YOUR BOOK WON’T SELL ITSELF
The proof came last Friday and within an hour I’d dealt with a load of formatting issues I hadn’t spotted during the last check on the screen and with my wife completing the proofread the same day I had the new manuscript uploaded and author copies ordered on Saturday whilst I was at my event.
On Sunday I decided to the get the ARC copies out to a load of volunteers and at the same time I sorted out the Kindle version and had submitted it to Amazon within a few hours. Before the day was out I got an email from the review team to say that they’d rejected the book title, giving me a vague stock set of possible reasons which gave me no idea what the specific problem was. I emailed back asking for more specific information and a couple of hours later they came back to say that I needed to remove the word ‘journal’ from the title.
Now bearing in mind the book is called, ‘Your book won’t sell itself,’ with the subtitle, ‘An introduction to writing, publishing and selling your books,’ I was more than a little confused. I dually emailed back to politely vent my confusion and eventually they came back to say the reason was ‘unnecessary repetitive terms or phrases within the title, subtitle or series field. (Ex: Book – Books).’
The only repetition could have been with sell in the title and selling in the subtitle, so I changed the subtitle on the listing to be ‘An introduction to writing and publishing,’ and it went through. All this bearing in mind that the paperback with the exact same original title and subtitle was approved with not hassle and I hadn’t actually changed the title on the cover. I’m still confused as to what the issue was. Anyway, it’s on pre-order for 12th May!
All the while I started getting feedback from my ARC readers, and they’re loving the book. Here’s a selection of the comments I’m getting!
“Finished. Now I’m thinking about writing a book. Seriously. Thanks.”
“Lots of interesting stuff in there, some of which took me years to work out, so it’s definitely handy for someone coming to it fresh from the beginning.”
“It was very thorough and easy to read. Thank you for your honesty I’m sure it will help a lot of aspiring writers.”
“Very nice! Being a newb I couldn’t put it down. You delivered a lot of info but kept it light and enjoyable. I almost clicked the link. That was really well executed. I liked the Hell out of it.”
Plus I also have a great 5 star review against the paperback. I have about five more reader to read by 12th May so hopefully they will be as equally happy with the read.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Despite the long weekend I have managed to keep up the pace on Their Right to Vengeance and I’m about 87% through the draft, possibly with only a week to go if I can keep it going through this next long weekend!
I’ve also had an idea for a new non-fiction book which I’m jotting a few more ideas around but it’s not well formed enough to let the cat out of the bag yet!
EVENTS
Last Saturday I was at Cranleigh in Surrey and it was certainly a turn up for the books, but not in a good way. The weather was beautiful and the village was really busy, in part because of an outdoor antiques fair running on the main street. All of this should have meant a bumper influx of people, but by gone 1pm I had not sold a single book. I was gutted. The latest I’d gone before was maybe a couple of hours but with just under three hours to go I had resigned myself to a massive loss for the event, or perhaps not selling a single thing.
Around 1:30 I sold a short story pack for £3. I was off the mark, and that seemed to be a turning point. I went on to sell well for around an hour before it went quiet again, then I sold another right at the end of the day as I was packing up. By the time I’d left the event I was sitting much prettier with a loss of only £4. Phew. Crisis averted and to me that was like a win. It can hopefully only get better at my next event in a weeks time!
ADVERTISING DIARY
The April advertising campaign was a definite success. Having spent £150, and after considering my normal natural sales level, I made an additional £150 in April. A 100% return on investment is not bad! For May I have refreshed the advert and have changed to a new image both because it will help the algorithm and to advertise to those who bought book 1 in April. I won’t be tracking this one as closely but I will certainly be keeping an eye on it.
On another subject, poking around Author Central on Amazon I spotted that Amazon now show how many followers you have. These are people that have selected to follow you and are eligible to notified via marketing emails from Amazon that you have a new book out within 60 days. I have 794!
That’s if for today. Back next week after the King officially gets his crown and on the day of my next release!
GJ Stevens 