The review and ratings systems of the online world have a problem. That problem is anonymity and the lack of a verifiable online identity to properly identify individuals who leave reviews or make comments.

While it's easy to point fingers at places like Amazon, this is a problem that belongs to most if not all online retailers. Amazon just happens to have the largest (or close to it) online presence and also, as a result, seems to be at the center of controversy more often than others.

What sort of controversy am I talking about?

Really two things:

1. Reviewers who hide behind a shield of anonymity while leaving cruel, derogatory, and really quite pointless reviews.
2. Shills and sockpuppets, who leave reviews for their own books or even negative reviews for others they perceive as competition.

The last thing I want to do with this post is perpetuate these stories any further. Much like the talk of PED's has completely taken over the great sport of bas... [More]

I've been thinking about book descriptions as they relate to sales (and sales rankings) and I've stumbled into a conundrum.

We all know what a 'book description' is. It's information meant to convey to a reader what a book is about. In its simplest form, the book description is what's on the back of a print book. You see this being used "as is" by a lot of books at online retailers. It's pretty standard, straightforward, and safe. In more elaborate fashion, though, the book description can become much more as it's embellished with editorial quotes, bolded lines meant to intrigue and catch the attention of the reader, and a short, to-the-point synopsis that tells the reader what it's all about much more concisely than a typical, back-of-the-book summary. Therein lies the conundrum for me as there seems no rhyme or reason to the effectiveness of one approach over another.

Without naming names, I've seen books with basic descriptions (and horrible covers, but that's a topic for... [More]

If you've read The Five Elements and want an easy way to find out when the next book in The Alchemancer series is out, sign-up for my all-new email notification list.

This isn't something I plan on using very often, so if you're leery of spam, don't worry. I don't have time to spam you.

But this seemed like the best way to let interested readers know about new books as they arrive. There will be four more books in The Alchemancer series, so you'll only get four emails over the next few years. If you're game, why not sign-up now?

hand-sale: A sale made or confirmed by mutual shaking of hands.

It’s easy to imagine how an author hand-sells a physical book. If you frequent bookstores you’ve probably seen one sitting behind a table with his or her books stacked up around them along with possibly those tall pop-ups proclaiming the arrival of their latest bestseller. In those scenarios, the author attempts to engage people passing by or else is approached by a potential reader, at which point a pitch is delivered. If the author delivers a good one and the person stopping by is agreeable, a sale is made.

This obviously can’t happen quite the same way when you’re talking about an eBook or in the case of online encounters. In the latter case, there’s no face-to-face. I’m sure most salespeople will tell you how critical that component is.

So how exactly do you hand-sell an eBook?

The same way you’d sell a physical book: one at a time.

I’ll give you an example.

I’ve had two separate instances where someone has read T... [More]

First, some definitions:

Shill

A shill is "a person who publicly helps a person or organization without disclosing that he has a close relationship with that person or organization. 'Shill' typically refers to someone who purposely gives onlookers the impression that he is an enthusiastic independent customer of a seller (or marketer of ideas) for whom he is secretly working."

Sockpuppet

A sockpuppet is "an online identity used for purposes of deception. The term—a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock—originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an internet community who spoke to, or about himself while pretending to be another person."

In the writing world, a shill might be an author's friend, relative, or someone who stands to gain financially by rewarding a favorable review to their client. A sockpuppet is often the author himself. Both share a co... [More]

Writing a book is a long, hard process. It's never-ending, too: As soon as you finish one, you really need to get started planning, outlining, and writing the next. But you also need to spend time selling and marketing. Very few writers, if any, are in it for the money. It's too much work with not enough return. Especially if you're an indie writer. Still, we try to sell our goods with the hope that one day we might support ourselves with our writing and therefore have more time to spend writing.

The biggest problem with selling: it takes a lot of time. Sure, you can release your book to the world and hope it gets traction on its own. I tried that for a while. For me, it didn't work. It wasn't until a combination of enrolling in KDP Select and implementing various engagements on Goodreads (advertising, giveaways) that my books started to get in front of people and start selling. But not only does the KDP Select rankings boost fade, Amazon also tweaked the ... [More]

I decided I needed somewhere to showcase The Five Elements and so I created this all-new product/landing page:

On it you will find a picture of the novel's cover, a "What Readers Are Saying" section with reader review blurbs I've mined from Amazon and Goodreads, a "What It's About" section which is the basic synopsis of the novel, and a couple of links: one to the product page on Amazon and another that takes people to my site.

If you've done or plan to do a review of The Five Elements and would like me to include a link or other information next to your name, just let me know. I'd love to reciprocate.

You can get to the product page from my site (see "Product Page" link at right), from the Goodreads novel's page, or from Twitter.

The next step in this will be to add a FAQ section (already in progress with updates already posted) wherein I provide details on the characters, places, and other info contained in the novel. This will be spoiler-free, and ... [More]