Aaah…a loophole around screwy Amazon rules…good to know for when I launch Indiot.
Coming on April 20, 2016!
I screwed up. I admit it. But sometimes screwing up turns out to be a great thing. Like when Alexander Fleming screwed up and accidentally invented penicillin. My screw-up wasn’t that important to humanity, but I bet a lot of authors and small publishers will be really excited to find out what I did, and how they can screw up exactly the way I did!
First, some background. Last year I wrote a book called Entropy, that has done pretty well. And since late last fall, I’ve been working on a sequel, called Duality. (Click that to pre-order for Kindle.) As with the first book, I’m using CreateSpace to do a print-on-demand paperback version that is to die for. I absolutely love the quality of these CreateSpace books. And I’m using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to make the Kindle version. I’m not doing…
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Ana Spoke, author 
Funny :). Just nobody tell amazon! lol 😮
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Lol, they do change constantly…there will be other loopholes!
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They outlaw things fast and are forever watchful of our behaviour. Do you know, I just had them reject a book review of a thriller I’ve just read because I used a word related to use of an illegal substance, even though the author mentions this substance? It wasn’t as if I was condoning its use. In fact, I criticised the characters for being reckless. I’ve now watered down the review and have tried posting it again, but it’s not as interesting.
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Don’t take the rejected review to heart. I review on amazon all the time and they’re automatic computer program rejects reviews for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes I use one word too often, I try posting the same review having omitted one or two of these repeats and it gets accepted.
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Yes, they’ve accepted my review now I’ve deleted a couple of words from it!
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Oh, wow! That’s a strange interpretation of freedom of speech – you can publish a book about it, but not mention it in review. Isa smokes something called Margaret Thatcher in my book, hope nobody gets in trouble for that 🙂
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Love it 🙂 I’m so looking forward to reading Indiot!
By the way, how did the Amazon one-click advertising go? I’ve not yet heard of anyone making many sales through this. Would love your feedback about this, as to whether it’s worth giving it a shot.
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Thank you 🙂 I’d say Amazon ads are not worth it, based on two campaigns. Not enough data yet to report on the blog, but my initial impression is that your ROI would be better with eReader News or BookGorilla. Google “ana spoke super duper” – I have a whole list of sites and my experiences with them.
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Thanks. That’s a most comprehensive list. The post must have taken you an age to write! By the way, iAuthor now offers paid advertising, too. It costs $9 for a week. I think it produced some sales for me, although it coincided with me guest posting on a blog that has has loads of followers, so who knows? If I ever go into profit with my novel after paying for a book cover, I’ll be dancing for joy. With my next novel, I think the cover will be a homemade effort.
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Thank you 🙂 I’ve been writing that post for about 6 months now. Every time I find another site or test one, I just update it. It’s awesome record keeping for me, otherwise it all gets to be too much and confusing.
I’ve paid for editing, so I’m in a huge hole – still, I think it will be worth it in long run. I would not skimp on the cover, unless you have design experience.
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The trouble is that my husband and I have the same accountant, so I have to justify a deficit! I guess it’s all an act of faith that the second novel will help revitalise sales for the first one, especially if I sell the latter at a knockdown price.
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The way I justify it to myself is that it’s a business and nobody expects a business to be profitable from day one. It takes R&D, investment, and time. Nobody would also expect to create a business without a budget. I’ve spent $3k and I’m nowhere near getting it back yet, but I’m about to invest more into the sequel.
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Thanks, Ana, for that pep talk. It’s just what I needed to hear. I will forthwith reassert my right to invest in my start-up business! You’ve caught me on a good day, too, as I’ve finally got my Amazon description just as I want it, which includes having integrated six of my seven keywords into it (can’t wait for it to go live). Have already updated it on my blog page, plus uploading a short extract). I’ve also reached a definitive decision about its genre, which is YA crossover science fantasy. It’s all such a headache at times, but these eureka moments make it all worth it. I’m definitely going to approach the launch of book number two in a completely different way. My last launch went off like a damp squib. Never, never, never again will I bring out a book in mid-December. That was a bad mistake.
When are you aiming to publish Indiot?
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Thank you, Sarah 🙂 I could publish Indiot in late May, but now I’m thinking of taking longer and setting up a proper 3-month campaign. Think I will start when I send it off to copy editor – that way I could have printed copies ready for giving away prior to the book going live. Probably a good topic for a post!
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Like you, I’m thinking of taking longer and setting up a campaign. I would like to aim for the late July/August slot, if at all possible, as it’s the holiday season in the UK and people are looking for stuff to download onto their Kindles to read when travelling or lounging about on beaches. I’m now thinking about attempting the artwork myself for the book cover, as I used to be good at art, although haven’t picked up a brush in years. Of course, unless the result is excellent, I’ll abandon the idea … fast!
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My only suggestion for cover would be picking the font carefully – many a beautiful image has been ruined by an awkward font choice. Incidentally, that was the hardest to figure out for me.
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Thanks for the tip 🙂
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Thanks for sharing! It’s so frustrating to me that they don’t allow for this normally…
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Yeah, that and offering the first book in series for free…good thing there’s a loophole for that one, too 🙂
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