Points To Ponder

As I withdraw from the World of Social Media, I'm feeling less stressed. I've stopped lurking on every writer's site on the web, and I'm getting more active around the house. As a person with an addictive personality, I find that I've been addicted to being online. 

I'm sure that my attempt to liquidate #TheHoard will pull me offline quite a bit. It might be enough to shake it off.

I'm making quite a bit of progress with the latest short story. It's twice as long as what I started with, Mom didn't do dialog. I've centered it in the Harbor, where I believe she intended it to take place.  I've decided NOT to release it via Amazon, Select/Unlimited -- as I have with the recent e-books,

Since Amazon announced changes to it's Select/Unlimited programs, I've taken a long hard look at my results.

Frankly, from where I stand, Amazon is no longer a viable market.

Two days of freebies resulted in 12 d/ls for "Shelter From The Storm" last weekend. Two days for "Character Flaw" gave 2 d/ls, 1 a day.

I can do better than that on both B&N and Apple's iBooks and get a few sales on other e-books after the giveaway.

It's time for me to drop out of Select/Unlimited for good.

Oh, and PS - buy my books. :-)

The Sky Is Falling! Kindle Select Pays By The Page

First of all, I need a Puppy Break.

Aren't they cute? That's Trouble (with the slipper in his mouth) and Mocha the Great Watch'em Dog.

Now that my breathing has returned to normal - let's talk about Amazon's newest program in Kindle unlimited. The Blogosphere would have us think it was designed to make us Indie Writers insane.

Remember, these changes only apply to e-books enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

Look at the puppies, and breath. (Make sure Carole isn't around.)

My mother's Short Stories are released in Kindle Select. Usually I put them in Select, wait a week, crank out all the free days and when the 90 days are up, I go ahead and release them from captivity.

I do that to give them a boost. I might get 1 or 2 halo sales, but not too many.

So I understand why ANY changes are making other people crazy. The whole WORLD is in chaos! The economy stinks, mad-men with guns are walking into churches and killing middle-class citizens, Steven Colbert has vanished and Jon Stewart is quitting. (Ulp, back to the puppies.)

The fact that Publishing Bloggers, like The Little Red Hen, are screaming "THE SKY IS FALLING!" doesn't help me a bit.

It's okay, really, it's all click-bait.

Look at the puppies. (Carole isn't around, it's safe.)

Maybe Amazon is trying to lure the Novelists back to Select/Unlimited. If that's true, then it's going to pay to be a Novelist again. At $0.60 a borrow, Select and Unlimited don't pay a lot, so longer works shouldn't be trapped in the system.

I used Select when it first came out, hit the Amazon UK Best Seller's List and rode that pony for 10 long and lovely weeks. Then the algorithm changed, and that pony didn't go as fast or as far after that. My work settled deep in the mulch layer, and has never been able to dig it's way out. Yikes!

Here's another pretty face:

That's Grumpy, in full length fur. Ain't he squee-worthy?

We work hard for our sales. Some people have success, others don't. It really sucks to go from Best Seller to micro-seller. But that's what happened to me. When Amazon changed over to Kindle Unlimited, my sales tanked. I went six months without one damn sale on Amazon.

Publishing is a craps-shoot. It's worse than D-n-D. You roll the dice, pay the price and there's nothing in the world that will give you a +1 bonus.

The Honeymoon is long gone.

For me, the advantage, when there was one, of releasing Mom's short stories to Select/Unlimited is pretty much gone. Amazon's lowest price, $0.99 yields $0.35, which is better than $0.01 or $0.10. With an average of 12 d/ls for 2 free days, no halo sales and no lift in sale's rank, why wait 90 days to hit a dozen more markets?

I can get a better run on Apple's iBook with either Smashwords or D2D, WITH halo sales and a bump in sales rank.

The playing field levels out.

For a rational examination of Amazon's new policy, I recommend this post The Great Amazon Hysterian...Part 31 by David Gaughran. 

For a gentle scolding if you've already become hysterical Elizabeth Hunter posted this gem: For Indie Writers: You Have The Control. Own it!

PS - Please buy my books.*

* (They say Barry Eisler ends his posts with 'Buy my crap.' I figured 'what the hell?')

Draft 2 Digital - Update

I'm pleased to say that I'm getting some results from Draft 2 Digital.

I've had books on the site for two years now, and had ZERO sales. But I'm a bit more than frustrated with Smashwords. Half of my frustration is their content, every pornographer in the world uses them, the other half is the fact they hold earnings for 3 months before they pay.

So I switched over to D2D. They post faster, and the books appear to have better visibility. (They aren't being filtered for content, which helps.)

The results are encouraging.

My B&N downloads of free books are double what they were from Smashwords. Or at least the reporting is twice as fast. On Smashwords I get one or two d/l of Impressive Bravado a day, but The Emissary might as well be invisible.

On D2D, I've already had 20 d/l of The Emissary this month.

Why the difference?

Content filtering, is my guess. As Smashwords panders to the pornographic, B&N is forced to blanket filter their content - it all goes into the mulch layer and stays there. They don't have time to sort it, so it all gets about 10k 'points' added to the rank to keep it from dominating the charts.

Since D2D doesn't carry that content, the files have an even chance of being seen, which is a BIG boost to a small-fry like myself.

Why do I say this? Impressive Bravado (via Smashwords) has been a steady give-away on B&N for 3 years, it has a rank of 113k. The Emissary, Smashwords version, is invisible. I can't find it with a simple search. However, the D2D version is sitting pretty with a rank of 101k.

My work has always sold better on B&N than on Amazon. Smaller venue, better chance to be seen. But the NookPress website offers no advantage, and is being curated by Author Solutions; of all the drek vanity publishers in the world, Author Solutions, under all it's aliases, is the worst.

Unfortunately, I can't close the NookPress account, just like with KoboWritingLife, there's no way to close the account as an author and no way to get your money out if you have them do it. (Both sites have owed me $9 for years, I'll never see that money.)

In case you are curious, I'll clarify my methods. I uploaded all my short fiction to D2D two years ago, where it did nothing. I've been getting a smattering of d/ls of freebies on Smashwords, but only about $10 of sales per year. (Most of those were Sony Sales.) This February I uploaded Mom's short stories to D2D, made a couple of hers free and one of mine (Impressive Bravado) her's started to get some action when I re-did the covers.

The Emissary started getting hits on B&N via D2D with the new cover. I couldn't even FIND the Smashwords version on B&N, so I pulled it. They report 2 months in arrears on Smashwords, while D2D has promised to report daily starting yesterday.

Oh, what a difference a day made.

I'm showing 11 d/ls of The Emissary in May and 10 for June. The Emissary has FINALLY been discovered on B&N!

I'm handling the switch-over very carefully. First, I've raised all Smashwords prices to $.99. I'm handling all the freebies via D2D. Then I started pulling all the Smashwords files from vendors who have hooked up with both companies.

The wild card is Apple, currently my best vendor for Impressive Bravado. Switching over to Apple has proven trickier. First off, they require ISBNs from Smashwords. However, they do not appear to require ISBNs from D2D.

I may not switch over on Apple. Upsetting the Apple-cart is not in my best interest. We'll see what happens with freebies vs dollar-dreadful on Apple.

If I can start making money on Apple, I'll leave Smashwords alone.

IMO Kobo is a black-hole. Kobo is a black-hole even if you have an account in Writing Life. I've found it impossible to get any ACCURATE sales information out of them since Day 1. (Shrug) They never update covers, or files, or prices and they never pay.

Meanwhile, I earn a dollar or two from Amazon each month.

I suppose this is as good a time as any to make this announcement: I'm pulling out of the e-book business at the end of 2015. 

I had two books hit the Best Seller's List - it was fantastic - but it didn't last. Since 2012 my best month was $14 last year. I can't justify all the time I spend online for zero return.

I'm going to finish up all the current projects in time for the Winter Reading Season, in my spare time. I'm pulling e-books from every market that has zero return at the end of 2015.

I intend to get rid of The Hoard, get Talbot Hill sold and get a Real Life.

New Release 'Girls Who Wear Glasses'

This blog is officially www.kajordan.net

I'm not sure what to do with it, today. I've got some long-term plans, and a some research to do, but for now...

This is where I am.

Confession - I haven't done much with this blog since my parents came to live with us, several years ago. There were so many details of my life that I didn't want to blog about, so I let this blog, which once had a couple thousand hits per month, lapse into obscurity.

Now I'm wondering what to do next.

My e-books have suffered from the same dysfunction. But I think it is perfectly understandable when end-of-life issues come to play. Some people can roll with these enormous disruptions. I'm not one of them.

Losing my mother, and my step-father's health issues flattened me. The stress of that put stress on my mental and physical health. I was still working my way out of my own mess, which came to a head on March 9th, when I had my gallbladder out.

I am still working on my parent's property and the barn full of things they left behind when they moved to my home.

I'm still publishing my mother's short stories. One went out last night and went on sale this morning.

"Girls Who Wear Glasses" can be found world wide on Amazon, but alas, only on Amazon for 90 days. The Amazon US link is here. The Amazon UK link is here. The Amazon CA link is here.

The e-book is part of "Tales From The Leeward Lounge II" which has yet to be published. The story is set in the 1970's. I've edited it to enhance the flavor of the times. I think it came out quite well.

The e-book will go free on the 9th of April 2015 and will run free for 5 days. After 90 days it will come off Kindle Select and I will publish it to other vendors.

I'm working on my mailing list. The goal is to publish once a month, and have the titles of the new releases and the free dates in the newsletter.

We'll see if I can stay focused, I'm not promising anything.

Enjoy the new story.

The Jitters Strike!

I don't remember having the jitters this bad when I published 'Swallow the Moon.'

For 'Let's Do Lunch' - I had a staggering case of the jitters because it was Self-Publishing in 2010 - when there was no such thing as Indie publishing - Self-Publish was Vanity Publishing which was for losers.

Part of the problem is being a Finalist for Best Novella at the e-Festival of Words.

The majority of the problem is my father is in the hospital with a broken hip and intermittant demensia. I can't concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time.

Spent all day yesterday listening to Mark Coker of Smashwords talk about signing a book up for Pre-Orders with Apple iBook Store, Barnes & Noble and Kobo.

I haven't had more than a sale on B&N or Kobo that wasn't via Smashwords in more than 2 years. Kobo owes me money from 2 years ago that I will never see.

Apple, vai Smashwords is my biggest market with B&N via Smashwords second. (The irony of the situation does not escape me.) This is since Sony shut it's doors. My understanding is Kobo took over the Sony market place.

That's the data I have to keep in mind as I decide how to launch 'The Emissary - Arrival' which is sitting on my hard drive as an ARC.


What to do? What to do?

Can't pre-order on Amazon and have no history of sales there for 'The Emissary.' (There was a spike of freebies, but no sales after, nor was there a 'halo' effect on other books.) KDP worked once (for 'Let's Do Lunch') but having my ebooks vanish off other markets for 90 days is asking WAY too much for 1 or 2 sales a month. (It killed my B&N sales - they've never recovered except via Smashwords.)

I launched "The Emissary - Horsewomen of the Zombie Apocalypse' via KDP to the loudest sound of crickets EVER.

The way forward appears to be through Smashwords Pre-Order Program.

So that's what I'm going to do.

Now, excuse me, I need to visit my father at the Rehab hospital.

Scrivener - Making Order Out of Chaos

I've written about Scrivener before. You can get it at Literature and Latte a UK site for writers and this marvelous software.

 Scrivener isn't just a word processor. It's a document database - an organizer for the flotsam and jetsam of the mind. I've got 30 odd years of flotsam, all over the place.

We're talking 5 or 6 copies of different directories and umpteen copies of some things I'll never use again, in software that couldn't be translated by a modern computer.

I bought Scrivener just to put my fragmented story files into some kind of order.

It works!

A week ago, I started over with some my mother's short stories. As I loaded in previously published stories, I realized that a few small changes would make publishing easier.

If I made a folder for each story, I could mark that story "To Do," "First Draft," "Revised," or even "Finished."

Since the bio and back matter would all be the same, I put those in their own folder, instead of in every story. That way I could use it over and over.

It now looks like this:

Irene's Volumn One
    Story Folder
       Story 1
          Copyright Page
          Short Story 1
   Back Matter Folder
       Author Bio
       Editor Bio
       Other Works

This has tamed the nightmare of files on my hard drive AND I can compile to an epub file and load it all directly on to the vendor sites. The investment of setup time has paid off in frustration.

Each volumn of short stories will have it's own folder - and I can update the backmatter of all of them in just a few minutes, not running through 20 stories. One update and compile - upload - done.

Wow! This is more like it.

Now, if I could just get 358 e-book covers!

Free in Australia & US -- Swallow the Moon

I noticed this last night:

Swallow the Moon - Amazon Australia #FREE!

• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,919 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)

• #8 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror > Ghosts

And just a few minutes ago, I noticed it was now free in the US!

Swallow the Moon - Amazon US

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,267 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#42 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > Paranormal > Ghosts
#87 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > Holidays

So get your copy, now.

And, if you like the story, please leave a review.

Thanks!

Giveaway Madness - FUN!

Now that's cool - "Let's Do Lunch" and "50 Shades Darker" on the same page.

But the best is this one:



Hello La Nora! (Waves happily.)

 This giveaway has been a bright spot in my week. Pixel of Ink picked 'Let's Do Lunch' as one of their afternoon freebies. The numbers are staggering!

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store) 
#3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Romance > Romantic Suspense
As you can see - "Lunch" is also #9 on the FREE Contemporary Romance Chart.

• Now I have to drive home from Ashtabula without peeking for 9 hours! (WAAAA!)
  I'll check back later. 
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