A Little Book First Aid, Please

Lately, my newest novel, A Collateral Attraction, hasn't been getting much attention from me compared to my earlier book, Loving Ashe.  As a result, its sales are languishing.  My one excuse is that I'm getting book 2 of the Loving Ashe Trilogy ready, and so all my attention is on fine-tuning the manuscript and getting it ready for its release.

But it's not a good excuse considering that I released A Collateral Attraction just last December 15, and the last thing I want to see is to have it languishing on digital bookshelves barely a month later.  It feels like I've just ignored one of my kids, or put them on mute or something - and it's not a good feeling.

But how exactly does one give TLC to a digital book?

If you're traditionally published and therefore, have no access to your Amazon KDP dashboard, you can't.  That's up to your publisher.  But as an indie author, I can do at least three things to hopefully make my book more visible on the Amazon Kindle Store (cross my fingers and wish me luck).

Tighten up my book's keywords

What exactly are keywords, you may ask.  Well, if you've ever gone online to Google something - let's say, identical twins romance, you're going to type those words on Google: identical twins romance.  However, that's just too vast. I mean, you're looking for a book, right?

So where would you go to find books?  Unless you've got something against Amazon and refuse to shop from them (I know a few people), then the answer is Amazon: Kindle.  So I'm going to head on over to Amazon and click on the Kindle Store and in the search bar, at the top, I'm going to type identical twins romance, and pick a book that interests me from the search results.  In the case of A Collateral Attraction, it's the third result out of 970.  But honestly, who looks for identical twins romance?   I need to come up with a better term, but it will be one of the seven keywords that Amazon KDP will allow my book to have.

What you've just done right there, whether it's on Google or on Amazon, is type a set of keywords.  Search words would be another way to look at it.  And if the right search words (which can be a group of words, not just one word, separated by commas in the keyword entry box in your KDP dashboard) can get my book noticed, then I need to tweak it now and then.

Fix up my book blurb

This is important.  And this is where I have not been doing well at all.  When you click on my book, this is the first thing you see:

Unfortunately, I did my screen shot too late.  I had a crappy blurb to begin with and what you're seeing, the quote from RT Reviews is the newest version of my blurb that I just uploaded less than 20 minutes before writing this post.

What I really wanted you to see is that, with Amazon truncating the book description to the first five lines, you've only got a teeny-tiny bit of digital real estate to catch the reader's attention after their eyes leave the cover.  That's why I finally decided to use the quote from RT Reviews, something I should have done from the very beginning.

This was the first blurb I had before the change you see above:

Some days, it can be tough being an identical twin — especially when your other half is in deep trouble. 
Billie Delphine has always been content standing on the sidelines while her identical twin sister, Blythe, gets all the attention, including a glamorous lifestyle with billionaire, Ethan Kheiron, who will do anything to wrestle back control of the family fortune from his younger brother, Heath.
But when Blythe disappears with Ethan while Billie is visiting her in New York, the last thing Billie wants is to be mistaken for her sister — or be falsely accused of a crime that Billie knows Blythe did not commit. So when Heath suggests they work together to find them, Billie agrees.
But a life of luxury, personal shopping sprees, and private jets cannot hide the years of unresolved differences between sisters, nor the decades of lies that have left the Kheiron family divided. And even as Billie slowly falls for Heath, she knows that until they all settle their differences, they're just pawns in someone else's game of power — where some of them are more expendable than others.

Honestly, it was way too much chatter that didn't tell me anything interesting, especially the first line in bold.  Is this the reason why people just thought, meh, let me move on to something else.

This was the final blurb I just uploaded today:

"A mistaken identity story that straddles the line between romance and chick lit." - RT Book Reviews 
There's nothing more annoying than being mistaken for your more glamorous twin sister everywhere you go - especially when you're also being accused of a crime you know she didn't commit. And for small-town girl, Billie Delphine, learning that her socialite twin sister, Blythe, is in trouble is all she needs to step out of her shell, even if it means working alongside the one man her sister despises for taking over her boyfriend's company, his younger brother, Heath Kheiron.
But the world of personal shopping sprees and private island retreats cannot hide the years of unresolved differences between sisters, or the decades of lies that have left the Kheiron family divided. And as Billie slowly falls for the Kheiron family's black sheep, she realizes that there's also another player in the game, and until they can all settle their differences, they're all expendable - some of them more than others.

I think this one, outside of the overlong sentences, is much better than the first one.  I'll still tweak it, but the first line will remain the same throughout - that quote from RT Book Reviews.

What do you think?  Which one is better?

Create a book landing page

For authors who don't have their own website yet, one way you can direct attention to your book is to have a landing page dedicated to that book.  If you're like me and you created your book using Pressbooks (normal price: $99 for epub, mobi, and pdf versions - the pdf is for print, like if you're going to have a paperback or hardcover book printed though they also have specials where you get 30 - 50% off), then Pressbooks has a landing page just for that book in question, including sample chapters that you designate to be freely viewed online, and a BUY page with links to online bookstores like Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, or Barnes and Noble.

This is what the page looks like on Pressbooks.

While the Pressbooks landing page is for those who wrote and formatted their books using Pressbooks, there's also Booklaunch as an alternative, and I talk about that here.  I think it's great for those who don't have an author website yet, or would like to set up a dedicated page for their book with buy links, an author section, testimonials, and also a way to integrate your mail list service for your newsletter.

And one more thing! With Amazon's embed feature, you can embed your book right on your website, like this:

From here, there's not much I can do but wait and see if those changes do help gain the book more organic visibility.  In the meantime, I can figure out ways to advertise the book.  I have a few more days of KDP Select free days to use though I'm not sure if I'm going to use them or not.  But if I do, I'll let you guys know so you can download it for free.  

Guess my next post will have to deal with promotions, right?

In the meantime, since I've talked my book till you're blue in the face, here's the link to buy A Collateral Attraction from Amazon.  And if you'd like to be updated about my latest books, giveaways and author events, please sign up for my newsletter.

So I'm on Authorgraph

There are so many different ways to promote one's book that it's actually mind-boggling, and I've just recently discovered a site that allows you receive a digital autograph from your favorite author!  It's called Authorgraph.

Authorgraph makes it possible for authors to sign e-books for their readers. Really! Getting an Authorgraph is easy: 

• Search or browse for your favorite authors or books 

• Click "Request Authorgraph" (you can include a short message to the author) 

• Receive an email when the author has signed your Authorgraph 

• View your Authorgraph in your favorite reading apps and devices

I actually found a few books that I own so I'm going to request an author-graph from the respective authors and just have fun with it.

But don't let me be the only one to have any fun!  If you have my books, you can even get me to author graph your copy! Yup, I signed up with them and here are my books on their site which I recently added.  You'll probably end up searching for my books once I cycle through the "Recently Added..." section but it would be fun, wouldn't it?

Growing Pains of An Indie-Author

I'm still trying to navigate this overwhelming new world of marketing for writers, especially self-published writers like me.  There's so much to do that I have to keep a notebook and jot down all the notes, all the websites, all the tips that everyone else swears will work to promote your book - turns out I'm such a visual-kinesthetic learner that I have to actually jot down, scribble, sketch the ideas on paper before it makes its mark a bit more permanently than just plain reading or watching some how-to video on Youtube.   And while my notes are constantly growing, the toughest part will be the execution of these tips successfully.

And in the process of the execution, there will be mistakes.  And because I'm easily distracted, there will be lots of mistakes.

Take Loving Ashe for example, which is going through a re-release party of sorts in mid-November, when the paperback version will be released.

When I first published Loving Ashe, it was to no fanfare at all. Why? Probably just excitement, but part of the reason was that I wanted to gather reader reviews on sites such as Amazon and Goodreads, even Smashwords.  Then barely one month after publication, I made the decision (as an experiment) to have the book exclusive to a Amazon's Kindle Direct Select or KDP for 90 days.  I figured, I'd see if that would help increase my sales.  It's also part of the Kindle Unlimited lending library.

With only one month left to go in the 3-month term, I've un-checked the box that says "Automatically renew this book to KDP in another 90 days..." because while there are sales, right now 1 book per day and sometimes 2, when I went to check my Smashwords dashboard, I found out that I made more money selling Loving Ashe on iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and even Scribd in less than a month than I have on Amazon.

And I also hate having all my eggs in one basket.

There are also many people who refuse to buy from Amazon, and from among my bodywork clients alone, I've counted 6 people alone.  That's 6 sales I would have lost - and am losing - while my book remains solely on Amazon.

So starting November 10th, Loving Ashe will be back up on Smashwords and made available to other retailers like iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, though I think Scribd is out of the running if Loving Ashe is categorized under Romance since they've pulled out romance books from their library. Turns out, romance readers were driving their company model to the ground - they were gobbling up more books in a month than was financially feasible.  I'm actually a Scribd subscriber and one who barely has enough time to read any of the books that I've earmarked in my library. Most of the books I read on Scribd happens to be Charles Bukowski's poetry - go figure.

Anyway, so if you haven't yet gotten your copy of Loving Ashe because you refuse to buy it from Amazon, which is the only place you can get it right now, don't despair.  November 11 (hey, that's 11/11!) is the date it will go back up to all the other online retailers and I'll be doing a happy dance then, too.  Now my only problem is figuring out how to get the paperback available from sites other than Amazon.  But then you can always buy that from me :)

The Inspiration Behind Loving Ashe

©Guylty

People often ask what led me to write Loving Ashe, and other than NaNoWriMo 2014, it started a year and a half earlier with a writing prompt about an elevator. At that time, publicity was in full swing for the lead actors of The Hobbit, namely Richard Armitage.  And after seeing a picture of him during one of the publicity events in New York, I wondered what would happen if my main character got stuck in an elevator with a handsome man whom she didn't recognize was an actor because she was feeling too guilty over something she'd almost done. A bit complicated, I know, but this was the premise for Elevator, the short story that was the result of the writing prompt.

A year and a half later, with the characters slowly coming into their own like fine wine, Riley Eames and Ashe Hunter were "born" just in time for NaNoWriMo14.  Ashe became much younger at 32 than Armitage (43) and Riley remained that magical age of 23 (kinda New Adult but kinda not).

The idea to keep Ashe an actor, giving Riley a little glimpse into his life in show business is based on my experiences as a massage therapist, visiting homes of people who worked in the business, from directors, producers, managers, agents and the actors themselves.  Some were older, and part of Old Hollywood as we know it now and some were even rappers who were also actors.  

The one thing that struck me about the actors though was that while they were known as one thing in the public eye, behind closed doors - even if those doors were mansions in Bel-Air or Sherman Oaks or Malibu - they were normal people like you and me.  Sure, they had more security, had game rooms larger than my entire house, and you often needed a map to navigate your way from one end of the house to the other.  But they were still normal. They had the same aches and pains as you and I do, watch the same shows and even read the same books.  They had their dreams, pursued them with a passion and had work ethics to die for.  But they also worried about their kids the same way I worry about my kids and most of all, they were just as insecure as you and me.  

It was a far cry from the tough, often bad-boy or bitchy image they portrayed on billboards, movies, or on talk shows.  

I'm sure there are many people in the "business" who aren't so nice, but so far, I've been fortunate.  In my case, it was meeting one man, a line producer, who got me "in."  So impressed was he with my bodywork (deep tissue techniques specializing in treatment of chronic pain, plus I do tend to talk when talked to), that he referred me to the star of the movie he was producing, who then referred me to the director of the same movie, who then referred me to another actor...and so on.  One person.  

These days, I've let go of the stars and the directors and the producers since marrying and starting a family but I can never forget the inside look they all gave me into their lives and their homes and their families.  The thrill of being recognized and called by your first name is something you can't describe, but at the same time, it's something you can't buy as real.  In the end, I was still their massage therapist and it was business.  I was also bound to client privacy so whatever they were willing to share with me was to remain with me and no one else.

Maybe they'll show up in my stories but luckily if something does, it's all pretty tame.  Or at least in my fiction it is.

Loving Ashe is now available to buy from Amazon.

A Brand New Cover Reveal (And How To Update Your Purchased Copy With the New Cover)

Yesterday I did a brand new cover reveal for Loving Ashe on the Facebook page.  Honestly, I couldn't be any happier working with Daniela of SelfPubBookCovers.com to get the look I wanted, especially one to match the cover of the second book, and soon, the third of the trilogy.

It's definitely one of the lessons I'm learning about self-publishing - that not all covers are created equal, even if it says, "custom cover."

I also learned that unless I did one more step on my Kindle device settings, the new version wouldn't necessarily replace the older versions that I already purchased.  So if you've purchased your copy of Loving Ashe before today, chances are you'll need to do one more thing to make sure you get this brand new version with the appropriate credit to the designer within the copyright page.

I went ahead and did a screen cap of the things you'll need to do on your end to get the updated content automatically downloaded to your device or app.

Here's the more detailed look into how to turn Automatic Book Updates On or Off that will help you get the updated cover downloaded onto your apps and devices.