I gave out ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies), and a user took both Books 1 & 2 — then sent me a message saying she preferred not to review.
…Not that she didn’t like my writing. She was explicit about this. But it seems she didn’t want the book on her record of having reviewed on her accounts, since it contains a particular scene that she wasn’t 100% comfortable with.
I respect her decision, and thanked her for letting me know.
But now I’m wondering — should I have had a trigger warning? Or any “warning” at all?
Setting expectations for the reader
I’ve seen loads of writers literally stating in the blurb:
“This has a brutal rape with a minor“
“This has a graphic suicide“
“This has a sexual scene with dubious consent“
There’s also the other side of the spectrum, where the blurb gives a reassurance:
“This has no cheating!”
“Guaranteed HEA!” (Happily Ever After)
…So other writers are doing it.
This is a totally brand new concept to the world of self-publishing and online sales.
To date, to my knowledge at least (fellow writers & readers, correct me if I’m wrong), I’ve never picked up a traditionally published book that gives a massive warning like that right on the cover.
And I understand that some readers prefer not to read certain things.
But I think I’ve been fair in creating the final book product. I’ve selected 18+ (mature audiences only), in the Amazon KDP back-end settings.
And I think I’ve been fair in packaging my series — the covers are NOT happy-go-lucky. It’s clearly NOT a romantic comedy. I’ve used grayscale for a reason.
“…a dangerous attraction for a less complicated man than the granite bastard she married” and “the question faced in one’s darkest hour: Can you trust yourself?”
Not to mention the overall series statement:
“A marriage is not a happy ending; it’s a beginning of so much more to come.”
And, within the first few pages (which can be read via the “Look Inside” preview on Amazon for “Climbing The Walls“), there’s sex and cursing. Enough sex and cursing to make the reader think — “Okay, maybe this isn’t for me…” and move on, if necessary.
So it’s clear (at least to me), with all of THAT I outlined, that this is the darker side of “romance”, and as a reader I would bear all of this in mind before I click to purchase.
Should a writer spoil the shock?
I did think about the “trigger warning” issue, and I did shop around for examples on writer groups before making my decision to NOT use any… so I did do my homework.
You see, the whole point of my entire Hart & Cole series is to get 100% invested in the characters, to LIVE their lives as if it’s happening to you.
That’s my writing style. It’s the FUNDAMENTAL part of my writing style.
Some readers have appreciated it. REALLY appreciated it.
It isn’t a storybook; it is a real life book where no matter what you have experienced in your life, you can actually feel the emotions seeping in, and that is what I’ve come to realize with this author.
When I pick her books up, I need to be prepared to face reality and feel the emotions because that’s what she gives me.
So when something shocking happens in the plot, I want the reader to be JUST as shocked as the character was.
For that to happen… I can’t have a trigger warning. I just can’t.
My muse doesn’t come with a trigger warning…
I’m sorry that my reviewer didn’t have a warning, and I appreciate that she shared her reasons with me instead of giving me a terrible review, or explicitly detailing the “shock” moment in the review and spoiling it for other readers.
That was AWESOME of her, and I do appreciate that.
And please note, I do carefully consider the plots of my novels, as I write.
My characters are not performing anything “shocking” for gratuitous purposes. It’s all essential to the plot, and even so I’m still ensuring that anything “shocking” has consequences.
I’ve read a LOT of books where there’s ZERO warning and ZERO retribution for deplorable acts.
I’ve had my own personal experiences, so now as a writer, I am as careful as I can be, about the “shock value” moments.
…But they still exist.
That’s the whole point.
You see… my muse doesn’t come with a trigger warning.
The “shock” moment, in my mind, was just as painful for me to write as it was for the reader to read.
And, as that conduit… as that middle-man between the story and the reader… I’m sorry. I just can’t censor my characters. I’ve made it clear to expect adult content, but readers… I just can’t give you a giant, neon-sign heads-up as to the details on this content.
There’s less than a week to go for Book 2 of my series, so I’m doing a million things at once. So please forgive the mini-rant!
I took some time to reflect on parts of the journey that have been the hugest learning curve for me.
Super-solid Photoshop skills
I appreciate that my Photoshop skills have definitely improved over the past six months!
This certainly wouldn’t have happened if I had loads of money to spend on graphic design for teasers and promos, so this journey has been well worth the ride!
Some things I figured out on my own, others I YouTube’d to learn how to do!
So now I feel like I can easily slap together a teaser, or create the book jacket, without panicking! Woop!
Algorithm Appreciation
Yeah. I still don’t understand algorithms. Like, at all.
I do, however, appreciate that it’s a numbers game — the more freebies you give away, the more people see your book and then may purchase or read on Kindle Unlimited beyond the promo.
The more reviews you have, the more people may be seeing your book (I think).
Not sure how this entire tangle of algorithm mess actually works, but I appreciate that any tips fellow authors offer may be valuable. WORSHIP the algorithms!
Patience & Know-How
I have gotten more organised. Thank God. I needed to.
I now have three book file folders. In each of them there’s:
The raw master Word file
The PDF export of that Word file
A raw master Pages document [I no longer use Kindle Create; I had those files earlier before I moved to Pages because Kindle Create was awful!]
The EPUB export of that Pages document
The MOBI version from that EPUB file (I use Calibre for the conversion)
Then I have:
The book cover for the print version
The book cover for the ebook version
The book jacket (PSD editable file)
The book jacket (PDF file ready for upload)
The book cover with the 3D mockup
Smaller version of the book cover (for web use)
Then there are the “preview/sample” files :
A raw Pages document of the Chapter 1 & 2 excerpt with cover
The PDF & EPUB & MOBI files for this (for my Prolific Works giveaways)
Another version with no cover (for use on my website) and its corresponding PDF & EPUB & MOBI files
PHEW.
That’s for EACH BOOK. AND I HAVE THREE! So, every time I find a typo, it’s like F@$#$@#$#$#$#@$#@$##$@!K — because I have to update things 20 times!
Yeah. Being a self-published author is AWESOME on some days, and on other days, a TYPO can ruin your life!
To all the fellow folks out there proud to be a self-published author, hang in there! I feel your pain, and you’re not alone.
Anyone else want to share their major learning curve items, feel free to do so in the comments! I’m sure #3 resonates with us all! ?????
Never mind the fact that you’re still at the point where you’re jumping for joy when you see even ONE sale pop up on your dashboard.
Never mind the fact that one measly sale only makes you like US$1-2, if you’re lucky.
None of that matters.
If you want to get your name out there (and I do)… if you want the world to meet your characters (and I do)… you have to bite the bullet and start flinging your goodies — for FREE! — at the universe.
KDP & Newbie Authors
First, a little about me.
I’m a newbie self-published author, with my first book “Climbing The Walls (Hart & Cole Book 1)” being on the market for about five months now (published July 28th, 2018).
So far, it’s gotten great reviews (5 & 4 star only) from anyone who made it through (check the Book 1 reviews here).
If you use ‘KDP Select”, you are exclusive to Amazon
I must thank every single reader who read and reviewed, because I know that picking up a book by a new author (especially one 500+ pages) can be a bit daunting!
My book has always been in KDP Select / Kindle Unlimited — which allows users who pay a subscription to read all eligible books year-round at no extra cost.
One of the benefits of having your book in KDP Select is that you get to list your book for free, for up to 5 days within your 3-month KDP Select period.
KDP Select simply means you’re selling on Amazon only. It’s not for everyone, and some authors have good reasons not to do it.
I’m not a full-time writer, I’m new to the game, and I would hate to have to maintain multiple copies of my manuscript at different retailers (I don’t even know the number of times I’ve re-uploaded after noticing a typo!).
Also, I’m not looking to become a millionaire overnight, and just having my book published is huge for me!
So, all in all… KDP works for me.
And the “free” days are a nice bonus, but only really worthwhile if you’re writing a series.
My book pre-promo: some background
My book was promoted for two days Dec 22-23, 2018
First of all, I should mention I’m not “killing it” by any means. A few sales here and there, and I’m a happy camper.
The most I’ve sold so far in one day was 6 books. Many days are 0. I’m cool with that.
It doesn’t upset me, because literally every single sale means that my cover design, my blurb, my writing (the Amazon “Look Inside” excerpt) are on point — and a few hard-earned dollars were spent by someone!
To my best knowledge (as I don’t religiously check this every day), for the Paid lists, my best stats have been in the top 1,000 in my three main categories (Romance, Family Life, Literary Fiction) and in the top 100,000 overall.
So like I said — not “killing it” by any means!
My book is a super-full-length 555-page 200,000+ word opus of a woman’s fiction/romance novel, the first in a series.
I added an excerpt and a pre-order link for Book 2 at the end of it, to promote sell-through if readers want more.
Book 2 “Pandora’s Poison” launches a month from my free promo (Jan 22, 2019). So, there you go — that was my purpose for making it free!
Preparing for KDP free days: Promotion stacking
In late November and early December, I scheduled my free promo through KDP on Dec 22-23, and then got cracking on the marketing strategy.
There’s no point in making a book free if no one knows to go get it!
I made teasers to be used on social media. Here are some samples:
Now, onto the websites/newsletters to mention the freebie!
First things first, I applied to Bookbub. I was declined. No surprise there. (It’s normal to be denied for a Bookbub deal – especially as a newbie!)
I wasn’t daunted, however. Onto other sites!
I put the promo up on BookSprout, which resulted in 43 opens and 14 clicks — not bad, considering this didn’t cost me anything.
Then, I did some research to find out which sites let you announce your freebie for free.
This. Takes. Time. Lots. Of. Time. Loads. Of. Time. It. Is. The. Most. Tedious. Thing. Ever.
Of these, less than 10 posted my book (that I’m aware of, because they emailed me. There is a chance it was posted elsewhere but no one told me!)
Of the ones that DID post it, it was often buried at the bottom of the page/newsletter.
One site had a great post for the book, but the “Buy” button didn’t work! I reported it, but by the time they got it fixed, half the day was gone, so I’m sure I missed out on some sales.
…So, yeah. You get what you pay for!
Then, I booked a couple of paid promotions.
Now, I’m super cheap, and it physically hurts to PAY to give away your own book, so this was VERY minimal.
There are loads of newsletter options that have a small cover charge.
The thing is, if you want to crack the Bestseller lists, you need to stack your promos and run several at a time.
The BookRaid newsletter
Unfortunately, that approach means that I have zero idea which ones paid off in the end between the free ones and the (cheap) paid ones.
Their customer service is good, and you only pay per click — $0.05 per click, up to a max. of $20 for free books.
(For paid books, it’s $0.08 — and I’ve used them before, and only paid like $2. So, not bad!)
They also have a dashboard, so you know how many clicks you got — for this promo, I got 794 (about 720 of this came during the promo, others trickled in slowly after — as the book is offered via Kindle Unlimited, this extra amount may still count as readers).
As the book is free, and the blurb is in the newsletter, I’d like to assume that most of those clicks turned into purchases!
Plus – it’s purple.
And yeah, I’m into purple (in case you couldn’t tell).
…But that’s not a helpful measure of success! 🙂
Anyway, I digress…
The Big Day – FREE promo begins!
Okay, so December 22nd reached, it was 12:00 a.m. — then 1:00 a.m. (I catered for the time difference between USA/Caribbean) — and my book WASN’T free on Amazon. I panicked.
A couple of sites were already advertising it, and it wasn’t free! OMG!
I contacted Amazon support but the KDP team wasn’t available. I emailed some of the sites to tell them to hold off, and I thought the end of the world was coming.
Nothing else could be done.
I went to bed and when I woke up, my book was free… and had already sold over 100 copies.
Because here’s the thing — the promo is in PST. Pacific Time. As in, four hours behind my own time. Yep. I felt like a nincompoop.
Anyway, I posted on Instagram, Twitter, and multiple Facebook groups. I have no idea how effective these were, but they can’t hurt!
A huge THANK YOU to any and everyone who saw my post and downloaded the book!!!
Results – Short Term Ranking Boosts
At any given time, there are hundred of authors running their own KDP free days, and I’m sure at least half of them know MUCH more than I do, and can spend WAY more money than I can to push their book.
So I’m super-thrilled with my results.
I’m also happy that I was able to hit the top 3 in my categories — and the top 100 overall — three days before Christmas with a book that ISN’T Christmas-themed. I was worried. I needn’t have been.
I stayed at #1 in my two main categories for most of the 22nd. Not bad at all. Romance was a tougher nut to crack. Romance is a TOUGH category to crack the top 3! And then I sat in the top 100 overall (#87) for a few hours, which is AWESOME!
So overall, I’ve had almost 2300 downloads with minimal investment — at least 8-10 sites/newsletters/social feeds posted my promo for free, and I forked out the cash to be in a couple of (very cheap) newsletters.
I also sent out my own newsletter to subscribers — my list is tiny, under 200 — with the simple tagline “Here’s your free copy of Climbing The Walls“.
I got my best success rate yet, 41.5% opens and 27.7% clicks. (People seem to like the word ‘free’!)
I also spammed what seemed like a zillion Facebook groups. I doubt that did much. If I got one ‘like’ or comment on a post, that was a lot. But again, it can’t hurt.
Synopsis of my KDP free experiment
I don’t know how the Amazon algorithms work, but putting your book free helps it to get sold!
I’ve climbed the charts in the Paid listing (I’m in top 50,000 overall as I write this, and top 500-1000 in my main categories). It won’t last, but still… it’s the highest my book has ever been!
I also saw a couple sales come in, the day after the promo. Woohoo!
AND I’ve also seen a trickle of newsletter sign-ups and Bookbub & Goodreads followers. Nice! Be a dear and follow:
If I had to do it again (and I will sometime soon), I’ll connect with other writers to help push my book in their newsletters, groups and social media. That’s the only thing I didn’t really focus on this time, because I wanted to see how well I could do on my own.
If any other writers are reading this, feel free to reach out to drop me a line and see how we can connect to help each other out!
A lot of TIME, EFFORT and ENERGY go into giving away your book!
It seems counterproductive that you end up paying people to buy your book, but that’s the life of a newbie indie writer.
I’m thrilled with the results. I was hoping to get around 500! At almost 2300, I’m hoping at least 5%-10% of that turns into a review of Book 1, a sale of Book 2, or both.
And now, almost 2300 people have the chance to meet my characters!
Of course, free books often end up sitting around on your e-reader for some time, since it costs you nothing to download it and you can download loads at a time.
BUT I have faith that the book cover will lure you in, while you swipe past others. I have faith that the first few lines will hook you. I have faith that by the end of Chapter 1 or 2, you’ll be invested in my characters.
Most of all, I have faith that if anyone makes it through my book and liked it, they’ll want to buy Book 2! And they should, because Book 2 is going to be SOOOOO much better.
Now, it’s just to sit back… and wait!
Feel free to grab up Book 1 (back to its regular $3.99 price now, BUT it’s still available on Kindle Unlimited), and to pre-order Book 2 – coming January 22, 2019!
But if you’re a traveller, you have to bear with the means of transport to get there. Yep… airplanes.
I began writing this post while on an airplane kicking off my mega-vacation — Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.A. and my old stomping ground of London, England. 4 flights and 3 weeks later, I’m now back home — and yep, I’m still not a fan of flying!
I could tell you a zillion things I don’t like about flying. Off the top of my head:
Getting to the airport early and waiting forever
Getting to the airport late (or being in the wrong place in the airport) and dashing to get to where you need to go
Uncertainty about if you’ll end up with the worst seat-mate ever, on a long flight
Cramped spaces — I’ve never flown first/business class; maybe one day!
Loss of control — having to leave your safety completely in the hands of a stranger you haven’t met and perhaps haven’t even seen when you boarded
Turbulence — that moment when you are 100% positive you ARE going to die!
Packing — I usually start too early, and I always always overpack
Repacking on the way back and going crazy trying to make everything fit
Airplane bathrooms. Nothing further needed.
Airport bathrooms. Yep. Same here.
That moment when the customs agent is scoping you out, and you and all start wondering if you’re a criminal!
So yeah… not a fan of flying!
But once you get land, once you get there… there’s relief.
Taking Flight with Writing
I guess that’s what the writing process is, sometimes.
Just like with flying, I could name more than a zillion things I don’t like about the post-publication phase of being a writer.
Chilling with my book in Wandsworth Common, London
I’m not a fan of marketing myself. Everything seems to be stacking up against me as I swim in this vacuum of knowledge I didn’t realise I didn’t have, until it’s called for and I realise I don’t!
Actually getting your name out there takes hard work and a LOT of legwork.
You’re trying to be friendly and approachable [social media], not offend anyone [author groups], be a technical wizard [the bajillion websites to sign up and social media specs to follow], a marketing guru and queen of promotion [Amazon/Facebook ads] — all while shopping your soul around to strangers!
I’ve been stomping around in cyberspace for about two months now, accumulating quite the Digital Author footprinton what seems like a zillion sites.
I’ve been creating content like a mofo, spending far too long debating what to post and what not to post and what to reveal and what to hold back.
I’ve been cross-pollinating my social media and wondering — would I be pissed off if I followed someone on three forums who posted the same thing I’m tired of seeing?
So… yeah… make no joke, being a self-published writer is EXHAUSTING.
…BUT, I’m loving it.
Gimme more of that Author Crack!
Just like travelling, I can’t get enough of this writing journey, this author crack that I’ve been bingeing on for the past 2 months.
Just like travelling, I have to bear with the “flying” part and the “fear” part, to get to the good stuff.
Because despite the *awful* moments of self-doubt that are almost as bad as airplane toilets and turbulence, there’s also the great moments…
When you finally DO publish (a huge, HUGE accomplishment! — don’t let anyone dampen your spirits as to how HUGE this is!)
When you finally DO sell some books (even just a trickle — every one counts!)
Making awesome writer friends and knowing you’re not alone
When a new reader reaches out saying he/she can’t get enough of my characters!
Mainly I write in my bedroom, sometimes I’ll jot some notes down in an app on my phone when I’m out and about, and sometimes I write on my front porch (though I do have to put up with some SERIOUS *cattitude*! — pictured above!).
Yes, like many other writers (or so it seems from Instagram!), I have some feline help from time to time!
A lady doesn’t reveal her age, but let’s just say this cat, Samba, has been around almost as long as my characters! And I already shared yesterday how long these characters have been with me… so yeah! ?
I have oldddddd photos of her draped over my computer when I had one of those HUGE big-back monitors!… so this little *young* lady has been around a while! ?
Samba was one of my first writing companions [Mauby was THE first – RIP Maubs!] and beta readers for my Hart & Cole Romance series!
