Category Archives: Amazon
Why is writing ad copy so hard?
I would like to think that by now I’m a pretty good writer—I know how to craft a plot, create interesting characters, and build a story that keeps a reader interested until the last page. I understand the power of words, and how important it is to choose the right ones. I get written communication, you know?
Until I have to write marketing text for a book, and then I start screaming. I’m fully aware that marketing is a whole skill set in its own, and I admire the hell out of authors who are also good marketers and understand how to get a potential reader’s attention.
I am not one of those authors. Being neurospicy, I’m fully aware that what appeals to me in an ad or a blurb isn’t going to appeal to 90% of my potential reading audience, so working on effective marketing material can be … a challenge. Yes, let’s call it a challenge.
That being said, I don’t make enough to outsource this to pro marketers, so I have to suck it up and try to be the best marketer I can with my neurospicy brain. Frex, I’ve just worked on some marketing issues with Storm Season (Olympic Cove Book One). According to Amazon Ads I’m getting a relatively good number of impressions (when an ad is displayed to a potential customer), and clicks (when a customer clicks on an ad). But I’m not getting purchases of the book, which usually means that the ad looks interesting enough to get someone to click on it, but when they land on the book’s Amazon page either the cover or the blurb makes them think, “Nah.”
I’m in the process of overhauling all the Olympic Cove covers and making them look more like the current visual standard for mythological romance books (jewel-toned decorative background, a focus object, and titles in a swoopy font with a gold embossed effect), but I decided the blurb could also use more of an emotional hook. Everything I’ve been reading on marketing says that emotion is one of the most important tools an author has when it comes to selling a book. It’s my job to dangle an emotional promise in front of a reader—this book will make you feel happy, horny, engaged, maybe a little angry, maybe a little thoughtful, and immensely satisfied at the end.
And I get to pack all that into a blurb. Whee. Now I just have to wait and see if I managed it correctly for Storm Season.
I’m Going Wide. Again.
I have made a decision.
Last year, I enrolled most of my books in KU. It made sense at the time—my income from non-‘Zon outlets was okay but nothing to write home about, and I saw a five-fold spike in my book income when I went with KU. Plus I was getting exposed to a much larger reader group, which could only be a good thing.
Since September, however, my KU reads have been dropping steadily. Worse, various goings-on at Amazon have reduced the payout for KU page read, and it does not look like things are going to improve any time soon, if ever. You can read Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s excellent analysis of the Amazon situation for a more in-depth explanation, but the short version is: Amazon’s new CEO doesn’t care about books or readers, so KU payments are getting jacked around and the program is no longer worth it for a lot of authors.
I am one of them. I hope this doesn’t come as a surprise, but I do this job (and it is a job) for money. To quote Preeti Chhibber:
“The thing is that writing is actually work. We romanticize it, and it is a wonderful thing to get to do professionally, but it is work that makes a lot of money for a lot of people — just not the people who actually do the work.”
She was referring to the WGA strike but her words can be applied to indie authors as well. Much of our income is tied to big companies like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, et al because they have the ability to put our books in front of far more readers than we could reach on our own. And they have made a pretty penny on our work.
But when Amazon’s new CEO decides that books aren’t important, that attitude starts impacting KU payouts. And when an indie author is only making pennies a day on KU reads, there’s no reason to keep our books in KU anymore (in case you didn’t know, having a book in KU means that it can’t be available anywhere because it has to be exclusive to Amazon).
This is not me being greedy, by the way. I know that a lot of people think writers are rich, but we’re not. Most writers don’t actually make a living wage and the millionaire outliers are just that, outliers. The rest of us have to have day jobs, additional income streams, or an employed spouse to cover the bills.
Thing is, I would like my employed spouse to be able to retire someday, and the only way to do that is if I’m making enough money with my books to support us, since I love writing and will continue to write until I drop dead over my keyboard. This means I need to put my books where they have the best potential to be purchased by readers. And right now staying in KU, much as I hate disappointing readers who pay for it, is costing me that potential income.
Long story short, I’ve turned off all of my KU automatic renewals. Once books finish their current KU cycle I will be uploading them to Smashwords/D2D and going wide. I’m letting you know this so that if you want to read one of my books while it’s still in KU, you can. Here’s the schedule of when each book finishes its current KU cycle. I’ll be uploading them to Smashwords/D2D that day and they should be available on B&N, Kobo, Apple, Google Play, and other platforms a few days later:
- All books in the Hidden Empire series: 5/18/23
- All books in the Two Thrones and Olympic Cove series: 5/20/23
- Stealing Dmitri: 5/20/23
- Trickster: 6/21/23
- A Theory of Crystal: 6/21/23
- Crystal Shard: 6/24/23
- Behind the Iron Cross: 7/3/23
One bright side—I have authorized my books to be available in Kobo Plus, which is pretty much the same thing as Kindle Unlimited except that my books don’t have to be exclusive to Kobo. And I suspect a lot of indie authors who are tired of the KU rollercoaster will be doing the same thing. If Amazon decides to shut down KU at some point, you should be able to sign up for Kobo Plus and find many of your favorite authors there.
In conclusion, I would like to thank everyone who’s read my books in KU over the past year. I appreciate your patronage so very much and I’m sorry if this puts a crimp in your future reading plans. Hopefully Kobo Plus turns out to be as successful as KU was for the first few years and will provide you with as much reading material as you desire.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to start reformatting a lot of books.
Sphincter…Relaxing…
My Amazon KU sales are continuing to pick up, thank Cthulhu, so clearly I did the right thing by turning the automatic renewal back on for the bulk of my titles. Still, I’m going to be significantly short this month on expected income, which kind of blows because I would really like to take Ramón to Sarasota for a weekend sometime in April and I need sweet, sweet publishing income for that. Even if I published two new titles next month I wouldn’t see that money until the end of April so obviously I need to kickstart the Shopify store and start selling signed print versions of my books with swag.
I need minions, I really do. Or a PA, but I can’t afford one right now so it’s all on me.
In the meantime I’m thisclose to finishing Shifter Woods: Claw and will get that out before the end of the month, and as soon as Shifter Woods: Growl finishes out its KU period in February I’ll release the Esposito County Shifters box sex on all platforms with Howl, Snarl, Growl, Claw, and Roar. Which reminds me, I got a very nice 4 star review for Growl last week and the reviewer didn’t understand why different sites had different numbering schemes. I had to explain that I’m not J.R. Ward and can’t mix MF stories with MM stories in a series and get consistent read-through (seriously, the moment I took out Roar and made it an associated novella my sales increased. Go figure).
To which the reviewer said, “Well, just so you know, I’ll read all kinds of combinations in a series.” Which warms my heart.
I also just remembered that I have to start designing the ECS box set cover. Must take a look at other paranormal romance box sets and see what’s currently in vogue, tra la.
Behind the Iron Cross update and release date
I’m currently on the home stretch with about 10K ahead of me for Behind the Iron Cross, my MMF historical romance set in between-the-wars Berlin. Which is good, because I have three betas who are threatening to camp out on my doorstep until I turn over the manuscript. It’s nice to be wanted.
That being said, this puppy is going to need a LOT of editing, partially because it’s been in progress since 2012 and partially because I need to doublecheck a lot of the historical bits. Also, I may be watching Babylon Berlin on Netflix for setting and costume inspiration (Babylon Berlin, by the way, is a FANTASTIC show and I highly recommend it if you like historically set police procedurals). With this in mind, I am formally setting the release date for BtIC as October 23, 2018. I know this may disappoint some people who were hoping to get it next week, but I’ve got to give the story the editing time it needs. Besides, you’ll be happier with the end result if I make sure it’s spandy clean and tight as a drum.
And after that, I immediately launch into King of Blades (Two Thrones 4). Because that is definitely my most popular series at the moment, and right now I really, really, REALLY want to get back to writing some fantasy. Soon, Hellas — soon.
Nicola Cameron Writes 