Hey everyone! I’m not quite homeless, but if I was a hobo would you give me $1? Would you buy 17 books from me for $0.99? What if some of the books in that fat stack of fiction were by a few bestsellers?
Check out this huge book bundle I’m in and buy a copy of 17 books for just .99. It will seriously help prevent me from becoming homeless! Plus you’ll get like $150 worth of books for one fifteenth of the cost of the last coffee I bought at Starbucks… just click here or on the graphic!
I often get author/user questions in my email. I thought I’d write a longer post here since it’s been a little while since I blogged.
My Post-Apocalyptic SF/Horror has just released and it’s just 99c through Halloween. This story is my baby. Please pick up a copy and tell the world!
Dr. Swaggart must race against time, failing lights, and a leaky oxygen tank to save his new family: the last remnant of mankind who dwells in the underground bunker Ark 1. If he fails, the monster infecting his friends will finally succeed in destroying humanity once and for all!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09DWJZKS7
Nanowrimo is coming up. It’s okay if you’re not participating, but if you’re an author (at any stage–maybe you’re just dabbling or considering your first story) this bundle of tools might be an amazing find for you. you can get the full load of books from folks who know a few things about the Indie world. You can pick up all the books for just $20 or 4 of them for $5.
I can tell you that I bought some of these books for full price and have used them in my own writing career. You’ll find books by Kevin J Anderson (Dune, Star Wars,) Craig Martelle (20booksto50k,) Joanna Penn (The Creative Penn,) and yours truly!
It also includes a massive discount on Jutoh3 if you’re looking to get away from standard word processors (I use Scrivener which this Jutoh has been compared to).
Get the whole thing for a limited time (through November) over at https://storybundle.com/nano
I use StoryOrigin a lot. For a while, I used both SO and BookFunnel, but I found I preferred SO for a variety of reasons. It used to be free, and I was actually happy when it went to a paid service because even a very low cost of entry helps weed out the no talent hacks. Yes. I said it. (There are a great many folks who will load up newsletter swaps—as many as 70 of them per NL Swap—with really bad DIY covers and questionable content.)
Authors who use newsletter services like StoryOrigin, BookFunnel, Prolficworks, etc. are very familiar with “Freebie seekers.” They eventually get purged from our NewsLetter Lists… likewise with unscrupulous swappers who steal access to your list or repeatedly beg to swap their garbage books that they’ve invested $0 into in hopes that you’ll prominently feature that terrible cover to their audience even though your $600 pro cover (and $400 edit) will be at the bottom of a 30 book catalogue email on a NL list with a 2% open rate out of 212 subs (and one of those recorded opens was the author just testing the link).
You can see I have an ax to grind with NL swap partners who act like hacks. Even though SO is a paid service, it is still free, but with limited features, just like bookfunnel is. I could talk about why I think SO is superior, but I’ll leave that for another time.
However, I’ve run across a great many folks with great covers for books that have decent reviews and they still look like hacks. It’s not their fault (actually it is) but they might have never wrapped their head around how the process works—that ignorance leads them to miss out on swaps and inclusion with group promos so I thought I’d write a hand guide. Ignorance is easily cured so long as a person wishes it so. Sidenote: you may have gotten this link emailed directly to you if you tried to swap with me on SO or enter one of my group promos. Please pay attention to this article’s contents as the things discussed in it are the norm for both SO & BookFunnel. If I sent this to you, take it as an indication that potential swaps may happen further down the line so long as you start using the system correctly.
Without further ado, let’s discuss How not to look like a hack on StoryOrigin.
I stumbled upon this video while in the midst of writing my MilSF book with a kind of Star Trek/BSG vibe and I fully agree with this guy. Kudos to youtube for an excellent video suggestion. If you’re writing space battle sci-fi, you should watch this video and pay attention to what he talks about regarding stakes, movement, and knowing who’s in the battle.
Through writing newsletters, growing subscriber lists, and looking at data I discovered I’ve gone through multiple stages and seen many shady characters out there trying to build massive newsletter lists at unprecedented rates, but this game is about consistent, manageable growth while building relationships with actual, interested readers.
It is very possible to do this with some speed, but as you do so, beware of list leeches and newsletter stuffers. Below are three distinct stages I saw while growing a newsletter list with both Storyorigin and Bookfunnel.
Continue reading StoryOrigin & Bookfunnel: Advice for Rapidly Building an Email list with Integrity
There’s one simple rule authors have to follow in order to have complete pricing control over your book at Amazon. It is especially helpful to be aware of this rule for Children’s book authors, graphic novelists, and books with multimedia content (many nonfiction books) as it can affect launch and pricing strategies.
I recently bumped into this rule, even though I write novels, and here’s how I discovered the need to watch for this rule.
Continue reading You can’t always price your book at 99c on Amazon
I am a member of several online groups that helps authors. One of those groups purposes revolves around cover design. There are a lot of DIY people in there… most of those people know the value of hiring professionals or seeking advanced skills and learning the real elements of what makes book covers sell.
Sometimes people insist on doing themselves and don’t understand why covers are perhaps the most important marketing piece for your book. I taught a workshop at a regional library just yesterday afternoon and my sternest warning was against doing a DIY cover. Here is some of my advice that I recently gave in a cover design group where I used an Easy Bake Oven analogy to explain what a subpar design really tells potential readers. (Also, I talk about selling Bible’s in a porn shop… I’m not surprised that so many people dislike me, lol.)
Continue reading Easy Bake Ovens and Cover Designs: What is a Cover Really Supposed to Do?
Inside the Inkwell 