Tag: writer

This Week’s Announcements

New Responsibilities

I am pleased to announce that I was voted in as President of the Union County Writers Club this past weekend. Who are they? They are a group of writers, many of whom are published, and live in the same county I reside in here in North Carolina.
The club is a new adventure for me, and I cannot wait to get started. As we develop programs and events, I will be sharing those here with you. If you live in the Charlotte area, I hope to see you in person at one of our author speaking engagements.

“Humor Through The Ages”

Lucius McCray’s next book is going through its second self-edit, and I am waiting on the responses from at least one other beta reader. Additionally, I am still looking for a way to fund the remainder of the project. I need to raise $1800.00. The money will cover the cost of the paperback and ebook cover design. The rest of the balance will cover the cost of the editors.

I know what I want to offer those who donate $100.00 or more. We want to give our century-plus financial supporters a free paperback of the new book, a place on the “Sponsors” page inside the book, and a twenty-five dollar gift certificate to DMFabrics. The issue still before me is what median to use to raise donations. I am considering Kickstarter, but that platform is a project unto itself. I may need to go there, but I would prefer to raise funds via friends and readers if possible.

Where are the Livestreams?

I am holding off on doing anymore livestreams on Facebook. Per their new policy, Facebook is deemphasizing livestreams. Indeed, I have seen the social media platform sharing fewer and fewer videos with members of my author page. I will likely begin doing weekly videos on my YouTube channel soon.

Keeping The Narrow Way

Why is Amazon tempting?

There has been an ongoing debate in the writing community about the value of “going wide.” This term means you are spreading your books out among as many vendors as possible. On its surface, it sounds like a no brainer. However, for new authors, it can mean the difference between gaining momentum or finding yourself struggling to get your books noticed.

The real question behind this dilemma is whether or not to use Amazon’s KDP Select. Those who sign up for the service must use Amazon exclusively for their ebooks for ninety days; thus, the term “going narrow.” That is a long time if you want to put your book up on Barnes and Nobel, Kobo, or other locations.

On the other side of the argument is Kindle Unlimited, which allows its members to read your stories for free, while Amazon pays you a small royalty, emphasis on the word “small.” Since most new authors deeply discount their books or give them away for free, a small royalty sounds good. Also, Amazon allows discounts and giveaways and provides all sorts of tutorials on how to be successful on its platform.

Given the success rate of Amazon authors compared to its competitors, it is a tempting offer.

I have tried both the wide method and the narrow. I still believe the narrow option is best for authors with fewer than six books. The exception would be seeing your book shoot up to the bestseller charts not long after its release. At that point, you have the momentum to go as wide as you are able.

When you look at Amazon objectively, their price points for services and royalties are still better than many other book vendors in the industry. Most other companies offer smaller royalties than Amazon and provide fewer services. Does this business model help boost Amazon to a monopoly? Yes. However, the way to fix this issue is not to avoid Amazon; the solution is for the other services to up their game.

So, if you are a new author, let me strongly encourage you to adopt Amazon early on. Yes, there are around one million consistent authors on its platform. Yes, you will have to learn how to master Amazon’s marketing services. The alternative is to perform these same tasks for all of the other platforms out there. If you have released just one or two books, you may want to spend more time writing your third instead of mastering Apple Books, Kobo, and others. The choice is yours.