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by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve done a better job lately keeping up with sales figures for my books.

I know this is one thing that many self-published authors advise against.  Kristine Rusch stated:

Resolve to stop watching the sales figures in 2013. You won’t be able to tell from month to month how the year is going.

She has a good point and many other good points in her post Year-End Numbers. 

But I find it hard to resist.  For one thing, I was burned by a rotten month early in 2012.  I didn’t pay attention and I made only about a quarter of the income that I ordinarily receive in a month’s time from Amazon for my self-published books.

For me, lagging sales numbers mean that I need to run a sale of some sort (because I don’t advertise and I’m not really into self-promo.)

When I saw that my December sales weren’t off to a great start,  (and I had a newish book that released in October), I decided to put one of my ebooks up for free.  I didn’t advertise it in any way.  It wasn’t featured on any daily deals sites.  I didn’t tweet it, I didn’t mention it here, I didn’t put it on Facebook.

I have the same concerns that most of y’all do about putting a book up for free.  Free books frequently equal awful books.  Making books free devalues books and the book selling market. Making books free hurts because you invested lots of time and thought into the book.

But I will say this…if you’re looking for a bump in sales, you’ve got a good book,  and you have other books available for sale (particularly in a series), then you might find a good deal of success with this tactic. It does seem to move books.

I took the usual route of making the book, Dyeing Shame, free on Smashwords.  After some time (probably 4 or 5 days), Amazon price-matched it.   And the book was downloaded over 85,000 times in December.  (Yes, it briefly reached number one on the free charts.) 

I really can’t explain why it rose so high on the charts.  It might have had something to do with the fact that the book had some decent reviews previously (and real reviews….good and bad and lukewarm.)  It might have to do with the fact that my name isn’t too obscure on Amazon and is connected to traditionally published books (but…this somehow seems less-likely to me.)

Sales did start to increase for the other two self-published books in the series.  I ended up the month with a decent-enough 1,089 books  sold for the month.

What I’ve noticed for January, though, is that sales have continued and are stronger from last month.  I’ve kept the book free (why not?)  and so far I’ve had 1272 sales for the month (as of this moment…writing this post a couple of days before the end of January) and over 25,500 more downloads of the freebie. 

The takeaway from this experiment (the experiment of keeping something free for longer) is that the impact of the free book on the other books in the series may be stronger the following month (although it doesn’t seem to be terrible for the first month, either.)

I’d remarked to my husband that I was seeing good sales as the result of the free promotion and he frowned.  “You’ve got a book listed for free?  Is it a weaker book?”

I explained that it was actually a stronger book.  It was supposed to tempt readers into buying the other books. 

“You’re giving a good book away for free?”

And I know there’s not a lot of logic in that for many people in the business world.  My husband wasn’t really onboard with the whole idea.  But…it does seem to work.

Will it always work? Is this always the best course?  Is this something I’ll continue doing?  This industry is changing so quickly that I really couldn’t say.  What’s a good approach today isn’t always a good approach tomorrow.

Have you ever run a free book promo?  Would you? If you have, did you have any success with it?

Image: Flickr: Poornomore

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve heard that in the past, writers would hear reactions to their work in very limited ways.  They’d either get a review in a newspaper or they’d get letters from readers, passed on to them through their publisher.

These days are gone.   The number of reviews your book receives from readers on online retailers and sites like Goodreads can be overwhelming.  (I’ve got 222 reviews for Dyeing Shame on Amazon as I write this—and that’s just one retailer.)

It’s feedback—and it can either sting or bolster.  If you’re currently working on a book, you can really mess up your writing mojo by checking out your reviews. 

Reading your reviews can be:

Uninspiring—”Just didn’t do it for me.”  “Boring.”  Not the kind of thing you want to look at if you’re trying to create your next masterpiece.

Disturbing/distracting–  “The formatting didn’t display right on my Kindle Fire”.”  What?  Uh-oh.  Must be Amazon’s new anti-Calibre, pro-KindleGen stance. 

Inspiring…but troubling.  “Great book!  Loved the characters.  Can’t wait to buy the next book!” Can you live up to expectations?

Downright anxiety-provoking: People who really LOVE your work.  I read one review that said: “My mother says Lulu is the only character she’s ever found who she feels is similar to her.”  I was right in the middle of writing the next book in that series and froze. How could I ever give this lady the experience through the character that she’s looking for? It took me days to get my mojo back. And this lady was being nice.

Basically, reviews are completely mesmerizing…when we should be focused on moving forward with our new story.

What you CAN take with you:

Make a list of genuine things to improve from the negative reviews (when you feel brave.) Bad reviews can be useful, if they’re meaty reviews.  Paste reader recommendations into a Word file.

Cut and paste the glowing reader reviews for when you’re feeling down…frustrated at your progress or WiP, depressed from rejections, etc.  Glancing through them can bolster you up without your running into the scary stuff.

In general, we should probably stay away.  Your time is better spent writing the next book. 

And—this should go without saying.  Never respond to reviews.  They’re not talking to us…they’re talking to other readers about us.

How brave are you when it comes to reviews?  Do you read them?  Read them, but only during specific times?  Avoid them?  What’s your personal policy?

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Unfortunately, I wasn’t blessed with the best memory.  And, the busier I get, the worse it gets.

Writing more than one series means that I frequently have to jump from writing a book in one series to a book in another.  I need a refresher to pick back up with the other series.

Style sheets are, obviously, very helpful for this. 

Penguin has been great about sending me style sheets for each book (hoping, of course, that I will use them to eliminate errors and inconsistencies from book to book in a series.)  The style sheets are emailed in a separate attachment from my edits, and sometimes include the email address of the copyeditor on them, in case I want to make changes to the document.

Penguin’s style sheets usually look like this (with the page reference next to the item):

people

Ash Downey 22
Beatrice Coleman (60s, silvery ash-blond hair) 9
Jo Paxton (black hair with white streaks, small, stout) 10
Miss Sissy (old, cadaverous) 18
places
Blowing Rock 34
Blue Ridge Parkway 49
Bub’s Grocery 104
Dappled Hills 12

Additionally, the sheets lists actual style: serial comma use, treatment of unusual contractions, how to handle direct thoughts in the book, word choice, etc. It always amuses me when Penguin adds the word y’all’s to the style sheets they send to me. :)

I’ve also used series bibles that go into greater detail….including things like character traits, habits, hobbies; setting details and any details of recurring subplots. This is useful too, but I still like to have the brief descriptions and the characters’ first and last names on the style sheet for a basic, quick reference.

The sheets were so helpful that I duplicated them for my self-published books. I found, though, that style sheet creation after finishing the first draft, was a time-consuming process.

This might seem obvious, but it wasn’t to me…create the style sheet while you’re writing the book.  It only takes a minute to jot down a character description or the name of the local coffeehouse so you’re not scrambling later trying to remember what you called the coffee shop and whether your character has a moustache or not.

Now, if you decide to change the character’s name, appearance, or the name of the coffeehouse, then you’ve got to remember to change the style sheet or you’ll have a real mess.

So…the style sheet helps while you’re writing the book—by offering a succinct reference that you can click over to as you write the first draft.  The style sheet also helps with edits and consistency.  And the style sheet helps with future books in the series.  I’m a fan.

Although this tool is especially helpful for series writers, I think it would also be helpful for writers who are drafting standalone books. When you’re editing your book, you’ll save time while checking for consistency in the document.

Another helpful cheat for the forgetful writer or the writer who writes multiple books a year: long synopses of each book. I heard from a teacher last week who wants me to Skype with her class about Delicious and Suspicious.  Not a problem…except that I wrote that book four years ago. Fortunately, I have a long synopsis that I put together that should refresh my memory enough to speak with some intelligence (ha!) about a book I wrote. 

Do you use style sheets or other memory crutches? Do you have any other time-saving tips while working on a book?

Image: xenia
 

Recently, I’ve noticed a shift in writers’ opinions
on the importance of blogging as part of a writer’s general platform.