Monday, December 27, 2021
fraud in the read-for-read sites
Yes, there's no doubt, some people just read the "quick-view" part of your work, not really downloading or reading your book, and then make a fakish review which is pretty clearly transparent. They didn't read it. They got the read and review that came from posting their book beneath yours, and then they stiffed you.
This would lead some authors to "tell," or to alert the site owners of the fraud. It gets others to go into the fraudster's work, and do the same for them - only give them a "one" in revenge. It's actually pretty easy to get revenge in a system where everyone has their work on KU (kindle unlimited) and virtually all of us pay the $10/month it requires to keep access to all the free work.
I'm committed to keeping KU; it's the only investment I have in my own writing, but it allows me to read a wide variety of things, and at the same time give reviews to people and in return get a large number of reviews. This system has worked pretty well for me. But the increase in fraudsters has been apparent lately as well. And for us, who have read entire books for the opportunity to have someone read ours just once, it's a painful fraud, kind of like having five bucks taken from our wallet. We notice it. And we don't appreciate it.
One of the aspects of it though is that there are a number of people who read your work on their phone, and their phone is not connected to KU. So from our point of view they robbed us of reads, but from their point of view, nothing wrong, they did as they promised, they downloaded and read your work. How does one even know if one's phone is counting the reads and transfering the numbers to the main amazon counter? I have no idea. I know that I can accuse them of fraud but it's not quite accurate.
In the big picture it's probably better, and inevitable, to accept the fact that you're only going to get about 60% of the reads you are providing out there to other authors. I am reading a hundred pages of theirs, and I'm only getting reads in return for about half of that. Now there's also the fact that sometimes you promise to read things that are longer than your own, or the reverse, so there's a certain amount of inequality there anyway. And of course I do it partly because I like going around and seeing what these other authors are putting out there. It's quite amazing what your standard self-published book has these days, in terms of grammar and language - but there's no doubt, a lot of them are quite good and worth my time, if only to know what kind of community I'm in as a self-published author. There's a limit, of course - there's only so much fantasy I can take, and if everyone on there is someone I've read that's also a dead end, a case where I'm checking these sites every few hours only to find the same old same old, things I've already read. A dead end.
As I come to the end of the year I reflect back on what I've done. There's been a certain amount of success - it's good to have the nine collections of short stories read by anyone, anywhere for a change - and someone in a review recently said of one of them, "I really didn't know what to expect, but I really liked them." It leads me to the general idea that the short story market is somehow secret, in a separate place, tucked away, maybe dying off altogether. I certainly haven't found it, or rather, they don't come flocking to my books on Amazon to read mine. My nine volumes live in their own world, with their own limited audience of people who are authors themselves, desperate for reads, willing to trade, as I am, one book at a time, by reading someone's, in order to, hopefully, have someone read theirs.
This would lead some authors to "tell," or to alert the site owners of the fraud. It gets others to go into the fraudster's work, and do the same for them - only give them a "one" in revenge. It's actually pretty easy to get revenge in a system where everyone has their work on KU (kindle unlimited) and virtually all of us pay the $10/month it requires to keep access to all the free work.
I'm committed to keeping KU; it's the only investment I have in my own writing, but it allows me to read a wide variety of things, and at the same time give reviews to people and in return get a large number of reviews. This system has worked pretty well for me. But the increase in fraudsters has been apparent lately as well. And for us, who have read entire books for the opportunity to have someone read ours just once, it's a painful fraud, kind of like having five bucks taken from our wallet. We notice it. And we don't appreciate it.
One of the aspects of it though is that there are a number of people who read your work on their phone, and their phone is not connected to KU. So from our point of view they robbed us of reads, but from their point of view, nothing wrong, they did as they promised, they downloaded and read your work. How does one even know if one's phone is counting the reads and transfering the numbers to the main amazon counter? I have no idea. I know that I can accuse them of fraud but it's not quite accurate.
In the big picture it's probably better, and inevitable, to accept the fact that you're only going to get about 60% of the reads you are providing out there to other authors. I am reading a hundred pages of theirs, and I'm only getting reads in return for about half of that. Now there's also the fact that sometimes you promise to read things that are longer than your own, or the reverse, so there's a certain amount of inequality there anyway. And of course I do it partly because I like going around and seeing what these other authors are putting out there. It's quite amazing what your standard self-published book has these days, in terms of grammar and language - but there's no doubt, a lot of them are quite good and worth my time, if only to know what kind of community I'm in as a self-published author. There's a limit, of course - there's only so much fantasy I can take, and if everyone on there is someone I've read that's also a dead end, a case where I'm checking these sites every few hours only to find the same old same old, things I've already read. A dead end.
As I come to the end of the year I reflect back on what I've done. There's been a certain amount of success - it's good to have the nine collections of short stories read by anyone, anywhere for a change - and someone in a review recently said of one of them, "I really didn't know what to expect, but I really liked them." It leads me to the general idea that the short story market is somehow secret, in a separate place, tucked away, maybe dying off altogether. I certainly haven't found it, or rather, they don't come flocking to my books on Amazon to read mine. My nine volumes live in their own world, with their own limited audience of people who are authors themselves, desperate for reads, willing to trade, as I am, one book at a time, by reading someone's, in order to, hopefully, have someone read theirs.
Sunday, December 05, 2021
read-for-reads sites
In the last week three of the moderators of the read-for-reads sites have expressed frustration and have put forward the idea that if things don't get better, they may very well quit.
I would guess that the same people who are not reading and following the instructions given, will not change their behavior just because of what the moderators say. They can express frustration, but if you don't read the instructions, why would you read a note imploring writers to follow them?
There is a tendency among desperate writers, international ones in particular, to find millions of sites, approach them from the outside, take them for whatever they are worth, and leave. They do not have time to read instructions. They do not keep track of where they've been and what they've done. They are very likely to post their book hoping to get reads and reviews, and forget entirely that in doing so they have promised someone to read and/or review theirs. If they even knew they made that promise, they very easily forget it.
So they are reaping the benefits of promising to read something, and at the same time stiffing some writer who in many cases ends up being me. I have no control over who posts below my book. I always read the book above. But this week also, I was stiffed by two different people. I'm not sure if they did it intentionally; maybe they will read the book later. But I am reasonably confident that I've just plain lost, in the sense that in each case I read an entire book for someone, and received nothing in return.
Now by the way I should mention that it is pretty easy to get revenge on these people, by simply downloading their book and reviewing it as a two, or maybe a one, without even reading it. And I'm pretty sure this happens. There are people out there who dish out twos and ones just for general spite, just because whatever project they've started didn't quite pan out as they wanted. They sometimes give twos and ones for totally spurious reasons, and in my case, I think being stiffed out of about five hours of my time is not really spurious, and is probably a good enough reason to do this. But I don't do it, at least I haven't yet, because I think that often they put their book in these pyramids or trains, barely even aware that by doing so they have made a promise to me. They were just passing through. They were putting their book on every post that other people had put books on. It was somewhat like writer's lifts are on Twitter - social media marketing is putting your book in hundreds of places, hoping that that one out of a thousand will go for it.
To address the site moderator's problem, I really have no solution. I considered making a site myself - I could - but watching them, who wants to deal with all these people who don't read the rules? Some are arrogant jerks. Some never answer DMs of any kind. Almost all are desperate for reads, desperate for more audience, willing to promise almost anything to get someone to read their book or, better yet, to buy it. But the buys aren't out there. We indie authors are basically still unknown and I'm beginning to face the fact that in most people's eyes, I'm not much better than most of them.
Meanwhile I'm getting a pretty good view of what's out there. I must say, at sixty seven, I don't have endless hours to read medium-grade fantasy in order to get a single person who may or may not be there, to read my book. Either they'll read them or not. Maybe I should let go of the ratings, which will float wherever they end up, and just say, I've done the best I could for now. I have three or four books that need to be finished - I have stuff to do with my time - and I'm not inclined to keep throwing it away on the chance that I can get a story book in the top five hundred on Amazon.com (which I did, recently, by the way; I was quite proud of myself). On the one hand, it was the first time any of my nine short-story collections was really being read with any kind of consistency - read, and given fives mostly, by other authors, people whose respect I value. On the other, there's only so much time in this world - I have three teenagers at home, more visiting, places to go, things to do, important books to finish. And for me, it's a kind of race against time, with a dense or shallow fantasy a kind of backwater, from which I have to somehow maneuver the canoe back into the stream.
I would guess that the same people who are not reading and following the instructions given, will not change their behavior just because of what the moderators say. They can express frustration, but if you don't read the instructions, why would you read a note imploring writers to follow them?
There is a tendency among desperate writers, international ones in particular, to find millions of sites, approach them from the outside, take them for whatever they are worth, and leave. They do not have time to read instructions. They do not keep track of where they've been and what they've done. They are very likely to post their book hoping to get reads and reviews, and forget entirely that in doing so they have promised someone to read and/or review theirs. If they even knew they made that promise, they very easily forget it.
So they are reaping the benefits of promising to read something, and at the same time stiffing some writer who in many cases ends up being me. I have no control over who posts below my book. I always read the book above. But this week also, I was stiffed by two different people. I'm not sure if they did it intentionally; maybe they will read the book later. But I am reasonably confident that I've just plain lost, in the sense that in each case I read an entire book for someone, and received nothing in return.
Now by the way I should mention that it is pretty easy to get revenge on these people, by simply downloading their book and reviewing it as a two, or maybe a one, without even reading it. And I'm pretty sure this happens. There are people out there who dish out twos and ones just for general spite, just because whatever project they've started didn't quite pan out as they wanted. They sometimes give twos and ones for totally spurious reasons, and in my case, I think being stiffed out of about five hours of my time is not really spurious, and is probably a good enough reason to do this. But I don't do it, at least I haven't yet, because I think that often they put their book in these pyramids or trains, barely even aware that by doing so they have made a promise to me. They were just passing through. They were putting their book on every post that other people had put books on. It was somewhat like writer's lifts are on Twitter - social media marketing is putting your book in hundreds of places, hoping that that one out of a thousand will go for it.
To address the site moderator's problem, I really have no solution. I considered making a site myself - I could - but watching them, who wants to deal with all these people who don't read the rules? Some are arrogant jerks. Some never answer DMs of any kind. Almost all are desperate for reads, desperate for more audience, willing to promise almost anything to get someone to read their book or, better yet, to buy it. But the buys aren't out there. We indie authors are basically still unknown and I'm beginning to face the fact that in most people's eyes, I'm not much better than most of them.
Meanwhile I'm getting a pretty good view of what's out there. I must say, at sixty seven, I don't have endless hours to read medium-grade fantasy in order to get a single person who may or may not be there, to read my book. Either they'll read them or not. Maybe I should let go of the ratings, which will float wherever they end up, and just say, I've done the best I could for now. I have three or four books that need to be finished - I have stuff to do with my time - and I'm not inclined to keep throwing it away on the chance that I can get a story book in the top five hundred on Amazon.com (which I did, recently, by the way; I was quite proud of myself). On the one hand, it was the first time any of my nine short-story collections was really being read with any kind of consistency - read, and given fives mostly, by other authors, people whose respect I value. On the other, there's only so much time in this world - I have three teenagers at home, more visiting, places to go, things to do, important books to finish. And for me, it's a kind of race against time, with a dense or shallow fantasy a kind of backwater, from which I have to somehow maneuver the canoe back into the stream.
Saturday, December 04, 2021
Dec. marketing report
Every month I try to tell a little about what's happening marketing my books. I have to admit that I'm still failing in many wide markets. I ignore ACX altogether these days as it's too depressing to face that fact that I have about ten books read into audiobooks and have virtually no marketing campaign, and sales are down to a crawl. I just don't know what to do with audiobook marketing.
Similarly, Black Friday has come and gone and paperback sales aren't that great either. It may be that I'm not that great a writer but more likely I just have no marketing, so how is anyone to know they're out there? I don't pay for facebook ads; I don't pay for Amazon ads. I have just me.
There is one market I do well on. I do read-for-reads with other authors, and they read my work. Last month on KU, I got a lot of my books read and this last week six of them had ratings under a million. This is e-book marketing - when people download your book and read it, I get like a half-penny per page and I make about twenty or thirty bucks a month. It's nothing but I live for it, and live to see the slight ratings jump I get whenever someone reads my book. Last week one of my short stories books cracked the top five hundred in short stories (first time ever) and it was probably the first time I could look at my nine published collections of short stories and say that at least somebody's been reading them.
This is hard work, because it involves me slogging through some fantasies and books that ordinarily I wouldn't read. That's ok for a while, but why should I spend my life reading stuff that I don't really want to? One book I'm reading now, is about these white women running around some fashionable place, organizing thousand-dollar wedding, spending husband's stock-market income (or whatever), dressing to the hilt and eating at the fanciest restaurants. This is the world I write to avoid. The book is well-written, has a plot, etc., but I just don't want to be there. If I get better known I could sit back in my chair, have people read my stuff anyway, and not have to do all this hard work.
Also it takes away from my blogs, which I actually enjoy, and don't do enough of. Remember I have a network of blogs, about thirty of them, and they're mostly just sitting there, meant to express my feelings about a number of issues. Take this one for example. I have used this blog for a number of things (things people wouldn't guess) but these days I find myself with a lot to say about this particular issue so I'm using this one for this. I could make it a lot more effective and, for example, make it lead to my books. But I don't. I'm too busy reading. Maybe that will change, maybe. Meanwhile some volcano just blew in East Java.
Similarly, Black Friday has come and gone and paperback sales aren't that great either. It may be that I'm not that great a writer but more likely I just have no marketing, so how is anyone to know they're out there? I don't pay for facebook ads; I don't pay for Amazon ads. I have just me.
There is one market I do well on. I do read-for-reads with other authors, and they read my work. Last month on KU, I got a lot of my books read and this last week six of them had ratings under a million. This is e-book marketing - when people download your book and read it, I get like a half-penny per page and I make about twenty or thirty bucks a month. It's nothing but I live for it, and live to see the slight ratings jump I get whenever someone reads my book. Last week one of my short stories books cracked the top five hundred in short stories (first time ever) and it was probably the first time I could look at my nine published collections of short stories and say that at least somebody's been reading them.
This is hard work, because it involves me slogging through some fantasies and books that ordinarily I wouldn't read. That's ok for a while, but why should I spend my life reading stuff that I don't really want to? One book I'm reading now, is about these white women running around some fashionable place, organizing thousand-dollar wedding, spending husband's stock-market income (or whatever), dressing to the hilt and eating at the fanciest restaurants. This is the world I write to avoid. The book is well-written, has a plot, etc., but I just don't want to be there. If I get better known I could sit back in my chair, have people read my stuff anyway, and not have to do all this hard work.
Also it takes away from my blogs, which I actually enjoy, and don't do enough of. Remember I have a network of blogs, about thirty of them, and they're mostly just sitting there, meant to express my feelings about a number of issues. Take this one for example. I have used this blog for a number of things (things people wouldn't guess) but these days I find myself with a lot to say about this particular issue so I'm using this one for this. I could make it a lot more effective and, for example, make it lead to my books. But I don't. I'm too busy reading. Maybe that will change, maybe. Meanwhile some volcano just blew in East Java.
