-Know How Many Kindle Books You Sold By Looking at Your Sales Rank

Blogging, Facebook & Twitter Are A Complete Waste Of Time

I have to say the title of this book enticed me. While How To Make a Killing on Kindle provided excellent information in several areas, I’m taking some advice with a grain of salt. Here are my impressions:

1. Great nitty gritty information I have not seen elsewhere.

Alvear describes a number of different techniques to improve the placement of ebooks.

Some of these, such as optimizing seo terms in the book description and title, may be useful for sellers across all platform.

While others are specifically geared for Amazon: interpreting sale numbers from rank position, choosing the right categories, and adding formatting to descriptions. And that last one, is a whole lot more complicated than I could’ve imagined.

2. Some techniques are morally ambiguous.

In one chapter Alvear recommends writing book reviews of your competitors with comments like “As the writer of blah blah blah” in the first three lines.

Personally when I see this I find it to be obnoxious.

He also highly recommends everyone acquire five to six reviews. Alvear leaves it up to the readers to as to whether to recruit a friend or to write the reviews themselves.

As a book reviewer I find this to be rather tacky.

While I understand it’s a business and there are surely overlooked books out there, if a book doesn’t naturally provoke good reviews then it needs to go back to the drawing board. There are so many reviewers like myself happy to provide a service.

Writing a review yourself says that the book/cover/description/hook needs work, and that the author needs to build relationships with potential readers. Writing your own reviews is an act of desperation, not a task to complete in hour number ten.

3. I’m unconvinced about ditching the blog.

Alvear says since only 10% of people have an e-reader, any advertisement aimed at the general public will flop.

The thing is e-readers are just starting, but the number of users will continue to grow. Hello, Christmas presents.

Also this advice is specifically aimed at people who will only sell their books online. Personally I plan to offer both digital and print copies. I like the way books weigh in my hands and smell, and ohhh it’s a romance, me and books. In that case the paperbacks will be more expensive to buy, but yes, all blog readers could still enjoy it.

Even if you are e-publishing only, there is a lot to be said for coming off as a real person. Blogs allow people to check you out, decide if they want to listen to your advice, and connect. I love my blog for the friendship element in this cold internet sea.

But yeah I’d probably have another book written if I didn’t blog. Oh well.

4. Moral and philosophy issues aside, most of the content is useful.

First up for the “Unusual Creatures” guest post series this month is Rosemary Fryth!   She is the author of Dark Confluence, as well as it’s sequel Dark Destination (soon to be published). Dark Fairies are her specialty.

I have always read fairy stories.

As a young child I grew up with the tales of the Brothers Grimm, of Hans Christian Anderson, and the Australian author May Gibbs, who wrote original Australian children’s fairy stories about the Gumnut Babies, and the big, bad, Banksia Man. As a teenager I read onto Tolkien, Susan Cooper, C.S. Lewis, and Alan Garner.

I was especially influenced by Cooper and Garner, and their stories of creatures and beings from legend and myth interacting with children of a modern Britain.

As an adult I read more of the same: Charles de Lint, Robert Holdstock and Raymond E. Feist were in my opinion, standout authors, who deftly combined myth with the mortal, often mundane world.

The one constant in all the books I read (except for Gibbs), was that they were all set in far-away places like Great Britain, the USA, and Canada.

Very few children’s fairy stories (and almost no adult ones) were set here in Australia, and I keenly felt the need to right that wrong, and to bring creatures of Celtic and European myth, DownUnder.

Although I loved all these books, I yearned to write my own stories, and earlier this year I did, starting a new trilogy called ‘The Darkening’. The first book, ‘Dark Confluence’ is all about the faeries (The Fae) besieging the small Australian town of Emerald Hills.

 I set my stories locally here in Queensland, in a cool and green location on the beautiful Sunshine Coast Hinterland, a region that I knew well from camping and day trips, and attending folk festivals.

My stories weren’t just about fairies, my stories also had a thread of darkness, a hint of horror – because I believed that fairies weren’t always the cute and winged variety perched on flower or under mushrooms.

My fairies were cold, conniving, political, and calculating. They used humans and humanity as pawns to further their own ends and agendas. If someone or something crossed them, they were cruelly vengeful. On the other hand, they handsomely rewarded self-sacrifice, and oft loved the mortals they manipulated.

My first book, which has an unusual heroine, is also an adult fable about Australian society, and politics in this country. It was written as my own ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ with a hidden second story.

I have left little hints and clues throughout ‘Dark Confluence’, a story that can be read simply as a contemporary dark fantasy, or delved deeper for an underlying commentary on modern day Australia.

My choice of a late-middle aged spinster as my heroine for the first book of ‘The Darkening’ trilogy was deliberate too. So many stories feature teenage heroines, and although I enjoyed reading those stories, as an adult and mature woman I could not identify nor relate to a heroine thirty years my junior.

So I thought I’d break the mould, create a heroine who was small, neat, in her early fifties, unmarried and a spinster – a heroine who was overlooked by life, men and society.

Readers have commented to me on how much they loved Jen McDonald, they see her as ‘brave’, ‘compassionate’, ‘selfless’, ‘vulnerable’ and how they ‘felt immediately drawn to her’. I wanted Jen to be a real woman, the sort of woman we could all relate to if our own lives had gone on a slightly different, and lonelier path.

The second book ‘Dark Destination’ will soon be published, and deals with the ongoing story of the town of Emerald Hills, of Jen, and my new heroine, Fiona Delany – a moral, yet interesting and unusual young woman of twenty-two.

Into the story of ‘Dark Destination’ I have woven romance, as well as horror and darkness, although in this book the darkness comes courtesy of a rather nasty international cult called the ‘Artificers’ – a cult that I touched on briefly in the first book ‘Dark Confluence’. Paranormal elements are present in ‘Dark Destination’ although the main story is about Fiona and her dealings with the cult.

‘Dark Confluence’ is available for Kindle through Amazon, and is also available for Barnes and Noble Nook. ‘Dark Confluence’ will be soon available on other eBook platforms via Smashwords.

Monday September 17 

Monday September 24 

Hello everyone! This week commences the “Unusual Creatures” guest post series this September.

There sure are a lot of vampires out there. Not that it’s a bad thing, it’s just, well, I get a little bored. I just love it when I come across new ideas. It makes me wonder, “Now how did they come up with that?”

Visiting authors will discuss the inspiration for the unusual creatures in their books.

Monday September 10 

Monday September 17 

Monday September 24 

1. This book follows in fine tradition of literary survivor fiction.

There is something fascinating about literary fiction focused on troubled homes. It’s kindof like a trainwreck–much is constantly at stake for the main character, they make mistakes, and I can’t stop watching. White Oleander by Janet Fitch and Bastard Out of Carolina are not only compelling examples of this genre, but also of great writing. 

Like those two books, Hand me Down is about a young girl Liz in a bad family situation. Her father is an alcoholic that their mother has finally freed herself from. But now her new husband Terrance is out of jail. Terrance’s  record as a sex offender means that Liz and her sister Jamie cannot live in their mom’s house. Why will they end up? Nobody knows.

2. Liz is a strong and admirable character.

Because Liz is an older sister, she is especially watchful and careful. So much though that no one else seems to believe her caution is necessary. It’s an attitude problem that makes her dislike Terrance, she’s a stick in the mud for not living with her drunkard father, she’s overprotective for admonishing her little sis for smoking.

But the girl has balls and actually does speak her mind in this book. In a traumatic environment, this is not easy to do. While the adults close to her seem to forget their responsibilities, Liz stands for herself but mostly for her sister.

The other characters also are real and vivid.

3. This book is a great example that trauma can occur without direct abuse.

*spoiler*

Thankfully there is no rape or violence on Liz or Jamie in this book. They end up OK thanks to Liz. 

But that doesn’t mean that Liz’s constant state of upset and fear were not legitimate. 

4. Liz is a poet.

Just like Astrid from White Oleander, the main character from Hand Me Down sees the world in a unique light. Unable to trust the present or her present home, she keeps to herself. She’s sensitive, thoughtful and full of unspoken observations.

I enjoy characters such as these because they think a bit like me. Even in a world of darkness there are beautiful moments that you can churn over and over in your mind.

5. Excellent narration for the book on tape.

Definitely a nice car ride read– it got me to stick around in the car when I arrived home. That’s a great sign. The different character voices were well done.

“As seamless as a stocking, and shockingly believable” is how the “Globe and Mail” describes “I’m Starved for You,” the first installment of “Positron.” In this new episode, the stocking comes off, with husband and wife Stan and Charmaine facing more troubles in safe but carefully controlled Consilience, a social experiment in which the lawful are locked up and, beyond the gates, criminals roam the wasteland that is the America of Margaret Atwood’s creepily plausible near future.

Stan understands the Faustian deal he and his wife have made. What he doesn’t anticipate is the stupefying boredom. What wakes him? An illicit lover’s note written by a mysterious woman who also lives in Consilience. Breaking the rules, he stalks her and is delivered not into the arms of the nympho of his dreams but into a nightmare of mind games and some very kinky forced labor.

In the world of “Choke Collar,” when you surrender your civil liberties, you enter a funhouse of someone else’s making. Stay tuned as the episodes of Atwood’s futuristic thriller “Positron” are released, and discover if anyone can overcome the greatest treachery of all—human nature.

I have spent most of the month on vacation. This week I returned to work. It wasn’t easy to give up the feeling of endless time. Especially the space to write, create, read, study – my passions.

That first day in the office almost made me think I couldn’t go back. I clocked eleven hours managing my wellness office. But I made it through.

After work, I relaxed by beginning a Creative Goddess course by Leonie Dawson. She began with a meditation to accept those scary parts of ourselves we fear others will see. I took a walk, and used leaves I found to paint the above picture.

Suddenly, I rediscovered why I work, and why I care about my work.

My life’s purpose is to connect.

Healing is a process, but it’s happening. I’ve never felt better.

 Description:

Brenna’s life isn’t the same after she discovers her unusual and mysterious heritage. In addition to being a telepath and having other paranormal Gifts, Brenna learns she has the Succubus Gift. She’s always been a good girl and isn’t comfortable seducing men, except one she really loves.

That’s just the beginning of her problems. Someone is stalking her. Then there’s the tall, dangerous woman who shadows her and hints a Goddess has linked them. And what is she going to do with a handsome, charismatic, womanizing man she knows she should avoid?

Some days a girl just wants to pull the covers over her head and stay in bed — with a willing young man of course.

This truly unique book has several things to offer:

1. A smart, attractive and kick-a** protagonist with a lot to figure out.

Brenna has battled her way from foster homes to the top of her class. Her dissertation on psychic activity is gaining attention, and she is teaching this year at John Hopkins.

2. Refreshing attitudes towards gender roles and sexuality.

In a way this book is a little thought experiment–what if a woman didn’t commit to one man and instead played the field? And instead of thought of as a ‘slut’ maybe she could actually be accepted into society?

Hey, I love some healthy escapism, and why the hell not? Guys get away with having multiple partners, so it’s about time an author went there and said, “Ladies can, too.” Sure makes a great story…

3. A complex and organized magical system.

Basically anything you can think of as “magic” or “psychic ability” has been classified into a Talent. There are 25 Talents telepaths can have. All of this are in a handy-dandy index, and are explained through the story.

4. A hella-fast second half full of action.

While the first half of the book deals mostly with Brenna’s inner conflicts, things move quickly into action.

Once it starts rolling though, it doesn’t stop.

5. Did I mention sexy?

Description:

It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation.

Just kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artist’ ascent, a prelude to fame and drives, they would prod and provide for one another during the hungry years.

 

I’m adding “Just Kids” by Patti Smith to my list of ‘Favorite Books EVER.” Why:

1. Patti Smith is an amazing icon, known as the Mother of Rock and Grandmom of Punk.

2. Patti Smith writes as a touching memorial of Robert Mapplethorpe after his death from HIV.

3. Set in the turn of the sixties to the seventies, it’s remarkable how little has changed today.

4. Patti Smith is a dreamer, a poet and a wannabe musician with blocks and no idea where she is going.

Patti’s introverted, prefers free-writing spontaneity, and spends ages trying to figure out how the hell to write a song. She has only a hand full of friends even though Robert drags her to every event he goes to. That’s not her scene, she’s the quiet type.

She’s the kind of girl someone might question is really an artist until Patti found exactly the venue she needed for her talents. She had the passion, the will and the patience to get herself there when Robert was her sole support.

 I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves early Rock and Roll, poetry, photography, the Beat Generation, or the promise of New York City.

 

–>

There are many ways you can review books. Here are my methods:

1. Start with what you’ve got.

Post reviews of things you have read on Amazon.com, Goodreads.com, Facebook.com, Shelfari.com and/or a blog. 

I’m sure I’m not the only one who constantly owns masses of unread books.

2. Look for freebies.

Check out your library website to see if you can reserve books online. When you hear of a cool book, reserve it there and pick it up later!

An e-reader really will pay for itself in free books. If you don’t have one, check the details of the publisher. You may be able to read ebooks on your computer.

More tips:

+ Check Amazon’s top 100 free Kindle books every day

3. Join a review program.

World Literary Cafe is where I started. Their forum helps reviewers and authors to connect. I’ve found many good books there.

But it’s not the only one, by far! Google “join book review team” for other opportunities.

5. Contact authors for reviewer copies. 

This is easier once you have reviews to show and if you market your reviews on a social media site. 

Be nice. Absolutely do not leave a vicious review for an author that gave you a copy. You can be honest, but have respect.

6. Consider a blog.