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The Good in Bad Reviews

I’m sending this re-run back around, because the topic never grows stale.

Every writer fears her first bad review. Face it: not everyone is going to love your book, and some people bring their own issues with them when they review. For instance, I’ve gotten several bad reviews on Amazon, from people who haven’t read my book but are lambasting Amazon using my book’s review page. Amazon won’t pull them down either. Is that fair to me? No. Does it hurt me or my book? My answer may surprise you.

No, I really don’t think it does.

Here’s why: In today’s reading world, 50% of books sold are ebooks, and most of those sell online, on Amazon Kindle, who holds the biggest market share, and on Kobo, Apple iBooks, Google Play, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble Nook.  All of these sites allow readers to review books. The Goodreads social media site allows book reviews as well.

Reviews are a huge tool for visibility for an author, and to discoverability for a reader who is looking for his next great read. The sites post the number of reviews and the average reviews, as well as the reviews and ratings individually. The number of reviews of a book are critical, as are the ratings attached to it (usually on a 1-5 scale), and the substance.

Ebook promotional vendors rely heavily on these rating systems to validate the quality of books submitted for their consideration. The more reviews and the higher the ratings, the better the chance a bank will be selected for a promotional site’s program. These are not the only factors that some promo sites use. Consider Bookbub, the current kingmaker of online promotions, who published an explanation of how they choose books, HERE. I think you should read it.

So reviews matter in sales. Ratings matter. What readers say matters. They matter to all authors, but matter most to indie authors, who don’t have a traditional publisher behind them to procure heavy hitter industry reviews. Hugh Howey contends that half of the top 7000 romance, scifi/fantasy, and mystery/thriller books sold on Amazon are published by indie writers. And Mr. Howey’s reports are another must read, HERE.

Reviews matter for more than sales, though. Reviews provide important information to an author. If an author has asked 20 close friends and family members to review a book, and none choose to do so after six months of begging, this tells the author that his friends and family suck.

No, just kidding.

What it should tell the author is that his friends and family would rather extend the uncomfortable silence than tell him that his book stinks.

Sidebar: Amazon removes reviews at its sole discretion, and will do so if it thinks it catches someone with a stake in the book leaving a review. In my early days as a published author, this meant my mother, and anyone else with Pamela, Fagan, or Hutchins anywhere in their name, regardless of relation to me, or our and their protestations to Amazon. Note that we estimate that 10-15% of the reviews left on my books are taken down by Amazon, and we’ve flapped and squawked about many of them (those that are reported to us by frustrated reader/reviewers) to no avail. Amazon just keeps pulling them down. And I keep writing about it.

If an author receives a few 5s–the best review–from close friends and family but 1s and 2s from all other reviewers, this tells her that her book stinks.

If an author receives as many 1s and 2s as 3s, 4s, and 5s, or, worse, more 1s and 2s, his book has problems.

These authors would be well advised to read the reviews, however traumatic that might be, and look for commonalities. They should “listen” with every bone in their bodies, and consider a rewrite or major revision if readers provide consistent feedback about the substance of the book. If the reviewers consistently point to excessive errors, the author should immediately hire a professional copyeditor to fix the book, or accept that the reviews will either not come, or will continue to be in line with the reviews to date. This is the beauty of modern publishing: you aren’t stuck with your bad book. You can fix it, and re-upload it. And you should.

So remember that my thesis was whether bad reviews hurt an author, and I opined that they did not? In my humble opinion, the situations described above help the author, not hurt her. They give her valuable information. How she chooses to use it (or view it) is up to her. Yes, she is stuck with a negative rating, but not a rating that she shouldn’t have (reasonably) expected. She is hurt less by the reviews than by leaving a book up, in bad shape. I’ve known several authors who pulled their books down when they received consistent negative feedback, fixed them, and reuploaded them to much better reviews and great sales success. Kudos to them.

But what about the author that gets mostly 4s and 5s from strangers, only to have a 1 dropped on their otherwise high-performing book? This author is getting consistent feedback that his book is just fine, maybe good, maybe even really good. Does this author deserve the big 1 stinkbomb, whether it’s from someone who hates them, hates their book, loves another competing author, hates everyone, hates the genre, or hates the online seller?

Deserve doesn’t matter. It wasn’t even the issue I said I’d address.

The real question is whether this author and this book is hurt by this review. And I contend that they are not; that in fact the review helps the book. Why? Because the presence of a bad review shows that anyone can and does review the books at the seller’s website. That all the good reviews aren’t from paid shills or someone sleeping with the author. Assuming the reviews on the book aren’t skewed toward 1s and 2s already, this random seagull poop legitimizes the book’s good reviews.

I can hear you. You’re saying, “But it hurts the book’s average, Pamela. Now the books is a 4.3 instead of a 4.4.”

Yes, you’re correct. The average is lower. But let’s get real here. If your book has above a three on Amazon (Goodreads trends lower because their rating scale is lower), it’s doing all right. If it has above a four on Amazon, it’s kicking butt. And a couple of crappy reviews aren’t going to tank it. They barely touch the average. That mathematical impact is more than offset by the legitimizing impact, and they often cause other reviewers to rate higher and refute the hater.

Don’t believe me? Let’s use my 1 reviews as examples, because I wear them like badges of honor. Below is a screen shot of what happened to me on June 28, 2014, and I have no idea who the reviewer is or who my defender is (But I will agree with the commenter that I do not categorize or describe my writing as Christian fiction ;-D and would want a reviewer to rate the book on its quality for WHAT IT IS, instead of giving it a one because she doesn’t like the genre, after she downloaded it for free in the first place. Oh well.):

reviewers regulate the trolls

 

Interestingly, the next reviewer to leave a comment also refuted this 1 comment, by leaving a great review that laid out why it was appropriate for the 18 and up crowd, amongst other things.

Sidebar: I just ran this book on a free promotion with Bookbub. It had nearly 100,000 downloads as a result. I’ve found the percentage of illogical 1s and 2s goes up with free downloads. It’s very strange, because all of my most recent reviews are from the free download period, and some of them are fabulously thought out and brilliantly written, from serious readers who appear to be serious about reviews too (and range from 3 to 5). And a few are absolute irrational troll reviews. Oh well, did I mention I think bad reviews help?

Because I do.

Bad reviews tick the review counter up the same as good ones do. The all important counter of reviews now reads 36 instead of 35, or 15 instead of 14, or 127 instead of 126. Is this the magic number of reviews that will tip Bookbub over into picking that book for a promotion? It may be. Is this the number that invites even more internet-shy readers to leave reviews, safe hiding in the anonymity of a crowd of reviewers?

The counter matters. It matters a lot. As long as the average is over three, it matters more than the number.

Moral of the story for an author: encourage your readers to be honest. Make it safe for them to leave an 3 or 4 review on your book. (Hey, Friends of Pamelot: I’d rather have a bad review than no review. I promise to love you anyway.) I know authors that get angry when readers leave reviews lower than a 5. That’s a good way to shut down the source, people. The counter is more important than the number. Also, the author MUST leave honest, quality reviews online himself, modeling the behavior he is asking others to emulate. The author should never stop trying to get more reviews, as long as her book is live on the sales sites.

Here’s another free download period recent troll review on my book Saving Grace, which has (at present) 206 reviews and a 4.5-star rating (update: 2,756 reviews and a 4.3-star rating…which sounds like a greater amount of social proof? Hmm, and it has a 0.2-lower review…). Let’s use this one as an example of how we as readers evaluate reviews on books, as we try to decide what weight to give them in our selection:

Screen Shot 2014-06-24 at 11.07.14 AM

Now I don’t think I wrote a Pulitzer-winner with Saving Grace, but it has won several lesser awards and has a solid base of great reviews from strangers all over the world. So we looked harder at this reviewer, trying to decide if we felt the feedback was relevant. You can click on a reviewer’s name and get more information. When we did, this is what we saw (these are the last two reviews left before the reviewer left mine):

Screen Shot 2014-06-24 at 11.09.24 AM

LOL. Maybe she hates the world?

Here are the next three, and note that these are also 1 star EXCEPT for two 5 stars LEFT FOR THE SAME AUTHOR. Aha. She loves him.

Screen Shot 2014-06-24 at 11.11.08 AM

 

It’s true that this reviewer and some others fail to see that there is a (2, 3, or 4) choice between “the worst thing ever” (1) and “the best thing ever” (5), but, remember, THESE REVIEWS HELP YOU by ticking up your counter, legitimizing your other reviews, and creating a rebound effect of good reviews refuting the substance (if any) of the troll reviewer.

Moral of the story for the few readers who have slogged through this overlong post: if you’re trying to choose a book, you can look further to verify outlier feedback, by clicking on the reviewer’s name to see their reviewing history. Trust the average of the book and the relative distribution of reviews.

I mentioned earlier that Saving Grace recently had a Bookbub day. At one point it went to #2 overall on Kindle. The #1 book had the same percentage of 1s and 2s as Saving Grace (SG has 6-1s and 2-2s). I am sure these 1s and 2s frustrated that author. But look at the distribution and the average:

Screen Shot 2014-06-28 at 2.22.59 AM

 

Looks like a great book with predominantly excellent reviews left by real humans. My conclusion: I’d love to read it.

So, my author friends, bad reviews happen. It’s going to be OK. There are some haters out there. Take the high road (never respond to them), and gloat in the knowledge that they just make your book look better, and the haters don’t even know it.

That’s one woman’s opinion anyway.

For tips and floggings like these and many more, check out my classes on the SkipJack Publishing Online School (where you can take How to Sell a Ton of Books, FREE).

 

 

 

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins, USA Today bestseller and winner of the 2017 Silver Falchion
Best Mystery winner for her What Doesn’t Kill You series, writes hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), too. 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 and trail rides with her hunky husband, giant horses, and pack of rescue dogs, donkeys, and goats. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

Top Five Tips for Authors to Build Opt-in Email List Subscription

Authors, you know you crave them: subscriptions to your opt-in email list. The people who willingly sign up to hear from you, who follow you and your books, who aren’t subject to the vagaries of Amazon, the fortunes of Barnes & Noble, or the flakiness of Google Play. The ones you can send exactly the information you want, whenever you want: book covers, links, special offers, requests, insider information.

They are your independence and your future.

The trick is, how to get them to sign up, and how to keep them. Yes, the title of the blog says how to build your list. But have you ever heard the old adage that the best customer is a repeat customer? The same goes for your list. The best way to build your list is to keep those who subscribe from unsubscribing, because nothing defeats your efforts like adding 100 new subscribers only to have 200 unsubscribe.

Note: I use Mailchimp to administer my list, but Constant Contact is also good; they manage your unsubscribes and clean bad emails from your list. I also use an editorial calendar to plan my content for my two blogs and my four Mailchimp lists: I blog as a novelist for readers, as an indie author for other authors; I e-blast to readers, other authors, my “street team,” and media/book bloggers; you don’t have to do anything but e-blast to your readers if you don’t want to. My editorial calendar helps me look out several months and plan my most compelling content.

So here are my top tips for building and maintaining that all important Author Opt-in Email List (assuming you have a well-written, well-edited book with a good cover that attracts readers in the first place):

1. Start with your best contacts, and reward them for helping you.

Your first 100 subscribers will be the people that you already know. Professionally. Personally. Blog followers (who you may have gotten by commenting on their blogs with something relevant and interesting). Social media contacts. But don’t assume that those closest in will affirmatively subscribe. Send them an email, telling them to let you know if they don’t want to be on the list, and letting them know that for those people that remain on the list through X date, you will send a free gift. See below re free gifts.

2. Reward subscription with what your ideal subscriber wants from you.

Make that free gift the one thing your readers most want. No, not money. More of your writing, especially more of your writing that is related to what you’ve already written. For instance, a short story or novella featuring your characters/fictional world. Essays or nonfiction pieces that are background or supplements to your books. Advice or content you don’t offer anywhere else. True exclusives that can be delivered electronically.

How? Maybe you do it through BookFunnel. Maybe you are cheaper than that and you share files through Dropbox or Box.net. Whatever works for you. Then, when you email that initial group that sticks with you, ask them to share the email to people they think would want to subscribe and receive the same free gift.

Meanwhile, set up your automated subscription to send the link to your free gift/content in the welcome email your subscribers get from your email service, i.e., Mailchimp or Constant Contact. Here’s how that welcome email looks for my subscribers:

Screen Shot 2016-03-20 at 7.04.30 AM3. Don’t miss an opportunity to ask for subscription.

If you don’t ask at the right time, you won’t get subscription. Here are a few places not to miss, where you are talking to readers who are interested in you:

  • At events. When I speak or appear, I pass around a book and promise people my handout and other free goodies in return for their subscription. Then I deliver great content that they want desperately. This is my second biggest source of subscriptions.
  • When someone leaves a comment on your blog (yes, you should blog, although the content would be different) or your website (use plugins for your email app, like Mailchimp or Constant Contact), like this:Screen Shot 2016-03-20 at 7.15.33 AM
  • Screen Shot 2016-03-20 at 7.16.31 AM
  • In your website sidebar with a linked image that offers the free gift.

Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 12.34.55 PM

  • My best source of subscriptions? At the end of your books, like this:Screen Shot 2016-01-18 at 11.19.45 AM
  • On your social media pages/profiles, like your Facebook page, using an app for your email service, i.e., Mailchimp or Constant Contact, like this:Screen Shot 2016-03-20 at 7.11.04 AM
  • Screen Shot 2016-03-20 at 7.11.34 AM
  • Jane Friedman recently recommended exit popups using a Mailmunch app for your website. I’m giving it a try. Thoughts on exit popups in general or mine in particular?

Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 12.36.59 PM

4. Don’t overuse your list.

Nobody wants to hear from you three times a week, even your mother. However, your list is only valuable if you use it regularly. How regularly? Twice a month is the advice I hear frequently (no more than twice per week for a blog). I can’t quite stomach that yet and send my lists once a month. We’ll see if I get braver. It’s a delicate balance between effectively using it the right frequency for impressions that lead to sales and driving people to unsubscription. Yet unsubscribes are a reality of mail lists. Sometimes people go on tears and unsubscribe to everything (yes, even your mother). Don’t take it personally. You’ve lost them for now. You’ll replace them if you keep working at it.

5. Send people the information they wanted when they subscribed.

Y’all, keep it short (400 words or less if possible). Keep it interesting. Have personality. Use an image. Use links, but don’t go overboard. And for goodness sakes, make it about your books!!! Whenever possible give something away in return for responding to a call to action. Biggest lesson I’ve learned in the last year? It’s all about the subject lines—there are tons of good articles out there on how to get people to open email. Emojis are one, believe it or not. My open rates and click throughs go through the roof when my subject is fun and has emojis. However, Google it and get some advice that works for you and your style.

Building a list is a long term project. It’s taken me since 2008 to build mine to over 6000 readers, and I wish it were 10 times that, but I know it would be ten times smaller if I hadn’t been working on it all that time.

6. Bonus: Check out Ryan Zee Promotions for multi-author contests that add hundreds of emails to your list at a time and are very reasonably priced. More info HERE.

For tips like these and many more, check out my classes on the SkipJack Publishing Online School (where you can take How to Sell a Ton of Books, FREE).

Your tips in the comments are greatly appreciated!

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins, winner of the 2017 Silver Falchion award for Best Mystery (Fighting for Anna), writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), and series mysteries, like those in her What Doesn’t Kill You world, which includes the bestselling Saving Grace and the 2015 and 2016 WINNERS of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy and Hell to Pay. You can snag her newest release, Bombshell, if you’ve already run the rest of the table. 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 here 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 and trail rides with her hunky husband, giant horses, and pack of rescue dogs, donkeys, and goats. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

The Uncomfortable Silence

Time for the annual republication of this classic—I’d say “enjoy,” but really I’d rather it make you squirm a little bit. Also, if you find errors in my books, PUH-LEEZE email me at pamela at pamelafaganhutchins dot com. I fix them. And let my beleaguered copyeditor know, so we can both learn from the ones that get through. On the other hand, you don’t pay for my blog posts, so I don’t worry about errors in them. Read on the internet at your own risk. 😉

 

 

Stop the madness, people. Hire a damn copyeditor before you publish your books.

Maybe you are one of the eager writers who attends my workshops and presses your book into my hand.

“You’re going to love it. I can’t wait for you to read it,” you say. “I hope you can review it.”

Or you could be a writer who connects with me via social media and is–understandably–asking for a review. Books need reviews. Maybe you give me your book. Maybe I download it free or on sale.

However I get it, I open it and start reading. And one page in, sometimes three, I turn to my husband and say, “Oh no.” Because you sat through my workshop or my Facebook diatribes or my blog posts or my Loser book and know what I think about the necessity of professional copyediting, and that I believe it’s not just about competence, it’s about respect for readers. Yet you slapped that book on me with a smile and a wink believing you will fool me and your readers with a self-edit or one done by your half-hearted critique group or even a cheapo or barter job done by a friend who is an English teacher or who does a little writing/editing on the side.

You won’t. We’re smarter than that. We’ve learned to expect more from writing. We don’t invest our time in crap that’s not ready to see publication.

You didn’t fool me.

My husband sighs. “The editing or writing?”

I count the obvious errors, the errors 95% of their readers will catch: misspellings, missing words, duplicative words, missing periods, incorrect spacing, incorrect capitalization. I count the less obvious ones: verb tense, subject-verb agreement, homonyms. All published books have errors, but good ones have only a few in 100,000 words. Yours has ten in the first ten pages. Not style issues, but errors. Distracting, gross, reader-insulting errors. Close-the-book errors.

Despite that, I keep reading, because you seem nice, and I am determined to find a well-conceived story in here somewhere, maybe even a well-crafted one. I want to like your book. I want to at least be able to give you a three-star review on Amazon, and an encouraging email wherein I refer you to a professional copyeditor. But your story is disjointed, your characters are brittle and their reactions are way off. Your plot bogs down, and your writing is cliche. You need a critique group, one your mother isn’t part of, one comprised of writers better than you. You need to study writing, take some classes, and you need to write hundreds of thousands more words before you publish again, because that’s how you learn to write well: by doing it until you get good at it and develop your voice.

“Both,” I tell him. I shake my head. “Both.”

“I’m sorry. You’ve got to tell them somehow. You’re not helping them if you pretend the emperor is dressed to the nines.”

“I know. But I don’t know how.”

Because I don’t want to hurt your feelings. This isn’t an abstract writer. It’s you, smiling and eager, and looking me in the eye. I like you.

Only I can’t believe you heard me talk about the criticality of professional copyediting (and developmental editing for the sake of your story) and still dumped this on me. Are you really that unaware? You can’t be. It wasn’t edited by a paid professional. You can’t not know that. It’s your book, and you didn’t write a check to anyone for editing. So I can only conclude that you don’t respect me as a reader and want to manipulate me.

And waste my time.

I sound harsh, I know. I mean, who am I to judge? I haven’t won a Pulitzer Prize. I’m not perfect nor is my writing, and I’ll never claim we are. You can still find a few errors in my books, because my (expensive) editor and team of 20+ proofreaders aren’t perfect either. But there is a difference between a well-edited, well-critiqued book by a writer who has put in the years and the work, and what you handed me. You and I both know that.

You are capable of better.

I wish I could tell you there is a short cut. That you are the exception, the writer who should publish every word you queef out from the age of ten, that you don’t need years of practice or editors. I can’t, though, because it’s just not true. You start by sucking. You work to suck less. You attain a level of diminished suckyness eventually redeemed only by the help of other writers and a professional editor(s) and proofreaders. That’s how this works.

And that’s what I’ll pay for. Not with just my money (and my money counts for something), but with my time. With my attention. With my online review under my own name, which is attached to my carefully-guarded reputation as a writer.

Your book? I skimmed through most of it, after I reached the “have to stop” point. I probably made it farther than most of your readers, because I care. And because I care, I can’t review it. I wouldn’t do that to you. If I can’t give you a three, I am not going to hurt you online by posting something lower. You also didn’t pay me to critique it or copyedit it, so I’m not going to send you back a marked-up copy. That’s your job, not mine. Mine was to read.

You can salvage this, though, if you pull the book down, rewrite it WITH HELP until it is truly ready (however many weeks or years that takes), and get it professionally edited before you republish it. {And I don’t want to hear that you don’t have the funds. Hold off on publishing until you do. There’s no need to rush. We don’t deserve you dumping this on us prematurely. Period.} You can save your good name and keep the potential readers who you hadn’t yet lured into this version of your book, who were otherwise destined to run from this book—and you—never to be seen within your pages again.

If you do that and emerge on the other side as a better writer with a book to be proud of, I’ll post that review. I swear I will.

Until then, unless you can be honest with me, and yourself, about what you didn’t do to get this book ready for publication, my silence will be your review. Implicit in it is this suggestion: find a community of writers, in person or virtual, to help you as you develop, through critique and education, and to provide references for great professional editing when your work is ready.

Oh, and in the meantime, I’m using your book as a door stop.

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins, USA Today bestseller and winner of the 2017 Silver Falchion
Best Mystery winner for her What Doesn’t Kill You series, writes hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), too. She teaches writing, publishing, and promotion at the SkipJack Publishing Online School (where you can take How to Sell a Ton of Books, FREE), holds live and virtual writers retreats, and writes about it all 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 and trail rides with her hunky husband, giant horses, and pack of rescue dogs, donkeys, and goats. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

The Down Low on My Hollywood Pitch Trip: My 5 Rs of Book-to-Screen Pitching

12592611_771581496277161_5277452345117460282_nA year ago, I was invited to attend “Adapting to Hollywood,” a conference thrown by Sisters in Crime (primarily the fabulous LA Chapter) and for which I didn’t have to spend one red cent. I still don’t know how I got invited, but I’ll take it. What was obvious from the get-go was that indies like me were the major exception. I buddied up with the awesome Paisley Ray once we discovered we were the unwashed. However, while I didn’t have a built-in buddy group from my chapter or my publisher, people were without exception kind and helpful to me (and to Paisley). Paisley went out and Googled everyone she met on day one and learned we sold more books than all of them put together (and our reviews out numbered theirs like 1000 to 1), so that helped us feel a lot better, too :-). Plus we heard the usual kvetching about lack of control. But I digress. Let’s talk film.

SINC had arranged for us to pitch to Hollywood producers. We were given some instructions ahead of time, and we had a morning to prepare, but—honestly—I would have preferred the pitches occur at the end of the weekend not after lunch on day one. The woman I was supposed to pitch to (and had prepared for) got her days mixed up and no-showed. I was shoe-horned in at the last second with someone I knew nada about, and based on advice I got from our “wrangler,” I pitched a different book than I’d prepared.

And I pitched it badly. Which was 100% my fault. *ARGH*

So what makes a good pitch? Heck, what is a pitch in the first place?

In this case, a pitch is your attempt to interest someone in spending time and money taking your book from print to screen. We were doing five-minute pitches, and we were told to be Clear, Confident, and Committed, action-oriented (build suspense by telling the beginning, middle and end of our book), and to start with a log line. We were told a log line was a one sentence summary of our book. I’ve found a better way of looking at it since then, HERE.

Now, if we hadn’t had pitches scheduled with  producers, we would have needed to research the market to see what producers were putting together material on our topics for media companies/outlets that would work for us. That’s maybe the most important tip I learned: don’t just pitch anyone. Hone in on someone who can make money on your work.

  1. RESEARCH.

In this case, SINC had tried to identify that for us by who they brought in. Most of the producers were looking for Lifetime or Hallmark type of projects.

The next thing I would advise is to listen to your gut.

2. RESPECT YOUR INSTINCTS.

I let myself be swayed by the opinions of others, none of whom had read my books or knew anything but what I told them, and all of whom were trying to help a large number of people at once: I wasn’t getting their focused attention. My gut told me to stick with what I’d come expecting to pitch. I didn’t listen to it.

Next, I heard after-the-fact that I should have focused on characters instead of story. That was also what my gut had told me, but, again, I was too waffly, instead of Committed and Confident.

Third, bring water.

3. RE-HYDRATE.

I didn’t have any water. Part of that was because of the fire drill when my person didn’t show, but, whatever the reason, my throat closed up at one point so badly I couldn’t speak. I’m not kidding. When that happened, I then got scared and confused and the rest will just go down as the worst pitch of all time and one of the worst experiences of my life. I wasn’t Clear, Confident, or Committed. I just wanted out of there. Had I been Clear, Confident, and Committed, I would have said, “Yeah, I think you’d probably be more interested in my novel about a woman who completes an Ironman triathlon to honor her murdered husband, only to put herself and her kids squarely in the sights of his killer?” since she seemed to be Lifetime-focused, something I should have been able to flexibly respond to, and would have known had I researched her ahead of time. C’est la vie. I’m just glad I didn’t faint in her presence.

Fourth, don’t contact people on your own behalf. You have no credibility. We did in this case, because we were selected by SINC, but I would want an attorney, film agent, or credible industry person to initially present information about my books. We heard ad nauseam, “We don’t take non-referred material.”

4. RELATIONSHIPS.

You need relationships. Yeah. A lot of them.

Fifth, expect your pitch to succeed in a real request for material maybe 1 in 100 times. And only 1 in 10 of those to move forward.

5. RESILIENCE.

You must have it. This is not a world for the weak of stomach or those in a hurry or unable to be flexible. And it’s creativity by committee, whereas novel writing is a solitary pursuit. They highly encouraged us that if we ever get a deal, we should take the money and get the hell away from the project.

I learned SO MUCH at this event. I came out with a battered ego, but a clear personal strategy on how to pursue film deals. I’m more confident than ever that my books translate to a visual medium in a three-act structure. I don’t see myself returning to Hollyweird unless there’s a gun to my head (or a check waved in front of me), but being a screenwriter has never been my dream. I’m a storyteller. My vision is to find another medium for my characters and stories to make their way to people who will enjoy them, and another way to monetize my work for me.

I’d welcome your war stories, tips, and questions in the comments below.

One year update, following the tips I wrote a year ago: I now have a completed screenplay by two wonderful screenwriters for Saving Grace working with Voyage Media. And I have a top notch producer who is shopping it as a TV movie. Stay Tuned 🙂

For tips like these and many more, check out my classes on the SkipJack Publishing Online School (where you can take How to Sell a Ton of Books, FREE).

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins, winner of the 2017 Silver Falchion award for Best Mystery (Fighting for Anna), writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), and series mysteries, like those in her What Doesn’t Kill You world, which includes the bestselling Saving Grace and the 2015 and 2016 WINNERS of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy and Hell to Pay. You can snag her newest release, Bombshell, if you’ve already run the rest of the table. 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 here 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 and trail rides with her hunky husband, giant horses, and pack of rescue dogs, donkeys, and goats. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

Five Tips for Plotting a Mystery

Written four years ago, but still good food for thought:

 

When I wrote my first mystery by the seat of my pants, I bought myself a year of heartache by winging it. It took me three more years and three more mysteries before the secret of mystery plotting revealed itself to me: plotting is a deliberate act of research, outlining, and experimentation, done before a writer types her “Once upon a time.”

It was a wicked blow for a cliff-jumper, but I survived, because I hate bad writing worse than a lack of spontaneity. Now, when I start a mystery, I sit down with my resident plot-destroying expert, my chemical engineer husband Eric, and we brainstorm scenarios to improve upon my original idea. Here’s how we do it:

1. Start with an end and work toward a beginning.

Man, I should have this tattooed on my forehead. Who dies, who kills them, and how our hero(ine) survives to bring the murderer to justice. Write your ending first, at least in your head. Now, how do you get there from page one? Your beginning has to be possible even if highly improbable in order for us to reach the end with you. Eric and I work backwards over and over and over, until we find a storyline that works.

To read the rest of five tips for plotting a mystery, visit Fiction University: Take Your Writing to the Next Level, HERE.

For tips like these and many more, check out my classes on the SkipJack Publishing Online School (where you can take How to Sell a Ton of Books, FREE).

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins, winner of the 2017 Silver Falchion award for Best Mystery (Fighting for Anna), writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), and series mysteries, like those in her What Doesn’t Kill You world, which includes the bestselling Saving Grace and the 2015 and 2016 WINNERS of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy and Hell to Pay. You can snag her newest release, Bombshell, if you’ve already run the rest of the table. 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 here 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 and trail rides with her hunky husband, giant horses, and pack of rescue dogs, donkeys, and goats. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

Where Have You Been All My Life: Giving Your Ebooks Away Using BookFunnel

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I recently discovered a new-to-me service that allows me to give my ebooks away easily, both to me and the recipient. Gone are the old days of individually emailing files and patiently explaining and re-explaining the different file types and how to transfer them to devices, apps, and elsewhere, only to have the emails bounce because my files were too big to go through. Gone are the days of download links on Dropbox (and the same patient explanations and re-explanations). Gone are the days of email strings ending like this one:

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Enter BookFunnel.

BookFunnel administers the process of giving away books, for a nominal fee. How large a fee? See below:

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Now, I give away a lot of ebooks. Nearly one million at last count! But most of them are given directly through the sales sites. Thus, I don’t need BookFunnel for those. What do I need it for? Advance readers, reviewers, and for give-aways to incentivize subscription. Right now I’m on the Starving Artist plan. I aspire to upgrade to the next level if I can increase subscriptions enough (I’ll blog about increasing subscription some time in the future–right now I’m in the process of pulling levers and pushing buttons to see how to maximize my own). And if I wasn’t utilizing the sales sites to push my free books, I’d need the Bestseller category. But I want to push my free books through the sales sites, to keep my rankings up, and to optimize my chances for reviews of the ebook on that site.

BookFunnel is easy to use. Here are the data input pages:

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Not too bad, is it? You just come armed with your basic files (cover, mobi, epub, and pdf) and information (description, ASIN, sales link, title/series) and upload them. When you’re ready to generate a link for users, you click the link icon on your Books page (of Books you’ve added):

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Then fill in the blanks:

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Choose parameters like expiration date and download limit, with messages to potential readers to go with each condition, and even attach Facebook tracking information, if you’re going social with your link.

When you’re ready to share the link with potential readers, you retrieve your link either right after the creation, above, or by accessing your book’s BookFunnel page, where it will look like this:

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Send that link to your users. For my Hell to Pay advance readers, I did that by email. With my subscribers, I do it via a Mailchimp welcome message after they subscribe. However you send it, you’ll see pages like this one:

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I chose the first option: Kindle or Kindle app, and got this:

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And then I chose Kindle Fire and voila got this:

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And when I followed these instructions, I got this:

 

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Can you tell I’ve been checking content on some changes in my ebooks, LOL? But there’s Hell to Pay in the lower right corner. Easy peasy.

When I sent this to my Advance Readers for Hell to Pay, I even got this:

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Which has never happened in the history of ever when I’ve sent out free files. And what I didn’t get? Not a single bounce or email telling me people didn’t know what file type to pick or how to get it where they could read it. Hallelujah!! And I can look at stats to see how many downloads have occurred versus simply viewed, and the “conversion” rate:

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For instance, I can now see how many people actually downloaded my “free for subscribers” exclusive ebook. Yippee!

For tips like these and many more, check out my classes on the SkipJack Publishing Online School (where you can take How to Sell a Ton of Books, FREE).

I’m sure not going to miss the bad old days of emailing free ebook files. By the way, I used Instafreebie for awhile, but I like BookFunnel better.

Who else has tried this or another method of free book sharing that they recommend?

Pamela

p.s. Yes, you now have the codes to download Hell to Pay free. Bonus ;-), but I sure would appreciate an honest review in exchange for the freebie, y’all.

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins, winner of the 2017 Silver Falchion award for Best Mystery (Fighting for Anna), writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), and series mysteries, like those in her What Doesn’t Kill You world, which includes the bestselling Saving Grace and the 2015 and 2016 WINNERS of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy and Hell to Pay. You can snag her newest release, Bombshell, if you’ve already run the rest of the table. 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 here 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 and trail rides with her hunky husband, giant horses, and pack of rescue dogs, donkeys, and goats. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

10 Surefire Ways to Get Reviews for Your Books

Screen Shot 2016-06-08 at 1.59.36 PMOnline reviews are EVERYTHING for the sale of indie books. I focused almost exclusively on reviews as a marketing strategy when my first novel, Saving Grace, was published. Three and a half years later, it has more reviews (2300+ with 4.3-stars) on Amazon than Janet Evanovich’s One for the Money (the book it’s most often compared to). And it has now done 1.2 million downloads. And I’ve quit my job as a lawyer.

The question is, without big publishing behind you, how do you get the reviews? Note that I have only 2300 reviews over 1.2 million readers for Saving Grace. The percentage of people that leave reviews (and that Amazon in its sole discretion doesn’t pull down) is small. So the biggest thing you can do is find readers. Not buyers, necessarily. Readers. Readers who may leave reviews.

In the image above you can see that my box set including Saving Grace gets far less reviews than the individual book itself. And my other novels, which haven’t yet had the phenomenal success of Saving Grace, don’t have as many reviews yet (although I’m still proud of Going for Kona’s 106).

Also, please keep in mind that I’m talking about HONEST reviews, and that your encouragement to others to review your books should always make it okay for them to rate and write what their heart tells them to. Your chances of success go up 10,000% if you are always kind, appreciative, and willing to help others as much as they’re helping you—or more.

I’m about to run an online class on exactly this topic, so stay tuned, but in the meantime, here are 10 tips to get you started.

*Note* Sometimes reviewers shy away from reviewing books that they cannot leave good reviews for. If you try the suggestions below and still get no traction, consider consulting a developmental editor. If you get bad reviews, I recommend you read my blog on The Good in Bad Reviews.

1. One school of thought is to buy them. And certainly there are many sources for paid reviews. They just lack credibility, except for one: Kirkus Indie reviews indie books for a hefty fee (check site for current pricing). They require a good bit of lead time for this price: 7-9 weeks. They expedite (3-4 weeks) for an up charge. It doesn’t carry quite the panache of Kirkus for the non-indie world, but it’s still solid.

Yet pricey.

(Foreword has a service, too, where you pay for the POSSIBILITY of a review. Don’t bother. Really.)

You can ask Kirkus not to publish it if the review comes back unfavorable. Kirkus is well known for flaming reviews. If you do authorize them to publish it on their website, they will push it to their partners, like BarnesandNoble.com. They may even choose to publish it in Kirkus Reviews, their REAL, BIG-TIME reviews publication. If they do, you should buy a bottle of champagne, Dom Perignon, not Cook’s. You’ve just won the indie publishing review lottery.

2. Another good way to get reviews is to solicit book blogging reviewers directly. But first you have to find them. The Indie Book Reviewer is a good source. I list tons of others in my book, What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too? 

Be sure that you approach the reviewers in the same way you would query an agent.

  • Go to their website. Are they open for submissions? Does your book fit their interests/genre?
  • Submit in the form specified on their website.
  • Describe your book in a compelling manner, as you would in a pitch or query to an agent. There are good examples of how (and how not) to do that, at The Query Shark.
  • If a reviewer says yes, then work to promote the heck out of their review site upon publication. They’ve scratched your back. Now scratch theirs. Even if you don’t like the review, it is “press,” and all press is good press. Don’t forget to ask them to post some or all of it on Amazon.
  • Never, ever, ever pay one of these reviewers. Kirkus, yes. Indie reviewers, no.
  • Solicit as many as you can. To maximize their “buzz” impact, try your best to time the reviews to come out within a two week or one month window. However, you can’t dictate to a reviewer when reviews are posted anymore than you can dictate what the review says. Best to start three months in advance and then you can sweetly suggest a time frame that is optimal. They’re likely to work with you if you’ve given them adequate advance notice.
  • Expect that some reviewers have alternate vehicles for exposure on their sites, like author interviews or guest posts. Say yes if they offer, even if they say no to reviewing your book.
  • Some like to have you do a giveaway in conjunction with their review. Say yes, as it increases readership of the review.
  • Some like to do a cover reveal for you. It’s a good idea, so think about it.
  • Expect to get 8 no’s for every 10 you send out. These indie bloggers are busy, too, like you.
  • Don’t want to hassle with this? Consider a blog tour, like Lone Star Literary or Pump up Your Book. You pay them to administer the process.

3. Run free or discount promotions. I get tons of reviews when my book is featured on Bookbub, for instance. If you apply for Bookbub and aren’t selected, keep trying. In the meantime, work your way up the ladder of promotions. They’ll all yield reviews, if readers like your books. Permanently-free books can really clean up in reviews with this method. I ran Saving Grace free for eighteen months, for example.

4. When your book is released, offer it free to all your contacts in exchange for a review. Marcy McKay had great success with this strategy when she released her debut novel, Pennies from Burger Heaven. She offered it free for a limited time in an email to her 1200 blog subscribers, and had amazing response and reviews. User Book Funnel to administer this giveaway and set a time limit on the download to increase the urgency for readers. Understand that the people closest to you may be the ones least likely to review your books, and make that okay.

5. Promote through Author Buzz. If you’ve got the bling, that is. They’re pricey, and it involves giving away books (print). But they allow you to send short notes to their incredible lists of power readers, and you can request the reviews directly in them. I’ve had good results with them.

6. Run giveaways. Run a giveaway on your blog and make leaving a review a condition of entry. Run a giveaway on Goodreads to encourage reviews left there (I enclose letters when I mail the books, asking for them to leave an honest review). Run a giveaway on Amazon to encourage follows, and request the honest review from the winners. These aren’t guarantees, but they work sometimes, and they have other positive benefits that make them worth the effort.

7. Mine the reviews of books similar to yours on Amazon. Many top reviewers have contact information within Amazon. Click on their name in a review they’ve left, and track them down. I’ve had incredible success with this method.

8. Another way an indie author can get reviews is to invite social media contacts to write and post reviews on their blogs, sales sites, or other social media venues.

9. Ask for a review at the end of your books. Yes, right there in black and white for everyone that reaches ‘the end’ to see.

10. Finally, approach contacts in the media to review your book in a periodical.

  • I have a contact who writes for what I consider the PREMIER magazine on ADD/ADHD, ADDitude. I went to her directly and asked nicely for a review. Click here to see the review of The Clark Kent Chronicles.
  • You’re more likely to get a yes if you send the request in conjunction with an event in their geographic area (for local publications), or if you’ve done something truly newsworthy to their readership—writing a book isn’t newsworthy, sorry/
  • You won’t always get a yes. I asked four books in a row with The Houston Press. The silence was deafening. Until they did one better and named me to their Top Ten Authors list. Moral of the story: don’t give up.

(Want to read more on the important topic of reviews? I recommend How to Get Your Book Reviewed, by Christine Nolfi, on the super blog of Molly Greene: Writer.)

That’s all I’ve got. What works for you?

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins, winner of the 2017 Silver Falchion award for Best Mystery (Fighting for Anna), writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), and series mysteries, like those in her What Doesn’t Kill You world, which includes the bestselling Saving Grace and the 2015 and 2016 WINNERS of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy and Hell to Pay. You can snag her newest release, Bombshell, if you’ve already run the rest of the table. 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 here 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 and trail rides with her hunky husband, giant horses, and pack of rescue dogs, donkeys, and goats. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

What (writing contest) opportunities have you missed?

Before we begin, we want to let you know about a “doing indie together” opportunity in Hollywood, and that is the stock offering from Voyage Media. SkipJack has been working with Voyage for the last six months on a screenplay for one of our novels. We couldn’t be happier with the writers and producers we’ve partnered with. We’ve been so happy that author Pamela Fagan Hutchins invested in their stock offering. The offering closes June 2nd, so if you have an interest in seeing what Voyage is about, check it out in this live Q&A: http://offers.voyagemedia.com/live_webinar/. Or visit their fundraising page here: https://wefunder.com/voyage.media. The offering closes June 2nd.

Welcome to SkipJack author Rebecca “R.L.” Nolen guest posting today!

“Once”, my mother told me as she lay in the nursing home, “once, I wanted to be on television, on a game show. I sent in an application. It wasn’t long after that I spotted a limousine in the driveway. It backed up and drove away before I could get the curlers out of my hair to go see what they wanted. Do you think it was the game show host? Do you think they picked me and I missed my one opportunity because I was too slow to get out there to stop them?” I told her I didn’t think so, that the limo was likely lost. What concerned me most was that she was dwelling on what she thought were missed opportunities at the end of her life.

There are opportunities all around us. We make choices all day about whether to grab those passing opportunities, or not.

Once my two novels were published I wondered about entering them into contests. Having total strangers read and comment about my books was a little scary at first. Then reviews began to come in. I’ve found most people are kind in their remarks. But to enter my novel into a contest meant that someone, possibly on the other side of the world would read my book, and judge it.

Judge. It.

Come on, entering a contest wouldn’t kill me, even though I was scared. They may not like my novel but it is unlikely that they would then wait outside my house to beat me up. So I found a list of novel contests much like this one: http://www.newpages.com/classifieds/big-list-of-writing-contests  and submitted both my novels to various contests.

The thing about contests is this: you can’t win if you don’t step forward and enter. Sometimes those kind of steps are the hardest part of “what do I do now” after a book is published.

The other thing about contests I learned after the fact: Only enter contests that promise some sort of feedback about your novel. Contests where I received not a word, like the Writer’s Digest Novel contest, are not a good investment. Why enter a contest never to hear squat about anything? Most contests require an entry fee. I think for them it truly is all about making money. But I was young and ignorant so I entered five contests. Here’s a great article about contest profiteers. http://tinyurl.com/p79lt2y

I can’t complain too much. My thriller Deadly Thyme won a contest, and so did my middle grade fantasy The Dry. There were two other contests that I didn’t win that sent feedback, so I’m very glad I entered. The feedback was wonderful. One was with Chanticleer, and the other was The Wishing Shelf contest.

Winning a contest doesn’t guarantee better book sales, but it beats being poked in the eye with a sharp stick.Those contest wins go on my book pages, and they help me qualify for online e-book promotions. They give me invaluable credibility, as well as that feedback I mentioned.

The best thing for me these days is winning reviews from readers, and I think that my contest wins have helped me gain credibility with potential readers, and helped turn them into actual readers.

My mother was an amazing woman. That’s something I may not have believed when I was younger. Some of her daring feats I never knew of until I had to clean out her old letters and papers. When I look back on it, she was in her thirties in the early 60’s when she applied to be a contestant on television. Even if she never got to be on a game show, she was a winner because she sent in her name. Just like taking that scary step to enter your book in a contest, she took the scary step forward. Bravo, Mom!

Rebecca

I write children’s books as Rebecca Nolen and adult books as R.L. Nolen.61VmrvliHfL._UX250_

The Dry is a children’s book set between the freedom of slaves and the implementation of child labor laws. Children were virtual slaves in the coal mines. When a young boy goes in search of his lost father he ends up underground where giant insects rule.

Deadly Thyme is an adult psychological suspense set in a sleepy seaside village of North Cornwall where a girl has disappeared. The villagers are keeping secrets. One of them is deadly.
DEADLY THYME LG
I write, illustrate, and care for loved ones in Houston, TX. I taught children, cared for an assortment of pets, and killed poisonous snakes in the wilds of Sugar Land for twenty-two years before moving into the big city seeking “hipster” status. As that goal remains sadly out of reach I continue to practice the fine art of balance at the local YMCA, and I walk the dog. At the moment I am in the room at the top of the stairs dreaming of England and cream-filled donuts.

Come visit me at http://rebeccanolen.com.

How to Rally Your Troops for Support

I’m frequently asked by authors how I get my contacts/friends/family to really support me as an author. I put the following piece together to make it easy for them, and easy for you, with yours. Feel free to copy and paste in your own details and send around to your contacts. Or, focus on only one type of activity at a time and dole it out in small nuggets. Small nuggets fit most people’s lifestyles/attention spans. So here you go . . .

How to Help Your Favorite Author

I’m sure the author in your life would appreciate any efforts you make on her behalf, even if you stop after the first suggestion in this article. But, heck, why not try them all? Any of us can eat a very large elephant, if we just do it one bite at a time (and preferably utilize vacuum-sealed freezer bags, because it’s going to take you a while). I will not address the vegan/vegetarian ramifications of this last statement; suffice it to say that I truly meant “can” and not “will want to.” Now, back to the topic of promoting your favorite author.

The Old-fashioned Way

Buy their books, people, in whatever form — print, e-book, audio, or whatever. But don’t just buy them. Read them. Tell everyone and their red-headed brother how much you loved them. Lend one to a friend, who might in turn buy the book as a gift for someone or tell five other people about it, who then go buy it. And here’s an idea — you can give them as gifts! Put one on your book club’s reading list; start a book club if you don’t have one. Ask your local bookstore to order them for you. Ditto your library, or donate yours when you’re done reading it. Your words are powerful. Use them.

The Techie Way, but Low Techie

  • Subscribe by e-mail to your favorite writers’ blogs and newsletters. Then forward them to other people, who might also subscribe or visit the websites. While you’re at it, follow them on all forms of social media. You can find me at http://pamelafaganhutchins.com to subscribe and follow, and I’ll reward you with free books. (Just sayin’.)
  • On Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest and similar social media sites, post links to the authors’ books. Or share/retweet links posted by others. Follow your author while you’re there.
  • Follow your author on http://BookBub.com. I’m at https://www.bookbub.com/authors/pamela-fagan-hutchins.
  • One-third of all book sales occur on Amazon. Go to Amazon, and do several important things:

If you don’t know how to find their author pages, then go to one of their books. If you click on their name below the title of the book, it will take you to the author page. If you don’t know how to find their books, you’re in trouble. Just kidding. Search for the book by title and his/her name in the search box in the center of the page near the top.

Visit every one of their books. The Knights of Pamelot have their own spreadsheet with links to every one of mine, everywhere. Share/tweet them. Leave honest reviews, with credible ratings. Write simply and from the heart. Heck, Amazon only requires 20 words.

Not High Tech, But For The InterWeb Savvy

Now I’m Talking To The Bloggers

  • Invite your author to guest post. They can whip up a custom confection for your site, or you can interview them or one of their characters. Do a cover reveal for them. Excerpt a chapter.
  • Here’s an idea: you write about their book — as in, review it. I’ll bet your author friend will even give you a book for a giveaway. Don’t expect expensive loot, though. Authors are ramen-noodle eating, Salvation Army clothes-wearing sorts of people whose kids walk uphill in snow to school, and like it.
  • Guest post on their blogs, which brings your traffic over to meet them, and potentially creates followers/purchasers.
  • Join Amazon’s Associates, or B&N’s Affiliate Programs and their sell books for a commission on your site.
  • And of course, share/post/tweet/pin/stumble like mad over all of the posts created above.

Bonus: Here’s my hyper-organized grass-roots marketing spreadsheets, for my Knights of Pamelot, free for you to download and emulate. https://www.box.com/s/c621f562f74e5e139ab9

Some of you are salivating with intention and I lost others of you at the first mention of booting up your computer. That’s OK. Just do the stuff you’re comfortable with. It’s all good.

Thanks for supporting your favorite authors, and me!

***

My best,

Pamela

Pamela Fagan Hutchins, winner of the 2017 Silver Falchion award for Best Mystery (Fighting for Anna), writes overly long e-mails, hilarious nonfiction (What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?), and series mysteries, like those in her What Doesn’t Kill You world, which includes the bestselling Saving Grace and the 2015 and 2016 WINNERS of the USA Best Book Award for Cross Genre Fiction, Heaven to Betsy and Hell to Pay. You can snag her newest release, Bombshell, if you’ve already run the rest of the table. 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 here 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 and trail rides with her hunky husband, giant horses, and pack of rescue dogs, donkeys, and goats. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start).

Less is More

I recently spent a month in Russia. I saw a lot of interesting things. In Russia, the rolls of toilet paper don’t have that cardboard tube in the center on which the paper is rolled. It is all paper, and the holder is just a skinny metal shaft that pierces the center and wallah, it spins nicely.

“Big deal” says you.

Well think about this. The average American household uses about two rolls per week. There are about 200,000,000 households in America (not counting all the public places). At 2 x 52 weeks a year x 200,000,000 = 208,000,000! TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHT MILLION CARDBOARD TUBES, and that’s a lot of trees. For what? To hold toilet paper.

So you are probably wondering where in the world I am going with this on a SkipJack Blog. Writers love words, especially their own words. Once they put them on paper, it is very, very hard for you guys to part with them.

I may be a tad biased but my wife Pamela Fagan Hutchins is wonderful at scene-setting and description. She writes beautiful sentences. When I read them in draft versions of her books I love them all, I want her to keep them all, I argue with her when she starts to chop. But chop she does. Thousands of words in a sitting sometimes. I want to cry. I know the books will never be the same. And I am right, because the result is better. Better.

I know there is a place in literature for really long books with really long paragraphs made up of really long sentences that use every word in the dictionary and some that may not even be there anymore. And scholars will sit around and sip wine and talk about the magnificence of those books. But for me, I just don’t want to work that hard.

I want to be entertained. I want reading to be a joy, effortless. Like riding down a slide at a water park, exciting with no effort. I think most readers today are like me.

When you get to that stage where your draft is done and rewrites are starting, remember that the end product is not for you and your ego (OK, unless it really), it’s for your readers. Don’t let your final product be a part of those 208

 million cardboard tubes that just get thrown away. In the end, your roll may be smaller but it will have more of what people want.

Eric

Eric R. Hutchins is the owner of SkipJack Publishing