So many free books!

One of the things that I added to my resume recently was that, as a self-published author, I had to learn about marketing my books. After all, Amazon won’t do it for me. And, of course, it is not a good look to lose track of which sort of initiative one intends to run and where.

Adverts: Facebook or Amazon? Outlets: go wide or stick with Kindle Unlimited? Newsletter builders: do people even read them? Newsletter costs: the likes of Mailchimp only allow a maximum of addresses on their free accounts, and that does not remove the non-responders or unsubscribers. Author book fairs? Free book initiatives? Price reduction initiatives?

As I have mentioned before, I am autistic. Too much ‘stuff’ will lead to meltdown, So, I need to have this organised. Dates are always key. For example, I will be taking part in ‘ZoeBub’ which is a massive free book initiative, with over 1000 romance books available to download to an e-reader FOR FREE, on one day every quarter. The expectation is that each author will publicise the event both in the run-up and on the day when social media will need to be absolutely wall-papered with notifications and posts.

So for one day, you have to be tweeting constantly? It is one of those things where the more you post, the better the response is likely to be. The website is http://www.romancebookworms.com

That wasn’t so difficult.

But then, you have special offers.

My short story, Cân Y Môr, is in the “Shift You Not” anthology, which is on a special price via Amazon for 99c or 77p. That’s it, less that a dollar or a pound for an anthology. This particular anthology is only available until 5 July, so grab it while you can

That will be all for now. I need to ensure that this information is also in my newsletter and need to send that out, after incorporating all the names from my last newsletter builder.

Legends come from stories. Stories are told of deeds. Deeds are committed by those who have walked the earth. But what if the creatures of those legends still walked the earth, still doing those deeds which have made them legends? Welcome to the world of the Cwn Annwn, Guardians of the Celtic Underworld, in service to Mallt-y-Nos.

Born in Wales as Henry VII took the throne, Gabriel Black serves an ancient goddess. A visit to the Carpathians introduces him to his Mate, Aaleahya. Sometimes he helps humans. Sometimes he cannot help them. Sometimes the losses he must face make him wonder if it is even worth it?

Dare you walk in his world?

The Diaries of the Cwn Annwn is a myth and legend inspired series written by a group of friends around the world. As of 2022, there are eight books in the series with more to come.

Celebrate Roald Dahl Day … Vaccinate

Everyone knows Roald Dahl. James and the Giant Peach was my first of his stories, but I also enjoyed his very adult Tales of the Unexpected.

But did you know that he was a strong advocate of vaccination? Did you know he lost a child, his eldest daughter Olivia, just before the introduction of measles vaccination?


RELEVANT LINKS FOR JO PILSWORTH
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JKPilsworth

Paranormal may not be your thing. Urban fantasy may not either. But who knows? I may be one of your friends new favourite author.

Inspired by #Legends an #UrbanFantasy series. 

Alpha: https://t.co/IRZLR92AFu
Beta: https://t.co/DGDDI03VB9
Merysekhmet (US link): https://t.co/fFOUm5MHUs
Toho: https://t.co/oKtbDgrqiHhttps://t.co/mGMuJWd6Xd
Medved: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C19QKPH

AMAZON LINKS

Alpha (US link): https://t.co/IRZLR92AFu
Beta: https://t.co/DGDDI03VB9
Merysekhmet (US link): https://t.co/fFOUm5MHUs
Toho: (US link): https://t.co/oKtbDgrqiHhttps://t.co/mGMuJWd6Xd
Medved: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C19QKPH 

Tag! You’re it!

The other morning, I was looking through categories. One of the topics of recent discussion on the Interwebs has been how some individuals have manipulated systems like the Kindle Unlimited way of recording how many pages have been read in order to pay the author their share of the KU pot of money.

There are some quite unscrupulous people out there, and inevitably, it is the ones who play by the rules who suffer.

‘Stuffing a book’: 

This is a process whereby the content of the book is inflated. One of my personal issues is when you buy a print book, and find that a large font has been used, making a moderate word count seem more. This seems to be a tactic to inflate the price of said print book. In terms of e-books, ‘stuffing’ means that overly large line spacing has been used, or several ‘free’ books have been added, generally work that has been published on a website or similar. This can mean that a supposed 350 page book has 800-1000 pages. Yes, apparently that has been the level of ‘stuffing’.

bookstuffingfbgraphic-1

This process hurts honest authors because, if someone reviews ‘stuffed’ titles regularly, they are deemed to be in cahoots with the cheating author. So ALL their reviews are cancelled on Amazon, even if they are innocent of wrong-doing. This means in turn that an honest indie author who relies on each hard-earned review suddenly finds that they have lost a couple or more reviews. Even if the reviewer was innocent, they are unable to post new reviews.

So, it is not just a financial cheat, but it has a knock-on effect to others.

Keywords

Another interesting one, and it doesn’t just apply to books. A friend of mine sells handmade polymer clay on Etsy. The descriptions used by Carly’s Creative Clay may seem strange, but it is done that way so that her items can be found in product searches. Similarly, the descriptions used in the Little Thoughts Store are similar.

Challenge. Chart with keywords and icons. SketchIt is no different with books. I read a very interesting book recently, where this process was explained. For example, someone looking for a book like mine might type in ‘shifter romance series’, which might give more than a few returns. The trick is to think like your potential reader. What words will they use to find their preferred genre. These strings of words are what one uses when listing a book on Amazon or Smashwords. A keyword is not a single word. That is the important thing. Consider what a potential reader will look for. The flipside is quite simple. In what category do you list your book? Some categories have fewer books that others. Paranormal romance is a huge category. ‘Military paranormal romance’ is slightly smaller. ‘Urban fantasy military shifters computers’ is even smaller. Pick a small category and hey presto! Sell a hundred books or so and you are a best-seller in that category. So now, you can can add ‘Bestselling Author’ to your accomplishments.

Beware padding. keywords are also used when looking for a job. I have been looking at admin/secretarial type jobs recently. After all, that was my original training, and I have the transferable skills. But, and it is significant, my last twenty years have been working in sales. Many companies scan CVs for keywords, so just as you would try to work out what a reader might type in the search bar, consider what a potential employer might look for. If you want to convince them of transferable skills, use the right keywords and tags to demonstrate office skills. It may sound stereotypical, but that is the world in which we live and try to work.


RELEVANT LINKS FOR JO PILSWORTH
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JKPilsworth

Paranormal may not be your thing. Urban fantasy may not either. But who knows? I may be one of your friends new favourite author.
Inspired by #Legends an #UrbanFantasy series. 

Alpha: https://t.co/IRZLR92AFu
Beta: https://t.co/DGDDI03VB9
Merysekhmet (US link): https://t.co/fFOUm5MHUs
Toho: https://t.co/oKtbDgrqiHhttps://t.co/mGMuJWd6Xd
Medved: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C19QKPH

AMAZON LINKS

Alpha (US link): https://t.co/IRZLR92AFu
Beta: https://t.co/DGDDI03VB9
Merysekhmet (US link): https://t.co/fFOUm5MHUs
Toho: (US link): https://t.co/oKtbDgrqiHhttps://t.co/mGMuJWd6Xd
Medved: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C19QKPH 

Hellfire Banner V4

 

Behind The Masks

Cysgodion-Cover2One of the novels in my series is the story of a character who, from “Beta”, is painted as a barely leashed psychopath as he and his siblings were growing up. Rumour had it that he had even murdered his own brother to remove him from the line of succession. He attempted to kill the Alpha’s Mate of the Cwn Annwn. He attempted to shoot the Beta of the Cwn Annwn. He was behind several criminal schemes. All in all, Casimir Gosselin was not a ‘nice’ person.

But, hey! It is an urban fantasy and romance series, so that can’t be all there is to it. If I was writing according to the constriction of most traditionally published romances, then I doubt I would have had the freedom to explore Casimir’s character fully. That is one of the joys of self-publishing.

Casimir is not what he seems, and in “Cysgodion”, this is explained in greater detail. But considering Casimir’s story made me think about masks in general. We don’t walk around life wearing masks, like some extended Venetian carnival, yet many of us do wear virtual masks. Is it any wonder that one of my favourite creations in “The Diaries of the Cwn Annwn” does the same?Venetian mask

Consider this. When one is at work, there is an image to project. It might be because one works in a very conservative arena, such as law, or even to some extent, my own field of medical sales. I recall an incident about 12 years ago, when I was travelling by plane to an meeting in Aberdeen. I disembarked from the plane via the rear exit, and was walking to the terminal when a voice called my name. It was a Consultant from one of my major hospital accounts. This individual had known me for a few years, and in all those years, whenever I met with him, I wore a suit, low-heeled court shoes, neat hair and carried a briefcase. Stereotypical rep gear. What had surprised him was my usual travelling clothing: leather jeans, boots and a leather jacket. Even my makeup was different. I discovered that day the meaning of the phrase “jaw hit the deck”, because that was pretty much this Consultant’s reaction.

Some companies will say that they expect their personnel to maintain an image. A mask by any other name, because you may well be hiding your true persona. The other danger is that, whilst one is portraying an image, one can be sure that others will be doing the same. Moreover, the image projected may change: one image for the management, one for subordinates. When the two differ, and something goes wrong, there may be further issues caused, since when there is a significant disparity between images, which is to be believed?

sweep under carpetIs there a solution? The recent attempts to focus on how others view mental health issues in the workplace exemplify the problem. Mental health is such a minefield for most employers that it may be easier to brush it  under the proverbial carpet. Most companies exist to make profit, either for the owners or for the shareholders. They want and expect their staff to present the face that doesn’t have problems. If those problems exist, it is better to brush them under the carpet, which can be severely detrimental in the long run. This is something that needs to change. If one must focus on maintaining a mask, then surely focus will be lost from the primary responsibility: to make profit for one’s employers.

Honesty is the best policy. That’s another one of those trite phrases, but that is what I believe. Surely it is better to be able to be the person you are? After all, people buy from people, not from clones.

Going back to Casimir, one thing I will say is having to deal with the dregs of human behaviour, it made him a stronger and more resilient individual. I would suggest that those ‘forced’ to hide behind a mask are the same.


RELEVANT LINKS FOR JO PILSWORTH
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JKPilsworth

Paranormal may not be your thing. Urban fantasy may not either. But who knows? I may be one of your friends new favourite author.
Inspired by #Legends an #UrbanFantasy series. 

Alpha: https://t.co/IRZLR92AFu
Beta: https://t.co/DGDDI03VB9
Merysekhmet (US link): https://t.co/fFOUm5MHUs
Toho: https://t.co/oKtbDgrqiHhttps://t.co/mGMuJWd6Xd
Medved: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C19QKPH

AMAZON LINKS

Alpha (US link): https://t.co/IRZLR92AFu
Beta: https://t.co/DGDDI03VB9
Merysekhmet (US link): https://t.co/fFOUm5MHUs
Toho: (US link): https://t.co/oKtbDgrqiHhttps://t.co/mGMuJWd6Xd
Medved: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C19QKPH 

Hellfire Banner V4

 

 

The Birth of a Character

This is a tale of three thirds: the birth of a new character and realising the nature of transferable skills, along with the inclusion of those skills on a CV.

Transferable Skills

The other day, I applied for several admin-type jobs. The rationale was simple. Whilst all of them paid a lot less that my former role in medical sales, they would all place me in a lower tax bracket. The net result would be a take-home salary not far from what I was earning previously. So I don’t have the bonus lure of working in sales, were I to be offered one of those roles, but with my son finished at university, the extra cash is not so important. Food for thought?

But sales vs admin? Skills used in sales: organisation, prioritisation, multi-tasking, project management, management of e-mail accounts, liaison with varying levels of external contacts. All feature both in sales and in a senior PA/Office Manager role. I have just set up my own company properly, with an online Hunter’s Arrow Store Front. All of that will be going on my CV, because it is all relevant experience. However, a caution: DON’T LIE. Be careful how you present those skills, since the last thing you would want is to be caught in a lie.

CV-tings

Skills Update

Another useful thing to do whilst you are looking for another job is skills update. Several months ago, I took advantage of the sale at Udemy.com. I bought a four part course for £20, which focused on internet security. As of Monday 23 July, they have one day of a £10.99 flash sale on. Not a logical thing for a salesperson to have, but if I was going for an admin job, it could be very useful indeed.

Computer skills are not the only thing one can study with Udemy.com. It is worth checking their site because their sales make their courses very affordable.

Banquo O’Cearnaigh, Selkie

From the one who admits to being a ‘pantser’ by preference, it seems surprising that I started to plan one of my characters in advance of writing his story. As with all my characters, I started with a picture. I wanted to write a book incorporating elements of the Selkie legends, to I had an idea of what my character’s looks should be. Enter Maximiliano Patane, totally un-Scottish, but the look was important. Then he had to have some background, because no one lives in a vacuum, particularly when you are something like the tenth book in a series. So we have Banquo O’Cearnaigh, a male Selkie as well as an oceanic environmentalist and marine biologist, who flies planes to help with wildfires and forest fires. He serves Amathaunta, and is familiar with the Lamashtu and Sekhmet links held by other characters.images

His gifts from the Goddess free him from the seven year cycle of male Selkies, such that he can transform into his seal form or walk on land. He still retains his sealskin, He tries legal routes for protecting the oceans, but is not averse to less legal routes.

He studied Oceanography and Marine Biology at Bangor University in North Wales, having gone to university at the age of 17, graduating at 20. He joined the Royal Navy and served his 12 years commission.

Maximiliano PataneAfter leaving the Navy, he moved first to the Orkney Islands before moving to the USA at the behest of his goddess. He settled in Cape May, NJ, living in a Victorian house which is much larger than he needs.

Banquo’s book has the provisional name of “Teine Is Usige” or “Fire and Water”. As with all my novels, it is an urban fantasy, with romance. The female lead is Aisha Steine, a mystery woman with a few more gifts than she is prepared to reveal to him.

My co-author and I have been working on the new book already, and so far, Banquo has been forced to admit that he knows her brother, which has her demanding if he was sent to keep an eye on her. In this day and age, she is anything but amused by her brother’s somewhat Neanderthal attitude.

I predict that their book could be quite an interesting one to write.


RELEVANT LINKS FOR JO PILSWORTH
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JKPilsworth

Paranormal may not be your thing. Urban fantasy may not either. But who knows? I may be one of your friends new favourite author.
Inspired by #Legends an #UrbanFantasy series. 

Alpha: https://t.co/IRZLR92AFu
Beta: https://t.co/DGDDI03VB9
Merysekhmet (US link): https://t.co/fFOUm5MHUs
Toho: https://t.co/oKtbDgrqiHhttps://t.co/mGMuJWd6Xd
Medved: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C19QKPH

AMAZON LINKS

Alpha (US link): https://t.co/IRZLR92AFu
Beta: https://t.co/DGDDI03VB9
Merysekhmet (US link): https://t.co/fFOUm5MHUs
Toho: (US link): https://t.co/oKtbDgrqiHhttps://t.co/mGMuJWd6Xd
Medved: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C19QKPH 

Hellfire Banner V4

 

Yes, I Am Still Writing … Romance’

Why shouldn’t I write romance? After all, it is one of the top-selling genres. Then again, it could be compared to Hollywood, and the number of would-be actors who are working low-skilled jobs whilst ‘resting’.

It is my own belief that the worse the world seems around us, the greater the need for us to believe that there is something better. That’s where romance comes into the picture. Then again, there are things like this:

Go on, click on the rose and see where it takes you. This is something that pops up on a regular basis. As a self-published author, one might think I would run a mile from initiatives such as this. However the fact is that even M&B have to find new talent. This is how they do it, for their specific sub-genres.

Okay, so there are rules. They are looking for clean romance. No swearing and no sex. The books are 50,000 words long, which is only just above a novella. They want strong successful women and men who match them. Sweet romance. In return, even if you are not what they are looking for, you will receive editorial feedback.

That’s guaranteed editorial feedback.

What is not to like about that? So, before you diss romance, take a look at what you might gain from some of the initiatives out there.


LINKS FOR THE DIARIES OF THE CWN ANNWN AND THE HELLFIRE PACK SERIES

 BETA

img_0731Amazon. com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KB20OL6

Amazon. co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01KB20OL6

 

 

 

MERYSEKHMET

img_0048Amazon. com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XJPK5S7

Amazon. co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XJPK5S7

More Than A Christmas Star

Just about any author, self-published or traditional, would like to hope that the book into which they have put so much effort will be more than a shooting star. We would all like to think that, whilst it may not be a bestseller, it will be a steady seller, a star in the sky seen night after night, and not just a flash at Christmas.

But, the question is in which metaphorical sky?

The last year has not been as easy one for me, given that stresses in my day job resulted in my having a breakdown in May. That’s pretty impressive: admitting to a mental health problem, but it is what it is. What it did mean as an author was that I learnt some very important lessons about some of the networking options out there. These are lessons which are key when it comes to promotion and thus, hopefully sales.

Whilst I was in the depths of the pit of depression, I spent hardly any time online. As a self-published author, that was tantamount to suicide. Why? Self-promotion. If one is self-published, there is no big marketing machine to be out there making noise, telling folks about your book. Much like when you are working your way out of depression, you are on your own. Equally, there is no one else but you to keep a watch on the outlets, to find out with which blogger-reviewers one should work for best results. Is it worth joining peer to peer networks? Do they make a difference or just take advantage of your efforts to increase the sales of other authors?

That makes it sound a bit dire. But it is something that may be corrected. I withdrew my books from sale and am intending to relaunch in 2018, not necessarily in January, with improved copy, and with a better idea of how to maintain momentum without driving myself into the ground again. I have every reason to believe it is possible.

First thing, if you are planning to use social media, choose your platforms carefully. Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Snapchat. WhatsApp.

For the sake of argument, I will go for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as my word driven outlets. For me, the pictorial social media serve a purpose to promote my name. However, my genre is paranormal romance. Not all my target demographic use those, so they won’t be a priority.

Next is building a following. These are the people whom I hope will want to BUY my book. What I have noticed is that having a newsletter helps dramatically. Instafreebie. Rafflecopter. What they have in common is giving something away. So, before I publish the novels proper, I need to tempt people. A free book of short stories set in my ‘universe’ seems reasonable as it introduces people to my world. Maintain the momentum with a newsletter which has snippets and it should keep people interested.

Then, let’s return to social media. An author page and a personal profile have to be managed differently. The former is again somewhere for snippets. The latter? Well, the thing is one has to be careful about posts on your personal page. Don’t rant on either. Maintain positivity. It is a minefield.

Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can all be linked. It is also possible to use apps like Hootlet to schedule your posts. This is vital. Remember what I said about avoiding burnout? Let the software do the work for you. You may still edit scheduled posts, and this way, you may also be able to post to suit target timezones.

The trick is enjoy what you are doing. It doesn’t matter what you are doing. The day you cease to enjoy it is the day for serious re-evaluation.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas! May you have a good day and look forward to a productive New Year.