Kindle Select Results, Caveat Auctore.

Louis Shalako

To keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results is a form of insanity.

I forget who said that, but it’s true enough.

I wanted a better fate for my new novel, The Mysterious Case of Betty Blue. 

Previous science-fiction novels such as Third World were essentially published and died. The same day.

I would be hard pressed to claim even ten copies of that book sold.

And yet I have always resisted the Kindle Select Program. Part of that was pure dogma. It is my opinion that authors and readers alike are served best by a healthy ecosystem, where no one party is dominant. But Amazon is dominant. At some point I just had to admit that and take appropriate steps. One reason for being slow to do that, is that I really wasn’t selling all that many books on Amazon to begin with. The same could be said of Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, Google Books…the list goes on. Barnes & Noble is my best platform—a platform that Joe Konrath says will die very soon now. If that happens, then I guess my sales are dead as well.

You can read all kinds of blog posts about how Amazon  will destroy literature and take over the world.

Some of that comes from  traditional publishing, and some of it comes from places like the Smashwords blog.

I owed it to myself to find out what would happen. Normally, I publish a book on Smashwords, Amazon, Google Books, OmniLit, etc.

Okay. So on my first free day, I gave away a grand total of 35 books through Kindle Select, in the U.S. I gave away four in the U.K., one in Germany, etc . I had one sale, through Kindle Unlimited, Amazon’s new subscription service.

Using another pen name, I published another title. This one is a short story of 12,000 words, literary fiction, and it’s not the most exciting thing in the world. I would say that a book on friendship is not as enticing as a book about vampires, werewolves, thrillers, or the like to the modern reader. Romance books will beat that one every time.

Another challenge is how to promote any book these days. People rapidly tire of link after link on your Facebook feed, and there are so many voices on Twitter, your tweet quickly disappears, drowned out by fresh links.

I’m not real good about seeking reviews, providing advance reader copies, or anything, really.

When I’m done writing a book, I publish it and move on. If passive discoverability works, then it really ought to work here! The only positive news here is that Heaven Is Too Far Away, my WW I memoir/historical parody, sold four books in June through Createspace’s Expanded Distribution. Since I have no real way of promoting that book, it must be passive discoverability.

For what it’s worth.

As far as promotion on Kindle Boards, for whatever reason, I had never bookmarked my KB-Amazon Book Pages. I got rid of Internet Explorer, and then Google Chrome. It’s hard to even find them again. I don’t know how to upgrade my marketing images, the ones in the signature and on the book page itself. 

When I raised my prices last year, the novels were no longer $2.99, but $4.99 and up. You can only post free, or books up to $2.99 on Kindle Boards. Basically, I just stopped going there. That’s one less promotional tool to work with; and some say it is an essential tool.

So it is my own mistakes and my own lack of knowledge that really kills any attempt to promote any book. 

Low sales, low incentive to learn, I guess. And yet learn we must, or die.

So here’s what I learned from Kindle Select.

If your book is not in a particularly popular genre, your results will reflect that. If your cover is not that good, if your blurb is not that good, Kindle Select cannot save it. The date you choose has an effect. For whatever reason, I chose a holiday weekend in summer. I have three more promotional days for The Mysterious Case of Betty Blue, and another two and a half months of exclusivity before I can publish it elsewhere. This is the price of knowledge, one might say.

What’s really interesting is that when Amazon price-matches your book on another platform, (Kindle Select Titles are exclusive and I’m talking about other titles) your monthly result in terms of giveaways can be far superior to the Kindle Select exclusive promotion.

I know that for a fact, because I’ve given away 173 copies of The Shape-Shifters in the first four days of August. That book is not exclusive to Amazon. You can get it for free on any number of sales platforms.

Whether it’s caveat scriptor, or caveat auctore, (writer beware) all I can say is that unrealistic expectations and a distinct lack of skill in the promotion can kill a book pretty darned quick.

That’s why I try to write and submit short stories as much as possible. A sale is a sale, and it’s a ray of hope as well. As to whether I will write another novel and begin submitting to traditional publishers again, I don’t know.

For that you need the motivation, but more than anything you need patience—and some shred of hope that it will be picked up.

Who knows, it might even change my life.

END

Thoughts On Publishing.

I don't want to get sucked into your debate.

Louis Shalako

Whether it’s the debate over traditional publishing or the whole Amazon-Hachette dispute, I don’t much like being sucked in.

I kind of resent people assuming I’m on one side or another. I don’t like it when people assume which side I am on, or try and tell me which side I should be on.

Oh, and they're all making so many promises.

 

Sometimes I don’t really care at all; about who does what, and with which, and with whom, or to whom they do it.

I don’t have any major criticisms of traditional publishing. I don’t have any major criticisms of Amazon or Hachette.

Quite frankly, I don’t really give a damn.

***

When I write a book or story, and then publish it myself, one could say the job is done. I like that feeling.

For better or worse, I’ve accomplished my primary mission, which is to write worthwhile stories and then get them into the hands and in front of the eyeballs of readers.

If I went the traditional route, I might submit a manuscript to any number of agents or publishers.

That’s the classic theory.

When submitting a short story, the classic theory is to submit it over and over until it is sold.

If an agent accepts a book, for example, my job is still not done. The agent submits it here and there.

They call me up once a week, or once a month, or once a year and tell me what they’re doing, and ask what I’m working on.

They submit it around some more.

And even if an editor or publisher is interested, my job is still not done.

Classic theory holds that I should have written my next book at least by this point, (or more) in which case we would start a whole new process for each and every book. Some of those books might never interest a major or other traditional publisher.

And my job on the first book is still not done. There is an in-house process, one that ultimately could take many months or even years before I achieve the laudable and reasonable goal of seeing the thing on bookstore shelves. Only then could my job be said to be done, if we ignore the need to engage in at least some promotion. If we can get it. Otherwise we’re on our own, and it might be six months more before the first royalty cheque rolls in.

Nothing in my experience has really prepared me for this kind of long-term, high stakes kind of game. It’s a whole ‘nother line of thinking.

They say poor people are their own worst enemies, but there are times when immediate needs take precedence. Money coming in right now might not beat a lot more money coming in two years from now, but until one actually sells a manuscript, that’s all just pie in the sky anyways.

And there really is more than one way to skin a cat.

In the ‘classic’ theory of modern, digital self-publishing, you write, you publish, write, publish, write some more, publish some more, and then you just keep going on like that.

With appropriate choices of material and genre, over time we will build up a readership and eventually build up our own business. We do it all on our own, and in my own case, without a lot of outside or expensive help. I don’t need an IP lawyer to interpret what I’m signing, and I don’t have to worry about pleasing agents and editors, who may like the basic story but want a lot of changes when I’ve already sort of put a book behind me. Because of course I want to move onto the next project. That sort of process might be stressful and distracting from what I really want to do now.

It’s still a long-term game, but the thinking is clearer, it requires less patience. You do it in small, incremental steps. You don’t have to rely on other people, and if you don’t like the terms of service, you can just take your books down and go elsewhere.

That’s not a criticism of anybody, it’s just an observation.

But we all have our own needs, our own goals, and our own strengths and weaknesses.

Honestly, if someone had offered me a hundred thousand dollar contract for my first or second book, I would have been scared shitless. I wasn’t sure I could really write professionally at the time, and of course I would be dealing with professionals of long experience.

It might have been intimidating or something.

It says something about where I was at the time.

END

The Mysterious Case of Betty Blue. The Final Chapter.

"What use is a newborn baby?" Mehregan Javanmaard, (Wiki.)

Here are the previous episodes of The Mysterious Case of Betty Blue.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

Part 10

Part. 11

Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18



The Mysterious Case of Betty Blue, The Final Chapter. (19.)


Louis Shalako

Scott was knee-deep in changing diapers.

With little Eddie’s crib in the corner and the changing table right under the window, it was still an iffy thing. He’d barfed more than once doing this job. For some reason today wasn’t so bad.

“Hey, little buddy.” The squirming body kicked and fussed and Scott held onto a tiny hand, grinning from ear to ear. “Come on, help me out here.”

Eddie fussed and squirmed something awful.

It was getting on towards dinner time and Betty would be home soon. He’d better put some thought into that. Unwrapping the stinky diaper, he put that in the garbage. He rolled the kid over.

Scott mopped the poop off the kid’s backside and disposed of the wipes in the plastic garbage hamper. He took a fresh moist one and made sure Eddie’s ass was as clean as a baby’s bum.

He hummed softly to himself.

“I never thought I would live to see the day.” With a scratchy sound, the Velcro fasteners were done up and the kid was good to go.

The sound of the door came from the front of the apartment.

“Ah. Here’s your mother now.”

Scott put the baby back in the crib for the moment, although Betty would be in there soon enough.

He went out into the living room of their new two-bedroom apartment, which was looking a lot better since they had re-painted.

He never thought he’d see that come to pass, either.

Thanks to the new, ceramic, but pretty good set of used eyes the Cartiers had given him as a wedding present, there had been a moment of horror when he saw the place, really saw it for the first time.

It was hard not to think less of landlords in general, but the truth was he’d lived like that for a long time and still hated the thoughts of his old life. He had a moment of wonder.

I wonder what my old place looked like after ten or twelve years.

Aude,  (Wiki)

“Honey. I’m home.”

They smiled into each other’s eyes.

“I’m positively famished. What’s for dinner?”

Scott threw his arms wide open, put his chin down, cocked his head and grinned like there was no tomorrow.

“Me.”

Her laugh resonated around the room and probably in other parts of the building.

“No.” She gazed hungrily into his eyes, and then down to where Scott kept the throbbing, big red rocket hangared. “That’s dessert—I need food, real food.”

The pair clung together in a bear hug as Eddie babbled happily in his crib. Already her eyes were sliding over his shoulder and seeking out the door to Eddie’s room.

Scott sighed. He let her go.

“So, it’s like that, eh. Off you go then. See your kid.”

Once last peck from her, and then it was off to the kitchen for Scott.

A house-husband’s work is never done.

“Betty?”

“Yes, dear?” They were already laughing and giggling in there and there was no end of nonsense from either one of them.

“Can you bring out that garbage bag when you come and I’ll take it down?”

No answer.

He would just have to live in suspense, then.

Pots and pans rattled and banged. There were some frozen pork chops, a few potatoes, and a couple of tall cans of Bud. They had the makings for salad and there were still a few soft-pack containers of formula for the baby.

They had each other, and you really couldn’t ask for much more.

END

About Louis Shalako

Louis Shalako began writing for community newspapers and industrial magazines. His stories appear in publications including Perihelion Science Fiction, Bewildering Stories, Aurora Wolf, Ennea, Wonderwaan, Algernon, Nova Fantasia, and Danse Macabre. He lives in southern Ontario and writes full time.