| Author | Message | ||
     Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
And Zed, how come you didn't think up ZOMBIE PUNTER? http://www.novelr.com/2011/02/27/rich-indie-writer | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.134.154 |
Craig - why aren't people hearing you? This has shaken up my day. It's the future, folks, and nobody loses. If you're destined to be published proper it will come of being seen this way, and in the meantime people are reading you and you're tasting some money. http://www.ehow.com/how_5740131_sell-ebook-amazon_s-kindle.html | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.134.154 |
The big clue to selling is in these titles. They pique the curiosity. Val Lewton was right, or lucky. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Tony - let's keep it our little secret - and rake in all the cash ourselves....  Meanwhile, I'm torn between calling my latest novel BLOODY BLOOD BLOODLETTING or THE SUPER SULTRY ANGST-RIDDEN TWENTYSOMETHING VAMPIRES WHO WERE HIGHLY ATTRACTIVE BUT NON-THREATENINGLY EROTIC | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.134.154 |
Hey! Just emailed you! And last week, you mutha. You write nice, wallowy emails. (I won't tell anyone else, though.) | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.134.154 |
You ever thought of writing porn? Serious question. I bet interesting people could write it really well. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.134.154 |
You heard of this thing called 'Kindle singles'? They sell your short stories for about 99 cents. I think this is great, and they sell them alongside the regular, top selling stuff. Apparently you do need to have a kindle, and be able to HTML your stuff, and do a cover (I have a bunch of photos I took myself I can use). http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/review-my-amazon-kindle-single-publishing-experime nt/43911?tag=mncol;txt Race you, Craig? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.134.154 |
You know, this will really help with focus and ideas. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
I agree, Tony - this is kind of lighting a fire under my ass.... Even if it is a kind of hype or a "There's gold in them thar hills!"-ish thing, I can use all the inspiration I can get. I just sent you another long wallowy email, Tony - glad I have a fan for something!  | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.230.114 |
Tony, I've written porn. For money. About 18 years ago: a story in Vulcan. Definitely not worth reprinting. I think it's possible to write porn well (not that I did), but it would still be porn and therefore of intrinsically limited interest. Likewise it's possible to make good pork scratchings but they will never be lobster. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Tony - I've known about this stuff for ages. It's part of the reason why I got a Kindle for Christmas. I already have a couple of ebooks out there, with more planned. Amanda Hocking's success is a one-off, though; you can't replicate that combination of accidental timing and good fortune. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Hmmmm, OK I confess I'm a little "anti-ebook" - I like the feel and smell of real paper in my hands. So I'm going to throw a spanner in the works here. With all these people self-publishing ebooks, is there any quality control out there? I mean, does this mean that *anyone* can sell an ebook, even if they don't have much writing talent? Only, if that happens, doesn't it mean that someone who *does* have great talent (like those of you here who are real writers - I'm not including myself here, I hasten to add) will just get "lumped in" with the not-so-good writers and will thereby have their own published ebooks devalued (in the reader's eyes, not in monetary terms) as a result? Just thinking, like - I may be wrong ... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Caroline - I agree with what you're saying, actually. The ebook market is steadily becoming saturated with shite (a lot of which is being given away by new writers trying to make a name for themselves). Anyone can publish an ebook - which is why I think you need to have some kind of reputation as a writer in place first to stand any hope of selling copies of your ebooks. It's all new; everyone's jumping on the bandwagon. All IMHO, of course. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Having said all that, I guess I'm being a bit fickle here. The same argument could be applied to self-publishing actual paper books using Lulu, etc. From experience, I've found some amazing self-published stuff on Lulu (time for me to give Tim Jeffreys a plug again here!  ) - but then I've found some absolute rubbish there too. So I suppose you (ie. the reader) just have to be careful what you buy, whether through Lulu or for your Kindle. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.184.78 |
Well, mainstream publishers can hardly be held up as an example of ruthless quality control. Dan Brown? The "novels" of Jordan? They're proofread, at best. Perhaps their one advantage over self-published e-books. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
The thing is, Gary, these books you mention are professionally edited. Which doesn't say a lot about the editors, admittedly. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.184.78 |
So how are you defining "professional" in this context? "Has a job in publishing"? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.134.154 |
I'm going to try subbing a short. Need to learn HTML though. Is it hard? Want to tinker with cover art, too. I even want to try and put pictures of bus tickets or such within the stories, too, in such a way they look like discarded makeshift bookmarks to give them that 'found' feel. Have relevant items to a story ever been used as illustrations for books before, btw? It sounds like something that might make a book collectable. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.134.154 |
BTW 'Zombie Punter'. Two words that probably get used in search engines often. With regards Amazon Kinldle singles, I'm gonna write a story called 'Zombie Blu Ray Offers'. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
>>BTW 'Zombie Punter'. Two words that probably get used in search engines often.<< I suspect that's the key to it. Have a SEO-optimised title and you'll get lots of people finding your ebook and downloading it out of curiosity. If it's cheap to purchase, people will simply splash out the cash and buy it just to see what it's like. But then I guess the ebook self-publisher *has* to be a pretty good writer, because you want the reader to come back for more. No, I'm going to stop knocking this now. I can see it's a valuable "marketing tool" in this day and age. Good luck to you, Tony and Zed, and anyone else who tries this. As I've said on the other thread about self-promotion, it really *is* important that those of you in the small press get your work noticed. Tony - as I know has been said here on the board before, and not just by me - I'd *love* to see more of your stories "out there" as you're a superb writer. Hopefully, if you try this ebook route, someone will notice and publish a proper paper collection of your stories. I'd buy it, for sure!  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
>>So how are you defining "professional" in this context? "Has a job in publishing"?\<< A professional editor: someone who edits for a living. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.184.78 |
But you said "it doesn't say much for the editor". Which means they're rubbish. Which is not professional. If you edit for a living and are no good at it, does that really make you professional? Surely not! Having said that, I suspect that the editors of the books I mentioned above just don't care, which is worse than being incompetent. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
If you edit for a living, then your'e a professional editor - at least that's how I see it. And, yes, I'd agree; they probably don't care. The books make millions - that's all these folk care about. I wish I could make millions from writing shite. I only make peanuts from writing shite. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.184.78 |
>>>If you edit for a living, then your'e a professional editor - at least that's how I see it. By that reasoning, Harold Shipman was a professional doctor. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
All professional means is that you get paid for doing it. It doesn't mean you're any good at it. Talented amateurs are frequently better than supposed professionals. e.g. Danny Dyer is a professional actor. Dane Bowers is a professional singer. Professional is just the opposite of Amateur. Amateur just means unpaid. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.184.78 |
This is a noun/adjective problem. I'm treating the word as an adjective, Zed as a noun. I think we mean the same thing. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Yep. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
ý"Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them." Julius Erving | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
Guess that makes me a professional breather today then. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Er .. why don't you feel like breathing today, Weber? You aren't poorly are you, young fella? |