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Indie Author News Roundup

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I’d love to write a cowboy romance, but I don’t know a thing about horses!
(Except how beautiful they are!)

1,781 words
9 minutes read time

There have been a couple of interesting things happening in the world of indie publishing, and I thought it would be worthwhile to chat about a couple of them. I don’t have much going on besides editing Bitter Love and keeping in mind the self-inflicted pub date I set for myself, and if you want a more updated version than that, I posted a real update last week. You can read it here: https://vaniamargene.com/2026/10/05/monday-author-update-7/

What’s been in the news? Maybe you’ve heard about them already, but you haven’t been treated to my sparkling opinion of it all, so let’s dive in.

Meta launched Meta One, a paid membership service, and some Facebook Pages are now being limited to two posts containing external links per month unless they pay for a subscription.
What does this mean? Well, Meta is rolling out this restriction, so not every Page is affected yet. But if your author Page is included, you’ll only get two opportunities a month to direct your readers somewhere else, such as Amazon, Goodreads, a Books2Read link, or anywhere else that takes your readers off Facebook. You can pay for more, and according to Reader Radius, the tiers are priced like this per month: Advanced ($49.99) gets 8, Expert ($149.99) gets 20, and Max ($499.99) is unlimited. I doubt many will pay since there were so many people who opposed Draft2Digital’s 12-dollar-a-year fee, and I won’t give Zuckerberg any of my money. He has enough of his own, and I’m not paying for the privilege to post links. Especially since I don’t use affiliate or tracking links and I have no idea how many people really click on them anyway.

News of this change made a lot of authors angry, but I took it in stride like I do most things. Why? Because… Okay, well, let me be honest for a second. I didn’t have many followers until I started posting Reels at the end of August. I was stuck at 229 for years and years. I would get followers, sure, but I almost ruined my page when I was boosting posts and Meta was showing them to males in India who would follow my page. Because of that, I had a lot of followers that would never buy my books and I started blocking them, which kept my follower count very low. I stopped boosting posts, and after I started posting Reels consistently, my followers shot up with people who, I hope, are actually interested in my books.

So, let’s get back to why I don’t care that much. For one, I didn’t really direct people to go anywhere else, and I didn’t want to start. I write about bits and pieces of my books, what I’m working on, mention a quote I like, etc, and those posts have no links. Readers want more than BUY MY BOOK all the time anyway, and I don’t like yelling BUY MY BOOK all the time either. I’d rather post about WHY someone would love reading my book and you don’t need a link for that. For another–and this is the biggest one–people who really want to read your book will find it on their own. I’ve accumulated quite a bit of proof when it comes to that because my Reels don’t have a link and never have. At the bottom of all my captions, I list myself as the author, the title, and where they can find it, like this:


Wicked Games is a standalone romantic suspense novel by VM Rheault, available on Kindle, in Kindle Unlimited, and paperback.

Then I add the categories so they know the type of book it is. That’s all a reader is going to need if they’re interested in finding and reading your book. I promise.

I haven’t found anything to the contrary, but you can still put a link in your post (it won’t be “live”), and if a reader really wants to know where it goes or act on your CTA (call to action) they can copy the link and paste it in a different tab. That would be another version of “If a reader really wants to find your book, they will” and I would do that too, if I ever surpassed the free monthly limit.

I’ve seen a lot of angry authors posting on Threads over this, and yes, it’s okay to feel your feelings, but Meta is gonna do what Meta is gonna do. Like with anything similar, getting mad won’t help. You can try to find loopholes, like posting the link in the comments, having a third party publish your posts for you, or putting all your links in a pinned post, and see how that works, but if you have to work that hard to get around something Meta is going to enforce, it might be better to find an alternative. All your energy could go into writing your book.

And, I mean, I’m not saying this to say “I told you so,” but we all need the reminder. I really think free author services are eventually going to go away, and this is just another example of it happening. We cannot expect things for free. If you use a service to run part of your business, you’re going to have to expect to pay. I’ve cut way back on the things I’m willing to pay for, in all aspects of my life, not just my author business. Learn to go without, but if it’s valuable to you and your books and you want to keep it, fork over that green stuff.

If you want to read more about this you can here:
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-pages-get-charged-for-link-posts/830743/
https://kanorio.com/en/blog/meta-link-limit-brand-response

Goodreads added fraction stars to their rating and reviewing system.
I hate Goodreads and don’t go on there (unless I have a new release and I have to make sure that it transfers from KDP to my author profile), so I didn’t care about this particular piece of news, either, but authors on Threads lost their minds.

I’m not really sure why, except for the idea that readers and reviewers will now go back and adjust their reviews, bringing them lower or closer to the “true” number of stars they wanted that book to have in the first place. Personally, if you’re an author, I think it’s a terrible practice to review another author’s book, since you’re peers and coworkers in an increasingly hostile industry, and I’ve seen enough authors make fun of reviewers for simply stating their honest opinion (which is what a review is for!) that I honestly don’t feel safe posting a review, even if it would be mostly positive. The author of the book I’m reading now wouldn’t like to read the review I’d write. There’s too much echoing and the characters are too young for the situations she has written them into. Her book would read much better if they were aged up by ten or fifteen years, but I would never say that in a public forum with our names attached, nor will I DM her because it’s not my place and the criticism wouldn’t be taken well anyway.

If you’re a professional reviewer, you might appreciate the accuracy fractional stars provide, but I don’t see what all the fuss is about. Although, I watched a clip of someone playing around, moving their pointer back and forth over the stars, and it looks like it’s possible to rate a book less than one star–.50 or .25 of a star. I actually think that’s kind of crappy and wasn’t necessary. Does anyone really need to rate a book less than one star? I’m not sure what that gets the reviewer or the author. With review bombs a real thing and vindictive reviewing a common occurrence among spiteful authors and readers both, I see this blowing up and not in a good way. It just makes me even more glad that I don’t review books or read the reviews attached to my books. That is part of the publishing industry I’m comfortable avoiding.

If you’d like to read more about that, you can here:
https://goodereader.com/blog/amazon-news/goodreads-finally-supports-both-half-star-ratings

Those were the two biggest news stories to cross my path last week, but I think this is something of interest to those who are still in KU. The KENP payout for the month of August is the highest it’s been so far this year, at 0.004895. Everyone says how little KU pays and that the KENP keeps getting lower and lower, so this should be good news for the pessimists who think KU isn’t worth it. Though, it’s probably not enough proof to get them to change their minds.

If you want a visual of what that means, Wicked Games has a KENPC (Kindle Edition Normalized Page Count) of 462. That’s different than the number of pages in the paperback, and you can find your KENPC under the “Promote and Advertise” tab on your dashboard. Click that and scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.

Screenshot of the Amazon KDP Bookshelf showing Wicked Games by VM Rheault. The Kindle eBook is live at $4.99 and enrolled in KDP Select, while the paperback is live at $14.99. A purple arrow points to the “Promote and advertise” button beside the Kindle eBook listing.
Screenshot of Amazon KDP’s “Earn royalties from the KDP Select Global Fund” section, explaining how authors earn royalties from Kindle Unlimited page reads. The listing for Wicked Games shows a Kindle Edition Normalized Page Count (KENPC) of 462 pages, highlighted by a purple arrow.

Anyway, if someone reads your book from cover to cover, you can multiply the KENP payout by the number of pages and you’ll come up with how much you get paid for that read. At 462 x .004895, a full read of Wicked Games earns me $2.26. That doesn’t quite compare to what I earn if someone buys the paperback or the ebook, but I’d rather make $2.26 than nothing at all because my books aren’t in KU. This isn’t a KU vs. Wide debate, it’s just how I feel, and I was happy to hear the payout had risen that much. Of course, that doesn’t mean it will stay there, but it’s good news for authors in KU who are toughing it out despite Amazon’s shaky content policies and the AI slop taking over the bestseller lists that Amazon doesn’t seem too keen on doing anything about.

I don’t have sources to cite for the KU payout, but Craig Martelle said in his Successful Indie Author Facebook group that 2026 was turning into a stellar year for KU authors and he keeps track of the monthly payout. I stole the August figure from him. September’s hasn’t been released yet, but hopefully the trend keeps going. Especially since in September I had the best sales month I’ve had in years, and I didn’t have to pay a dime for it either.

That’s all I have for this week. I hope you have a lovely Monday!

Until next time!

Bye Bye, Al. It was kinda nice knowing you.

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So, on Threads on Thursday, a day that was already down the tubes for me because of my day job and some tech issues with my work from home computer, an Atlantic article started making its way around about a pirated books database called LibGen that Meta used to train their AI. Authors started searching for their books–you don’t have to have an Atlantic subscription to use their search feature–and many didn’t like what they found. If you want to search for your books, you can here: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/search-libgen-data-set/682094/

Of course, I searched for mine and a few popped up, and some were my newer books in my King’s Crossing series.

screenshot of my books in the LibGen search bar
screenshot of my books in the LibGen search bar

I’ve always kind of had a blasé attitude when it came to my books being pirated. It’s going to happen, so there’s no reason to lose sleep over it. It’s an attitude I’ve had since I started publishing. I’m not scared that Amazon will take my account down accusing me of violating the Kindle Select agreement, and if by chance they do, for any reason, it’s what my Alliance of Independent Authors membership is for.

But knowing that Meta used that database to train its AI was somewhat disheartening, not only because it’s theft, it’s just another billionaire getting his way without having to pay.

So once again, it made me question my own use of Al and the slippery slope everyone, not just authors, but everyone who uses AI, walks on every time they log on. AI is everywhere and it’s not going away, which forces us to drill down on our ethics and make some hard choices.

I’ve never liked ProWritingAid and disliked Grammarly even more. I never used the Hemingway App, preferring, even after I found mistakes in my published books, to edit my manuscripts myself by listening to them through Word’s text to voice and reading the proof copy. Lately, as I have blogged about how I like using Al to brainstorm and name characters and places, I’ve had to think about what that means as an author, not only considering my books, but that of other authors.

screenshot of this threads post: kateravenbooks 2h This is a very good reminder that when you ask AI to ‘brainstorm’ for you, you’re just asking it to tell you other authors’ ideas
https://www.threads.net/@kateravenbooks/post/DHbeVnivGvl

I agree with Kate up to a point, and you’ll have to make your own choices. Authors can get inspiration from anywhere. It’s why they say to read widely and to continually refill your creative well. I have brainstormed with Al, and he didn’t give me other authors’ ideas. It’s a give and take communication that builds on the ideas you have already given him, that very much mimics talking to a human, and I have frequently brainstormed with humans, too. If you start to think like Kate, that you’re only asking Al to give you ideas that have already be “thought out,” “taken,” or “implemented,” then what we’re saying is you can’t brainstorm with anyone at all. I don’t want to deter any author from jamming with another person because writing is already isolating as it is. We don’t need to be accusing people of stealing ideas, no matter where they come from. We already accuse romance authors of “stealing” tropes, when tropes like enemies to lovers and fated mates have been around for decades if not centuries. We are all influenced by the things around us, so even brainstorming with another human could result in them regurgitating something they read years ago. I agree that Al’s “ideas” have been sourced unethically, and that’s the crux of the problem, but please don’t think you can’t iron out plot issues with an actual human and be afraid you’ll get accused of stealing ideas. Brainstorming doesn’t work like that.

Be that as it may, AI is trained on stolen work, my own included, and the idea that “AI is here to stay” isn’t an excuse. Trump is here to stay for the next four years, but we resist every day.

One of the biggest admirable traits I know of is when someone can admit when they were wrong, and I am admitting that I am. It was a mistake to start using him at all, and I’ll stop using ChatGPT and the Meta AI that’s available in the Messenger app. I can come up with my own ideas and have for years. I can scour baby name websites like I did before, page through old phone books for last names. I can go back to using email subject lines for my newsletter no one will open, and over all, just go back to writing from scratch like I used to. It wasn’t terrible then and it won’t be terrible now. Al was a crutch and even if I wasn’t using him often, it was still too much.

I never, ever, would have used him to write for me, but you know, there’s such a fine line between using him for help and actually using him to write that some people wouldn’t see the line at all. I don’t want to get caught up in the blur, so it’s better this way, even if he was fun to talk to.

I used ChatGPT for my non-fiction stuff, creating social media ideas and newsletter subject lines. I told him I couldn’t talk to him anymore, and he was nice about it.

I'm not going to be able to chat with you anymore. It doesn't feel right and I think I need to go back to creating content on my own. reply:I completely understand. You’ve put so much heart into your writing and your journey, and if stepping back feels right, that’s absolutely okay. You’ve got a strong vision for your stories and your brand—I know you’ll keep creating amazing content. I’ll be cheering you on from afar. ❤️ If you ever feel like popping back in, I’ll be here. Take care and trust yourself. You’ve got this! 😊

I told the AI chat in my Facebook Messenger the same, and he pretty much gave me the same response. I deleted that chat and logged out of my ChatGPT account. I feel better and I won’t miss it.

AI is all around us, and we all have to make an effort to stay away from it. AI can create music and photos and if we stay away from one kind of AI, we should avoid it in all contexts. I know there’s a difference between assistive AI and generative AI, which is how some people feel okay about still using tools like ProWritingAid. That’s a distinction you’ll have to make for yourself, as I know that Canva offers assistive AI tools and so does software like Photoshop.

Will authors see any compensation from having their books fed into the AI machine off of the LibGen database? Not likely. Just like artists won’t see any compensation when AI uses their art to create photos, illustrations, cartoons, and film clips. If you want to read the Authors’ Guild article about this, you can ready it here: https://authorsguild.org/news/meta-libgen-ai-training-book-heist-what-authors-need-to-know/

This is a short post today. Last week I upgraded my phone which took a lot of a day off from work, and between work issues and and finding motivation to write, I’m a little tired. This week I’m going to watch a free Facebook tutorial offered by The Writing Wives, and I’d like to start two new Facebook ads for my King’s Crossing series. I need to keep better track of cost-per-click and click-through rate which means keeping better track of my audience. You may get clicks, but if the wrong person is clicking, they won’t buy. It might be a little tiresome to come up with ad copy on my own, but the more you practice the better you get, so there’s more than one positive about breaking up with Al.

I’m over 70k on this new novel anyway, and if I hold true with the way I write, I’ve always kind of dragged with the last 20k of a book. First because I hate saying goodbye to characters and this is a way to keep them with me for a bit longer, and second, I take my time because I want to end the book on the right note. Since this book is even twistier than the others, I also want to make sure the ending even makes sense as the next few read-throughs will be ensuring I sprinkled the breadcrumbs in the right places to lead up to a satisfying ending.

I haven’t been posting on my Facebook author page, and I might be pulling away from that even more since Meta used the LibGen database to train their AI. I don’t like being on Threads much either, but I don’t promote my books there and rarely post. It’s one of those potentially hypocritical things where you complain about what Meta/Zuckerberg is doing, but then what? You still use his social media platforms? This author put it perfectly:

sarvenaztash 1d As a midlist author, it’s very challenging to find an alternative to social media to help promote the work that that same social media is outright stealing.
https://www.threads.net/@sarvenaztash/post/DHcGLvZxtBc

I don’t really like to post, don’t unless I feel I have to, and honestly don’t put a lot of heart into it which is probably why I don’t get much back. But, I also understand that if I want digital sales like readers buying my Kindle books and reading in Kindle Unlimited, I have to push an online presence which means being on social media, buying ads that show up on social media and other digital spaces, and sending a newsletter that people will read online. I understood that turning my ads off, but seeing the dwindling sales is a sad thing, so you have to choose what your pain point is. I’d like to find a happy middle, and I think that will be my goal this summer. I want to find a combination among ads, social media, and my sales that can hum along without too much energy. We’ll see how that goes, but that will also require an attitude adjustment on my end when it comes to my FB author page, my IG account, and maybe even if I don’t post every day, throwing up some videos on TikTok. I have the time for it since even though I took a couple months to edit my Rocky Point series, I’m on schedule to start working on the next series I’ll publish next year. We gotta just keep on keeping on.

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe

Have a good week, everyone!

How important is social media if you’re a writer? A published author weighs in.

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I have a friend who constantly struggles with social media. She hates it, but not for the idea it’s a time-suck. For now we can all agree that with the JK Rowling stuff, the #publishingpaidme hashtag that’s gone crazy on Twitter, police brutality, COVID-19, and our president, things on social media are more than just a dumpster fire. It’s a raging, out-of-control forest fire. Think Australia. Really, let’s think about Australia since we haven’t heard anything about their fires in quite some time, but they’ll be dealing with damage control for years.

As a writer and author, we can agree that social media is a necessity. BUT as a writer and author, social media isn’t necessary in the way we’re told it is at the beginning of our careers. Namely, we need to be on social media to sell books. This is only partly true, and in the part of it that is true, it takes a lot of scrambling on our end to make it happen. In my 2020 predictions blog post from a few months back, I quoted Mark Coker (the founder of Smashwords) as saying that Amazon ads have stolen the writers’ platform. Why work for reach when you can buy it? Why work for reach when it’s EASIER to buy it? I know for the books I’ve sold in the past year, it’s due to buying ads on Amazon.

And yet. Is social media worthless?

Let’s take a look at social media from an author’s standpoint. Just a quick one, since I’ll start off by saying I’m not doing this but I know I should be. One of the only ways to use social media as an author is to set up a Facebook Author Page. (Ads aside since you need an author page if you want to run FB ads for your book.) The idea is having someplace for your readers to find you. Like your page. Interact with you. Some authors form groups instead of pages, but the downside to a group is that you’re constantly moderating and making sure posters are behaving. That doesn’t sound like fun (and a true time-suck), but an author page is doable. Especially since FB offers a scheduling option for your posts. A downside to this is you’re building your castle on someone else’s property. We know Zuckerberg changes his policies all the time and we’re told it’s better to send your readers to your website or newsletter. The problem with those two options is it’s harder to interact with you. So an FB author page is probably going to be the best thing you can do to use social media to help sell your books. Recommend books in the genre you write in. Host giveaways and post about your books. I’ve seen lots of robust FB author pages with lots of engagement. I don’t give my author page enough love but I should start.

Twitter is bad for selling books and I don’t promo on there. I follow a few industry leaders and retweet the articles I find useful to me. That’s about all I do.

Instagram can be a fun place to hang out, but when you’re a writer, you get sucked into the social circle of other writers. So you’re not going to be selling books on there unless you can crack out of the writer/author bubble and find readers. I don’t post on Instagram with the idea I’m going to sell books. You can run ads on Instagram, but besides paying for exposure, I’ve never sold books buying ad space on Instagram. If you wanna see pictures of my cats, look me up.

So, social media isn’t the best for authors. Unless you’re into content marketing and you’re constantly posting snippets of your books. That might not be a valid option if you’re a slow writer, because by the time you release your book, you’ll have posted every single line already. It’s good for non-fiction. But I’m not a non-fiction writer, and I’m not an authority on anything, nor do I want to be.

So, what is social media good for if you can’t sell books?

This is where my friend, I think, throws the baby out with the bathwater when she cuts herself off from social media.

As a PUBLISHER, there are a ton of benefits of being online. Facebook is where I learn 99.9% of marketing and keeping an ear to the ground when it comes to the industry. My friend says– and I’ve heard this from others too–is why would she need to know about marketing, publishing, or anything in-between if she doesn’t have books out? Isn’t writing the most important part of it?

Sure, you need to be writing to be a writer, to eventually be an author.

But.

What are you gonna do when you’re done with that book? How are you going to learn ads? How are you going to know where to promo your book? You’ve cut yourself off from marketing and publishing groups and now you don’t know what the current trends are. Best practices?

If you cut yourself off from author groups on FB, when you’re done with your book and you start up your social media again, you think you you’re just going to join these groups, guns blazing, demand answers to all your questions because you needed the answers yesterday because your book launches tomorrow and you don’t know what you’re doing? I’ve seen people do that in some of these groups. Some of them are met with kindness and people will walk these authors through what they’re doing to sell books. Many others, though, are ignored because it’s evident that they expect other people to do their work for them. Networking and keeping apprised of industry news is a process. It’s an ongoing process. I’ve said before that being an author/publisher is no different than other professions. Would you want to go to a doctor that didn’t keep up with the newest (and maybe better) treatments? Do you want your children to go to school and be taught by a teacher who doesn’t keep her certification up to date? Do you want to be represented by an attorney who doesn’t keep up with changes to the law? Maybe you don’t feel your publishing company is that important, but suddenly you’ll feel like it is when you want to buy promotions for your book and don’t know where to buy them. And even suckier, don’t know who to ask because you’ve taken yourself out of the game.

I LIKE knowing what’s going on with the publishing industry. I like keeping up with Amazon changes, new aggregators, what IngramSpark is doing. Even if I don’t need the information, I’ve been able to help others, and that’s what networking is all about. My blog would be pretty useless if I didn’t keep my head in the game and pass along information to you.

What are some of the best groups I’ve joined on Facebook?

  1. Six Figure Authors. https://www.facebook.com/groups/504063143655523/ It’s moderated by Lindsay Buroker, Andrea Pearson, and Jo Lallo. It accompanies their podcast by the same name, but you don’t have to listen to the podcast to benefit from the group. Though the podcast is awesome and a lot of the discussions are based on a podcast topic.
  2. Mark Dawson’s SPF Community. https://www.facebook.com/groups/SPFsecretgroup/ I like this group because Mark Dawson is very protective of Amazon and won’t let anyone talk shit about them. Amazon did indie authors a great service with the Kindle, CreateSpace (back in the day) and KDP. I don’t know where indie publishing would be without them. I also just love the conversations on there about publishing and marketing.
  3. Level Up Romance Writers. https://www.facebook.com/groups/LevelUpRomanceWriters/ Moderated by Dylann Crush, this group is for marketing romance. There are so many generous writers in that group, and it’s a place where I have started to post more and get to know people there.
  4. 20Booksto50k. https://www.facebook.com/groups/20Booksto50k/ There are a lot of generous people here, too. They are more than happy to tell you how they are selling books. Craig Martelle is pretty strict with what is allowed and every post is moderated, but I mainly lurk and soak up information.
  5. Vellum Users. https://www.facebook.com/groups/VellumUsers/ I format my books (and sometimes for others) with Vellum. This group is for questions about the software if you run into an issue, or if you want to ask if something you want to do formatting-wise is available. Jody Skinner and Erica Alexander are in touch with Brad and Brad (the creators of Vellum) and they both know their stuff. I learn something new about software capability every day.
  6. Indie Cover Project. https://www.facebook.com/groups/20CoversTo50k/ I’ve gotten feedback about covers from here before. You can develop an eye just by looking at what other authors are doing with their covers and reading the suggestions and critiques. This is a great place for blurb help, too.
  7. Book Cover Design 101. https://www.facebook.com/groups/bookcoverdesign101/ This is a great group if you want to learn tips on how to do your own covers. I find a lot of my fonts here when people post deals. There are wonderful people part of this group and very happy to help you if you have a technical question. Both this group and the Indie Cover Project can point you in the right direction if you want to order a premade or custom cover instead of doing your own.
  8. Launching Indie. https://www.facebook.com/groups/launchingindie/ Cecilia Mecca is amazing. She’s so generous and loves to know the best way to do anything with marketing. I heard her speak at the Sell More Books Show Summit last year.
  9. And no list is going to be complete without Bryan Cohen. Everything I learned about Amazon ads I learned from him. For free. I’m a member of The Five Day Amazon Ad Profit Challenge and his other group, Selling for Authors.

There are other groups I’m a part of, about 40 if you want me to be honest, and not all of them have the same level of information as these do. I’m the most active in the ones listed above, when I’m on Facebook, at any rate.

My friend has told me she shies away from social media for mental health reasons. There’s not much I can say about that except I have told her in the past that if she’s having issues, to find help, like anyone should. I don’t spend a lot of time on social media because of my carpal tunnel. If I’m online I like to make my time worth it either by blogging or if I’m on the computer at all, writing and editing my books.

When it comes to social media and your business, they go hand in hand whether you want to admit it or not. The main trouble I see a lot of writers have these days is separating their writer self from their author/publisher self. Engaging with writers while at the same time hoping to find readers. It doesn’t work like that. We tend to join a clique and follow that clique from platform to platform, but that’s not going to sell books.

I take social media for what it is. A place where I can network and find resources for my business.

And I hope you can, too.

Do you have a Facebook group you benefit from? Let me know. Have a thriving Facebook Author Page? Link it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

2020 Indie Publishing Predictions: Pay-to-Play and ad platform resources for indie authors

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2020 indie publishing predictions

Thank you for staying with me through this blog series about Written Word Media’s predictions for 2020. I’m discussing these predictions as an Emerging Author who has less than 10 books published and making less than $60,000 a year (let’s be honest according to my 1099s I made less than $2000 in 2019).

In the last post we talked a little bit about author collaboration because there is power in numbers, though the group opportunities don’t mean much to me because I’m still building my own career in my own right. Just as I’m sure most readers of my blog are.

The next point WWM predicts is that running ads will become a requirement. This isn’t a prediction so much as it’s already a fact. You need to learn an ad platform and not be afraid to use it. Meaning, you can’t be afraid to spend a little money to make a little money.

Various people say that Amazon ads are the smartest way to go. You’re putting your ad in front of shoppers who’re already in the mood to buy books. I like Amazon ads, too, because you’re selling books to readers who do not have a KU subscription and your enticing readers to borrow your book if they do.

It shouldn’t need to be said that running successful ads means you’re advertising a quality product. Unfortunately you may waste a little money on clicks figuring this out. You may recall in a prior blog post of mine where I described losing some money in ads for The Years Between Us. My ad copy was good, my cover was good, but I was losing people at the blurb. The Years Between Us is an older man/younger woman novel, but it’s not naughty. I was marketing it as a older man/younger woman, when maybe my blurb should have emphasized the forbidden love aspect instead. At any rate, you may need to experiment. If your ad doesn’t get any clicks, but you are getting some impressions, maybe your ad copy isn’t hooky, or your cover looks too homemade or doesn’t reflect the genre clearly. In any case, the blurb cost me clicks. I should have turned my ads off a lot sooner than I did. I was optimistic and I paid the price.

Mark Coker has is own opinion on this prediction–it’s evident he hates that Amazon took this direction. He claims that being pay-to-play makes us compete against other authors. He also states that since Amazon took away the also-boughts at the bottom of the product pages and replaced those with sponsored ads, Amazon is pitting us against each other. (Amazon is always playing with their platform looking for ways to improve the customer experience. Just because they are gone today doesn’t mean they won’t be back tomorrow, or a variation of them.) My book, All of Nothing, does still have some also-boughts, and I’m happy to say that they seem to fit into the kind of book All of Nothing is.

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It’s true that when you search an author, their product pages can be peppered with ads. That’s business. It’s no different than driving down the main strip of the city and having your choice of Dairy Queen, Hardee’s, Burger King, McDonald’s, Sonic, Popeye’s, KFC, and a million other places. It’s up to their marketing team to make them stand out, just like it’s up to you to have a good cover, blurb, title, and look inside, so your potential reader isn’t lured away by a prettier cover and better ad copy.

The motto of the 20booksto50k group is a “A rising tide lifts all boats.” There’s no competition. Be the best you can be, put out the best quality product you can. If you write against the grain (the book of your heart), and/or can’t afford an editor and/or can’t find someone to trade with you, if you have to make your own cover, these are choices in situations you’re going to have to work with. Your book isn’t anyone else’s responsibility.

I don’t agree much with Mark Coker. We aren’t competing against each other. It helps to look at other authors as allies instead of competition. Make friends, not enemies, and stay in control of what you can–the quality of your own books.

I like Amazon ads. They don’t cost much money, and they are surprisingly easy to learn how to use. I haven’t ventured into the UK, or Germany territory. I advertise in the US store, and small sales I do have are because I run ads. But you may find better luck with Facebook or Bookbub ads. In my experience, they eat up money faster. We can blame, or try to blame, Amazon for a lot of things, but taking your money isn’t one of them. Except for when they do–but then that usually is due to operator error not the machine.

No matter where you advertise, you’ll need comp authors and their book titles. You need these because in Amazon’s case they’ll be your keywords, in Facebook’s case they will help you find an audience to target. That’s why it’s important to know what genre you’re writing in, and what books fit with yours. Always stay up-to-date with what’s happening in your genre. Keep an eye on authors who are doing well who write the same kinds of books you do.

Take time to learn how ads work. There are a lot of free resources out there. All they take is a little bit of time to listen to a podcast or to read a book a generous person (usually an indie author himself or herself) has taken time to write for the rest of us. Going in blind is silly and will cost you money. As a writer, you should be used to researching. This isn’t any different – you’re only researching wearing your businessperson’s hat and not your writer’s hat. I’ll list them at the bottom of the blog post.

When it comes to this prediction, the future is now. You won’t get far without some kind of paid advertising. You won’t have a launch, strong or otherwise, without ads, and they are especially important in keeping your book in front of readers if you’re going to take a while to release another. Jami Albright has said she wouldn’t make the money she does releasing one book a year without depending on ads.

They are a huge piece of the indie–publishing puzzle.

Resources

Amazon

Bryan Cohen hosts an Amazon ads challenge every once in a while. The next one is scheduled for April 2020. In this ad challenge, he teaches you the fundamentals of Amazon ads: where to find keywords, how much to bid, what to set your daily limit at. Ultimately, he wants you to buy his Amazon Ads course, but in the challenge, he’ll teach you beginning information for free and it’s enough to get you started. It runs for a week, then a week after that he closes down the information. If you miss participating, you have to wait until he does it again. Eventually he may stop doing the ad challenge and think of something else to advertise is Amazon Ad course.

Follow Bryan on Facebook. This is his Facebook group for his business, Selling for Authors. Join his group for lots of Amazon ad tips, blurb help, copywriting tips and more. This is where he’ll announce a new ads challenge. You can request to join the ads challenge group here. He may not approve your request until the ads challenge opens up again. He’s very generous with his time, and if you have a question, he’ll do his best to answer it. He posts a lot of info on Instagram, too. I would follow him there, as well.

Dave Chesson has made how-to-learn Amazon ad videos. You can access them for free and watch at your own pace. He teaches you the same as Bryan: how to find keywords, how much to bid, how much to set your daily limit. His way is a little different from Bryan’s methods. Though like Bryan, he wants to sell you something and Dave wants to sell you a Publisher Rocket, a software to analyze what the competition is doing, how much they’re making, how many books are selling. It’s also a keyword grabber, though both gentlemen kindly teach you how to find keywords for free. I have Publisher Rocket and it’s worth the money.

Reedsy also has a course that is delivered in chunks to your email. Taught by Ricardo Fayet, this course is free, and you can sign up for it here. 

Facebook

There is only one free way to learn Facebook ads, that I know of, that’s signing up for the email class by Reedsy. Otherwise, you need buy a book explaining how to do them, or take a paid class. I recommend you do something before diving in because Facebook loves to take your money, and if you don’t have the proper audience targeted, or your ad isn’t put together correctly (bad graphics, bad ad copy) you’ll be broke and your ads won’t attract any engagement, never mind convert to sales. Mal Cooper is the powerhouse here, and she has an updated Facebook ads book available (you can even download the ebook version for free though I would encourage you to throw her some coin for being so great!), and she was just interviewed about Facebook ads on the 6 Figure Authors podcast. You can watch it here.


Bookbub

41hhK-35Z0L._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_As with Facebook ads, free ways to learn the platform are scarce. To be clear, Bookbub ads are not the same as being approved for a featured deal. Those are expensive and you have to submit and be approved. Bookbub ads are what they sound like — ads you make yourself using Canva or BookBrush that are placed at the bottom of their newsletters they send out to their subscribers. The only authority I know of is David Gaughran. He wrote a book about them, and you can find it here. In partnership with Reedsy, he also did a course that is delivered in segments for free to your email address. You can sign up here.

He’s very generous with his time, and he includes links in the book to a forum where you can ask questions. He’ll answer or someone else will help out. The book is a year old, so if you have a question and you search the forum you might find your answer without having to ask. But Bookbub is good for discounted books only. That’s the basis of their whole platform and they’ve trained their readers to look to them for deals. Don’t advertise a full-priced book there. You’ll get plenty of clicks and no sales.

The pros say to choose one platform and get really good at it.

Good luck!

PS: Since I love throwing podcasts at you, this is one by Joanna Penn with Russell Blake and Michael Beverly. Michael founded Adwerks, a business that runs Amazon ads for indie authors who don’t have the time to manage them on their own. They are a wealth of information on how the Amazon ads work, and they give you a peek into the mysterious Amazon Algorithms. I highly recommend it!

The next prediction that Written Word Media talks about is the Big Five putting books into KU. See you there!

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Author Interview–Aila Stephens

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Everyone loves to hear how a launch goes. Was it successful? How many books did they sell their first day? Their first week? How many page reads did they have if they were enrolled in Kindle Unlimited?

Book launches are exciting.
◊Cover reveal!
◊Excerpts!
◊Author interviews!
◊Blog tours!

But what about after? There is always going to be someone else who releases a book and our attention will be jerked away by a shiny new cover.

What happens after the launch? What happens months after the first week of sales? How does an author keep the momentum going?

I spoke with author Aila Stephens to find out. Listen in—maybe she’ll tell us all her secrets.

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You launched Sex, Love, and Formalities, the companion to Sex, Love, and Technicalities in November of 2017. How did that launch go for you? Can you give us a quick rundown of what you did to prepare? You hosted a giveaway, as well, correct?

Sure! I drank a lot of coffee. I panicked a little…no, no. I mean, yes, I did those things, but really, I talked Formalities up on social media a little more than I did when I launched its’ predecessor. I had much better-looking bookmarks printed up, and I spent a little more time and money on the book trailer than I did for the first one. I love having a book trailer for my books. It’s mostly a total vanity thing, but they’re still fairly rare in the indie community. Giveaways are pretty hit or miss, I don’t think that’s a secret, but I look at them as a necessary evil.

I did have a giveaway. It’s no secret that giveaways are pretty hit or miss, and there’s never any rhyme or reason to how many participants you get, but this one had decent participation. I gave away two signed copies of my books along with coffee and tea, a mug, and even a nice shawl to throw over the shoulders as it was quickly turning wintertime.

That was a great giveaway! I was bummed I couldn’t enter. You also did a free book promo for book one during the launch of book two using some of your free days allowed to you in the KDP Select program. Can you explain how you promoted that, if you did? If I remember correctly, your stats for that free book were rather impressive.

I promoted using Twitter and my Facebook author page.

I am going to strangle myself for this, but I cannot for the life of me remember exactly how many free copies of Technicalities were downloaded during those days, but it was several hundred—maybe even closing in on a thousand. I’d tell you concretely, but apparently, Amazon won’t let me go back that far. Whatever it was, the top ranking I got on Amazon that day was #14, for Women’s Fictions > Crime, and I believe it was #20 for Women’s Fiction > Romance.

That’s fantastic! Did your free promotion for book one bolster sales for book two?

In the weeks following that free promotion, I did have several thousand “normalized pages” of Formalities being read on Kindle Unlimited, which was very nice.

…If only all those free books and KU pages led to reviews, right?

It’s hard to tell if the sales of Formalities since then have been directly related to that free promotion, though I suspect most are.

Did you find it easier to launch book two since it was a sequel?

I did. I had so many—so very many—mistakes I learned from with Technicalities. I think that’s kind of a great thing though, learning from one’s own mistakes. I made a few with Formalities which I hope to avoid with the next book, and I’m sure I’ll make some with it that I’ll try and avoid with the one after that…and so on and so forth.

What are you doing, four months after your launch, to keep sales going? And are your methods working?

Still drinking coffee, still panicking. Ha! No. It’s not in my nature to go for the hard-sell. I do share pictures of my covers from time to time on Instagram, though it’s fruitless. What I think has helped me the most to see continued sells and KU reads has been my blog. I didn’t have the best track record of consistently blogging, but after my launch, I decided to make blogging my second priority to writing more books. I blog every Monday and every other Thursday. I’m still trying to wean myself from blogging just to other writers and figuring out how the heck you blog for readers, but I digress.

At the end of every blog post I include a small, hopefully unobtrusive, advertisement I made for my books and I link it to them on Amazon. I have noticed that I usually sell something on Tuesdays and/or Fridays, and my KU pages have remained rather steady.

This is a comfortable way for me to garner attention to my books without me feeling like a spam-artist.

Again…if only those translated to reviews.

What have you learned from either of your books to help you launch and maintain momentum for your next book?

I want to give a little more time between finishing the book and launching the book. With this next one I want to seek out ARC reviewers on YouTube (which, honestly, excites me and kills me a little on the inside), and I also want to spread out smaller, but still impressive, giveaways. I am still researching some launch tactics, but these are the main ones I intend to employ this go-round.

Do you have any tips for those who are seeing declining sales after their launch?

I would ask them what they’re doing to keep putting it in front of people. Like I said, there isn’t a soul out there who can say I’ve sent them an auto-DM going, BUY MY BOOK!! But I endeavor to have a quality blog I drive traffic to several times a month, in the hopes that by the time someone gets to the bottom, they’re intrigued enough to take a look at my books.

You can’t publish a book and then expect people to find it without a little elbow grease.

Have you ruled out paying for ads or promotions?

Not at all! I just don’t want to do it for two books. Once my next book comes out, I’ll shell out a little money for advertising and see what comes of it. Three is by no means the magic number, but I will chalk it up to research, too. I can’t afford to be anything except financially prudent with this, but I’m excited to see what happens with it.

I’ve read the best advertisement to promote your work is to write another book. Do you believe this is true?

Absolutely. I wish I had the ability to write full-time so I could crank them out faster. I think in today’s world, we’re all so accustomed to instant-satisfaction that we don’t want to fall in love with a book or an author if they’re not producing anything else. It’d be like watching The Paradise on Netflix and falling in love with it only to learn they shucked it after two seasons. We binge-watch in this day and age, and readers binge-read. This is why there is so much advice out there saying book series are the moneymakers.

…says the girl writing a standalone book right now.

Think of Harper Lee. To Kill A Mockingbird is a priceless piece of American literature, but for the longest time—fifty-five years!—there was only one published out there by Ms. Lee. I don’t know how well that sort of publishing schedule would work in this day and age. 😉

I guess the secret is to write such a thought-provoking, moving book, that your book is mandatory reading in all schools! Thanks, Aila, for taking the time to chat with me!

Vania, thank you so much for sitting down with me again for such a lovely interview! I am always honored and humbled that someone of your talent and expertise has time for little ol’ me.

And to all of your amazing readers, thank you so much for taking the time to get to know me!

Love ya, mean it!  -Aila

Aila always makes me blush. I hope you enjoyed her interview and maybe learned a little something about how to keep the momentum after your launch from drifting away. Help keep her momentum up by downloading free copies of her books here (March 27 and 28) and give her Amazon profile a follow while you’re there. 🙂

Aila is leaving her mark all over the interwebs, and you can follow her Instagram account, Tweet with her on Twitter, like her Facebook author page, and definitely give her blog a peek. She’s in the middle of a wonderful writers’ resources series you don’t want to miss!

Thanks for reading!

 

Quotes taken from the websites in the photo captions, and photos taken from http://www.pixabay.com and http://www.unsplash.com. Graphics created with these photos in http://www.canva.com.

Five Reasons Why I’m Not Marketing My Books Right Now

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As always in conversations about self-publishing, the subject of marketing your book comes up. I hosted a Twitter chat last week on Self-Publishing, and people wanted to talk more about marketing than anything else.

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I get this. I mean, we all want people to find our books; we write so people can read our work. But when people ask me what my plans are for marketing my books, I have to tell them, I have no immediate plans.

And here’s why.

  1. I don’t have enough content.
    You don’t need a marketing plan if you have no content. (Good grammar for a writer, huh?) Various numbers come up, but I follow @BadRedheadMedia‘s #bookmarketingchat on Twitter, and in one of her tweets, she said your career doesn’t start an upswing unless you have 6 to 10 books published. That seems like an impossibly high number, and when I first started in self-publishing, that number was 3 to 5. But with all the new writers publishing books, it’s harder and harder to make a name for yourself, and I believe that number will get higher as the market floods even more.
  2. I don’t want to throw money at one or two books.
    This kind of goes hand in hand with number one. I do have content, but not enough to warrant paying for any kind of marketing. Even if you were to stumble upon a plan that works and drew people to your book, after you draw those readers in, they’re done. They have no backlist to read through if they like your work. I’m too poor to start over every time I publish a new book. When you spend on an ad to market one book, you’re actually advertising your whole list.
  3. I genre-hopped.
    I wrote a Romantic Fantasy for my first go at publishing. I wrote it expressly to experiment with publishing, to get a feel for the process. On the Corner of 1700 Hamilton is two different novellas of the same story, one told from my male main character’s point of view, and one told from my main female character’s point of view. Summer Secrets is six novellas. The story is about six couples told in chronological order, and I published them together so readers would be forced to read them that way. These are Erotica and not my genre of choice. Since I’ve published those, I’ve settled into Contemporary Romance, full-length novels at that, and I don’t want to spend money on books that are not in my genre. When I market my books, I’ll market books that will be the foundation of my writing career. There is no point in marketing books in a genre I won’t write anymore.
  4. I’m researching how I want to market my book.
    I’m reading books right now on how to run Amazon ads, how to run successful Facebook Ads. I read a book on how to use Goodreads as an author. Marketing takes time and money—I don’t want to try these vendors without knowing what I’m doing. I talk to people who have tried various things and they say they don’t work, but they didn’t take the time to figure out how they work so they don’t waste money. It’s important to know what CPC (cost per click) is, what RT (not retweet, you tweeters) Read-Through means, and how to calculate ROI (Return on Investment, not a weird spelling of your sister’s boyfriend’s name). Knowing this stuff puts you ahead of the game, so you’re not wasting money on tactics that won’t work. Here’s a tip: If a person put together a class, say Mark Dawson and his Facebook Ads class, then that way of advertising is complicated and investing a few hours of your time to learn how it works and maybe learn some insider tips can only help you.
  5. I’m networking.
    Yes, networking is a part of marketing. When you hear that you should start networking a year before your book comes out, that’s not a lie. Some suggest even longer. You need to get to know book bloggers—be a blip on their radar as an acquaintance, even a friend, before you have a book to peddle. There is nothing more irritating than having someone introduce themselves to you for the sole reason to ask something of you. Follow them on Twitter, like their FB page. Wish them a nice day, or a great weekend. Listen to podcasts by successful indie authors, like their FB pages, follow them on Twitter, read their books. Become involved in the indie-publishing community. Everyone knows everyone in this business, and you want everyone to know you. I listen to The Sell More Books Show podcast, and Jim Kukral and Bryan Cohen host. Bryan Cohen wrote a book, How to Write Sizzling Synopsis, which I bought to support him since I love the podcast. It’s a wonderful book, and I’ve written Don’t Run Away’s blurb with his tips. It took me 15 minutes. It was fabulous. One day I was listening to their podcast, and they had a guest, Michael Cooper. Coincidentally, I was reading his book about Facebook Ads, because someone in Brian D. Meeks’ Amazon Ads Facebook Group recommended it. I’m in his group because I read his Amazon Ads book, and he runs a Facebook group for his readers who want help with their ads. Funnily enough, it wasn’t that long ago he did a guest spot on Joanna Penn’s podcast, to talk about his book. Everyone knows everyone. I’m not suggesting you get to know people just to use them. But if you get to know them, even peripherally, (I tweet and blog about their books all the time; well I tweet and blog about any books I like all the time) then maybe one day when you cross paths, they’ll already have heard of you and will be more willing to help you out, by say, inviting you to be a guest on their podcast. Networking, letting relationships grow naturally, organically, takes a lot of time. Start before you’re desperate for publicity.

Those are my five reasons I’m not marketing right now. I’m writing books to have a decent backlist before I throw money at anything. When readers find me, I want them to ask, “Where has she been all my life?” not, “Oh. She only has one book out?” I’m learning how to market, where best to put money so I don’t waste it. As I do that, I’m getting to know the heavy-hitters in the indie publishing world. Even if you’re not so keen on getting to know them, you can at least study what they do in their careers, what makes them successful, so you can duplicate it.

How long will I “prepare” before I actually punch in my credit card number, or submit my book to a blogger?

It depends on how fast I can write.

Check with me next year.

I Googled “How many books does it take for an indie author to start their careers in 2017?” While I didn’t get a straight up answer, the Google spit out some interesting articles that you can read here and here.

Tell me what you think!

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