Unpublishing a book is like....

Getting a divorce.

It smarts. But I had to do it.

My foray into the fast-paced world of writing fast and dirty was a bust. I conceived the idea for Razor Wire for the brand-spanking-new Kindle Unlimited program. It was designed to be read in installments, ending in a cliffhanger like a thriller television show. I'd outlined 6 'episodes', wrote 3, and then Kindle Unlimited changed its royalty structure for payment and the serial format lost its value overnight.

I bundled the installments, thinking I would come back to the series in future to write Razor Edge and Razor Close.

Heh. Well, here's the thing. I lost steam or my mojo or whatever that thing is that makes a writer connect to a story long enough to get it out. I tried many different methods to get going again but my brain wasn't having it. Creatively, the series was dead in the water.

And dead sales-wise too. I think I sold less than 10 ebooks and 5 print books that were mostly pity sales. A local fan said it wasn't anything like my other books. Yeah, well, a girl's gotta try new things or she becomes stale. I'm not sorry I wrote it because it pushed me out of my comfort zone to explore a new sub-genre. I think of Razor Wire as a creative experiment in writing to market, in which I proved to myself that the book market is a moving target.

Razor Wire is unpublished (or is in the process) at all retailers as of today. CreateSpace will still sell the print edition. My plan for the thriller is to go back to my original idea and publish it as a trilogy. I'll beef up the story, explore some themes I rushed through and go deeper into the psychology of the characters. I believe there's a good story there and I didn't give it its due. I'll release the serial in July in three complete installments. CreateSpace will get the complete edition for print at the same time.

Writing fast is dandy for first drafts, but the process has to slow down after that to get to the good stuff. Lesson learned. It only hurts a little. Lives were not lost.

Takeaways:

1. Stick to your vision.
2. The story wants to go the way the story wants to go. Be the pencil.
3. Slow down. You are creating worlds not making a cheese sandwich.

Daniel Razor and his troubling sidekick, Charlotte Dawson, will return new and and improved in the summer. Bigger and brighter in three juicy installments. 

0.99 Book Sale Traditional Mystery!

Because it is February ....

ICED UNDER is on sale for 0.99 (reg $3.99) for this month only at these fine retailers.

Iced Under on Kobo

Iced Under on Amazon

Iced Under on Nook

Iced Under on iTunes

Kindle Unlimited and Me

I would've titled this post Kindle Unlimited and the Indie Author but every author's experience is different. Our books are different, our marketing skills are different---it gets really boring itemizing how different we all are. We're so hung up on trying to find commonalities when we share information that we can't see the forest for the trees.

Here is the forest:

Amazon is a book retailer. They also publish their own imprints. They're also a mechanism by which authors can self-publish their work direct to Kindle ereaders. They sell the devices as well as the books to read on the devices. They also offer subscription-based access to all books enrolled in Kindle Direct Publishing Select. They have margins.

Here are the trees:

The independent authors who have enrolled their books in Select. They give Zon an amazingly diverse catalogue to hook Kindle Unlimited subscribers and Zon gives them a platform with which to reach readers. Sure, almost everyone wants the blockbuster novels, but indie offerings are the "added value" component of the whole forest. The authors also have margins.

It's a happy, balanced ecosystem until Amazon has to increase its margins and then the authors inside the forest get squeezed. We felt the Amazonian boa constrictor squeeze this week when the KENP formula was changed and the value of our books decreased by about 60 pages. KENP stands for Kindle Edition Normalized Pages. Authors in Select are paid 0.0046 per KENP read. If Mary Sue borrowed my riveting mystery, Iced Under (511 KENP) in January, I would have been paid a $2.35 royalty. Now, I would be paid $2.07. The royalty on a sale is approx. $2.79.

Not too shabby, right? What's 72 cents among friends. And besides, isn't the idea we'll get readers borrowing our books and make a bit of money on the side? Hey, I drank the Kool-aid, I'm not judging.

The kicker is we have to promote and compete to get borrows with exactly the same zeal and expense that we have to promote to get sales. Time and money margins. Only these are not sales and your book is only available in one store, not four (or five if you count Google Play and I don't). And then you open your reports page and whoa nelly! You are down by a sum that you did not see coming.

Okay, so we've been "normalized" after not being normal. Or something. I was all in with Kindle Unlimited until I realized I wasn't building a sales record. I was knocking myself out to get borrows. Borrows are lovely when they're in a library and somebody--somewhere--has already paid for the book. But when you become dependent on them for income, borrows are like living in your mom's basement. Every now and then she threatens to sell the house.

It's been said that KU has cannibalized sales. It's also been said that KU has helped sales. I have no data either way. In my experience, I worked like a dog to promote my novels last year and came out about $10 ahead each month that I was in Select versus wide. Other authors report dramatically different results.

The upshot of all this analysis is no two books are alike. Look at your own book and take your own market and margins into consideration when you're deciding to go exclusive or wide with all retailers. If all else fails, experiment. I liked the convenience of Select but I like getting sales in other markets a whole lot more. I like building a sales history. I like getting my $2.79 fair and square.

My margins are chubbier now too and I like a chubby margin.

Peace out.

Writers and Grandchildren

I'm not one to brag... but Calvin Michael was born on Dec.5, 2015 joining his cousins, Oliver and Harrison. 

I have three grandsons. Three! I thought it couldn't get any better.

And then...

My stepdaughter is expecting her first child in May and cleverly announced the sex on Boxing Day by giving us BLUE Christmas balls. Four grandsons! 

I'm thrilled to bits. These little guys are a total joy to be around. The best part of being a writer with grandchildren is they laugh at your jokes and when you tell silly stories they think you're a genius. There is no bad part. 

How fitting that this is my 100th post. Long before these little boys were a gleam in anyone's eye, I was holding vigil for a book that was out on submission and blogging about it. I felt like my life hung in the balance. I felt like everything was riding on that one book finding a publisher. I was wrong, as usual.

No matter how low we are in the moment, the future holds good gifts. Hold on and all will be well. 

Happy anniversary to all the blogging writers who are holding on and telling us about it.

A Writer's New Year's Resolutions

1. Write better books.

2. Get more exercise.

3. Write more books.

4. Make more money (anything above poverty level will do)

Resolution 4 used to top my list. Year after year, making money was my number one priority and year after year, it was never enough. I make more now than I did last year but at the expense of my body, emotional well-being and the joy of writing. So I'm ditching Resolution 4. 

Selling books is a crap shoot. Writers can spend years crafting novels and never make enough to pay the Hydro bill. Or they can spend 14 days writing a novel that lies there like a dead dog in August and never sells a copy. Or they can spend years working on craft and net thousands upon thousands of dollars from one book, or the exact same result could be achieved after a weekend of booze-induced scribbling. Total crap shoot.

I hereby resolve to ignore sales reports, do my best and let the money take care of itself. Sink or swim, the book is on its own. 

Next!

Resolution 1 and 3 can grow to like each other with steady, daily application to the word count. 200 words a day for 365 days equals one reasonably-sized book. 200 words is a walk in the park. For me and other writers, the demarcation between "good writing" and "cranking it out" is 2000 to 3000 words a day. 2K for me is a good day's work. A friendly, patient approach and good books will come in great quantity.

I resolve to write good books and more of them with daily dedicated application of 200 to 2000 words.

Which brings us to Resolution 2. All of us who sit in front of a computer for hours at a time need to stand up. Right now. I can see you. You're not standing. It has become life-threatening to sit for hours. (It probably always was but we're just learning about it.) I've restructured my office to allow me to stand and work. But that's not enough. Daily exercise outside improves just about everything.

I resolve to take a daily walk, which will help me stick to Resolution 1 and 3 and increase the odds of number 4 happening in my lifetime. 

I'll report back on December 31, 2016 (God and Blogger willing) on how my 2016 Resolutions panned out. Because that could be fun. Or not. We shall see!

December UK Book Sale and Freebie News!

Oy! It's December and Christmas is bearing down on us like a semi and we are the deer caught in its headlights. To celebrate this wonderful season of joy (which I really do love--no snark--I'm a Christmas nut) I am holding a staggeringly gorgeous sale for UK mystery readers and a giveaway that's worldwide (Amazon-willing).

Here goes: In the UK - A Kindle Countdown begins for ICED UNDER on December 7 and runs until December 11th. The regular price in the UK is 3.71 pounds (if I'm not mistaken). The sale price is 0.99. (I believe that includes the VAT) Buy it now to give yourself a little treat and read it over the holidays. Merry Christmas from your Canadian cousin!

The link to the UK store is here: ICED UNDER Mystery Novel UK Store

The second offer is RAZOR WIRE Free Worldwide (unless it is not available in some markets which I have no control over). This time I'm going to include the link for the Amazon.ca store because I recently discovered the link to the Amazon.com store will default a Canadian shopper to the .ca store where she/her will then have to search out the book. (Right. Like that is going to happen.)

Maybe this explains why so few Canadians (at least the ones I hang with) know anything about Kindle Unlimited or the freebie books they can try out, or the great deals that are constantly on offer. Let's correct that right now.

Here is the Canadian link to the Free RAZOR WIRE book offer available December 16 to December 18: 
RAZOR WIRE Thriller Freebie Canada

I want to see downloads people! Read it when you have time and for God's sake, post a review. I had no idea how important those bloody things were until I tried to market a book that had no reviews. Human beings want to know what other human beings think of a thing before they'll try it. Go figure.

Here is the link to RAZOR WIRE at Amazon.com for our friends south of the border: RAZOR WIRE Thriller Freebie US

And my final instruction of the day is a tip I picked up from PD Workman on Kboards regarding this business of getting Canadian hands on free book offers: Simply change the amazon.com to amazon.ca to land on the book page and download the free book. I think this could work for just about any book you want to buy in your country's market.

Unfortunately, at this time Amazon does not offer Kindle Countdowns to the Canadian market. It is a real poo-fest. I'm saying it. A real poo-fest. My three Gatineau Hills Mysteries are set in Canada and they sell extremely well in my local market in print but I cannot break into my own country with the ebooks because the US price point makes Canadian readers nervous with our dollar. I don't blame them but I can't price lower except for sales. I simply cannot. There is a line that defines writing as a hobby and writing as a profession and on those three novels, the line is professional.

It's a pickle that I have to resolve in 2016. But I'm coming for you, Canadian mystery readers. I'm coming!! (In the meantime, download Razor Wire for free on the 16th and let's get to know each other.)

Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all.

Guess what's free today...

 

Razor Wire

FREE on Amazon today only. (reg. $2.99)

From the back cover:

Classical violinist Charlotte Dawson needs money. San Francisco tech boom billionaire, Daniel Razor, needs a companion for his agoraphobic stepbrother. Razor makes Charlotte an offer—one hundred thousand dollars in exchange for one year hanging out with the handsome, talented, but deeply troubled Joel Razor. The job is too good to be true. Charlotte accepts. Then Daniel Razor comes to her with a request that redefines the role of companion and Charlotte discovers the lengths she will go to realize her ambition. 

Set in fog-shrouded San Francisco, Razor Wire is new adult noir suspense in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock. Originally published on Amazon in three novellas, Razor Wire is the first in a three-book series. Razor Close and Razor Edge will be published in 2016.