On Self-Publishing And Stuff I Did Wrong And What I Will Do Next Time

To be clear, I am not an expert on self-publishing. I did self-publish a novel. I did read a bunch of articles about self-publishing. I do have friends at work who have self-published and gave me some tips. I know some of the mistakes I clearly made, and I know what I’m going to do next time.

However, the disclaimer still stands. I am not an expert on self-publishing and won’t consider myself to be one until I’ve sold 50,000 books, which seems to be a bit of a magical line. Go over that line, and agents begin to seek you out and not the other way around. At least that’s what some self-publishing authors say.

Here are the stats for Luke…
• Went on sale on Amazon (e-book and physical copy) on June 27, 2013
• It has sold 36 e-books and 1 physical book.
• During the 5-day free promotion on Amazon, it was downloaded 571 times.
• There are three reviews for it, all 5-stars. Interestingly, only one of them mentioned Star Wars. The other two seemed to like it on its own as a crime story.
• Kirkus Reviews gave it a positive review.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/aaron-d-cohen/luke/

So anyway, on with the lessons…

1. Follow the magic link.

This link will give you great advice and links to some great services…
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2013/02/how-to-sell-ebooks.html

The guy has sold a ton of e-books and knows what he is talking about. He is also a very good genre writer.

2. Finish your book.

Nothing happens until you get to THE END. Get there. My technique was 250 words a day, with 1,000 words a day on Saturday and Sunday. It’s okay to write badly. You can re-write. It’s okay to write slowly.
You’ll get faster. But you have to write and you have to finish.

3. Pay for an editor.

Family and friends are unreliable critics and even worse editors. The best way to get good feedback and editing is to pay for it. I paid a friend who also happens to be a great writer $10 an hour to edit the 90,000 words of Luke. Cost me $600. Worth every dime. A line-by-line read from a talented story teller, who is getting paid to make your book better, will make your book way, way better than you ever thought it could be.

4. Once a polished draft is done, pay for a second editor.

Your first editor is going to read it too many times to be able to copy edit the final version, especially if you’ve re-written large chunks of it.  Pay for a copy editor before you publish. You can find copy editing services at…

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author-services/editorial/services/

And at…

http://www.writersdigestshop.com/author-service-center?lid=wdnav2nddraft

That was a mistake I made. My novel has typos that readers have found and I’m embarrassed by every one of them. So I’m doing a fresh copy edit by a pro and will re-publish in September.

5. Publish via Createspace.

https://www.createspace.com/

Createspace is an Amazon company but when you publish with them, the physical copy of your book also goes on sale at Barnesandnoble.com.

CS is incredibly easy to use. They print physical books, and they will publish the e-book version on Amazon.

6. Pay for a good cover

I paid $500 for my book cover, and the artist also did thumbnails and web banners. This is the guy I used…
http://damonza.com/

People really do respond to covers. Mine turned out pretty well. It looks like a real book. All of the self-published books that sell have professionally designed covers.

7. DO NOT pay for formatting

I paid $200 for formatting and regret it. I could have done it myself. Createspace and Kindle Direct Publishing handle Word docs just fine. What I will do next time is tidy up my Word doc myself.

8. Pay for a professional review, which, by the way, might be negative, even though you paid for it.

Getting a professional reviewers stamp of approval will give you credibility with your audience and with anyone who might be interested in acquiring the rights to your book. My review is here…

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/aaron-d-cohen/luke/

There are other services that do reviews, but I did Kirkus because they are 100% legit. Readers go to that site like movie fans go to Rottentomatoes.com.

9. Self promote via a blog, Twitter and Facebook.

I’m falling down on the job here. I just am not interested in promoting myself and finding something fun to post daily. I’d rather be working on my next novel.

However, the self-published authors who do well take self-promotion seriously. They build up a fan base and interact with them constantly. Here is just one example…

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laury-Falter/196033543803745?ref=hl

This girl is working it!

Here is my lame blog…

http://107booksread.blogspot.com/

And my lame FB page for Luke…

https://www.facebook.com/LukeANovel

Here is my extra lame Twitter feed…

https://twitter.com/107Reader

I should be publishing something every day and working it, turning one reader into two and two into four, and so on. I’m not doing that. I’m working and writing my next novel.

10. DO NOT publish the entire book all at once. (I think. This is an experimental one.)
This is what I’m going to do next time…I’m going to break the novel up into 7-10 chunks, and sell the chunks (about for 99 cents apiece). Then I’ll publish the entire thing for $4.99.

Here is why…

Everything in Amazon works off of algorithms. The more you ping the formula’s the better. More pings equals more inclusions in the “if you bought this then you might like that” lists. That means one person buying three of your small novel chunks is more powerful than one person buying your entire novel.

That does means writing to the story breaks, creating cliffhangers, which can feel manipulative. But what the hell? That what fiction is supposed to do, manipulate you into feeling something.

11. Do some PR, and pay for it.

I paid http://authorslargeandsmall.wordpress.com/ $200 as an experiment. They promised to do PR for me and get me noticed in some lit blogs. They got me interviewed in one blog, and I should be getting reviewed in a few other blogs. Not so bad for $200. I might see a profit from that one day.

12. Don’t pay for ads.

I spent $500 on Google Adwords. I wanted to do something to get some sales going. I got about 20 copies sold. Not a good investment.

13. The keys seem to be…

-Write good stuff (professional editors are key)
- Publish a lot (Thus, my strategy of serializing my next book.)
- Get good reviews. (I have no doubt that whatever I’ve sold, I’ve sold because when people click to go to my Amazon page, they see three five-star reviews.)
- Have great cover art.
- Leverage PR to get noticed in independent lit blogs.
- Self-promote, self-promote, self-promote.

I am not good at self-promotion, but I’m sure it’s effective when done well. I have found the PR bit to be fun, but am waiting for some sales results to show up. The first four seem to be absolutely mandatory for any kind of success.

There you go! That’s all I know. I will keep you updated on any experiments that show promise. I am paying a good amount of advertising on Kirkus Reviews this October. That might move the needle a bit.

Cheers!

Interview posted on The Dan O'Brien Project

The Dan O'Brien Project was nice enough to interview me about Luke and various other bits...

http://thedanobrienproject.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-ten-spot-meet-aaron-cohen.html

If you are a reader or a writer, you should check out his blog. He updates it daily (unlike some blogs I know of), and had some great interviews with interesting writers.

Happy three-day weekend!

Starring Marisa Tomei as Leanne

I always pictured Marisa Tomei as Leanne. This is what she was thinking in Chapter 22...

Be strong, Leanne. You are a bad ass bitch and you will beat them. Don’t let them see any cracks. You are in control. Focus. Be here now. Be whole now. There is only now.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DOMWB6M

First 5-star Amazon review: 50 Shades + Star Wars + Carl Hiaasen = Luke

This was the first review of Luke posted on Amazon. This lovely person will always have my undying gratitude, whom ever she is...

The 5-star review:

Tons of fun. Carl Hiaasen meets Star Wars meets 50 Shades of Gray meets Elmore Leonard. It's not much of a spoiler to let you know this a sexed-up parody of Star Wars, set in Las Vegas, as you'll figure that out quite quickly.

The Death Star is now the Dark Star, a new 10,000 room brothel that will monopolize the sex industry in Nevada and practically enslave its workers. Darth Vadar is David Vaddio, the force behind the Dark Star. Obi-Wan appears as a retired mobster who lives by The Code. My favorite re-imagining is probably the Millennium Falcon as an RV, but Chewbacca as a mute who shares his thoughts in a journal is a close second.

It's a quick read. It does a great job of engrossing you in a new story, while eliciting chuckles at Star Wars moments.

Al and Leanne do not look alike

From Chapter 22

It is hard to believe that Al is Leanne’s father. Leanne is beautiful. Even on the hastily taped video message, she is drop dead gorgeous. Al is not. Ugly doesn’t quite apply, because the guy smiles so much it somehow counteracts his big, lumpy nose, his oversized ears, his bulbous, insect-like eyes, his bumpy complexion, and the absence of any trace of a chin. He looks like the offspring of a fly and a gorilla. How he could have fathered Leanne is a mystery to Luke.

But what a nice guy! Luke had been expecting a smarmy, abusive, womanizing brute. Instead, Al turned out to be friendly, jovial, always grinning, and caring. He asked about not just Leanne, but also Luke’s aunt and uncle, and Luke himself. Al had promised to help in any way he could. After talking to Al, Luke felt for the first time in a while that things might turn out okay.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DOMWB6M

Three five-star reviews on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Luke-ebook/dp/B00DOMWB6M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376709038&sr=8-1&keywords=luke+aaron+cohen

I now have three five star reviews. Woohoo! I can't you how good that feels. Entertain even that many people is somehow a rush and makes me want to do it again.

Writing of the next novel has begun,.

Kirkus Review Says Luke Is "Hilarious" And "A Page-Turning Adventure"

I'd been waiting for the Kirkus review to come in for almost two months. I was ready for the reviewer to hate it. I had to be mentally prepared for a bad review.

Turns out, I didn't have to do that. The reviewer liked it. He (or she) really liked it!

Here it is...

LUKE

Cohen, Aaron D.

$14.99 paperback, $2.99 e-book

BOOK REVIEW

Cohen’s debut, a reimagining of Star Wars set in the underworld of Las Vegas, is a page-turning adventure full of allusions for fans of the movie series.

What if, instead of battling “in a galaxy far, far away,” Luke went on his Jedi journey in the sands of Nevada and did battle with the vicious Empire Gaming instead of the Empire? 

Cohen’s novel gives the answer: It trades light sabers and blasters for brass knuckles and .38s, “the Force” for the Code, and Stormtroopers for suit-wearing thugs who complain about wearing jackets in the desert heat. Instead of Princess Leia, there’s Leanne—a beautiful madam fighting to protect the rights of the prostitutes who work for her. Artie, a code-cracking little person, plays R2-D2; the lecherous, smooth-talking Cecil is C-3PO. Darth Vader? He’s David, a monstrous former wise guy who suffers from asthma. Luke is still Luke, but in this incarnation, he has an unstoppable sex drive and an unfortunate penchant for getting beaten up.

The rest of the cast is here as well, including the drug-running war vet Hank (Han Solo) and his growling, tongueless Samoan sidekick Charlie (Chewie). As in the movie, the characters do their best to stop an evil empire, but instead of saving planets, they’re protecting strip clubs, adult bookstores and other Vegas outposts. Empire’s plan is to legally outlaw pole dancing and limit prostitution to hotels with 10,000 or more rooms. It just so happens that it owns the Dark Star, the only establishment that meets the criteria. Cohen’s writing is crisp, and his dialogue snappy. Seeing elements of the classic space adventure adapted to Sin City is often hilariously entertaining. The novel sticks closely to the source material but deviates enough to maintain interest. While the plot begins to slow toward the end, Cohen’s writing holds the tension, while also preparing for possible sequels.

Delivers action and laughs with its memorable characters and dialogue, despite a dip in momentum before the finish.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/aaron-d-cohen/luke/

Review Luke - Get Any Kindle Book For Free

Let’s try something crazy…

I think I’ve written a pretty good book, the kind of book I would like to read. People who I trust have read it, given a lot of feedback, and say they like it. I’ve read it many, many times, and I like it. If I didn’t, it would still be collecting dust somewhere in my hard drive.

In order to sell this book, I’m told I need get reviews on Amazon. I’m told that only 1 out of every 200-300 purchases results in a review. I’ve sold 21 copies.

I’m also told that’s not bad for an unknown author self-publishing on Kindle for the first time. Still, I’d like to do better.

I’ve tried the common tactic of offering a free signed copy of the paper book version in exchange for proof of an Amazon review. That has not worked. I still have only the one review. It is a five-star review, and bless the soul that wrote it, but that review alone isn’t going to do the trick.

So let’s try something…

I am willing to send the first 10 people who write reviews of Luke a Kindle book of their choice (up to a $14.99 value). Here is how it will work...

1. You buy, read and review Luke. It’s got to be an honest review of the entire novel. No reading a few pages and throwing down a three word sentence. The review must be 300 words or more.

2. Write me at 107reader@gmail.com. Tell me the name the review is under and the text of the review. Also, tell me the book you want. The new Dan Brown? The new Grisham? 50 Shades? Ulysses? Whatever you want. I will gift it to you through the Amazon gifting system. You’ll get your gift in your email box.

3. AND! If you want a signed copy of the paperbook version, I’ll give you one of those too. Just put your mailing address in the email.

I will do this for the first ten reviews I get. After that, I’ll figure out if it’s worth continuing.

So there you go! That’s the deal. Make sense? Let me know!

Luke is on sale here... http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DOMWB6M

Cheers,

Aaron

Interview with myself...So, About Darth and David...What Gives?

Q: Okay, so David is Darth Vader. However, David is a perverted sociopath. Vader is a military genius who just happens to need an exo-suit to survive. Isn’t David just a bit too dark and violent?

A: Are you out of your mind? My David is a pussycat compared to Darth Vader. About 30 minutes into the Star Wars, Vader destroys an entire planet, just to prove a point. Ask the citizens of Alderaan if Darth is more or less evil than a CEO with a murderous streak. By my count, David has killed 10 maybe 20 guys. Darth kills several million in the first movie alone.

Q: Wow, I never thought about that.

A: Well think about this. At the end of Jedi, the scumbag, genocidal Darth gets redemption and his ghost gets to hang out with the ghosts of Ben and Yoda. It’s bullshit. That bastard should be in the same circle of Hell with Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot. I don’t care that he killed he emperor. That one good deed does not make up for killing an entire fucking plant. So, sorry Vader fans, Darth is a rat bastard and deserves no slack because he got dipped in lava and abandoned by his friends. (Though, that was pretty messed up.)

Interview With Myself - Why is Luke is NC-17?

Q: And another thing. Star Wars was written for 13-year-old boys. "Luke" has a couple graphic sex scenes and a ton of sexual references. What is he matter with you?

A: Luke is not written for 13-year-old boys. It is written for adults who might have fallen in love with Star Wars at 13, but still love it today. I wrote it for me, kind of. There was no bigger Star Wars fan growing up than me. These days I’m an adult, have lived a varied and interesting life, and so my taste in entertainment has matured. I like dark stories, challenging stories, and artistic stories. With Luke, I tried to combine these two things I love, Star Wars and gritty, funny, dark crime noir tales.

Q: Is that your excuse for the dirty parts? You consider yourself an artist?

A: Yes.

Q: What’s next? You going to turn “The Cat In The Hat” into a story about a male stripper with a taste in quirky headgear who deals heroin door-to-door?

A: I thought of that. So don’t tempt me. I could do it. It would rhyme and everything.

Get a signed copy of Luke for free!

Want a signed trade paperback version of Luke? 

Just read it, and write an Amazon review. Send me the screenshot of the review and your address to 107reader@gmail.com. 

Do that, and I will send you a signed copy! And one day, you'll be able to give it to your grandkids and explain to them that books were once printed on paper.

(While supplies last. I have ten copies.)

Interview With Myself - Part 2 - I Am Not James Joyce

Q: Are you saying you're worthy to even mention James Joyce when discussing something you wrote?

A: Don’t be a dick about it. I never said I was James Joyce. What I am saying is that I was inspired by Ulysses. I was fascinated with the idea of telling the story of a common man while using the same structure as an epic filled with bigger-than-life heroes.

Q: But you didn’t write that book. I’ve read Luke. It isn’t about the humdrum life of the common man. It’s a crime story with action scenes, car chases, sex, BDSM, and pot jokes. Did you fail in your goal?

A: Do you have to be so negative? Look, my first attempt to write a Ulysses was a failure because it was boring. No one wants to read about a guy's day-to-day routine of going to meaningless meetings and staring at a computer screen. It was too painful to write, much less to read. Going the crime story route turned out to be much more interesting.

Interview with myself - Part One

Q: What is Luke?

A: Luke is a parody of Star Wars. But it isn’t silly. It is crime story with bits of dark humor in same vein as Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiaasen. Parodies don’t have to be goofy. What parodies do is make a statement about the source material.

Q: What are you saying about Star Wars then?

A: I’m saying this is the modern worlds Odyssey and Luke is our Ulysses. He is the hero who takes the journey and arrives at his destination a changed man, a hero, scarred, wiser but better than he was.

LUKE - Now on Sale

So after a bunch of stops and starts, I final finished my novel. It is called Luke. This is what it looks like...

It is now on sale at Amazon. You can buy a Kindle version or a print version.

Want a free signed copy of the trade paperback version?

If you write a review of it, send a screenshot of the review and your mailing address to 107reader@gmail.com. Do that, and I will mail you a signed copy!

(While supplies last.)

Here is the link to buy it...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DOMWB6M

Let me know what you think! Thanks much.

Loose ends wrapped up

Hello Readers!

So before I launch back into my detailing what I’m reading and how it is teaching me about how to wrote (or how not to write), let’s talk about some books I have skipped over and take care of some old business.

First off, 1Q84…holy shit, what a letdown. At halfway through, I wrote glowing praise of a book I was in love with. It was weird, clever, filled with interesting people and had a cool vibe. Remember Twin Peaks? 

The first season? It was like that. Then, well, remember the second season of Twin Peaks? It got like that, directionless, confused, and ultimately pointless.

I think 1Q84 and TP had the same problem. Their creators were able to create a compelling mystery wrapped in a surreal atmosphere where it seemed like anything was possible.

The problem comes in the third act, when a writer needs to start answer questions and executing his end game moves. If you don’t know the rules of the game you invented, then you have no shot at resolving things in a way that makes any sense.

With 1Q84, things spin away with no clear answers or anything that makes me think the author knew what the rules of his universe were. Once the fictional universe loses its story logic, the suspension of disbelief is broken and the book becomes no fun anymore. The mystery isn’t a mystery; it’s just a jumble of scenes that feel like a mystery, but it’s nothing, just air and leaves you unsatisfied.

So then I took a break from reading, and did a bunch of writing. Somewhere in there I read A Dance With Dragons, Book 5 of the A Song of Ice and Fire. You might also know it as the basis of HBO’s A Game of Thrones.

Look, Books 1, 2 and 3 are classics. You will not find a better read in any genre. Forget that it’s fantasy complete with men in tights and magic swords. These stories are rich, meaty and delicious.

Book 4, however, was a long slog. Everyone was going somewhere, but no one seemed to get anywhere. It was also filled with all the least favorite characters.

Book 5 was better, but still not up to the pinnacle of Book 3.

What did I learn from Book 5? I suppose I learned about making your characters suffer. Martin piles on the pain, the humiliation, and the indignity. The likeable characters get the worst treatment, but then again, the most evil characters get more than their share of hell as well.  There isn’t one moment of happiness in the entire book, and I can barely put it down.

Don’t be nice to your characters, not until the very end, and even then, perhaps not.

Then I happily moved over to the new John Grisham, The Racketeer.

Reading JG is normally a solid lesson in how to write a crime thriller. He isn’t flashy, but his books always do the job and with an almost elegant efficiency. I’ll say it again, The Firm is a masterpiece in genre fiction writing.

The Racketeer, not so much.  The first half works. We learn all about a wrongly accused man, and we get to see him negotiate his way out of prison.

Then the guy launches into a long involved revenge sting that makes less sense the more I think about it. I’m not going to get into it. It’s boring. And disappointing. It’s also weird that of all the JG books to get good reviews, it this one. I have no idea why. It is my least favorite Grisham ever.

So now I’m onto Fifty Shades of Gray. It’s a lot more fun than I’d thought it be. More on that one soon.

Cheers,

The 107 Reader

My Triumphant Return

Hello readers, I’m sure all one of you has been anxiously awaiting my return. Your prayers have been answered. I am back.

Where have I been? Where haven’t I been!

I’ve worked a lot, I’ve traveled a bit, I ran marathon, and oh yes, I wrote a book.

Yes, I know, I said I wouldn’t do that until I reads 107 books and wrote up my thoughts and lessons here on this blog. Well, funny story…

I started noodling around with the book, and I wrote a bit here and there, and then more, and then more, and then I was pretty much like fuck it, I’m going to finish it.

I cranked out 250 to 1,000 words a day, stuck to the outline, worked through some sticky plot issues, took a few unexpected artistic side paths that seemed like a good idea at the time (and it turns out, maybe they weren’t such good paths), and eventually, boom, I reached THE END.

I didn’t smoke a cigar or get drunk, or really celebrate in anyway. Instead, I went back, and read the thing from the beginning, going over pages I hadn’t seen for a couple years (I started the things a long, long time ago, Dec, 2010, to be specific).

Strange thing about finishing a novel, you don’t know if it good or not. As I read the thing with fairly fresh eyes, some parts seemed good, some pretty bad, some somewhere in between. My final impression was that maybe I was on to something. There was something there that someone out there somewhere would pay to read, and be happy they did so.

So, I signed up for a couple of internet writers groups, Litreactor and Scribophile, both excellent in their own right. If you want feedback on your writing, I recommend signing up to either.

I signed up for Litreactor first, submitted Chapter One, and got three detailed bits of feedback after a few days, really good feedback. Having strangers give you unfiltered opinions will make your work better, but also leave bruises. Stuff you liked will get dinged, and stuff you didn’t think was so great will be cited as the good bits.

I was so happy with Litreactor, and how much those readers helped me make the first two chapters better, that I signed up for a second group, Scribophile. I also received great feedback there, also helpful.

My plan was to run a chapter through Litreactor, then after polishing it up, run it through Scribophile for a final tune up. Great plan! Except…It was stupid.

The way these sites is work is that you have to read and critique others’ works, getting points each time you do. On average, give or take, you need to read about five other things to be able to post one of your things.

With Litreactor, you don’t get your karma points until the person you critiqued acknowledges your feedback and rates you from great to good to blah. Great gets 3 points, the next gets 2, and the lowest gets one.

Most of the time, readers give you three points if you put in a fair effort to give useful feedback. However, a few time I got two points, which annoyed me to no end. I didn’t want to have to write more critiques. I just wanted publish my work and hear what others had to say.

Then there were the times when writers would takes days to give me my review credit. So frustrating. Especially after I read a 10,000 word piece that was kind of blah, not horrible, but definitely work to read. For that I guy, I had to wait three days for my points, and then, when he didn’t finally give me credit, it was just for two points. I wanted to strangle the guy.

Over on Scribophile, you get point per word you right. The writer can give extra credit if he chooses, but you always get your points, which is the big plus with Scribophile.

I probably should just stick with Scribophile, but I’m torn because I really like the crowd over on Litreactor. They are weird, writing more experimental, edgy stuff. The Scrib folks are more mainstream, more commercial, more trying to write the next Twilight or Hunger Games or be the next Grisham.

So, burned out on writing websites, I hatched another plan. This is pretty much what I’m doing now…

1.       Do one more read through, making a version four. (And boy, let me tell you, the fourth time you read your book, it sucks. Everything sucks. Nothing seems good anymore. I hope it’s not as bad as it seems right now.)

2.       Have a guy I know at work read it, a guy who is paid to write things for a living, and get his feedback. I’m going to pay him, because he is performing a valuable service for me. It is not just a favor I’m asking for. It’s 10-20 hours of work.

3.       Use Writer’s Digest writing services. For $4 a page, they will have a copy editor of a line-by-line edit. Expensive? Yes! Ah well. Whatever it takes. I will learn a lot.

4.       Then, ready or not, I’m going to publish it on Amazon Kindle. If it gets any kind of positive response at all, I’m going to invest in some marketing, maybe a few small ads in places like the New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly.

I’ve got an idea for my next novel. It’s a pretty good one. It could maybe even be a series. Maybe even be published by an actual publisher.

But we will see. First things first.