Give A Little, Would Ya?

Lately I’ve found myself sharing my experiences with other writers as though I’m some sort of “Johnny Appleseed” of indie authors, planting my advice wherever I can. Let’s get that idea debunked now: I’m not an expert.

But what I am is a person willing and eager to share my experiences with the hope they will help someone else. My experiences might not be the most relevant or the most powerful, but they are mine not to keep to myself, but to share with others.

I belong to several indie author Facebook groups where new and experienced writers can exchange their stories and learn from one another. I’ve taken it upon myself to answer a lot of questions from the newer authors because if I were in their shoes, I’d want someone doing that for me.

It’s paying it forward and we need more of that.

Navigating the often difficult path to indie writing and publishing can be daunting without the proper guidance. I’m not going to say I know it all or I’m an expert by any means. My mistakes and low sales are evidence to that. But I do have experiences that if shared, can help others after me grow faster and possibly sell way more than me. And I’m cool with that.

I don’t see indie writing and publishing as a cut-throat scenario where I’m gonna keep my successes (and failures) to myself so others will be at a disadvantage. I want us all to rise up and be better. As fellow writer and all around good-guy Brian K. Morris says, “A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats.” If I succeed, I want other writers there with me.

There are always unscrupulous people out there in every facet of life; indie publishing is no different. Sometimes the advice or experience I share might benefit them too. It’s a price to pay for being willing to open up with others.

I hope you’d consider sharing your experiences, good and bad, with other writers and people in your life when you can. We should all be learning and growing. Our advice and recommendations may make it easier for others and might help them surpass our own efforts.

Cool, bring it on. Let’s all grow better together!

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Last week I posted about reviews. This week, I’d like to ask for them.

My boxed set of The Forgotten Chronicles: The Complete Trilogy is chilling on the various ebook retailers all alone without a review to accompany it. Would you be willing to leave an honest review? If you bought the boxed set or read the trilogy on its own, you can leave a review for it on Amazon. For the other retailers, you’d have to actually buy the trilogy. So…if you could help a brother out, that would rock. I plan on running promos in the near future and as I posted about last week, many services need to see a certain number of reviews before they’ll promote your book.

Thank you!

 

BookBub Myths (And What You Can Do!)

Getting a BookBub is every indie author’s dream. It’s a spectacular email blast promo service that shares your discounted or free book to eager readers waiting to buy. There are other services, but none pack the punch of BookBub.

Because they don’t share what really goes into a Featured Deal acceptance, rumors run rampant throughout the indie author community about what it takes in order to get them to select your book.

I’m not an expert, but what follows are my experiences which I hope will help other authors plan and hopefully experience the joy of “Getting a BookBub!” Let’s start with a couple myths.

Myth #1: You need at least X amount of reviews to get a BookBub.

Ok, so reviews are important. They’re social proof that readers like your book. I work hard to earn honest reviews so hopefully other readers will see how my book might appeal to them.

One of the biggest myths I’ve heard about BookBub is that they need to see at least 50 reviews on a book to even consider it. Umm…no.

I have no idea if they really have a baseline for number of reviews. What I do know is that both of my books selected for Featured Deals had less than 10 reviews at the time of the deal. Actually, they both still have less than 10 (one of them only has 3 reviews!)

From my experience, the thought that you need at least 50 reviews for BookBub to accept your book is flawed. Yes, you want reviews but they won’t hold you back. It’s funny because services that have a much lower ROI than BookBub require a certain amount of reviews and both my books would have been denied on that point alone.

 

Myth #2: You need to be wide (Not Amazon exclusive).

It might actually help if your books are wide (meaning on more than just Amazon) but from my experience, it wasn’t necessary. Both of my books were in Kindle Unlimited and still are.

What’s this mean to you? If you’re comfortable going wide, do it. If you prefer to stay within the confines of KU, do that. No matter what, present the best book possible, which leads to my recommendations.

I think what tipped the scales in my favor were a few factors.

The first was the cover.

For my horror novels under my pen name, I chose a new cover designer that rocked it! They nailed the genre while touching on the material within the book. I think if you want to be considered for a BookBub, make sure you get a killer cover first.

My novel “The Selection” has been rejected like a dozen times from BookBub, but the first time I submitted my first horror novel, it was accepted. I want to recover all three books in my trilogy but…money.

The second thing that helped was a decent blurb. So, I suck at these and always need help. I’m never satisfied with them. However, you want to make sure you create a blurb that leaves the reader wanting more and ready to hand over their money for your book. I think mine weren’t perfect, but they were good enough.

Finally, I think genre had a role. As I mentioned, my young adult scifi novel has never been accepted, but both my horror novels were. I’m thinking maybe not too many apply for that genre? Or maybe it’s a genre that’s growing? I honestly don’t know but I think with the great covers and decent blurbs, I stood a greater chance to get accepted.

Are there other myths you’ve heard that I didn’t touch on here? Please leave a comment below and let’s get the discussion going.

How did my BookBub Featured Deals do? Come back next week for a follow up post where I peel back the curtain and let you know exactly how they did.

In the meantime, why not click below and follow me on BookBub? You’ll always be alerted when I have a new release.

 

 

Grabbing 2019 By The…

Happy New Year!

Say good-bye to the old and let’s welcome a new start for 2019.

I don’t remember if I made any resolutions or goals for last year, but I wanted to approach this annual reset with greater determination and focus.

It actually started the day after my 44^th birthday when I walked around nearby Lake Murphysboro. As I trudged up and down the hills, the phrase “Before 45” kept repeating in my mind. I decided then to create actionable goals to measure my progress and force me to work harder. My birthday is December 15^th, so it’s close enough to the end of the year to make these annual goals (though I do want to achieve them before I turn 45!)

In no particular order, these are my 2019 writer goals:

Publish 8 books

Yeah, I know that sounds ludicrous, but it’s possible and who says I don’t have a few novels in my back pocket already? Quicker releases don’t mean lesser quality. I’ve got a process that works for me and I feel I can scale it up and increase what I’m doing. I’m in mid-trilogy writing now (it may turn into more than three books) and I’ve got a new novel near ready for my pen name. I’ve been working with two other authors on different series, though it’s still in the early stages of the projects. I’m also contracted with a small press to co-write a trilogy due for later this year, so 8 isn’t that crazy of a number.

 

Grow my newsletter list to over 5,000 subscribers

It’s now less than 900 because of serious culling a few months ago, but it needs to grow. No matter what happens, this has to be a priority moving forward. I believe in the power of a vibrant, healthy email list. I’m already putting in steps to achieve this.

 

Earn over $10,000 in book sales

Honestly I’d love this number to be much higher, but using my past performance as a guide, I’ll start here. If I can be transparent with my sales numbers, my hope is that it will help others learn and grow. Look for a post in the coming weeks with a recap of what I’ve earned so far. It’ll be brutal for me but instructive for you.

 

Grow my BookBub followers to over 1,000

BookBub is an amazing service that I’ve yet to fully utilize. Eager readers use BookBub to find new books to read. Why not try and grow my presence there for the future I have planned? They get notified of my new releases and keeps my name in front of the best kind of audience: readers!

 

Launch a book with over 100 pre-orders

Pre-orders are a point of contention amongst the indie author community, but I’d like to make this happen. My highest has been just under 50, so it’s a stretch but I feel quite achievable.

 

Blog once a week

This one will be difficult to maintain, but it’s something I feel is important. It gives me a place to share my journey and is where I found my first readers. You guys are super important to me and I need to honor that. Expect new posts at least once a week, most likely on Tuesday’s.

 

Attend 8 Cons

This one was tough because I considered doing very few, but with 3-4 already scheduled, I think I can make it happen. I’m looking for a few more Horror cons this year as my pen name has been crushing it and I might as well build the readership as much as possible.

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There you have my look into the future. These are my measuring sticks. I expect yours might be different and that’s great! We all have different paths up the mountain (That’s a Craig Martelle reference for those who don’t know!) and no one path is the best. All that counts is that it’s your path. We all define success in our own terms.

So what are yours? What are your goals/resolutions for 2019? Feel free to comment with a few so we can all support one another. Onward and upward!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New & New-ish Releases On the Way

I’m pretty excited to share that I’ve bundled the Forgotten Chronicles Trilogy into one volume and you can pre-order it for only $2.99.

If you’ve yet to try my young adult sci-fi action/adventure series, there’s no better time to try it out than now. For the cost of one book, you get all three novels in one bundle.

The Forgotten Chronicles: The Complete Trilogy features the books The Selection, Rise of the Forgotten, and The War For Truth and comes out December 15th. If you like fast-paced action set on a human colonized alien world where the natural dangers are almost as bad as the human ones, check out The Forgotten Chronicles and pre-order the trilogy for only $2.99 (after the 15th it goes to $4.99). Click the image or link above and start a new adventure today!

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Several excellent authors I know are in a massive boxed set aiming for a USA Today bestseller status. If that’s not enough to consider their books, just think of the value you get when you buy their collection of over 20 paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels for only .99! Though I’m not normally a reader of paranormal romance, I did pre-order my copy. I know several of the authors and I know they write amazing books, so I figured why not give it a shot? At .99, how could I lose? Even if one of the novels was all that I liked, it was still only .99.

Please consider adding your support by sharing their set or pre-ordering your copy today. It would mean a lot to me to help them out and who knows, you might find a new favorite author to read!

You can get Rite to Reign at all major ebook retailers by clicking the image above or by going here.

 

NaNoWriMo Support

NaNoWriMo is upon us! Who of you are writing a novel this month as part of the annual event? Don’t be shy. Share your intent in the comments so the rest of us can support your efforts.

I’m a long time fan of NaNo and five-time winner. I’m not participating this year as I was in mid-writing on my current project and the timing wasn’t right for me. For the rest that are, I hope you’ve been hitting your word counts so far. What’s working for you? What’s keeping you from achieving your goals?

If you’re part of NaNo this year, I’d love to be your cheerleader. Writing can often be a lonely exercise but it doesn’t have to be. You’ve got a ton of others ready to see you hit that 50k mark and I’m one of them.

NaNo taught me to focus. It taught me to crush through my first drafts and go back to fix it later. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just written. Get those words out, only you can tell your story.

It wasn’t until I won my first NaNo that I realized I could do this writing thing. Before then I wrote short stories, mostly flash fiction, and winning gave me the confidence to push on and keep at it. Now with five novels released since I won, I can honestly say without NaNo, I wouldn’t be a published author. It’s meant so much to me and I want others to experience this joy.

Write on my friends. Keep at it. I invite you to share your tales and your experience with the rest of us. Having a strong support system helps tremendously and I want you to succeed!

Happy writing everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jason’s Authors You Should Know – Aaron Hamilton

Today’s author you should know is Aaron Hamilton.

Aaron is an amazing writer who’s style and fluid writing is something I’ve enjoyed since I first read some of his work. To be honest, his writing is so engaging and well done that I can say I’m a touch jealous of his command of story and the language used to convey it. He’s that good! He writes primarily science fiction but also delves into fantasy and some horror.

We first met over Twitter maybe in 2015 or so. I’m fairly certain it was before I released my first book in 2016. Since then, I’ve gotten to know him better and watch him grow as a writer. I’ve leaned on him for feedback and have been honored to offer my opinion on some of his unpublished work. He was one of my earliest supporters and advocates, something I won’t forget.

Though he has yet to release a novel (something I hope is fixed soon!) he has had a couple short stories published in the Nonlocal Science Fiction anthologies, offering his story Catalyst for issue 1 and his story The Hzeen for issue 3.

You can find more about Aaron at his blog Escalator Shoes or give him a follow on Twitter.

Jason’s Authors You Should Know – Leo McBride

Today’s author you should know is Leo McBride.

Leo is a super-talented speculative fiction author. He writes science fiction, fantasy, and horror from the warm climes of the Bahamas. He’s one of the driving forces behind Inklings Press, the small press responsible for such awesome short story collections such as Tales From the Underground, Tales of Wonder, and Tales from the Tower. His stories are included in all the collections and so worth your time and money. He’s also released a short story collection of his own called Quartet: Four Short Stories, Four Explorations of the Fantastic.

Leo is highly supportive not only of the indie community, but great writers no matter what their publishing history is. He’s been an encouragement to me from almost the beginning, reading and reviewing my first two flash fiction collections and continued support through interviews and shares on social media. He’s a great person to have in your corner and a spectacular writer in his own right.

From his Amazon page:

Leo McBride is a writer of speculative fiction – spanning the fields of horror, science fiction and fantasy. A journalist for more than 20 years, he is based in The Bahamas where he is an editor for the country’s leading newspaper.

He has published several ebooks – although Quartet is the first of his own writing. He has also been published in anthologies published by Inklings Press.

You can find out more about Leo on his blog alteredinstinct.com.

Jason’s Authors You Should Know – Bryan Caron

Today’s author you should know is Bryan Caron.

Bryan is a superbly talented writer working mostly in the science fiction genre, though at times will delve into fantasy. His writing is engaging and well crafted. I’ve read Year of the Songbird and Jaxxa Rakala and loved both of them. If you’re a fan of well-written scifi with amazing characters, you should give his work a try.

I met Bryan through a Facebook group we both belonged to and I’m glad I did. After reading Year of the Songbird, I was hooked on his work. He’s a busy person with a lot on his plate, but his writing is still top-notch.

From his Amazon page:

Bryan Caron is an award-winning writer, director, film editor and graphic designer, who has written and directed many pieces in all forms and genres. His favorite genres include science-fiction and fantasy, however he never limits himself, writing in whatever genre that strikes him at any given time. His interest in film directing and editing give him an extra creative outlet, as does his graphic design work (which you can see on all covers and marketing materials of his work, all courtesy of Phoenix Moirai), but his first love will always be writing and that is where he excels.

You can find more at his blog Chaos Breeds Chaos or his website bryancaron.com.

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Come back tomorrow for another author you should know!

Jason’s Authors You Should Know – Merri Halma

Today’s author you should know is Merri Halma.

Merri is a talented writer of modern fantasy, especially her young adult Indigo Travelers series. She’s determined and supportive, always willing to lend a hand and share books and posts. Merri is an excellent writer and often infuses her entertaining tales with characters searching for an inner wisdom.

I first met Merri through a Facebook group for authors of science fiction and fantasy. She also participated in the 30 Days, 30 Authors event created by Lucinda Moebius. Through that event, I learned a lot about Merri and grew to appreciate her as a fellow indie author.

I interviewed Merri last year on the blog. You can find that here.

From her Amazon page:

I enjoy writing, talking with readers, learning new things, and meeting with other writers who want to be published. My husband and family live in Idaho. An avid Doctor Who fan, I dream of being able to time travel and hope one day to go to England to see the wonders of the countryside and visit the city Doctor Who and Torchwood were filmed in. Maybe even chance to see it being filmed and meeting the actors.

You can find out more about Merri at her blog.

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Come back tomorrow for another author you should know!

Jason’s Authors You Should Know – Lucinda Moebius

Today’s author you should know is Lucinda Moebius.

Lucinda is a dynamic writer of science fiction, paranormal, and more. She’s also strongly committed to the indie author community. Her works range from fiction like the vampire novel Feeder to non-fiction works like Write Well Publish Right.

She’s the creator and moderator of several active Facebook groups, mostly for authors to grow their talents and marketing which is how I met her. Last summer, she created a 30 Days, 30 Authors promo group that took many of us out of what we felt comfortable with and forced us to be more open and social with readers and others on social media. It was an awesome experience and I know we all grew from it.

I’ve interviewed her on the blog last year and you can find that post here.

From her Amazon page:

Lucinda Moebius grew up in the mountains of Idaho and Eastern Oregon. Her mother taught her to read when she was four years old and since that time books have been her constant companions. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English Teaching a Master’s in Educational Leadership and a Doctorate in Education. She supports her writing habit by teaching High School and College. She currently lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband and their dog and two cats.

Lucinda has been a writer since she was a child and was first published in 2010. Since then she has worked hard to create unique visions and stories. Her work includes novels in multiple genres including: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal, Children’s Books, Screenplays and Non-Fiction. Lucinda has a Doctorate in Education and loves teaching, but her greatest desire is to help others understand how literature and writing can bring enlightenment and understanding to everyone. She offers book coaching and advice to everyone, whether they want it or not.

To learn more about Lucinda, check out her website lucindamoebius.com.

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Come back tomorrow for another author you should know!