Normalization of Thievery in the Internet Age

Anyone who has downloaded a pirated movie or Napstered their favorite music has stolen. It’s plain and simple. You can justify it anyway you like. Call it sharing if that makes you feel better. But I’ve never shared my CDs with someone I’ve never met in some state or country thousands of miles away. It doesn’t really amaze me that people steal in this way, because it’s easy and it seems to be human nature to try and get all you can for as little as you can expend. What does amaze me is how cavalier and unashamedly people do it now. I wonder if stores suddenly went to the honor system and stripped their businesses of employees and cameras and consequences for thievery, would these same people illegally downloading music, books, and movies now justify taking whatever they wanted from the store? Not all of them would, I suspect, but a surprising number of people would somehow justify it. I mean, if you really, really want that new IPhone and funds are a little tight, Apple’s got bigger pockets than you after all.  I get it. It’s your right to have that phone. I’ll tell you what, let’s call it Iphone sharing with Apple. Does that make you feel better?

Whether it’s the amazon fire stick with Kodi or the guy at the end of the street selling bootleg DVDs, everyone seems to be stealing nowadays. And worse, everyone seems to think it’s ok. I’ve yet to hear an excuse as to why it’s ok to download the new Deadpool movie on the day it’s released. In fact, the responses when I ask my friends why it's OK to take that movie are worse than not being able to give me a legitimate reason. Their responses are blow off waves at my sanctimonious questioning. As you read this, you’re either one of two people. You’re either thinking I’m right and stealing is wrong, or that I’m being a virtuosic prude and you deserve the entertainment you didn’t pay for. And that’s the problem. The same people who think I’m a prude because I make it a point to not steal intellectual property are likely people who would never walk into a Barnes and Noble (are they still around?) and walk out with a couple books stuffed into their jackets. Or would they? Once the consequences of stealing are gone . . .

I guess the reason I’m particularly annoyed today is because I woke up this morning and came across an article on Facebook from a larger online site that was remarkably similar to a blog I wrote in December. What made it particularly frustrating was that the author actually says in the article that the basis of the article (his theory) comes from a fan who recently wrote about the same topic. Hm. Here’s a screenshot from the story where the author admits to stealing his theory.

The whole article is based on that statement. And here’s my blog http://epertase.blogspot.com/2017/12/everyone-we-love-dies-my-walking-dead.html where I lay out such a theory.

In December.

Of last year.

Shared on multiple Walking Dead fan sites.

This other article from Ranker.com has had over 272,000 clicks. My blog? A few hundred. Sour grapes? Maybe. Did this article’s author steal my premise and repackage it as his own? I’m not so egotistical to think he saw MY article or that I’m the only one who has thought of the premise behind it, but he did write that his article was a fan’s written theory and gave no credit to that fan. So even if the article wasn’t stolen from my blog (which it probably wasn’t in all reality) my point still stands. He stole it from somewhere, regardless of whether it was from me or not. He is making money via clicks off of someone else’s work. In the internet age, there are no recourses for people who have their intellectual property stolen. And no repercussions for the thief.

I once took a picture of a couple firefighter friends acting silly at the station and wrote a blog about it. It’s here if you wanna take a look. http://epertase.blogspot.com/2012/02/pranks-turning-harmless-pictures-into.html That was in 2012. That picture (with no link to my blog or credit to me) routinely shows up on my FB feed from a site called firefighter funnies. Why do I see it? Not because I created it or that I’m a fan of the site, firefighter funnies, but because I’m friends with a lot of firefighters. When they come across that picture they think it’s funny and share it without ever knowing I took it in the first place. How many clicks has firefighter funnies gotten from my picture? If every couple years it shows up on my feed out of the blue from others who have discovered it, I’d say quite a few.

Coming up with premises, writing a coherent article or blog, or penning a story is long, hard work. Unless you’re a large corporation, there is little recourse you can do when that work is stolen. Hell, even the big, powerful movie studios can’t protect their property.

The most frustrating of these stories, to me, is this next particular one. I think it perfectly and painfully demonstrates my above point that the general public has normalized thievery. The reason this one is so frustrating is because of the personal nature of how it happened. I was recently at the fire house and a guy from another station was filling in. I’d talked to this guy a few times in the past, but it wasn’t like we were best buds or anything. When we had some down time he sought me out and told me how he was writing a book. I assumed he did this because he had heard I had written a few and wanted to pick my brain. He told me it was going to be a werewolf story which piqued my interest for obvious reasons if you know about my book, Tamed. After 20 minutes of listening to his idea (far from original, but I digress), I gave him some publishing advice and mentioned my own writing career. I told him how I, too, had written a werewolf book (which I’m confident he already knew) and asked him if he’d read it. He said he hadn’t. As we stood there talking he pulled out his phone and a minute later said, “I’ve got it.”

Pleasantly surprised I asked, “You just bought my book?” It's always a warm and fuzzy feeling when someone is convinced to buy your book on the spot while talking about it.

Without missing a beat he answered, “No. I never buy books. I downloaded it from a pirate site. I have hundreds of books. Ad movies too.” He held up his phone and there was my book, Tamed, in his library. Instead of being ashamed that he had just stolen my book, he was proud like he had gamed the system. The problem was I was the system. That fact was lost on him. He continued boasting about how he never pays for his media while I stood amazed. Now imagine that. A guy who, no doubt, considers himself a moral individual had no qualms about stealing my book right in front of me and, worse yet, bragging about it to the actual creator of it. There was no thought in his mind that this could be considered a dickhead thing to do. And that’s the problem. I asked him why it wasn’t stealing and he looked at me like I had suddenly grown a second head. I ended the conversation, made note that this guy was a fuckhead who I would avoid in the future, and went on about my day. But I admit I was a bit salty, if you couldn’t tell.

I come from a unique position on this topic. I’ve created art that has actually been stolen to the profit of others. Normalization of online thievery happened years ago and continues to this day. There is no way to fight it. Somehow, if you take a stand against stealing online material in this internet based world, you are now the pariah. You’re now the uptight prude. My friends roll their eyes at me when I call it stealing. I don’t know how we got here, but if you’re a creative person, good luck in the future.

Now, if you’ll excuse me I’ve got a friend holding the movie theater exit door open and if I don’t get there soon I’ll actually have to purchase a ticket. Yikes. Gotta go.

Updates and an Opportunity for Writers

I have a few things to share today as it relates to writing. Let me start with a pretty cool opportunity that my publisher is giving writers who are seeking a home for their work. If you're like me, you despise the querying process. You spend weeks and weeks tweaking your query letter while never knowing exactly what an agent or publisher is looking for. Then you research who to send your query letter to. And then you wait weeks, months or longer for a response, sometimes never getting one at all. Well, Rhemalda Publishing is giving you a unique opportunity to skip the querying nightmare for the next two weeks. You see, Rhemalda is asking for a two-sentence hook about your book and from that hook, they will request manuscripts from the ones they find intriguing. Pretty freakin' cool, huh? I wonder if they have any idea of the amount of work they're about to fall into. So, are you looking to be published? Sick of the querying process? Here's your chance to wow a publisher with a simple hook and bypass the querying nightmare altogether. Just make sure your manuscript is finished and in the best possible condition before it gets requested, so you have the best chance at a contract. Go through Rhemalda's FB page or Twitter @Rhemalda. Here is the announcement.

 

Beginning April 2, 2013 Rhemalda Publishing's Emmaline Hoffmeister (Owner) and Diane Dalton (Acquisitions Editor) will be hosting a two-week, two-sentence, query blast. Authors will be invited to post up to two sentences about their completed, polished manuscript. Hook Emmaline and Diane with your awesome, fresh idea and they will then request a full manuscript from you! This is your chance to skip the initial full query letter and seemingly endless wait for a full request. The specific genres Emmaline and Diane will be searching for are as follows:

Contemporary Fiction
Contemporary Young Adult/New Adult Fiction
Romance
Contemporary Romance
Historical Romance
Historical Fiction
Jane Austen Adaptations
Sports Memoirs
Crime/Detective/Procedural
Young Adult Paranormal and Dystopian

Get ready for April 2nd!

Please share with every author you know. See More

Next on my agenda are the results from my bookbub.com promotion. As of yesterday I have numbers. As you may have read in my last blog, Bookbub is a site that sends emails to readers about sales on books that they may be interested in buying. On Thursday of last week, my werewolf novel, Tamed, went on sale and was sent out in their email. (The sale is still on for another day at Amazon, BN, and iTunes, BTW, in case you've missed out.) Anyway, during the first four days of the sale, 504 ebook copies of Tamed were sold with steady sales continuing as of this writing. If you are an author or publisher, you may want to try bookbub because it has been wildly successful for me. (I have no affiliations with the site, I am only recommending them from my own marketing experience.)

Third, a quick update about my writing progress. Rhemalda has the final book of my Epertase trilogy, The Rise of Cridon, and I am waiting for their editor to hack away at it. I think as a story it has turned out great. In the meantime, I am closing in on finishing a first draft of my newest dystopian fantasy which is turning out to be pretty cool. I'm excited to finish the first draft because that is always my least favorite part of writing. I like the tweaking stage the most. We'll see how things turn out over the next 15,000 or so words. At this point, I'm very hopeful.

Well, that's it for my update today. If you're a writer, get your two sentence hook ready because the two weeks start at midnight (April 2, 2013). And if you even slightly like werewolves, check out Tamed. I doubt you've ever read a werewolf book quite like it.

The Best Thing You Can Do to Support an Author

Books are like trees in a forest. I'll get to why in a second.

 

Most authors aren't privileged enough to be on The Tonight Show or have their books reviewed by the New York Times. No, the majority of authors, and there are a lot of them, rely on a limited budget from their publisher (if they're published) and/or their own promoting skills if they're self-published.

With enough hard work and determination, an author can convince a few hundred people to buy their book. Would you agree? Think about how many people you tried to convince to order candy bars from your kid's school last time. A few friends, neighbors, coworkers, that's about it, right? A hundred people if you were lucky. Authors are trying to do the same thing in a round about way.

Sure, a break here or there might increase sales of a book, but overall it is very difficult. My publisher once told me that the average sales for any book is 97 sales. That average takes into account the best sellers as well as the non-sellers. That's it. Ninety-seven. That's a pretty small number. About the same number as your candy bar sales, huh?

As an author, where do we go now? For authors, their books quickly become trees in a forest. It might very well be the best tree in that forest, but no one's buying because no one knows to even look for it. I've been fortunate to outsell the average, not bad for a nobody fireman such as myself. But, as with every author, I want to sell tens of thousands, not thousands.

So, how do authors get readers to see their books in the forest and then buy them? Can they get on TV to advertise it? It's tough, but the author might get a local news program to throw them a bone. I did, and it boosted sales for a few days, hardly lighting up the world. If you're published, how about using your publisher's resources? Yep, that'll help. Their reach might only be a little farther than yours though and maybe you'll sell another 1000 or more by using that advantage (small press), but that's probably about it. If publishers had more reach, they would be literally printing their own money. After all, when was the last time you've read a Stephen King book and thought, "I need to go see what other books are at DoubleDay?" Maybe, once in awhile, but I doubt often.

Author marketing  requires  the author to rely on luck and perseverance if they hope to sell a lot of books. It is about spreading the word to more than just the seven degrees of Douglas Brown's world. It's going to be difficult to say the least. It IS difficult. I mean, after all, how many trees do you think there are in that forest?

So the goal isn't to have your best friend buy 100 copies of your book (that wouldn't work anyway), it's to get your book seen by the largest number of readers. Whether those readers buy the book after they see it will depend on the quality of the book and whether it's something that interests them, but at least they’ve seen it. I know, I know, maybe my books have been seen and just don't interest anyone. I suppose that's possible, but I doubt it. I once saw a book on Amazon's best seller list that was titled, Everything I know about women (or something to that effect), and every page was blank. Funny? Yes. Good book? Hardly.

After telling you how dense the forest is and how impossible it will be to see an author's particular tree, let me tell you how Amazon helps to weed through that forest.

As a reader, how often do you finish a book that you absolutely love and rush to a computer to tell all of your friends on Facebook or twitter? Occasionally, I'm sure. And thanks, because that helps greatly. Now, how many times do you rush to your computer and write a review for that book? I'd bet rarely. I'll admit it, I don't either.

Here's the funny thing though. Because Amazon is overtaking the book selling world, they need a way to promote books. They need a way to guide you through the forest to a tree that might be right for you. One way they guide you is by sending you emails. As a result, obscure authors now have a chance at lighting up the world. It's still a long shot by every definition of the word, but it can be done.

Forget the Tonight Show and the New York Times, there's no shot at getting featured there for anyone not named Kardashian. Sure, getting that exposure would help incredibly, but it isn't likely without thousands of dollars and the proper connections. Here's the cool part. Amazon's metrics don't know if I'm Douglas Brown the firefighter/author or Honey Boo Boo. Amazon doesn't care either. As books sell, the rankings improve and more people buy the books. If my book was in Amazon's top 100, they wouldn't care who I was. Their automatic algorithms would try to sell my book as much as any other book.

So, the question becomes, "Why doesn't Amazon just push every book to their customers?" Well, simple. If you're a reader, how long would it take before you unsubscribed from their email list if they sent constant emails for every book of their millions and millions of books? Exactly.

That means they have to have a way of choosing the books that they promote. They're not going to choose a book that has no momentum because the gains wouldn't be high enough. How would they even know it wasn't a bunch of garbage that they just pushed on their customers anyway? Well, here's what Amazon has decided. They put their marketing muscle behind books that become hot. In order to decide what has become hot, they rely on their ranking and review system.

Book reviews provide exposure for otherwise unknown authors, so the more reviews, the more exposure, and the more books are sold, which leads to more reviews, more exp... Ok, you get the message. Slowly, the forest falls away and your particular tree is standing where everyone else can see.

Have you ever heard of ARC’s? They are advanced review copies of books. Publishers give them away before the book is released to garner interest in the title. Before ebooks, ARC’s cost a fortune and publishers had to be very picky with who they gave their books to. Ebooks and Amazon have leveled the playing field a bit and have allowed smaller publishers to give away more books in hopes that the beneficiaries of those freebies will leave reviews.

A New York Times review will get people to buy books, there is no doubt, but when The New York Times isn't an option, the only option left is a push through Amazon.

I realize if you know an author, you've heard about his/her book until you're ready to vomit. In fact, I probably have a bunch of vomiting friends right now. I get it. I'm also sure you've purchased their books and have tried to help them in any way possible and I can assure you that it has been greatly appreciated. But I ask you, have you left an Amazon review? You don't have to by any means. I'm just telling you how much that could help.

So, if you're reading this, then I've piqued your interest. Whether you're an author, a friend of an author, or just someone who wants to spread the word about your favorite book, here is the point of this blog. Spend a few minutes writing reviews on Amazon (and Goodreads, if you're a member) for books that you've enjoyed in the past. It doesn't have to be my book, just any book that you've enjoyed.

If you're an author, there are sites that can help you achieve the goal of more reviews. Of course, they can be expensive, as everything seems to be, but they might be worth a look. I’m trying Netgalley.com right now. The idea of NetGalley is that their subscribers are there to find books to review on blogs, Goodreads, Amazon, and wherever else they want to leave reviews. In exchange for their reviews, they get to read books on the site for free. (They can be turned down by the publisher if they aren't established enough as a reviewer, but for little guys like us, I don't see any need to restrict.) Tamed is up on NetGalleyas we speak. I can't tell you whether it has generated any reviews yet, because it's only been up for two days, but I will tell you I am nearing 100 downloads of the book already. BTW, it isn't just reviewers, but librarians, educators, and book sellers as well.

I am hesitantly optimistic, as is my publisher, that this generates a lot of Amazon reviews. I'm currently at 38 reviews before this endeavor began and I'm hoping to hit at least 50 once it's over. You can go to Tamed's Amazon page if you'd like to see if it's working, but I'd suggest waiting at least a couple of weeks in order to give the reviewers time to do their thing. If you are a NetGalley subscriber, feel free to download my book on the top, right of this page or click this link. Just remember, please leave me a review when you're done. ;) Everyone else, what are you waiting for? Get to reviewing. Honest reviews are the best, regardless of how many stars you give. Now get out there and help Tamed stand out from the rest of the trees.

 

 

 

Tamed on Audiobook- A Completely New Way to get your Favorite Werepets

A few months ago my publisher, Rhemalda Publishing, revealed that they were putting all of their books into the audiobook format. Over the years people have asked me about audiobooks and, until this announcement by Rhemalda, I'd tell them not to get their hopes up. If you wanted to read Tamed, you had to do just that--read it. I didn't realize there was such a large community of people who preferred hearing stories than reading them. Who knew? Personally, I've always liked audiobooks, but usually just for long vacation drives and those sorts of monotonous things. Anyway, Rhemalda had enlisted various professional freelance narrators for their catalog of books and one was assigned to Tamed. His name is Michael Roger Lane and he does a fantastic job.

Due sometime around Christmas, 2012, that sometime came yesterday and I couldn't be more thrilled. This may sound strange since the audiobook is basically just another format of the same story, but I rank the feeling I'm getting as I listen to my own words being professionally read as one of the top moments in my publishing career. I can't sit here and tell you that this feeling is better than getting my first contract, or seeing my debut book finished for the first time, but I can tell you that this ranks highly with those achievements.

I didn't expect that hearing my book would move me so much, but as it turns out it does. For the first time ever, I am hearing my story told in a different voice than the one in my head and it is an amazingly new experience. As I said before, I've always liked audiobooks because I get a different feel when hearing stories than I do when reading them and this is no different. I'm not saying I like audiobooks better all than reading, because usually I don't, but sometimes it can add to the experience. For instance, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is creepy as a book, but I think creepier by the brilliant job that the narrator did in the audiobook. On Writing, by Stephen King is another audiobook that I absolutely love listening to and feel it is a better experience than merely the reading of it. That one's probably because Mr. King himself reads On Writing, and I think you get a sense of his passion while hearing him.

You should totally give the audiobook of Tamed a try. You'll love it.

If you want to give Tamed a try on audiobook, it is available at Audible.com, Amazon, and Itunes. Here is the Amazon link. You can even listen to a preview before you buy. Let me know what you think. 

 

How's your voice?

As an author, understanding voice is critically important to the writing process. What's that mean, exactly? Let's start with an example. We'll use Stephen King since everyone knows who he is. If someone gave you a chapter or two from a Stephen King book, but didn't tell you who the author was, do you think you could tell? If you have read Stephen King in the past, I think you would be able to tell right away.

So why is that? The easy answer would be to say the chapters felt creepy and who is better known for being creepy than Mr. King. But, let's take away the storyline and just look at the writing, because the writing is as much Stephen King's voice as the story. The Gunslinger has a far different theme (fantasy) than Carrie (horror), but is still easily recognizable as a Stephen King book. Beyond the easy answer, it's more about how he describes things, the flow of his words, the turning of a big world into something smaller and more intimate to the reader. It's in the punch he gives at just the right instant. There's probably a thousand more subtle reasons that Mr. King's prose is uniquely his own, but these are what immediately come to mind.

It is the same for every author. There are so many intricacies in what makes each author's voice different that I could never list them all here. Sometimes, it's in their ability at sounding honest in their telling of the story, when you simply believe whatever fantastic tale you are reading. Other times, it's in their ability to bring you into the action, or make you fall in love with their characters. Like Stephen King, maybe they can make the biggest world seem so small and familiar. Or just the opposite. Maybe the author can make a small story seem immense and worldly. A small-town girl with a secret that will end all mankind.

I tell you this because I realize I have my own style, my own voice. Some might see aspects of my voice as weaknesses while others may see them as strengths. When I tell a story, I try to tell you what happens in an interesting way and then move onto the next scene. In doing so, I am relying on the reader loving the story more than the technical aspects of my prose. I hope when you finish you say, "That was an awesome read."

Again, some see that as a weakness, because I didn't describe a room down to an apple sitting precariously on a table. Yet, it is very common for some readers to compliment me on how fast my stories flow while other readers complain that I didn't give them enough little details for them to picture that room with the apple.

Hey, I get it, but my writing comes partly from how I like to read. Sometimes, while I'm enjoying a barn-burner of a book and I come to a paragraph that describes that apple on the table, regardless of how interestingly the author described that apple, I find myself skimming to the next paragraph. That's in no way to denigrate that author's description of the apple, because I actually admire how he or she can make describing a simple apple entertaining. I just personally want to keep moving along.

I've put widely acclaimed books down on the basis that I couldn't get into the author's voice. They were probably brilliant books, but they didn't reach me in how they sounded in my mind. Let me ask you, could you sit down and read an entire Shakespeare play? Maybe yes, maybe no. If not, does that mean Shakespeare was a poor writer? Obviously nobody would argue that. Shakespeare had a wonderful insight into the human state, the human psyche. Or take The Lord of the Rings. It is one of the greatest stories ever told, but it can be difficult to read and that turns some people off.

I bring up all of this voice stuff to show you how an author's voice isn't much different than how your own voice as a reader affects the story. Or, more specifically, how you prefer the voice to sound in your head when you read the book. You know, how a choppy, action-packed style might not mesh with your desire to take it slow and steady. Or if you want to know that a minor character's face is weathered from too much sun and the author doesn't tell you, instead glossing over that particular character's description to keep the story moving.

Well, you may feel shorted. It may make you feel like the author didn't bring you into his or her world enough and you may put down the book. Heck, it may even make you mad enough to give the book a negative review somewhere because the voice you wanted to hear didn't match the voice you actually heard. That doesn't make you wrong for not liking the book and it doesn't make the author wrong for writing the story how he or she wrote it. That author's story might be the best story of the century, but the story-telling didn't speak to you as a reader and, therefore, it failed in your eyes.

What I'm trying to convey is that every author has a unique way of telling a story, and every reader has a unique response to how that story was told. In my werewolf book, Tamed, some readers have criticized the speed in which my two main characters fell in love. Those readers are right in their criticism if that is what took them out of the story. But my characters' love story moved fast for a reason. The entire book, by design, moves at a frantic pace and, though I could have better fleshed out the love story aspect of it, I made a decision to not slow down the feel and pace of the book to do so. Other readers complimented how the story flowed and saw no issues with the love story. While writing, it sometimes feels like I am taking a crap-shoot on decisions that may or may not be liked by readers. That is why it is critically important that I tell the story how I see it and don't try to please every possible reader. My story would become watered down and bland if I did that, because it would kill my voice.

The better an author gets at evolving and refining his or her voice, the likelihood of readers walking away disappointed shrinks a bit and the more fans that author will gain. But as an author evolves, he or she has to be careful not to lose that personal expression--that unique voice--in the process. I would never tell an author to change his or her voice any more than I would tell a reader to simply try harder to like something. I can only hope that when you try my work one day, my voice speaks to your voice in a positive way. But if it doesn't, no story I tell can bridge that gap. But I promise I'll keep trying to evolve while keeping my voice at the same time. I hope you continue to give my work a try.

Let me know what you think. epertase@gmail.com

Thanks for reading. Be sure to enter my $50 Amazon Gift Certificate giveaway below. It's easy to enter, so what are you waiting for?

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Mid-Ohio Comic Con 2012

Once again, Comic con has come and gone here in Columbus, Ohio and I had a blast. First of all, my good friend, artist Steve Murphy, spent the week leading up to the con helping me build my backdrop for our booth. Check out the brilliant creation that he created.

Also, during the week leading to the con, the president and vice president of Rhemalda Publishing came to Ohio to support me and Steve during our signing. It was awesome meeting them and I thank them for all of their help. We had a blast. The con was highly successful in that I sold out of two of my three books. Combined, we signed and sold over 100 books and would have sold more if we didn't run out. Heck, I had people asking for Tamed throughout the day after they were all gone.

Here are a few pics from the show.

Remember, only a few more weeks until the end of my Amazon $50 Gift Card contest, so make sure to sign up soon.

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Tamed hits 20,000 Kindle downloads in first 3 months

Tamed hits 20,000 Kindle downloads in first 3 months

Moses Lake, WA (PRBuzz.com) April 18, 2012 -- Rhemalda Publishing and author Douglas R. Brown are excited to announce that Tamed has surpassed 20,000 ebook downloads. This is Douglas' most successful book to date and he is excited to share his work with so many readers.

Released on January 26th 2012, Tamed has been met with high praise for its originality with Cherie Reich calling Tamed, "The Jurassic Park of werewolf stories." Author Ashley Knight said Tamed is "Viciously brilliant." Rhemalda Publishing believes Tamed is a werewolf book unlike any other with werewolves being sold as pets.

The idea for Tamed came from Douglas' desire to change how people view werewolf stories much in the way HBO's True Blood changed how people view vampires. While brainstorming for a unique idea to accomplish that goal, Douglas was inspired by his 95-LB. Doberman Pinscher. The idea that such a powerful creature could be so docile and tame gave him the original idea he needed.

Now that the first 20,000 readers are enjoying Douglas' writing and sharing their views, he is looking forward to the next 20,000 and what they think.

Douglas R. Brown is a fantasy and horror writer living in Pataskala, Ohio. He began writing as a cathartic way of dealing with the day-to-day stresses of life as a firefighter/paramedic in Columbus, Ohio. Now he focuses his writing on fantasy, where he can draw from his lifelong love of the genre. Douglas R. Brown's website is at http://www.epertase.com. Tamed can be purchased from Rhemalda Publishing, your local bookstore, or your favorite online retailer (Amazon).

Tamed ISBN: 978-1-936850-70-9
Legends Reborn; The Light of Epertase ISBN: 978-1-936850-10-5

Rhemalda Publishing
PO Box 1790, Moses Lake, WA 98837
marketing@rhemalda.com
www.rhemalda.com

KDP Select and My Experience (Plus tips you can use)

Amazon has a program called KDP Select (not to be confused with KDP as the two are different programs. The select is Amazon exclusive and the other isn't.) With KDP Select, authors and publishers offer their books to Amazon for 90 days exclusively. In exchange for the exclusivity, they allow a 5-day window where the book can be offered for free.

Now, that doesn't sound like such a great deal for anyone aside from Amazon, but it actually is. By offering the ebook for free, the author or publisher gets to use Amazon's marketing muscle by way of their ranking system. Also, the more people who download the book, the more the book shows up in Amazon's "customers who bought this book also bought x" section. That gets the book in front of more people which, of course, is the whole goal of marketing. On top of that, if the book does well enough, it's ranking gets better, in turn gaining more exposure. The hope with this process is that the book goes semi viral and becomes self-sustaining in the downloads during the 5 free days.

I'll tell you my experience and a few tricks that I felt helped my success with the program. My first foray into the program was a collection of horror short stories called Death Alarm that I self-published as a way to test the waters. I had a nice cover created by cover artist, Steve Murphy, and started my 5 free days. I did a bit of promoting, but not a lot. My final numbers were 344 total downloads and 0 paid downloads after the 5 free days. Other than the fact that my work was now in the hands of 344 people who may never have seen it otherwise, the program was basically a failure for me considering the amount of work put into the project.

So, when Rhemalda approached me about using the promotion for Tamed, I was highly skeptical. Rhemalda had been seeing different results with a few of their books and felt Tamed had a chance to be far more successful than my short story collection, Death Alarm.

After a bit of convincing on Rhemalda's part, I gave in. Boy, was I wrong to be skeptical. At the end of the first day, Rhemalda told me Tamed was being downloaded at a rate of 750 per hour. It hit 10,000 downloads in the first 24 hours or so. Yeah, I'd say that was successful.

In the Amazon free store, Tamed rose to number 1 in horror and number 1 in contemporary fantasy. It held those rankings throughout the promotion which meant it was still being downloaded at a pretty good clip. OK, it dropped to number 3 in horror on the last day, but still. During the 5 days, Tamed hovered between 17 and 49 in the overall rankings (top 100 should be your goal) which I was pretty happy about.

My final downward numbers were 21,466. In addition to that many downloads, I received 3 unsolicited reviews and about 25 likes. The reviews were (2) 5-star and (1) 3-star. Pretty exciting start. On a side note: The 3-star reviewer liked the story and characters but complained about the editing. I wonder if that person received a corrupted file because he/she said sentences ended in the middle as part of her complaint and that wasn't something anyone else had complained about.

You probably are asking if this promotion has translated into sales and the answer is a big yes. When the free promotion ended about 24 hours ago, my ranking was 324,000. My current overall ranking is 8,809. Plus, Rhemalda has told me that Tamed is selling pretty steadily in the UK right now as well.

A lot of the success for the KDP promotion has to do with genre, cover art, synopsis and luck. I believe there are few things the author or publisher can do to help, but there are some. For me, I put a ton of promotion into the first day in hopes of having enough downloads that the self sustaining aspect of Amazon took over and that is what happened. Did my promotional work help? Who knows, but I'll tell you what I did and you can decide.

First, I sought out as many Facebook groups that posted free ebook deals as I could. (Simply type kindle, ebook, or free ebook in the FB search.) Be sure to go to their websites and read their instructions ahead of time because some groups want 5 days notice. If there are no instructions just post your book on the day it becomes free.

Next, and I think this helped the most, was tweeting. A lot. Remember, you aren't trying to get your followers to download your book as much as using keywords to expose your book to a ton more people. I had a fortunate Twitter thing happen on day one and it might help you with your tweets. Once I started tweeting, a couple of my tweets were picked up by several werewolf fans and retweeted because, unbeknownst to me, Wednesday is werewolfwednesday. I then added that tag to my tweets. Though I got lucky, you can make your own luck in the same way. Research Twitter with different keywords relating to your book to see if anything is trending and include that word in your tweets. For instance, the word werewolves seemed more popular than werewolf or lycan so my tweets included the word werewolves. I found that you should also include #freeebook #freekindle #Kindle and whatever else you can think of. Also, use bitly.com to shorten your Amazon link to your book so you have more room to tweet. Because Twitter is such a good avenue, I used twuffer.com to schedule tweets throughout the 5 days so that I always had stuff going out.

Next, blog about your giveaway, post to all of your FB groups, and have all of your friends download your book even if they already have it a paperback or whatever. Also, be visible on the Goodreads forums and kindle boards (you can directly promote in the Kindle Board Book Bazaar section). Other than in the Book Bazaar, don't flat out promote your book. Join in on the conversations and have a link to your book in your signature. People who troll those boards often click on your signature and check out what you have. The other thing I did was to create an event to your Goodreads friends. After you do all of these things, cross your fingers and hope for some action.

I realize some people have had equal success with the program without doing any of this, but I like to increase my odds, even if just a bit.

So, good luck everyone.