Comments for Tom Andry

Comment on On Marketing Your Book on the Internet by Tom

Tom — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:48:35 +0000

Thanks for the information Joseph. The Virtual Book Tour has been something I’ve toyed with doing but it just seems like so much work. Writing more books really seems to be the best thing (IMO) and, I have to agree, it is the most fun.

Comment on On Marketing Your Book on the Internet by Joseph Garraty

Joseph Garraty — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:33:54 +0000

>If you can get this to work for you, let me know. I haven’t bothered. Virtual Book Tours sound exhausting, but I’m sure they can work.

I did one of these, using a fairly prominent company to help coordinate it. I wrote well over 20,000 words in interviews and guest posts, got a bunch of enthusiastic reviews–and generated f**k-all for sales. Overall, it seemed to fall under the heading of “publicity” rather than direct sales, and I thought it was just about worthless. Worse, that 20,000 words worth of interviews and disparate topics in which I was desperately trying to be clever probably cost me 40,000 words of finished novel in terms of opportunity. Live and learn, I guess.

Book bloggers and review sites have been very good to me, and that seems like a pretty good time investment.

Everything I’ve read about social media seems to match what you’ve written here–a heavy Twitter, Facebook, and blog presence seems to have no correlation to sales whatsoever. That suits me fine, since I don’t use Facebook at all, and I’d like to keep it that way if possible.

I’ve found some direct advertising that works (but costs), and otherwise my approach has been: Write More Books. That’s more fun anyway.

Comment on You are not J.A. Konrath (Neither am I) by Tom

Tom — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:31:07 +0000

Marketing is actually the subject of my next post. For the self-pubbed writer it is a huge time suck. I, personally, hate it. My only concern with the smaller (or any really) publishing houses is the amount of help you are actually going to get. According to what I've read, new authors often are doing much of the marketing themselves even in the big houses. If someone said to me, "I'll do X, Y, and Z to help you market/sell your book for N% of the sales," I'd seriously consider it. As long as, in my mind, X+Y+Z>$N (ooh, math!). But, if L.J. Smith has taught us anything, get it in writing and READ the contract carefully.

Comment on You are not J.A. Konrath (Neither am I) by Dominic M Pileri

Dominic M Pileri — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:05:34 +0000

That was an excellent summary. Well written. One question: what is your take on small time press companies that seem to combine self-publishing with the traditional practices? They print on demand, but the writer doesn’t pay into the system. I am toying with the idea of going small, so I have a partner to help me market. Which eludes to the other massive constraint of self-publishing: time. I still have to work my full time job.

Comment on Smashwords: A Review by Tom

Tom — Tue, 01 May 2012 23:59:59 +0000

That’s a good point and well taken. I’ve heard that as well.

Comment on Smashwords: A Review by Chaz

Chaz — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:44:32 +0000

Smashwords is okay as long as it doesn’t need to actually monitor it’s distributors (such as Sony). Putting your eBooks out there is easy. Recalling them is almost impossible. I caution anyone considering smashwords to proceed with the understanding smashwords works in one direction only – to put material out there. It neither maintains nor effectively recalls material. I can’t get them to remove my books from Sony so I can take advantage of Kindle Select rentals. Beware.

Comment on Smashwords: A Review by Tom

Tom — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:46:51 +0000

Just got my payment a few minutes ago. Hopefully you’ll get yours soon.

Comment on Smashwords: A Review by Tom

Tom — Tue, 01 May 2012 06:21:08 +0000

Gary,

You know, I can’t say. I know I got one payment from Smashwords but I don’t know how timely it was. Amazon and B&N are pretty good at paying though. I think Apples waits until you have at least $100 of sales before they’ll cut you a check.

Comment on Smashwords: A Review by Gary

Gary — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:28:29 +0000

I’ve been with Smashwords for a while and getting an eBook Premium is a pain. I’m expecting some royalties to come but haven’t seen payment distributed yet. They state they pay on month after each quarter. It’s now the last day of April 2012 and I still haven’t seen my payment being distributed. What’s other people experience with getting paid from Smashwords?

Comment on On Predictability by Pat

Pat — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:40:57 +0000

While there certainly are a few twists in Desperate Times, I didn’t feel that any of them were M Night caliber, and that is a good thing. Those get old real fast. Which is why I think I have only seen two M Night movies. I liked the first, saw the second and thought, “well that is basically the same thing,” and have not felt the need to go back.

The twist I liked the best in Desperate Times was Khan’s situation at the beginning. In part because if the reader has not read No Hero, you don’t see it as a twist at all, but you also don’t lose much either. The two books work extremely well together, but still stand alone…