Writer’s Corner: A Bump on the Road to Writing Success
Posted: February 19, 2024 Filed under: book marketing, Book Promotion, Book Release, Book Sales, Books, Children's Books, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Kickstarter, Publishing, Western, Women in History, Women's Fiction, WordCrafter Press, Writer's Corner, Writing | Tags: Kaye Lynne Booth, Kickstarter, Sarah, Women in the West, WordCrafter Press 5 Comments
What went wrong?
I have to admit I was more than a little disappointed when my last Kickstarter campiagn for Sarah didn’t fund. I only run Kickstarters for books that I’m going to publish anyway, and Sarah is no exception, so the book will still go out to distributors, it just won’t have that extra boost the funding from the campaign would have offered. As an avenue for direct selling, I make more than when my books sell through direct sales, so I like to run the Kickstarter campaign first.
For those who did try to back the campaign and were looking forward to reading Sarah, it will be released in May, instead of March. I was behind on my production schedule, and rushing to have the book finished, so as not to delay reward fulfillment. Since I don’t have any rewards to fulfill, I thought I’d slow down the process and leave ample time for editing, so I bumped the release date back to a May release. I’ll send it off with the usual fanfare and book blog tour, so you’ll be sure not to miss it. I do hope you’ll all join us for that.
I’m not letting the failure to fund discourage me from doing other Kickstarters, but instead, I’m evaluating the campaign in an attempt to figure out what went wrong. There are a number of factors to be looked at to determine where the problem might lie. Here are a few.
Duration
In the past, I’ve run 30 day campaigns which were successful. For Sarah, I only ran a 21 day campaign, which Russel Nohelty recommended as the optimal length for a campaign in an interview on The Creative Penn podcast. 30 day campaigns involve a lot of promotion, and I already feel like a pest as I push to get backing for my campaign and sell books, so the thought of doing a shorter campaign felt like a good one. Could an extra week have made a difference? Possibly. I know of at least one backer who didn’t get a chance to check it out before it ended, so maybe, but I was almost $200 short of my goal, so perhaps not.
Rewards
With my first Kickstarter, for Delilah, I offered a higher reward level, in which backers at that level got to name a character in the second book in the series, Sarah. This was limited reward, meaning only two of these rewards were offered, and both were taken. So, I did that again with Sarah, offering two character naming rights in the third book in the series, Marta, and again had both rewards taken, so I’m guessing that it was a sound decision to offer that again.
The Rock Star & The Outlaw campaign offered merchandise, including a poster and a tote bag, which were popular, but also more difficult to deliver. Merchandise is also a bigger expense for the author, which is why I didn’t do anything like that for my last camapign for Sarah. Merchandise reward levels are higher, due to necessity, but the author must consider their cost into the overall funding goal before offering to be sure it is worthwhile. On a small $500 funding goal, there’s not a lot of room for extras without cutting into the profits.
The campaign for Sarah offered rewards of Special Illustrated Editions of both books, which I thought would be a big hit, but they tanked. To my surprise, not one backer pledged at the Special Edition levels. I offered these as exclusive rewards, only available to Kickstarter backers, planning to put them out through distributors at a later date, probably after the third book was out, so I could offer all three as a set, or bundle. Again, I will still publish these through distributors, because the illustrations, done by DL Mullan of Sonoran Dawn Studios, are really, really cool, as are the Special Edition covers, also done by Mullan. But I really want to figure out why these books didn’t draw more interest as rewards, so I’ll be looking at these closer. I even dropped the price on their reward levels, and added an add-on of digital copies, both books for $5, which is a great deal.
Promotions
With my first Kickstarter campaign, for Delilah, I chanced across a promoter who made some ads for me and ran them on their channels for $15. Did they help? I don’t know, but I can tell you that the campaign was successful. However the campaign for The Rock Star & The Outlaw was just as successful, and it had no paid promotions. In fact it even did a little better than the first, so who is to say.
One thing about running a Kickstarter is, you expect your inbox to fill up with messages from people you don’t know, telling you how impressed they are with your campaign, and how they can help you make it a success. It goes with the territory. When it started to look like my campaign was faltering, I checked out some of these cold call messages, thinking maybe I could pay a little for a boost. Unfortunately, the cheapest one I found was $150. For a campaign with a $500 funding goal, that’s a lot. Especially when I’m not sure the one campaign I did paid promos with really benefited all that much from it.
Conclusions
In conclusion, I think I will go back to running my campaigns a full 30 days, as that seems to be a better fit for me and my books. But I will continue with Kickstarter as a part of my marketing plans. I may also take another look at merchandise for rewards for my next campaign, but I don’t think I’ll be looking seriously at using paid promotions, especially not at such inflated prices. I will continue to promote my own campaigns, just as I do my blog and my books.
My next campaign is scheduled for July for the first three books in the My Backyard Friends series; a project I’ve been working on for many years, but unable to publish for lack of an illustrator. I’ll be launching these three books; Heather Hummingbird Makes a New Friend, Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home, and Timothy Turtle Discovers Jellybeans with wonderful illustrations by our own Robbie Cheadle. I’m looking forward to finally getting these books out there, so I hope you will all watch for the July campaign, and back the project or share to help promote it. All support is appreciated, even when the campaign doesn’t fund. I always appreciate my supporters.
About Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Book 1 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah, and her Time-Travel Adventure novel, The Rock Star & The Outlaw. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
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WordCrafter News: Kickstarter Update & My Next Project
Posted: January 29, 2024 Filed under: book marketing, Book Promotion, Books, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Kickstarter, Nonfiction, Publishing, Western, Women in History, Women's Fiction, WordCrafter, WordCrafter Press, Writing | Tags: Kaye Lynne Booth, Sarah, Special Illustrated Editions, The D.I. Y. Author, Women in the West, WordCrafter Press, Writing Reference 5 Comments
Update on Kickstarter Campaign
The Kickstarter campaign for Sarah is in full swing, but we haven’t fully funded yet. I set a $500 goal and we’re only 25% funded. The thing about Kickstarters is that they are an all or nothing deal. The campaign ends on February 12, and if it hasn’t fully funded by then, the backers pay nothing, and the author gets nothing, and all that is lost is the time and hard work put into the campaign. So, when you make a pledge, its just that and you don’t have to pay anything until the campaign ends on February 12, if it funds, and if it doesn’t, you pay nothing, and must wait until March 19th to get a copy of Sarah through distributors.
The good thing is, once funded, the author receives anything over and above the funding goal to help support the project even further. I’ve been discussing doing the series in audiobook with a talented narrator, and if this campaign funds enough above the funding goal, you will see that happen in the future.
That’s why I really want this campaign to be successful. And there’s no reason that it can’t be. We’ve got some exclusive rewards which can’t be found anywhere else: early digital copies of Sarah, signed print copies of Sarah, and Special Illustrated Editions of both Delilah & Sarah. (Special Edition covers and illustrations by DL Mullan of Sonoran Dawn Studios.) Plus both digital and signed print copies of Delilah are available as add ons.
The best piece of advice I was given when learning about Kickstarters was only do campaigns for projects that you are going to do anyway. So, if it doesn’t fund, it won’t mean the end of the project, but it will be disappointing.
You can help, and get some of those great rewards, by backing the campaign before February 12. Your support of the project could help to reach the funding goal and more. Won’t you consider supporting this project?
You can check out the Kickstarter campaign and back this project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kayelynnebooth-wcp/sarah-3/
About the Books & the Series
Sarah is Book 2 of the Women in the West Adventure Series. The series is western historical women’s fiction with strong female protagonists and historical figures from the true life turned fictional in each book.
Sarah
Sarah is a young girl trying to make a place for herself in the world.
Sarah is not the young girl who was stolen away from Delilah anymore. Now she is Hair of Fire, mate of Three Hawks, even as she blossoms into a young woman and tries to make a place for herself among the Ute tribe.
When she is stolen away from the life she’s made with the Utes, she struggles to survive in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. A streak of stubbornness and determination take this tough, feisty heroine up against wild beasts of the forest and the rugged mountain landscape to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where she receives a less than welcoming reception by some.
Will this young woman find her way back to the Ute tribe which she’s come to think of as family, or will she discover a place among the colorful inhabitants of the Colorado hot springs and mining town?
Follow along on her journey to learn who she truly is and where she belongs in this rough, and often hostile frontier.If you like strong and capable female protagonists, you’ll love Sarah.
About Delilah
Delilah is a woman haunted by her past.
Her homecoming from prison quickly turns into a quest for vengeance when she is brutally raped and left for dead, and her fourteen-year-old ward is abducted. Sheer will and determination take this tough and gritty heroine up against wild beasts of the forest, Indians and outlaws to Leadville.
Can the colorful inhabitants of the Colorado mining town work their way into Delilah’s heart, offering a chance for a future she thought she’d lost along with her innocence?
If you like strong and capable female protagonists, you’ll love Delilah.
A New W.I.P.: The D.I.Y. Author
In February, I’ll begin the actual writing of The D.I.Y. Author, my first writing reference book, and I’m excited to tell you about it.
I’ve put together writing reference anthologies in the past, drawing on the expertise of many authors, but The D.I.Y. Author will be the first writing reference book I’ve ever created solo, so I’m very excited, (and a bit nervous), about it. The biggest problem with putting out a reference book such as this one, is imposter syndrome. I mean, reference books are written by experts, aren’t they? So to create a book like this, you must consider yourself to be an expert and be able to convince others that you are so they will read it. I’ve never considered myself to be an expert, in fact I spend a good amount of time learning whatever I can from others whom I consider to be experts. So, looking at myself as the expert is a different point of view for me, a different mindset, but I’m learning. And that is how this book came about.
This book is about a subject that I am an expert about: doing it all yourself on a very limited budget. That’s me. It’s what I do. And in The D.I. Y. Author, I’ll be sharing all the tips and tricks that I’ve picked up along the way. I’ll share with you how I do it, from planning the book, to writing the book, to publishing and marketing the book. And it’s all stuff that you can do, too!
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Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
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Check it out! Robbie Cheadle on the subject of book covers over at Story Empire
Posted: January 17, 2024 Filed under: Book Covers, Books, Women's Fiction | Tags: Book Covers, Robbie Cheadle, Story Empire 9 Comments
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Writer’s Corner: Publishing with Draft2Digital
Posted: January 15, 2024 Filed under: AI Technology, Audio Books, Books, Drat2Digital, Publishing, WordCrafter Press, Writer's Corner | Tags: AI Technology, Audiobooks, Draft2Digital, Publishing, WordCrafter Press, Writer's Corner, Writing to be Read 14 CommentsI’ve posted on the value of publishing wide with Draft2Digital and Books2Read links. You can see my previous article here. I am in no way compensated for sharing information about D2D, but I am a big fan of publishing with them.
As an author and publisher who uses Draft2Digital to publish wide, distributing my books globally, including subscription services and libraries, I’m a huge advocate of their services. But I recently caught episode 333 of the Stark Reflections podcast with Mark Leslie Lefabvre titled, “10 Things You Likely Didn’t Know About Draft2Digital”. In this episode, Mark shares a replay of a presentation he gave at 20BooksVegas in early November of 2023, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were several cool things about publishing with D2D which I didn’t know.
I’ve used D2D to publish since 2018, and I was already aware of many of the great tools and services that they offer, such as royalty payment splitting for collaborations, which I use with WordCrafter anthologies. And of course, I knew about using Books2Read links, so potential readers can find your book through most of the major distributors in one place, and in any format in which your book is available.
The ability to publish through most of the publish on some subscription services and get your books onto the major library distributors was one of the reasons that I chose to go with D2D in the first place. What I didn’t know, was that some authors even use D2D’s free tools to create their book files, probably because it is easy and doesn’t require you to have Vellum or a Mac, and then publish direct onto other platforms without using D2D’s aggregating services, and they are okay with that. I use these tools to create my files for my ARC copies, but I prefer to let D2D do all the heavy lifting for me. Publishing direct to all the distributors that I use through D2D would be an outrageous amount of work.
I was also aware of D2D’s “Refer a Friend” program, which provides you an affliliate link you can share for folks to sign up. Any author who signs up to D2D with your affilliate link earns you a percentage of money earned by D2D from any books they sell over the next two years. Any D2D user can get an affiliate link. If you read this and decide to give Draft2Digital a try, you can sign up through my affilliate link, below, and it doesn’t cost you anything. My affilliate link is paid outof D2D’s cut of any works you sell using D2D as an aggregator. Here is my affilliate link: https://www.draft2digital.com/WordCrafter
There are some promo services which I was not aware of. I knew you could create your own independent promos. In fact, I used this feature to set up the WordCrafter Holiday Book Extravaganza in December, discounting the entire WordCrafter Press backlist. In episode 333, I learned how I can also get my book into D2D promotions, which is really pretty cool when you think about it.
I also learned that D2D now offers free AI narration of audio books through Apple Books. Now this is something that interests me, as audio books have previously been out of reach for me due to the expense of narration. You can see my post and discussion on the use of AI here.I knew they had this coming, but it was in the beta stage the last I had heard. Apparently they have rolled it out, and I will be looking into this further in the near future.
I was so excited to learn about this feature of D2D that I just couldn’t wait to check it out.I’m happy to announce that the AI narrated audiobook of The Rock Star & The Outlaw will be available through Apple Books soon.
Mark Leslie Lefabvre is an expert in the publishing industry, having worked for Kobo before coming to D2D, in addition to being a succesful hybrid author. Honestly, he says it all better than I do, and he knows a lot more about the inner workings of D2D. So if you want to know more about what D2D has to offer, listen to episode 333 here: https://starkreflections.ca/2023/11/17/episode-333-10-things-you-likely-didnt-know-about-draft2digital/
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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Book 1 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah, and her Time-Travel Adventure novel, The Rock Star & The Outlaw. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
_________________________________________________________
Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
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Writer’s Corner: It’s all in the cover
Posted: July 3, 2023 Filed under: Advertising, Book Covers, Book Promotion, Fiction, Kickstarter, Writer's Corner, Writing 5 Comments
The Shopping Experience
When I was a kid, my mom and my grandmother would pile into the car, and we’d drive to the mall, and we’d spend the afternoon going from one store to the next, carefully making our shopping selections. I remember how my mother would pick up items and carefully examine the packaging to be sure she had the correct item that she wanted or needed, before making the final purchase.
A lot has changed since then. The rise of the internet turned the whole shopping experience upside-down with the birth of online shopping. And then, COVID came along and even those resistant rebels, who enjoyed holding possible purchases in their hands and analyzing the packaging to determine whether or not to buy it were forced to shop online, or go without.
The Cover is the Packaging
As authors, we are faced with similar dilimmas. We write books, and the covers are the packaging. The cover is the first thing a potential reader sees, and if it doesn’t immediately grab their attention, there is a whole slew of other books out there to choose from, and they’re gone. Many readers still enjoy the feel of a physical book in their hands, that will never change, but digital readers judge books by their covers, too, because an image of the cover is the first thing any of us see, whether online or in a brick-and-mortar stores. And just like those in person, physical shoppers who hold and feel the product, read the label, and check out the packaging, readers look over the cover, read the blurb and back cover copy, maybe even take a quick peek inside, before deciding whether or not this book is for them.
When I was listening to the 6 Figure Author podcast with Lindsay Buroker, Joe Lollal, and Andrea Pearson, there was one piece of advice which I heard over and over consistently. If your book isn’t selling look at the cover and the back cover copy first. That is probably where you will find the problem. And they’re right.
We don’t have the space here to talk about the back cover copy. That subject is deserving of a post of its own. In fact, I did last year. If you want to start exploring back cover copy, see my “Review in Practice” here.
What Makes a Good Cover?
More advice given by the 6 Figure Author crew: Go onto Amazon and take a look at the top selling books in your genre. This will give you an idea of what kind of covers are expected in the genre. This is good advice, but what it means, is that a good cover for one genre will not be good for another. As a multi-genre author, this was important to know.
I think a cover should be representative of the story it represents, not only the genre on which the story falls. While a good cover needs to meet genre representation and follow the laws of good cover design, a good cover also contains elements of the story itself in its composition. I’ve developed this belief over time from my own experiences, as I’ve learned to design my own covers. Here is where I add my disclaimer that I am not a professional cover designer. (Of course, when you see my covers, you could probably guess that.) Everything I’ve learned about cover design, I’ve picked up on my own. I’ve had no formal training.
To show you what I mean, let’s take a look at the early covers for Delilah.
Cover 1
This is the cover my publisher wanted to give Delilah. The text is stiff and rigid, but my story is a western adventure with action and movement. I was hoping for something a little more fluid.
Anyone who has read the book would take one look and know that isn’t Delilah. This is a contemporary cowgirl. Note the modern jean jacket and hoop earings.
As covers go, the design isn’t bad, but it does not represent the story inside. As a first time author, I knew I didn’t want to publish my book with this cover, so I hustled to come up with a cover at the last minute.
Cover 2
A friend offered to come up with a cover for me on the fly. What did I want it to look like? I had no idea what I wanted. What should a western cover look like? I gave her some vague instructions. Unsure of what I needed myself. This is the cover she produced for me.
The title is much more fluid and I liked that. It offered a feminine touch that said female protagonist, yet was still bold and active, sort of like my character.
The cover image was vague, possibly due to the vague instructions my friend had been given, and I had several people see it and claim they couldn’t tell what it was. I thought it was obviously a horse, representative of the western genre, and perhaps of Delilah’s horse, which becomes sort of a supporting character in the story.
So, this cover was kind of representative of the story, I liked the text better, and it would do in a pinch. I felt the publisher’s cover to be very misleading, and as a reader I would have been surprised when I found that it didn’t match the story, or more likely, I would never even pick it up because the cover does not represent a historic western, and I don’t read a lot of contemporary.
Cover 3
Eventually, I tried my hand at creating my own cover. This was my first attempt. This cover was representative of the story and it had elements which were actually part of the story. It has both prison gates and a hangman’s noose in the background.
But the text isn’t large enough. Both the title and the author’s name should stand out more. Something I learned from Allyson Langueira of WMG Publishing was that you should be able to read the title and author name in a thumbnail. It’s got to look good small. So my text definitely needed to be bigger.
The sillohuette stood out too much in the black & white version, so I added that putrid yellow, thinking of sunlight, just to give it some color. And my sillohuette isn’t doing much of anything. Better, but not great.
I will say my publisher was pretty gracious about switching covers for me. This was the third cover switch for this book, but it wasn’t selling, and the cover was the only thing I had control over that might help. This cover was better than the covers Delilah had had so far, but I had to admit it was not the ideal cover for the book.
We were coming to the end of my five year contract with the publisher, and Delilah had not done well in the sales department. I decided not to renew my contract, as I felt I could do better with it myself. Although the publisher claimed to have done promos, I never saw them. If Delilah was going to do well, I was going to have to promote it myself.
Final Cover
Almost a year later, a revised Delilah, closer to the original I had intended, was released as a part of the Women in the West adventure series. This is the cover I designed for the re-released edition.
The fluidity of the text and the illusion of a moving horse indicate movement. This Delilah is not stagnant, but on the move. She busting out of those prison gates and moving away from that noose fast. In this way, the cover almost tells a summary of the story for me.
The bars have been faded back in this version, so the cover doesn’t look too busy. The woman looks a little bit like a contemporary cowgirl, but not as much as the publisher’s cover did.
Was it the Cover?
In January, I ran a Kickstarter campaign for Delilah and the Women in the West adventure series, which funded, so apparently, I do have a few die hard fans and/or friends out there. During that thirty-day campaign, I sold more copies of Delilah than my publisher managed to do over the period of my five year contract. That doesn’t count copies that sold after the release through distributors, as a result of the book blog tour and other promotinal efforts. It’s not like Delilah became an overnight bestseller, but I do find it curious that in only a few months, this edition of the book has outsold what all of the others did across a five year period. There are other things that could have been the cause of these results, like the new back cover copy, or my extended promotional efforts. So, was it the cover? What do you think?
Covers for the Series
At the time when the Kickstarter ran, I had been playing with the cover for Sarah a little bit, but I had to throw together a cover for the third book, Marta; a story for which I only had a vague concept for, so I only had a very rough draft of a cover to display for the Kickstarter campaign.
I said that part of the money raised in the Kickstarter, would go to redesign the covers for the series. I had two different cover designers, who both stepped down due to personal issues, but I found a cover designer friend who was willing to offer some pointers, so I ended up redesigning them myself. Here is the final result. I think you’ll agree that these covers are much better and I feel that they feel like they go together, and each seems to represent the series brand.
A Word of Thanks
The timing for this post is syncronistic, for as it posts Delilah has been nominated in the 2023 Connections eMagazine’s Reader’s Choice Awards! It looks like Delilah has finished in the top 10 with 85 votes. Considering the contest began on July 25th, and I didn’t find out Delilah had been nominated until the 29th to try and rally support, I think that’s pretty good. I want to thank all of you who did your part and voted for Delilah, some of you several times, since you clould cast your vote once a day. I also want to thank whoever it was that nominated my book. This was the first time I’d ever been involved in such a contest, and it was very exciting, so my thanks for this are huge. I don’t know who you are, but I love you.
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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; and book 1 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
_______________________________________________________
Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
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Writer’s Corner: What’s an Author to Do?
Posted: June 5, 2023 Filed under: Book Sales, Books, Indie Publishing, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writer's Corner, Writing | Tags: Book Sales, pricing strategies, Writer's Corner, Writing to be Read 8 Comments
I usually try to avoid letting loose here when something angers me, but I’ve encountered a situation which I feel deserves a good rant, and so I’m going to tell you what urks me, because I can. You don’t have to listen, or continue reading. If I get too caried away, you can just stop, click out of this blog, and go on to read or view something else, but I’m hoping that you will stick with me. If you are an author on Amazon, it concerns you, and maybe even if you are a reader who makes purchases from Amazon, so that’s just about everyone.
As most of you know, I released Delilah through distributors last month. Now, Amazon always drags their feet when I submit for publication, pre-order and distribution, and they are always the last distributor to accept books for pre-order and sale. The print book comes up early, but the Kindle edition is never accepted until the release day. The same happened with Poetry Treasures 3: Passions, and I had folks chomping at the bit to find the pre-order on Amazon, for their Kindle readers. I’m of the opinion that this is their way to express disapproval of my use of a third party aggregator, instead of publishing direct and exclusive to Amazon, and I expect it. This is obviously detrimental to my pre-orders, but what’s an author to do?
Delilah didn’t show up as available on Amazon until the day of release, but then I noticed that the price they had listed for print was listed as much higher than the price that I had set for the book, and down below, where they show third party vendors, it showed that there were at least four copies that were new or like new, at lower prices, with three supposedly used copies available at the price point I had set. I asked myself, how could there exist all these copies of my book, when it just released and hasn’t even sold that many copies yet? And how can they put a $21.81 price tag, (which is a ridiculous pricing strategy anyway), when the price I set, and the price with all the other distributors, is $16.99? What happened to price matching? I mean, seriously. I put a lot of time in to setting that price. Print books are always overpriced anyway, because of the cost of materials, but I was hoping to find a few readers out there willing to pay $17 for a book by a relatively unknown author, did they really think people would pay almost $23? No wonder I wasn’t selling any books. And if someone did buy a book at that price, I wouldn’t get additional royalties for it, it’s all pure profit for Amazon. How is that fair? Since it is my product, shouldn’t I have control of what price is set?
I directed my questions to Draft2Digital, whose support team is excellent at getting back to you and doing whatever they can to solve any issues their authors and publishers my have. The response I got, was the same reponse that they recieved when they inquired at Amazon – a copy of the Amazon ToS, with the section pertaining to third party vendors highlighted. I signed it, I have to abide by it. D2D support claims this is occuring even with traditionally published authors, whose books are still on pre-order, and third party venders claiming that they have used or like new copies before the first copy has been shipped, and Amazon claims, “We see this practice as a no harm, no foul, just some free (if odd) advertising for the book.”
As consumers, we’ve all seen those little third party vendor boxes, claiming to have copies available for cheaper. I’ve even taken advantage of the lower price for the used copy when I needed the book and my pockets were near empty. I didn’t realize that this might really be false advertising which undermines the authors and publishers of the book. What they are doing is not illegal. The customer does recieve a book for the advertised price. They are saying that these books are being offered by third party venders, but I have my doubts when I know those books aren’t even out there yet. The way I figure it, it has to be Amazon, because there is no way a third party vendor could order a book before it is even released, and get it out to the coustomer in a resonable amount of time, but Amazon can meet the demand and make it appear third party.
As authors, there is only so much much we can do, and the effects of what we can do are very limited. We either sign the Amazon ToC, or we don’t sell on Amazon. As a proponant of going wide, that doesn’t sound so bad, to eliminate Amazon distribution, which you have to jump through extra hoops to get anyway. But I think I need to really evaluate where my book sales are coming from, but I’m guessing that a majority of my book sales come from Amazon, because that’s where most readers go when looking for a book. I know I get some through Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and Kobo, but I’ll bet the sales from all of those channels don’t equal the sales I get from Amazon, regardless of their slightly shady sales tactics.
So, it looks like Amazon has authors right where they want them. They don’t even have to price match anymore. They can set whatever price they want for your book, claim third party vendors, (who may or may not truly exist), have copies which they couldn’t possibly have, regardless that their shady marketing strategies may be sabotaging our book sales. What they are doing is no accident. No. It is purposeful. They are aware of what they are doing, and they covered their butts by writing it into their ToC. Basically, we are helpless to do anything about it. I really am going to take a close look at my numbers, but I doubt I will find that Amazon isn’t as big a part of my sales as I think they are. It would be nice if I could drop Amazon to show them I won’t put up with dishonesty surrounding my product, but the truth is, authors need them, bacause they have become this big conglomerate monster who is the biggest global book distributor, for better or for worse.
I can shout from my blog site, alerting my readers that they can purchase from other distributors and not pay the extorted Amazon price, and I feel I need to, because what Amazon is doing may be legal, but it still feels dishonest, and they are doing it with my product and misrepresenting my brand. I can encourage readers to purchase from other distributors, but I can’t change the reality that most of them will buy through Amazon. I can cancel my Prime subscription, which I did, but I doubt Amazon will loose much sleep over that.
But there may be some hope in sight. Angela, over at Writer’s Weekly, talks about this same problem for other authors, explaining what Amazon has been doing, but not why, and offers some hope that these practices may change soon. It seems backm in 2011, Amazon purchased Book Depository, and they’ve been making them the main buy button on some books, with a higher price and no free shipping. I think the higher prices would be detrimental to sales, and certainly having to pay for shipping would be, especially to Prime memebers who already payfor that benefit in their monthly subscriptions, but apparently Amazon felt they could make more monhey that way? What happened to their price matching strategy? They can’t even match the price the author set for the book, let alone match a discounted price for a book. The good news is it seems like this problem may be ending, as they are getting rid of Book Depository, but I brace myself to see what Amazon will do next to put the screws to authors.
We are not totally helpless. As a publisher, (and if you self-publish, you are a publisher, too), we can publish wide, and offer readers a choice of book distributors. Many may still choose to purchase through Amazon because of ease, because they pay for Prime, because they read digital books on a Kindle device, or just because that’s what they are used to, but at least this way, they have a choice. And to make it easier still for readers, we can use a linking service, such as Books2Read, which gathers all available distributors into one link and visually shows readers that they have a choice. It’s much easier than posting links for each distributor with each promotion, even if you copy/paste. You get Books2Read links automatically when you publish through D2D, but I think it’s free to create an independent account. I’m not sure on that last point, because I have mine through D2D, but I believe it to be true. Let me show you one of WordCrafter Press‘ Books2Read links. When they click on the purchase link for the book in your promo, this is what potential readers see. Then they can choose the distributor of their choice to make a purchase.
This works for authors who choose to hybrid publish, too. Say you want to publish to most distributors through D2D, but you wish to publish direct to Amazon, because they get better service that way, and you want to publish your book in hard cover, which D2D doesn’t do. Books2Read allows you add those other distributor links, so everything is found in one place. WordCrafter doesn’t do this, but I’ll show you what Mark Leslie’s Books2Read landing page looks like for his latest release, Hex in the City, because I know that he is a hybrid publisher, meaning he has some books published traditionally, and others that he’s published himself. I don’t see anyway to purchase direct from his site. That may still be down the road a ways. Publishing wide and using Books2Read to give readers a choice of distributors is one small way that authors can encourage readers to use distributors other than Amazon, distributors that won’t deal with your book in a shady manor or try to screw authors just because they can and get away with it. It probably won’t bring about any drastic changes, but it’s something.
Again, according to Writere’s Weekly, I’m not the only one unhappy with Amazon. Even their own KDP authors appear to be grumbling about the way they treat their own authors by falsely marking books “In Stock”, a determination which apparently effects the costs for shipping authors pay. It’s not exactly the problem which I ran into, but similar. If you think I’m upset, you should check out this story. Some authors are having to fight for their royalties due, it seems, because they spoke out against the big A. Now this is scary. Just think about being an exclusive KDP author and having Amazon decide they don’t like you for whatever reason. If you are exclusive, that’s all of your book sales income. By going wide, you couls at least fall back on the income from other distributors. Even if it isn’t much, it would be better than just loosing everything. You can read more about that here:
It seems like, whether we publish direct through Amazon, or through a third party aggregator, authors are all in the same boat, and Amazon is going to do whatever they want. They aren’t going to change their pricing practices, or their shipping processes, for anyone. They have us over a barrel, because they are the biggest global book distributor. Most book sales come from Amazon, because most consumers chose the ease of shopping and satisfying customer experience which Amazon offers and the other book distributors cannot compete. We could all pull our books and only sell through the other book distributors, but that might be like cutting off our noses to spite opur faces. Let’s face it, for an author, not having your books available on Amazon would be like commiting writing career suicide. Publishing wide and offering readers a choice of distributors sounds like a much better option to me no matter how much Amazon peeves me.
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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
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WordCrafter News: Book Release & Blog Tour, WIP Update & Anthology Cover Reveal
Posted: May 29, 2023 Filed under: Action/Adventure, Anthology, Blog Tour, Book Covers, Book Release, Books, Cover Art, Dark Fantasy, Fiction, Ghost Stories, Horror, Poetry, Science Fiction, Short Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Stories, Time travel, WordCrafter Book Blog Tours, WordCrafter News, WordCrafter Press | Tags: 2023 Short Fiction Contest, Adventure, Anthology, Book Blog Tours, Kaye Lynne Booth, Midnight Roost, New release, Poetry, romance, Small Wonders, The Rock Star & the Outlaw, Time-Travel, western adventure, WordCrafter Press 19 Comments
New Release from WordCrafter Press
I’m pleased to announce the release of my debut poetry collection, Small Wonders: Reflective Poems, which will be June 20, and is available for pre-order at the purchase link below. A lifetime of poetry, for better or worse, I’m throwing them out there for all to see.
About Small Wonders: Reflective Poems
The world is filled with amazing things, if we will just stop a moment and take notice. In this vast universe, we are but tiny individuals, filled with awe and amazement. From reflections on first love, to reflections on growing old. The poems within these pages express a lifetime of unique reflections in Small Wonders.
Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/b6WZ6E
The WordCrafter Small Wonders Book Blog Tour
The WordCrafter Small Wonders Book Blog Tour is scheduled for June 19 – 23.
Join us to learn more about this unique poetry collection and its author, Kaye Lynne Booth. I will be sharing here on Writing to be Read, and visiting the lovely blogs of Robbie’s Inspiration, Un dawnted, and Carla Loves to Read, with guest posts and poetry readings, an interview with DL Mullan, and reviews of my debut poetry collection. And I’ll be giving away three digital copies of Small Wonders, and all you have to do for a chance to win, is show up and comment at any of the stops. There’s one chance possible at each stop if you follow the tour.
Midnight Roost Winning Story & Cover Reveal
The 2023 WordCrafter anthology, Midnight Roost: Weird and Creepy Stories, will be scheduled for an October release. This year we did the anthology like last year’s Visions anthology, with some of the stories coming from the annual short fiction contest and others that came by invitation and were not subject to the competition. Invitational stories include tales by Mario Acevedo, Paul Kane, Chris Barili, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, Christa Planko, Julie Jones, Rebecca M. Senese, Keith J. Hoskins, Michaele Jordan, Joseph Carrabis, DL Mullan, and Patty Fletcher.
There will be some new author names added to the list from the entries that were judged: Robert Kostanczuk, Denise Aparo, Sonia Pipkin, and MJ Mallon. And now…
The Winning Story
I am pleased to announce that the winning story in the 2023 WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest is…
Drumroll please.
“Red Door House”, by Isabel Grey.
The Cover Reveal
And before I go on to the next June news item, I would also like to call your attention to our awesome new and original cover, courtesy of DL Mullan of Sonoran Dawn Studios, below. I had a cover planned for this anthology, but when Dawn offered up this one, I just couldn’t say no. I really like it, and I hope you do, too.
WIP Update: The Rock Star & The Outlaw
In June, I plan to finish up The Rock Star & The Outlaw and gear up for a Kickstarter campaign in July & August. I’ll be setting up the Kickstarter with some awesome reward teirs and creating content to fill those tiers, so you know I will be hard at work. If all goes as planned, I will be wrapping up the final edits and setting it up for a September release by the end of the month. I’m excited to able to share this western time-travel romance adventure novel with all of you, so be watching for it soon.
A time-traveler oversteps his boundaries in 1887. Things get out of hand quickly, and he is hanged, setting in motion a series of events from which there’s no turning back.
LeRoy McAllister is a reluctant outlaw running from a posse with nowhere to go except to the future.
Amaryllis Sanchez is a thrill-seeking rock star on the fast track, who killed her dealing boyfriend to save herself. Now, she’s running from the law and his drug stealing flunkies, and nowhere is safe.
LeRoy falls hard for the rock star, thinking he can save her by taking her back with him. But when they arrive in 1887, things turn crazy fast, and soon they’re running from both the outlaws and the posse, in peril once more.
They can’t go back to the future, so it looks like they’re stuck in the past. But either when, they must face forces that would either lock them up or see them dead.
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There’s still time to get your FREE digital copy of Hidden Secrets, my paaranormal mystery novella.
My Memorial Day gift to you.
Get your FREE copy here: https://books2read.com/u/38RZ2O
Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
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WordCrafter Press’ Spring Writer’s Sale
Posted: May 3, 2023 Filed under: Ask the Authors, Book Covers, book marketing, Book Promotion, Book Sales, Books, Cover Art, essays, Indie Publishing, Interview, Nonfiction, Promotion, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing, Writing Life, Writing Process, Writing Reference, Writing Tips | Tags: Anthology, Ask the Authors 2022, Bobby Nash, Chris Barili, Jeff Bowles, Kaye Lynne Booth, Kevin Killiany, L. Jaagi Lamplighter, Mario Acevedo, Mark Leslie Lebefvre, Nancy Oswald, Paul Kane, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, Spring Writer's Sale, WordCrafter Press, Writing Reference 2 Comments
Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/3LnK8e
Eleven authors share writing tips and advice on writing, publishing and marketing.
Visit the Ask the Authors 2022 page here to learn more about this ultimate writing reference anthology.
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WordCrafter News
Posted: November 28, 2022 Filed under: Anthology, Book Covers, Books, Cover Art, Dark Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Fiction, Ghost Stories, Horror, Nonfiction, Poetry, Science Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Stories, Western, Women's Fiction, WordCrafter News, WordCrafter Press, Writing | Tags: Anthologies, Ask the Authors 2022, Books, Delilah, Kaye Lynne Booth, Once Upon an Ever After, Playground for the Gods, Poetry Treasures, Poetry Treasures 2: Relationships, Refracted Reflections, The Rock Star & the Outlaw, Visions, Women in the West, WordCrafter Press 4 Comments
A look back at 2022
Before we begin to look forward to the coming year, we must first look back to assess the successes and failures of the past year. It’s been a busy year, and we’ve accomplished much
For WordCrafter Press, we published 5 books in 2022.
In April, we released Poetry Treasures 2: Relationships, with an eight day blog tour, which did well enough that I’m looking forward to the release of Poetry Treasures 3 next year. Robbie Cheadle hasn’t shared with me what the theme will be for 2023, but I’m sure it will be a good one.
In May, we released Ask the Authors 2022: Writing Reference Anthology, with a ten week long blog promotion series. Seven of the contributing authors for this book, including me, editor Kaye Lynne Booth got together for a round table discussion on the Stark Reflections Podcast to share writing wisdom and promote the book, here. And it is still available in Kevin J. Anderson’s Writing Career Toolkit Bundle, which you can purchase here. The bundle is only available until December 1, so be sure to grab one while you can.
In July, I graduated from the Master’s program at Western State Colorado University with an M.A. in publishing, and I saw the publication of both my student projects, Gilded Glass: Twisted Myths & Shattered Fairy Tales, which I was on the editorial team for, and Weird Tales: Best of the Early Years 1926-27, which I compiled & edited with Weird Tales editor and award winning author, Jonathan Maberry.
In August, WordCrafter Press published the first of three short fiction anthologies, Once Upon an Ever After: Modern Myths & Fairy Tales, with a six day blog tour and giveaway. Featuring contemporary stories in the classic fairy tale tradition which I handpicked.myself, to create an exceptional by-invitation-only fantasy anthology. This anthology has been our biggest seller in 2022.
In September, the second of the three WordCrafter Press anthologies, Refracted Reflections: Twisted Tales of Duality & Deception, with a five day blog tour. Also, by invitation only, these reflective tales may not be what they seem.
October was a big month, with the release of Visions, the 2023 annual WordCrafter Press anthology. In addition to contest entrries from the annual WordCrafter Press Short Fiction Contest, this year’s anthology had more contributions by invitation, making it the largest anthology WordCrafter Press has ever published. We ran an eight day blog tour with three days of double stops. It was quite a production. Then, we joined up with Sonoran Dawn Studios for the big Halloween book event, All Hallow’s Eve – The Web We Weave on Facebook, where we promoted all 2022 WordCrafter Press releases, with games and giveways, music and movies.
In November, I’ve been trying to do the NaNoWriMo thing with The Rock Star and the Outlaw, a time travel romance adventure novel, inspired by the music of The Pretty Reckless and other artists. It’s not finished until the last day of the month, so I’m still hard at it. I’ve written 28,940 words since the beginning of the month, so I’m not even close But I started with 21, 175 words already written, and I passed the 50,000 word mark this morning.
Also in the month of November, Ask the Authors 2022, is available in the Writer’s Career Toolkit Bundle currated by Kevin J. Anderson. Also included in this bundle are writing references by David Farland and Kevin J. Anderson, Joanna Penn, Mark Leslie Lefebvre, L. Jagi Lamplighter and Aisley Oliphant to name a few. You decide what price to pay for five core books and/or ten more bonus books, all valuable author references, and you can still get it for a few more days.
Preparations and plans for the year ahead
December is pretty much dedicated to the prepartions for the coming year, and I have some really cool things planned. This past year, WordCrafter Press published a total of five anthologies involving around 30 different authors, which was amazing. In 2023, I plan to focus more on my own writing, and I only plan to do the two annual anthologies WordCrafter Press publishes each year; one poetry and one short fiction. The poetry anthology features the guests of Robbie Cheadle’s “Treasuring Poetry” blog series, and she also acts as my co-editor of the Poetry Treasures anthology.
The short fiction anthology is connected with the annual WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest. However this last year, for Visions, I combined the contest entries with stories acquired by invitation, and the other two anthologies were by invitation only. I liked the results of including the invitations, and plan to do the same thing in 2023. The themes for these anthologies will be announced after the first of the year.
As for my own books, I have quite a few planned. I plan to re-release Delilah as a part of the Women in the West adventure series, to be launched with a Kickstarter with lots of cool stuff available for your support around the beginning of the year, so be sure and watch for that. If things go well, I may also be able to release Sarah before the end of 2023.
Also, of course, I will be launching my NaNoWriMo project, The Rock Star & the Outlaw, in the coming year. This western time-travel romance adventure will keep readers on their toes. Based on the music of The Pretty Reckless and other artists, it’s a wild ride that will keep readers guessing.
I’m also planning to put together a collection of my own poetry, which I think will appeal to all the poetry lovers out there, and I am working on several short stories which I hope to find homes for. As always, at least one will go into the annual WordCrafter short fiction anthology. And I’m planning to start a Patreon, and I’m thinking of serializing my science fantasy Playground for the Gods series for that.
2022 was a really good year, and 2023 promises to be just as good, if not better. I would love to hear your thoughts on any of my plans for the year to come. Which potential covers do you like or dislike and why? Which books will you look forward to? What would you like to see offered as rewards for my Kickstarter, or my Patreon? Let me know in the comments. Your feedback is appreciated.
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Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, as a sampling of her works just for joining.
Writer’s Corner: The Value of Going Wide & Books2Read Links
Posted: November 6, 2023 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Book Sales, Commentary, Indie Publishing, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writer's Corner | Tags: Books2Read, Publishing Wide, Writer's Corner, Writing to be Read | 14 CommentsWhy Publish Wide?
We’ve all heard of Amazon. They are the single largest book distributors out there, but they aren’t just a book distributor, but they require exclusivity and they make authors jump through hoops for them to give us a second glance. Now, I admit, I have a problem with going exclusive with Amazon KU, although I know there are may authors out there who do quite well. But Amazon also has a habit of cancelling author accounts for percieved infractions to their Terms of Service. So, just stop and think for a moment what would happen if Amazon were to decide that something you do violates their TOS and cancels your account. You can appeal the decision, and you might even win, but in the meantime, your books are not available anywhere and you’re loosing money, or at least the potential for money.
Most of us have heard of Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple Books, and Rakutan Kobo. These are the larger book distributors, and books are what they do, so authors can get a little loving care when dealing with these guys, but with the exception of Smashwords, you may have to be an author with a bigger name to get noticed. But here’s the thing. Publishing on each of these platforms is possible, (with the exception of KU, which requires exclusivity, but Amazon will let you publish without being in KU), but it would be very time-consuming. Any time that I spend publishing, is time that I’m not writing, so for me, publishing once to D2D and letting them take care of the rest is appealing.
Some distributors are only available in certain countries outside the U.S. Others are subscription services, or like Overdrive, sell only to libraries. My books are available on all of them and I only have to hit publish twice: once for the digital format and once for the print book. To me extending my reach in this way just makes good sense.
Why Use Books2Read Links?
I work with a lot of authors doing WordCrafter anthologies, and I ask them all to use Books2Read links in their promotions. I’ve had several people feeling the need for an Amazon link, because that is what they’ve become accustomed to. I had to explain that the Amazon link shows up under the Books2Read link, along with links for Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Rakutan Kobo, Scribd, Smashwords, Baker & Taylor, Overdrive, Tolino, Bibliotheca, Odilo, Borrow Box, Palace Marketplace, Gardners, Vivlio, and others. Google Play is the only one I know of that D2D does not work with. If you haven’t heard of some of the above distributors, don’t be surprised. I hadn’t either until I started publishing through Draft2Digital.
Every book I publish through D2D gets a Books2Read link, so with one click readers can find links for all the distributors carrying my book and select their favorite distributor in order to make their purchase. This makes my books available on all devices, not just Kindle. Above is a screenshot of my Books2Read landing page for The Rock Star & The Outlaw. You can see the distributors where my books are available. There may be others where print is available, but print links must be added manually, so I’ve only added the two largest ones. I’ll add others down the road when I find time. There are enough distributor choices here to reach readers on any device in many different countries.
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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Book 1 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah, and her Time-Travel Adventure novel, The Rock Star & The Outlaw. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
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