them to read, let them know when the book is free, or offer them a free copy in exchange for a fair and honest review. You can share book successes by your facebook fan page to keep your book's name out there. But, there should be no expectation for facebook friends to do marketing for you. If they love your book and choose to share with others in the natural order of things, excellent!
3. Twitter. Use, but don't abuse. I am a definite twitter newbie, and to be honest the constant stream makes me a little nuts. Twitter can be an excellent networking tool and can get your book's name out there, but no need to tweet every minute imho.
4. Add your book to ŷ and sign up for an author page. Schedule a giveaway of your paperback book (can do from your author dashboard)—this gets great exposure for your book and potential readers can add the book to their ‘to read� shelf directly from the giveaway signup. Signed copies get more interest than unsigned copies.
5. Create an Amazon author page.
6. Schedule a blog tour (these cost). If you didn’t schedule one for your launch (like me), then schedule far enough out that a) you have a chunk of reviews up on Amazon and ŷ, and b) you have professional reviews back. Note that the preparation for the blog tour for the few weeks prior is grueling as you are asked to prepare author interviews, character interviews, top ten lists, and guest posts on various topics.
7. Look for local opportunities to showcase your book. Does your library system showcase local authors? Are there any independent bookstores that will host signings or other author events?
Spend money to make money
Although I took a lot of English and literature classes in college, I was a business major. So this concept comes naturally to me—you can never expect to make money without investing money. Since your book isn’t on display at a local bookstore or on a giant Costco display, you have to work to get your book’s name in front of people. The hope is that after a lot of people have bought your book that you end up on the hallowed ‘Customers also bought� lists on Amazon or equivalent, and then your book sales become self-perpetuating. But to get there, you must promote. There are a number of places that allow you to post your book for free, but many of these places (for preferred placement, to be ‘Book of the Day�, etc.) require a $5 or 10 or $25 or $50 or more investment on your part. Do some research to figure out what will work best for your particular genre. There are a lot of different promotional and advertising options—from twitter campaigns, to facebook posts, to on-site advertising. Unless you have unlimited funds you’ll have to pick and choose. Things you can reasonably expect to spend money on are:
- Cover (if it isn’t eye catching, you lose a chunk of potential buyers right off the bat)
- Editing/proofreading
- Blog tour
- Promoting your ‘freebie�
- Promoting your ‘pay for� book
- Professional book reviews
Key influencers
- Bloggers. I am so incredibly impressed with the book blogging community. These gracious people will often read and review or otherwise promote your book (eg. author interviews, cover reveals, guest posts)� for free. They do it because they love reading, love discovering the hidden gems, and genuinely want to support authors. Please treat them with the utmost respect (regardless of whether they become your book’s biggest fan or not) and don’t make demands. Most of them have ‘to read� lists hundreds of books long. Unless you are part of a scheduled book tour, you cannot expect them to read and review on your timetable.
Each blog has hundreds to thousands of followers that respect that blogger’s opinion. So every time your book is featured on a blog your book is not only exposed to a lot of people, but the right people. First, their followers all read a lot of books! Second, they read your book’s genre. You can’t get a more highly targeted promotion than that.
- Professional reviewers. Professional reviews have a lot of sway, both with readers and with industry decision makers (from libraries, to agents and publishers). Definitely worth pursuing if you believe your book will merit positive reviews.
- ŷ community. ŷ is another excellent place to promote your book. Where else can you find millions of readers looking for their next purchase? Plus, through the various ŷ forums (which are targeted to specific genres) you can find people willing to write a fair and honest review in exchange for a copy of your book. You can notify friends and fans of upcoming events (like a blog tour, signing, or new release). You can do book giveaways to help get exposure. And they have reasonably priced (you set a daily limit) self-serve, targeted advertising to drive people to your giveaway, place of purchase, or ŷ book page so that people can add it to their bookshelf.
Special promo tips (general and for KDP Select—The Freebie)
I naively assumed that if I signed up for KDP Select that Amazon would promote my book on my free days. Ha. Joke was on me. Below are both free and paid opportunities to post your freebie offer or pay-for book. Some listings are done day-of the freebie, but most have to be scheduled way in advance, so plan accordingly. And many require a minimum number of reviews on Amazon with an average rating of 4.0 or higher.
I recommend reading this w/r/t KDP Select (great post from an author who has very successfully used the KDP Select program):
Places to post KDP Select giveaway (some do more than freebies)
*=newly added
Addicted to Ebooks:
(Register. Need 5 reviews.)
Author Marketing Club:
(One of the most important links as it has submission forms for 19 different sites, though not all work through their site, so I’ve listed them all individually below)
EReader News Today:
The books that will be posted will be the books with the highest ratings and the most reviews. If your book has a small number of reviews (0 � 3) or low ratings (below 4.0) it will not be posted. We will not repost a free book within 60 days of the previous free book posting.
Pixel of Ink:
If your book will be listed as Free ($0.00) on Amazon.com in the next 30 days, then please let us know by filling out the form below.
Books on the Knob:
FreeBooksy $50 feature (50-60K reach). 48 hours notice.
Bargain eBook Hunter: $5 for guaranteed placement. Must be 3 days out and can not run same title more than once in 30 days.
Snickslist: List day it goes free and run for as many days as the promo! Tracks number of views.
Variety of sponsorships. $9.99 alert for freebies: Free alert: (did pick of the week $19.99; 5 days total)
Free Kindle fiction:
(guaranteed post $5)
(featured post $12)
Indie Book of the Day:
Nominate for Indie Book of the Day:
Free Book Dude:
Digital Book Today: variety of free and paid options $5 guaranteed post.
Awesome Gang: Also can post on their Facebook page, day of.
BookGoodies: $5 per day
(where submit book info) (done)
(to submit book for review) (done)
(author interview) (have not done)
(paid sponsorship) ($35 for two week home page sponsorship)
Kindle Book Promos:
eBooks Habit:
(free book form)
The eReader Cafe:
Book Goodies for Kids:
(Have not done)
Kindle Author Boards. Must create account. This link is to add a freebie:
Centsible: (have not done paid feature; think filled out free form)
(pretty sure they pull directly off Amazon & there is no form to fill out)
Flurries of Words: (did not do� need to do. Read down for very specific instructions). UK-based.
Free Books Daily: (can pay for guaranteed feature & book of the day $5)
Ask David:
Free Kindle Books & Tips: (must have average rating of 4+)
Kindle Finds: Needs 10 reviews average 4.0+
Can submit in advance
Kindle Mojo Free & Paid options
Black Caviar Book Club Can put up a free listing.
*Book Daily
*Daily Free EBooks
*Book Deal Hunter
*Zwoodle
Paid
The Frugal eReader: $50
Good Kindles: $7 or advertising
Kindle Nation Daily (highest reach, highest $$):
World Literary CAfe: ~$40
Book Tweeting Service: 50K followers; 1 day $29; 2 day $56; 3 day $81; 4 day $104; 5 day $125
All on Fire Social Media posts $19.99 for one day up to $149 for 7 days
*Story Finds
*Book Bub
Facebook sites to like and spam day of freebies
*
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1... (must join group)
Twitter (instructions on their profile page of how to tweet your freebie)
@EReaderblast
@Free_book_promo
An Incomplete List of Absolutely Awesome Bloggers (most for YA)
Please support them by visiting their blog and following via facebook, twitter, google+ or other methods listed.
(Sigh, serious html tag overload!)
I also highly recommend the . They list indie-friendly blogs by category that you can send review requests to.
This compilation of promotional sites & blogs took many, many hours to compile. I'm sharing it to help those who work full time or otherwise don't have time to do the vast amount of research (and trial and error) that I had to do. If you do choose to use the information, I invite (not require, of course) you to repay in kind by supporting my YA dystopian book, by purchasing a copy here. Cost is $3.99. ŷ link to add to your bookshelf is here.
Thanks for visiting and I hope there's a nugget or two in here you found helpful. And again, feel free to comment with things I missed (I'm sure there are *many*--I'm still a newbie at this!). I will continue to update this post as I discover new ways to achieve success at self-publishing.
Megan
December 31, 2012
My favorite books of 2012
I have to start my first blog post by saying I’m not a traditional blogger. There are some exceptional young adult bloggers out there who do thorough reviews of books. I’m a writer of young adult fiction (dystopia & romance) and a huge, huge reader. This past year I read more than 600 books. Note that I don’t typically read quite that many books, but needed some good escape material this past year. Book drama trumps real-life drama quite often!
My reading process:
- Pick one of my favorite books and look it up on Amazon
- Check out the ‘customers also bought� and glance at description and review rating and if it catches my interest, I download a sample. I always download the sample now (before I did this I ended up with some not-so-spectacular books). I often will download 5-10 samples at a time.
- If I see something interesting in my ŷ feed that someone I respect gave a good rating to, I’ll look that up on Amazon and download a sample.
- If I like the sample, I buy the book. Always Kindle version and I read on my phone, since I have a serious co-dependent relationship with my iPhone.
- I think I read way more indie books than mass market this year, though I’m pretty sure I read almost all the most successful mass market books. Some of the best books I read were from indie authors. My only complaint with indie books tends to be the level of editing, but I’m willing to overlook an error here or there (just not complete grammatical, spelling, or word misuse mayhem).
- I finish one book and immediately start on the next. I’ve been known to start a book at 1am and stay up until I’m finished if it’s good enough!
I didn’t get hooked on ŷ until late in the year so most the ratings I’ve given were long, long after I read the book. So, the book either was exceptional enough that I still remember the details to this day, terrible enough that I still (unfortunately) remember the details to this day, or somewhere in the middle. For the in the middle ones, I often had to prompt myself to remember what the book was about to be able to give a rating. But there’s more than a hundred books that I read that I have zero recollection about the book, even with prompting. So, I just didn’t mark those as read or give them a rating, because that wouldn’t be fair.
Finally, to the purpose of my post� I read some absolutely amazing books this last year. Some are literary works of genius and others are just plain fun and took my mind off of some crappy real-life drama happening. I often get asked for book recommendations, so I’m documenting my favorites so that I can point people to this post. These will be by category, in no particular order, with quick impressions, and I’m not sure how many I’ll end up with. Starred are top favorites.
Dystopia
**Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins OK, so I’ve read them each at least ten times and have the movie memorized, but I’d be remiss not to include on a favorites list. I may be one of the few that appreciated it *not* having a traditional happy Disney ending!
**Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. Loved Divergent. Loved Four and his quirks. The ending� a bit hard to believe, but good twist. Insurgent didn’t quite measure up, but still a good read.
Legend. Gripping, great characters.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Wasn’t sure I’d like this one, but ended up really enjoying. Good twists.
Starters by Lissa Price. Creepy, but I like creepy.
Shatter Me & Destroy Me by Tehereh Mafi. Although I don’t find the world that interesting, Shatter Me does an excellent job depicting insanity and Destroy Me managed to make me like one of the bad guys.
The Selection. Starts out a bit too Hunger Games knock-off-ish, but it’s a fun read and I’d recommend for pre-teen/teen girls.
Wither by Lauren Destefano. Loved Wither (though not the ending� I was rooting for a different ending), sequel not as much.
The Unidentified by Rae Mariz.. Not perfect, but a very fresh concept and definitely makes you think about the ridiculousness of the hold Corporate America has on us through its advertising.
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. Great characters and a believable dystopian world.
Human.4 by Mike A. Lancaster. Very quick read that makes you really, really think.
Rebel Heart by Moira Young. I thought Blood Red Roads was good, but didn't live up to the hype. However, Rebel Heart is excellent. Much better development of the love triangle and intrigue.
**Wool by Hugh Howey. Wow, just wow. I never thought hiking up and down stairs could be so interesting! Incredibly creepy and disturbing.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I'd forgotten about this one, so this is a late add, but well deserving of the list. It's absolutely brilliant. The primitive language makes far from a light read. Now, to go read those sequels...
Just plain fun
**That Boy and That Wedding by Jillian Dodd + The Keatyn Chronicles. Love, love, love� so much love. Jillian’s books capture the carelessness of high school and college life so well. I often would like to slap some sense into her main characters, but any book that gets you that involved deserves major kudos.
The Neighbor From Hell series by R.L. Mathewson. The Bradfords in general, and in particular their eating habits, crack me up. Perfect light read to take your mind off things. Not for teens.
Boycotts & Barflies by Victoria Michaels. Best description ever of a series of bad dates. Not for teens.
Heavier romance or relationship content
**Thoughtless and Effortless by S.C. Stephens. Have read several times (and no, didn’t double count in my 600 number �). Love Kellan and the drama he brings. Not for younger teens.
**Easy by Tammara Webber. Super clever, loved the twist, loved the email exchanges. Also recommend Tammara’s Between the Lines series, particularly the first two. Not for younger teens.
The Opportunist and Dirty Red by Tarryn Fisher. Tarryn somehow manages to make a girl with terrible motives likeable with Olivia in The Opportunist. Leah in Dirty Red� still hate her (she’s not likeable in any way), but love the additional context it gave the series. Not for teens.
**The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski. Funny, heartbreaking, beautiful. Highly recommend. Not for teens.
Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. First ¾ of the book outstanding, then runs a little long and includes some unnecessary stuff (don’t like the detective bit a bit).
Slammed series by Colleen Hoover. A creative take on the teacher student relationship & I loved the poetry.
The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window by Kirstey Moseley. Not for younger teens. The only downside was the vast number of mistakes in the early editions, but I believe those have been fixed.
Love Unscripted by Tina Reber. Not for younger teens. Occasionally long and rambling, it's still a great love story about what it's like to fall for someone famous.
Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire. Truly awesome book about a co-dependent relationship. Not for younger teens.
Series
**Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. Have to say I’m team Adrian. I like the complexity of the world that Richelle built.
The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine. Here, I’m team Myrnin. Brutal cliffhangers on every book. Great action. Perhaps too little romance.
Celestra Series by Addison Moore. The first book is a little slow, but the series really picks up. Chock full of great humor (Tad and Marshall, in particular). Well done love triangle (or sometimes quadrangle). Brutal cliffhangers. My only quibble is some improperly used words like 'riffle'.
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Not a Clary fan, but I love the world. Excited for the movie. In my personal opinion, the series should have stopped at 3 books, but I read ‘em anyway.
Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughan. Great pure fantasy series.
Sweet
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. Great love triangle, very easy read.
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith. Definitely one you won’t be able to put down.
Heart-wrenching
**The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. My daughter got acute myelogenous leukemia at the age of 9 and was given less than a 25% chance of making it, even with a bone marrow transplant. She made it and has been a huge blessing in our lives. So, I was in tears throughout the entire book. It is simply beautiful.
The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen. A stunningly realistic depiction of the various types of abuse and the long-term effect of it.
Fantasy
The Raven Boys and Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater. Maggie’s an exceptional writer and I recommend all her books, but these two are my favorites.
Haven by I.R. Ivanovich. A great fantasy read with fresh concept.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. Loved this book. Great action.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. A magical ride.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. There’s a million angel books out there, but this one stands out.
**Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. Have read more than once, I liked it so much. Absolutely fantastic beginning and the tension created between the two main characters is brilliant.
Immortal City by Scott Speer. Kudos for a fresh take an overly saturated ‘angels� market.
Middle Grade
**The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen. Great twist and a very fun read.
Max Xylander and the Island of Zumuruud. Completely biased because my husband wrote it, but it’s a fabulous read. I’ve read hundreds of times and still laugh. Philip (the bad guy) is a great character.
Check out my book, daynight! It recently hit the top of the charts in teen science-fiction on Amazon.com and is one of the top-rated teen novels on Amazon!
"A dangerous, dystopian adventure story"-Kirkus Reviews
"Gripping young adult dystopian novel; compelling conflicts; high stakes; powerful narrative; surprises keep coming; strong writing; page-turner; engaging characters; Readers will be hungry for the sequels.�-BlueInk Review (starred review)
If you have favorites I missed, I'm always looking for new books to read!
Thanks & Happy New Year to everyone!
Megan
My reading process:
- Pick one of my favorite books and look it up on Amazon
- Check out the ‘customers also bought� and glance at description and review rating and if it catches my interest, I download a sample. I always download the sample now (before I did this I ended up with some not-so-spectacular books). I often will download 5-10 samples at a time.
- If I see something interesting in my ŷ feed that someone I respect gave a good rating to, I’ll look that up on Amazon and download a sample.
- If I like the sample, I buy the book. Always Kindle version and I read on my phone, since I have a serious co-dependent relationship with my iPhone.
- I think I read way more indie books than mass market this year, though I’m pretty sure I read almost all the most successful mass market books. Some of the best books I read were from indie authors. My only complaint with indie books tends to be the level of editing, but I’m willing to overlook an error here or there (just not complete grammatical, spelling, or word misuse mayhem).
- I finish one book and immediately start on the next. I’ve been known to start a book at 1am and stay up until I’m finished if it’s good enough!
I didn’t get hooked on ŷ until late in the year so most the ratings I’ve given were long, long after I read the book. So, the book either was exceptional enough that I still remember the details to this day, terrible enough that I still (unfortunately) remember the details to this day, or somewhere in the middle. For the in the middle ones, I often had to prompt myself to remember what the book was about to be able to give a rating. But there’s more than a hundred books that I read that I have zero recollection about the book, even with prompting. So, I just didn’t mark those as read or give them a rating, because that wouldn’t be fair.
Finally, to the purpose of my post� I read some absolutely amazing books this last year. Some are literary works of genius and others are just plain fun and took my mind off of some crappy real-life drama happening. I often get asked for book recommendations, so I’m documenting my favorites so that I can point people to this post. These will be by category, in no particular order, with quick impressions, and I’m not sure how many I’ll end up with. Starred are top favorites.
Dystopia
**Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins OK, so I’ve read them each at least ten times and have the movie memorized, but I’d be remiss not to include on a favorites list. I may be one of the few that appreciated it *not* having a traditional happy Disney ending!**Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. Loved Divergent. Loved Four and his quirks. The ending� a bit hard to believe, but good twist. Insurgent didn’t quite measure up, but still a good read.Legend. Gripping, great characters.Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Wasn’t sure I’d like this one, but ended up really enjoying. Good twists.Starters by Lissa Price. Creepy, but I like creepy.Shatter Me & Destroy Me by Tehereh Mafi. Although I don’t find the world that interesting, Shatter Me does an excellent job depicting insanity and Destroy Me managed to make me like one of the bad guys.The Selection. Starts out a bit too Hunger Games knock-off-ish, but it’s a fun read and I’d recommend for pre-teen/teen girls.Wither by Lauren Destefano. Loved Wither (though not the ending� I was rooting for a different ending), sequel not as much.The Unidentified by Rae Mariz.. Not perfect, but a very fresh concept and definitely makes you think about the ridiculousness of the hold Corporate America has on us through its advertising.Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. Great characters and a believable dystopian world.Human.4 by Mike A. Lancaster. Very quick read that makes you really, really think.Rebel Heart by Moira Young. I thought Blood Red Roads was good, but didn't live up to the hype. However, Rebel Heart is excellent. Much better development of the love triangle and intrigue.**Wool by Hugh Howey. Wow, just wow. I never thought hiking up and down stairs could be so interesting! Incredibly creepy and disturbing.The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I'd forgotten about this one, so this is a late add, but well deserving of the list. It's absolutely brilliant. The primitive language makes far from a light read. Now, to go read those sequels...Just plain fun
**That Boy and That Wedding by Jillian Dodd + The Keatyn Chronicles. Love, love, love� so much love. Jillian’s books capture the carelessness of high school and college life so well. I often would like to slap some sense into her main characters, but any book that gets you that involved deserves major kudos.The Neighbor From Hell series by R.L. Mathewson. The Bradfords in general, and in particular their eating habits, crack me up. Perfect light read to take your mind off things. Not for teens.Boycotts & Barflies by Victoria Michaels. Best description ever of a series of bad dates. Not for teens.Heavier romance or relationship content
**Thoughtless and Effortless by S.C. Stephens. Have read several times (and no, didn’t double count in my 600 number �). Love Kellan and the drama he brings. Not for younger teens.**Easy by Tammara Webber. Super clever, loved the twist, loved the email exchanges. Also recommend Tammara’s Between the Lines series, particularly the first two. Not for younger teens.The Opportunist and Dirty Red by Tarryn Fisher. Tarryn somehow manages to make a girl with terrible motives likeable with Olivia in The Opportunist. Leah in Dirty Red� still hate her (she’s not likeable in any way), but love the additional context it gave the series. Not for teens.**The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski. Funny, heartbreaking, beautiful. Highly recommend. Not for teens.Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. First ¾ of the book outstanding, then runs a little long and includes some unnecessary stuff (don’t like the detective bit a bit).Slammed series by Colleen Hoover. A creative take on the teacher student relationship & I loved the poetry.The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window by Kirstey Moseley. Not for younger teens. The only downside was the vast number of mistakes in the early editions, but I believe those have been fixed.Love Unscripted by Tina Reber. Not for younger teens. Occasionally long and rambling, it's still a great love story about what it's like to fall for someone famous.Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire. Truly awesome book about a co-dependent relationship. Not for younger teens.Series
**Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. Have to say I’m team Adrian. I like the complexity of the world that Richelle built.The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine. Here, I’m team Myrnin. Brutal cliffhangers on every book. Great action. Perhaps too little romance.Celestra Series by Addison Moore. The first book is a little slow, but the series really picks up. Chock full of great humor (Tad and Marshall, in particular). Well done love triangle (or sometimes quadrangle). Brutal cliffhangers. My only quibble is some improperly used words like 'riffle'.City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Not a Clary fan, but I love the world. Excited for the movie. In my personal opinion, the series should have stopped at 3 books, but I read ‘em anyway.Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughan. Great pure fantasy series.Sweet
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. Great love triangle, very easy read.The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith. Definitely one you won’t be able to put down.Heart-wrenching
**The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. My daughter got acute myelogenous leukemia at the age of 9 and was given less than a 25% chance of making it, even with a bone marrow transplant. She made it and has been a huge blessing in our lives. So, I was in tears throughout the entire book. It is simply beautiful.The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen. A stunningly realistic depiction of the various types of abuse and the long-term effect of it.Fantasy
The Raven Boys and Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater. Maggie’s an exceptional writer and I recommend all her books, but these two are my favorites.Haven by I.R. Ivanovich. A great fantasy read with fresh concept.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. Loved this book. Great action.The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. A magical ride.Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. There’s a million angel books out there, but this one stands out.**Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. Have read more than once, I liked it so much. Absolutely fantastic beginning and the tension created between the two main characters is brilliant.Immortal City by Scott Speer. Kudos for a fresh take an overly saturated ‘angels� market.Middle Grade
**The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen. Great twist and a very fun read. Max Xylander and the Island of Zumuruud. Completely biased because my husband wrote it, but it’s a fabulous read. I’ve read hundreds of times and still laugh. Philip (the bad guy) is a great character.Check out my book, daynight! It recently hit the top of the charts in teen science-fiction on Amazon.com and is one of the top-rated teen novels on Amazon!
"A dangerous, dystopian adventure story"-Kirkus Reviews
"Gripping young adult dystopian novel; compelling conflicts; high stakes; powerful narrative; surprises keep coming; strong writing; page-turner; engaging characters; Readers will be hungry for the sequels.�-BlueInk Review (starred review)
If you have favorites I missed, I'm always looking for new books to read!
Thanks & Happy New Year to everyone!
Megan
