Writing Music - Battleroar

Here's a different sort of post related to writing.

I personally find myself more productive when I'm listening to some sort of music.

My poison of choice is heavy metal, but not just any sort will do for writing. Staccato rhythms and rap-like lyrics are straight into the garbage bin. That's because I need to think of my own words without some guy screaming the same phrase into my ear over and over.

I tend to look for stuff with sweeping melodies and grand narratives, while still retaining the energetic guitar work that is typical of good metal. Excellent vocals are a must, but the vocals mustn't overwhelm the music, but complement it. Some sort of unusual instrument, like, oh, I don't know, a violin, perhaps, adds interest to such a band. :)

I've lent an ear to this band from Greece for some time now, and Battleroar's latest offering is Codex Epicus, to be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=700GDzPu3_w

It fulfils my writing music requirements very well, and is a masterpiece to be listened to at other times as well.

For what it's worth, I recommend them highly.

Getting Amazon Reviews

This has to be one of the hardest things to do.

The Ebook and Indie publishing market is absolutely saturated with titles, and Amazon is bursting at the seams with new books being squeezed into the published sausage like so much mincemeat every day. Newly published books sink like stones. Forget the "I published a book and got drowned in a truckload of money as a desperate publisher recognised my unique snowflake talent and hit me up for a contract" stories. I literally think that winning the lottery is both easier and less arduous.

One of the few things that one can do to try to stand out is to have a book with some (hopefully) positive reviews. That in itself is a very difficult thing to achieve. Amazon (understandably) cracked down big time on the paid review scene, because there's an inherent bias involved in reviewing a book that somebody just paid you for. Amazon wants reviews to grow "organically".

Sounds good.

But what does that mean? It means that people buy your book, and the subject matter within moves their soul and they just have to write a review for you on Amazon. Except for that people won't buy a book with no reviews if there's an equal title next to it with a bunch of 5 star reviews. They'll buy that one instead. So would I.

So, what can one do?

Free KDP giveaways are touted as one of the best ways to get people to read your work and to slowly accumulate those little golden nuggets. That's right. That book you just wrote? Ya gotta give it away for free if you want to be read. But wait! You didn't just think you could give it away and thousands of people would download it, did you?

No. Everybody is doing that, so you have to advertise your free book. Once you get over the fact that you have to pay folks to give your book away to an audience, you come to the next realisation that they don't want your stinkin' book with no reviews, you have to have at least ten or so good ones before you get the honour.

I had a bit of a laugh at the chicken - and - the - egg situation, but its a situation a shedload of authors find themselves in with no easy solutions.

Book 3 coming along

Well, I have been fairly humming along with the next book in the Martin Chalk series.

Now that there’s some momentum behind it, I need to push through. I’d sketched up such a complicated plotline that the first time I’d left it for a while, it took me a week of reading through the backstory to remember where the heck the story was headed and why.

I found Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ very useful. He says 2000 words a day, every day, no excuses. At first I was like, “Pfft! Is that all?” and proceeded to knock out 3500 words the first day on the job. I felt like a hero. The next day, just over 2000. The day after … 1500 and those came hard.  The last two days have been fruitless, and I’ve been telling myself that marketing is work too.

LOL.

Sometimes, writing is just not easy, but you have to sit and shovel the words regardless. You can always edit out later. But you can’t edit out if there’s zero.

Sales, but from where?

Interestingly enough, I've had a small burst of sales lately.

As a self-pubbed author, it it pretty important to know what caused those sales, and unfortunately, I don't have a clue.

I've been pursuing two forms of advertising lately.

One is the Amazon keywords thing where your book appears as "recommended" below other books with hopefully the same characteristics. I've received a modest amount of impressions (times that people have seen the book) but rather low click through rate. None of those clicks have resulted in sales. Yet, sales I am getting.

The book Martin Chalk and the Case of the Underworld King was recently on free promo. Again, only a modest number of people downloaded it, and it seems strange that all the sales I've had were from that book, which folks probably picked up for free anyway.

Head-scratching time.

Either the folks that downloaded it as free came back to buy it, which was cool of them ... or they possibly recommended it to friends who then bought it. 'Tis only 99c after all.

Anyway, I wish I knew what was pushing the sales :)