Apr 9, 2020 | Editors' Blog
Are you having problems settling down to write these days? And is it incredibly irritating?
You are not alone.
My experience
As soon as the pandemic began to take over our lives, I found it really hard to settle at my computer and produce anything at all. This was not as anticipated. While others worried about potential boredom in self-isolation, I breezily said I would be OK as I could write. Indeed, I planned to finish my current book and give it a hard edit. Free time is not empty time for a writer.
But I found instead a complete inability to sit down and focus. All of my normal self-discipline disappeared. This was not good for my output and definitely bad for my morale. As several authors I knew were proudly saying they were making great progress, I felt even more inept.
The experience of others
I posted a short note about my predicament on two Facebook groups for writers, including BooksGoSocial (BGS). I expected ten or so replies, with mixed experiences. Instead, well over 100 authors responded on each site, almost all saying that they, too, were stuck. The hoped-for productive period was just not happening.
What is going on? The problem isn’t time. We clearly have that. No, it’s a matter of emotional stability. We are worried about the health of our friends and relatives, as well as our financial long-term future. We cannot settle. Our minds are not still.
Of course, some also have practical problems. Having children at home who need to be amused or, indeed, educated is very demanding. Even having a partner around the house is distracting. Normal work habits are lost.
A few comments illustrate the reactions:
“I was determined to write today…but failed. My mind can’t get there. I do get moments, but they are fleeting.”
“I’ve had a really hard time getting into a good head space to write, edit or even beta read.”
“For some reason, having all the time in the world to write also comes with all the time for making excuses not to.”
“I’ve had to force myself, writing a few extra words each day. I managed 3K today, but they are absolute rubbish, so I’m probably wasting my time”
A few did say they were writing well. Getting away from the news helped. And some noted that the ability to produce fluctuated markedly:
“I’m having very fruitful days and then I have very dry days. It is difficult.”
“When my emotions are in balance, I’m fine, but when the anxiety overwhelms me, I can’t write a word.”
How to cope
And how do writers cope with the situation? Some were simply distracting themselves, with no attempt to be creative for the moment. They were doing jigsaw puzzles, cooking, playing music or planting flowers (“binge gardening”). And, of course, reading. It was best to accept the situation, they said, and not be too hard on oneself.
Some had temporarily changed their focus. Fiction writers turned to non-fiction, short stories or even poetry. Some had started a journal or were writing blog posts. A number said they could edit or revise. A few argued that they set a fixed schedule or a low word count just to get some words down.
Others were undertaking activities that would help in future – taking training courses, doing relevant research, thinking about their plots or characters or, simply “observing”.
And it was often said they were so glad to learn they were not alone. That is the main reason I wrote this article. Ironically, it got me writing again!
My thanks to all the contributors to the BGS Authors Facebook page, both for making me feel less alone and for offering so many helpful insights.
Ann Richardson writes books using passages from interviews to illustrate thoughts, experiences and emotions. You can read about her books here
Oct 16, 2019 | Editors' Blog
Do AMS ads come back to life?
There seem to be two points of view about how to handle AMS ads that are coming to a natural end. Some argue that all ads should remain on the books in case they suddenly revive. Others contend that it is best to kill them off (i.e. ‘pause’ them) and start new ones. Such ads include those with notably reducing impressions as well as those which never had many (or any) impressions to begin with.
Here is a brief background to my own case. I have written three books on very different topics, so there is little overlap in their audiences (and therefore little read-through). The first is about the people who provide hospice care (Life in a Hospice); I sell roughly 30 copies each month (via AMS ads and organically). The second tells the stories of young people with HIV and AIDS in the early 1990s (Wise Before their Time); I sell about 15-20 copies a month. The third is about what it is like to be a grandmother (Celebrating Grandmothers), which comes a poor third, selling 3-5 copies per month. All three sell both as e-books and paperbacks.
I have been doing AMS ads for just over a year and have had reasonable success in both the UK and the US. By late-August 2019, I had sold 109 books in the UK via these ads, with an ACOS of 13%. In the US, I had sold 228 books via these ads, with an ACOS of 26%.
The trial
With respect to pausing ads, I have always taken the second position – quickly pausing any ad that is losing impressions or never took off. But in discussing the issue, Laurence O’Bryan at BooksGoSocial suggested that they should remain on the books. I proposed that I undertake an experiment whereby I revived some previously paused ads to see how they fared. I would do this for two months. I called them my Lazarus ads.
At the same time, as a sort of control group, I would chart my on-going ads. This would be done both in the US and UK.
In mid-August 2019, I revived 18 ads in the UK (6 for each book) and 24 ads (9, 8 and 7 respectively) in the US. All were selected as most likely to succeed (ie they were not randomly selected). At the same time, I had 10 on-going ads in the UK (5, 2 and 3) and 9 in the US (3 each). Over the next two months, I carefully documented the impressions, spend, income and sales of all these ads on excel spread sheets. Eight weeks later, in mid-October 2019, I calculated the results.
As a measure of success, counted the number of sales during the trial period. In addition, I chose a crude indicator of total profit or loss, based on the total income gained minus the total spent on clicks. This, of course, does not take into account the costs necessarily removed from my royalties, namely the proportion taken by Amazon and the cost of printing. As I could not tell which sales were which, and as I was trying to limit the demands on my own time from this exercise, this seemed a reasonable decision.
Outcomes
The result of this experiment was quite similar across both the US and the UK. All of the Lazarus ads revived to some extent, i.e. some impressions were added over the period, but these were generally small in number. With increasing impressions came some new clicks and some sales.
In the UK, I sold only 12 books via Lazarus ads during the trial period, all a single book (on hospice care), gaining me £75.07 after expenditure (cost of clicks) is deducted. The other two did not revive much, but sufficiently to garner some clicks which cost me £3.20 and £0.47 respectively. This gives an overall profit of £71.40.
In the control group, in contrast, I sold 25 books over the period (21, 2 and 2). The overall profit from these sales was £103.09 (£82.34, £2.12 and £18.63). The low profit on the second book can be accounted for by frequent clicks on ads, which would have been paused in normal circumstances.
In the US, I did even worse, selling only 7 books via Lazarus ads during the trial period (4, 3 and 0). One sale was ‘lost’, i.e. one week there was one less order than the previous week and the sales figure was accordingly reduced. I don’t know why unless it was a return (or an error). Several ads had so few impressions that there were no clicks during the whole trial. The overall profit from these sales was $22.97 ($16.27, $11.56 and -$4.86), including the one reduction in books sold.
Finally, in the US control group, I sold 17 books during the trial period (13, 3 and 1). One ad was particularly crucial here, representing 9 sales. This ad had done well prior to the trial, but not notably and I have no idea why it suddenly morphed into a ‘golden ad’. The overall profit from these sales was $181.83 ($113.37, $63.72 and $4.74).
Is it worth reviving old ads?
It transpires that it was mildly worthwhile in this case to revive old ads, as I made £71 and $23 respectively from the experiment (although, as explained, the actual figures would be lower.) But these are not at all large numbers. The other income (from the control group) I would have made in any case. In fact, because I did not pause any ads during the period in order to keep the experiment going, I lost some income from clicks on ads that would otherwise have been paused.
The real question, as in many trials of this kind, is how to recognise which ads to revive. Had I revived only those which were successful, and quickly paused any that were not, the numbers would have been more favourable. I don’t have the answer, aside from the fact that, in general, the earlier the ad, the weaker the revival, presumably because ads in the autumn 2018 could be based on lower costs per keyword.
My own reaction is to be somewhat less hasty in pausing ads, but it still does not seem worthwhile to spend too much time on such ads overall.
This was a small experiment and it may be that others have done much more sophisticated and extensive exercises. I would be delighted to hear from them.
Ann Richardson
http://www.annrichardson.co.uk
Ann Richardson
May 9, 2018 | Editors' Blog
We all want reviews – lots of them and good ones. Some of us write in popular genres, have long email lists and no problem getting reviews in their many tens or more. The rest of us struggle – we ask our friends, our dentist and anyone we can think of until they look a bit bored.
That's why I want to tell you about my experiences on NetGalley. I decided, as a micro-publisher, to place one of my books on it earlier this year as it has serious reviewers –librarians, journalists, academics and others who love to read – and, from my experience, they write thoughtful reviews.
I write books that don’t fit easily in any genre – based on confidential interviews, they enable people to talk about their lives in their own words and from the heart. The one I placed with NetGalley through BooksGoSocial, Life in a Hospice, is about nurses and others working in end-of-life care. And what happened? In one month, I received 12 reviews, of which 10 were 5 star.
But best of all, they were perceptive – not dashed off to meet a need, but aiming to communicate what the book is about and what it did for them. Here are just a few excerpts, to give you a ‘feel’:
“A brave book – not afraid to confront both the sadness and opportunity that comes from working with people at the end of their lives.”
“As the child of two elderly parents, this is a subject I think of almost daily: this book will make it a LOT EASIER to deal with.”
“As a hospice volunteer, I know well the beauty that can occur at the end of life…beautifully written and thoughtful…”
“It makes you realize that the troubles in your own life are not as important as those dealing with their own mortality…You take an inventory of your own life.”
“I was moved and overwhelmed by the care, compassion and honesty portrayed…This amazing book truly demonstrates the wondrous gift of a good death.”
BGS offers a placement with NetGalley at a bargain price. Why not have a go?
Click here if you are a publisher and want to find out more.
Ann Richardson
Find out more:
On Amazon | At the Apple iBooksetc | Or on my website
Jun 29, 2017 | Editors' Blog
We sad down with a few authors at the Dublin Writers Conference 2017 to learn a little more about them, their books, and what they thought of the conference. Below are links to each of the author's interview videos. Additionally, each video has a link to the individual author's website, in case you want to know even more. Enjoy!
Alan Gibson – https://youtu.be/aoTjKWQywuQ
Alison Morton – https://youtu.be/YMP4r0YVGXA
Allie Marie – https://youtu.be/lCxJuPIe-7k
Ann Richardson – https://youtu.be/glE0WMV-yKQ
Barbara M. Webb – https://youtu.be/Bhg9t6KHgHU
Bonnie Milani – https://youtu.be/AALlSiw7Hh0
Dave Doran – https://youtu.be/Cf7tscTak7Y
Paul Whittlesea – https://youtu.be/0Y3J_ERtEQs
Richard Bradburn – https://youtu.be/w7ZU5UYAZD0
Wendy H. Jones – https://youtu.be/8rj82oLpaD8
Mar 30, 2019 | Editors' Blog
If your book is strong in setting, a fun and easy way to reach new readers is by creating a Google Map. Because my novels take place all over the world and the stories are set in actual museums, cafes, and monuments, I thought it would be a good way of transporting readers to the settings I describe.
Honestly, creating a map for my novel. The Lover’s Portrait, was one of the first things I did when I started self-publishing. However, it wasn’t liked or retweeted often on social media so I stopped sharing it and frankly forgot about it. Only recently, when checking for dead links on my website, did I take another look at it. To my shock and delight, it has garnered a whopping 10,300 views in two years – without any promotion. That’s far more views than the book trailer for the same novel has ever received, one I do frequently promote. For authors with books strong in setting, creating a custom Google Map is well worth the time. Since discovering how many views this first map received, I am now creating one for each of my six novels and promoting them.
In Google Maps, you can select streets, monuments, parks, restaurants, hotels, businesses, and the like. If the location you select is linked to a website, it will also be included, along with any photographs that have been uploaded to Google and tagged with the location. If there are no photos associated with the location, you can upload them yourself.
Here’s a screenshot of what a custom Google Map looks like when you link to an existing business, company, or cultural institution, in this case, the Rijksmuseum. You can see the location’s name, excerpts I added to the description, photos, and a link to the Rijksmuseum’s website.
Before you begin, I recommend you take a close look at a custom Google Map and familiarize yourself with the basic layout. That will make this information about how to create your own so much easier to understand. Here are two of mine: The Lover’s Portrait and Down and Out in Kathmandu.
I also strongly suggest you create a single text document of all of the descriptions and information you want to include in your map. It will save time later in this process.
How to create a Google Map:
To create a new map, log into Google Maps using your Gmail account name and password. If you don’t already have an account, you create one for free.
After you log in, select: ‘Create New Map’. This will create a new ‘Untitled Map’. Click on the name ‘Untitled Map’ to edit it.
Once you’ve done that, fill your first location in and search for it. You may find multiple results. Each time you select a location, a white popup box will appear listing the GPS coordinates and any information that is already linked to it. Once you are satisfied with your choice of location, click ‘+ add to map’ inside the white popup box to add it to your map.
Now comes the trickiest part of setting this up.
When you add your first location, it will create a new ‘untitled layer’ in the toolbar floating on the left side of your screen. Rename this layer straightaway. I use the name of my character and places described, for example, ‘Zelda Richardson’s Amsterdam’ and‘Zelda Richardson’s Nepal and Thailand’.
Make sure the box next to your renamed layer stays selected when you search for your next location. If you don’t, every time you add a new location, it will create a new layer and you will need to start all over.
All changes are saved in Google Drive as you work. You can always delete your map and start over if you aren’t happy with it!
Add all of the locations you want to pinpoint on your custom map. Every time you add a new location, it should be added to your renamed layer. After your map is finished, this will be the list that displays in the left-hand sidebar of your specific map. Here’s a screenshot of what my map ‘Zelda Richardson’s Amsterdam’ looks like.
Once you have added all of your locations, you can add a short description to each. For most, I choose to add excerpts from my novels that describe it from my character’s perspective. For a few other locations, I described the importance of the setting to my characters, for example where Zelda Richardson lives in Amsterdam and the location of the university she’s studying art history at.
To add these text descriptions, click on the three vertically aligned dots next to your layer in the floating toolbar. You have three choices: Delete, Edit, Open Table. Click on ‘Open Table’. Cut and paste each block of text into the description field. Google Drive can be a bit slow when responding, give the database time to update your description before moving onto the next one.
Once you’re finished, close the table and it’s saved. While you are editing your map, you will see your text appear in the white box linked to the point on your map. As soon as it’s live (or in preview mode), the text shows up on the left-hand side of your map.
While in editing mode, you can also edit the color of the pinpoint or add a photo by clicking on the icons across the bottom of the white pop up box. Choose the ‘Base Map’ – the initial map visitors see – by clicking on ‘Base Map’ at the bottom of the sidebar your layer is in.
To remove a location, click on it while in editing mode. Inside of the white pop up box, you will see a ‘delete feature’ link. Click this and the location is gone forever.
When you are satisfied with your custom map, click on the SHARE link. It will tell you that the map is set to private. Click on the ‘Change permissions’ link next to this text message. Set your map to ‘Public on the web’ and ‘no login required’ and you are good to go.
That’s all there is to it! Once your map is set to public, you can share it with your social media network, newsletter readers, and add it to your website.
I would love to see what your book’s map looks like. Once you have created one, why not add a link to it in the comments so we can all take a look?
About the Author
Jennifer S. Alderson was born in San Francisco, raised in Seattle, and currently lives in Amsterdam. Before settling in the Netherlands, she travelled extensively around Asia, Oceania, Australia, and Central America. Her love of travel, art, and culture inspires her award-winning Zelda Richardson Mystery Series. When not writing, she can be found in a museum, biking around Amsterdam, or enjoying a coffee along the canal while planning her next research trip.
To learn more about Jennifer and her novels, please visit http://www.JenniferSAlderson.com.
You can also connect with her on social media.
Website: http://www.jennifersalderson.com
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jennifer-s-alderson
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/JennifeSAlderson
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jenniferSAldersonauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JSAauthor
Instagram link: http://www.instagram.com/JSAauthor
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-S.-Alderson/e/B019H079RA/
