The Kindle global fund is a mystery to most authors. Today I worked with a brilliant eighty-four year old gentleman. He can't understand why his really wonderful science books for children are not being snapped up by educators. Dr. Robert Krupp is still teaching college on the internet. amzn.to/2qr3Pki He has published five books for children ages PK - 12. My seven year old grandson loves the books and has done several of the experiments in them. What child wouldn't like making green slime? Bob thought that all his books were already on kindle. In reality only one was. Some how he missed the last step and four of his books were sitting there as drafts. We managed to finish publishing all his books on Kindle and now he can proceed to get his share of the kindle Global fund. What is the Kindle Global Fund? It's free money from Amazon for every page that is read of your book on kindle. You have to send your book out to the world and wait for readers to download the kindle and then read the book. You want to post your book were the readers are. You might have a couple hundred Facebook Friends but you have to find those places that have thousands of readers. Sounds simple right? Not so fast. My novel Broken Branches amzn.to/2jy5zFg was a best seller on Amazon kindle with over 650 downloads. The problem is that a down load can just sit there and not get read for ages if at all. How do I get readers to actually read the book they down load? If anyone out there has an answer please let me know. For all you out there that store all those downloads, get reading and help us struggling authors out. I don't even have a kindle reader. I still love a real book in my hands. By the way I now have a boxed set of my first two books in the Green Lady Inn series. amzn.to/2oRb2g8 sign up for my newsletter and if you have a question or comment let me know.
I'd love to hear from you.
0 Comments
It's common misconception that to be traditionally published is the way to succeed and get your book out in front of readers. Now a days the traditionally published have to work just as hard as the self-published to get the word out. In order to get your books in to stores and libraries they have to be returnable. This is automatic with traditional publishers for the most part. You really have to do your research if you are going the self-published route. Subsidy publishers will charge a fee to have your books returnable. It can be anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars. I read an article that really made me think. The article was about the ISBN number an authors uses. bit.ly/2onNHlF The article is about linking your create space book to Ingram. Ingram is the largest distributor in the country. With a ISBN number that is uniquely your own you can stand out in a crowded self-publishing market and be listed with Ingram You get the ISBN number from www.Bowker.com. They have a range of other services that you should be looking at to make an informed decision. One ISBN number cost $125 or you can buy ten for $295. If I knew how many books I was going to be writing I would have bought ten. I have been promoting my books on social media for a couple months now and have seen my royalties climb. I have a new novel I'm working on and almost finished. Blood Orange is set in 1986, where the Medellin cartel out of Columbia, was dropping drugs in the Florida orange groves. I just have to figure out how to get to the ending. I will be buying an ISBN from Bowker this time around. You have to work at your marketing. I have a marketing coach which I see every couple months and I get a lot of tips I never would have thought about. Everyone needs help now and then even brilliant people like me. I now have three books that have made it into the ranks of Amazon best sellers in Kindle format in their genre. Broken Branches - adult fiction Princess Annie and the Unicorn - children's fiction Where's Teddy? - children's fiction Please sign up for my newsletter so I can tell you about new releases and where I might be at an event or book signing. I'd also be happy to answer any questions you might have. Whispers in time will be available the end of April. Watch for a special boxed set of the Green Lady Inn book one and two. , Writing a series of interconnected novels is not as easy as it sounds at least for me. First you have to remember all the characters you created in the first book of the series. You have to remember each and every one's hair color, eye color. Are they tall or short? Who are they related to, married to and their children if any. I finally made an excel spread sheet for all the characters that would be in The Green Lady Inn series. I just referred back to it al lot. I think it's a good idea to do this for all the books you are writing. My sequel to Broken Branches, amzn.to/2jy5zFg , is titled Whispers in Time. It's getting edited now and should be out soon. I hope you have read Broken Branches. It made it to #3 on the Amazon Best Seller list and I was so pleased and hope all the readers enjoy it, leave a review and will go on to read book two, Whispers in Time. I love the characters I have created for this series. Megan and Jake are the owners now of the Green Lady Inn. Megan inherited the house from her grandmother in the first book. They have a quirky couple living next door that helped solve Megan's grandmother's murder, Amanda and Zack. They own an art gallery in Salem where a lot of action takes place. It's great fun because of the humor I can use with these two. Zack has a running gag going with Megan's cat Magic. The cat knows that Zack is not crazy about him and torments Zack at every opportunity. Mr. Prendergast is the realtor who is always just on the shady side of things. Then we have Detective Yarborough who can't quite understand how Megan and Jake get involved with all his cases. Whispers in time has added a couple more permanent characters to the mix. I can't wait to see what happens in book three. You just never know who will check into the Green Lady Inn in Salem Massachusetts. Please leave a comment or ask a question. I don't post very often but would love to hear from you. Finding the time to write the next great novel is every writers nightmare. It's great if you are in an isolated cabin somewhere up in the mountains with only the chipmunks to worry about. Most of us have family to take care of and errands to run.
Not a lot of me time left. I finished my last novel today, yeah!!!. This one only took me six months. It still has a couple editing stages to go through and then formatting before I can upload it to have it printed. I've been leaving little tidbits of the story on my Facebook author page. I don't write an outline so I never know how the story will end until I get there. I think you will like this ending. Whispers in Time is the sequel to Broken Branches - Book one of the Green Lady Inn Series. Now I have to think up book three. While that whirls around in my head I'm going back to one I left on the shelf half finished. Blood Orange is set around 1986 when the drug cartel of Pablo Escobar used the Florida orange groves to drop their cocaine by plane. I'm looking forward to finishing that one. In the mean time my ABC writing group is having another Florida Writers contest. the theme is Christmas in Florida. My submission is titled, A Christmas Murder. A naked man washes up on Venice beach wearing only a Christmas wreath around his neck and a red ribbon tied in a bow on his... I may publish it as a short story on kindle for Christmas. Any questions or comments please contact me. I'd love to hear from you. I happened to think that you might like to know a bit more about me and my journey as an author. I was on a panel discussion last night organized by the National League of American Pen Women here in Sarasota. I have the honor of being their current president. The discussion was titled the Artist Journey. For those that don't know about the Pen Women It's the oldest women's only organization in the US. It was founded in 1897 by a group of professional women that felt they were not being recognized for their work in a male world. The discussion was well attended and there was a Q & A at the end. One of the questions from the moderator was how and when did you decide to become a writer? One of the panelist had know since childhood that she wanted to be an artist. The other was drawn to music and medieval history in college. Both had attended recognized colleges and universities. I was not allowed this privilege. My parents did not think it was necessary. I was to get aa small job until I got married and then stay home and be a homemaker. That's all that was expected of me. I did marry, have kids and played the role for many years. Then one day something changed my life. I was sitting with a friend, July 4th 2010, waiting for the fireworks to start. She read me a little story that she had written about her grand daughter and a dragon. I thought that if she could do it I wonder if I could too. The next day I wrote my first children's story, Just Batty - amzn.to/2k9w1nJ . Since that day I have been on a journey of a lifetime. Learning the publishing business, meeting other authors, becoming proficient in computer technology and enjoying my self immensely. I have six children's books published and three mainstream novels. amzn.to/2lOlmj3 Now I help others to create their books and realize their dream of being an author. If you have any questions for me, Please ask. I want to share whet I have learned with you. Sometimes life just gets in the way of finding the time to write. I have the same problems. Recently my husband tore the meniscus in his knee and had to have it operated on. He's been off work for two weeks before the operation and now has about another two weeks before he can return to work. I love him dearly but he is driving me crazy. I'm trying to work on my next novel, Whispers in time, and I have a publishing client I'm working with as well. It's the sequel to Broken Branches. My poor husband is bored and wants me to sit with him and watch TV . If I'm not there he comes to my desk and hangs over me until I quit what I'm doing and go sit with him. where upon he promptly dozes off. I'm thinking I may have to just take up my laptop and go to McDonalds for a couple hours to get some work done. I hate to hurt his feelings because I know he's bored . Here he comes again. checking to see if I need gas for the car. He says he's worried about me running out. The reason I'm going out in the first place is because he's pestering the hell out of me. He's standing at my shoulder trying to read what I'm typing but can't because he doesn't have his glasses on. Poor baby. He came in and woke me up the morning because he was lonely. He wakes up at 6am every morning. I'm a late raiser and prefer not to get up at the crack of dawn. I'll be ready to function after 9am or later. Where am I going today? I'm taking my grandson Hayden to Myakka State park for a couple hours. We both need the fresh air and a bit of exercise. I combined the first four Hayden books into one, Hayden's Adventures on the Farm. maybe I'll get an idea for a new Hayden book. I get a lot of ideas for books. I'm thinking that after I get finished with Whispers in time, Book two in the Green Lady Inn series, I'll have book three deal with counterfeiters. There will be a lot of research involved in that one. I don't know any counterfeiters to ask. sign up for my newsletter so I can let you know when whispers in Time is coming out. Send me a comment and let me know if you have trouble finding the time to write and how you get around it. Independent self-published author have a hard enough time trying to promote their books. Amazon and their algorithms don't help.
A while back you could sell your books at events and ask customers to post a review on Amazon for you. Amazon found out and now it seems that only readers that purchased your book from Amazon or Kindle will be listed in your reviews. I enjoy reading books by fellow non-traditional authors. Recently I read two very good books. Cracked to Death by Cheryl Hollon was one of them. If you like a cozy mystery with lots of unique characters this is for you. A fun and quick read this book is set in St. Petersburg, Florida in a glass crafting shop. The main character gets involved in murder and mayhem and goes about solving crimes with the help of a quirky entourage of customers and staff. It's a series that I'm enjoying following. The second is Three Bridges by RJ Coons. This one is set in the authors home area of Venice Florida. Learning about the area is half the enjoyment of reading this series. The heroin is a Park Ranger at Osprey state park with a young daughter. Her story starts in the first book of the series, Loud Music. Another good mystery by an self-published author. If you are out and about and see an author selling their books at a craft fair or book fair give them a try. I'm sure you will be pleasantly surprised. I'm working on the second book in the Green Lady Inn Series. I started with Broken Branches and was told to make it a series because the characters and setting of a bed and breakfast in Salem was a bit different from the norm. This paranormal romance is receiving great reviews from readers even if they don't get posted on Amazon. Sign up for my newsletter which doesn't come out all that often and please leave a comment. Post a review of a book by a self-published author and I'll mention it in my blog. There are a lot of challenges to self publishing and I think I've hit each one of them this week.
I put the first four of My children's Hayden series into one book. First I uploaded it to kindle and ran a special free promotion on it. Then I thought that while I have it all together why not make a book out of it as well. This is where my challenge came in. The book now had 112 pages all color. I know the trim size I wanted and ran my numbers for the cover. Creating the cover and the interior, I thought I had it all set. After all I've done this many times before. But not this many pages in full color. I sent it off to Create Space and figured it was done. Oh no it wasn't. Because of the page count, they said that the interior margines were not correct. I went back over the book and looked and I didn't see much wrong and fixed what I found. In the process I decided that some of the pages didn't quite match up to the text so I added pages to make it come out the way I had intended. This little frustration project took me all week and I've just sent it off again. The good thing with Create Space is that I can send in as many corrections as I have to in order to get it right. Now on to problem number two for the week. I had my novel Broken Branches reformatted for Kindle. This time we included an index of chapters to make it easier for readers to find their place. We also created a new cover, this is the third cover the book has had. I hope it's the last. I got it on to Kindle and then had to change the cover on the book. You guessed it, problems. the design had my name at the bottom but too close and would be cut off in the printing. Back we go and because of the holiday my cover designer is MIA until next week. Sometimes we wonder if all the time and frustration is worth the hasle. For me the challenge to self-publish is definetly worth the trouble. Although this week was frustrating in the extream, when it's all done I can sit back and say I did this and be proud of my accomplishment. Send me a comment or sign up for my newsletter. I'd love to hear from readers or other's who are self-plublishing. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. TI don't get to blog very often and I wear many different hats. I thought I might let you in on how my life can be. I keep telling myself that I'll get better at managing my time but I never do.
For the last four years I have been learning my craft of being a writer and co-founded www.ArtisansofBooks.com or ABC Books 4 children & Adults, inc.. The name has changed slightly over the years. We started with about twelve children's authors and soon found that adult authors also needed our help. We started the group because we wanted to share the information we had learned the hard way and to help authors avoid the expensive mistakes that we had made. We now have fifty members and are a 501c3 organization. Tomorrow we will be donating some of our books to homeless children in the Sarasota County School system. My other hat is worn as the president of the National League of American Pen Women, Sarasota branch. We support artist, muscians and writers and give achievement awards, in the spring, to deserving high school seniors, in the Sarasota and Manatee County schools. I wear my author's hat when I'm writing my own books. I have two I'm working on. One is a sequel to my first novel, Broken Branches. I'm hoping to make a series about the characters and the Green Lady Inn. The other is Blood Orange. Back in the mid eighties, the Medeline Cartel of Pablo Escobar was dropping cocaine in the orange groves of rural Florida. I plan on having one of them finished by Easter. My last hat is my marketing hat and I guess I wear this one the most. I'm learning more all the time and have a great coach in D. D. Scott. I'm so proud to say that an International best selling author read Broken Branches and I've included her review here. Review by D. D. Scott - www.DDScottville.com This book has two of my favorite things wrapped into one terrific story: a great paranormal mystery and a great romance. I loved everything about this book, from the setting, to the characters, to the story line and beyond. The writing is solid and makes for a great reading experience. And, I'm thrilled that this is a series! I'm anxiously awaiting the next book! Even fantastic author are over looked because most authors do not like to market themselves. Luckly I like the marketing end of being a writer. I enjoy events and meeting people. However most marketing in now being done on line in social media.
I now have a marketing coach to help me learn all I need to know to get my books noticed. I have .www.DDScottville.com in my corner. We meet once a month at a coffee shop in Sarasota The Three talk stratigies. She is an international bestselling author and she is teaching me her tricks of the trade. She is also reading my first novel Broken Branches. I have a hard time putting a genre to my novels. I had this one as a murder mystery and she said it's a paranormal romance/mystery. Who knew? My suggestion to every author is to ask for help if you need it and want it. we all get our work edited. It's the same thing. she had another suggestion about packaging my books together or creating sequels. So far my adult books have been stand alone novels. I'm working on a sequel to Broken Branches and hope to have it ready in 2017. I also have a children's book that I'm having illlustrated. I love to write the books and now I'm learning more about the marketing things. Remember to support Independent authors when you see them at Art and Craft Fairs. I have read some very good books by Independent authors. I have just finished Three Bridges by RJ Coons. this is the second in his series about Blain Sterling, a park ranger in Venice. His colorful discriptions of the area are wonderful. They make you feel like you are there. His characters are well developed and come alive on the page. Speaking of pages. The plots keep you interested and have you reading well past your bedtime. please leave a comment and sign up for my newsletter. |
AuthorFrom the active mind of Brenda M. Spalding Archives
February 2020
Categories |