Leave my Reviews Alone!

Every time I release a new book, I go on a tireless campaign to commission reviews. And when I say tireless campaign, I mean that I beg every follower on each of my social media outlets to take pity on me and post a review of my book on Amazon.

I hate to say it, but my begging usually doesn't work. The people that would be affected by it are those that have already left a review. Those are my die hard fans who love all of my books and make me happy to be a writer. I love those fans, and I love their reviews. Like any writer, I'd also love to see more reviews.

Every time a review comes up on Amazon, I hold my breath waiting to see what the reviewer thought. Most of the time, the response is good. I'm sure I've never told you this, but I always print out the first five star review that my new novel gets and I frame that alongside a picture of the book cover. Then I hang it in my office to serve as a constant reminder that someone likes what I do.

As I said, I love not only my reviews but my fans. Anytime a fan wants to friend me on Facebook, I accept. I love to hear from them and connect with them. Building relationships with readers is part of what makes me a better writer. I get to hear first hand how they felt about my characters, plot, etc.

Well, it seems that in befriending my readers, I'm running the risk of Amazon deciding any reviews posted by my "friends" are in violation of their review policy and could therefore be taken down. Yep, it's true. Your friends and family are not allowed to post reviews of your books. If they do, and Amazon discovers the relationship, the review is removed and the reviewer is notified.

I'm just going to say it. Give me a break here, Amazon. I'm not Nicholas Sparks or James Patterson. I don't have so many best selling books and readers that I couldn't possibly keep track of them all. I'm an indie author who relies on having a good relationship with my readers in order  to help me sell more books. So what if they friend me on Facebook? That doesn't mean it's going to change their opinion of my work.

As far as my family not being allowed to review my books? I guess I can kind of see that. I'm always skeptical when a family member raves about my book because I'm not sure whether it's genuine praise or obligatory. I will say this though. Since I'm an indie author, my family members are usually the first to buy my books and show their support. I say if they bought the book, let them post the review.

No, I don't know the logic behind Amazon's policy, and I don't really care. I have a number of books on Amazon's site, and they each have less than ten reviews. Some don't even have one review. So, Amazon, if you're reading this, please leave my reviews alone! I need them more than you can possibly understand. 

Paid by the Page

Unless you’re an independent author, you probably don’t know about the payment policy Amazon has for its authors. Before we get into that, you need some history.

Amazon, the largest online retailer in the world, recently created a platform that allows independent authors to publish e-books that would be available for sale through their site. The program is called Kindle Direct Publishing, also known as KDP. It goes without saying that in exchange for selling the author’s book, Amazon takes a percentage of the royalties. Every publisher does this, even independent sites like Smashwords that don’t charge authors upfront publication fees will keep a percentage of the author’s royalties. That’s actually fair and should be expected.

There was recently a change in the royalty payment policy of KDP authors. Rather than getting paid the full amount of their percentage of the royalty, Amazon has opted to pay authors by the number of pages read. They apparently have computer software that can track this, which feels a little big-brothery if you ask me.

I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that outraged authors have found a way around this, whether by accident or intent I can’t say. Supposedly, authors are starting to load their table of contents at the back of the book rather than the front. If the table of contents is opened at that point, the page counting software then recognizes that the entire book has been read and the author gets their full royalty payment. In sharing this here, I’m not divulging a huge secret that will expose my peers. 

Amazon is well aware of this glitch and already hard at work to correct it.

I have to admit, I’m divided on how I feel, both about independent authors being paid by the page and the way they have found to get around that. As an avid reader, I find the policy a bit skewed in favor of the retailer.

Ever since I got my hands on a Kindle, I’ve downloaded a number of books, so many that my husband can’t keep up with it when balancing the budget sometimes. Since that time, I’ve discovered great authors whose books I will buy from now until they stop writing. I’ve also found some really bad books; poorly edited with holes in the plot, bad dialogue and just too short for the price I paid.

Though I sometimes get burned by a bad book choice, I have never asked for a refund. Nor have I gotten a credit for only reading a few pages. Whether I read the entire piece of trash or stop in disgust after page one, Amazon is going to get their full share of the money I paid for it while the author is not. That hardly seems fair. If you’re going to pay authors by the page, you should give readers the chance to credit any unused portion of their purchase toward another book. Of course that’s not what happens.

As an independent author, I haven’t decided which side of the fence I want to sit on with this whole paid by the page policy. On the one hand, I don’t think Amazon is being fair to me. If a reader buys my $3.99 book and decides it was the worst thing ever written, I might only get five cents for the sale while Amazon will still keep their full share of my royalty payment. So if my fellow authors have found a way to stick it to the man and get paid in full for their hard work then good on them.

Not so fast. I am still on the fence. As an independent author following the rules, I’m more than a little peeved that some of my peers are getting more money than I am under the exact same circumstances. If two of us offer a book for $3.99 and a reader buys both and hates both and stops at the same point in both, we should be paid the same amount. This workaround some authors use means that my colleague might get his full royalty payment while I only get a few pennies. That boils down to it being the price I pay for honesty I suppose.

At the end of the day, how I feel does not matter. Amazon is paying its KDP authors by the number of pages read and not by the number of books sold. So please, do me a favor. If you buy one of my books, read the whole damn thing!

So Much for Easy!

It seems like yesterday I had what I thought was an amazing idea. I think I’ll revise my first novel and release a ten year anniversary edition. Sounds easy, right? The novel was already written and published. How hard could it be?

In the last couple of months, I have found out how wrong I was. Revising Letters from Linc has not been easy. The fact that the novel is already written didn’t let me just breeze through it and get the sucker released. I am ashamed to admit I thought I was only going to go in and do some copy editing. Correct a misspelled word here. Add missing punctuation there. Remove a few of those unnecessary dialog tags. A few minor changes that I could knock out in a week or so, and I’d be ready to send this novel for formatting.

I was wrong. While I’m not ashamed of being wrong, I am ashamed that I underestimated the work this would take. Having been a professional writer for ten years, I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy, and I’ve been smacked in the face by that the last few months. Yes, I’ve been working on this revision for two months. In my defense, I probably could have finished sooner if I didn’t have a day job, but that doesn’t change the fact that I didn’t realize what I was getting in to.

Letters from Linc was released ten years ago but was written before that. The story is good, and I believe passionately in it, but it’s more than a bit rough around the edges. I won’t go into its shortcomings now since I’ve lamented those in a prior blog, but the fact of the matter is this story needed a complete overhaul. And a complete overhaul is not something that can be accomplished in a few short weeks.

The good news is that I am now in the editing stage of this project. The editing stage is like that proverbial light at the end of the tunnel that I can finally see. After the editing comes the formatting. Then comes the release. Then I start promoting the book and begging for reviews so be prepared for that now.

As daunting as this project has been, as many times as I’ve cursed myself for this idea, I’m not sorry I did it. In the end, I’ll have a more polished work that I can be proud of and the chance to connect with a new generation of readers, but I can say one thing for sure. I’ll think twice about doing something like this again.

It's My Birthday; I'll beg if I Want To

Okay, it's not my birthday yet. My birthday is next week, and I sure hope I get some Kindle and/or Nook gift cards. Several of my favorite authors have books coming out this month, including Erin Nicholas, Sloane Johnson and AE Via.

Last week, the inevitable question started from my husband and kids; what do you want for your birthday? This is a difficult question to answer. I'm at a point in my life where I'm fortunate enough to have everything I need and many things I want.

Usually, this is the point where I say there is one thing I want that I have to rely on others for. I want to be a bestselling author. USA Today, NY Times or Amazon, it doesn't matter. Hitting at least one bestseller list is on my writer's bucket list. I still want this so if you want to do something nice for my birthday, you can help me out and buy one or more of my books.

I've realized there's something else I'd like from my readers too and it's free. If you've been paying attention to my social media accounts in the last month then you should have a good idea what I am going to ask for. That's right, I want reviews of my books posted on Amazon.

I am desperate for more reviews. I would like for others looking at my books to see the kind words that have been posted on my Facebook and Twitter pages. I would also be able to get more promotion from Amazon if I had more reviews and more promotion leads to more sales.

Yes, I have been shamelessly begging for book reviews since my latest book came out last month, and I am going to keep begging. Those reviews mean a lot to authors and serve a number of important purposes besides ego stroking.

Please, if you have read and liked any of my books, take a moment to go to your Amazon account and leave a review. It doesn't have to be a dissertation. A sentence or two can convey the same meaning. Leave a review and consider it a birthday present to an aging author desperate for more recognition. 

Yes, your words Matter

As a writer, you often hear me begging for reviews of my books. My pleas extend to all aspects of my social media. If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram or have liked my Facebook page, you’ve seen me posting all sorts of pictures begging for Amazon reviews. It’s not working. My groveling has largely gone unanswered, and I’ve been a little bummed out by that. Okay, I’ve been a lot bummed out.

Something happened last week that boosted my spirit but also served as a good reminder of the importance of your reviews. Last week, I was sick as a dog (what the hell does that mean anyway?). I spent several days in bed and didn’t write or visit any of my social media sites for several days.

When I finally felt well enough to venture out of bed, I picked up my tablet and opened my Twitter account and the best thing happened. There was a series of tweets from someone who had read Taking a Gamble, my first book in the Taking on Love series. This person tweeted that she read the whole book in one day because she couldn’t put it down. She loves my stories and I never disappoint.

Wow! Can you say giant ego boost? Because, let’s be honest. I needed that at just that moment. It was the best pick me up after being sick for a week. To log back on to social media and be greeted by this glowing praise made me feel better and renewed my faith in my talent.

Okay, yes, I really wish this would have been put in an Amazon review, but this was just as good. It was someone taking the time out of her day to make me feel appreciated for what I did. Talk about one hell of a motivation to keep me going as a writer. This happened on February 9^th and I saw it on February 16^th and I’m still riding this high.

Writing is fun, but it’s also hard work. Your heart and soul go in to every book you write. Your books are like your children. When people like them, you feel pride. When people don’t like them, you’re like that mama bear guarding her cubs. When people don’t acknowledge them, you start to wonder if that’s their polite way of saying your child is ugly.

Would I like a flood of Amazon reviews? Yes, and I will be glad to see any review I get. Is that the only way to let me know you liked my books? Hell no! No matter how you choose to deliver them, your words matter. So, please, keep them coming.

Oh, Crap! My first book Sucked!

If you haven’t already heard, I’m currently in the process of rewriting my first novel, Letters from Linc, so that I can release the ten year anniversary edition. It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since the book was published. On the other hand, I can tell it’s been a long time since this book was published. There’s nothing like doing a rewrite of a ten year old book to make your flaws as writer so glaringly obvious that you cringe when you read it.

Before I go on, let me make one thing clear. I love Letters from Linc. The book opened a lot of doors for me in the writing world and also brought some amazing people into my life. I’ve been contacted by strangers who have told me of the positive impact it had on their lives. As much as I love Linc, the passage of time has allowed me to see where it can be improved.

The first thing jumping out at me is the heavy use of adverbs. I once had an editor tell me I was addicted to using adverbs. Until she pointed it out, I never thought much of it. I grew up reading books that used adverbs to describe dialogue so it made sense to me to use it when I was a writer. Now I know better. Instead of writing that Linc excitedly said something, I should describe Linc’s excitement. Show the readers he is excited instead of telling them.

Speaking of showing readers versus telling them, there are a number of passages in Letters from Linc in which I told the readers what happened. Looking at those passages ten years later, I recognize how I screwed up by telling the readers what happened instead of showing them.

Some scenes are either too short and the reader would benefit from seeing more of what happened while others should be cut because they don’t advance the story. There is also a point where I feel I rushed too quickly to reunite the main characters. The separation of the two was ten days long but the story didn’t expand on that and show readers what it needed to. Instead, it told readers that it happened and then a few pages later told them it was over and the story moved on.

I’m also ashamed to admit there are some editing mistakes. Words are missing or the wrong word is used; a word spell check wouldn’t alert me to because the word was spelled correctly. For example, saying lightening when I meant lightning. There are also some punctuation errors as well as too many dialogue tags in some scenes.

It’s amazing what a few years will do to your perspective on your story. Ten years ago, I probably would not have found most of this. Wait, I obviously didn’t realize it given that I moved forward with publishing the novel. Nothing like ten years to help a writer improve their craft and make her second guess her early work, but I guess I should look for that silver lining.

Okay, my first novel had some problems. Dare I say, it sucked? At least I’ve grown and learned and will be righting those wrongs.

A Long Sad Story

This year, I reach a major milestone. It’s the ten year anniversary of my first novel, a novel that was released at a time when e-readers were still the wave of the future. With the change in technology, and the improvement I’ve made in my writing, I thought it would be fun to release a revised version of my first novel, Letters from Linc. Revisiting the first novel I ever worked on has stirred up a lot of unexpected things, including memories of how I became an independent author.

I’ve loved writing since I was a kid. At one point during my childhood I’m sure I wanted to be an author. I wrote stories constantly, stories I bound into books using cardboard and a three-hole punch and ribbons. Instead of becoming a writer as soon as I left home, I married early and started a family and then a career to support that family.

Ten years after I stopped writing, I had the urge to write again. A story idea popped in my head and I went with it. When it was all finished, I thought it might be good enough to get an agent. It wasn’t. I got rejection after rejection. In between these rejections, I kept writing and finished my second novel. 

After so many rejections of my first novel, I thought my second novel might have a better shot. The theme was timely and something I felt strongly that everyone could relate to. So, you guessed it. I tried again.

I sent query letters and sample chapters and sometimes the entire novel to one agent after the other. Keep in mind this was in the days where many agents still hadn’t embraced e-mail. That meant paying postage for all these packages and opening my mailbox every day to find a stack of rejection letters waiting for me; rejection letters sent to me with my own self-addressed stamped envelope by the way. Something about that adds a little extra sting.

With my second novel having been as badly rejected as the first, I was extremely discouraged. I thought the novel was good and I believed so strongly in it. I just needed one person to take a chance on it. About the time I was ready to give up, I had an agent tell me she liked the sample chapters and ask to see the entire novel. Seeing that entire novel turned in to her offering me a contract to represent the novel.

I was elated when I should have been cautious. Being a green author, I did not know there were people out there looking to scam unsuspecting authors. I thought having a friend who was a lawyer review the contract was enough. I was wrong. My friend didn’t know much about publishing but thought the contact seemed like a standard legal contract that I’d be safe to sign if I wanted. It wasn’t, but not knowing any better, I signed the contract and thought it was only a matter of time before Letters from Linc was going to hit bookstores and make me a best seller and then be turned in to a movie. Yeah, I was dreaming big.

It goes without saying that’s not what happened. What happened was that my “agent” asked me to print and mail her several copies of my manuscript so that she could submit them to publishers or to send her a check for $250 to cover the cost of her doing the same. I’m sure you experienced writers are groaning right now. Reputable agents do not ask writers for money. In fact, the agent’s ability to make money depends on being able to sell the writer’s work. It’s in the best interest of the agent to sell that book. Having never had an agent and being new to the world of professional writing, I did not know this and it never occurred to me to question it. For the sake of convenience, I sent the $250 check.

Not long after that, my “agent” sent me a letter asking me if I’d like to be a featured author on her website. All I needed to do was send a picture, a biography and a $75 check. I opted not to do this. Since I hadn’t been published yet, I didn’t want to mislead people. Putting up my picture and calling me an author at that point seemed misleading, but I didn’t really question the practice. After all, the agent hadn’t mandated I do this so it couldn’t be wrong to ask. It was. No author should ever pay to have their name or photo listed on her agent’s website. Agents attract new clients by demonstrating success and sharing the names of the published authors they represent is the most common way to do that. By listing the names of clients that weren’t published, this agent misrepresented herself as well as them.

In between these request for money, my “agent” was sending me the rejection notices from the publishers she’d queried. They were all form letters; thanks for your inquiry, but we’re not interested. That’s how it went for the duration of the time I spent working with this agent. At the end of our contract, which was a mere six months, our arrangement came to an end. The agent hadn’t made a sale and didn’t offer to extend my contact because she didn’t think there was a market for Letters from Linc.

I was heartbroken. I’d come so close. I thought having an agent was going to get me in the right doors and get me that elusive book deal. At the time, I wasn’t even thinking about the fact that I’d had a poor excuse for an agent whose shady practices aren’t in compliance with industry standards. It wasn’t until much later that I learned the difference between good and bad agents, between legitimate agents and frauds. I was just focused on my failure.

Despite failing, I remained convinced the novel was well written and could sell and sell well. It was while reading a Writer’s Digest magazine that I saw an ad for a print on demand company. This was something else I’d never heard of, but I decided to look into it and I liked what I saw. They would format my novel, create a cover, and make it available on major online retailers, including Amazon. I would retain the rights and I would control the content. I had to pay for this privilege and register my own copyright, but it seemed like the solution to my problem. The only thing that I didn’t like was that they would set the price and it would be based on the length of the novel. I decided I could live with it and went forward with self-publishing Letters from Linc.

Self-publishing still had a pretty big stigma then. People didn’t take self-publishers seriously. We were called vain. We were accused of not having enough talent to make it in the “real world” and of putting out work not worthy of the readers’ time and money. These things may be true for some but certainly for not all.

I’m not sorry that I published Letters from Linc on my own. I’ve met some amazing people through this novel, including Congressmen. I’ve made new friends and connected with people that related to the story. An Army wife told me it was her favorite novel and it helped her handle her husband’s deployment. A friend told me it helped her understand the mental health issues her boyfriend faced after Desert Storm. Another friend recently told me that he was given an assignment in his college class to write a paper on a story that resembled his life and he chose Letters from Linc. Not only did this story touch lives but it gave me a fledgling following that has continued to grow in the last ten years.

There is is, my long and sad story of how I became an indie author. I will never regret the decision to release Letters from Linc on my own. I only wish the circumstances of its release were different.