Reviews over Revenue

Holy smokes. I have been in the indie business for a little over four years. I think the usual sweet spot for fame is about seven years after publication if you are a new author, so yes…I wait.

I wait for fame; I wait for me to have a summer home in New York and a winter home in Miami. I wait for my guest spot on Oprah's latest talk show; I wait for my book to be plastered all over Barnes and Noble when you walk in the door. I wait to be the executive producer of my novel when it becomes a movie. I wait for my name to be spoken and the person listening knows who I am, even though they haven't read a thing I have written.

Fame, so insanely awesome. What comes from this? Insane revenue. If you are successful in the "biz", you will make enough money that you will never have to work again. Well at least work for anyone else again. You will be in the business for yourself, and I think that is a lot harder. I have read enough posts on various self-publishing sites to see that is what most folks think about.

Okay, you may not be in the book biz to become famous. Perhaps you are looking to supplement your income? Good luck. With the invention of the internet, everyone can be an author, good work or not. If you don't have a good marketing plan, you will be lost amongst the substandard works, and at times that will become extremely frustrating. You know that you have written a book that is worth reading, but you have become lumped in with books that are in the same genre, and well, not so good. You have minimal control over that, so you wait.

How does your book rise above all the others? Reviews.

People buy books based on what they like. I have a friend who reads like a fiend and will not buy one of my books because it is not something that she reads. Yes she told me this to my face. I didn't bother her anymore, because there was no point. So again, peeps read what they like and are comfortable with. Write a novel that will have your readers clamoring for more. So much that they have to talk about it. Reviews are huge with new authors. They can make or break someone very easily.

My first published novel had such bad reviews; I pulled the book and sought out an editor quickly. I did not want to die on the electronic shelves an unknown. No human being on the planet wants to be talked about by a stranger. So I worked.

Now, nine novels in, it is not the revenue I look for the review. My initial thought was, "I have your money, and I don't care what you say." But after my first book, I quickly changed my mind. People's thoughts written for all to see, do matter. Without a good review, I will never achieve fame.

So what is more important to you? Selling books or entertaining your readers? You decide. But take away something from this post, and think about why you do what you do.

In the end, I think you will be happy on both fronts if you write an awesome story.

Until Next Time,

Kayresia.

Revisions

How many times do we need to revise our books before it gets published? That is a question no one can really answer.

When I first wrote Gift of Life, I put it away for about a month or so then re-read it, making note to save the file as GOL2. That’s what we all do right? I mean naming our files. I made some changes to the story itself, and put it away again. The next time I opened it, I read some things and thought, “Ew. What was I thinking?” And made more changes. Throughout all of this, I wasn’t keeping a timeline of what was going on in my story, yet the revisions continued. It took a while to straighten my timeline out, and almost two years later, thinking I was ready to go on and have someone edit for me, I sat down and read it again. After eighteen (Yes that many) revisions, I was still not 100 percent happy with it, but it was at least ready for an editor to take a look at it.
Five months and two more revisions, it was ready. Yay! I thought. It was just published three months later, and I bet if I sat down and read it again, I would find more things I don’t like about it.

So, there is not a real answer to this question. So my advice is, do not rush to publish. Take at least a year on your manuscript (If it is a full length novel anyway) and make sure you don’t hate what you’ve written after someone has downloaded it. Then it is too late.

I read my novels all the time and find things that were missed even after a third or fourth edit. Of course by this time, the errors are minor. A missed end quote, period or comma (Boo! Hiss!). But because I publish electronically I can fix those without any real damage to my story (Yay!)

Well, until next time,
Kayresia