07-06-2010, 04:40 PM | #196 | |
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Here are the tags/categories of one of my favourite indie authors, Moxie Mezcal. Categorie(s): Fiction, Technological, Thrillers, Literary, Mystery & Detective, Occult, Psychological, Suspense, Visionary & Metaphysical Tags: symbolism, abstract, Magic, mystic, surreal, Sex, gender, alienation, reporter, journalism, Identity, dot-com, ceo, technology, Corporate, noir, pulp, postmodern, thriller, murder, mystery |
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07-06-2010, 04:59 PM | #197 | |
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I've also played around on Smashwords and found it too fat to be healthy. Seriously, the server was so overloaded that it took 10 minutes to browse the categories. |
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07-06-2010, 05:02 PM | #198 | |
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07-06-2010, 05:09 PM | #199 | |
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I think this is another learning to be had for authors. Every time you make a choice to limit your work to a format, and not all of the main formats, you will lose potential customers. For me, you broke the big barrier, I have now heard of you, and you broke the second barrier, your book looks somewhat interesting, and I feel I might enjoy it, but then I hit the one where I can't read it. I won't look for a torrent of it, it isn't worth the time, just end up not reading it. --Carl |
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07-06-2010, 05:33 PM | #200 |
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Edit.
Last edited by dadioflex; 12-15-2010 at 05:11 PM. Reason: writing like Yoda I was |
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07-06-2010, 07:36 PM | #201 | |
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She turned in a one-line answer: He wrote it for the money. Teacher gave her an "F." She returned the next day with a note from her father, Poul Anderson, saying, "I wrote that book because Astrid needed braces that year." |
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07-06-2010, 07:42 PM | #202 | |
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07-06-2010, 09:33 PM | #203 | |
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But I suppose it's a cycle anyway. And certainly not nearly as much as we'd like to see. Camille |
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07-07-2010, 06:25 AM | #204 | |
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I've actually found that my popularity has exploded since starting to do cons vs when I was doing digital only. Yes, everything helps, and digital marketing is no exception. But there's also a LOT of people, and I do mean a LOT, who want a hands on, tactile author to interact with. In some cases the only way you're going to reach certain groups of people is if you sit down and do physical signings and physical books and get them into the hands of people. Yes, again, I know you're an all digital guy, but ~70% of the book buying public is still into dead tree novels. Why do you think I invest so much energy into printing and distributing them? Because they sell, and they sell in considerable numbers. Right now I'd say that my print book sales outnumber my digital sales 100 to 1, and not because I haven't been doing digital marketing and stuff. It's because only about 1 in every 100 people I encounter actually want digital copies. The rest want physical paperbacks. Now once I get a slightly better market penetration on ebooks that number might change, but I don't see it changing *that* much. Especially since the book market is something like 70% dead tree books vs 30% digital, and I'm likely being generous on the digital books, since I've seen the figures as high as 95%-5% paper to digital. So expand your horizons, try other avenues, explore paper books, and go to conventions and signings for crying out loud. You may not like it, but by golly it's one of the most awesome ways I've actually found to market books. If you need help getting a good list of shows to go to, just pm me and I'll give you a list of the ones I've already lined up. |
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07-07-2010, 08:32 AM | #205 | ||
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Now getting a publisher interested in producing a print run may not be easy. But if he wants to do it all himself he could start with POD, for example at lulu. |
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07-07-2010, 12:57 PM | #206 | ||
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Well, if that's true, then that's a lack of marketing on his part. Or possibly a lack of proper marketing.
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But with that aside, of the readers who are out there, even if the 70/30 number is accurate, Steve Jordan has limited himself too severely by doing *only* ebooks. I'm not saying he should abandon ebooks in the slightest. But he most definitely needs to move to offering his books in dead tree format (aka print format) and pushing them at shows, conventions, signings, etc. He could advertise on the radio (be aware that you had better have print books on hand, and quite a considerable quantity at that, because you'll get mobbed the day the ad comes out), put up a billboard (not quite as bad a mobbing, but you still get hammered), take out a newspaper, web, or tv ad (much lower return on these, but you do get some, but the exposure rate needs to be much higher), or any of a variety of other things. 98% of being known and selling your books is marketing. The less you're known, the worse you'll do. And yes, marketing is a royal PITA, as I speak from personal experience, but it's necessary. No publisher, no matter how good, is going to be able to get you the same level of exposure you can get yourself. I've seen guys who write complete crap sell millions of copies of their books. Why? Excellent marketing, exposure, and face time with fans. So if an author who writes complete crap can hit it big, what does that say to someone who's good who uses the same system, and goes out and does the same marketing? Well, if experience is any clue, their novel should easily sell 10-20 times more copies. Failure to market, or improper marketing is the single biggest reason authors fail. Well, in most cases anyways. There is always a niche for every book, even if it sucks completely. I say, if you're really serious about getting your books into the public, and you suck at marketing, then *HIRE SOMEONE*. Tell them what you want, have them interview you to get an idea of what your book is and where it should go, and where you'd like to go, take whatever advice they give you for changes or suggestions, and then run with it. Either way, to go back to the original starting topic of this thread, it's not piracy or "theft of rights" that's the issue here. It's failure to market, and failure to give the reader (who is also your customer) what they want. Take a lesson from the failings of the music industry. Don't treat your customers like dirt and/or criminals. Treat them like you'd treat your best friend, or your mom, or your most beloved person. You wouldn't stab your mom in the back, would you? (if you would, you've got issues) So listen to their wishes, and then grant them to the best of your ability. Do that (as well as the other suggestions above) and success will find you, rather than you finding success. Quote:
Last edited by Steven Lake; 07-07-2010 at 11:48 PM. |
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07-07-2010, 01:29 PM | #207 |
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07-07-2010, 06:18 PM | #208 |
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I have seen a number of authors at the local sf convention.
A few old time authors came by, we kinda expected them to wear suit and tie part of the time. But most of the new young authors dressed casually and sold books in the merchant room. One guy never seemed to sell much, he wore an expensive, well it looked like it cost around $200 dollars, suit and he sold few books. Most who go to that convention wear jeans. Nice, clean, untorn jeans would have been good for him, but with that suit, he seemed out of place. More a bank president than an author. So paying attention to what is worn by the other authors and the convention members is always a good idea. |
07-07-2010, 10:29 PM | #209 | |
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Speaking of authors who are unprepared for what they experience on SF conventions - I just jumped over and saw that "Bimbos of the Death Sun" is available on Kindle! http://www.amazon.com/Bimbos-Death-S...dp/B000FA5QSG/ (It's a mystery about a poor academic whose publisher forced that awful title on his serious speculative fiction book, and sent him to a convention where he has to solve the mystery of the murder of the con's writer guest of honor. It's most fun for people who know what cons are like - or were like in the seventies.) Camille |
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