Having your coffee? Why not enjoy it while you get a sneak peak at a story from the brand new Instant Noodles? Nadja Maril reads her story, “How to Re-String a Necklace.”
WRITING FOR YOUR EARS
Tag: delawarewriters
LOVE IS A MYSTERIOUS AND FRAGILE THING
What can love do? What can’t it do?
“He nodded and told her, “My granny always said it was a great honor to be visited by Miss Luna. They only live seven days, you know, only out at night. Scientists say their only function is to reproduce – they don’t even have mouths for eating. But Granny said their purpose was Love, and to tell us that life is short and for living. She said, too, that if they appear around the full moon, it’s to tell you that everything will be alright. Tomorrow’s the full moon.”
Is Granny right? Are moths harbingers of love?
Get a sneak peak at the brand new Instant Noodles! Read “Miss Luna’s Visit.” Maggie Claypool, girl, you do write a good story!
FREE (& virtual) INDIE AUTHOR EVENT
Do you like Humphrey Bogart movies?
How about Raymond Chandler mysteries?
Join us online for a conversation with William F. Crandell, award-winning author of Let’s Say Jack Kennedy Killed the Girl, Book 1 in The Jack Griffin Detective Series.
In this hard-boiled adventure we find a young senator Kennedy’s personal and political future at risk when he’s set up to take the fall for a ghastly murder. Working against time, bureaucratic red tape, his own personal demons, and individuals who want him out of the way, Detective Jack Griffin must identify the real killer, assuming he survives long enough.
William F. Crandell returned home from the Vietnam War with a taste for adventure, a skeptic’s eye, and a hundred thousand stories. Awarded a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award for his private detective novel, Let’s Say Jack Kennedy Killed the Girl, Crandell has published short stories, book reviews, scholarly articles, journalism, state and federal reports, political analyses, and congressional testimony that he presented in Washington hearings. An Ohio native, Crandell received all his degrees at Ohio State University, completing his doctorate in American History with a study of the interaction of McCarthyism and Republican politics. Bill is a former DC speech writer for Veteran’s Affairs.
Click below to register for the Zoom link:
FROM MARYLAND ARTS GRANT TO PUBLISHED AUTHOR WITH GREAT KIRKUS REVIEW
> Let’s Say Jack Kennedy Killed the Girl by William F. Crandell – signed bookplate
A hard-boiled adventure destined to be a classic. JFK has been framed for murder and it’s up to Jack Griffin to prove Senator Kennedy’s innocence.
“A thrilling crime drama”
KIRKUS REVIEWS
$ 14.99
ARE YOU HAVING A CHRISTMAS PARTY AT THE OFFICE THIS YEAR?
Mega-Pistachio is!
And what a party it is! Too much booze, too many nuts, literally, and a surprise announcement! Don’t you love those at the end of the year??
THE REVIEWS ARE IN!
> Let’s Say Jack Kennedy Killed the Girl by William F. Crandell – signed bookplate
A hard-boiled adventure destined to be a classic. JFK has been framed for murder and it’s up to Jack Griffin to prove Senator Kennedy’s innocence.
“A thrilling crime drama”
KIRKUS REVIEWS
$ 14.99
It’s Finally Here.
Hot, Buttered, Holidays. You know you want it.
And this issue has readings from some of the authors. (And there you were, doing all your reading yourself, like a sucker.)
Now, hear the authors, in their own voices, read their own words!
“As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky; so off to the Instant Noodles page the readers all flew, to find some amazing art and a poem or two!”
Happy noodle days to you~
Thanks for supporting this teensy indie press. Big love~ Di and Dave
LAST CHANCE FOR A FREE READ
We have a new book that is free for download today on Amazon. If you like hardboiled detective series, you won’t get too much better than Bill’s version. Bill, as an FYI, is a Vietnam vet, and he first wrote this when he was on a Maryland state arts grant.
There are 3 more in the series too, so if you like this, more are coming. This one is free until midnight tonight, 11/29/2021.
You can download it to any device: laptop, tablet, smartphone, and read it whenever, or share it (you can let another person read it, also for free). You do not have to read it today, but you can only “obtain” it today.(Amazon limits how much we can give away).
HOW TO SELL YOUR BOOK, POST 4: THE KEY TO SELL THE BOOK OF AN UNKOWN AUTHOR
Why do you try a new restaurant in your town?
Is it because you’re desperate to get out of the house, have someone else cook for you, or do you like to be the first to try anything new in town, or maybe you’re a foodie?
Or is it because your local paper told you it was good? The food critic on the town Facebook page said it was yummy. The neighbor on Nextdoor said it was a lot of food!
Who are you really? Who knows about you? Are you a former president, co-writing a book with another famous person, and your already overflowing wallet gets a little harder to get into your back pocket?
Or are you just… you? Like me, you could just be a writer, writing quietly at home.
Well, if your book is going to sell, newbie to being published, it’s going to sell online (and maybe 10 copies at your local bookseller). If you pay-to-play, and the “publisher” gives you a box with a thousand books in it, where are you putting them? On a shelf… at home?
It’s not a secret. When your book is available, in print, you have a few days, to a month, where your book is “hot,” meaning the people who know you, or who are local to you, are noticing it. Then, it’s over, and you should turn your focus to your next book.
That ride was short!
It reminds me of when I did community theater as a kid. We would practice almost every Saturday from January to June, and then, two weekend performances, Sat. & Sun., so four total, and it was over. Photos went in the local paper after the fact, and the lights went down until the following January.
You want your book to sell, to be a topic of conversation, to be on NPR! I know I do. But NPR doesn’t know you, and even if they did, there are so many other people who have a track record who also put out books the exact same day and time as you about the same thing, and they are getting on NPR, not you, because they were already on there two years ago.
Okay Captain Bringdown. Now what?
What matter most of all are reviews of your book until you are famous enough not to need them.
What I want most, as an author, is to be read. I want to know someone liked my book/story/poem. And sales would be nice too
Most new authors will generate most of their sales from Amazon. You will probably generate more sales than you will reviews. Our first book sold into the hundreds on Amazon, but got 9 reviews there.
Nine reviews is not building a web. It’s not being suggested to people. “Mary bought Book A and Book B, you bought Book B. Mary gave Book B a high review, and Book A. Would you like to look at Book A? Amazon actually asks me on my Alexa about the authors I buy for my daughter. “Grace Lin has a new book out. Can I put it in your cart for you?”
At somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-50 reviews Amazon will start building the web for you.
Our author sold many many more than that, but those friends/family/random people didn’t review it.
Ahhh, my fellow rugged American individualists…. most people are not like that, and want to read something that has a good review that other people liked, a lot, like 4 and 5 stars a lot.
Who can get those reviews for you?
Well, certainly we tell everyone we know about you and ask, over and over, for reviews, but if people don’t know you, why are they listening to me? They want to see someone else write one. They want to know what to write. Are you going to judge their writing skills? Will some jerk on Amazon judge their writing skills? Will someone blame them if your book turns out to be a flop? (If we publish you, you’re not a flop. We know what we’re doing when we choose a book to publish.)
What is your strategy for getting reviews?
Will you send out a newsletter?
Advanced reader copies?
Will you ask today, and next Wednesday, and the following Thursday, again and again, “Did you write that review for me yet? Can I give you a sample and a bottle of wine to thank you for your effort?”
That is what sales is. Asking, knocking on the door, again, and again, and again.
In the old days you only had to do that with agents. Today, the book industry has blown wide open. And this lets in more older authors, BIPOC, LGBTQ, and women. Great! But, those folks are going through publishers who don’t have an auto-order for a thousand books at Barnes and Noble.
Which book are you going to buy with your limited income? The one with two reviews? Or the one with 30, and Mary, who bought it, also bought The DaVinci Code, which you loved too!
I can’t tell you a magic number: this many reviews = this many sales.
And for that I am truly sorry.
But, one thing we can do, list the Kindle for free. Ask people, and ask them again, and go over to their house and help them to download your book free and then help them write a review.
And if your book isn’t running a free promotion, this does mean, in the case of Amazon, that your friend or relative may have to buy the book on Amazon to be able to leave a review there. It isn’t always the case, but it is sometimes true. And that could end up costing them, or you, if you give them the cost, the price of the book or anthology.
And, so what?
This is the cost of doing business.
This is the cost of a latte, or two.
And you already do it ALL THE TIME anyway. Yes, you do:
When we help each other out through reviewing, we help ourselves out, too. It’s a matter of literary survival.
IS THIS CHEATING?
And what about that local book club you belong to? Are they reading your book and your friend’s book? If not, why not? Have you asked them to? Are they supporting you? It is, really, a small thing to ask, but if you have a mystery book club and you or your friend managed to get a publisher to publish your mystery, then why would they not read it? Maybe they cannot read it until next year, okay, but they put it in the rotation. And then you help them leave reviews.
None of these things is going to transform you into a New York Times bestseller overnight, but I don’t know how else you’re ever going to even begin to head in that direction, or how the indie publishers who do this work on a shoe-string are going to keep being there to give no-name authors the chance they deserve.
So, if this is a serious thing for you, you want to “make it” at this, you’d like to at least make enough $ someday for a nice vacation or a monthly car payment, you have to start digging away at this notoriety problem we all have by taking your eyes off of your manuscript long enough to help each other out.
BY THE WAY: It’s never too late to leave a review. You can start a whole new conversation by the review you post today.
SO BE A MENSCH: get the kindle of Bill’s book, for free, and post a review in the next week:
Can’t read that fast? Skim it, just to see what the writing is like. You’ll be impressed enough to know he deserves a review.
TO-DO:
#1. Get Bill’s book for free and review it.
#2. Develop a group of like-minded authors or friends and relatives and book club members who solemnly promise to give you a review in a timely fashion (within a month of publication).
#3. Buy books and give them to your local library and as gifts, etc. (or buy yourself the cheap Kindle version so you can post a review).
#4. Ask that any reading groups you belong to read your books.
#5. Create a budget for book purchases.
#6. Help people who may not know how to post a review post reviews for you, and help them write one.
#7. Keep the reviews short and sweet. “I loved it; you’ll love it too.” “Fast and fun read.” “Great way to spend a day at the beach!”
Thanks so much for your interest in DPP and for reading this blog. We love publishing people who the big guys ignore, and we thank you for helping us do what we love to do.
We’ll be back with more posts about this as we have time during this season of final grades for Dianne’s students, and awards-nomination season for our authors and their books!
HOW TO SELL YOUR BOOK, POST 4: THE KEY TO SELL THE BOOK OF AN UNKOWN AUTHOR
Why do you try a new restaurant in your town?
Is it because you’re desperate to get out of the house, have someone else cook for you, or do you like to be the first to try anything new in town, or maybe you’re a foodie?
Or is it because your local paper told you it was good? The food critic on the town Facebook page said it was yummy. The neighbor on Nextdoor said it was a lot of food!
Who are you really? Who knows about you? Are you a former president, co-writing a book with another famous person, and your already overflowing wallet gets a little harder to get into your back pocket?
Or are you just… you? Like me, you could just be a writer, writing quietly at home.
Well, if your book is going to sell, newbie to being published, it’s going to sell online (and maybe 10 copies at your local bookseller). If you pay-to-play, and the “publisher” gives you a box with a thousand books in it, where are you putting them? On a shelf… at home?
It’s not a secret. When your book is available, in print, you have a few days, to a month, where your book is “hot,” meaning the people who know you, or who are local to you, are noticing it. Then, it’s over, and you should turn your focus to your next book.
That ride was short!
It reminds me of when I did community theater as a kid. We would practice almost every Saturday from January to June, and then, two weekend performances, Sat. & Sun., so four total, and it was over. Photos went in the local paper after the fact, and the lights went down until the following January.
You want your book to sell, to be a topic of conversation, to be on NPR! I know I do. But NPR doesn’t know you, and even if they did, there are so many other people who have a track record who also put out books the exact same day and time as you about the same thing, and they are getting on NPR, not you, because they were already on there two years ago.
Okay Captain Bringdown. Now what?
What matter most of all are reviews of your book until you are famous enough not to need them.
What I want most, as an author, is to be read. I want to know someone liked my book/story/poem. And sales would be nice too
Most new authors will generate most of their sales from Amazon. You will probably generate more sales than you will reviews. Our first book sold into the hundreds on Amazon, but got 9 reviews there.
Nine reviews is not building a web. It’s not being suggested to people. “Mary bought Book A and Book B, you bought Book B. Mary gave Book B a high review, and Book A. Would you like to look at Book A? Amazon actually asks me on my Alexa about the authors I buy for my daughter. “Grace Lin has a new book out. Can I put it in your cart for you?”
At somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-50 reviews Amazon will start building the web for you.
Our author sold many many more than that, but those friends/family/random people didn’t review it.
Ahhh, my fellow rugged American individualists…. most people are not like that, and want to read something that has a good review that other people liked, a lot, like 4 and 5 stars a lot.
Who can get those reviews for you?
Well, certainly we tell everyone we know about you and ask, over and over, for reviews, but if people don’t know you, why are they listening to me? They want to see someone else write one. They want to know what to write. Are you going to judge their writing skills? Will some jerk on Amazon judge their writing skills? Will someone blame them if your book turns out to be a flop? (If we publish you, you’re not a flop. We know what we’re doing when we choose a book to publish.)
What is your strategy for getting reviews?
Will you send out a newsletter?
Advanced reader copies?
Will you ask today, and next Wednesday, and the following Thursday, again and again, “Did you write that review for me yet? Can I give you a sample and a bottle of wine to thank you for your effort?”
That is what sales is. Asking, knocking on the door, again, and again, and again.
In the old days you only had to do that with agents. Today, the book industry has blown wide open. And this lets in more older authors, BIPOC, LGBTQ, and women. Great! But, those folks are going through publishers who don’t have an auto-order for a thousand books at Barnes and Noble.
Which book are you going to buy with your limited income? The one with two reviews? Or the one with 30, and Mary, who bought it, also bought The DaVinci Code, which you loved too!
I can’t tell you a magic number: this many reviews = this many sales.
And for that I am truly sorry.
But, one thing we can do, list the Kindle for free. Ask people, and ask them again, and go over to their house and help them to download your book free and then help them write a review.
And if your book isn’t running a free promotion, this does mean, in the case of Amazon, that your friend or relative may have to buy the book on Amazon to be able to leave a review there. It isn’t always the case, but it is sometimes true. And that could end up costing them, or you, if you give them the cost, the price of the book or anthology.
And, so what?
This is the cost of doing business.
This is the cost of a latte, or two.
And you already do it ALL THE TIME anyway. Yes, you do:
When we help each other out through reviewing, we help ourselves out, too. It’s a matter of literary survival.
IS THIS CHEATING?
And what about that local book club you belong to? Are they reading your book and your friend’s book? If not, why not? Have you asked them to? Are they supporting you? It is, really, a small thing to ask, but if you have a mystery book club and you or your friend managed to get a publisher to publish your mystery, then why would they not read it? Maybe they cannot read it until next year, okay, but they put it in the rotation. And then you help them leave reviews.
None of these things is going to transform you into a New York Times bestseller overnight, but I don’t know how else you’re ever going to even begin to head in that direction, or how the indie publishers who do this work on a shoe-string are going to keep being there to give no-name authors the chance they deserve.
So, if this is a serious thing for you, you want to “make it” at this, you’d like to at least make enough $ someday for a nice vacation or a monthly car payment, you have to start digging away at this notoriety problem we all have by taking your eyes off of your manuscript long enough to help each other out.
BY THE WAY: It’s never too late to leave a review. You can start a whole new conversation by the review you post today.
SO BE A MENSCH: get the kindle of Bill’s book, for free, and post a review in the next week:
Can’t read that fast? Skim it, just to see what the writing is like. You’ll be impressed enough to know he deserves a review.
TO-DO:
#1. Get Bill’s book for free and review it.
#2. Develop a group of like-minded authors or friends and relatives and book club members who solemnly promise to give you a review in a timely fashion (within a month of publication).
#3. Buy books and give them to your local library and as gifts, etc. (or buy yourself the cheap Kindle version so you can post a review).
#4. Ask that any reading groups you belong to read your books.
#5. Create a budget for book purchases.
#6. Help people who may not know how to post a review post reviews for you, and help them write one.
#7. Keep the reviews short and sweet. “I loved it; you’ll love it too.” “Fast and fun read.” “Great way to spend a day at the beach!”
Thanks so much for your interest in DPP and for reading this blog. We love publishing people who the big guys ignore, and we thank you for helping us do what we love to do.
We’ll be back with more posts about this as we have time during this season of final grades for Dianne’s students, and awards-nomination season for our authors and their books!
You must be logged in to post a comment.