I am an author, and regardless of the
twelve e books published on Amazon. I will not say I am established, and I am
not an independent publisher for very good reasons. One reason is my IT skills
are not the greatest in the world and I have no idea how to format a story into
the e book formula. There are also things like grammar to check that although being English
I fall short of being perfect by 30% or more.
I have a publisher that takes her cut
out of my royalties that has a very hard working editor. He will check my story
through and make it more presentable to the general public. Over the years
through his patience with answering my questions with a real critique my
grammar has improved another 10%. I will not go into why my grammar is so bad
because it is well documented in my story, Dunce at the Back of the Class.
I read stories of a different genre to
the one I write, so as not to fall into any acts of plagiarism. I am happy the
way things are going, and even with the meagre royalties I collect every year. I am happy that the publisher and the editor take a percent of my
royalties, because without them my stories would still be in a folder on a
flash drive. I cannot see in the future where I will drop everything and go on
a world cruise spending my royalties. I have seen the world and I have no need
for travel.
I write because I enjoy writing stories
that I hope that others read and enjoy them, and the money aspect is just icing
on the cake. I like others reading my stories and hear their appreciation or
their concerns. Critique is something I can live with, and I never get upset
with a bad review because one bad review is just .01 percent of the world audience. I
read them and check to see if what they criticise could be done better, and
always consider the usefulness of the criticism.
The thing that is getting on my nerves
just lately is the writers that are name droppers when trying to sell their
stories. I am afraid I checked a few out because of my disbelief, and I believe
a certain amount to be stretching the truth just a tad. I belong to a book club
that gives me e books at a reduced fee or sometimes free. Two of the main
selling lines are 500 five star reviews on Amazon. *Really?*
I had to check this out just to satisfy
my own curiosity, and knock me down with a feather. There they all were all 500
reviews, and if you think that is remarkable then I will tell you now that this
person has only written one book by the Amazon information, and it has only been
published three months. How remarkable is that?
Now this is the part I really don’t
understand or maybe I do. This story was advertised on Amazon for I think $4
whatever, but this guy is now giving it away for a week for free. I have to ask
why? If this story is so successful over a three month period, surely the
writer is on a roll. I think the real reason is he needs to collect some real
reviews to mix in with the 500 B/S ones. However, I might be just cynical. Then
again I could be green with envy—no let’s not go there because that day will never
arrive.
There is one other sales ploy that
always brings a smile to my face, and the words are, “Bestselling author to the
NYT,” Really? How many bestselling authors do the NYT have in 28 days and who
is doing all this reading instead of writing about real news? These questions
and other useless bits of information will be talked about in some of my other
blogs.
My stories sell because of my royalties,
but I think I have only had about six reviews spread out over all the stories.
I read one review and I have read it several times and wonder each time if the
review was even meant for that story. If it was, I believe it was for a different story
from the one I thought I had written. Still at least he put his finger on the
keyboard to show his appreciation for what he thought he had been reading.
It is a hard being in the world of an
author, and I am glad that I keep my feet firmly on the ground. I do not write
for the money, but having said that, what comes my way I am thankful for. I
never care if my royalties only pays for a few days holiday in the prettiest
country in the world, Scotland, as long as they pay for something. To all of you
struggling authors keep writing the stories, and if fate smiles your way you
will be recognised. Never throw down the pen in despondent capitulation to the
millions of other writers feeling the same as you.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vengeance-Mine-Ian-Johnstone-ebook/dp/B017WJCJ1E/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&qid=1455446505&sr=8-24&keywords=ian+johnstone
I checked one more to make sure that I was not talking nonsense, and found an amazing fact. On one of these adverts. ***** story by ******** had 500 five star reviews on amazon. This person had ten stories on Amazon but I only counted three hundred reviews shared between the ten stories. the person could not count and the advert was a lie at worst and fraudulent at best. I do not like being cheated whether the story is free or paid for, because at the end of the day it is my time being wasted reading second rate stories.
I checked one more to make sure that I was not talking nonsense, and found an amazing fact. On one of these adverts. ***** story by ******** had 500 five star reviews on amazon. This person had ten stories on Amazon but I only counted three hundred reviews shared between the ten stories. the person could not count and the advert was a lie at worst and fraudulent at best. I do not like being cheated whether the story is free or paid for, because at the end of the day it is my time being wasted reading second rate stories.
Be Well Ian.
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