One day, I'm baking bread and making soup and the next I'm putting meat on the grill. I'm pretty sure I know how a squirrel thinks and feels. For the last six weeks I've been trying to beat cold weather by getting my outside projects done before the real cold sets in which has me neglecting letter corresponding, twitter entries and my blog. The switch between the warm days and windy, cool, dreary days keeps me guessing about what plants to cover and what needs brought inside. That's why the squirrels scurry from one place to another so fast. They aren't sure when to take winter's coming serious.
I have to confess I got out of most of the garden cleaning except when my husband asked me to decide if he could pull some plants. I ventured into the garden long enough to say yes or no and went back to my flower beds; cleaning, digging bulbs and picking flower seeds for next year's crop. Hubby cleans the garden off, but he doesn't bother the flowers anymore. Last time he weeded the flowers in August while I was away, he proudly showed me a clean portion of bed minus my twenty year old rare yellow violet. Looks like the plant had time to make seeds which have sprouted so I may luck out. In that case so did he. Hardy marigolds are still in full colorful bloom in front of my porch. I look at that row of flowers and the garden, now bare soil, and wish it was already time to start over again.
We delivered the spring's crop of lambs and goats to Kalona Salebarn. I ate my favorite peanut butter cream pie which the Amish waitress teasingly offered to bring me before the meal. I resisted and ate light so I could enjoy the pie. Came home with one more rabbit. Now we think the stork may make a visit any day. It's a repeat trip for that stork. A month ago a hen hatched 12 chicks in between hay bales in the loft. Just what we didn't need when we're preparing for winter.
To my delight, a walnut tree I planted from seed produced a five gallon bucket full of walnuts. This morning, I picked the walnuts up and stored them in the stock trailer to dry. That is the go to place for green tomatoes to ripen and to hide walnuts. I lucked out this time. The neighbor's squirrels didn't find the walnuts before I got them picked up. Now let's hope those curious creatures don't get into the stock trailer right away. A real cold snap might signal them to carry off my walnuts.
Since the middle of August most of my computer time has been spent writing my mother's family story and tree. That has meant hours of interviewing aunts, uncles and cousins on the phone and with emails. The emails I copied into the story, but I had to take fast, sketchy notes as the aunts and uncles talked for an hour or two at a time. Those had to be transcribed as soon as I was off the phone while the stories were fresh in my mind.
The research has been fun and time consuming. I found much documented on the internet about my ancestors that was interesting to me. I've added notes about them in the family tree. I think the cousins children and great grandchildren will enjoy history like the French and Indian War and the Civil War when they realize they had relatives involved. Not to mention changes in transportation from walking to cars and kerosene lamps to electricity. I've been told my grandmother said she wished she'd had modern conveniences when her children were little. She was probably thinking about eight hour wash days bent over a scrub board using lye soap, washing for a family of eleven.
The relatives response to my writing this family project has been great. I've been bombarded with old photos to place in each of the nine siblings stories and a favorite family recipe. I'm thankful my mother was a saver of all things; a 1937 hospital menu, Dad's draft notice, and so many other things that documented the time of events. Best of all, this enterprise has brought me closer to cousins I played with when we were children. Now I'm looking forward to a visit in the spring from three cousins which is one more reason to wish winter away.
The cousins are curious about how I'm coming with the book. I don't think they realize all the information I've put into this 200 plus page story. I'm looking forward to getting done and on to another Amish book about Nurse Hal. November is national novel writing month (NaNoWriMo). I only have a few days to meet my self imposed October 31 deadline with this book and on to the next book in November. If I'm not ready by November that's all right, because my writing this family book will be a legacy for my family's future generations.
Besides I can't stay at the computer all the time. Friday afternoon, I'm going to the Keystone Nursing Care Center where I worked. There is going to be an activity about Lincoln Highway History by speaker, Mike Kelly. My parents operated one of the gas stations on the highway in Benton County for almost 30 years, but few people realize that a station has been in that spot from July 1931 to October 1987. I have gathered my pictures and information to share to bring some attention to my parents gas station. More on that later.
November 13th I've been invited to Keystone's St. John Lutheran Church to man a table at Elder Health Fair. My information is Alzheimer's disease. Along with handouts furnished by the Alzheimer's Office in Cedar Rapids, I'll be giving away one of my books on the subject "Open A Window". I can't miss an opportunity to educate people about this disease that has no cure. If you'd like a book that educates Alzheimer's caregivers go to my book store at booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com or Amazon. If you like the ebook form go to Amazon's Kindle store or B&N nook store.
So there you have it. That's what the squirrels and I have been doing this fall.
Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Third Book In Amish Series For Sale
My latest book is Hal's Worldly Temptations-book 3 in Nurse Hal Among The Amish series. ISBN 098245953X There's plenty of places to get a copy. Right now the book is in ebook form at Kindle and Nook but in the next week it will be a paperback at Amazon, and my bookstore www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com and I'll put the book on ebay when I get my first shipment.
I'm always surprised by what readers like about my Nurse Hal character. She has become a bit of a rebel in the Amish community, because she has trouble conforming to their ways. For someone that is not housewife material and loves her possessions- a car and cell phone, giving in to learning what she needs to know to be considered Amish isn't easy.
Nurse Hal can't catch on fast enough to keep her from making mistakes. That's another reason readers like her. Some of her mistakes will make you laugh out loud like when she's learning to drive a buggy and can only make the horse go in circles which ties up two intersections. One person told me she can just read so many sad books then she has to read one of mine to get herself back in a good mood. Each humorous situation I put Nurse Hal in comes easy when I think about what would happen to me if I tried to go back a century and learn what she is expected to know.
I hope you like the picture on my book's cover. A cover catches the buyer's eyes if done right and helps sell the book. With Christmas Traditions I used clipart which had the side view of a young woman in a bonnet. With my Amish series, I decided not to use people on the cover as many other authors do. I realize the people they use are models, but since Amish don't believe in pictures taken of them I've used scenery instead. The first book A Promise is a Promise has a picture on it that I took south of Bloomfield, Ia on an Amish farm. The second book, The Rainbow's End picture is my front yard just after a storm, and I added a buggy. I had to since I never see one go by. On this latest book, the picture is from the neighbor's place west of me. He'd just painted his buildings red and was proud of the way they looked. I told him I'd probably turn his barn white. You should have heard him groan. So recently I informed him I left his barn alone on the book cover, but he now owns two horses instead of one and has several buggies sitting in his pasture. When someone helps me out in any way with my books I give them a copy. I'm thinking this book cover will make him laugh.
Here is what it says on the back of the book - Join the fun! You are invited to the wedding of John Lapp and Nurse Hal. Family and friends gathered to cook, clean and plan. Men put up a tent in the yard for guests. So put on your bonnet or felt hat, hitch up the buggy and take a ride by scenic pastures and rolling hills to Wickenburg, Iowa. Take a seat on a bench next to Hal's parents. They will be glad to explain the ceremony, because they came armed with facts from Aunt Tootie's book on Amish customs. You will find a few surprises. Little Daniel Lapp interrupts the bishop when he asks if anyone objects. Oh and Stella Strutt has some sort of fit. It will be the most talked about Amish wedding for years to come. Hal's life goes down hill from there for awhile. She refuses to give away her car and cell phone. Getting caught by Stella Strutt at the Old Thrasher's Reunion on a "joy ride" doesn't help her avoid punishment. Is Hal going to be sent away before she gets settled into her new home? Stick around after the wedding and find out, why don't you.
If you like Amish stories join my readers and try the Nurse Hal books. I hear the stories aren't quite like any other Amish stories you've read.
www.amazonauthorpagefayrisner.com
I'm always surprised by what readers like about my Nurse Hal character. She has become a bit of a rebel in the Amish community, because she has trouble conforming to their ways. For someone that is not housewife material and loves her possessions- a car and cell phone, giving in to learning what she needs to know to be considered Amish isn't easy.
Nurse Hal can't catch on fast enough to keep her from making mistakes. That's another reason readers like her. Some of her mistakes will make you laugh out loud like when she's learning to drive a buggy and can only make the horse go in circles which ties up two intersections. One person told me she can just read so many sad books then she has to read one of mine to get herself back in a good mood. Each humorous situation I put Nurse Hal in comes easy when I think about what would happen to me if I tried to go back a century and learn what she is expected to know.
I hope you like the picture on my book's cover. A cover catches the buyer's eyes if done right and helps sell the book. With Christmas Traditions I used clipart which had the side view of a young woman in a bonnet. With my Amish series, I decided not to use people on the cover as many other authors do. I realize the people they use are models, but since Amish don't believe in pictures taken of them I've used scenery instead. The first book A Promise is a Promise has a picture on it that I took south of Bloomfield, Ia on an Amish farm. The second book, The Rainbow's End picture is my front yard just after a storm, and I added a buggy. I had to since I never see one go by. On this latest book, the picture is from the neighbor's place west of me. He'd just painted his buildings red and was proud of the way they looked. I told him I'd probably turn his barn white. You should have heard him groan. So recently I informed him I left his barn alone on the book cover, but he now owns two horses instead of one and has several buggies sitting in his pasture. When someone helps me out in any way with my books I give them a copy. I'm thinking this book cover will make him laugh.
Here is what it says on the back of the book - Join the fun! You are invited to the wedding of John Lapp and Nurse Hal. Family and friends gathered to cook, clean and plan. Men put up a tent in the yard for guests. So put on your bonnet or felt hat, hitch up the buggy and take a ride by scenic pastures and rolling hills to Wickenburg, Iowa. Take a seat on a bench next to Hal's parents. They will be glad to explain the ceremony, because they came armed with facts from Aunt Tootie's book on Amish customs. You will find a few surprises. Little Daniel Lapp interrupts the bishop when he asks if anyone objects. Oh and Stella Strutt has some sort of fit. It will be the most talked about Amish wedding for years to come. Hal's life goes down hill from there for awhile. She refuses to give away her car and cell phone. Getting caught by Stella Strutt at the Old Thrasher's Reunion on a "joy ride" doesn't help her avoid punishment. Is Hal going to be sent away before she gets settled into her new home? Stick around after the wedding and find out, why don't you.
If you like Amish stories join my readers and try the Nurse Hal books. I hear the stories aren't quite like any other Amish stories you've read.
www.amazonauthorpagefayrisner.com
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
I Like Customer Reviews
In a previous post I wrote about a review I requested from Charlie Courtland for A Promise Is A Promise from my Nurse Hal series. Charlie is the author of Dandelions In The Garden and has a book review website http://www.bitsybling.wordpress.com. I appreciated her good review and the fact that she put it on Amazon and www.goodreads.com where it could be seen by people.
According to Steve Weber in his book Plug Your Book, Amazon has some regular customers that offer reviews on every book they read. One negative view can hurt sales. He says keep asking for reviews. The more often your book is reviewed, the likely a minority opinion can dominate. Numerous authentic reviews lessen the chance that a single review can overtake and monopolize the Spotlight position.
Think about it. Reviewers have likes and dislikes when they pick a book to read. That may play a factor in their review. Plus, their intention is to review the book so they're naturally watching as they read for what they want to say. What would be great is to see more positive customer reviews on Amazon, but how do we go about getting buyers to respond. I want to know what people who buy my books think of them. Most book readers aren't reading a book to find mistakes but to be entertained. Those are the buyers most likely to leave a good review. Anyone that has bought an item from Amazon knows if you don't leave a review in a certain amount of time, you get an emailed reminder. That means the book buyers don't just forget. It's always possible they didn't like some of the books well enough to make a positive review so they decided not to make one at all.
As far as my books are concerned, I've gotten good reviews from ebay buyers and private sales. These are the buyers I was referring to that read my books for the entertainment value. I always make a point to ask buyers for a review so I'd know how they liked my books. Most of them are glad to comply and all the reviews have been good. I know they aren't just saying that. They like my books well enough that they want to buy another one.
I thought about how well my ebay buyers respond, and I had to wonder what was the difference between ebay and Amazon buyers. Maybe it has something to do with the reviews left by the experienced reviewers. Most book buyers couldn't measure up to those detailed critiqued reviews with one of their own. Maybe buyers don't know how to write a review they think would be all right. I can tell you from first hand experience I'm not good at giving a constructive review. When I was active on http://www.authonony.com I submitted Christmas Traditions and A Promise Is A Promise to get the opinion of other authors. Their reviews and thoughts were very complimentary and detailed, but I found it hard to review their books as well as they did mine. What I know for sure is I either like the books or don't, and that's based on the genre and the story in the books I like to read.
I write books that I hope are stories people will like to read. These books make you laugh out loud sometimes, describe characters that remind you of someone, and you miss them when the story ends. Those are not my words but words my customers have used to describe my books. So why is it so much easier to get ebay and private customers to give me positive reviews than it is to get them on Amazon?
Perhaps, there is another simple answer besides knowing how to write a review. On Amazon, customers don't have contact with the author of the books. Sales are impersonal business transactions. On ebay and private sales I can reach out to customers to add the personal touches to my sales so they get to know me. I sign my books for buyers. I have their email addresses so I can let them know the book had been sent so they can watch for it, and I tell them I appreciate their business. I ask for a review, if they have time to contact me, after they read the books. I think they respond back, because I reached out to them. Many of these buyers have become my email pen pals. They email me to find out how soon another book will be published. I have email addresses on a mailing list so I can notify buyers when a book is for sale. I've never been a fan of mass emails. That to me is very impersonal. I know the process takes time, but I email each buyer one at a time. Besides, that way I can visit with many of them. Some of these buyers email me once in awhile to just to say hi. Makes me feel blessed to get to know so many wonderful people in the United States.
With this all in mind, I started two new discussions under Christmas Traditions in Kindle. The first one explains that I have decided to put my books on Kindle and hope the buyers like this book. There's a short explanation about the use of Old English pronouns, because my book is a historical fiction. The second discussion is Reviews Needed For Christmas Traditions. Since I have sold many of these books on Amazon, I asked if the buyers could give my book a review. I explained I didn't want or need a detailed review like the experienced reviewers give. It would be great if they could click one to five on the stars and just say they liked the book. That would be enough to encourage other buyers to give my books a try. Now I'm hoping that the customers find the discussion and read it.
I added three sample reviews for Christmas Traditions-An Amish Love Story from other buyers to give them an idea what I'm looking for.
I had a hard time putting the story down. It has some interesting twists and turns as we follow the customs and false pride of the characters.
You are so descriptive. I felt the little thread of hope Margaret felt, but she didn't see.
I enjoyed this book very much. You sure made the characters come to life and what a sweet love story you have told. I wondered if you may be thinking about writing a sequel to this book.
What more could any author ask for when the book is already published and in the bookstores. By then it's too late for a detailed, constructive review if it's not positive. Reviews as simple as the reviews above show other buyers the books are worth reading for the entertainment value of each one. So book customers on Amazon or other sites speak up and let your favorite authors know how you feel about their work. Your opinion not only counts with other consumers, but it matters to the author.
According to Steve Weber in his book Plug Your Book, Amazon has some regular customers that offer reviews on every book they read. One negative view can hurt sales. He says keep asking for reviews. The more often your book is reviewed, the likely a minority opinion can dominate. Numerous authentic reviews lessen the chance that a single review can overtake and monopolize the Spotlight position.
Think about it. Reviewers have likes and dislikes when they pick a book to read. That may play a factor in their review. Plus, their intention is to review the book so they're naturally watching as they read for what they want to say. What would be great is to see more positive customer reviews on Amazon, but how do we go about getting buyers to respond. I want to know what people who buy my books think of them. Most book readers aren't reading a book to find mistakes but to be entertained. Those are the buyers most likely to leave a good review. Anyone that has bought an item from Amazon knows if you don't leave a review in a certain amount of time, you get an emailed reminder. That means the book buyers don't just forget. It's always possible they didn't like some of the books well enough to make a positive review so they decided not to make one at all.
As far as my books are concerned, I've gotten good reviews from ebay buyers and private sales. These are the buyers I was referring to that read my books for the entertainment value. I always make a point to ask buyers for a review so I'd know how they liked my books. Most of them are glad to comply and all the reviews have been good. I know they aren't just saying that. They like my books well enough that they want to buy another one.
I thought about how well my ebay buyers respond, and I had to wonder what was the difference between ebay and Amazon buyers. Maybe it has something to do with the reviews left by the experienced reviewers. Most book buyers couldn't measure up to those detailed critiqued reviews with one of their own. Maybe buyers don't know how to write a review they think would be all right. I can tell you from first hand experience I'm not good at giving a constructive review. When I was active on http://www.authonony.com I submitted Christmas Traditions and A Promise Is A Promise to get the opinion of other authors. Their reviews and thoughts were very complimentary and detailed, but I found it hard to review their books as well as they did mine. What I know for sure is I either like the books or don't, and that's based on the genre and the story in the books I like to read.
I write books that I hope are stories people will like to read. These books make you laugh out loud sometimes, describe characters that remind you of someone, and you miss them when the story ends. Those are not my words but words my customers have used to describe my books. So why is it so much easier to get ebay and private customers to give me positive reviews than it is to get them on Amazon?
Perhaps, there is another simple answer besides knowing how to write a review. On Amazon, customers don't have contact with the author of the books. Sales are impersonal business transactions. On ebay and private sales I can reach out to customers to add the personal touches to my sales so they get to know me. I sign my books for buyers. I have their email addresses so I can let them know the book had been sent so they can watch for it, and I tell them I appreciate their business. I ask for a review, if they have time to contact me, after they read the books. I think they respond back, because I reached out to them. Many of these buyers have become my email pen pals. They email me to find out how soon another book will be published. I have email addresses on a mailing list so I can notify buyers when a book is for sale. I've never been a fan of mass emails. That to me is very impersonal. I know the process takes time, but I email each buyer one at a time. Besides, that way I can visit with many of them. Some of these buyers email me once in awhile to just to say hi. Makes me feel blessed to get to know so many wonderful people in the United States.
With this all in mind, I started two new discussions under Christmas Traditions in Kindle. The first one explains that I have decided to put my books on Kindle and hope the buyers like this book. There's a short explanation about the use of Old English pronouns, because my book is a historical fiction. The second discussion is Reviews Needed For Christmas Traditions. Since I have sold many of these books on Amazon, I asked if the buyers could give my book a review. I explained I didn't want or need a detailed review like the experienced reviewers give. It would be great if they could click one to five on the stars and just say they liked the book. That would be enough to encourage other buyers to give my books a try. Now I'm hoping that the customers find the discussion and read it.
I added three sample reviews for Christmas Traditions-An Amish Love Story from other buyers to give them an idea what I'm looking for.
I had a hard time putting the story down. It has some interesting twists and turns as we follow the customs and false pride of the characters.
You are so descriptive. I felt the little thread of hope Margaret felt, but she didn't see.
I enjoyed this book very much. You sure made the characters come to life and what a sweet love story you have told. I wondered if you may be thinking about writing a sequel to this book.
What more could any author ask for when the book is already published and in the bookstores. By then it's too late for a detailed, constructive review if it's not positive. Reviews as simple as the reviews above show other buyers the books are worth reading for the entertainment value of each one. So book customers on Amazon or other sites speak up and let your favorite authors know how you feel about their work. Your opinion not only counts with other consumers, but it matters to the author.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Kindle Books Sales A Surprise
The month of June has past with several of my books in the Kindle store on Amazon. I priced the download of my books very cheap. I'm an unknown author so my paperback books in the list of choices in the different genre is near the bottom of thousands of titles. I've searched Amazon for them myself, and by the time I went through a few hundred books, I was tired of looking so I know how buyers feel. Then there is the fact that $16.00 plus $4.00 postage is a lot of money to pay to take a chance on a paperback written by an unknown.
So I've tried Kindle. I was amazed at the wide variety of my books sold in June including one download of my western book, The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary. Still my best sellers are my Amish books. Now part of the Kindle buyers will know me as an author. If they liked what they read, they will find my books by searching for my name. They will watch for my latest books in the future and tell someone else about my books. Word of mouth has always been a great way for me to get buyers. Also in the back of each of my books is my bio with email address and a list of my other books.
In June, I didn't have an easy experience with kindle downloading. I wanted to use PDF because that's the format I downloaded my books to publish and save, but the system warned that PDF conversion didn't format well. Amazon was working on that but couldn't guarantee conversion with PDF yet. I found that out. The sentence structure was all out of whack. I don't have Microsoft, but my Open Office should work just as well. I found the format that worked one time didn't the next. I've went from PDF to rft, to hmtl to doc. I kept trying until I found a format that is fairly neat, I hope. Thank Goodness for the preview pages so I could check. Two years ago when I put the first book in my mystery series in kindle, I didn't finish filling out the form. When someone in the mystery community asked when my books would be on Kindle, I finished the download only to hear about the odd sentence structure so I stopped the production and resubmitted that book. Next problem was the cover downloads. They are blurry. I was wondering why Amazon didn't transfer the covers from my book page to Kindle. Checked the Kindle store and found my covers had been transferred.
What a difference a month makes. The last books I downloaded didn't give me as much trouble. The different formats to download a book weren't mentioned so I used PDF. Amazon has fixed their system to automatically help with conversion when needed before publishing. Hopefully, my next Kindle books are neater now. A discussion on Amazon mentioned the problems with the format downloading so now I feel better, knowing this wasn't a ME thing.
Amazon's 35% royalty wasn't very much. By July 1st, a new royalty has been added with a choice of 35 or 70%. I stopped all my books and repriced them so that I get a descent royalty. The bottom price is $2.99. Now my books are back for sale. The Kindle download at $5.99 is still much cheaper than the price of my paperback books. With 70% royalty, I have to pay for the buyer's download of the book according to the size. In my case that amounts to 2 - 6 cents.
Here is a review of Neighbor Watchers from Luv2read in Amazon kindle community discussion group I started titled New Amish Books On Kindle. She looked for my Amish books and found my mystery series book one Neighbor Watchers so she downloaded it, too.
She wrote I loved this book! The characters were so well written, it was easy to see it played out in my head as I read. Gracie was my great grandmother and Sam Elliot was the sheriff. Gracie & Melinda get into quite a few predicaments trying to "Help" solve the murder across the street. It kept me turning the page to find out what mischief these two adorable old ladies would get into next. I see more books in the series. I would definitely buy them.
Another time she wrote
I highly recommend this series to anyone who has ever known or had a nosy elderly neighbor that seemed to ALWAYS know what is going on in the neighborhood. This is a funny laugh out loud easy read. Neighbor Watchers is really unique as the time period is the turn of the century.
Of course, the thing I can't do in the Amazon discussion groups is advertise that my books are cheaper in my online bookstore( http://www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com ), on ebay or from me personally. Not everyone wants to read a book from a screen on Kindle. Since my books sold on Kindle in June, it looks like what buyers are looking for is a bargain. Next month I'll update you about July sales after I've raised my prices. What I need is to get the word out to buyers of paperback books that I am the keeper of my book bargains and am glad to accommodate customers.
So I've tried Kindle. I was amazed at the wide variety of my books sold in June including one download of my western book, The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary. Still my best sellers are my Amish books. Now part of the Kindle buyers will know me as an author. If they liked what they read, they will find my books by searching for my name. They will watch for my latest books in the future and tell someone else about my books. Word of mouth has always been a great way for me to get buyers. Also in the back of each of my books is my bio with email address and a list of my other books.
In June, I didn't have an easy experience with kindle downloading. I wanted to use PDF because that's the format I downloaded my books to publish and save, but the system warned that PDF conversion didn't format well. Amazon was working on that but couldn't guarantee conversion with PDF yet. I found that out. The sentence structure was all out of whack. I don't have Microsoft, but my Open Office should work just as well. I found the format that worked one time didn't the next. I've went from PDF to rft, to hmtl to doc. I kept trying until I found a format that is fairly neat, I hope. Thank Goodness for the preview pages so I could check. Two years ago when I put the first book in my mystery series in kindle, I didn't finish filling out the form. When someone in the mystery community asked when my books would be on Kindle, I finished the download only to hear about the odd sentence structure so I stopped the production and resubmitted that book. Next problem was the cover downloads. They are blurry. I was wondering why Amazon didn't transfer the covers from my book page to Kindle. Checked the Kindle store and found my covers had been transferred.
What a difference a month makes. The last books I downloaded didn't give me as much trouble. The different formats to download a book weren't mentioned so I used PDF. Amazon has fixed their system to automatically help with conversion when needed before publishing. Hopefully, my next Kindle books are neater now. A discussion on Amazon mentioned the problems with the format downloading so now I feel better, knowing this wasn't a ME thing.
Amazon's 35% royalty wasn't very much. By July 1st, a new royalty has been added with a choice of 35 or 70%. I stopped all my books and repriced them so that I get a descent royalty. The bottom price is $2.99. Now my books are back for sale. The Kindle download at $5.99 is still much cheaper than the price of my paperback books. With 70% royalty, I have to pay for the buyer's download of the book according to the size. In my case that amounts to 2 - 6 cents.
Here is a review of Neighbor Watchers from Luv2read in Amazon kindle community discussion group I started titled New Amish Books On Kindle. She looked for my Amish books and found my mystery series book one Neighbor Watchers so she downloaded it, too.
She wrote I loved this book! The characters were so well written, it was easy to see it played out in my head as I read. Gracie was my great grandmother and Sam Elliot was the sheriff. Gracie & Melinda get into quite a few predicaments trying to "Help" solve the murder across the street. It kept me turning the page to find out what mischief these two adorable old ladies would get into next. I see more books in the series. I would definitely buy them.
Another time she wrote
I highly recommend this series to anyone who has ever known or had a nosy elderly neighbor that seemed to ALWAYS know what is going on in the neighborhood. This is a funny laugh out loud easy read. Neighbor Watchers is really unique as the time period is the turn of the century.
Of course, the thing I can't do in the Amazon discussion groups is advertise that my books are cheaper in my online bookstore( http://www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com ), on ebay or from me personally. Not everyone wants to read a book from a screen on Kindle. Since my books sold on Kindle in June, it looks like what buyers are looking for is a bargain. Next month I'll update you about July sales after I've raised my prices. What I need is to get the word out to buyers of paperback books that I am the keeper of my book bargains and am glad to accommodate customers.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
My Kindle Books & Gone Fishing
I've decided to give Amazon's Kindle book buyers a try with my Amish books. At first, I didn't think I wanted to take less royalty. Admittedly, I usually take my time to think about a change. Finally, I decided the people that have a Kindle aren't buying paperback books anyway so why not give this a try. After all it's one more way to get people to see my name as an author. Once they try my books, readers usually want another one.
I'd already submitted to Kindle the first of my mystery series, Neighbor Watchers, awhile back. This time I added to the Kindle list my western The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary and two of my Amish books - Christmas Traditions-An Amish Love Story and A Promise Is A Promise-Nurse Hal Among The Amish - book one.
Using the different communities on Amazon is a good way to advertise. I entered posts about my books being in Kindle. Even started new discussions to make sure my posts would be noticed since if the discussions are popular ones, a post can soon get buried. I checked the boxes to let me know if there was a response to my posts. Later in the afternoon, I found three responses. Seems I got in a hurry when I posted. Three people wanted to buy my kindle books already and the link only went to my paperback books. I had to reply to each post that it takes two days for Amazon to get the kindle entries ready so be patient and try again. If there seems to be interest in my books on Kindle I will have to enter one now and then and do the posts just to keep my name noticed.
This morning I was delighted to see I had more posts to answer. One was going to her local library to see if she could get my books. My thought is probably not, but I posted that she can ask. I've been told if someone is interested in a book and asks, the library will get it for the patron. Another post was a reader was a comment I've heard before. The poster didn't like the writing style of one of the better known Amish authors because there isn't enough in the story about the Amish farm life. The stories concentrate too much on the serious and often not a very complimentary problem concerning the Amish. So I left a post that was an excerpt from one of my books A Promise Is A Promise. Nurse Hal is trying to help the Lapp brothers catch some pigs that escaped from their pen. She caught one. The pig squealed. The cry got the attention of the protective sow. She rushed at Nurse Hal to protect her baby. The boys were yelling. The dog was barking. Can you picture the scene? Something similar happened to me once. One of those moments when I was running for the fence that I won't forget.
What I have tried to do with my Nurse Hal books is concentrate on Nurse Hal's human faults and her learning about what it takes to be Amish. Dealing with every day life on the farm is part of her experience. As I've said before farming experiences are something that's easy for me to write about since I've lived it and still do with our few head of livestock. Writing the books with that in mind, I hope I don't put the Amish in a bad light. The whole point of the stories for me are to be entertaining and fun with characters that the readers want to continue to get to know.
I joined a website called Book Marketing Network. It's looks interesting as a helpful place to get author information with many groups to join. The site is used by publishers which might be a good thing. Other businesses are offering to do editing and ghostwriting among other services. Emails have already started so I will pick and choose which members I want to hear from and stop the other emails while I explore the site. I did find a person that does free book reviews by book or PDF. I can send a copy of my book and the review will be on Amazon and B&N. That is the reason that I'm sending one of my Amish books. None of the readers leave a review to let others know how they liked the books. I know they must like my books, because the second one in the Nurse Hal series came out in March and has been selling. I wager that the buyers of my other two Amish books came back for The Rainbow's End.
Now for the second half of this post. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later but just not which day. My first clue was when my husband got up at the crack of dawn which he doesn't usually do. I got up an hour later to find chores already done. My husband stuck his head in the door long enough to say I thought we'd go fishing today. The door shut, and he was on his way to hook the boat to the pickup. I hustled to fix a picnic lunch and the water cooler. The day was a quiet, sunny one and not too warm. Perfect for being on a lake. We both caught a blue gill right away, but then the fish stopped biting. We didn't mind as we floated and enjoyed the day. The geese seemed to have had good hatches this spring. We saw several families enjoying a swim. Did you know that geese families swim in a line? The mother takes the lead, the babies come next and father is last. I suspect that is the way the parents protect the babies. It's their version of like us holding a child's hand as we cross the street.
The next day, my husband had a different lake in mind. No matter where we go the lakes are over an hour away. I like the drive, watching the beautiful Iowa countryside. The lake we're were going to - not so much. If I rate all the lakes from 1 - 10 with 10 being the worse this lake would be a 15. First of all, there aren't public restrooms. I suspect that's because there's not a conversation officer station on the grounds. At one time long before I went fishing at that lake, I'm told there were portapotties, but a conservation officer said the portapotties were all vandalized and trashed so they took the facilities away. Made for a long day and lead me to wonder why I bothered to take a water jug.
While my husband was disconnecting all the straps on the boat, I wandered into the tall grass to check out a bunch of wild flowers. The banks of this lake have some interesting native plants. Also, wildlife. I came within an inch of stepping on a three feet long, very healthy looking garter snake. That was the end of my nature study. The snake slithered one way, and I ran the other.
The East wind was probably 15 mph that morning which is doable for our boat. Just after we settled in the boat, my husband said when the wind's from the East the fish bite the least. It went through my head that should have been enough to make him load the boat and go home. The lake is long, running east and west with alcoves off to the north side. We had to buck the strong ripples to go east to get to an alcove. According to the fish finder, lots of fish were swimming around our hooks. To know that should be encouraging, but none of those fish seemed hungry. I've decided the only thing the fish finder is good for is to tell my brother in law about the big one that got away. I don't have to exaggerate the size of the fish that got off the hook. The fish finder shows fish lengths. A 23 inch fish swam by without a second look at my worm. As I told it, that was the big one that got away from me that day. I just didn't say how.
Finally later that afternoon after I worried that I might get sea sick, my husband had enough of the rocking boat and headed for the dock. Once we were back out in the main channel, we found the wind was more like 25 or 30 mph. Before my husband could get the boat turned toward the dock, waves splashed water over the side onto us. Once we got to the dock and tried to pull along side, a gust of wind and waves helped the nose of the boat land up on the dock. I fastened the rope and shoved the boat off the dock. My husband went for the pickup while I held the boat against the dock so it wouldn't do a circle and end up on the dry landing. The waves splashed over the dock around my tennis shoes which aren't water proof and slapped with a force against the boat, making a tight grip necessary.
That day wasn't enough to do my fisherman in. The boat is still attached to the pickup, waiting for another go. So far I've been praying for rain, but as long as I'm on land, a strong wind will do. That's an easy prayer to get answered. So far I don't have to pray very hard for wind in Iowa.
I'd already submitted to Kindle the first of my mystery series, Neighbor Watchers, awhile back. This time I added to the Kindle list my western The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary and two of my Amish books - Christmas Traditions-An Amish Love Story and A Promise Is A Promise-Nurse Hal Among The Amish - book one.
Using the different communities on Amazon is a good way to advertise. I entered posts about my books being in Kindle. Even started new discussions to make sure my posts would be noticed since if the discussions are popular ones, a post can soon get buried. I checked the boxes to let me know if there was a response to my posts. Later in the afternoon, I found three responses. Seems I got in a hurry when I posted. Three people wanted to buy my kindle books already and the link only went to my paperback books. I had to reply to each post that it takes two days for Amazon to get the kindle entries ready so be patient and try again. If there seems to be interest in my books on Kindle I will have to enter one now and then and do the posts just to keep my name noticed.
This morning I was delighted to see I had more posts to answer. One was going to her local library to see if she could get my books. My thought is probably not, but I posted that she can ask. I've been told if someone is interested in a book and asks, the library will get it for the patron. Another post was a reader was a comment I've heard before. The poster didn't like the writing style of one of the better known Amish authors because there isn't enough in the story about the Amish farm life. The stories concentrate too much on the serious and often not a very complimentary problem concerning the Amish. So I left a post that was an excerpt from one of my books A Promise Is A Promise. Nurse Hal is trying to help the Lapp brothers catch some pigs that escaped from their pen. She caught one. The pig squealed. The cry got the attention of the protective sow. She rushed at Nurse Hal to protect her baby. The boys were yelling. The dog was barking. Can you picture the scene? Something similar happened to me once. One of those moments when I was running for the fence that I won't forget.
What I have tried to do with my Nurse Hal books is concentrate on Nurse Hal's human faults and her learning about what it takes to be Amish. Dealing with every day life on the farm is part of her experience. As I've said before farming experiences are something that's easy for me to write about since I've lived it and still do with our few head of livestock. Writing the books with that in mind, I hope I don't put the Amish in a bad light. The whole point of the stories for me are to be entertaining and fun with characters that the readers want to continue to get to know.
I joined a website called Book Marketing Network. It's looks interesting as a helpful place to get author information with many groups to join. The site is used by publishers which might be a good thing. Other businesses are offering to do editing and ghostwriting among other services. Emails have already started so I will pick and choose which members I want to hear from and stop the other emails while I explore the site. I did find a person that does free book reviews by book or PDF. I can send a copy of my book and the review will be on Amazon and B&N. That is the reason that I'm sending one of my Amish books. None of the readers leave a review to let others know how they liked the books. I know they must like my books, because the second one in the Nurse Hal series came out in March and has been selling. I wager that the buyers of my other two Amish books came back for The Rainbow's End.
Now for the second half of this post. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later but just not which day. My first clue was when my husband got up at the crack of dawn which he doesn't usually do. I got up an hour later to find chores already done. My husband stuck his head in the door long enough to say I thought we'd go fishing today. The door shut, and he was on his way to hook the boat to the pickup. I hustled to fix a picnic lunch and the water cooler. The day was a quiet, sunny one and not too warm. Perfect for being on a lake. We both caught a blue gill right away, but then the fish stopped biting. We didn't mind as we floated and enjoyed the day. The geese seemed to have had good hatches this spring. We saw several families enjoying a swim. Did you know that geese families swim in a line? The mother takes the lead, the babies come next and father is last. I suspect that is the way the parents protect the babies. It's their version of like us holding a child's hand as we cross the street.
The next day, my husband had a different lake in mind. No matter where we go the lakes are over an hour away. I like the drive, watching the beautiful Iowa countryside. The lake we're were going to - not so much. If I rate all the lakes from 1 - 10 with 10 being the worse this lake would be a 15. First of all, there aren't public restrooms. I suspect that's because there's not a conversation officer station on the grounds. At one time long before I went fishing at that lake, I'm told there were portapotties, but a conservation officer said the portapotties were all vandalized and trashed so they took the facilities away. Made for a long day and lead me to wonder why I bothered to take a water jug.
While my husband was disconnecting all the straps on the boat, I wandered into the tall grass to check out a bunch of wild flowers. The banks of this lake have some interesting native plants. Also, wildlife. I came within an inch of stepping on a three feet long, very healthy looking garter snake. That was the end of my nature study. The snake slithered one way, and I ran the other.
The East wind was probably 15 mph that morning which is doable for our boat. Just after we settled in the boat, my husband said when the wind's from the East the fish bite the least. It went through my head that should have been enough to make him load the boat and go home. The lake is long, running east and west with alcoves off to the north side. We had to buck the strong ripples to go east to get to an alcove. According to the fish finder, lots of fish were swimming around our hooks. To know that should be encouraging, but none of those fish seemed hungry. I've decided the only thing the fish finder is good for is to tell my brother in law about the big one that got away. I don't have to exaggerate the size of the fish that got off the hook. The fish finder shows fish lengths. A 23 inch fish swam by without a second look at my worm. As I told it, that was the big one that got away from me that day. I just didn't say how.
Finally later that afternoon after I worried that I might get sea sick, my husband had enough of the rocking boat and headed for the dock. Once we were back out in the main channel, we found the wind was more like 25 or 30 mph. Before my husband could get the boat turned toward the dock, waves splashed water over the side onto us. Once we got to the dock and tried to pull along side, a gust of wind and waves helped the nose of the boat land up on the dock. I fastened the rope and shoved the boat off the dock. My husband went for the pickup while I held the boat against the dock so it wouldn't do a circle and end up on the dry landing. The waves splashed over the dock around my tennis shoes which aren't water proof and slapped with a force against the boat, making a tight grip necessary.
That day wasn't enough to do my fisherman in. The boat is still attached to the pickup, waiting for another go. So far I've been praying for rain, but as long as I'm on land, a strong wind will do. That's an easy prayer to get answered. So far I don't have to pray very hard for wind in Iowa.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Entry
Yesterday was the first day for a week to enter the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. I had been preparing for a month to enter my next book. After I finished writing the story, I went over and over it. Even taped the book for a friend in the nursing home. Reading the story out loud helps me catch mistakes that I missed when I read the sentences to myself. So by Sunday, I had the book ready to enter. A 300 word pitch and a copy the first 5000 words to the story had to entered in a separate part on the form.
I'd be the first to admit that blurbs for book covers and pitches are not my strong point. For me, trying to condense the whole story into a few words is hard. I entered the Amazon contest last year. My pitch was not good. Once I found out about the contest, I didn't have a whole lot of time to work on it. This year I was better prepared. That 300 hundred words is what the judges look at to pick the 1000 contestants to go on, or how ever many have a good pitch up to a 1000. Next the judges look at the first 5000 words in the story and narrow the entries down again. Finally, three are picked and from that three one gets a book deal with Penguin.
This contest takes place until late June. In late February, the writers of the 1000 pitches are announced. Do I expect to be in the running? Yes, I think this year I've a good chance of getting into the first round. I'll update you on that when I find out. If I'm not in the running, I should have a new self published book on the market in a few months. My pitch entry will work well as a jacket blurb so I have that out of the way. Look for the next book in my Amish Series Nurse Hal Among The Amish - Nurse's Hal's Rainbow.
As usual, anything that has to do with the computer does not come easy for me, but I didn't expect the entry to take me all day. Once, I started I had to stay with it. The first entry was contact information. I filled it in and saved it. Time after time, red words warned me I need to enter the complete address or that my zipcode was wrong. Finally, the last time the form came up the space for state popped up. I filled that in, and I was ready for the next form. Copy and paste for the pitch and 5000 word entry went well, but no way could I get the form to accept my manuscript. My word processors weren't compatible. I have Open Office and an outdated Lotus that no one has heard of lately. I could buy Microsoft, but once I figured out what I was doing with what I had, I didn't want to take the time to learn anything new. I'd entered in this contest before so I knew I could if I figured out what I needed to do. After hours of trying, finally the manuscript was accepted, but the form didn't think my pitch was right. I cut and copied the same pitch again and clicked save. That did it.
Last year, I received two reviews from the judges based on the first 5000 words. One judge was very complimentary about my original idea. The other pointed out my piece was poorly written with grammatical errors which didn't surprise me since the story was no way near ready to turn in. That was the review that was the most helpful. I took the review to heart and went over my story to clean it up before I published it. I'm hoping this year's entry is in better shape, but no matter what, I'm looking forward to the expert reviews if they do that again.
Now I'm working on short stories for the writing contest that is due the last of April. That gives me plenty of time to tighten the stories up to fit the word criteria and theme. I have some luck in those contests, but even if I didn't to compete with other writers is fun.
I'd be the first to admit that blurbs for book covers and pitches are not my strong point. For me, trying to condense the whole story into a few words is hard. I entered the Amazon contest last year. My pitch was not good. Once I found out about the contest, I didn't have a whole lot of time to work on it. This year I was better prepared. That 300 hundred words is what the judges look at to pick the 1000 contestants to go on, or how ever many have a good pitch up to a 1000. Next the judges look at the first 5000 words in the story and narrow the entries down again. Finally, three are picked and from that three one gets a book deal with Penguin.
This contest takes place until late June. In late February, the writers of the 1000 pitches are announced. Do I expect to be in the running? Yes, I think this year I've a good chance of getting into the first round. I'll update you on that when I find out. If I'm not in the running, I should have a new self published book on the market in a few months. My pitch entry will work well as a jacket blurb so I have that out of the way. Look for the next book in my Amish Series Nurse Hal Among The Amish - Nurse's Hal's Rainbow.
As usual, anything that has to do with the computer does not come easy for me, but I didn't expect the entry to take me all day. Once, I started I had to stay with it. The first entry was contact information. I filled it in and saved it. Time after time, red words warned me I need to enter the complete address or that my zipcode was wrong. Finally, the last time the form came up the space for state popped up. I filled that in, and I was ready for the next form. Copy and paste for the pitch and 5000 word entry went well, but no way could I get the form to accept my manuscript. My word processors weren't compatible. I have Open Office and an outdated Lotus that no one has heard of lately. I could buy Microsoft, but once I figured out what I was doing with what I had, I didn't want to take the time to learn anything new. I'd entered in this contest before so I knew I could if I figured out what I needed to do. After hours of trying, finally the manuscript was accepted, but the form didn't think my pitch was right. I cut and copied the same pitch again and clicked save. That did it.
Last year, I received two reviews from the judges based on the first 5000 words. One judge was very complimentary about my original idea. The other pointed out my piece was poorly written with grammatical errors which didn't surprise me since the story was no way near ready to turn in. That was the review that was the most helpful. I took the review to heart and went over my story to clean it up before I published it. I'm hoping this year's entry is in better shape, but no matter what, I'm looking forward to the expert reviews if they do that again.
Now I'm working on short stories for the writing contest that is due the last of April. That gives me plenty of time to tighten the stories up to fit the word criteria and theme. I have some luck in those contests, but even if I didn't to compete with other writers is fun.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)