Super Surprise!

Those of you on my mailing list should have received my March 2023 newsletter late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. The promised link for a free copy of Invasion! on BookFunnel was included.

If you can't find the email/newsletter, please check your spam folder. The offer is good until Saturday, April 1st. Make sure you download Invasion! before Saturday!

For everyone else, Invasion! will be available on retail sites later this week.

Thanks for your patience while I catch up on last year's books!

Looking Outside Your Own Industry for Ideas

I often run marketing ideas past DH. Yeah, I know he doesn't work in the publishing industry. That's exactly why I talk to him about this stuff.

Writers are often locked in an echo chamber, where marketing that's trending is pushed without any regard to whether it works or not. Often, my first about a method is what's the ROI (AKA return on investment). I have yet to hear a real answer.

At least, I'm asking the questions. A lot of writers don't.

The old ways of advertising, such as book review blogs, 99-cent sales, and simply announcing you have a new book out doesn't work like it used to.

I've been examining online advertising. The following is me thinking out what I'll do in the future.

If I run Amazon ads, I'm  merely giving more revenue to the company beyond what I pay them to host my wares. How does that help me especially when I have to jump through targeting hoops? I look at the folks who target my books, and I often wonder what they are thinking. Especially when their books aren't remotely similar to mine. Then, there's the issue of randomly turning your ads on and off.

Then, there's Facebook. I'm on there in a limited fashion. DH set up a fan page off his account around ten years ago. I admit I'm not real happy with FB's recent actions, including selling personal data of users, not upholding its own rules equitably, and it's promotion of white nationalists. Furthermore, it will also randomly turn ads on or off without notice to the advertiser.

Which brings me to BookBub ads. The ads are on the e-mails BookBub sends out daily so they seem to be a little easier to target for a specific subgenre. Readers sign up for the daily e-mails so I would have a willing and more receptive audience. Plus, I haven't heard any complaints about BookBub trying to snatch additional revenue by turning on an ad without authorization.

But something else is coming back.

Free!

Even DH's company provided free services to old and new clients for one day last month. The free offer was limited in scope and duration, but it sponsored some good will among their clients.

Which brings me to something I used to do--offer free books.

I didn't do it all the time, but enough I earned some loyalty from readers. Unfortunately, that loyalty dissipated in the chaos my real life became over the last few years.

But I talked it out with DH last night, and I plan on including some old and new ideas over the next few months. We'll see what happens, and I will report my findings here.

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 14: Some Good Things

A lot of us are under lockdown orders from our cities or states here in the U.S. A lot of creatives have stepped up to keep us entertained during the coronavirus crisis.

Sir Patrick Stewart is promoting free streaming from CBS All Access from now until April 23rd using the code GIFT.

Amazon is allowing free access to kid's programming as well as some adult fare.

Amazon is also offering free streaming music. Many artists are doing free concerts from home on Facebook Live. In fact, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood managed to crash the Facebook Live server yesterday. LOL

Fellow authors are offering free or hugely discounted books. Here's some of my favorites:

My colleague and friend Libbie Hawker put a bunch her books on sale for $0.99. She writes historical literary fiction, and I highly recommend her Hatshepsut series.

The Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Trust discounted a ton of their books to $0.99-$2.99 including the volumes of Sword and Sorceress I'm in. If you have been wanting to pick them up, now's the time to do it.

Fellow sword and sorcery author Jonathan Moeller has the first book in his Ghost series, Child of the Ghosts, for $0.99. I love, love, LOVE this series. This was my go-to read while I was recovering from cancer surgery.

If you have a subscription to Kindle Unlimited or you want to try out the 30-day FREE TRIAL (which is a good idea if you're going to be stuck in your home for the next month), I suggested the following cozy witch series:

Amanda M. Lee - Wicked Witches of the Midwest
Ellie Moses - Hillbilly Hexes Cozy Mysteries
Bella Falls - Southern Charms Cozy Mysteries


On top of that, ComiXology is offering a free 60-day trial.

Even better, studios are sending movies that were released in theaters right before things hit the fan straight to streaming services. As I mentioned Monday, the digital version of Birds of Prey was released. And I was super excited when I received an e-mail from Sony saying that Bloodshot was available yesterday as well.

I know things are nerve wracking with the current crisis, especially when it comes to jobs and money. DH and I are in the same boat as all of you. But hopefully, these cheap or free entertainments will brighten your week.

When an Entitled Nutcase Doesn't Understand How Writers Make a Living

First of all, let me say this: Most readers are super-fucking awesome!

If you're one of the super-fucking awesome readers who buys our books, borrows them from the library, and/or tells their friends how great our books are, THIS POST IS NOT AIMED AT YOU.

Because if you're a super-fucking awesome reader, you didn't do any of the shit I'm about to vomit rant over.

Last Monday, writer M.A. Kropp wrote about a writer friend who had a very weird experience with an e-mail she received from a reader. I've learned about people trying to find my books for free, but I've never had someone lecture me about how I charge too much (by the way, most retailers insist on a minimum of $0.99 for e-books) and demand I give them books for free to my face. But that's exactly what an alleged fan/entitled nutcase did to Kropp's friend.

Writing is my full-time job, folks. How would you feel if you were paid on Friday, but then your employer sucked the money out of your bank account on Monday because he felt you didn't deserve to be paid for your work and you should do it for free? And this doesn't happen once. It happens every fucking week. Would you stay with that employer?

Kropp's friend blocked the reader. And apparently, the retailer discovered the abuse of their return policy because the entitled nutcase sent another e-mail berating Kropp's friend for blocking her and forcing her to open another account.

Do accidental one-clicks or double gifting happen? Of course. That's not what Kropp or Rosalie Stanton, who discusses the issue from a part-time writer's standpoint, mean.

It's when someone buys the first book in a series on Monday and returns it on Tuesday. Because, you see, if the book wasn't to the reader's taste and they didn't finish it, we totally understand. It's when the reader buys Book 2 on Tuesday and returns it on Wednesday, buys Book 3 on Wednesday and returns it on Thursday, etc. that we know the reader is simply gaming a retailer's system RATHER THAN GOING TO THE FUCKING LIBRARY!

Yes, that's right. Libraries carry our books, even indies, and you can always put in a request to your librarian for an inter-library loan.

And guess what? It's especially easy with e-books to keep track of serial returners. Granted, retailers like Amazon will let you do returns hundreds of times before they shut down your account, but they will do it eventually.

The really sad part is that there are all sorts of book giveaways ALL THE FUCKING TIME if a reader wants free books.

- Sign up for a writer's newsletter
- Sign up for daily newsletters like BookBub, eBook Soda, Book Gorilla, or Book Barbarian.
- Check Goodreads giveaways.
- Sign up to be a reviewer at a book review blogging website
- End of the day deals at garage sales and library sales

What you don't do is send nasty e-mails to a writer berating them for trying to make a living. Especially if you want more books to read.

And if you're a super-fucking awesome reader, I hope you continue to be one!

Amazon, James Crawford and the Rise of the 'Bot Overlords

For once, I'm wearing my programmer and ex-lawyer hats as well as the writer/publisher hats.

On Tuesday, Galley Cat ran a story on indie writer James Crawford. It seems Mr. Crawford's book Blood Soaked & Contagious was priced at $0.00 by Amazon without his knowledge or approval. Dianna Dilworth's article at GC strongly insinuates that Amazon deliberately screwed Mr. Crawford out of the royalties of the 5,104 books that were downloaded during the free period.

The following is merely speculation on my part on how this happened:

Mr. Crawford states in the comments over at The Passive Voice that he'd distributed the free sample of his novel through Smashwords.  Even though he'd unpublished the sample, it remained on Barnes & Noble for some time.

So let's say the free sample of BS&C was still on Barnes & Noble's website when an Amazon 'bot strolled by.  The 'bot pulls out his master list. Ooo, same title and same author. 'Bot starts comparing the first X words of found book against his list. Perfect match. 'Bot runs back to Amazon's Master Computer, screaming "I've got one!" The Amazon Master Computer matches the price of the Amazon version with the version the 'bot found.

Now from a programmer's POV, I wouldn't program the 'bot to check every single word of the document.  Why? It's inefficient and slow.  If the first, let's say, twenty percent of the document matches, odds are high that it's the same document.  Mr. Crawford's free sample chapters fell within that X% sampling that the 'bot took. The 'bot's programming said, "If X = Y, then I go narc."

Now, I'm not blaming Mr. Crawford for the snafu either. It made sense to put out free sample chapters prior to releasing a book UNDER THE OLD SYSTEM of marketing to create buzz. Sample chapters with the same title because you WANT people to find your book.

The problem is that old system of marketing doesn't exactly work under the new paradigm.  When an e-book is uploaded to a retailer like Amazon or a distributor like Smashwords, they AUTOMATICALLY create a FREE SAMPLE.  The writer/publisher doesn't need to do that anymore.

Now I'm not saying an indie writer SHOULDN'T create pre-release buzz.  But he/she needs to look at alternatives under the new paradigm than posting a sampler on a retail site where confusion can happen.  Personally, I post the first chapter on my readers blog.  But there's lots of other methods.

On the legal side:

Smashwords's contract specifically states you're not supposed to post unfinished works to their site.  Both Amazon's KDP contract and Barnes & Noble's PubIt contract state that the retailer is allowed to price match if they learn that you're selling the e-book for less elsewhere. So the 'bot, based on its programming, assumed Mr. Crawford had posted Blood Soaked & Contagious at a lower price.

So neither side is entirely blameless. But I don't believe either side intentionally tried to do anything wrong either.  Should Amazon be liable for the royalties on the 5,104 books accidentally given away for free?  Regardless of intent of the parties, Mr. Crawford would have to prove he could have sold those books without the price drop.  That's going to be very hard to do.

The biggest problems here are:

1) Amazon's handling of the situation.  They should have handled communication with Mr. Crawford better after the snafu occured.

2) Programming of the 'bots.  Can the programming be modified to prevent such problems in the future?

3) Should Amazon remove Mr. Crawford's books from people's Kindles? Let's see. One pissed off writer versus 5,104 pissed-off customers. Nope, I can't see that happening. And if I were in Mr. Crawford's shoes, I wouldn't want it to.  5,104 one-star reviews from irate readers who had their supposedly free book taken away is not going to help my sales.  Not one little bit.

4) Galley Cat's handling of the story leaves something to be desired.  Kris Rusch wrote a pretty thorough essay on the yellow journalistic aspects of the initial story.  Look, I know everyone in trad-publishing looks at Amazon as the Evil Empire, but take a page from the LAPD manual.  Don't make the mistake of having racist cops try to frame a guilty black man.  It doesn't work.

Angry Sheep now stepping off her soapbox.  Have a terrific weekend, everyone!