ROBUST discussion

Apple has reported sales through September 3rd. Some people are reporting very pleasant surprises on the fora. I caught sight of one lady with sales of 1000 copies on Apple.

In my own case, it looks like Apple sales are up to an eighth of total sales.

Thanks to Kat for hurrying me along to Apple when I was inclined to dawdle...

I sold a huge four.

Sigh.

Mine haven't been on apple long... not that I actually see any reports from there yet.

Katie wrote: "I sold a huge four.

Sigh."

Tip. Don't just look top left of your Smashwords Dashboard. Those are just direct cash sales in Smashwords. The actual report by Apple and others is on the payments page, and once there you have to scroll a long way down.

ZIP! Zero, sales across the board. Ironic, isn't it?

I'm still fighting with the TOC for 'Swallow the Moon' - can't send it out without one - and the exact same method I used for 'Let's Do Lunch' didn't work -three times now.

Not seeing anything on the payments page... seems to be still stuck at june/july for me. lol.

Kat, send it without and the Meatgrinder will add a pseudo-break marker roundabout halfway, which satisfies Apple and whoever else demands TOC and NTX files.

You have chapter headings so if you just dump your TOC and let meatgrinder build it's own you should be fine. It looks a bit of a mess right now.

It is a mess - and yet I've redone it twice.

So - Out it goes.

The Adobe Epub works super. Smooth as glass.

Well, let's see if it passes this time.

Downloaded the sample and there is no chapter one link. hmm. Meatgrinder is such an appropriate name some days, although I been doing okay lately. My first novel took days to get right.

I've come to view the Smashwords nuclear option as a shortcut.

Oh yeah! Got that in one! I've stopped using the Docx format because it sucks.

Meatgrinder picks up invisible coding from out of the air sometimes.

I saw the lack of the first chapter heading. Should I fix that now or wait until it fails again? LOL

Speaking of crappy luck - I went over the 80 text correction limit for the paperback of 'Let's Do Lunch.' Now the question is do I take the 'big girl pill' and resubmit that (for an addtional $50) or stop when I run out?

My copy editor for Moon taught me about dialog puncutation, now the damn commas jump out at me.

Perfectionism sucks!

Where's this that you have to pay for corrections, Kat?

I'd give them a miss and go to CreateSpace instead.

Even a well-edited set of proofs can easily have more than 80 small improving edits. It seems like a number chosen low enough generate the maximum income.

Andre wrote: ...Thanks to Kat for hurrying me along to Apple when I was inclined to dawdle...

Tee hee, got the memo. Thanks...

Andre Jute wrote: "Where's this that you have to pay for corrections, Kat?

I'd give them a miss and go to CreateSpace instead.

Even a well-edited set of proofs can easily have more than 80 small improving edits. I..."

Andre, amen. Charging for revising typos isn't nice.
Also, if any ebook outlet has such confusing statement practices, why use them? Yeah, sales, but what if the numbers are off? Possible to lose lots of money.

Andre Jute wrote: "Where's this that you have to pay for corrections, Kat?

I'd give them a miss and go to CreateSpace instead."

It IS Create Space! That's what's killing me!

May have gotten a compromise from them. The form says 'Text Changes' so I called and asked after formatting errors where periods could have been changed to commas - they allowed that happened.

So I finished and submitted the changes. If they say anything I'm going to reference the call. I don't think we missed that many of the comma changes when we edited.

We'll see what happens. There are more than 40 of these 'errors.'

Okay, the CreateSpace paid service. What are you paying for if they returned the MS to you with over 80 corrections missed/still required?

CreateSpace also has a free service, though they make it as difficult as possible for you to reach it. I didn't realize anyone was so innocent as to use their paid service.

Not innocent - frustrated.

I was dealing with a 10 year-old manuscript with more hidden codes than cockroaches in Cleveland. After a week of trying, I gave up trying to format it myself.

I'm going to do StM myself - one program, one OS, one set of codes = fewer headaches.

Besides, I needed a cover, the old one was crap. So I caved.

Ah... the hidden codes are everywhere. lol.I have become very proficient at the Smashword nuclear option. I always do a clean set-up as the last stage before uploading. Part of it is Openoffice, perhaps, but nuking works well and I refuse to pay a zillion dollars for a word processor that I don't even like. I also enjoy doing covers. They may not be the greatest, but I like doing them too much to let someone else have the fun. lol.

I have an antique manuscript in the house somewhere if the real cockroaches haven't eaten it. It must be 30 years old. I will type it up and publish it when I become famous. That will be never. lol.

When we moved a couple of years ago, I came across a manuscript that was printed on thermal paper... Nobody will ever read it now. I can't even remember what it was about.

They may have been a better fate for my old novel. Just let it fade away. I have two or three that are better kept in the vault. It is interesting pull these out and read them, however. Wtf is this. I seriously have no idea how it ends. I will have to read it one day. When I have the stomach for it.

I published a teenage novel when my publishers had an urgent need to fill a hole in their schedule. We kept just enough sense to publish it pseudonymously. Then the critics screwed us by loving it. It even sold sorta semi-respectably. All the same, I don't have the balls to reread it; I fear the embarrassment will drive my blood pressure up terminally.

I've got a shelf of 'failed' manuscripts, printed on scrap paper.

I pull one out when I get discouraged and read a few pages. I used to head-hop like a grasshopper! OMG! I LOVE how bad they are.

LOL, @Amos, @Andre and @Kat. I'm sure we all have those mss sitting around.

My daughter has suggested a couple of times that I dust off an old ms and publish it for .99. She simply does not understand the first three novels I wrote were 'practice' and her mom would not for anything publish something she felt was not respectable, under any circumstances, even under a pseudonym.

I believe it would be easier to start afresh on another story rather than try to make something out of cr@@p - perhaps if I were younger...

But I love your idea, Kat, of taking them out and reading a few pages for inspiration.

Even the first published one has some issues. I decided to rewrite it - as a totally different book. That's my WIP - which is coming along nicely.

I do have a palid horsewoman's romance that I could turn into a thriller if I decided to get sadistic. There is a passage about the horse being attacked by a dog that sparked an idea. "What if?" can be the start of a dark road. LOL

Sharon, I've stopped saying, "Oh, I throw out a million words a year," not because it isn't true (when I started out it was perfectly true), but because the new writers think I'm putting them down. They can't even conceive of writing a million words, never mind murdering their darlings without blinking. But professionals do it all the time. They do it mostly without noticing. Something that an aspirant will spend days failing to knock into shape, the pro trashes without pause and restarts from scratch, and again if necessary, until the text comes as close as it will to the perfect tone in his head.

Sure, there are professional writers who write very little, and most of it perfect. They specialize in looking out of the window for months on end, and going for long walks. They do their writing, including the big cuts, in their heads. I tend to do that now, but I have had decades of experience, and it's a high-roller's method, because when you go wrong, it's a spectacular failure.

Gee - throwing out a million words a year? I should type that many.

I still don't understand 'kill your darlings' - makes no sense to me. Maybe it's because I don't get attached to bits of dialog - I'm fond of whole scenes. I've got some darling scenes!

Learning to outline was my big 'Ta-Da!' moment. Can't wait to see what the next one is.

But LDL sat on my shelf, staring mournfully at me for years before I outlined it - and finished it in 3 months.

I wrote the bulk of 'Swallow the Moon' for NaNoWritMo - it was outlined first. Though my first drafts tend to be less than 50k - I'm an 'adder-inner' as DWS says.

Speaking of DWS - anyone see where he called out Kindleboards? I laughed - glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read that.

URL for DWS? "calling out Kindleboards"?

"Darlings" are bits of precious writing that slow your readers down. Writers love them because they think darlings show how clever they are. Professionals kill them because readers hate being slowed every time the author shows off.

For a writer who cannot manage wit, today it is better to write flat and fast rather than pretty and slow. Even flashing wit isn't always appreciated, especially in the States. Most American editors, and virtually all the women editors I've ever known, dislike wit as a risk likely to interfere with their careers.

Andre,

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=5231

Chapter 15: Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: You Can Only Write What Is Hot

". . . Yet when a new writer hears an editor or agent tell them what they are “looking for” in books, the young writer goes home and attempts to imitate the book the editor said they are looking for. They create nothing unique, nothing new, nothing of themselves. They write the same boring old crap that has already been done to death.

And this gets even worse in the circle-jerk thinking of places like the Kindle boards. You see there and on other places just like it talk about writing what is selling the most at the moment. That is the quickest way to writer death I have ever seen."

Aha. Thanks, J.A.

When I arrived on the Kindleboards, I burned a few of the morons who were impertinent, and if the mods rushed in to protect them before they were adequately crisped, I pilloried them on my blog. Now they give me a big miss. Here are a couple of pieces I used to build a cordon sanitaire between me and morons.

Have the Luvvies* taken over books?
http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/ar...

Respect for what? Part ego.
http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/ar...

Respect for what? Part duh.
http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/ar...

There's more but you get the idea.

I love the Kindleboards. They bend over backwards to help you promote your books, the readers are excellent, and the majority of the writers (or anyway the ones I see now) are the better class of indie.

RE: Part duh.

Yeah, I'm actually surprised I'm not more attacked for doing indie book reviews. Now, admittedly, I've tried to stack the deck in a positive way by only doing reviews of books that I think I can give decent reviews to, but still.

I'm actually rather easy to please, like all sorts of cheesy genre fiction, et cetera. That being said, I still pass over something like 75-80% of what is coming through my review queue.

Oddly enough, I recently did a review of a book that described itself as a "Finnegan's Wake for the 21st century" that wasn't particularly complimentary (it wasn't hyper-nasty, just kind of 'this tried hard but isn't as great as it thinks' comments), but sales actually increased post-review (and they were flat for months and went up immediately after the review, so I'm fairly sure it was the review). Go figure.

Granted, I don't have anything out right now, so maybe people will vent wrath upon me when I release my own work as a traitor to the cause or whatever. I'll admit I'm a vastly inferior writer to a lot of people (certainly a lot of people on Robust).

My only beef with the Kindle boards is I can't keep up with the threads.

JA - any review seems to push sales forward. I'm waiting to hear from 4 reviewers - not with bated breath either.

Andre - No wit? Well that explains why I couldn't get 'Impressive Bravado' published.

And I was SHOCKED that DWS called out the KB like that. It is true that you have to drink the Kool-ade to fit in. Which is why I'm more here than there.

I never cared for Kool-ade.

Kat wrote: Gee - throwing out a million words a year? I should type that many...

Good one, Kat!

Kat also wrote: ...Learning to outline was my big 'Ta-Da!' moment. Can't wait to see what the next one is. But LDL sat on my shelf, staring mournfully at me for years before I outlined it - and finished it in 3 months...

and Andre wrote: ...They specialize in looking out of the window for months on end, and going for long walks. They do their writing, including the big cuts, in their heads...

I did the opposite, Kat, started out outlining as all the books and courses taught and ended up like the pros Andre mentioned because I found I couldn't write with those constructs. Except I'm no pro and I do make notes as my head doesn't remember like it used to. My next book rattles around in my head (and some notes) and when I am ready a general overview outline will sit on the first page of the ms as a paragraph and a mini outline (which will change as the story goes on; nothing is written in stone) will sit at the top of major Acts or Scenes. It's rather cool to learn how different authors work and think (and what their motives are too).

BTW, I had been watching the DWS thing on KB, surprised it hadn't gotten much action, and was planning on bumping and revisiting a thread Andre started on pricing here on ROBUST when I had more time...

Andre wrote: I love the Kindleboards. They bend over backwards to help you promote your books, the readers are excellent, and the majority of the writers (or anyway the ones I see now) are the better class of indie.

That's not the experience I've had. Perhaps I should give KB another chance...

J. A., interesting that you fix on 75-80% of indies who shouldn't have rushed into publication. I found, in the process of reading 100 indies described in the four "Slush Pile" articles on my blog, that 21% of indies had definitely publishable books, which of course means that 79% aren't ready for prime time. Note however that nearly a third of the "indies" in my 21% are professionals repurposing their backlists.

Life's too short to review, or even read, books you can't in good conscience give four or five stars.

Kat, you may be misled by the writers you know, who pass through ROBUST. Wit was never big in big publishing. Just too dangerous. Like you, I once believed otherwise, but that was because my publisher of record, Secker & Warburg, published most of the witty books and writers in London, so I came to think, wrongly, that it was a norm.

Sharon, on the Kindleboards I spend a good deal of time just polishing the discussion page for each of my books. Hardly anyone -- only other writers -- come to discuss anything but the readership mounts up (long since over three figures) and I definitely believe that those pages on Kindleboards are the main motor behind the sales of my books, not Amazon, where I'm absent for months at a time. Besides that I choose carefully where I contribute, normally in threads with readers I start about the kind of books and writers I read, where it has become pretty clear to me that the readers know me, and in the threads of other writers that have proven themselves not to be idiots.

Excellent plan Andre. I must admit I have not put in the time on my book pages at KB. And there are periods in which I have the patience to weed through the drivel of the threads and periods in which I don't. I haven't had more than a handful of sales from KB that I know of and seldom visit Amazon boards, though I have had a few from there. I've also had a couple dribble in from Goodreads/Librarything but have no idea what prompted them.

I know the problem. I am not ROBUST about self-promotion. In my successful life I began several businesses from scratch and sold them. All but one or two are still going strong today. I'm good at seeing future trends and creating things that cater to them. I'm often ahead of the trends and by the time the others catch up I'm tired of them and have moved on to the next stimulating project (this is generally when I sell). In general I'm used to things happening with my creations fairly quickly. Intellectually I know this whole book business is a marathon, not a sprint.

But it's in my nature to sprint, so if something doesn't work quickly, I tend to move on to something else. Not this time, though. I am determined to finish the race.

Andre - yes hanging out here is spoiling me.

If only it would stimulate my sales, I would be over the moon.