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Recent content by PaulineMRoss

  1. PaulineMRoss

    The Will To Continue.

    I write because I have these characters in my head who won't leave me alone unless I write their stories down. Of course, when I do, there are more characters... Sigh. I've always had characters in my head, but I haven't always written them down. But eventually they got so insistent that I...
  2. PaulineMRoss

    Some Advice on Agent Angst?

    You're the only one who can answer this question, but here are some thoughts. Firstly, what will you do if you get rejected in the end? Query someone else? Shelve the book altogether? Self-publish? If you're planning to carry on querying, then it's probably worth waiting this one out, because a...
  3. PaulineMRoss

    It's Never Been Easier

    This ^ Yes, you can make money from it, but to make more than pizza-and-wine money, it's incredibly hard work. The people I know who've made the breakthrough have mostly worked their socks off to put out books fast enough to catch the wave. In my FB authors' group of 35, there are maybe a third...
  4. PaulineMRoss

    Writing a fantasy novel with a female protagonist

    To be honest, once you start focusing on the potential audience for a story, it's already slipping out of your grasp. Write the book first, and don't think about anything beyond your own interest in the story, and the way the characters and plot develop. Then set it aside and write another. And...
  5. PaulineMRoss

    Self-publishing article

    It's interesting, but, as you say, it's out of date. I would also urge caution when anyone talks about 'your self-publishing company'. That's a different style of self-publishing, and you can spend a whole heap of money if you're not careful. It's great for anyone who may only have one special...
  6. PaulineMRoss

    Brian's Sales and Marketing Thread

    The big difference, between book 1 and book 2, was that I discovered promotion! So it went like this: 1 book out: $2/day {no promotion to start with, then a very little dabbling} 2 books out: $20/day {a big promotion to launch book 2, which was very successful} 3 books out: $44/day {a big...
  7. PaulineMRoss

    Brian's Sales and Marketing Thread

    Thanks for all the information, Brian. There's no substitute for hard data from those who are already published. To emphasize the point that it takes time to build a writing career, one book at a time, here are my average daily royalties by number of books: 1 book out: $2/day 2 books out...
  8. PaulineMRoss

    AoP Cover - What Now?

    Novellas are notoriously difficult to sell. A lot of people price them at $0.99 or permafree, or else just give them away as a reader magnet. I wouldn't spend any more money on it, just leave it out there as a bonus for your novel readers to find.
  9. PaulineMRoss

    Call out to HMS Pinafore

    I might just possibly connect the two (I have a lot of G&S lyrics imprinted on my brain), but it would be an 'echo', if you will. Just a word grouping that triggers some linkage in my brain. But the words themselves are so generic that I wouldn't take it as an intentional quote. It would just...
  10. PaulineMRoss

    All About Reviews (except getting them :) )

    That's an interesting distinction to draw. The review is the distillation of the experience. I don't see how they can meaningfully be separated (in terms of validity, anyway). A review may be more or less helpful, critical, well-written, balanced... than any other, but I'd say that they're all...
  11. PaulineMRoss

    All About Reviews (except getting them :) )

    I would put it even more strongly than that. Every reader's experience of the book is as valid as anyone else's. A book is more than a product. You can buy (say) a new phone, and rate it according to how well it meets your needs and expectations, but in the end it's just a thing. A book is (or...
  12. PaulineMRoss

    Brian's Sales and Marketing Thread

    One small point, Brian - if you're in the 35% royalty range (by manually setting the price to 99c rather than using a Countdown), you don't pay the delivery charge. So you're making 34c per sale. :)
  13. PaulineMRoss

    All About Email Lists

    This is good stuff, Brian. I'd add just a few extra points: 1) You can put a signup link at the front AND back of your books. I put a list of all the books (released and proposed) at the front, after the copyright page and before the TOC, and put a link to the signup page there. Then again on...
  14. PaulineMRoss

    There be Pirates!

    You should be cautious about interacting with these sites. Some of them don't have the book available at all, it's just a con to get hold of credit card details, or inject your computer with malware. And frankly, it's not worth the effort of chasing these people. Let folks have the books for...
  15. PaulineMRoss

    Brian's Sales and Marketing Thread

    Thanks for the thought, anyway. The next promo probably won't be until January, so I'll try and remember to let you know!
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