Tag Archives: e-books

Falling Books Kill; e-Books Don’t-Alkan’s Mystery Death

Posted on by under books, dailies

Charles-Valentin Alkan, 1813-1888,  was a French-Jewish composer whose death was said to be caused by a falling bookcase. If you are an inveterate reader, is there a better death, than being buried under a bookcase and books? How sweet.

It was believed he was reaching on a high shelf for the Talmud when the bookcase fell on him. However, years later a letter from one of his students who wrote that Alkan died in his kitchen from a heavy coat-umbrella stand. His story goes that his concierge heard moaning and found him lying on the kitchen floor. He was taken to his bed where he died that night.

Well that kills my joy. But I ask, which story is better. Killed by an umbrella stand/coat rack or a bookcase?

It was further thought the bookcase story derived from the following legend about Aryeh Leib Asher Gunzberg, 1695-1785. I quote from Wiki.

“A legend exists of his death. During his studies a book-case fell on him, covering him with books. His students were able to rescue him after an hour or so and he related to them that he had been covered by the books of the authors with whom he had quarreled. He had asked forgiveness from all of them and they all complied save for one, Mordecai Yoffe (known as the Levush) who refused. He knew therefore that he was not long for this world, and pronounced the verse in Hebrew “Aryeh shoag mi loi yiroh”; i.e. that Aryeh (the lion, meaning himself) shoag (roars), but mi (an acronym of Mordecai Yoffeh, but can also mean ‘who’) loi yiroh (is not afraid).[2]

It is speculated that this legend is the source of the urban myth surrounding the death of the French-Jewish composer Charles-Valentin Alkan, whose family originated from Metz.[3]“

Personally I will belive the myth of Alkan’s death. I find it inspiring.

Alkan’s grave.

The good thing about e-Books is your death will not result from a falling bookcase.

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HELP! I’M BURIED UNDER AVALANCHE OF BOOKS

Posted on by under books, dailies, Uncategorized

In an April 4th post about three cheap ways to become a bookaholic I mentioned  that I had 81 unread e-Books and 133 unread old fashioned books, the type you hold in your hand without use of a device, unless, of course, you recognize hands as a device. This amounted to 234 books waiting for me to crack open, or in the case of an e-Book tap open.

Two months and a few days since that post there is no relief as the avalanche continues to bury me. Unread e-Books up to 96 and the old fashioned kind up to 157. This adds  up to 253, a 19 book gain. And keep in mind I have read and finished books during this time, hoping to lighten the load bearing down on me.

And it is going to get worse. This Saturday and again on Monday the Friends of the Library is holding one of there sales. The proceeds go to the library to help them purchase new books,  to aid library programs and buy supplies for kids. So everybody wins. Except for a book hoarder like myself; I can barely breath, let alone move under the weight of unread books.

How good is the sale you ask? Hardback books at 50 cents or 3 for a $1. Who does this? This is as close to giving books away as you can get. Do they expect me to stay away, do they think I have discipline? I believe they have these sales knowing they will make a fortune off me. And paperbacks are 25 cents each or 6 for a $1. The same goes for VHS tapes, CD’s and audio books. To be honest the CD’s they had at previous sale were mostly music to accompany your yoga workout, or music from countries I did not know existed. But I go for the books anyway.

I will spend the next few days reading books nearest my hands, as many as I can, foregoing meals, bathroom trips, sleeping, and doing anything that prevents me from getting out from under this cataclysmic cascade of opus delicti.

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Piracy hits e-writers and bloggers-You NEED to read this

Posted on by under authors, e-books, writers

As an e-Novelist I am concerned about copyright theft and piracy, not just because I lose money, but I hate those who steal and claim something as their own, when you have done all the work. 

I follow Anne R. Allen and Ruth Harris’s blog and suggest you do as well, for you will learn invaluable information every week. Their most recent blog is about book piracy, how e-Books can be stolen/pirated, and how it affects us poor writers. I had no idea what these pirates were doing and I took a suggested step from the blog that might alert me to any questionable activity of my books.

Click the above link to learn what is going on and what you can do to protect yourself and your e-Books.

Amazon’s marketing analytics for writers must change

Posted on by under authors, books, dailies, e-books

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I previously posted a blog about my ad campaign for “Loonies in the Dugout,” selling for .99 by the way. The campaign was approved, then soon after it began Amazon stopped it because of low relevance. To be honest how does one get ‘low relevance’ on the third day. I assumed the problem was that there were no categories in the marketing campaign listings for my e-book that is ‘sports fiction/satire’ so I  used literary fiction, the closest I could get. In my second attempt, after learning the campaign was stopped, I added sports/outdoors. The campaign was approved for the second time.

I had bid .70 cost per click, and I was getting .60. That seems good, but maybe I’m wrong. In the information I received from Amazon, it was estimated that my campaign, May 13 through June 8 would generate only five sales. They stopped the campaign on the third day and I had sold seven books, two more than projected, and I still had 22 days to go. Yet the email said customers were not engaging with the ad. Huh? Seven sales in less than three days, more than they said I would get.

They also suggested I increase my bid as it could be getting beat by other ads that were bidding higher for better placement. Sorry, I’m not taking the bait. I like my book, I want people to read it. That was why I lowered the price and created the ad campaign. But I will not increase my bid when it started so well.

In my original email to Amazon I said they should consider adding ‘sports fiction’ and ‘satire’ in their marketing campaign listings for targeting. They answered that they appreciate the feedback and would consider it at a future date. In their second email to me after telling them I had sold 7 books in first three days, out doing their projections, I received the following, “I’ll take your concern as feature request and communicate the same to our business team for consideration as we plan future improvements. I’m unable to promise a timeframe at this time, however, we are still evolving and feedback like yours motivate us to dive deep and unearth ways and means which helps us in making publishing on KDP a happy experience.  Please be sure to check our forums periodically for updates.”

Nothing against the forums, I have used them, but it takes a lot of ambling around to find the specifics you seek and the answers are not always helpful, nor are they necessarily correct. Why doesn’t Amazon just post something on the appropriate marketing page, saying ‘new and improved.’

I do like Amazon. I have made many purchases with them and I am sure they have enjoyed my money. I will take them at their word, that they are evolving and are seeking ways to improve (making more money), that they will ‘dive deep and unearth ways to improve,’ but I will also continue to check in to see if and when they change their methodology. They clearly need a better understanding of low relevance. Consider that they say they compare ‘like’ ads for effectiveness, but also say they don’t have specific numbers. If you compare things you learn something, yet they imply otherwise.

I will try again with other titles this summer, hoping my relevance improves.

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HUH? Amazon approves ad campaign, then suspends when it starts HUH?

Posted on by under authors, books

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The above e-novel was my first, of what is now five, e-Books published on Amazon.  It has been reviewed twice, both with four star reviews. If you want to learn more about it, you can tap the link at top of page. I loved writing the book and the two main fictional characters in this book, based on a true story, have now appeared in three e-novels. Baseball fiction does not sell well, unless you are named W.P. Kinsella, or Darryl Brock. So in order to gain more readers, because, as I said, I love this satire on fame and celebrity, I lowered price to 99 cents. 

I also decided to avail myself of Amazon’s marketing services and created an ad campaign with them. It is easy to setup. When submitted, either robots, humans, or some digital logarithms places the campaign in review to make sure it meets their standards of decency and all that jazz.  The campaign was approved. It was to begin May 9th and on that day I received an e-mail from their marketing service stating the campaign was stopped due to ‘low relevance.’

What, you ask, is ‘low relevance.’ Amazon says the following “There are a number of factors that impact relevance including the targeting you choose for your ad. Refining your targeting options to focus on related products or genres may improve your ad’s relevance.”

When I created the campaign you have a choice on whether to target by ‘interest’ or ‘product.’ For writers ‘interest’ is best. As I said baseball fiction is not a big seller and when choosing targeted relevance I chose literary fiction because neither sports fiction or satire was listed. But literary fiction was as close as I could get. I could select up to two I believe, so thought I should select another.

I redid campaign and submitted it again, this time adding ‘sports and outdoors’ under ‘other.’  I don’t know if this will work as campaign is under review, and even if approved, it may, like my first attempt, get approved then stopped on my new day to begin the campaign.

The only other problem I had in marketing with Amazon was the knife you see on the cover that I had to remove because of the image and what it means. I dealt with it, not a deal breaker. So I will see what happens with my new ‘relevance’ and in the interim I will contact marketing services to suggest they expand their list to include sports fiction and satire.

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How I lost my identity through writing fiction.

Posted on by under authors, dailies, e-books, fiction, writers, writing

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It started innocently enough. I was working on character names for my first e-novel, “Loonies in the Dugout” and thought I would use the first names of my father and two uncles for three fictional characters. But I also wanted to use my mother’s name, but this was a baseball novel and there was not going to be that many female characters. So I used my dad’s first name Chet, for the lead character, and my mother’s last name Koski for Chet’s last name. Though I got to honor my mom and dad in one character, I did not anticipate what would happen.

I enjoyed Chet and his girlfriend Eveleen so much I wanted to use them in another story, so I went from 1911 in my first book to 1922 in Hollywood for my second book in which Chet and Eveleen, now married, solve the murder of William Desmond Taylor. I had no problems in this story, but I got confused in book three.

In “Silent Murder,” set in 1927, there is a murder and it turns out the victim was a cousin of Chet. But he had no idea this was his cousin. So the police, naturally, when they find this out and inform Chet, got me into a family tree to sort out some police questions. And I nearly messed it up. Chet’s fictional last name is Finnish, but I was thinking Danish because that is my real father’s heritage. Yes, I realized later that I could have used the Finnish family tree, but the problem is it was too hard to trace for too many reasons to go into here. So I was stuck staying with a Danish tree for a Finnish character. I had to tinker a bit.

This tree was part of the plot-at the beginning of the story anyway. It is always a possibility that this plotline was a red herring. Had I known while writing the first novel that Mr. Koski would continue in two more stories and another now in progress I would have done things differently. As it is, by using my mother’s maiden name, in the third book I dug a pit that addled my brain about two families. After all I am talking about people from the 1800’s whom I never met.

If I had to do it all over again I would have used my real fathers last name and changed his first name, using perhaps Paul (my mother’s name was Pauline). Or even better, use my fathers middle name as his first, so I would have had Alvin Nelson.  Actually I don’t like that name, Paul would be better, except that is also the middle name of another relative, and that only adds more confusion.

I dug myself into a pit and I am stuck with it. Did I learn a lesson? No. I am using the names of two real life cousins who are cousins in my work in progress, but the two cousins in real life from opposite sides of the family and have never met. I don’t care. The territory is familiar to me. Besides I am too confused about my family tree I no longer know who I am. Writing as many pitfalls.

Three reasons to advertise your book on Amazon

Posted on by under authors, dailies, e-books, writers

I avoided advertising my books because I wanted to build a library and now that I have five e-books on Amazon I thought it was time. I also delayed because being frugal (cheap), I was leery of diving into that pool. Add to that I am not a business person, nor a social media butterfly, and, in the interest of full disclosure, I am lazy. But it is good to research extensively before diving into the pool. So here is why I chose Amazon.

Reason number one to advertise with Amazon: As someone said if you do nothing, then nothing will happen. So if you want to achieve something you must do something. If it fails, you learn something and move forward. Since my books are on Amazon I researched their marketing program. It was easy to set up a campaign. You set a budget, say $100. The good thing is you are not charged up front. You are charged when someone clicks your ad to read about the book. The charge comes from what you bid-and this I do not understand at all. I was never good in math. The bad news is that there is always the chance that during the length of the campaign, nobody will buy your book and you are out $100. That is not a bad thing though as I will share on reason two. The poor result could be that the brief description of your book, the hook, the logline, the pitch, did not register with those who clicked. What you write in the ad must sell interest to click. I plan on adding a campaign with all my books, staggering them. The reason you will read about in reason three.

Reason two to advertise with Amazon: I mentioned the possibility that you could end up losing $100 if nobody bought your book. Yes that hurts. But consider this. You can read in your dashboard how many clicks you are getting. I had 48 clicks within a couple of days. The cost was just over $3. If you extend the number of clicks you can get for $100 then you have a lot of people who are now familiar with your name and that is part of building awareness. The more people who see your name, the better chance they will buy a book in the future. To build your brand ( I hate this word) you build name recognition. Consider it part of long term strategy. The only thing that happens overnight is dawn. Everything else takes time.

That brings me to reason three as to why I am staggering my add campaign with my books on Amazon. It not only has to do with getting my name out there by clicks and sales, but because I  have different audiences. I have two collection of short stories, both of which fall into the supernatural and horror category. Three other books are part of a series, though each can be read as a stand alone e-novel. The first is a satire on fame and celebrity based on a true story with the 1911 New York Giants baseball team. So that is baseball fiction. The two main characters I created I then used in two murder mysteries, with a third on the way. So I can not advertise just one book, as I have different audiences to reach.

But is Amazon the only place to advertise? No. But I had to start someplace. I will try Facebook in April and may tinker here and there with other avenues. Previously I had dipped into the water by trying Awesome Gang newsletter. They say they have over 4,000 subscribers I believe, but don’t quote me on that. It cost $10 to be in their newsletter for one day. Cheap, I like it. No sales though. But as I said I was dipping my toes in the water. There are many of these newsletters and some authors have had sales. But I would urge you to fully research these sites as many will not deliver what you want. Also, based on what I have read from other authors, be cautious of anyone promoting your book on Twitter. Writers are told not to use adverbs like ‘very’ so I will not write that you should be very cautious.

I will keep you updated.