Hey I wrote a novel! - Page 2

fodder · 31-01-2016, 23:13

Just picked it up, should get around to it this week.

jockosjungle · 15-02-2016, 18:06

Just started reading it, five chapters in, really interesting plot and really sucks you into reading just another chapter. The odd mistakes here and there but nothing major.

I know its a personal choice on your part, but not a fan of the formatting, I know this is a trivial thing but the start of each chapter, CHAPTER FIVE - Dust, can't put my finger on it, I think it could do with a bit more spacing if you're going to title the chapters, maybe look in other books and see how they do it.

I also think the full tab at the start of each paragraph is a little old fashioned, I've just checked a few books and they don't do it (even Bill Bryson who you'd expect to be a stickler for such things).

I'm being awfully pedantic I know, but although the book is excellent, it gives the impression you've done the formatting yourself (which I guess is true) but I think you should look to mirror professionally published stuff rather than looking like you've copy/pasted from Word.

But a great effort, definitely consider writing another!

How many have you sold?

Taq · 15-02-2016, 21:00

Quote:

Just started reading it, five chapters in, really interesting plot and really sucks you into reading just another chapter

Glad you're enjoying it, and thanks for the feedback!

To be honest I'm not a massive fan of the chapter header formatting either (it was some auto Scrivener- Word thing I was too scared to change in case I broke something) - I'm currently sorting out a paperback version with CreateSpace and have changed them there, so I'll probably sort out a newer Kindle version while I'm at it. One of the great advantages of the Kindle store is that you can make updates whenever you like - I'll take a look at some books in Waterstones next time I'm there for some research...

Sales haven't exactly been stellar (the odd one here and there after a brief initial surge), but I've had a few thousand KU page reads, so someone somewhere is reading it! To be honest it's to be expected (although still a bit of a downer) as I'm an unknown author with a self-published book, and getting noticed from the huge pool of stuff that's already out there is very challenging. It's like being a baby bird in a nest of half a million other birds, most of which are bigger than you

I've signed up for a few promotional sites so I'll see if any of those do anything. The main problem is the catch-22 of reviews. Most people and popular websites won't buy, review or promote anything that's not gathered a good number of 4-star+ Amazon.com reviews (I've garnered a few good ones on .co.uk now but for some reason they don't count!), but without the promotions no one knows your book exists to buy and review in the first place. Review blogs are another avenue, but the owners are usually swamped with requests and again you have the same problems.

It's great therefore that forums such as these exist, so if you are enjoying anything please don't keep it to yourself and spread the word

douglasb · 15-02-2016, 21:32

Promotion is hard. Once you have hard copies, take the hit and give some away. Colin will do you a competition. Do a Twitter giveaway. Spend the next year just pushing it at every opportunity. Oh, and start writing your next one - and start the promotion for it now!

jockosjungle · 16-02-2016, 06:40

My mate did the self published thing, however he got it printed on demand by amazon as well, looked really good. He could also say the book version was �10 but the kindle was �4 so people thought they were getting a deal.

Get yourself a facebook page, etc.

Taq · 22-02-2016, 22:20

If anyone's interested I recently started a blog with tips for writing, commentary, etc. I've also started doing debut book reviews to try and help other new authors get a foothold in the system.

https://edryderblog.wordpress.com/

Rob · 23-02-2016, 06:51

Looks good, I'll keep an eye on the blog.

jockosjungle · 23-02-2016, 07:51

I'm 10% from the end now! Really enjoying it, out of interest did you consider sending it to a real publisher? I think it's really good, well developed characters and an exciting plot.

Taq · 23-02-2016, 12:58

Cool, thanks!
I did originally consider submitting it but to be honest I got scared off by all the doom-saying tales on the internet, proclaiming that the chance of being picked up by an agent was about 2% at best, and then getting a publisher was another big hurdle after that.
Then again now it's actually out, there's no harm in trying I guess. The worst that can happen is they'll say no, which they were probably going to do anyway

Taq · 25-02-2016, 14:32

Hi Rob,

If you've got a few spare minutes could you do me a massive favour and cross-post your review to the Amazon.com site please? I have a promotion coming up this weekend for my book and someone decided to choose now to post a bad review, lamenting a lack of as many commas as they would like, and the fact it had a flashback in it (there's no evidence they actually read past the first chapter, since they don't mention anything about the actual story or characters...).
I'm therefore looking to redress the balance!

Many thanks,
Taq

jockosjungle · 25-02-2016, 18:24

I posted a review to the .com for you, it seems to be being processed, I'll copy/paste it over when it comes online to the .uk. I also said her review wasn't helpful, she still gave it three stars though. She also made me feel smart as I was able to read a long sentence!

Anyhow, great book, I really enjoyed it.

Rob · 25-02-2016, 19:04

Done.

Taq · 26-02-2016, 07:03

That's brilliant - thank you both for the review posts!
rbullivant - glad you enjoyed it!

Taq · 26-02-2016, 18:05

As part of a haphazard and poorly planned marketing strategy, In Vitro Lottery is free for this weekend!

I'm using a promotional /spamming company to spread the word so it will be interesting to see how it performs in comparison to this post

Taq

jockosjungle · 26-02-2016, 18:11

Would you like me to post it as a freebie on Hot UK deals?

Taq · 26-02-2016, 18:19

That would be fab thanks! I'm tracking it through the link http://amzn.to/21xha6Q

(you learn something new every day - I had no idea you could do things like that with url shortners!)