I’m so pleased to have author and poet Jessica Kristie back here today. For those unfamiliar with her honest, beautiful poetry, you are missing out. I’m always fascinated by my author friends’ writing lives. Here’s a wonderful peek into Jess’ mind. Please read and check out her books and her latest work, designed to help the writer in all of us.
WHY WE THINK YOU ARE A TWITTER IDIOT
Okay, maybe you’re not an idiot. You might be a very nice person who doesn’t know any better. But, the truth is we’re getting sick of it and we’re not gonna take it anymore (wait, isn’t that a bad country song?). Anyway, pay attention. 
STALKING: ANOTHER SHADE OF FEAR by guest @LorcaDamon
If you don’t follow @LorcaDamon, go right now. She’s extremely witty, original, and above all, a talented author. Her blog is consistently outstanding, so make sure you follow her there as well. Lorca is also one of the strongest women I know. The author of Autism by Hand and It Was Like That When I Found It, Lorca is that rare combination of heartbreakingly real and hysterically funny. Not an easy feat to pull off.
SURVIVOR: A THRIVER SPEAKS by guest author Toby Neal
I’m beyond thrilled to introduce to my blog Kindle bestselling author Toby Neal! Her eBook Blood Orchids is FREE today on Amazon (remember, no Kindle required) and I can honestly say I’m enjoying this extremely well-written and fast moving book so much I’ve ignored almost (but not quite) everything else this past weekend. My family is not pleased.
CAGED: AN EXCERPT FROM ‘BROKEN PIECES’
I’ve been working on my new collection of essays titled Broken Pieces. I’ve kept a bit quiet about it since I’m going in a new direction. Still nonfiction of course (this IS me after all) but if you’ve read my first book or blog awhile, you’ll know I’m not always the funny girl. I’m not even always snarky. But I am always honest.
HIGH HIGHS & LOW LOWS
What an enormously crazy week here in #badredhead world.
THE LITTLE SNARK BOOK THAT DID
Christmas has come and gone.
The clean-up fairy is hungover from partying with the elves.
Slut.
The stuff that was hung by the chimney with care is now strewn about the living room no matter how much I try to clean it up by wiggling my nose.
I’m under deadline and have a migraine.
The boy needs a bath and the tween is sick — again.
My poor husband is drowning in Legos and even his old man glasses aren’t helping.
I’d kill for a double martini about now. Or a double caffeine shot. Hmmm…
I think I’ve watched too much That 70s Show. I’m this close to finding out where Fez is from, dammit.
The good news?
My first book, A Walk In The Snark is actually ranked higher on the Amazon charts than Shit My Dad Says AND Go The Fuck To Sleep.
Me. My little Snark book. Say What…The Fuck? Or is it holy shit? #teehee
(That’s just so much fun to say.)
Me: Babe, my book is ranked higher than the Shit and Fuck books. Hus: Haven’t we discussed cursing in front of the children?
Sigh.
How did I get here? Through my unnonsupermodel good looks? No. Because I’m a marketing genius? Well, maybe. Naw, kidding.
But I do work with smart people. And okay, I do know a few things.
I hear from authors all the time they’re disappointed a particular promotion didn’t work, or that after a few weeks of tweeting, they’re upset they haven’t sold more books. Some discuss poor Amazon sales but have no reviews up…um, what?
Snap out of it!
When you’re an indie author, it’s on you to make all that stuff work. So make it work! Don’t blame others if you’re books aren’t selling. DO SOMETHING about it.
There are tons of resources out there to help you: there’s me, the IBC, John Locke’s book, the book I cowrote w/ Carolyn & Amber called Dollars & Sense: The Definitive Guide to Self-Publishing Success (it’s a buck, people); webinars, novel publicity firms, google, Kindle boards, Twitter #hashtags like #amwriting and #pubwrite discussions, Facebook groups, and more.
I do tons of stuff, all the time, every day, across many platforms. Lots of different promos. Google ad words. Have an active, consistent social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, and I pretend to do stuff on Goodreads. 🙂 I have mentors (Carolyn McCray, Amber Scott, Jessica Swift, Sean Gardner, and a few others) who teach me all kinds of great stuff. My friends and fans are supportive and amazing. Book bloggers and reviewers have been critically important.
All those factors have gelled over this past year to make Snark a hit. Which still kind of boggles my mind. But the main thing…the thing that really helped me?
KDP Select. Yup. Evil Amazon and their new evil program, if you listen to the naysayers.
Listen, it was an easy choice for me. 93% of my profits this year from Snark came from Amazon, so the choice was easy for me to sign up my two books. I picked the five days before Christmas to have Snark go free. (Thanks for the advice, Carolyn).
Why Snark and not my latest release, The Manode: Exposed? Easy. I had history already. It had the better ranking. It had visibility. It had the most reviews, likes, and tags. It had already reached #1 on the Motherhood list fifteen times. I was already entrenched in Amazon’s recommendation queue.
My point: go in smart. Don’t expect miracles.
So what happened? I had over 10,000 free downloads. Decent, right? I thought so. For me. Lots of people have gone free and had ten times that many. Other people have gone free and had a few hundred. So I’m pretty happy with it.
The bigger deal is Snark ended up #1 on a bunch o’ lists: Motherhood, Family Relationships, Parenting and Family, Top Rated, and in the Top 5 or 10 or Advice/How-To, Humor, Non-Fiction, etc. etc.
So do the downloads make a difference? I’m not paid on them. How does it work after the free part is over?
When you port back over to paid, you hopefully take the rankings with you. So…did I?
Not initially. I went back over around #4900 overall; however, I took the listings with me…after a day or two. I was #1 across the board in three categories and listed on about ten lists. But as of this writing, I’m around 400! Funny, I don’t feel that old. Bah, dum, bum.
As for sales, I’m averaging about forty sales of Snark/day now. Way more than ever before, when my average was ten. This has carried over to Mancode; where I was selling maybe four/day, I’m now selling about eight.
Lending has also increased. My total lends goes up hourly it seems. I haven’t broken 500 yet, but it won’t be long. Not huge numbers, but again, it’s all about the rankings.
Bottom line: great experience. The exposure has been amazing. Sure, if exposure paid my rent, I’d be thrilled but it doesn’t. But it leads to great things. Think about it: 10,000 downloads. If even 10% of those people left reviews for me…#whoa. Even 1%!
If you’re in this whole thing to make a ton of money, find a day job. Despite numbers like these, it’s not enough to make a living…yet. I also only have two books out (plus the one I’ve cowritten and the two anthologies I’ve contributed to…but still…). I’m now working on my third.
In the meantime, I help other authors with their social media campaigns. That’s how I make a bit more money. If you want personalized, customized advice, let me know (email me at [email protected]) and I’ll give you my rate and more specifics of what I can do for you.
I also teach free webinars for the Indie Book Collective each month — first Tuesday of every Monday at 5:45pm PST via webinar. Next week it’s on Tuesday, 1/3. Sign up at [email protected]
So has it been worth it?
Ya think?
(This is only my experience. Yours could have been/may be entirely different. Would love to hear your thoughts below.)
You know where to find me and all that stuff, right?
