Day 125: Attention all self-published authors

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 125: Attention all self-published authors

Some self-published writers like to brag about their sales, some are happy with a sale here and there, while some are not happy at all and ask for help how they can effectively market their work.

I used to do okay in sales. Nothing to brag about, but a steady flow of book sales. And then suddenly, nothing. The sales all but dried up. When I looked in March at my February statement there were no sales.

Now it so happened that in January we adopted a kitten from the Toronto Cat Rescue and I stayed in touch with its foster mom, Jackie.

During one of our email conversations, I mentioned that I was a writer, that I had written three novels and two children’s books and Jackie promptly ordered copies of ‘Kitten Diaries’ and ‘Debbie’ for her grandchildren.

Jackie had purchased the books in February, yet my Amazon statement said that there had been no sales in February. I waited until April, expecting the sales to show up in the March statement, but that was not the case.

I got in touch with Amazon and they promised to investigate the matter. After a few days, I received an email from Ana who stated that no sales were documented. I told her that I had proof of sales. She asked if she could see that proof. I emailed her a copy and she sent me the following response ...

"CreateSpace Member Services"	Fri, Jun 29, 2:37 PM (8 days ago)
to me

Hello Conny,

Greetings from CreateSpace.

Thank you very much fort contacting us back with additional information. This is very helpful as it assists us with the investigation. 

I have now forwarded the investigation to a representative who is best equipped to answer your question. You should receive a response within one business day. I really appreciate your patience.

When I didn’t hear back from Ana I sent a follow-up email … how did the investigation go? I received no response. I sent a second follow-up email and again, no response.

This got me thinking … how many self-published authors are there who don’t have a clue about their book sales? If they order their own books or someone they know places an order, they know of those sales, but how many more sales are made they are unaware of? They have no way of knowing if someone bought their books or not.

I was lucky that I knew Jackie, and she was willing to share proof of sale with me, but how many self-published authors are out there not knowing anything about their book sales. This could be a scam amounting to millions of dollars.

That’s not all though. Another reason why my sales are down is that my books show up on a number of websites that offers free downloads. ‘Waiting for Silverbird’, ‘Voice of an Angel’, ‘Lily’, ‘Kitten Diaries’ and ‘Debbie’ are all there.

I know about this because I get Google alerts similar to this one:

Conny Manero As-it-happens update ⋅ June 29, 2018
	WEB
	ntg.ebook google.com There was a problem loading more pages. [ntg.ebook] Debbie Conny Manero Free Download.pdf. [ntg.ebook] Debbie Conny Manero Free Download.

Book Descriptions:

Debbie the ferret lives in a pet store. One day, a man named Andrew takes her home. He shows her around the condo and then introduces her to Charlie, the cat. Debbie is terrified, but soon she and Charlie become good friends, and Charlie teaches her about—everything! Come, let Debbie tell you all about ferrets and how they live and read about all her adventures!

How it works:

·         1. Register a free 1 month Trial Account.

·         2. Download as many books as you like (Personal use)

·         3. Cancel the membership at any time if not satisfied.

It's no wonder my sales are down. Amazon is hiding sales and various pirate sales are offering free downloads. 

Has something similar happened to you? 

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 121: Cat toys

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 121: Cat toys

When we adopted Halley in January of this year, her foster mother gave us an array of her toys. Out of all of them, colorful plastic springs were her favorites.

Today, five months later all those springs have disappeared. Not one, not two, but all of them. If you recommend looking under the lounge chairs, that’s the first place where we looked. We also looked under cabinets, behind cabinets, under the beds … those springs have vanished.

To make up for these lost items I’ve ordered a packet of 10 springs from Amazon, a spinning ball, and some fish.

The springs

The springs I ordered haven’t arrived yet, but Jackie (Halley’s foster mom) send over some to keep Halley entertained. They weren’t even out of the packet yet when they had Halley’s full attention. As far as she was concerned, we couldn’t get them out of the packet quick enough, and once one was out and given to her, she took it in her mouth and immediately took off with it.

She batted it around, slap it from here to there, rolled it and chased it and had a great time. Of course, eventually the spring rolled under the sofa and Halley crouched down low to see where it was. She tried to reach the spring with her paw, but it was no use. So, Dieter to the rescue. He shone a light under the sofa while I tried the retrieve the spring with a long wooden spoon. When the spring was rescued, Halley once again took off with it. Until the next time and then ‘operation rescue’ starts all over again.

The ball

The ball is a hit, with Halley that is. Gabriel, Charlotte, and Holly haven’t played with it yet. To be fair, they haven’t had a chance to play with the ball. As soon as it gets switched on, Halley monopolizes the toy. Gabriel observes the game while perched on the cat tree while Charlotte seems afraid of it. Then again, Charlotte is afraid of just about everything, including her own shadow. As for Holly, when the ball is still she bats it around, but as soon as it’s switched on, she keeps her distance. Halley, on the other hand, is all over the ball. She’s still a big kitten and kittens are generally afraid of nothing.

The fish

When I pulled the fish out of the Amazon envelope, I got the fright of my life. I didn’t know what was in the envelope, so when confronted with these three huge, lifelike fish staring up at me, my heart skipped a beat. Gabriel, Charlotte, Holly, and Halley love them of course. The only problem is, there are four cats and only three fish.

Fortunately, Halley is more interested in her colorful springs, so she’s not really that interested in the fish.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 90: Cat food – What do you feed your cat?

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 90: Cat food – What do you feed your cat?

A trip to the vet recently revealed that Holly has a food allergy and we had to switch her (and the rest of the gang) to a higher quality food. I took home some cans from the clinic and hoped for the best.

If you think Holly and the others were grateful for this better quality food, think again, they approached the plate, took a whiff and walked away.

Introduce the new food gradually, someone said. So I did. I mixed a quarter of the vet food with a can of the old food. And would you believe it … Charlotte, Gabriel, and Holly ate everything except the vet food. (Halley is still on kitten food, so she was unaffected by the change).

My guess was that they didn’t like the vet’s food, so I took a trip to the pet store and bought a variety of quality foods. I walked out with a bill of over $50. As I tried this food and that food, it quickly became clear which brands and flavors they preferred.

Then this week I received an email containing a link to a website destroying my newfound peace of mind. Three of the flavors my cats like were classified as undesirable food for cats. https://www.reviews.com/cat-food/

I took a closer look at the brands they recommended. All links directed me to Amazon:

Addiction Grain-Free Canned Cat Food

$372.81

Blackwood Chicken Meal and Field Pea Recipe Grain-Free Dry Cat Food

This link directed me to dog treats.

Earthborn Holistic Wild Sea Catch Grain-Free Natural Dry Cat & Kitten Food

$104.48 for a 14 lbs bag.

Fromm Gold Holistic Adult Dry Cat Food

$162.01 for a 5 lbs bag.

Lotus Just Juicy Pork Stew Grain Free Canned Cat Food

$157 (Two customers who ordered online were under the impression they were going to receive a case of 24 cans but received only 1 can)

Now Fresh Grain Free Adult Recipe Dry Cat Food

$208 for an 8 lbs bag.

Redbarn Naturals Salmon and Delilah Grain-Free Canned Cat Food

$160 for a 5 lbs bag.

ZiwiPeak Daily-Cat Cuisine Venison and Fish Canned Cat Food

$56.72

These prices are just ridiculous!!!

While I believe in feeding my cats good food, I should mention that I’ve had cats all my life and they never had anything other than regular cat food bought in a supermarket. All of them lived around 13 years with the exception of Mickey (who died aged 10 from congestive heart failure) and Fluffy who lived to be 20 (and died of … old age I guess).

At one point the website https://www.reviews.com/cat-food/ states “Exposing your cat to these ingredients — even in small doses — is not worth the risk, especially when there are so many healthy cat food alternatives without them.”

Very true, now all it takes is to tell the manufacturers of those healthy foods to lower their prices! 

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 84: Dealing with fragile egos

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 84: Dealing with fragile egos

Just about everyone knows that when asked “What do you think of my hair?” or “Am I fat?” one has to proceed with extreme caution.

Lately, I became aware of another ‘loaded gun’ … “What do you think of my book?” Invariably, the authors aren’t looking for honest feedback on the cover design or story, they’re looking for validation. They’re not looking for an honest opinion, they want their feathers stroked.

Being an honest individual who says it like it is, I’ve ruffled a few feathers this morning. A writer boasted about her sales and curious as I am, I went to Amazon to take a look. When I found the book in question I clicked on the ‘Look Inside’ feature and I was horrified by what I found.

Something that immediately put my back up was the following …

“Hi , how r u ?” Sarah assked.

While I understand that ‘how r u?’ in phone texting is acceptable, it is most certainly not appropriate for a story. The misplaced comma bothered me too, but what really irked me the most was the spelling mistake. If this had been on page 199, this might have been an oversight, but this misspelled word was on page one.

The author claimed that not only did she proofread her document, she had ‘several eyes’ go over it. This begs the question, didn’t she or any of the others notice that 'asked' is spelled with one ‘s’ not two?

When I pointed out these mistakes I was told that I was being a spiteful bitch. Well excuse me but, if someone can’t handle constructive criticism, why ask for feedback in the first place? Perhaps, when asking for feedback, certain writers should post the following warning:

Please comment on my book, but don’t criticize it. Tell me how beautiful my cover is, how interesting my story is and how well written it is. If you dare to say anything negative, I will lash out at you. I want to be told that I’m wonderful, that there’s no other book out there like mine, and that my work will no doubt reach the top. In short, I have the mentality of a 6-year-old and if you don’t stroke my fragile ego I will throw a tantrum.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 81: Scam targeting self-published authors

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 81: Scam targeting self-published authors

If there’s one thing I hate it is scammers, particularly those who target self-published authors as they are such easy prey. They are looking for exposure leading to sales and scammers zoom in on this.

The other day, I received an email from Aimee A. stating:

 “I hope you do not mind me emailing you; I am emailing you because I would love to review your work on my website. My site is a book reviewing website which has received a great response from readers and now that I have a loyal following who I adore, I am always on the lookout for great books I can feature for them. I discovered your work and I loved what I saw, so that is why I am emailing you today! Your work looks wonderful, and you clearly are passionate; passion is a quality I love because I am very passionate about reading so I hope we are able to work together”.

My guess is that Aimee never read or even seen my work and that a few hundred other writers have received the same message.

Having been around the block a few times, I can smell a scam a mile away and so I cut right to the chase. I asked her how much she is charging. Her response … $75 per book. Her excuse is that she charges this fee because her reviews generate sales. She added that she is a mother of four.

I don’t know what this has to do with the price of eggs. Whether she’s single, married or a mother of a dozen, that’s none of my business and it is certainly not going to influence my decision whether or not to work with her. It was her decision to have four kids and she shouldn't ask others for support to feed and clothe them.

Other self-published authors may not be so wary though and actually believe the nonsense this woman is selling. I had a look at her website and there are indeed a number of books there, mainly mainstream published and yes, they have a good deal of comments. There are also a few self-published works (obviously self-published authors have already fallen for her scam) but they have no comments at all.

Most noticeable is that the mainstream books have quite a long review, too long if you ask me. The book isn’t just reviewed it is summarized. The self-published books on the other hand only have a rather short review, like Aimee couldn’t be bothered with them.

What I do wonder about is … where does she get the time to read all these books? I know a few women with one or two children and their main complaint is that they no longer have time for themselves. They have a husband and their kid(s) to look after, a house to keep clean, laundry to do, shopping to do, meals to cook, etc.

My guess is that Aimee doesn’t actually read any of the books she features on her website, but goes on Amazon, reads the synopsis of the book and a few comments and then elaborates on what she’s read. Also known as creative thumb sucking. 

And for that, she charges $75. Not a fortune, but if ten people fall for her scam that’s a nice sum for her.

I very much suspect that she hasn’t read any of my books, so how can she review them? The email that she sent me is clearly generic and not well written. You would think that for someone who reviews books for a living, her grammar and sentence structure would be better.

Fortunately, I’m not dumb enough to fall for her scam and neither should you. Be on the lookout for someone called Aimee A. and when she contacts you via email or Facebook, and tries to sweet talk you, send her packing. She's a scammer.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 62: Online Christmas Shopping

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 62: Online Christmas Shopping

For the first time ever, I did all my Christmas shopping online. Other years I went to the mall and dragged myself from one end to another looking for gifts for my son. Usually, I know what he needs or can guess what he wants, so it’s merely a question of finding these things.

This year, however, things were different. With a pinched sciatica nerve, I couldn’t go to the mall. My back is a lot better than what it was almost four weeks ago, but I still can only stay on my feet for five or ten minutes at a time. So, I had to do my Christmas shopping online.

The trouble with online shopping though is that you have to know what you want. In a mall, you can walk around and look at various things, but online it’s more complicated. So, I started by opening Amazon where I typed in the search bar ‘gifts for men’. The result of my search was of no use to me. So I tried a more direct approach ... I asked my son to give me a list of things he would like.

While that made shopping a lot easier, now I was faced with another problem ... the shipping costs. For instance, I looked at an item that cost $20 but the shipping and handling costs were $23. Another item was priced $54 and the shipping and handling costs were $40.

Then I noticed that Amazon offered a service called Prime, with which feature shipping and handling would be free. Not every item was included in this free shipping list, but millions were. They offered a free 31 days trial, so I took them up on it.

Now that I was an Amazon Prime member I repeated my search for my son’s gifts. Gift #1 ... free shipping, gift #2 ... free shipping, gift #3 ... free shipping, I was suddenly in shopping heaven and found everything he wanted without having to pay one cent on shipping costs.

Now the question was, would the gifts arrive on time? Some were estimated to arrive this week, some next week, some in the third week of December. Well, that was cutting it a bit close but what the heck, if something arrived a little late, so what.

So that’s it, all my shopping is done. I’ve never been a big fan of shopping online, but I’ve changed my tune now. No more braving the cold. No more trudging through snow and slipping on patches of ice. No more crisscrossing the mall and putting up with loads of shoppers, standing in line to pay and then laden with heavy packages dragging myself home. This year I installed myself in an armchair, put my feet up and clicked my way through Amazon.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 37: Origin by Dan Brown – no spoilers

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 37: Origin by Dan Brown – no spoilers

Are you reading Dan Brown’s latest book ‘Origin’ yet? I picked up the book at the beginning of the week and the story is gripping right from the start.

While Dan Brown does an excellent job describing the scene, my curiosity got the better of me and I Googled a few of the things he described. For instance, the monastery in Montserrat, the Guggenheim Museum in Barcelona, the various artworks, a particular bridge in Budapest, a cathedral in the middle of nowhere, etc.

Of course, when I read on the subway, I can’t Google anything so then I have to make use of Post-it notes and stick them to particular pages of interest so I can Google this or that at a later time.

But speaking of the subway, it really isn’t a good idea for me to read ‘Origin’ on the train. I get so engrossed in the story that last week Friday I missed my stop. The first time I looked up I noticed that the train had stopped at Christie.

‘Christie?’ I thought, ‘I don’t pass a station called Christie. Christie is one stop after Spadina. Good grief I missed my stop!!!’ I quickly scrambled to my feet and got off the train.

On the streetcar, I didn’t fare much better. Even though the various stops are displayed on LED screens and a mechanical voice calls out the various stops, while reading I’m blind and deaf.

At one point I looked up though and saw the CN Tower. ‘That’s strange,’ I thought, ‘I never see the CN Tower.’ I glanced up at the LED screens and saw ‘Wellington Street’. Good grief, Wellington Street!!! I was way too far! If the next stop was Wellington Street that meant I had passed Queen and King Street without even noticing.

Damn Dan Brown, that was twice that ‘Origin’ got me into trouble and it wasn’t even 8:00 a.m. yet. And more trouble was just around the corner.

At lunchtime, I settled down on a comfortable couch in the company’s café and prepared for an hour of quiet reading. After what seemed like only 20 minutes or half an hour, Dave – a colleague – appeared at my side.

“Conny, are you coming back to your desk?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said, “when lunchtime is over.”

“Lunchtime was over 15 minutes ago,” he informed me.

When I checked my phone I noticed that it was indeed 1:15. Damn not again!

With currently 509 reviews on Amazon to date, the opinion of readers vary. 59% give ‘Origin’ a 5-star review, 15% give the book 4 stars, 11% 3 stars, 8% 2 stars, and 7% 1 star.

It’s safe to say that ‘Origin’ will receive a 5-star review from me. Any book that gets me into trouble three times in one day is worth nothing short of a top review.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 21: Reading - What's the last book you read?

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 21: Reading – What’s the last book you read?

There was a time that I happily spend my lunchtime in a bookstore, walking between the racks, sampling several books. 

When I received a Kindle for Christmas, I switched to electronic reading. Reluctantly at first, because I prefer a real book over an ebook, but gradually real books disappeared and I used my Kindle full-time.

While I enjoy holding a book and turning pages, the kind of books I prefer (over 500 pages) are rather heavy to carry and expensive. In comparison, a Kindle weighs hardly anything and the ebooks are cheaper than real books.

With ebooks I did have a problem though ... what would I read next? If I knew what I wanted to read the solution was simple ... I would go on Amazon and read the synopsis of the book along with the first few pages. But if I didn’t have a clue what to read next, what did I do then?

A friend recommended that I subscribe to book recommendations. In the beginning, I poured over this email list every day, but day after day I didn’t see anything of interest. Soon I stopped looking and just deleted the email. 

For some reason, I opened the email last Wednesday and on top of the list I found ‘The Alchemist’.

I remembered all the hype that was made around this book, so I headed over to Amazon. The reviews were contradicting, some readers gave the book a raving 5-star review, other gave it 1 star and called it rambling and drawn out rubbish.

What I liked about the author Paulo Coelho is that he dared to admit in his forward that when ‘The Alchemist’ was first published in Brazil it was a flop. Only a handful of copies were sold and his publisher canceled his contract.

What happened next was sheer coincidence. An American bought the book in Brazil and took it to an American publisher who accepted it. But what if the American buying the book in Brazil wasn’t a coincidence but a rather carefully orchestrated set-up?

Every author, literally agent and publisher knows that to get readers to buy a book one must create a buzz. What if Paulo Coelho did just that?

Being a man of considerable means (even back then), what if he arranged with his publisher that he would invest several million in a publicity campaign? He certainly had the money and the political and showbiz connections to do so.

After that, the tale of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ comes to mind. The critics raved about the book, reader’s curiosity was tickled and they bought the book. If the critics gave it a thumbs up then it must be good, right? 

What if but a small minority actually dared to voice that the book was in actual fact rubbish, but nobody believed it because everyone else loved it?

I fell for it too. My curiosity got the better of me and I bought the book. In my opinion, it was not the best book I’ve ever read but I finished it and found it inspirational with a surprise ending.

I would give 'The Alchemist' a 3-star rating.

www.connymanero.weebly.com