Need help with your book? These tips should help!

As an author, you can never stop learning or bettering yourself if you want to succeed. I'm glad I'm inspiring others to write and for those of you struggling, here are some helpful tips that might help. If they did, please leave a comment below.

Create the world first. Who are the bad guys? Who are the good guys? Who's in the middle? Where are they? Where do they need to go? What are their goals/motivations?

Everybody does something for a reason.  By creating the world/environment you are setting the stage for how the actors/heroes/villains act. Then just go with the flow.

The bad guy and good guy must be equally matched or on their way to getting there. They can have different powers that cancel each other out, leaving the hero to use something the bad guy doesn't have (kindness?)

If you have to go one sentence at a time, then go for it. Make it the best sentence possible with the least amount of words. Trust me, this will save you time down the road and it's something all authors must do.

Write for you. Write what makes you happy. Don't write what you think others want to read or what's trending. JK Rowling showed the world a boy wizard, who most never knew. Now there are a ton of boy wizards books.

Make the time to write. You have to force yourself or you will most likely procrastinate.

Enjoy what you're doing. If you're not having fun, trust me the readers will know. If you have to walk away, take a break, go for it. Sometimes if you get stuck somewhere, leaving and doing something else will often reset your brain to flow again.

Hope these tips helped. Have a happy and successful new year! :-)

Steven W.

One of the greatest feelings...

Is to see people buying your book, almost on a daily basis. Amazon gives you a means to keep track of your sales whenever you want. It's been almost 3 months since I first launched my book Got Ghosts and for some reason people are buying it like crazy, even long after Halloween. I figured once Halloween came and went the sales would plummet. Instead, they are rocketing upwards. To put it into perspective...

I launched my book on Sept 19th, 2012 so there was about 2 weeks left in the month. Amazon gave me a check for $16 bucks for 8 sales.

Readers Note: Amazon pays you 2 months from the end of the month. Since I started late September, my first check for $16 bucks got deposited at the end of November, my October sales ~ I get paid end of Dec, etc. I sell my book at $2.99 ~ Amazon keeps .99 cents for every sale so I make about $2 bucks per sale. (Woo Hoo!)

For all the books I sold in October - Amazon will give me a check for $54 bucks

For all the books I sold in November - Amazon will give me a check for $104 bucks!

See a trend here?

I'm already at $50 bucks on the 15th of December.

I was debating if a book like that would sell and it looks like people like it. One way I can tell is that the Refunds section is left alone (no one asked Amazon for a refund - Yay!) Since I have a bunch of other emails that weren't released, I'm going to put them in a follow up book called Got Ghosts 2 - More stories of real paranormal activity. Since I'm a digital artist and photographer I can design my own book covers so this is going to be the official cover:

Pretty spiffy huh? I'm saving $200 to $500 bucks by doing it myself. However, unless your pretty good like me, a book cover can make or break your sales. For example, I have my second book out - The Journey of Anica Storm and it's not selling like I had hoped. It's either the description or the eBook cover that isn't sealing the deal so I went on www.fiverr.com and hired someone who has a BA in writing to write up a description for me. That will help. 

I'm also going to go do a specific photo shoot with my best friend so I can make a new cover for my Anica Storm book. The nice thing about eBooks is that you can tweak and change things all you want. So I'm not doing so hot on sales, I'm going to tweak a few things and guess what? If I'm right, I'm going to start noticing results. Right now, I'm at 5 sales for the month of December. So next time we speak, I hope to have some news for you. Until then...

Stay Crunchy, even in milk.

Steven W.

Why You WANT To Have A Mailing List On Your Site

I'm happy to report that I got my first customer (someone I don't know) who wanted to be on the mailing list to remind them when the follow up of my book Got Ghosts? Real Stories of Paranormal Activity comes out. It feels pretty good to have a complete stranger not only enjoy my work but want to be notified when there's more. It's very inspirational and motivating to know people like your work and want more. Imagine hundreds, if not thousands of these requests. It will happen, just give it time and treat your customers well. For me, this is my first but still it's a small step in the right direction.

This is why it's important to give people the means to contact you on your website. When people want to be notified, you're not spamming them, you're giving them what they want and they are giving you a guaranteed sale. If you have 10 books out, they are probably going to buy your 10 books and the 11th one when it comes out too, because they've made a connection with you. They like your style and work.

Treasure these emails and customers and reward them with special offers, discounts or exclusive things as your way of thanking them for giving you the time of day. There are thousands of other authors out there, but they chose you. Respect that and you'll go far.

Steven W.

Biting The Hand That Feeds You - Amazon Hurts Indie Authors By Pulling Reviews

John Locke admitted paying $3000 bucks for 300 five Star reviews on his books. This propelled him to the top of the charts and he made a little over a million bucks in five months.

He even wrote about it in a book called just that How I sold a million ebooks in 5 months, but having read the book cover to virtual cover, he neglected to mention that part.

When other authors caught wind of this, there were some heated discussions over ethics, practices, and what's right and wrong.

The term "sock puppets" derived from authors (and others) creating fake accounts and leaving positive reviews for themselves. Some even took it a step further and left negative one star reviews against other authors they don't like. 

In an effort to control "sock puppets" Amazon.com created a filtering system that is hurting more than its helping. Strict algorithms are intercepting and deleting reviews before the see light of day. I know because I have 4 unaccounted for reviews from customers who bought my book Got Ghosts? Real Stories of Paranormal Activity. Hundreds more are reporting the same.

As a new author, I depend on every honest review I get. If people write a long review and Amazon is just going to delete it, guess what? People are going to stop leaving reviews. If anything I think it only encourages people to leave "sock puppet" reviews because Amazon is denying the legitimate ones from being posted.

This knee-jerk reaction is like killing an ant with an atomic bomb because you have a few bad users. You don't level the playing field without the means to justify yourself. 

Here's an idea Amazon... If you delete it, say why or give the author or reviewer a chance to prove it by adding a capcha or means of proving you're a human and legitimately bought the book (or what ever item you're reviewing). Have them submit a picture or order number that your algorithms can verify. 

You're biting the hand that feeds you. Yes its your site, your rules, but if you piss off enough authors, guess what? There's Barnes & Nobles, Sony, Apple, Kobo and a few others who may treat us better. I'm just sayin' 

Steven Wolff

The Great Stephen C. Ormsby interviews Steven Wolff :-)

http://stephenormsby.wordpress.com/2012/11/02/author-interview-steven-wolff-paranormal-writer/

I am honored that Stephen Ormsby took the time and consideration to be the first author to interview me at the beginning of my writing career. Please click his link above to read the interview and share this with your friends.

Steven W.

The Journey of Anica Storm - Part 2 is complete!

I'm happy to say that part 2 of my 3 part series (book 1) The Journey of Anica Storm is complete! It's going to be polished and formatted to be a eBook. I need to make a title for this one and part 1 as well. This is exciting news and my goal is to have book 1 - The Journey of Anica Storm complete by the end of November 2012! Wish me luck! Check back here and I'll keep you posted on the details.

:-)

This Sh*t Is Hard Work!!!

While anyone can slap some words together, add a pic for a book cover and upload to Amazon, there's nothing to fear from those who are career authors.

I say that because if you really are serious about becoming an author, there's a ton of things you need to do on top of getting your story down on paper (virtual or not) and that's already a feat in and of itself!

Example... say you get your book uploaded, like I said in my last post, most new books are invisible to the world. I could have the best story, editing and cover and no one would ever know.

Like a diamond in the ground, it's up to you to promote yourself like crazy in order for people to see your true beauty otherwise it'll just sit there.

One way to get yourself known is by adding a link to your email signature so you give potential readers a chance to find you. Write a blog, update a Facebook page with news of what you're doing.

Use Twitter and the search bar to find other authors... they will promote you if you promote them. They are not your competition, they are your ally. Trust me...

But how?!?

Because #Readers will often browse through an authors following list to find other authors. I know because over two weeks ago I had 65 followers. I'm now at 1,006 followers. The only thing I did was add the word Author to my last name.

#Readers enjoy discovering other authors similar to their favorites in hopes of finding one equal if not better to entertain them.

My ex-girlfriend was an avid reader, sometimes taking home a dozen books from our local library that she would read front to back in no time and want more! I honestly didn't think the library had enough new books to keep her busy.

Point being - there are hungry readers out there who will probably give your work a shot AND if they like it, they will join your team by promoting you to their friends, family & probably tweet or blog (because in this day and age, word travels fast... good or bad.)

That being said, there is a certain level of criteria you have to meet, set by the publishers of old. That is, you must have your spelling, grammar, sentence structure, plot, and characters all in order or they will potentially unleash the Criken on your ass! This can be in the form of bad reviews, videos, blog posts, etc.

So like I said, not only do you have to write, you have to please your audience by giving them something they like, hopefully original enough -(most stories or ideas someone, somewhere came up with. The more original and entertaining you can be, the better your odds of being discovered.)

Remember, if you can do that just by itself, then readers will go up to bat for you and also help promote you. That's one of the incredible things about the net... if you release it to the world, it takes on a life of its own. Fans will email you, fan fiction may pop up with your characters you created (which can be a good or bad thing.)

Oh, and you can't just spam your book like crazy either because that will backfire on you as well. There's a very fine line to walk.

That's why I'm saying this shit is hard because if you really want to be good and succeed, you need to play by the rules other successful authors are following. Study them, read lots of blogs, ASK QUESTIONS and know who your target audience is.

They are the ones you are writing for. Is your vampire zombie hybrid cross dressing werewolf written for conservative seniors or for young adults between 18 and 35 who like Twilight? Know what they like and write about it.

To sum up everything... to do this right requires dedication and unbelievable commitment of your free time and mental energy.

On top of that, you can't just give people one good book... you've got to plan on a second book because statistically you will get more sales if you have more books.

People who like you are most likely going t buy your other works because you've established trust and now a BRAND. This also takes time and effort.

So I'm not trying to discourage anyone, I'm sharing what I've discovered on my journey one month in now. To do it right, its going to be a while.

I welcome your comments if you'd like to add to this.

Steven W.