Suzy Ayers
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Self publishing is like being the Mad Hatter on Crack #advice for authors

3/9/2014

2 Comments

 
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If you don't know me, Alice in Wonderland is my favorite book of all time. ;) One of these day's I'll do it justice.
So, I was sort of laughing when someone brought up that a friend asked them what self-publishing/
indie writing entailed. First—let me insert here if someone asks that’s better than the latter…oh writing is so easy, write the thing and put it up there. It reminds me about each and every time a new writer asks me for advice on anything. I’ve had a few that said that’s too ridiculous (perhaps thinking, this girl has no idea what she’s talking about…lol).

Think of the Mad Hatter on crack…this is who you have to be.

What do you mean…all you have to do is write the story, right?

Let’s see here...hmm write the story. This is tougher for some, writers block, research, etc. My problem is the opposite. I have too many ideas and stories to keep up with!

Step two edit, step three edit, step four edit…haha, you get the idea. Too many people complain they don’t have money for an editor, well you better be damn sure you have an eagle eye and have critique partners. What is a critique partner? They are person who reads/writes in the genre you write and will read your story and edit it. I do track changes for my CP’s. Also, I have software that reads back my text. The good thing about eBooks is you can re-read it at a later date and upload a new version. And yes now that I have come along, I have found an editor. Editors: there are many different kinds of editors, find the one you need (content, grammar, etc). This is why a CP is like gold, they can tell you your “issues”.

After this is the cover, be willing to spend some money, but not an exorbitant amount. Some people spend $250 for a cover. This is crazy! I was under the naive notion that I could do my own. Um, did I mention yet that I am a control freak? It was a sloppy mess. I bought some covers from selfpubbookcovers.com and I was very happy with them. But I admit, I needed a better understanding of what sells. People clearly DO judge a book by its cover. I have made Bound for Pleasure, but not without help. I still struggled with understanding GIMP II.

Since then I have purchased the pictures for covers and had someone help me with them. I trade work in kind and basically say verbatim what I want. This isn't to say she isn't talented, I can't wait to show you one cover that blew me away. As I mentioned I think GIMP II hates me. You can't be good at everything and they sooner you realize that they better. I have been having http://www.satisfictionservices.com/ doing my covers for quite some time now.

Marketing: You need to be good with social media. Understand how they work and find circles and marketing sites on Facebook. Be sure to start with a “personal” Facebook and then an “Author” Facebook page off of that. The personal one helps you Market on other Facebook pages. Your author page is great tool for understanding your audience. A blog is another good way to market, but decide if you can keep up with it and what type of content you want on it.

Marketing is the biggest piece, growing your brand from your name to your following. People are tempted to buy followers, but why. They aren’t people, but rather robots and they don’t buy books. Also people putting “Bestselling Author” I’ve told this to a few people, make sure you are honest with your readers. Did you earn that title? Did you “sell” these books or where they free? Be sure to make that distinction.

Be sure to hype up your book before you publish it. Ask others for help, do a cover reveal, blog tour, Rafflecopter, Goodreads giveaways, there are so many things.

What not to do:

Don’t annoy the heck out of people. OMG I cannot tell you how many people I have unfriended on both Twitter and Facebook. These are SOCIAL places. Also politics and religion have no place here. You are selling books not your personal beliefs. Sure, readers love to feel a connection with you, but they don’t want to be offended.

Twitter:

Don’t say thanks for following me here’s my books in the same Tweet to me…I won’t look at it…guaranteed. AutoDM’s are the worst.

Don’t put my name in a Tweet with your marketing promo.

Facebook:

Stop promoting to the same pages every day. I try to do it once a week and I have many books. Most people in your circle are in the same groups as you. So you clutter up my notification’s feed. I see 45 notifications and 12 are from ABC person (unfriend, especially if that is the only reason you friended me). Also, don’t PM a link. A link and nothing else screams spam to me.

Damn, this girl is so mean you say. LOL Someone actually heard my whole spiel about Amazon. About certain covers and words not accepted. They said this is too hard, too much red tape and said forget it. You need to understand and be mindful of so much. I read a lot of books before I published my very first one. Arm yourself, ask questions and don’t go blindly. You will be hurting yourself in the long run.

Phew, are we ready to put the book up yet??

Learn all the places you want to pub, understand the good and bad of each. There are formatting and cover rules for each of them. Then press that button. Sigh you are done, right? Wrong! Market, get reviews and guess what…you better be working on your next book. ;)
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My first #milestone in 2014 5k views on my blog in a week! My #FortuneCookie was right! & What I've learned.

1/30/2014

1 Comment

 
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I read somewhere that the 15th day of the Chinese New Year is on January 31st so this post seemed fitting. ;)

My fortune above is one I received only a couple weeks ago. And one can only hope this is true.


As a writer, I strive to exceed my goals and milestones from the prior year. Last year I had a few milestones that I am very proud of,

MILESTONES
1. I became a Bestseller for my book Sara's Awakening. My debut Fantasy Book.
2. I hit #5 in bestseller for free erotica for an anthology that I put together with multiple erotica authors. Sexy Holiday Bites. I am very proud of that and all the wonderful reviews on it.
3. I had 6 separate pieces of work, which hit the top 100 bestseller free charts, Including the 2 listed above and: Being Neighborly--which remains free, Fantasy Encounter with a Dom, Bound for Pleasure, as well as, Cristal Blue my debut piece as a writer.
4. I had an extremely successful series last year, The Torn Series:  Master-bation, At Sir's Command, Sir's Deception and Serena's Decision. These are lighter BDSM with more spanking, I wonder if perhaps this is where a lot of my readership lies.
5. My bestselling books are Fantasy encounter with a Dom and Taken by a Truck Driver, however I laugh because there are barely any reviews for Taken by a Truck Driver.
6. I released 13 separate pieces of work. One was that anthology with 8 other authors.
7. I figured out Createspace and Fantasy Encounter with a Dom is in print. I plan to put my fantasy books out there shortly.
8. My Twitter following. I had 2k followers in about 2 months time. I will do a separate post on that one. ;)
9. Nominated for blog of the Year by Scarlett Flame. 

http://missscarlettflame.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=25
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What I have learned
1. Research - Before you become an indie do your homework. I spent time researching and dissecting others books. How they looked. I mean I love to read so it wasn't difficult, but there are a boatload of free books for the Smashwords and Amazon things. Also making your own covers--I recommend you buy your first one unless you are a graphic designer. This is because people DO judge a book by it's cover.

Selfpubbookcover.com has a free PDF where you can grab loads of free information and there are of course book covers. I purchased 7 from there.

GIMP II is a way to make covers if you use a site for pictures like shutterstock, canstock whatever else, there are are dozens. Watch out for those that use the same image over and over. I recommend you change the picture quite a lot. I personally don't like this program...ok, it hates me. ;) But if you have that savvy I did Bound for Pleasure with a little help from others.

2. Edit - Think you are done? Nope, edit it once more. Some are arrogant enough that they do it all by themselves. People if you cant even take a Critique Partners voice or opinion you will not be able to handle the reviews, trust me. A beta reader is fine and good, but they are that--readers. And many just want free books and really have no value or never respond. A Critique Partner is a fellow writer in your genre that swaps with you and finds things like: punctuation, spelling, sentence structure/flow, story hiccups in general.

I am quite anal, probably more than most. My final rounds are a read through after all the CP's and then I listen/edit. Listen and whiles it's being read to me I find things like he that should be her, etc. Your brain will fill those things in when you read. But when you listen you will find them.

3. Pricing - Keep your prices in accordance to the book length. Although Serena's Decision is still a mystery to me. I wonder if I split it into two books if I would have done better with it. See, I am always learning.

4. Help others out - We are all in it together. Initially I thought people would view me as competition, but my mentor Shoshanna Evers cleared that right up. She said we all have our own voice. So even if we all sat in the same room with the same premise, each story would have a different feel.

5. Reviews - Sure we would all love a bizillion glowing reviews. But I have learned a lot of people buy them. Nope not lying. I am happy to get mine the old fashioned way.

I decided to do a review page myself to help others. I love to read and love to pay it forward, especially to new authors who are like myself and have done the work to make their piece the best it can be. A friend said she'd like to join in and now it's an even better place to promote authors! PS Naughty Reviewers

Beware there are trolls out there and it is hard to turn a blind eye, but here is what I have done, look at their other reviews. Do they review everyone the same like "eh this sucked". Do they not even read your genre. Sometimes you can make yourself feel better when you realize it's not you.

Or Goodreads is even worse, a lot of tacky people out there wanting to be hurtful--sad but true. They just give you a 1 to purposely drag you down. Nothing you can do about it. You know what? As a reader I ignore those. I normally look at the intelligent remarks and say hmm, maybe I will just take a chance and make my own decision about this one.

So stressing about losers who have no life...remember you are better than that. However, do you see people saying you need to improve something? Fix it! You can do that. Ebooks are a wonderful thing where you can upload a new version, (keep your old and remember to highlight what you changed) and Amazon will alert the purchasers to the new version.

6. Returns - I read somewhere that 10% for erotica is normal. I am no where near that number and I think it goes back to #2 editing. At least I hope, but then again I am not what you call a NYT Bestseller...YET! LOL Right. I have maybe 1 or 2 returns a month. And yes they still hurt. It is stealing pure and simple, however, I did see by happenstance someone bought two at once, so that does happen too. ;)

Well, I keep my goals attainable, but something to strive for. And some have nothing to do with money or sales and more to do with what I can do to learn, grow, and help others. ;) Wishing everyone the very best in the New Year.

And remember each person is an individual take what works for you! I plan to do a post about my Twitter following shortly. I started Twitter in mid Feb of last year and I am fast approaching 7k followers. ;)
1 Comment

Critique Partners & why I love them @Suzyayers 

5/14/2013

2 Comments

 
I have to say I love mine. Yeah sure they tell me I suck...ok maybe not me, but that my character does or that one of them is too one dimensional. I'm no so arrogant to think that I can write and edit myself perfectly. I need someone else to point out when I'm rambling, or usually in my case I need to add more because I'm so lost in the story I've skipped time.

So what is a critique partner a CP? A Beta Reader? They are all just peer readers. You remember those right, from school? But these are people that read in your genre and a critique partner is also a writer.  They catch your grammar, your slipped tenses, and all thst sure. But the most valuable thing they are is a cheerleader and a friend. Someone to help promote and cheer about your good reviews.

So this post is a nod to them and to the only website I've found luck with find great ones!
http://www.ladieswhocritique.com/forums/


2 Comments
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    SUZY AYERS

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