Recent Promotional Upgrades

I finally got my act together and consolidated some useless single book pages I had created on Facebook long ago into one author page. You can like it at Joan H. Young, Author.

And, amazingly enough, I also managed to put together a video about Dead Mule Swamp, in which I also read chapter one of News from Dead Mule Swamp. Enjoy!



The flurry of accomplishment is spurred by the fact that I'm doing an author takeover for an hour at 8 pm in the Facebook Group "Cozy Mystery Friends." Free to join if you are interested.

Pentwater Arts and Crafts Fair

This, right here, is the future of what I do.



Yesterday and today I was at the Pentwater (MI) Arts and Crafts Fair. The weather was marginal yesterday and downright icky today. Nevertheless, I did OK on sales. More on that later.

On Saturday, three of us shared the booth. We've done this before, and we work well together. Jean owns the sandwich board sign and it is great- it lets people know what we are about.



There was live music by Awesome Distraction of Manistee. They were quite good. Not so loud they blow out your brains, but our booth was very close to the stage, so it made it really difficult to talk to people. This is one of my pet peeves, and yet, when the music was playing people were definitely more upbeat and engaged. Don't know quite how to solve that conundrum. I'm sure it wasn't too loud for those a little farther away.



At one point they warned us that the Coast Guard helicopter was going to be flying low overhead as part of a demonstration so people wouldn't be alarmed.



Today, it was just Jean and me, well.. and Bitzi, who helped bring people to our table.


I met two new (to me) authors, so that was great.

Now for the nitty-gritty. I'm not throwing in the towel yet, but I need to do better than I did this weekend. Alternatively, I can do more than two shows a month, which will result in less writing time, and/or less volunteer time. It will definitely make me crabbier.

I can keep this up at this level for a while, but eventually there has to be an upturn in sales, or I will need to add another source of income.

I can live frugally, but I do need to have a car and a place to live and food, and a few minimum other things. I get tired of having to forego a lot of activities because I can't afford the gas or whatever. I know, I do go to a number of things, but I have to pick and choose carefully, often camp or sleep in my car, take my own food, etc, etc. I'm not whining, I'm just being honest. After a lifetime of having pretty much nothing, I'm used to it, but I'm not going to let the finances get to the point where I can't afford to do anything at all other than eat and drive.

We shall see. No major decisions until after this year. I'm trying to move from small potatoes to medium potatoes. Maybe that's just a slow transition.

How to Painlessly Hug an Author - Tip #3

Sometimes you'd like to give an author friend a pat on the back, but writing a review of a book just seems too difficult. There are many ways to help writers that don't take more than a few seconds of time.

Today's tip: rate one or more of their books on any author site. Often, you can do this without writing a review. If more is requested, you could simply say "great," or "average," or made me feel sad," etc. You can do this on Amazon, Smashwords, Bookbub, AuthorDB, Hometown Reads, Goodreads, and probably other sites.

If you want to help me, there are some links here

Amazon

Smashwords

Goodreads

BookBub

I'll be adding an occasional tip to this series.

How to Painlessly Hug an Author- Tip #2

How to Painlessly Hug an Author - Tip #2

Sometimes you'd like to give an author friend a pat on the back, but writing a review of a book just seems too difficult. There are many ways to help writers that don't take more than a few seconds of time.

Today's tip: follow an author on any of the social media channels they use. This might include Amazon, Smashwords, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bookbub, AuthorDB, Hometown Reads, Goodreads, etc. If you like a particular author, you probably know where they hang out.

If you want to help me, Amazon and Smashwords links here

Amazon

Smashwords

Goodreads

BookBub

I'll be adding an occasional tip to this series.

How To Painlessly Hug an Author - Tip #1

We're always asking you to write reviews. I know! But maybe you don't want to think that hard. Maybe you find the mechanics of the whole process difficult. Maybe you think a book was only worth 3 stars, but you don't want to really "say that out loud."

So how can you help support your friends who write, or those whose books you love even if you don't know them personally?

This suggestion should take under a minute to accomplish. Can you spare a minute a month to help support an author? I think that's a reasonable request.

You can do this for any author you like. Of course, I'd be thrilled if you take this suggestion to help me, but ANY AUTHOR you enjoy is going to feel the love if you do this. Trust me.

Today's tip: share a link to their author page, or one of their books on any social media site. Anywhere you like to interact. Go on... it took you longer to read this post than it will to help an author.

If you want to help me, Amazon and Smashwords links here

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8UBU0

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/sharkbytes

I'll be adding an occasional tip to this series.

Short and Fun Stories released

Edited by Dorothy Mae Mercer, this collection of short stories and excerpts by 14 authors can give you a taste of many different works and styles.

The book, Short and Fun Stories, is designed to be a teaser to draw people in to ordering additional titles by these writers.

My award winning story, "The Case of the Cautious Couple," appears in this anthology. It's a spoof of the Perry Mason mysteries, which I love. However, they were very formulaic, and therefor easy to copy stylistically. I think you'll find the twist at the end enjoyable.

The volume contains romance, politics, mystery, historical fiction, one children's story, folklore, a memoir, and more.

It can be pre-ordered now for delivery on May 6, or at any time thereafter for $1.99. You'll get over 50K words of stories for two bucks! What are you waiting for?

Order at Amazon- Short and Fun Stories

Publicity is Always Good!

Joan H. Young with a print mock-up of News from Dead Mule Swamp (photo by Rob Alway)

This week, I was interviewed by Rob Alway, editor of the newly created (some might say resurrected from a long defunct print paper) Mason County Press. Rob hopes to bring an online news magazine of mostly human interest stories to life for Mason County, Michigan.

Rob thought that my publication of News from Dead Mule Swamp was newsworthy, and I'm not about to argue with that!

He did a good interview, which you can read at Joan Young Begins a New Adventure- Writes First Mystery Novel

Next week I begin writing a regular column for Mason County Press, too!

You can buy News from Dead Mule Swamp, for only 99¢ at Smashwords, Amazon

A Failure to Seize an Opportunity

I just spent a weekend with a decent-size group of friends, from a wide variety of locations (most in Michigan). Way too late, I realized that I should have printed up some cards with basic info about my recent publications to take and hand out.

I am weak at marketing, and don't like to be pushy, but this was a complete failure.

If I had handed out some cards, it would have given people an opportunity to see what I am doing, and the chance to order book(s) if they want. I could have done all that without being obnoxious at all.

Lesson learned- I'm going to design some cards, and try to develop the backbone to hand them out.

Marketing- Follow-up on Consignments

Today, my sister-in-law helped me get organized and make calls to follow up on consignment placements of North Country Cache. I really despise doing this kind of work, so this feels like a huge weight off my shoulders.

Marketing is one of the most difficult parts, OK, THE most difficult part, of self-publishing. You have to get books into book stores for people to see them. Many stores won't buy books outright. They want the author to take all the risk by placing books on consignment.

Consignment is a huge risk. Not only do you need to do all the follow-up, finding out if books have sold and requesting payment, but there is a hidden risk as well. Independent bookstores can go out of business in a flash, and if they do, your books will probably disappear into a black hole and you'll never see any money.

At least four stores where I had books on consignment are just gone. In one case, I know that all six copies they had were sold, and I never received the money. In other cases, I don't really know, but suspect that the books all went to discount houses. Cost to them... nothing, since they never paid me for the books in the first place. Cost to me... at least the cost of printing each book, if not more.

Only one store that I called today wanted to order more books, and one store wants to return the rest of what they have, and I have to pay the shipping.

It's interesting how various stores feel about keeping inventory. Some stores won't keep your book in stock if they don't sell in a year. Others are willing to keep a few copies, apparently indefinitely.

Well, at least now I've done the checking on all these for a while. I wish I could say I won't do any more consignment sales, but that's not practical either. Sigh.

Amazon Smacks the Small Sellers- What Else is New?

I just got a notice from Amazon:

If we determine that there is insufficient customer demand for your product, we may choose to no longer carry it. In such cases, we will attempt to return all Products to you.

Please be sure to update your return address so that we can properly process returns to your organization. This address should be a valid US street address rather than a PO Box. You can update your address by going to Settings->Return Address. If we have an outdated or incorrect address for you, or if we cannot charge to your freight account, we may liquidate the Products and keep the proceeds, destroy the Products, or ship the Products to you and deduct the charges from any payments due to you through Advantage.

We apologize for any inconvenience but at this time we cannot provide you with any item level return information prior to the return being processed.

So what they are saying is that if not enough of your books sell through Amazon that they may or may not return any to you that they have, and they aren't going to tell you how few sales is too few. In other words, they can just cut you off without any warning.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Amazon is terrible for small-volume sales. A publisher barely covers the cost of the book by the time all the discounts and fees are applied. Now, in addition to preventing you from making any money, they may even prevent you from presenting your book to the public at large through a company which at least provides credibility.

I wonder if my sales will be enough to keep me in Amazon. I sell about four a year there, and they only keep one in stock.

If you are a small seller, just be sure that your return address in your Advantage Central file is up to date!

30 Ways to Help a Book Author You Love

I came across this great article today. It's by John Kremer, who claims to be an expert on book publishing and marketing. I've been subscribing to his tips for several months, and I think there are always good ideas in them. Some, I should do; others don't fit well; but it's always great to have a poke in the brain for another possible way to market a book.

Some ways in which people have helped me are part of his list. I would love it if more of the people who say they really enjoyed my book would actually do one of them!

The ways he suggests that would help me most are:
• Buy your friend's book
• Recommend your friend's book, including writing a review on Amazon, or blogging about it
• Help your friend get speaking engagements (I have several popular media programs)

One bloggy friend did purchase North Country Cache and wrote about it at It's a Giveaway at the Duck and Wheel. Thanks, Lin and G'ma Phyl! (Phyl's comments near the bottom of the post.)

You can read the full article at 30 Ways to Help a Book Author You Love

Added to Michgan Author List

Books Leaving Footprints has been added to the Michigan Authors list at Ludington Visiting Writers.

So much of this authoring game is marketing, that any time there is an opportunity for another link, another contact, etc, it's great.

End of the Line with Partners Distributing

I have to say that my experiences with distributors hasn't been very good. North Country Cache has been listed with two of them. However, I got a certified letter from Partners today that it is "in our best interest to terminate our agreement with your company." I have to say that the feeling is mutual. Here's the story.

Ever since I've been peddling NCC around to bookstores, I am often asked what distributors I work with, and if the store was in the upper Midwest they usually asked about Partners. I kept dragging my feet, because it was just one more pile of paperwork, and I appreciated the independent stores that would deal with me directly.

Finally, summer of 2009, I got things going with Partners. They took four cases of books! I was pretty psyched about that.

Well, in November of 2010, a big box of books came back to me that had been returned to them from bookstores. They were all too damaged for me to sell. I called and complained.

Just a couple of weeks ago another 1 1/2 cases came back. Thankfully, one case was unopened, ever, so those are fine. The rest are, again, too damaged for me to sell.

I called and had a long conversation with their service rep. She said that they have to take returns from stores, and admitted that stores aren't careful with the books. The current status of my books was that they have about one case still out in stores, and one more on hand. So far, I've received $152, and she estimated that I have another $88 coming. This is not very much money for all of that shuffling around of heavy books. (read shipping costs).

So... should I have kept a low profile, and not complained? Would that have kept me under the radar so that I'd still be listed in their distribution? Who knows. I do know that having over 1/4 of the stock returned too damaged to sell is too high of a rate for me to live with.

I was also not happy with their monthly reports, which were impossible to understand, so I never really knew if they were selling books or not.

Perhaps it's for the best. North Country Cache sells best at programs I give and through personal contacts, anyway.

NCC reached a nice milestone for a self-published books in 2010. I have now sold over 1000 copies!