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I’ve lost a lot of confidence in the Amazon KDP Select. On the surface it sounds good. Every 90 days the author gets 5 days that he can offer his ebook for free. It is intended as a promotional tool. You give the ebooks away with the idea that a percentage of these recipients will either give you a review, and/or if they like the book, spread the word. Unfortunately, I’m not getting these results.
It could be that my books are just not that good. If this is the case I wish someone would let me know so I could try to fix it or move on to something else. I think part of the problem is that this program is no longer new. The market is saturated with up and coming self-published authors with free books out there. And then there are readers whose sole intent is to get a free book. That, in itself, doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is that some of these same people have about a thousand or more books in their reader and may not get to mine until I have my own flying car. If my books were already selling briskly then this might be a great tool to move my sells up another notch. My sells are more of a stop and go. Things start to move and I think ‘alright here we go.’ Then they stop. I think another part of the problem is that some of these self-published authors are damn good. That makes me mad. Come on now give me a break. Let me in there somewhere. Another problem is I don’t go to Cheers where everybody knows my name. Maybe if I changed my name to Elvis Presley people would buy my book just for the name. Steven King would just be too obvious. I’ve lost confidence, but I haven’t given up. Not completely. For now I’ll keep searching for a way to effectively use this Amazon tool. I don’t see too many options.
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Something happened on the way to the end of my novel. I had it all planned out. The ending was in sight. I knew how I was going to wrap it up. Then it happened.
The characters decided they didn’t want to leave. They had other plans. They took a detour. Instead of winding down to a finish they decided to go another course and into a new adventure. I shouted out “what are you doing!? This is not what I wanted!” But they didn’t listen. They just kept going. Now I’ve got to figure out a new way to end this. And not only that, I also have to figure out where they’re going and what kind of obstacles they’re going to encounter. This is not the first time I have come across uncooperative characters. I think most of the time it turns out good, but it’s a lot more work for me. Hey, I’ve got other books I want to write, other characters I want to create. I haven’t got time to deal with characters who want to go their own way. Am I the only one with this problem? Does everyone else make a neat little outline and stick with it? That would be nice, but then again I think my stories might be a little stiff and my characters like cardboard. Maybe others don’t have that problem. Okay, my characters do cause me problems sometimes. I try to figure out who they are in the beginning and how they are supposed to act, but sometimes they fool me. Once I started with a character that I thought was a good guy, but later he turned on me and became a bad guy in a good guy disguise. Thinking about it now I really shouldn’t complain. If it weren’t for them I would be bored. The fact is one of the reasons I write is to see how it turns out. |
AuthorWhen I write a blog, I try to keep it relevant. Often it will be about writing and books. I also review books that I read. Archives
February 2023
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