indie authors - Sacha T. Y. Fortuné

Tag: indie authors

On Writing

Support & The Solitude of the Writer Life

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Writing a book is like starting a business. (And I’ve done both.)

Particularly when it comes to support from your network.

Or who you “think” is your network, anyway.

You know… your friends, your family, your coworkers or colleagues, and the like.

Almost everyone who’s aware of your writing “hobby” (because that’s the box they’ve put it into, in their minds) will have genuine words of support while your work is in progress, and maybe even when it’s out there.

But for many… once the time is upon us to actually support beyond saying “Congrats”… it’s crickets.

The Business of Support

Recently, a friend of mine opened a business. I stopped in, bought something, took photos, and posted it on social media.

Now, whenever I spot a post from this friend about the business, I’ll share and add a line or two encouraging my friends/followers to check it out.

And every chance I get, if I think someone’s even remotely interested, I’ll mention in a word-of-mouth convo: “Oh, if you’re looking for X, I know this place…”

Mind you, I’m not even that close to this guy. And this guy is BELOVED. He has hundreds, maybe even thousands, of friends. People know he’s talented.

But when he took this talent to create something bigger, I was in the tiny percentile that gave a rat’s ass.

Still, when any already-famous celebrity does the slightest thing, the average Joe or Josephina jumps on top of it to support.

…To yell “me too!” into a cacophony of noise that won’t make the slightest difference to its producer.

The (Writer) Cheese Stands Alone

Fortunately for me, I didn’t expect too much from my immediate real-life network in terms of writing.

I never have, if we’re being entirely honest here.

I’ve been writing FOREVER, and as a child I was lucky to have parents who would share my stories and novels and accomplishments with their colleagues, whether or not they read it themselves — just because they were proud I was writing.

But apart from those who brought you into this world… (and in some cases, not even them!)… I wouldn’t recommend counting on anyone else’s lifelong support for your accomplishments.

Even at university, when I was President of the Writers’ Guild at one point, I knew that this world — writers — would always be separate from my friends who I’d go out and party with.

I’m not saying that writers can’t party. Oh, we can, and we did, and we do!

But (almost) anyone you meet outside of that safe space of “Hey, we are both writers” will NEVER understand the struggle.

They’ll never know how much their support means, or maybe even how to support you. And that’s if they even want to!

Solitude & Sacrilege

I’m three years into my published writing journey so far, and I can count maybe 10-15 friends that have done even one of the following: (1) bought the book (2) downloaded a free copy when prompted (3) left a review (4) told their friends (5) done literally anything beyond say “Congrats”.

It’s not that my friends suck. I love my friends.

…But my friends aren’t writers.

They don’t live with fully-fleshed characters in their heads for 15-20 years.

They don’t spend countless hours trying to fix a scene to make it “just right”.

They don’t spend entire chunks of their day hopping from author Facebook group to promo Facebook group and back again, or literally years just browsing the internet trying to learn the marketing side of this craft.

They don’t understand that your writing, your fictional world, and your characters are sacred… and their blatant disregard or flippant remark may be hurtful.

They’re sweet, and maybe they mean well… but they don’t get it. They simply can’t.

Even if they try to (and most don’t), the reality is that everyone else is living their lives while you’re writing yours away.

Or, quite simply: they aren’t your target market.

But somewhere out there is someone who will support you in the ways you need. That person, that reader, that fan… for whom your story will change their life.

…It’s just really, really unlikely that that person will ALSO be your friend.

Education & Understanding

So if this post seemed bitter from the jump, I hope it’s not coming off like that now.

It’s not about writers screaming “buy my book” until their network is tired of hearing it, and it’s not about friends being unsupportive.

It’s about education and understanding. As writers, it’s our job to educate our network — tell others what we want, when we want it, and how much we would appreciate it.

As I posted recently to one of those bajillion author groups I now belong to:

You don’t often get things you don’t ask for.

So writers… (and I’ve seen the bitter posts on many author groups!)… ASK. Just ASK. Don’t be ashamed to flaunt your writer wares to your loved ones and explicitly outline: “This is how I would like you to help me, even if you have zero intention of ever buying or reading my book.”

We live in a shareable world driven by social media influencers, and amidst the cacophony of noise, any little nudge will help.

So, writers, ask for that nudge! Here’s mine:

You can share my posts, my promotional images, my Author website, my purchase links, my Facebook page @SFortuneAuthor, my Instagram feed @sfortuneauthor, or my Twitter feed @authorsfortune.

 

 

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Writer Blog

5 Useful Tips to Support Fellow Indie Authors

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REVIEWS! Indies need REVIEWS!

I love reading and reviewing, and I’m happy to help others.

I’ve been terrible at it for the last couple of years (pregnancy, early mamahood, COVID!) but this year I am determined to DO BETTER!

So I’ve spent the last few weeks working on committing myself to doing Book Reviews for indies. I researched book bloggers’ websites and took notes.

Here are the 5 things I recently implemented myself.

1. I became an Amazon Associate

Do you review other indie authors on your personal blog or website? If so, this is easy to do. You can get started here: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com

Once you are set up, it just involves putting some code in the body of the review so someone can go grab the book. I have no idea how much this makes, if anything.

But it’s an important step to set yourself up so you can drive traffic to the Amazon purchase pages for other authors, and I’m happy to do it. If Amazon tosses me a couple of cents next millennium, that’d be great too.

2. I set up a Kofi page

A lot of book bloggers and other creatives have this button on their website: “Buy me a coffee“. This is an easy way to quasi-monetise a blog via donations. Think of it as crowdfunding for creatives. If someone wants to throw you a few bucks or “buy you a coffee” they can, but there is no need or no pressure.

I really liked this idea. If I do someday make anything from this, I would like to keep the proceeds in the “writer help” framework and pay it back — have a giveaway, do a promotion of an author, or so on.

I haven’t fully fleshed out the idea yet, but I’ll see how best to do this once I have some funds, if any do come in.

If you like my writing or my reviews, you can donate here:

 

3. I joined an Online Book Club

I saw another author post about her Book Club on a Facebook group, and I checked it out. The premise is simple: there are a few ways to participate, some are paid and some are entirely FREE. The option I chose is:

You review a book, and in turn your own book gets added to the program.

The more you review, the more time your own book(s) can stay in the program. It’s been awesome so far, and it is actually how I came across one of my new faves “Everything That Came Before Grace“.

If you are interested, please contact me and I’ll be happy to point you to the founder so you can liaise directly and get all the info you need.

4. I joined an ARC program

An ARC is an Advanced Reader Copy. Authors send these out before they publish a book, in the hope that once readers grab a free copy, they will voluntarily leave a review in the first week it launches.

This is turn boosts visibility and sales for the author, so it’s a good investment. In fact, it can make or break your book.

There are loads of these programs out there. I’ve joined many for individual authors or a group of authors, but this was the first time I have joined a large, popular service serving hundreds of authors. This program is how I came across “When Robins Appear“, a book I recently reviewed and enjoyed a lot.

If you’d like to become an ARC reviewer, feel free to contact me to point you to a few good options depending on the type of program you specifically prefer.

5. I created a Review Request form

Finally, one of the biggest things I did for my own website was to add a “Review Request” form, which I then put on my Instagram link so that authors can find me and ask for their books to be reviewed. This is very important. I repeat: VERY important.

It lets authors ask for help without the awkward: “Hey, I just met you online two seconds ago, but can you be my author friend and read and review my book?”

I included specific questions that would help me streamline my responses, namely:

  • How many reviews do you already have?
  • What was your driving force to write this book?
  • Would you also be interested in participating in a book club?

That way, I get a pretty good idea of the author’s profile without needing to know too much, and can decide which books I want to prioritise to read first. AND I can also support another fellow indie author by getting other authors to join her program!

So I repeat, VERY IMPORTANT! For both sides of the coin, this form can save a lot of time and energy. If you’re an indie author and need reviews, check it out:

Request Review

 

So these are 5 things you can do to show your support for fellow indie authors. I hope these 5 concrete tips can point you in the right direction, if you’re looking to help other indies.

And of course, there are three other simple things: BUY THEIR BOOKS! REVIEW THEIR BOOKS! SHARE THEIR BOOKS! 🙂  

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On Writing

Fear, Noise & the Apocalyptic Now

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Sooooo it’s been really quiet here lately.

I made a baby. Then, the world imploded.

Of course, that’s not exactly how it happened — or rather, it is, but it’s not a cause-and-effect type of sentence but just a factual one.

It’s been a whole lot of crazy in my head, and I’ve abandoned social media for the most part of the last few months. Well, the last year or so, if we’re being brutally honest — save for a few posts scattered here and there.

I’ve never been the overly outgoing type, but pregnancy and the early trenches of motherhood drove me into a deep funk of silence. Then, just when I was ready to emerge… coronavirus knocked me back into my hole.

Now, to be fair, no time is a good time for a pandemic, but still… yowza!

Nowadays is already history

I never thought I would live through a moment in history like I am now. I’ve always been aware of critical global events with a kind of fascinated detachment:

Interested enough, affected somehow, but not viscerally touched.

While I’ve been largely privileged to not have this pandemic devastate my entire world, there were some harsh realities that it brought into focus as it mercilessly touched others around me and altered the course of my life plans for the short-term and long-term.

So that’s the real world, and then there’s the fantasy world of my books.

Being a writer can sometimes be a wonderful way to escape reality and live in “book world” with your characters, getting away from it all as you occupy your mind with the innermost needs of the nonexistent.

And, here’s the problem: I haven’t been writing.

Hello Silence, my old friend

Part of it is that as a new mom, I’ve been struggling to get time to do the basic human tasks like eating, sleeping, and showering (exercising is a bonus!) and then to combine it all with working from home with a baby.

But the even bigger part of is, if I’m being brutally honest with myself, is that I’m afraid to write.

When the world is spinning crazily on its axis into God alone knows, and the future looks scary at best, I don’t trust the noise in my head to be productive.

Instead, I add to it even more noise — engaging in endless discourse and speculation with anyone who will listen, and staying up late interminably scrolling through Facebook, halfway teetering to news-heavy threads to stay informed and then careening into the peak of silliness with the black hole that is memes, viral videos and animal gifs.

…Gotta keep that noggin busy, so it doesn’t focus on the financial instability of my little family, the crushing fears of the future — not to mention the ever-present, incessant paranoia of doing everything wrong as a new mama.

Writing the noise away…

It’s not a comfortable head space to be in. No one’s is, these days, I’m sure. I’m privy to the problems of friends around the world with whom I check in, as the days crawl by — everything from sudden joblessness, home-schooling horrors, high-risk paranoia, lockdown discomfort and boredom, and general unease.

I know I’m fortunate, I know the entire world is suffering and most of them are far worse off than me. It doesn’t stop the noise in my own head, though.

Usually, writing helps clear that noise — but getting to that space where I’m comfortable enough to write again seems insurmountable, at times.

Writing can break your spirit. Certainly, the post-writing process is agonising at best. I’ve been largely distant from it lately, and every so often I check in and I’m surprised to see that little bump of page reads or sales: the waxing and waning of that yellow bar of validity.

It’s heartening to know my books are out there, and devastating to worry if I will ever finish any more books. My characters’ stories aren’t finished. I owe them so much, and I’ve failed them.

But writing has saved me before, and I have faith it will again.

I just have to hang in there and wait for its magic to find me.

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Hart & Cole Series

Happy Birthday to my first Book Baby!

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This past year has been a wild ride with a lot of ups and downs, but thankfully no regrets.

I’ve learnt so much since I first published, and grown so much as a writer AND as a person. I’ve learnt to rejoice in the triumphs of praise, and also to take criticism to heart to improve my craft.

In fact, I’d hoped to launch the revised, slimmer version of this book today, but that self-imposed deadline had to be pushed back. I’m not going to stress about it, though. I’ve got some personal battles going on lately, and right now I need to put “Sacha-the-person” ahead of “Sacha-the-writer”… and that’s okay.

I know that once I’m back to full steam, I’ll write something AMAZING again. Until then, I’m satisfied with what I’ve accomplished so far.

3 books in 8 months was a huge feat, and I’m thrilled to have actually made money from my writing… and so humbled that I have fans that appreciate my books, and are looking forward to reading more.

And this book is where it all started. So I’m SUPER proud of this first book baby.

She was my first. She made me a published writer.

So happy birthday, book baby! ??????????

Haven’t read “Climbing the Walls” yet? The “Hart & Cole” series is available on Amazon — hop over and get started!

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On Writing

A Conversation with a Skeptic-Friend-Turned-Fan

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So I’m six months into this writer journey, with two books under my belt, and had a recent experience I thought worth sharing.

My friend agreed to let me share this once she read it first and once I kept her nameless, so here goes:

 

Confession: “I didn’t plan to read your book”

“So… this is really awkward, but I just read your book (the first one)… and I think I owe you an apology.”

Huh?

(I was lost.)

“I know you’ve been talking about this book and this writer thing for months now…”

Yeah, I’ve been a bit of a pain, I know — but as an indie author, if we don’t shout about our books, no one will read them…

“Right. So like, when you first published, I told you congrats…”

Yeah, I remember. Thanks, I appreciate your support!

“And I told you I’d buy it, which I did…”

Oh, great. Thanks again…

“But at the time I figured: okay it’s a few bucks, what the hell… though I didn’t really plan to read it.”

Ah, okay…

(Now I get the “awkward” part)

“I do read, but not that much, and I’m busy with work and my kids…”

Sure, I get it. Totally understand…

“And then, the other day, I was in a waiting room at the hospital for about six hours.”

(*We chatted for a bit on her personal family matter – this part I won’t share*)

“So I had my phone, and literally nothing to do for a long time, and I saw someone reading a book next to me, and I remembered I had downloaded your book months ago, so I hunted on my phone to see if I still had it… I don’t really understand this app thing, not sure if it disappears after awhile…”

Okay…

(This is getting to be the weirdest “apology” and most awkward long-winded convo ever)

“So yeah… I started reading it…”

Oh, great. Let me know how it turns out. Hope you like it.

“…And I finished reading it that same day.”

Bless your soul. Amazon says it takes 14+ hours on average…

“Yeah, that sounds about right. The six hours in the waiting room… then another hour on my journey home… then four more hours… took a break to organise my kids for bed and to get ready for school the next day… then the remainder of it I read well into the early hours of the morning… and I had work the next day!”

Oh, dear.

“In fact, I think I might have given myself a bladder infection coming down to the end, because I put off STOPPING for quite awhile.”

YIKES! Okay… ah, sorry?

“So… right. The apology part. Well… like, I always knew you were into writing, but somehow it just… wasn’t what I expected.”

What did you expect…?

“Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe that it was going to be too ‘high-brow’ for me to ‘get’ (like I said, I don’t read a lot) since I know you’re like, smart and stuff… or maybe that it was going to be bad or just kind of ‘meh’ and I didn’t want to feel awkward talking to you if I didn’t like it…”

Ah, okay…

“I just didn’t expect it to be like… like… I don’t know. You know when you binge-watch shows you stream because you just can’t stop? I’m not a big reader, and I just never felt that way from a BOOK.”

Ah, okay…

“Like I could PICTURE all these characters, Like I could FEEL everything. Like I wanted to BAWL and SCREAM and fling the book when I got to Chapter…”

(*spoiler – not sharing that part*)

(And now, I’m laughing — and noting who to keep in touch with, to one day help me write my Netflix pitch!)

“So… yeah. I just wanted to say — I’m so sorry I took so long to read it. And so sorry I didn’t even originally plan to read it. I promise I will now, for anything else you write.”

Thanks, I appreciate it. I really do.

 

Why are “friends” the last to believe?

So that conversation led me to think a lot about how isolating it can be as an author, particularly an independent/self-published or “indie” author.

I just did my first couple of “Author Takeovers” recently, where you “take over” a Facebook group and chat with its members for awhile in real-time. (To get an idea of what this entails, read this post.)

It was AWESOME to know that people tuned in just to say hi and that they appreciated your book.

And here’s the thing I realised, while doing it:

My biggest fans are people I’ve never met, and likely never will.

Ironically, “supportive” friends can sometimes be the last to appreciate your work.

In many cases, it goes a little something like this:

  • They’ll say “congrats” a million times and tell everyone you’re awesome… but never buy the book
  • They’ll share your post and/or tell others you wrote a book, and pretend they’ve read it
  • They’ll browse reviews and then tell you they’ve read the book, when you absolutely 100% know they haven’t
  • They’ll buy the book with no intention of ever reading it, and tell you “I’m supporting you with a sale”

…Yeah. And this is the supportive friend, which many authors are not even lucky enough to have!

 

Somewhat salty support…?

Nothing against these types of friends, by the way. ANY tiny nudge of support is appreciated! As an indie author, we take EVERYTHING we can get!

…And I’m not saying my book is the best thing ever, or that it will change your life.

Some people loved it, and they GOT it. Others… simply… won’t.

So, I reiterate: I’m not screaming “READ MY BOOK” to everyone. Obviously, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea!

But I’d much rather you pass along the info to someone you know who DOES read and might actually buy it AND read it.

It’s a little insulting to tell a writer “I’m supporting you with a sale” (woo-hoo! I get a buck and some cents), with absolutely ZERO intention of ever reading it.

While a sale is always nice, I’m not in dire need of the pennies. I’m writing to share a story, not to make a mint off of my closest friends!

So I’m not baring my soul in my writing just for empty admiration.

If you DON’T plan to read it, be upfront about that, and find other ways to support!

If you DO plan to read it, then give your friend the benefit of the doubt, and go in blindly with the faith that there’s something of merit in their work.

And remember, there are several ways you can support your writer friend — even if you don’t read, or don’t read their genre.

We live in a shareable world driven by social media influencers, and amidst the cacophony of noise, any little nudge will help.

You can share my posts, my promotional images, my Author website, my purchase links (Kindle or paperback), my Facebook page @SFortuneAuthor, my Instagram feed @sfortuneauthor, or my Twitter feed @authorsfortune.

Or, if you’re not on social media, no prob… you can do the old-school version of this. Drop it into a convo: “Hey, so my friend published a novel…” Yeah, it’s that simple.

Like I said, there are LOADS of ways to support your writer friends, without giving an empty promise about reading/buying their books. If you want to help but don’t know how, just ask!

 

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Hart & Cole Series

Romantic Cliffhangers: Will my story survive the “Big Chop”?

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Yeah, yeah, I know. The blog post title is misleading since I always make a big deal about the fact that “I don’t write romance. I write relationships. I write people.”

But for all intents and purposes, my Hart & Cole series is about love. It’s a lot MORE than romance, and it covers all KINDS of love, but the relationship is a driving force here.

And there is a huge aspect of ‘romance’ though I classify it more as a ‘Women’s Fiction’ genre since it doesn’t follow the usual trends of a romance.

Anyway, I’m getting off-topic! Romance or not, my concern is the fact that

(1) there is a love story of some kind, and

(2) there is a cliffhanger at the end of the book…

Chopping into bite-sized chunks

The reason I’m even worrying about this, is that it took me a LONG while to make up my mind, but I finally decided to make “Book 2” into Book 2 and Book 3.

I’d blogged about this earlier when I got a hard ‘no’ from a book blogger for my 555-page Book 1, and I realised that nowadays the length of a typical e-book is certainly a lot shorter than a traditionally-published one would be.

In fact, everything is general is getting smaller and shorter and is now available in a “digestible” format, so it’s understandable that books would be, too.

Problem is, I simply can’t cut my book down to such bare bones.

My characters have a LOT to say, and my story is long because it simply has to be.

…But while I can’t cut down, I CAN however cut it into smaller pieces.

And… well, yeah. In this case, I think I have to. I’ve been as stringent as I can with editing… and Darren’s and Luisa’s story still comes up to over 300,000 words and 775+ pages!

Yeah. No one’s ever going to buy the print version of that, unless they want a giant brick to prop open a door!

And honestly, after living in their heads for 350+ pages, I myself need a breather!

So… I made the big decision to CHOP, baby, CHOP.

 

Where & How to Chop?

Fortunately, there is a somewhat “natural” point of their story, where it made sense to chop, and it does happen near to the mid-mark — Chapter 30 out of 55, so it was nice to round those up and make it “Chapter 30” for Book 2 and “Chapter 25” for Book 3.

Also, for some reason I had always naturally provided somewhat of a mental recap in Chapter 31 (now Chapter 1 of Book 3). So it wasn’t *too* bad of a change, to split them.

It did call for some rewriting, though. I had to rewrite the last scene of “Book 2” so it seems like it’s somewhat of a conclusion-for-now, of sorts.

And as Book 3 was shorter than Book 2, for balance I made a few chapters in Book 3 a bit longer — which was fun, actually.

I threw in a MUCH longer scene for a convo with Luisa & new gal-pal Vicki (because OMG I just love Vicki, and she’s been begging me to fluff her up a bit since I’m making her wait SO long for her own story!)…

And I also did a MUCHHHH longer final scene with Darren and Nicole that made my toes curl! *eh-ehrm, a bit too much info there*…

So objectively speaking (or as objective as I can be, given that I’ve written the damn thing myself!) I don’t think the chop is HORRIBLE.

And I think it’ll benefit me in the long run, to have two books instead of one giant brick.

Yay, me.

…But what about the readers?

 

Angering the readers…?

I guess it’s fortunate that I’m not super-famous yet, and chances are that Book 3 (planned for 2 months after Book 2) might actually be released before most readers even get the chance to read Book 2.

So maybe I’m overthinking this, and it won’t matter. I haven’t sold enough books yet to have a throng of fans chasing me with pitchforks because they don’t know who ends up together!

But I did throw the question out to a few writer groups, and came back with responses at both ends of the spectrum.

My first response (which made me regret even posting it!) was…

“By ending with a cliff-hanger, you’d have pissed me off enough not to care, because I wouldn’t purchase the next one.”

Ouch.

Fortunately, he (and others like him) were in the minority and others quickly jumped in to point out:

  • Cliffhangers are the norm these days, not the exception.
  • Once you DO warn readers in the blurb, it’s generally acceptable.
  • You may not sell as much for the series until ALL the books are out, as readers have been burnt before.
  • It works fabulously if you have a short time period and a pre-order link for the next book, so you reassure them they just have to hang on a little longer.
  • You may get bad reviews if you have a cliffhanger (especially if you DIDN’T warn them), but you’ll sell better overall in the long run.
  • Once you DON’T wait TOO long, your readers will forgive you and will gladly hold on patiently and remain loyal when your next book comes out.

Phew. Okay.

Which brings me to the heart of what I was actually asking…

 

What’s “too long” for a romantic cliffhanger?

That question got responses everywhere from 6 months to a year (on the long side), 1-3 weeks (on the short side), 1-3 months (on the average side), and a few jokesters who said:

Two hours!

And…

3 days! Did anyone say 3 days yet? Is this like “The Price Is Right”?

Ha, ha. You can always trust writers to come up with the best responses! 🙂

My foray into reaching out to other writers did bring me to ‘Zon’ (the equivalent of “Google” but on Amazon Kindle) a few of them, and get an idea of their success with cliffhangers. Generally, there were negative reviews but they were more than balanced out with high ratings and gushing reviews.

So despite its iffy bad-boy rep, readers do tolerate — and some even love — that pesky cliffhanger.

 

Will my story survive the “Big Chop”?

So… I’m going with the cliffhanger. I’m going with two books, two separate entities, though I originally wrote it as one story.

I’m going with a story that feels half-baked when it winds to a close, and as a reader I’d be ripping my hair out and flinging the book at the wall.

Because, you see…

I personally hate cliffhangers, romantic or not, and prefer to have all the words available if I choose to read on.

I personally hate short books with cliffhangers, as it feels like I’ve been cheated into buying another one. (Bitch, I’m cheap!)

…But does it change things, if each book is long, like mine are? Hmmm…

…And does it change things, if I throw in a preview of what’s coming up? (I do)

…And does it change things, if I make it VERY clear in the blurb that this IS a cliffhanger?

…And does it change things, if I have the preorder link with a two-month gap in between?

Sigh.

I’m still doing, as a writer, what I would hate to have done to me, as a reader!

My proof of what’s now going to be “Book 2”

I personally still see Darren’s and Luisa’s story (and oh lordie, it’s a doozy!) as one holistic entity.

But no sane person needs that giant brick 775+ page opus; that might scare everyone away from the jump!

There are far too many good reasons to split it, than there are NOT to!

Plus… my 385-page print of what’s now going to be Book 2 is such a cute size to hold 🙂 …

*Deep breath*…

Cliffhanger, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship…

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On Writing

Size Matters… Mini-books & Millennial Brains

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“Right now, this is not the type of book I am looking to read… mostly due to the page count.”

Er… ok. It’s not an epic 2000+ page book I’ve written… but 500+ pages — most of which is dialogue, so there’s a lot of white space.

But the page count alone was my potential blogger-reviewer’s hard “no” from the jump.

…And unfortunately, it’s not something I can change at this point. 🙁

Fair enough, when I myself saw the physical proof copy I was like — yikes, that’s a little on the large side. But I’ve got larger books in my own library — both in height/width and length in terms of pages, so it didn’t scare me TOO much.

But this particular person wasn’t even looking at the physical book. She had no idea of trim size, or font size. She just saw the page number, and took a pass.

I’m wondering — worrying, rather — now, if that’s what readers may do, too.

Have I marketed myself out of the range of the average reader’s tolerance level for a novel length?

I decided to do a little research…

 

Size comparisons to popular texts

According to Amazon…

…And let’s not go into the epic novels such as the Game of Thrones, where Book 1: A Song of Ice and Fire clocks in at a whopping 864 pages.

Of course, these were all traditionally published novels where the publishing house would have had a say in the final product… and thank God no one told any of these authors, “Yeah… er, pal… you really need to just chop your story down…”

When you’ve already got a major engine running your show, you don’t have to worry too much about length.

Size is just a number, as they say. Or at the very least — you the author won’t need to worry; someone else will do that for you!

However, when it comes to the independent self-published authors, and ebooks, it’s a whole different story.

 

Ebook – short by nature?

According to an article on The Huffington Post:

The cold fact is, ebooks by definition are cheap, and however many words you write, you will only be able to charge a small amount for it online. There is little point in writing a door-stopping 200,000-word opus, if you can only charge $2.99 for it.

Rather than spending a year or more producing one full-length title, it may be better to spend that time writing a sequence of three or four shorter eBooks of, say, 20,000 words each. In marketing terms, publishing four times in a year is better than publishing just once.

So if you do want to dive head-first into self-publishing your work as an e-book, it’s in your best interest to “think small”.

In fact, “thinking small” is precisely how Amazon pushes it, as the printing cost gets astronomical if your book is thick. Check Kindle Direct Publishing costs here.

…But my stories didn’t have ebooks or the millennial generation in mind, when I started writing them…

…And now I have to retro-fit to suit?

Rookie publishing mistake… maybe.

 

Self-publishing and the size conundrum

When you self-publish (or any kind of publishing, really), as this article on MagnoliaMediaNetwork points out, it’s obvious that:

The longer your book, the more expensive it is to produce. A book that costs more to produce must sell more copies before it becomes profitable.

So, while a larger book justifies a larger retail price, as an indie author/publisher, that’s unfortunately not how it works. You have to consider your reader’s attention span and willingness to:

(1) Read a long book

(2) Pay a buck or two extra for a longer book

Unfortunately, this is the one time that it pays to be smaller.

I tossed out the question to some of my new comrades on various Facebook writer groups, and got a range of responses.

While, of course, in theory the number of pages doesn’t really matter; it should be more about the content… in reality, some of them admitted that most of the books they’ve read as ebooks were about 150-200 pages.

Yikes… I’m still getting a feel of the characters by then! Nothing’s happened yet!

In terms of pacing, I myself prefer to feel like I’m invested in these characters I’m reading about, before their entire life changes in Chapter 2!

 

Write till the muse says stop!

Generally, I write until the story feels finished, then tighten up where I can, but apparently that’s just not the way to do it in today’s world.

A fellow author admitted she started each book as an independent work, and ended up with two trilogies! She felt “forced” by modern-day guidelines to chop her work up for the best market-ready approach.

Hmm… should I do this too?

Okay, I’m not in this for the money. I know this.

I’m in this to share my stories, to share my characters, and to fall in love with them all over again when others get to know them.

I don’t expect to become a huge success overnight. Maybe that may not happen at all. And that’s okay.

But if my readers — some of which, of course, will be millennials (and I myself am one!) — don’t want to even read the book because it’s too long… Houston, I think we have a problem.

Well, the cat’s out of the bag with Book 1, and I don’t want to cry over that split milk.

I already know Book 2 is longer than Book 1, and had enough tears over cutting down one of my favourite characters!!!

Maybe I can chop Book 2 up. ***Oh, the horror!***

BUT… does that mean I get to rebuild/re-flesh-out Lee? ***YAY!!!***

(But then I’ll end up with two long books for “Book 2″… lol…)

…And I’ll need to stop calling it “Book 2″… it’ll be Book 2 & 3… though to ME it’s still one story, Darren and Luisa’s story. But to everyone else, it’ll be separate entities…

Oh, and I’ll need another book cover. And another name. OMG!

For now, it’s just a thought. But having all these thoughts means… back to the editorial board… 🙁

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On Writing

Writers: when you read, do you leave bad reviews?

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The question was eating me alive. So, I posted it on several of the Writers’ groups I had recently joined.

Within minutes, my phone was plinging like it was having a seizure.

Responses poured in from all corners of the globe — across the many groups, members amount to 90,000+ writers, and 2000+ of them were leaping and squabbling over each other to share their opinions!

Mind you, this isn’t a “Work In Progress” and no one specifically asked you to be a “beta reader”. Maybe Amazon just gave you a nudge and said “Hey, what did you think of this book?”

You’re a writer. You hated it. Should you tell the world?

 

If you can’t say anything nice…

One recurring theme, and one I wholeheartedly agree with, is:

Acts of creation take such courage, that by and large, I am hesitant to be publicly critical.

Of course, as a wise member pointed out:

If someone wants to be an author, they can’t be all…. ‘Oh here’s my baby. You need to pay your hard-earned money to read it. But if it’s awful, don’t hurt my feeeelings. Waaaa!’

And another guy was taking no prisoners:

I sharpen my blades and charge in with a lunge to the jugular and leave them bleeding in a pool of hard love.

448 comments — and this was just one group, out of several! And such a wide range of responses…

He was adamant he would want the criticism himself; after all: how can a writer expect to improve their craft if they aren’t given honest feedback?

However, is a public forum, such as the official Amazon book page, the right place for it?

Some opted for trying to get in touch with the writer to share their thoughts.

Others said there was no point: unsolicited peer feedback may rub some writers the wrong way; and also the story is done, there’s no putting the cat back into the bag.

The dilemma is… as a writer, you know what it takes to bleed a story out of you; so is it really necessary to plop a hot mess on your fellow man’s/woman’s parade?

As one member, who runs a book review blog, said:

I have to kiss a dozen frogs before I get a princess… but I just prefer not to kiss and tell.

 

Was it unreadable… or just unlikable, for me?

Almost everyone seemed to agree that you must separate the physical and emotional.

Physically, a book needs to have a plot, sentences that make sense, good grammar and spelling, and something to work with…

Being boring is one thing; being unreadable is another.

Emotionally, quite simply — not everyone is going to connect with every story.

So, while most would holler (whether privately or publicly) — “Hey, straighten up and fly right!” to ensure this writer doesn’t give the profession a bad name, it’s a different story when it comes to the gut reaction of a fairly-written piece of work you just didn’t like.

As one writer pointed out, reading is a “to each his own” situation:

Reviewers are like witnesses to a murder; it has been scientifically documented that they don’t know what they’re talking about because they don’t know what they saw (read).

This writer soon gained many insta-fans AND insta-haters!

I wasn’t surprised to see the many, MANY references to the “Twilight” series, and to what one member called “50 Shades of Stockholm Syndrome” 🙂 ??? “I honestly couldn’t get past the first 10 pages, and I tried. I really, really tried.”

Still, these polarising texts made shitloads of money, despite being critically panned by readers and fellow writers alike.

So somebody — lots of somebodies, in fact! — were insta-fans.

Just because you don’t like it, it doesn’t mean others won’t.

So yes, as writers, we all have to have a thick skin; but as the saying goes, opinions are like a**holes — we all have one.

Maybe it just wasn’t your cup of tea, that’s all…

 

Loyalty to the Reader, or to the Profession?

And then, there’s the valid point that in this instance you put on your “Reader” hat, not your “Writer” hat.

One writer argues: “Me being an author shouldn’t come into my review. I am reviewing as someone who has read the book and is a consumer. It is not unprofessional at all.”

It’s understood that as a writer, critical reviews are part of the deal.

You can’t be a writer if you refuse to listen to your audience.

And, here’s the thing: there are also WRITERS in your audience.

At the same time, writing can be a very singular, isolating profession.

“Author” simply doesn’t have the same rules as almost every other profession whereby it’s understood the mud-slinging will come back to hit you in the face (rapper-beefs, anyone?!).

Your bottom line isn’t affected by this writer’s novel that didn’t move you. If you’re not a fan, you can quietly be “not a fan”!

As a writer, you see…

…All we have are our words.

We can, but should we really attack our own?

Weigh the nasty vs. the popularity…?

Another theme that popped up in response to my hot-button topic was the popularity of the writer, and the stage at which negative feedback is given.

It’s one thing to review someone who already has a huge following. Your nasty review isn’t taking a penny away from E. L. James or Stephenie Meyer.

Stephen King was NOT a fan… but, so what?Stephen King, one of my own personal favourite writers, wrote witheringly and scathingly of the Twilight series. Many agreed with him… but hey, as SK himself says:

You can be a terrible writer… and still be successful.

But what about the newbie independent self-published authors, who work a million times harder to scrape their soul into their work and then painstakingly shop it around?

Stephen King was NOT a fan… but, so what?

For an emerging author, your bad review — however “constructive” you think it is — can discourage them entirely, not to mention massively daunt their sales.

It seems that a lot of writers, especially indie writers, are uncomfortable messing with another indie writer’s money. Karma’s a bitch, right? Better safe than sorry…

Still, reviews are a form of social proof, and we’re more likely to buy something with a ton of reviews  — even bad reviews — than we are to try something no one else has bothered to try.

It just remains to be seen whether writers think they have an objective place where they can wear both hats, or if being a writer himself/herself has tainted the lens when they read a book.

As one writer argues:

“I’m not saying NOBODY should give bad reviews; I’m just saying: as writers ourselves, maybe we should just stay out of it.”

Or, as someone compared it:

Would you yell at a co-worker in front of a client?

 

If you do it, do it with love…

At the end of the day, a book isn’t like a regular consumer product on Amazon; it is more opinion-based, so you don’t always need to be purposefully cruel under the guise of being kind (at least not in public)!

Saying nothing at all may be your choice so as not to hurt anyone, but it also means you are choosing to not help anyone.

So, writers, if you do decide to switch hats and bang out a review for something that ruffled you the wrong way…

Be honest, but kind and constructive.

Think:

How would you like someone to phrase it if it was a review for your book? What can you commend, instead of just rip apart? How would their phrasing it help you to improve?

If the author is worthy of the label, he or she should be able to spin that bitter lemonade into something amazing, later on.

And assuming the writer hasn’t produced UTTER trash, his/her fan base will rise up one day and outweigh the negative reviews.

So… guys… anyone want to leave me a review?

Hop on over to Amazon…

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