Isabelle Peterson
  • Home
  • Books
    • Dream Series
    • 245 Days
    • eBook Links
    • Paperbacks
    • New Projects
  • Happy Hour
  • About Isabelle Peterson
  • Contact me
  • Sign up for Izzy's Newsletter
  • Blog
  • THE DREAM SERIES CONTINUED...
  • The Complete Dream Series

Standing Out in a Sea of Authors

3/13/2017

2 Comments

 
How does an author stand out anymore?

This is the growing challenge among authors these days, both traditionally published and Indie Authors like myself.

It seems that every week there 20 new authors. And 50-100 new books hit the market every day!

How does a reader know which books to choose?

Some authors release their books for $0.99 or even for Free. While this might gain the author downloads, personally speaking those are the books that seem to sink to the bottom of my TBR. I gravitate toward the books I've invested in. The books I have heard the most buzz about. The books by authors I have already read and maybe have met.
Furthermore, this practice breaks my heart. Why? That author is only earning $0.34 per sale. AND s/he has to pay her income taxes out of that. Not to mention the hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars that have gone into putting that book together. (Cover art, editing, formatting, advertising, takeovers with giveaways! See the next section.).  AND that's not even touching the HOURS AND HOURS it takes to write the book (Books usually take me about 2 full months to write. Let's round that to 60 days... and lets say that i "only" write for 6 hours. Truthfully I write closer to 8 hours a day, or 10 on some days. But at 6 hours a day that's 360 hours. That means you as a reader are dropping that $0.99 essentially paying the author $0.000094 an hour to write.  Again, that's BEFORE taxes have to be paid. How much are YOU paid for your job?)  

​Some authors do Takeovers. I certainly do - but seems fewer and fewer readers go to the Takeovers, and those that do are just in it for the free stuff (specifically the Amazon Gift Cards because then they can buy anything they want...I've only once been told that someone used their gift card to buy my book. One person won the GC and actually posted something to the effect of, "Yeah! Now I can buy the new release from <Insert NYT Best Selling Author here.>" I wish that winner had simply said, "Thank you.") 

I pay for advertising on Facebook ($10-$20 per day). I've done ads via BookBub (literally HUNDREDS of dollars for ONE ad.). ENT (eReader News Today) is also hundreds of dollars. Book Gorilla, BookScream... There's no end to marketing groups who will take your money to send your book into people's email inboxes. 
But it still doesn't make an author stand out.

Reviews are super important.
You can help an author by reviewing.
You can help an author by telling your friends about the books you read that you enjoyed.
You can help by following that author on Social Media (Not just liking their page, but visiting that page & checking out the posts. Facebook will help you if you click on FOLLOWING and adjust to See First.  And you can do this for ALL of your favorite Authors - then your newsfeed will have ALL of those posts first - THEN the latest news from Aunt Edna about her toe fungus. 
Picture
What are things YOU do to support Authors?  I'd love to hear from you!
2 Comments
Anonymous
3/15/2017 12:48:04 am

Loved hearing the POV from the author in regurds of the struggle of breaking out, being seen and finding readers. And I agree with you on the contests and giveaways, it truly isn't ideal and you've put them into perspective for me.
But with that being said, I would like to say that I found you through a contest and read a blurb and I am now in love with the way you put the story on paper and fell in love with your writing. I would also like to say that , as a reader, it is also a struggle to find decent authors that tell great stories that you will love. ( seriously, you should see my DNF list and the paperback books I've gotten rid of)
as reader when I go on a quest ( seriously it's time consuming) for a new book/series and regularly a new author, because I've most likely finished all the works of the authors I know. it is a struggle to pay 3.99+ for a book I might hate. ( don't kill me). As a consumer you get burned out real quick after you 4th-5th( 12th) 3.99+ book that you DNF. Leading you to browse ' others you may like' on that amazon/iBooks link and searing for the bargain .99 cent book of an author you've never heard of praying that you'll finally hit the jackpot. At least this time it'll only cost you $1. So now you're thinking 'ya right lady, you are the problem' but I've found a few authors through my .99 search and after being swept off my feet by their book I buy more! And frankly I don't care the price of their next book, I'm already hooked chances are I'll shell out the 3.99/4.99/5.99+, and won't even think twice.
As for the giveaways - the posts where I have to read and pick one teaser or basically interact with said post by reading blurb/teasers are the ones I am most likely to take a screen shot of to add to my purchase list. Ya the 'name you sex penis' are fun but frankly I have no idea what book you wrote and I'm just as likely to type a response to those even if it's not a give away (those thing can be hysterical, where y'all find these is beyond me)
Also- reviews - as an average joe (Jane) writing a review for a book intimidates the fuck outta me. I'm not a writer ( obviously , see said post) I have NO idea what I'm supposed to say and I know I can't live up to your ideal dream reviews that are so elegantly written that you all gush over , BUT... I , as an average Jane, do not read those reviews. I read YOUR synopsis and then read the short reviews from ppl who I feel are 'like me' and I also don't read just the 5 star reviews, I mainly read the 4 star reviews because they feel more authentic. ( yes, I do give books 5 stars) but I say all that to say this - encourage your fans to write any reviews, let em know that they don't have to sparkle, be 4 paragraphs long or be animated ( seriously how do those ppl do that) but to simply 'write the review you'd want to read , write the review from your heart, write how you feel, just simply write something and maybe 20 words is okay,' we weren't all English majors, some of us just love a good story. :)

( I know you don't know me and I don't know you, I'm just some crazy person from the web but I genuinely do not mean any offense by anything I've said, I simply desire to help you with an additional,honest, POV ) This is just my opinion, and you know what they say about that....'opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one'. 😛😘

Nothing but love.
~

Reply
Izzy link
3/15/2017 06:45:24 am

Thank you, Anonymous, for the insight! Hearing from readers is CRUCIAL!!!! You've certainly given me A LOT to think about.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    About Isabelle Peterson

    Contemporary Women's author. 
    Mother of 2. 
    Wife of 1. 
    Dog Lover. 
    Serious drinker of coffee & wine. 
    Fan of fall. 
    Country music listener.

    Archives

    March 2017
    January 2017
    April 2016
    January 2016
    October 2014
    July 2014
    April 2014

    Categories

    All
    Apologies
    Dream Series
    Mistakes

    RSS Feed

    hit counters
    hit counter
Powered by
  • Home
  • Books
    • Dream Series
    • 245 Days
    • eBook Links
    • Paperbacks
    • New Projects
  • Happy Hour
  • About Isabelle Peterson
  • Contact me
  • Sign up for Izzy's Newsletter
  • Blog
  • THE DREAM SERIES CONTINUED...
  • The Complete Dream Series
✕