It has been said that authors live and die by reviews.  Nowadays, in the heat of the self-publishing revolution, this is truer than ever.  ePublishing has ushered in the beginnings of a paradigm shift, where readers are becoming the new gatekeepers of the publishing industry.  Well, maybe not the gatekeepers—more like the caretakers—as they are definitely more visibly involved in a book’s ranking.  Reader reviews such as those on Amazon (and other sites) are becoming true indicators of not only popularity but also quality.

That said; there is no denying that the marketing machines behind the major publishing houses still reign in mighty ways.  A press release for a new book coming out from Random House, for example, still has significantly more impact than an indie author tweeting about their blog tour.  There are sure to be advertisements and reviews found in the major newspapers both funded and managed by the large publishers.  Ignoring shelf space in bookstores, which is still a huge chunk of the market, we’re much more likely to see well-funded marketing efforts online with lots of “above the fold” placement for new “big six” releases too.  When we see this, it really exemplifies the black hole of publicity that most writers find themselves struggling to escape.  It is very hard to get even a little attention paid to the self-published book, regardless of the effort and expense the author may put into marketing it.  The industry is simply not yet geared to allow an easy sharing of limelight with traditionally published authors, and this will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future it would seem.

This is why reader reviews are so important for the indie writer.  While it’s obvious that there is a lot of “five star fluffing” happening, it’s my contention that with enough “thoughtful” reviews, a book will stand out as being worth a try for most readers.  On a side note, thanks to the advent of the eReader, free samples make trying a new author completely risk free, and that’s a good thing.  At the end of the day, the hope is that with enough reviews, visibility increases.  If the reviews are stellar, a book might even get selected as an Amazon Editor’s Pick, which is like a shot of recognition in the arm for the aspiring indie writer.

The problem is, as I see it, that it’s a real challenge for indie writers to get enough reviews to actually stand out among the established crowd.  If we take a look at some Amazon top sellers, we can see that Fifty Shades of Grey has ~7500 reviews right now.  Hunger Games has ~8000.  Interestingly, their star weightings are very different with FSoG having ~40% of its ratings composed from 1-3 star reviews (these are considered “critical,” or not-positive, according to Amazon), and HG’s 1-3 star ratings composing only 10% of its total reviews.

I think this is interesting because it somewhat underscores the concept that “any news is good news.”  Or it may just be that there are quite a few people impassioned enough about how bad they think FSoG is that they feel compelled to express it.  Anyhow, what I’m saying is that indie authors will be hard pressed to ever see these kinds of numbers.  Even the legendary J.A. Konrath’s Amazon reviews are measured in tens (mostly) and hundreds (a few), not thousands.

So what can the indie writer do?  Well, the first—and all-important thing—to do, IMHO, is to keep writing.  Not just because that’s what we love to do, but also because the more books one has out on the market, the more one’s chances for visibility increases.  It’s a well-known fact that Konrath has written a *lot* of books, and I believe that his large catalogue contributes significantly to his sales figures.

The second thing, I think, is to get a little bold and actually start asking for reviews.  I mean, I don’t think it can hurt as long as you’re not coming across as a pushy twit.  While it might feel smarmy to some, I’m pretty sure many readers don’t understand the impact that their review will have, especially for indies.  I also believe that if they did, they’d probably care enough—provided they liked or disliked a book/author enough—to take the 5-10 minutes (or 5-10 seconds on Goodreads, which is a great site for readers, btw) out of their life to help be a part of the indie publishing movement.  The fact is that there are quite a few great indie writers out there, and without the help of reader reviews they are likely to remain undiscovered amongst the ever-increasing torrent of self-published works.

I know that as a reader, before I ever published a book, I never even thought of leaving a review on Amazon for a book I’d read.  Even after publishing FALSE POSITIVES, I still have to feel fairly passionate (good or bad) about a traditionally published book for me to take the time to review it; however, when I read a novel from an self-published author, I am more likely to leave a review, because I know it counts more for those without a power-house marketing machine promoting their work.

In some ways, reader reviews are the only “real” advertising an indie author has that’s worth a salt.  Reader reviews are, in fact, a form of “word of mouth” marketing, and that’s the real power of the reader.  The more readers that come to learn this, the better off the self-publishing eco-system will be.  As a direct result of a more participative readership, more new authors will get discovered, more great authors will receive well-deserved praise, and a lot of not-so-good work will get justifiably punished.

It’s kind of like Darwinism if you think about it, where only the “fittest” writers shall survive, and I think that is a very healthy environment for both readers and writers.  Yet I fear the indie movement will continue to thrive only if participative readership continues to increase and more and more readers come to understand their importance.  After all, for whom do we write other than ourselves?  We write for the reader, and that’s why their reviews are more important than ever.

If you have enjoyed reading FALSE POSITIVES and have a little time, please leave a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the iBookstore, or wherever you got it.  Your support is most appreciated.  Every little bit helps!

I’ve written about KDP Select as a Marketing tool and the Net effect of KDP free promotions in prior blog posts, so this is a wrap up of what I’ve learned after entering my book, FALSE POSITIVES, into KDP select.

After using up my final few days of freebies, I’d given away over 800 copies of my book.  I’ve read some fantastic success stories where free promotions “sold” in the tens of thousands.  I’d attribute these successes to the marketing savvy of the author/promoter and how well the book is presented.

Yes, I do think that many people do still buy a book based on the cover even if it’s free.  But there are other factors in presentation, including the cover, such as your blurb, price point, and reviews.  Jeff Bennington has laid this out all very succinctly at the Writing Bomb, although I’m still on the fence regarding extremely low price points.

But, as they say, “mileage will vary.” Rose Andrade has written a very concise overview of KDP results on EPUB World.  She’s broken results down into three camps, which I believe are pretty accurate.  I’m posting personal thoughts and results for those who might find it helpful and/or interesting.

So 800 free copies… I must have actually sold some paid copies (hard to tell from the Amazon sales reports) during the free promo, as my paid sales ranking showed significant improvement once that metric reappeared after the free promotion ran its course.  Whatever I needed to sustain this, however, was missing, and as I’d seen during prior promos, paid sales rank steadily drifted downward post promotion.

Paid sales rank can seem to be somewhat of a fickle beast.  I’ve seen a single paid sale cut 100K or more off my sales rank.  My assumption is that these 100K books didn’t sell during the time mine did.   I’ve also seen similar shifts without having any sales, which I can only attribute to some time/sales calculation that I don’t really understand.  Regardless, during the free promos, I did see an exponential rise in my “free sales” ranking.  At one point, I apparently reached #1 for a bit (in Technothrillers), according to a friend on Twitter, but I slept through it.  In any case, anything toward the top of the “free best seller” list will give you “above the fold” visibility for anyone who actually views these lists.  Who actually looks at them, I’m not sure.

What is more seductive, however, is getting to the left side of this list, which is Top Paid—currently dominated for some time now by Suzanne Collins, who is obviously doing something very right.  I’m also pretty sure that she’s never been on the right (free) side of Best Seller’s list because I don’t think she’s never done a free promotion on KDP, which may be something to consider all by itself (although she does have her books in the Kindle Lending Library).  This may also be a sign that traditionally published writers simply get better exposure due to the backing of the big publishing houses.

So do KDP Select free promotions increase sales?  I believe the answer is:  it depends.  For some, yes!  A good example of a free promotion success story is detailed here by John L. Betcher.  For others, it’s no.  In my case, not really, but I do have a few final  inklings on KDP after having done this.

Inkling 1:  The Kindle Lending Library is not really a boon for the writer who is pricing their books at $3.99 or lower.  As one is only allowed to borrow one book per month, I think that people will want to get as much value as possible for their freebies.  Loaning a $5-$10 book from the library is a better value for most.  While I’ve not seen any real stats on this, I’d venture to guess that those sharing large chunks of the KDP lending pot are doing so by loaning higher cost books.  While this may seem to be a Catch-22 for the indie author, it might just be that the Lending Library is not going to be the gold mine some imagine it to be.

Inkling 2:  Authors with more books on the Kindle shelf will tend to see better post promotion sales.  The reason behind this is that once a person has received a book for free they are more apt to actually buy another (not free) book from the same author.  The downside to this is that if an author has given their only book away for free, there’s nothing left for the newfound fan to buy.

Inkling 3:  Those who’ve paid for a book are more likely to give it a review.  Anyone who pays for a book generally has more invested than someone who’s received it for free.  It’s my thought that the majority of organic (i.e. non-solicited) reviews come from those who’ve actually bought the book.  Often these are the best reviews, because the reader doesn’t feel obligated, or at least their obligation to tell others of the book comes from within.

My final thoughts for now…

How one makes this right (free) to left (paid) best seller transition is still somewhat of a mystery (to me at least), but I believe it all boils down (for the indie writer) to continued promotion and positive feedback from that all important person, the reader.  If you’ve got your cover and blurb polished to perfection, your book should sell at least a few copies even at price point higher than $5, and if those readers leave positive reviews, then you’re on the right track.  It means your book is not only worth reading, but it’s good enough for people to tell others about it, and that’s the best thing any author can hope for.

KDP Select has its pros and cons and its varying tales of success for the self-published author.  Will it equate to higher sales?  It depends.  Again, your mileage will vary.

This is the first article in a series on ePublishing, covering the aspects of the publishing process for the indie writer, who becomes an ePublisher by default when deciding to self publish their own book.

Having gone through this process myself, I’ve found there are many phases involved.  It seems like a lot of indie writer’s don’t realize how involved the publishing aspect can be.  There are ways to make the process streamlined, and hopefully what I share here can be of help to other writers who are trying to publish a book on their own.

A first critical step, of course, is to write a book; and even here, there are ways to work that can help make things better in the long run.  My first bit of advice is to know your word processor.  The fact is that writing a five or ten page essay is pretty easy—formatting wise; however, when your book grows close to 100,000 words with several chapters, it can become unwieldy.  For example, changing something in one place can have a ripple effect that may mess things up throughout the manuscript.  This is why I believe mastering the use of “styles” in one’s word processor might be one of the smartest things an indie writer can do.

I use Microsoft Word on a Mac, but many other word processors handle styles.  If your word processor doesn’t, you might want to think about getting one that does.  I won’t go into actually how to use styles in a particular word processor, but I’ll cover the “why” of it, providing some links for the former at the end of this article.

A style, in short, is a grouping of formatting options such as a font’s selection, size, and other attributes like bold, italic, etc.  There’s line spacing, indentation, and slew of other things that can be defined in a single style.  Once a style is defined, it can be applied to specific text areas within your manuscript with a single click.  The key here is to try and define and apply your styles up front before your work gets too big and potentially more complex; otherwise, going back and fixing things later can be a chore.  Styles, while simple, are very powerful and can save you a lot of time and anguish when used effectively.

Any manuscript is going to have “Normal” or “Body” text, which will have a certain style.  This style, call it Normal, is pretty much a no-brainer.  It’s probably going to be a nice 12-point serif font like Times Roman (I’m a sucker for Garamond myself).  This will probably have the first line of each paragraph indented, and depending on if this is going to an agent or to the printer, the text might be double spaced and justified with a “ragged” right edge or single spaced and full justified like we see in most finished publications.  This is a great example in and of itself, as one change to the Normal style can change the formatting of the entire manuscript.  Caution must be exercised here, because if you haven’t defined and applied styles other than Normal, you may inadvertently change things you didn’t want to.

It’s a common mistake to just use the Normal style everywhere, and then edit the parts you want different.  This is called direct formatting, and it’s not an ideal way to work on any long document.  For example, you might make the chapter name bold and increase the font size to 18-point.  You might want to right justify a chapter subtitle where you’ve written information like the time and location of the scene.  You might want to simply center the ubiquitous “* * *” section breaks within your manuscript.  And you may want to create an indented text section or even an italicized block of paragraphs, representing a dream sequence or an internal dialogue, for example.   There are a lot of places where text will deviate from the Normal style.  The problem is that later on, you’ll forget where all of these spot changes are, and one change to the Normal style can revert all of these direct formatting changes, putting you back at square one.  Trust me; I’ve done this before, and it’s not fun to fix.

Getting your styles correct before you’ve got hundreds of pages to work with will pay off in the long run.  The important thing to remember here is that changing a style in one place, changes text everywhere that the style is applied.  It’s best to be sure that every piece of text that differs from Normal has its own style applied so as to prevent changes happening where you didn’t want them to occur.

How does all of this help with self-publishing?  Well, imagine that you’ve written your book, and you’re going to use one of the many methods to get that book into a popular eBook format (e.g. ePub, mobi, etc.) or a format ready to use for POD companies like CreateSpace or Lightning Source.  Or maybe you use SmashWords–whatever.  You’re all excited because you’re about to see your book for sale!  When the magic moment comes that you preview your book, it looks like crap because the chapter title is too big, section breaks are weird, or something you didn’t (or couldn’t) catch in your word processor.  Rather than the fix being an arduous detour of manual rework, it can now be as simple as changing a style or two and trying again.  And that, my friends, is the beauty of using styles.

Here’s some links on using styles in Word and iWork’s Pages.  Know of some other good ones?  Please feel free to post them here as a comment.

• Creating ePub files with Pages
• Formatting Guides in Word for Mac 2011
• Style Basics in Word 2010
• Video for Applying Styles using Microsoft Word 2010

Enjoy.