Blog

Proud to be a member of the Club: Rockin’ Improvements to Review Grabber!!

SEE BELOW VIDEO OF THE ROCKIN’ NEW AND IMPROVED AMC REVIEW GRABBER!!!

When I first ran across Author Marketing Club, I resisted. I mean, come on, free stuff is good, but I’m getting nickel-and-dimed all over the place for paid services that will help me sell my books.

But Author Marketing Club didn’t promise to help me sell my books. Instead, they offered me services to make doing what I already knew I needed to do easier. Whether or not the book sold would still be up to me.

The services sounded good. Their review grabber. Their Enhanced Description HTML Generator for a jazzed up Kindle page on Amazon. Free Book Cover Art. They sounded really, really good. I read their free download, Sell More Books With Awesome Amazon Descriptions. It was amazing.

I’ll cut to the chase: I caved and joined, ponying up an annual subscription fee. The question was, would it be down the tubes or money well spent?

Next I used Review Grabber. Check out this video to see how easy it is to mine reviewer contact info from Amazon for books like yours (this is their brand new improved version, and it is truly USEFU, EFFICIENT, and EFFECTIVE):

You can contact the reviewers individually and ask them to consider reviewing your similar book. They even give you instructions and a sample letter. So I sent out 11 requests for reviews. Four of the reviewers said yes. As of the time of this blog, I have two new five-star reviews. One of the reviewers is a book blogger who decided to buy another of my books and feature both reviews on her website. Wowza!

I tried the Enhanced Description HTML Generator. I wish I had taken before and after shots of my description, but check out a comparison of a normal Kindle description versus my new AMC-amped up description.

Normal:

 

AMC-amped:

OH.MY.GOD.

Using their HTML, I was able to update my CreateSpace pages too. I’m thrilled with the impact.

I tried their Book Widget Generator. Here’s how it looks:

Nice, huh? Links to all my major sales websites, not just Amazon. And my Amazon Associates ID is built in. Much better than the Amazon Generated Widgets.

And it just keeps getting better. I was able to participate in Book Discovery Sundays,which emailed my book around to the membership. I will be in a Book Bundle promotion in December. I was featured as a new member to other members. Two Fridays in December AMC and the powerhouse World Literary Cafe will promote for free my sale of Saving Grace for 99 cents. That’s not even including the free book cover art, free webinars, and other features. I’ve used them all.

I am in love.  Is that because I’m selling more books? Well, yes, my sales did pick up in the week after I implemented some of the AMC features like the Description Enhancer. But the payoff for most of them awaits. I have the aforementioned sale of Saving Grace to relaunch Leaving Annalise in November, and with the exposure I hope to get through ads I am running in addition to the 99 cent Fridays promotion by AMC and WLC, more people will see my new reviews and new descriptions. My landing page is much higher impact, much more likely to generate sales.

Best money I ever spent.

Use the Review Grabber the second you sign up. I mean it.

Pamela

pamela author portraitPamela Fagan Hutchins writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction, and  series mysteries, like Katie & Annalise which includes the bestselling Saving Grace, and Emily which she kicks off with the 2015 WINNER of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy. She resides deep in the heart of Nowheresville, Texas and in the frozen north of Snowheresville, Wyoming. Pamela has a passion for great writing and smart authorpreneurship as well as long hikes with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs, traveling in the Bookmobile, and experimenting with her Keurig. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

How to Sell a Ton of Books in 5 Simple Steps

Screen Shot 2016-07-01 at 1.31.12 PM

So you’ve written a book. It’s for sale on Amazon, your own little Field of Dreams. You’ve strong-armed everyone you know, and they’ve all promised to buy it. To read it. To review it. Only they haven’t, and it’s not selling.

Meanwhile, your mother’s told everyone and their three-legged dog about her son the author. Her daughter the next Steven King. Her little pookie who’s going to be rich and famous any day now. People ask you when you’re quitting your day job (and to borrow money).

Your life has become a secret hell that you cover up with a swagger and a smile. You tell yourself that it’s about the achievement. About getting it out there. About the art. The truth is, though, you want readers. You want fan letters and a movie deal. You want to make MONEY at this, but you have no idea how.

Pamela does. She went from attorney/investigator to full-time author in three years, with 1.5 million downloads and six-figure royalties. And she wants to help you.

FOR FREE.

Catch the video replay of How to Sell a Ton of Books in 5 Simple Steps. Problems? Contact Teachable customer support HERE. And while you’re on the SkipJack Teachable site, check out our newest class, Drawing in Readers with Rock Star Book Events, and our other two classes, How to Score a BookBub and How to Get Book Reviews in 10 Surefire Ways. Coming soon: Engaging Readers Through Your Online Author Presence and Tips to Build/Use Reader Subscriber Lists For Sales Independence.

Sharing with your fellow authors is caring, so please spread the word.

Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I

pamela author portraitBe One, Too?), and series mysteries, like What Doesn’t Kill You, which includes the bestselling Saving Grace and the 2015 WINNER of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy, which you can get free in ebook, anywhere. She teaches writing, publishing, and promotion at the SkipJack Publishing Online School (where you can take How to Sell a Ton of Books, FREE) and writes about it on the SkipJack Publishing blog.

Pamela resides deep in the heart of Nowheresville, Texas and in the frozen north of Snowheresville, Wyoming. She has a passion for great writing and smart authorpreneurship as well as long hikes with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs, traveling in the Bookmobile, and experimenting with her Keurig. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

Social Media Tips for Authors: Filling the Bucket

blue-1283078_640

By Pamela Fagan Hutchins
Adapted Excerpt from What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?
Reprinted with permission from SkipJack Publishing

Love it or hate it, social media is a critical part of marketing. It is a way of connecting, not only with potential readers, but also with people who can help you meet your goals—as long as you remember that it’s a two-way street. You need to be prepared to put as much or more energy (or money) into other people’s goals as you would like them to put towards yours.

Why is this important? You sell your book by getting people to tell other people to buy it, not by screaming “buy my book” over and over on Facebook.

Think of social media as a way to fill a bucket that has the potential to contain goodwill. You will need that goodwill to sell your book. You have to fill your bucket first, and you do that by helping others.

The good news is that it is really not very hard to fill your bucket. People are grateful to accept help. If you get out and establish an online presence and help people promote whatever it is they are trying to sell/distribute/raise for charity, they will be a hundred times more likely to do the same for you when the time comes.

The bad news is, the bucket has a leak.

To read the rest of Pamela’s article on Writing Wyoming, click HERE.

Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), and series mysteries, like What Doesn’t Kill You, which includes the bestselling Saving Grace and the 2015 WINNER of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy, which you can get free in ebook, anywhere. She teaches writing, publishing, and promotion at the SkipJack Publishing Online School and writes about it on the SkipJack Publishing blog.

Pamela resides deep in the heart of Nowheresville, Texas and in the frozen north of Snowheresville, Wyoming. She has a passion for great writing and smart authorpreneurship as well as long hikes with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs, traveling in the Bookmobile, and experimenting with her Keurig. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

Next SkipJack Retreat Announcement!

retreat-1
Last year’s “Just Do It” Retreat attendees yakking it up!

October 7-9, 2016 “Just Do It” Writers Retreat (Focus: Finishing, Revising, and Doing It Again)

Join award-winning, best-selling author Pamela Fagan Hutchins  in the Texas Hill Country—only 1.5 hours from Houston and Austin—for a two-day weekend writer’s retreat.

“A breakthrough weekend for me.” David Welling

“I learned an enormous amount of useful information in a short period. With the experience of allowing a fear of critique from other writers to twist me up inside only to discover it’s a rather painless, easy experience was a real eye opener for me.” Heidi Dorey

“I went to this conference seeking ideas about outlining a novel in ways that wouldn’t stifle creativity and spontaneity. I got that and so much more. Best-selling, award-winning novelist, Pamela Fagan Hutchins shared wisdom and lessons learned about first drafts, revision, maintaining momentum through the dreaded middle of the plot, writing with efficiency and consistency, and so much more, all delivered with her trademark enthusiasm and energy, much of it in valuable one-on-one sessions. All that combined with group discussions and critiques with great writers and writing time with feedback made this a priceless learning experience. On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate this conference a 12. ” Ken Oder

“I had a wonderful experience.” Felicia Little

Blogged at Cows, Camaraderie & Concentration |: “Thanks to Pamela and the talented writers who made the writing retreat helpful, productive and inspiring!  My revision process is changing!” Patricia Flaherty Pagan

Includes:

  • A critique of the first 50 pages of your novel by Pamela (two of the authors at last year’s retreat obtained agents for their literary fiction with their rewrites based on Pamela’s critique)
  • Mini-workshops on giving and receiving feedback, finishing your novel, deep novel revision, and more
  • Dedicated writing/revision time
  • Critique feedback from participants
  • Close-out feedback from Pamela on the revised first 10 pages of your novel
  • Relax in the giant “cool” spa or enjoy the pond, goats, and cows on the walking trail

retreat ken and pamela

About Pamela: Named one of Houston’s Top 10 Writers by The Houston Press, highly sought after speaker, a USA Best Book Award WINNER for her mystery Heaven to Betsy, and an online bestseller across multiple sales sites, Pamela has led critique circles, taught writing workshops, and provided manuscript critiques for years.  Now that she has moved to the perfect idyllic country setting, she has synthesized  these three activities as she furthers her passion for great writing and smart authorpreneurship.

Group size limited to the first five writers to register. Registrants will receive detailed instructions in the weeks leading put to the retreat.

Schedule

Starts Friday October 7, Noon. Ends Sunday October 9, 3:00 PM.

Location

Address to be provided upon registration. For purposes of deciding whether to attend, map to Brenham, Texas. The closest airports are College Station, TX-Easterwood Airport and Austin, TX-Bergstrom Airport, but the Houston airports are also doable. Note: WE HAVE INSIDE DOGS. ALLERGY SUFFERERS COME PREPARED OR OPT OUT.

indie success 2016

Meals

Meals and non-alcoholic drinks included. Breakfast and lunch will be buffet, dinner will be family style. In a small group, dietary accommodations can increase costs; we will be happy to accommodate you for an additional $25 for the weekend. Please specify your restrictions when you register. Writer-guests may bring alcohol if they wish. No smoking is permitted inside the house or Bookmobile. Is your partner coming, too? S/he is welcome to join us for meals (and can enjoy our walking trail and spa any time) for $150 for the weekend.

Rules and Restrictions

Professional behavior is required at all times. Writer-guests will be responsible for damages.

Felicia at retreat

Registration

A variety of accommodation options are available. Each option (see below) includes the retreat and meals. Email pamela at pamelahutchins dot com by September 15th with your registration preference. Pamela will send you an invoice if you are one of the first five people. If you aren’t, you’ll hear back from her, and you’ll get first shot at a future retreat.

>>NOTE $100 discount per person for Houston Writers Guild members

  • Offsite Writer-Guest: $350 (or $250 for HWG members). See below for nearest B&Bs. There are also a ton of motels in Brenham, a half-hour away. Google is your friend. Additional guest in this room: $350 if attending retreat; $200 if not attending retreat.
  • Onsite Single Room, Dedicated Bath: Queen-sized bed, dedicated bath. Note: this room is upstairs with no disabled access. $800 ($700 for HWG members). Additional guest in this room: $325 if attending retreat; $200 if not attending retreat.
  • Onsite Single Room, Shared Bath (2): Queen-sized bed, two rooms share one bath. $750 each ($650 for HWG members). Additional guest in this room: $300 if attending retreat; $200 if not attending retreat.
  • Onsite Accommodation in Pamela’s 24-foot Class C Motorhome, the book-touring “Bookmobile,” with its own refrigerator, shower/restroom (with a door!), and full power. $550 ($450 for HWG members). Additional guest(s) in this room: $275 if attending retreat; $200 if not attending retreat. SOLD OUT
  • Is your partner coming, too? S/he is welcome to join us for meals (and can enjoy our walking trail and spa any time) for $150 for the weekend.

Hutchins Home

Closest Area B&Bs

The Front Porch, Carmine: http://roundtoplodging.com (5 minutes and only $95—come with friends, share space, and only an additional $25 for up to 6)

The Texas Tin Haus, Burton: http://www.texastinhaus.com/the-house.html (12 minutes)

Pecan Grove Inn, Carmine: http://www.pecangroveinn.com (15 minutes)

Sugar Hill Retreat B&B, Carmine: Phone: (979) 278-3039 (19 minutes)

Inn at Indian Creek, Burton: http://www.innatindiancreek.com (22 minutes)

Stonebrook Farm, Burton: http://www.stonebrookfarmbb.com (26 minutes)

Round Top Inn, Round Top: http://www.roundtopinn.com (27 minutes)

Ant Street Inn, Brenham: http://www.antstreetinn.com (1/2 hour)

Far View B&B, Brenham: http://farviewbedandbreakfast.com (1/2 hour)

There are a number of hotels in Brenham and Giddings, both 1/2 an hour from the retreat.

Questions? Ready to reserve your spot?

eric at skipjackpublishing dot com or pamela at pamelafaganhutchins dot com

How to Score a Bookbub Promotion and Take Your Book to the Top

6u2k6Xk4TuaN29QcoQVu

We’ve been busy at our new online SkipJack Publishing school. We released our first ever free webinar (How to Sell a Ton of Books) and our first two full-length courses: How to Get More Book Reviews in 10 Surefire Ways and How to Score a Bookbub Promotion and Take Your Book to the Top. You can learn more about them both and register at http://skipjackpublishing.teachable.com. Not only that, but if you take the Reviews course, you’ll get an access code to add on the Bookbub course for only $5.00. You’ll get both classes for $34, and save $24. Pretty darn cool.

We’re adding classes as fast as we can sit Pamela Fagan Hutchins (author of the What Doesn’t Kill You romantic mystery series and award-winning What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?) down and get her to talk into a camera. It’s tremendously exciting to see her expand upon the content she teaches live at workshops and conferences, and cover all the topics she doesn’t have time to address in those formats. Next up: Top Tips for Authors to Build a Newsletter Subscription List and Sales Independence, How to Find Your Readers and Sell More Books, How to Build an Online Author Presence That Engages Readers, Luring Readers with Rock Star Book Events, and many more.

If you’d like to secure a volume discount for your writing organization, contact us at info at skipjackpublishing dot com.

 

 

 

 

Should you migrate your books from Smashwords to Draft2Digital?

Screen Shot 2016-06-14 at 2.14.23 PM

If you’ve read this blog a long time, you know I view aggregation as a necessary evil. I use it to get my books onto Nook pre-order and free. Others prefer it to save the time and labor it takes to manage their literary assets on 6-7 sales sites, although no aggregator eliminates the need (or strategic advantage) of publishing directly on Kindle.

I’ve long used Smashwords for aggregation, mostly out of laziness. They were my best option when I first published. Once I’d mastered working their system, I heard about the upstart Draft2Digital and its better royalty share (SW takes 15%; D2D takes 10%), but I already had my books on SW. And I kept adding them to SW, like a sheep.  Meanwhile, D2D added the very features I aggregated for: pre-order and free.

Yay, D2D!

Another awesome feature of D2D is that they have a deal with Nook that earns them and their authors 60% royalties on 99 cent books. If you publish DIRECT on Nook, you make only 35%. So you get 25% more (and D2D takes 10% of that) by publishing through D2D, netting you 22.5% more if my math is correct. In other words, 99 cent are better through D2D to Nook than on Nook itself!

D2D offers publishing services to authors as well. SW doesn’t. I haven’t heard negatives (share your experience in the comments, if you have any).

All my future books, I will aggregate through D2D. But not all my current ones. So what’s to stop me from adding all my books to D2D now?

  1. Apple Reviews/Legacy Perma-free: Apple won’t move reviews earned through direct publishing on Apple or through aggregation through another aggregator to a D2D-published version of the book. Shame on you Apple. A book is a book is a book. Especially one like mine, which has an ISBN to identify it. This is one instance in which Nook does it better than Apple.
    1. Beginners, don’t read this–it will make your head explode! Wait, stop! Don’t say I didn’t warn you . . . Since I only aggregate free and pre-order, it’s even more complex than this. Let’s consider pre-order first: I aggregate, then pull the aggregated book down on day one of its publication and switch to a direct publication record. This results in very few reviews, if any. But when I aggregate free, I garner hundreds (thousands) of reviews. They’re part of the reason I use the free strategy in the first place. Apple is my second-largest royalty source. An amount significant enough, that I just can’t leave those reviews behind. (This is true even after I remove a perma-free book from free status back to paid status. I leave them aggregated to Apple to save the reviews.) Now, this is only for books that I aggregated to free before Apple started allowing me to do that directly. But, still, it affects one of my books 🙂
    2. If any of you have been in this situation and want to talk me out of this perma-free-to-paid aggregation strategy re Apple b/c of reviews, I’m ALL EARS!!
  2. Man hours: For my other books, the ones that are past pre-order and aren’t perma-free, I don’t really aggregate to anywhere significant. The investment of time to put them on D2D is not worth the cost in time/money. (Unless I run a 99 cent promo!)
    1. HOWEVER, even as I’ve written this post, I’ve realized that my 99 cent book (the formerly perma-free Saving Grace), should be added to D2D for Nook. I can’t remove it from SW/Apple because of 1.1. above. If I do this, though, I’ve just added another sales site to manage to an already teeming list, since I direct publish my novels. Ay Carumba!! What to do, what to do 😉 (I just went and activated in on D2D, that’s what)

Whew, that was confusing!

Head to head, I find D2D easier to use than SW, and I love their communication. From henceforth, all my aggregation will be through them. So sayeth the Pamelot.

What about you?

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), and series mysteries, like Whatpamela author portrait Doesn’t Kill You, which includes the bestselling Saving Grace and the 2015 WINNER of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy, which you can get free in ebook, anywhere. She resides deep in the heart of Nowheresville, TX and in the frozen north of Snowheresville, WY. Pamela has a passion for great writing and smart authorpreneurship as well as long hikes with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs, traveling in the Bookmobile, and experimenting with her Keurig. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

Coming Soon: Goodreads eBook Giveaways

Screen Shot 2016-05-11 at 11.45.21 PM

I’ve long loved print giveaways on Goodreads. Recently, Goodreads announced their upcoming Kindle ebook giveaway program. Authors/publishers will be able to giveaway up to 100 books during the length of the promotion. It is not yet clear whether author/publishers will be able to include a note to the winners. The giveaway can be run for a flat fee of $119.00.

Note: this program is so far available only to Amazon Publishing during its beta phase. That means Amazon Publishing and its authors. Not authors who publish on Amazon. This shouldn’t come as a surprise: Amazon owns Goodreads. Hence the Kindle ebook being the giveaway in this instance as well.

Key differences between Goodreads print v ebook giveaways:

  • $119 flat fee for ebook giveaway; print book giveaway is free but author/publisher pays for books and postage
  • At this point, ebook giveaways at this point only for Amazon Publishing and its authors
  • At this point, ebook giveaways only in the US

Key differences between Goodreads ebook v Amazon giveaways (print and ebook):

  • Goodreads allows giveaways during pre-order period; Amazon Giveaway does not
  • Goodreads charges a flat listing fee; on Amazon Giveaway you pre-purchase your giveaway items (for print, you get a refund for any copies not given away; for ebook you are stuck with any ebooks not given away, although you can give them as gifts, but for that ebook only)

Print giveaways on Goodreads willl continue even after broad availability of the ebook giveaway program.

I’m looking forward to trying this when Goodreads releases it beyond Amazon Publishing.

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), and series mysteries, like Whatpamela author portrait Doesn’t Kill You, which includes the bestselling Saving Grace and the 2015 WINNER of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy, which you can get free in ebook, anywhere. She resides deep in the heart of Nowheresville, TX and in the frozen north of Snowheresville, WY. Pamela has a passion for great writing and smart authorpreneurship as well as long hikes with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs/goat, traveling in the Bookmobile, and experimenting with her Keurig. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

Holy Wear-Me-Out Workshop versus Webcasts

hwg workshop

There are some things as an author I always say yes to. Speaking about publishing and promotion to other writers is one of them. But man is it exhausting work! Plus sometimes I’ll randomly start doing or saying something part way through, something unplanned, that later makes me cringed. That’s me in the picture above, in front of the white screen, surrounded by 100 of my nearest, dearest, and most eager to ask questions friends.

May 1st I had the delight of conducting a 7-hour workshop add-on to the Houston Writers Guild’s annual conference (where I started saying “Hashtag Truth” aka #Truth anytime I talked about a squirmy topic people were in resistance about, LOL). We titled it Indie Publishing Done Smart, but I was elated that so many writers with traditionally published books came, not just because they may use the information if their path changes, but because they WILL use the information now on their current path. Publishing is a business, and most authors don’t fully embrace their role in it, no matter how they publish their books.

I’m all about embracing that role. #Truth

I’m also fairly transparent. #ConstantTMI

And I’ll tell you that like most authors, I am feeling the pressure of the glut of titles in the marketplace. We first noticed it September, 2015, and started hearing other people talking about it then, too. We are spending more to make the same, and the competition for promotions like Bookbub is ever higher. On the other hand, prices are inching up for indies, largely thanks to the move of traditional publishers to higher e-book pricing, and the market–readers and vendors–are making moves that show them learning to separate wheat from chaff.

I’m feeling it, but traditional publishers are suffering worse from it. So traditional authors, take note: if your publishers leave you stuck in this ebook limbo, that doesn’t mean you can stick your head in the sand. You’d do well to take some notes and adopt some of our ways, because traditional publishing has moved the mid list author down an income rung or three in the last twelve months, and until the publishers make changes, it’s up to the authors to distinguish themselves from the pack.

But I digress. #WhatsNew

I was going to write this post simply to say that the workshop went well—despite my exhaustion—so well that I’ll start expanding and releasing the topics covered as webcasts this summer. Little one-hour nuggets where I delve more fully into each subject, for a writer-friendly price.

And where I don’t have to travel, haul books, stand on my feet without going to the ladies room for five hours, or suffer the humiliation of brain freezes and white spaces 😉 and I don’t exhaust my favor-and-support bank with my oh-so-wonderful husband.

So stay tuned for more details soon.

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), and series mysteries, like Whatpamela author portrait Doesn’t Kill You, which includes the bestselling Saving Grace and the 2015 WINNER of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy, which you can get free in ebook, anywhere. She resides deep in the heart of Nowheresville, TX and in the frozen north of Snowheresville, WY. Pamela has a passion for great writing and smart authorpreneurship as well as long hikes with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs/goat, traveling in the Bookmobile, and experimenting with her Keurig. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

Amazon Quality Control: Automation Meets Art

I’m interested in how many of you have been contacted by Amazon about your books and “errors?” I’ve been contacted about only one of my books, and I’ve heard from them on two separate occasions. Because I don’t think it’s remotely possible that the rest of my books are error-free (because I’ve never seen an error free book by me or anyone else), I think the selection has to do with volume of downloads. The book they’ve contacted me on is Saving Grace, which has about one million downloads.

The first time they contacted me, they had found errors. Now, it is interesting to note that these were flat-out typos/misspellings that their “spell check” when uploading an ebook should have caught but never did. I was elated to know about the, and I fixed them. That was a year ago, and you can read about it, HERE.

Last week, they contacted me again about Saving Grace. But this time the words they contacted me about were not misspellings. Rather, they were artistic choices reflective of voice. That doesn’t mean that they were effective or that they were the best choices. But it does mean that they were intentional, by me and by my editor. At first I was taken aback, and worried. In the end, when I wrote a fairly strong reply back to Amazon about them, I was pleased. A human answered me and assured me that the words were fine and my book could remain published as is.

My experiences with the Amazon Quality Control mechanism have been increasingly positive, and with each one I have learned. I hope this letter share shed some light on the process for you as well. I’ve copied the correspondence in below so you can see it for yourself. The most recent is first, down through the original, just like a real email.

Now, what experiences have you guys had with this process?

Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 12.03.06 PM Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 12.02.55 PM Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 12.02.29 PM

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), and series mysteries, like Whatpamela author portrait Doesn’t Kill You, which includes the bestselling Saving Grace and the 2015 WINNER of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy. She resides deep in the heart of Nowheresville, Texas and in the frozen north of Snowheresville, Wyoming. Pamela has a passion for great writing and smart authorpreneurship as well as long hikes with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs/goat, traveling in the Bookmobile, and experimenting with her Keurig. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

Burning Issues . . . ?

fire pit

As I sit down to write this morning, I realize that having five baby goats born in the last few days on our place—and one motherless—is going to have to take precedence. Life is like that. Burning issues to be addressed, and sometimes they aren’t the ones we’d planned for. What we thought was burning is going to be have to left to simmer while we deal with a gasoline fire. So today for me it’s tiny creatures, cold weather, running to town for supplies, and bottle feeding. Writing about writing and writing fiction will wait, as will yoga, walking, cooking, and the business of indie publishing. Tomorrow I am driving roundtrip eight hours to speak at a women’s club luncheon for 120 people and swing by a small town library. Monday/yesterday was a holiday here in the US, and I foolishly observed it. I wish I had those hours back—no, not really, because sometimes relaxation (mental, physical) is that burning issue.

By Thursday of this week, my burning issues will have reached bonfire status.

That has me thinking: when I write on this blog, I write about what I think are your burning issues. But I may be throwing water on nothing more than cold, dead ashes.

What topics are burning a hole in you guys? What would you most like to see me write on in upcoming posts? Here are a few things I’ve been thinking about:

  • Amazon quality control?
  • Babelcube for foreign translations?
  • A dive into the February Author Earnings Report from the Data Guy and Hugh Howey?
  • Podcasts?
  • Book Funnel?
  • The ACX stipend program?
  • Building subscribers?
  • Piracy?
  • Hot new promo sites?
  • Driving up Amazon Follows?
  • Using Bookbub to its fullest potential?
  • Working with Overdrive to get e-books in libraries?
  • Making money with ads and affiliate income?
  • Apps by Authors?
  • Video by authors?
  • Voice-to-text and recording your first draft?
  • Editing tools?
  • Who I follow to stay on top of the publishing world?
  • Social media ads?

What am I leaving out? What do you want to read about?

I look forward to hearing from you guys.

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction, and  series mysteries, like Katiepamela author portrait & Annalise which includes the bestselling Saving Grace, and Emily which she kicks off with the 2015 WINNER of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy. She resides deep in the heart of Nowheresville, Texas and in the frozen north of Snowheresville, Wyoming. Pamela has a passion for great writing and smart authorpreneurship as well as long hikes with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs, traveling in the Bookmobile, and experimenting with her Keurig. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).