Saturday 11 April 2015

Be visible, be discovered....




Let's get visible!  Yes, but how?

The thing I find the most frustrating about this whole self-publishing business is how so many truly excellent books don't get read simply because people don't know they're there.  No, I don't just mean mine!!!, but those I read and know so many others would love, too, if only they were aware of their existence.

Obviously, the biggest key to getting seen is Amazon visibility, which is hard to achieve unless you regularly hit top spots in genre charts, have an agent or publisher behind you, or however else the big names get their wares in the shop window. 

When I posted My Top 20 books of 2014 a couple of people asked me how I'd discovered the books in the first place, because the only 'indie' ones they'd tried had been rubbish (actually, not all the books in that list are 'indie', though most of them are) and they didn't know where to look for those that really are good.  So, I had this idea.  To give readers an idea of how to find self-published books worth reading, and to give writers examples of how to make their books something other than invisible, I thought it would be fun to take the ten books on my book review blog's quarterly round-up, ie, my pick of January, February and March this year, and tell you how I discovered each one.  At the end, we can draw conclusions!

Here goes:

My top ten picks of the books I read in the first quarter of this year, in no particular order.  To see my full review of each book, click the title.

1.  Once Upon A Time In The City Of Criminals by Mark Barry. 
I got to know Mark when he asked me if he could interview me on his blog.  I bought one of his books just out of curiosity, and loved it so much I've now read four of his; this was the third.  Mark is self-published.

2.  Literastein by Phil Conquest
I met Phil on MySpace in 2007, because we both wrote stuff, and we've kept in touch ever since; I used to read his blog posts, thought he was a terrific writer and was one of those who persuaded him to get his work off his laptop and out into the world.  You know, I nagged him a lot.  It was worth it.  Phil is self-published.

3.  The Turning of the World by John Privilege
This is a funny one - John made a sarcastic remark to me on Twitter about my over-tweeting of a free promotion, and I must have been in a good mood because instead of making a smart remark back I agreed that yes, I probably had overdone it a bit but it was only for a couple of days while the book was free.  We chatted a bit.  I said, okay, then, I get that you're totally anti promotion, but let's have a look at your book.  It just happened to be my current favourite genre (post apocalyptic drama), so I bought it.  Started to read it and it blew me away.  John is self-published.

4.  Mantle of Malice by April Taylor
We got chatting on Twitter because of our mutual interest in the Tudors.  I read the first of her trilogy and liked it so much I bought and read the others too; this is the third.  April is published by Carina UK, a popular ebook imprint of a traditional publisher.

5. The Great Law of Peace by Zoe Saadia
Saw Zoe's blog and books on Twitter, impressed by her extensive knowledge of a fascinating subject.  I'm currently reading my 4th of her Native American history novels.  Zoe is self-published.

6. The Goddard Affair by Scott Marlowe.  
Scott submitted this book to Rosie Amber's book blog review team, for which I write reviews on a regular basis.  Scott is self-published.

7. Living By Ear by Mary J Rowen
I read a guest post by Mary on another book blog, A Woman's Wisdom.  It was a very good interview and Mary seemed like my sort of person, so I glanced down at the blurb for her book.  The subject matter appealed, I bought it, loved it.   It's worth mentioning that Mary's post was nothing to do with her book, but about something entirely different that made me want to click on the link in the first place.  Mary is published by indie publisher Booktrope.

8. Mad World by Kate L Mary
I saw the first one in the Broken World trilogy (this is the third) on an Amazon 'customers also bought' list, when looking at another book of a similar genre.  The title and cover caught my eye, so I bought it.  Liked it enough to keep reading, and the trilogy got better with each book; I'm looking forward to the fourth, which is out this month!  Kate is self-published.

9. Six Months To Get A Life by Ben Adams
Another book I chose from those submitted to Rosie's book review team.  Ben is indie published by Clink Street publishing.

10. A Divided Inheritance by Deborah Swift.
I came across Deborah Swift when wandering around Twitter, had a quick look at her blog because she writes about stuff that's totally up my street, and chose another of her books, The Gilded Lily, because the blurb made me think, yes, that's the one for me.  I'm now a fan!   Deborah is traditionally published, by Pan.

Conclusions:

What does this all say to you?  To me it says that readers who want to look further than their old favourites can discover new ones by reading book blogs, and not just letting all those book promotion tweets float past them, unclicked, on Twitter!  I know all this #mustread! 5*!  Read it NOW or die!  The best book ever! stuff can get a bit tedious, but if a book has got 40 genuine 5* reviews it might actually be pretty good.  Or the subject matter might appeal; that's what I look at.  

In Cromer in Norfolk where I used to live, the library had a section for little known books with labels like "if you like Maeve Binchy, you'll like..." etc.  Book bloggers often serve a similar function, I think. 

My conclusions for writers are thus: 
  • write really good books, and make them as good as you can, even if it means doing yet another re-draft when you think you can no longer stand the sight of it.  Make people want to read them to the end, review them, tell their friends and buy another!  This is the most important one, of course, without which all the rest mean little.
  • Network with other writers and bloggers (in a sincere way, not just in the hope that they will help promote you).
  • Submit your books to book blogs, take an interest in and support the blog.
  • Talk to people on social networking sites, don't just post book promo tweets and RT fifty others.
  • Put your books in the right categories on Amazon.  Choose snappy titles and eye-catching covers.  Write blurbs that will make people want to read the book, not long summaries of the plot.  Some ideas about that HERE
In other words, all the stuff you already know, really!  The key thing is not to just know it, but to actually do it, though.
  
It all takes time, and it's a long game.  One pretty successful self-published writer said recently that your readership comes in ones and twos, not very often  even in fives and tens.  I think this is so right, especially these days; back before self-pub there were a limited amount of books and authors to choose from, but now there are thousands and thousands and thousands more, whose work was not available before.  People can only read so many books, but if you do the best you can to make yours be seen you at least have some chance of getting them chosen out of the millions available!

If everyone reading this went to one book blog and bought one of the books they saw recommended....   

 

42 comments:

  1. Hi Terry - this seems to be an excellent idea .. and I love the way you've put them into the composite photos .. I did just buy your last two books too .. but not this way - via Rosie's blog .. but I can quite see your point ..

    Cheers and I hope this reaches other bloggers and authors .. Hilary

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    1. Oh yeah, the top ten post thing is excellent, isn't it? I was very glad when I discovered that feature... I'd only had the blog for 2 years...! Thank you once more for taking up those recommendations on Rosie's blog, and I hope this reaches readers, as well... I'll have to tweet it in such a way that it doesn't just look like yet another marketing post for writers!!

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  2. Thank you so much for this post - not least because it's given me some more books to look into reading. Ali from A Woman's Wisom reviewed my own indie book after we got chatting on Twitter. It generated a number of sales of my short story collection and I was thrilled wham she asked me back to do a guest post (coming out next month). Ben Adams, on your list, became a friend through Twitter and we have guested on each other's writing blogs - again spreading the indie net further. What I'm trying to say is... I agree with everything you say!

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    1. Indeed, Wendy - what can I say apart from "shake my hand"!

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  3. Great post, TT, and some good additions to my TBR pile too! Thank you!!

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    1. Thank you, dearest V, and loving the new glam pic!x

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  4. Thanks Terry a really inspiring post, you really do need to be human about promoting your book, talk to people, make friends keep in touch, support each other, support those who support you like a big book family.

    I've met some great writers through book reviewing, some are true friends now, and come back again and again with more books, help with book tours, they support my mad ideas and I'll always help them.

    Others come to me to bleed me dry, they want me to "love" their book, read it and review it as fast as I can, they'll ask that I follow them on twitter, like their facebook, they jump up and down if my review is not posted on Goodreads and Amazon immediately, then I never hear from them again until they want something else.

    I'll let you decide which authors are more likely to get community support than others.

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    1. Oh yes, those people who think they're doing you a favour by letting you read their offerings for nothing, and think you're providing a service to which they're entitled! They're everywhere, aren't they? It's like the people who greet me by shoving their book links at me, and get most affronted when I suggest this is a bad idea. Yesterday this woman (total stranger) tweeted me a link to a load of instagram photos that I think were related to some book. Usually I just block, but it was so bizarre that I said 'not sure what you're sending me all this for'. She replied 'a retweet would be nice', and I replied 'so would a please', and blocked her.

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    2. Haha Terry, you are SO funny but also pragmatic!

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  5. I do drop by book blogs - but confess I pass by all those tweets. There's just so many of them! Having said that - you're right. There are so many good books that slip under the public radar.

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    1. Jo, I found one of my earliest indie discoveries via a random tweet, because I liked the look of the subject matter (a memoir about pre war England by Harry Leslie Smith). That's why I think it's so important to give some idea of what the book is about, use appropriate hashtags, pictures that give some idea of what it's about, make it look appealing, etc, not just tweet "I couldn't put it down!! 5*!! It's Brilliant!!!" Or worse, just the title and the link. Totally pointless. You might as well spend those few minutes playing solitaire. But I've found most of my regular readers via Twitter ~ I rest my case :)

      I started my book review blog so I could help the ones I like pop above the radar, too! Hope it helps some. And I am going to get back and finish Gap Year some time, too, as I was enjoying it very much.... I get waylaid by Rosie's blog reviewing, friends bringing out new ones - oh, and writing my own, too...!!!

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  6. All so very true Terry and a great post - I think our first discussion on twitter was about lasagne! Unless I'm mistaken - haha! I am missing the social side of social media at the moment, and I never thought I'd be saying that but I'm looking forward to getting my WIP off to the betas soon so I can get out there a bit more again. I have found fabulous friends and their brilliant books that way and have enough waiting for me to last the next couple of years I imagine but it won't stop me getting attracted to and picking up more as I go :-)

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    1. Ha ha, was it really?! Yes, I know, I know... I still buy at least 2 a week :)

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  7. Loved that Terry. I found you via Twitter and that was a very happy find! I've also found many other writers, bloggers and fellow genre specific pals online. It does take time to work it all out, but that's part of the fun :-)

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    1. Ah, thanks! Yeah, it was fun thinking, now, how did I come to read THAT? Though actually Twitter is the all round answer for all of them, because even the Amazon browse one came about because I was looking up books by another author I've discovered who I found via.... Twitter :)

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  8. Very interesting insight!
    It's amazing how small things (even, or especially tweets on various matters - except the "buy my book" one) can be one thing leading to another...
    Truth is that "Network with other writers and bloggers (in a sincere way, not just in the hope that they will help promote you)." is definitely what matters!
    It's about meeting new people, getting along and sharing interests, not pushing your books... It comes naturally when there's a fit ;)
    I've discovered the latest books I've read this way: one by direct contact with an author on Goodreads, another after having got a nice comment from another, giving me a taste to discover what she wrote and the latest by working with the best proofreader in the world, leading me to read one of her sister's book, You wish, not to name it ;)

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    1. Ha ha, thanks, Jerome! Actually, that was the first one I self pubbed, as you can tell by the fact that it needs editing and proofreading - I've improved since! Thanks for reading x

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  9. Usual prob..too many ebooks,..not enough paper ones!!! But great post.

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    1. I actually dislike reading paperbacks now, and choose ebook every time, but it's rather nice to see my friends' books in paperback form - I've just had Val's African Ways and one of Mark Barry's delivered, as I've bought them for friends for presents, and it's fun to look at them :)

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  10. Another great post Terry and I agree I have 'happened' upon so many great writers via twitter. I know that it seems like Amazon is swamped with indie books at the moment but in a way that's a good thing because we have such a diverse choice at our finger tips. Whenever I'm in book shops I'm constantly shocked by how limited our reading would be if we didn't have the books that publishers aren't willing to take a chance on. Basically if you look at all the new releases they are almost all books penned by TV celebrities like Richard and Judy or tried and tested writers who churn them out like James Patterson.

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    1. Oh yes - that is the upside of it all. The downside of it is that you have to wade through a load of rubbish to find the decent ones - self-pub opened the floodgates for everything from the genius and originality of people like Mark Barry, to the mediocre/worthy/a bit yawnsome, to the badly written rubbish, to..... Sally Hollister!!!!!!

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    2. How very dare you take my name in vain!!!

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  11. What a great post and discussion. I sometimes do workshops about selling our work, and it slays me that authors think they have to attract Oprah-level attention right out the gate. I keep saying, "wouldn't you be happy to sell several hundred copies a month of each of your titles? Wouldn't that be good enough?" I'd be happy to have several thousand dedicated readers I could count on to buy my books! But I think the bottom line is, people want to write one book and achieve wealth and fame, and NOW.

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    1. Every self pub author (and many not self pub) that I know would be over the moon to seel several hundred of each of their titles a month. Several thousand dedicated readers is success, loads of trad pubbed don't have that, not in the UK anyway. I think the question so many fail to ask is this: is my book actually that good? I keep coming across people who think it's all about marketing and sales, not about actually writing something decent. Thanks for reading and commenting, Lynne! :)

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  12. I really enjoyed this post Terry. What a great idea to share not only the books, but how you discovered them. Quite a few of my recent reads have been by authors whose blogs I follow and converse with on Twitter, or have been recommended by those people. Social media is definitely a great way of discovering books to read. :)

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    1. Thanks, Norah - I was having a think about it, which was what made me decide to write this post. I love it so much when someone buys a book because of my review, and loves it too - it's a slow way of making it 'happen' but you never know how it can snowball! x

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  13. Great post Terry. Book reviews by authors I enjoy carry a lot of clout with me. On indies, I've been "having a think" about it too--I first reviewed an indie for a trade (print) magazine in 1992. We got very few indies and of the dozen or so I read in my two years at that magazine (I reviewed tradtional print) only one was really excellent, So that's 1-12. Now my personal rating of self-published has gone way up. About 7-12. I think indies are improving as people begin to realize what you said--write a good book. Then make it better.

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    1. INdeed, that's the first step, Cindy! Without which the others are useless. You won't gain anything by submitting to book bloggers if you're going to get all 1-3* reviews. I find that the general standard of those I look at has gone up, too - or perhaps I've just got better at selecting them!

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  14. Really great post. I read both trad and self-published books, and have found good & bad in both. My own books are both self & trad published under two different pen-names. Both author communities are very supportive and have recommended books to me that they have enjoyed, so word of mouth is a big factor. Twitter has sent me to a number of good books including Terry's. The cover and the first few pages give me a sense of whether I'll like it, and I rarely purchase without reading a sample.

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    1. It's lovely to see someone who is as successful as you, Deborah, who is still open to reading books by the self-pub! I am looking forward to getting to Past Encounters... it's about 5 away now!!

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  15. I agree with Norah - I've never said where I found the author/novel but I do try to read and review indie books where I can, connecting with people on Facebook, Twitter and through my blog - even Linkedin. I read trad books from bookshops too and it is getting to the stage that there is not a lot between the quality of the best indie books. Authors are becoming more professional in their craft. If I like the novel enough it becomes my monthly book review spot - thus completing the circle. Great post! Diana Jackson

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    1. Thanks for reading and commenting, Diana! I so agree with you - recently I'd read the first one in my above list, which is staggeringly good (Mark Barry is about my number one indie writer!), and then moved on to a book which trad pubbed and was at the time in the top 100 on Amazon. If it had been an indie pub book, it would have been slated for needing a good content edit... ! I read both as well. I think if you only read indie books you can get a slightly skewed idea of what is good, and start to think a book is worthy of 4/5* if it's not actually BAD! But I like to think I judge all by the same criteria.

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  16. Thank you very much for the information it is invaluable as a writer who is really just starting out. I am really more interested in getting what I write seen than anything else. I have published on Amazon but am seriously not happy both with my presentation and with the way it turned out. That was the beginning of the learning experience. I will definitely check out some of the books you have mentioned in the list and continue practising, I emphasise practising, on my blog page leithunique. Thank you again brilliant info.

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  17. Hi, thanks for reading and commenting. Perhaps your book wasn't ready to publish? Nothing wrong with that, I wrote several before I thought I was good enough to put them out into the world, though admittedly that was long before Amazon Kindle! You can always unpublish and re-edit if you're not happy with it. It's perhaps better than you think, anyway - we're often our own worst critics! Best of luck :)

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  18. Terry, what a great article. I am still getting to know the author community. As someone who loves writing and gets obsessed with his plots and characters, I have not always prioritised making time for the networking side of being an indie author. But the more I have flitted in and out of blogs and social media, the more I have learnt from others. Your advice is a hundred per cent right. P.s. I still smile when I remember your review of my book!

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    1. Kahunas, Ben, kahunas!!!!

      When I first self-pubbed I used to go and have a dabble at Twitter at about 10.30 every night just before I went to bed. That was it, I hadn't got a clue, didn't know how to tweet, didn't understand about retweeting, hadn't a clue what all those daft hashtag things were. I understood social networking sites, because I'd always loved MySpace and was relunctantly dragged (moaning) to Facebook, but I didn't understand it with regard to promotion. It took a long time to do so. I pass this stuff on!!!!

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  19. Hi Terry,
    I'm a newbie here, and have been really enjoying your posts. I've added some books to my TBR list thanks to your recommendations (African Ways most recently) and look forward to downloading Last Child, too. Thank you for leading me to Rosie Amber's wonderful site as well! See you again soon:-)

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    1. Oh hi, Kimberly, and welcome!!! Oh, African Ways is marvellous, and thanks re mine too - Last Child IS a sequel, although more or less a stand alone, or if you want to try me out with a short one I suggest Round and Round - a novella.

      Best of all, so glad you've discovered Rosie's site!! Lovely to hear from you, much appreciated and great to hear that people take note of my recommendations!!!! All the best xx

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  20. For me, finding books relies on a mix of old and new methods. I still go on monthly book hunts to the store and browse the blurbs to see if anything catches my interest. But I've also bought books based on Goodreads reviews I saw on Twitter or someone's blog. One of the books I really enjoyed recently was the Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey. I got it because another writer I really like, Maggie Stiefvater, was live tweeting how much she was loving the characters, and that's like a siren call for me.
    I also use the Amazon suggestions based on what I've already read, and I think it works a bit better than the Goodreads version.
    One curious change in my habits over the last few years is that I tend to pick up books that other people absolutely loathed. In the past, I might have steered clear of them, but I've come to learn how someone else's opinion of a book or an author is no guarantee that I will feel the same way. So these days, I'm just as likely to buy a book based on a scathing review as I am on one gushing with praise.

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    1. Thanks for that lovely detailed reply, Zoe - and yes, I find that Amazon also boughts and suggestions are much better than Goodreads, which seem to be only roughly in the same genre!!! Re the opinions of others, I read the bad reviews carefully. If they are intelligently written, I take note, but it depends what the complaints are; for instance, a large number of people will mark a book down because they didn't like the characters. I think that's insane - what if you weren't MEANT to like them??!! Doesn't that mean that they worked??!!

      Similarly, a few months ago I bought a book with over 50 x 5* that I thought was going to be a fabulous, realistic contemporary drama. It wasn't, it was chick lit, and when I read the reviews properly instead of just looking at the star rating, I realised that they were from those sort of die-hard chick lit readers who rate everything 5* as long as it's got their required ingredients.

      Whoops, comments getting as long as the post...!

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  21. I think some of the review sites you mention - Rosie Amber, A Woman's Wisdom ... are terrific. I t was great to discover them, have kind and thoughtful reviews and find plenty of other books to read myself. Heartfelt thanks to anyone who goes to the trouble of reviewing books in their own time!

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    1. Yes, so do I, Frances. I always review when I've read a book I like because I know how important it is; I think all writers know that feeling when someone tweets to you or tells you on facebook that they've loved one of your books and you want to say, thank you thank you, um, please could you tell the world as well....?? But you can't because it seems so mercenary!!

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