THE Group for Authors! discussion

Congratulations!

Which title, Dianne? (For my Book Club. Hope it's the Provence one as we are in France)

Congratualations! #1 recommended is wonderful. I am sure it feels great.

Is that Goodread recommendations or Amazon, Dianne?

On the Amazon page it says #1 on 6 Goodread pages

wow it's all so new to me. I just went live with my first book and I have been trying to figure out all the groups I am in, the reviews and goodreads in general. It's confusing but exciting. Congrats again. I will have to keep my eyes open to more of your reviews

Anna, good luck with your debut book. There are sites where you can look up your Amazon ratings and find how many books you have sold each month. You can also look up other author's ratings and sales. I find this very useful as I organise a Reading club.

thank you both so much. I saw I have two rating under my book title on Amazon, but I have only sold 17 books since I went live. I have a book tour this week. I hope that brings more sales. Dianne I am definitely going to check out ASMSG when I finish here. Thank you so much I will email you after I check it out. I really appreciate your kindness.

Well, Anna, don't feel bad. You may be new to this, but you're doing great. I have been writing for 35 + years, starting in the days when you sent your manuscripts out with SASE's, (and if they didn't send back you wasted money on postage.) And then you waited. And waited. And got the rejection letter.

Now that it's all changed, in the past few years I've published four books in various ways: one on Smashwords, one on iUniverse, one paperback and one ebook with publishers. But I don't know much about promoting in this new publishing industry, and I am trying to learn so the next book I publish will sell more than 8 copies! And I can see how confusing and overwhelming it is. I've asked elsewhere, but will do so again here: Does anyone actually make a Promotional plan? If so, would love to hear about it.

And by the way, I'm learning an awful lot from GR discussions. Thanks to all of you.

Marcy, I can SO empathise with you. I too am a veteran writer and while this electronic age has made things easier in some ways others are still difficult to fathom
I am hopeless at promoting my own work.
Struggling self-published authors are not helped by misleading information from other writers.
As for ratings - Amazon is quite clear. Under the publishing details of each book is their current rating based on the number of books sold.

http://www.amazon.fr/Run-Love-Anna-V-...
links to Anna's book RUN FOR LOVE
Anna, I don't think it helps that one of the reviews is written by a friend of yours. Maybe it would have been better had she not mentioned this.

Congratulations, Dianne! How magnificent is that!

My book club is reading this. Members keep pointing out to me that it IS NOT a #1 Amazon seller. It is doing well ... but not #1

Bien sûr! J'ai lu les 50 premiers pages ... as my husband's uncle had a bakery in Dieppe I was very interested in Henri's establishment

Sophie wrote: "http://www.amazon.fr/Run-Love-Anna-V-...
links to Anna's book RUN FOR LOVE
Anna, I don't think it..."

I'm conflicted about the question of friends reviewing books. I can see why someone would say up front they are a friend, bc otherwise if people find out they discount the review entirely. For ten years I reviewed books professionally, mostly for the SF Bay Guardian (ah, the days when one got paid for such writing!). I would never review a friend's book. And as time went on I sometimes had a hand in editing or giving authors feedback on their books, and I wouldn't review those either.

And thanks, Sophie, for the empathy.
Have you gotten misleading info? I probably wouldn't recognize it!

That's awesome, Dianne!

Has it had a big impact on sales?

I thought it was cool when Amazon recently sent someone I know an email recommending my books. It seems obvious that they did it just because she'd bought some already, but it's nice to know when Amazon makes an effort on your behalf. :)

Marcy, I have just looked at your profile, with the intention of then getting one of your books. BUT I AM SCARED. ha ha :-)
Can you suggest the best to start with seeing that I am a "gentle" innocent (78 years of age)

I HAVE written books other than erotica! I even asked GR if there was a way to put the non-erotic books after the others, but of course there isn't--besides, I've only been editor for the erotic books not writer (except for one or two stories and the Intro's).

I recommend my latest book, a collection of short stories (not sexually explicit): Love and Other Illusions: Short Stories .I'd love you to read that. And thanks for wanting to read something of mine, Sophie.

PS: I'm no baby either: 67!

Downloading that. I LOVE short stories - have had four broadcast on the BBC.

Also the tagline of my latest novel is "The book is also an exploration of Friendship in its many and varied forms" so was attracted to that aspect.

At 67, Marcy I was having the most GLORIOUS love affair with my childhood sweetheart, discovered in New York after 50 years ... we spent a month touring New England ... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

You seemed to have well blessed, Dianne, just enjoy your blessings!

Recommendations are tailored to a person's browsing history. So while it is awesome your book was a #1 recommendation for a friend, it would not have been a blanket email to all Amazon customers.

This is why authors often receive emails from Amazon recommending your own books, it's because we spend the most time staring at them on Amazon ;)

Made me chuckle, AW - as I had just been doing that very thing ...

Sophie wrote: "http://www.amazon.fr/Run-Love-Anna-V-...
links to Anna's book RUN FOR LOVE
Anna, I don't think it..."

Well That person actually met me through reading my book when I sent it to her a few months ago as an ARC. She liked it and has been helpful to helping me navigate this new world. The other is an author who also read my ARC she also has been helpful in helping me navigate things. I didn't know either of them before starting this process. Thank you for the comments and for the link

Marcy wrote: "Well, Anna, don't feel bad. You may be new to this, but you're doing great. I have been writing for 35 + years, starting in the days when you sent your manuscripts out with SASE's, (and if they did..."

Thanks Marcy, I guess it is always a learning process

Edward wrote: "That's awesome, Dianne!

Has it had a big impact on sales?

I thought it was cool when Amazon recently sent someone I know an email recommending my books. It seems obvious that they did it just bec..."

I agree that seems really nice.

Dianne wrote: "What's the Amazon link to your book?"

Here is my link Diane. Thank you for asking. It is a novellahttp://www.amazon.com/Run-Love-Anna-V...

Anna wrote: "Dianne wrote: "What's the Amazon link to your book?"

Here is my link Diane. Thank you for asking. It is a novellahttp://www.amazon.com/Run-Love-Anna-V......"

oops Novella is not
part of that link. I'll try again http://www.amazon.com/Run-Love-Anna-V...

Sophie wrote: "Downloading that. I LOVE short stories - have had four broadcast on the BBC.

Also the tagline of my latest novel is "The book is also an exploration of Friendship in its many and varied forms" so..."

I'm not having an affair with my childhood sweeetheart (who is dead) or anyone else (sniff sniff).

You had your stories on BBC? Wow, how'd you do that? I'm fairly certain it would be pretty difficult to get mine on NPR.

Dianne wrote: "EVER FIND OUT YOUR BOOK IS #1 RECOMMENDED BY AMAZON? Whoopppeeee! http://wp.me/p3pLY9-lA"


Congratulations Dianne! That's great!

Dianne wrote: "EVER FIND OUT YOUR BOOK IS #1 RECOMMENDED BY AMAZON? Whoopppeeee! http://wp.me/p3pLY9-lA"

Really! That's awesome! Congrats.

Congratulations! ~

The Holy Grail indeed. Well done. I love your advice too. Write, Write, Write!

Write on! ~

Congrats!