Indie Authors

Indie Authors

Book Cover Sense

Published by Owen Jones on 4 June 2022

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Example book cover

How is your book cover judgement?

I have always thought that my book cover sense was pretty good. Why would I think that? Well, I have been reading all sorts of books for all sorts of reasons for about sixty-five years, and I have published more than eight hundred books over the last twelve years.

It amounts to a lot of experience, I think you’ll agree.

However, book sales have been dropping off this year, and most pro’s will advise an author to look to his or her book covers in such a situation, since people do judge a book by its cover despite the sages’ clear advice.

I checked my top sellers and found nothing wanting. Still, it is difficult to be objective about one’s own work, so I took them to websites where people will evaluate them.

Book Cover Evaluation Sites

There is a Facebook Group called: ‘Does My Book Cover Suck’.

Nobody liked any of my top three covers! It was like a punch in the face 🙁 My pride and joy was being rubbished, and what was almost as bad, I could see what my critics were talking about, once the problems had been pointed out to me.

Now, I have eight hundred book covers, as I said above, so I realised that I had a very big, and potentially, very expensive problem.

Book Cover Sense

After a few beers of commiseration with my book cover sense, or during them, actually, I set to work on a fix. Eight hundred times any figure is a lot of money, so I first went to Fiverr and the like. However, you won’t find anything book-related there for $5 any more. Book covers were averaging $35-$60, so I gave that up.

QR link to book cover designers
QR link to book cover designers

To cut a long story short, I found a firm that surpassed my expectations and came in at a very reasonable price. Furthermore, people, even total strangers, have started complimenting my covers again.

The book cover above is one that came from there.

Here is my link to their site (the QR code leads there too).

Go check your book cover sense, and take a look at some of their off-the-peg designs! Prices start at $10! Or have one totally unique, tailor-made for your book

https://bit.ly/ukr-book-covers

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My Writing Experience

Published by Owen Jones on 6 February 2022
My Writing Experience

Dum spiro, spero…

If you follow this blog, you will know that my writing life suffered a tremendous kick in the teeth in mid-2021. If you don’t know, then there is an article on this blog warning about my writing experience with virtual assistants.

Anyway, that aside, since I was ultimately to blame as the team leader who took his eye off the ball, I have really struggled for six months to work out how I can recover from this setback, which has reduced my earnings by 90%

It is is so serious a loss to me, that survival abroad has seemed precarious for six months.

My writing experience

However, I have started to emerge from the tunnel because I think that I have found a way forward.

In 2021, 90% of my income came from audiobooks, and I had about a hundred of them. I have still not got to the bottom of what happened, because Audible will not talk to me. So far, only talking about the English language books, they have de-listed my fifteen most popular audiobooks, but won’t tell me why.

I think that I have found a way out. I am hopeful, but everything is still in trial. If something similar has happened to you, contact me via this website, and I will share my experience with you.

Daddy’s Hobby – The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl In Pattaya

Our sister blog: The Amiable Dragon

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Are Indie Authors Their Own Worst Enemies?

Published by Owen Jones on 1 May 2019

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:38 — 773.6KB)

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Are Indie Authors Their Own Worst Enemies?

Are Indie Authors Their Own Worst Enemies?

Are Indie Authors Their Own Worst Enemies?

Are Indie Authors Their Own Worst Enemies? It is quite possible! Years ago, only five or six, many indie authors were doing ‘fairly well’ and were confident about their future – that their sales would continue to rise and that they would continue to write enthusiastically.

I started writing and self-publishing in 2012 and was selling ninety books a month by the end of the following year, and I was flying by the seat of my pants – I was learning how to market and distribute my three books as I went along, but was earning enough to live in Thailand, which admittedly was a cheap country to stay in those days.

There probably weren’t as many would-be writers back then either and there certainly weren’t as many books on the virtual shelves in online bookshops, but I think that there may be another factor at play for why Indie Authors might be Their Own Worst Enemies.

We all know that businesses exist to make money, and none are more brutal than the American Internet giants, and most of them make their money as a percentage of what they sell.

And this is my point.

In their struggle to become rich or and famous, too many novice writers pitch their books at 99c or even less. I regularly see “twenty ebooks for 99c”.

Now, I can understand why a misguided author may try to get his or her foot in the door using this tactic, but what about the Big Boys like Amazon? Are they going to be happy storing, serving and even promoting a 99c book or box-set for a 30% cut of 99c?

I wouldn’t be! Not when I can promote traditional publishers selling ebooks for $9.99 and paperbacks for $15.99 (or more)!

Think about it.

Amazon would earn 29c for selling an Indie author’s box set of three – a month’s supply of reading material – as opposed to $3 for one book!

Or, a concrete example: if both parties sell about one package a week, Amazon earns from:

The Cheap Indie Author: 50 x 27c = $13.50

Traditional Publisher: 50 x $3 = $150

It’s a no brainer!

The cheapos are paying only 9%!

So, are Indie Authors Their Own Worst Enemies?

Yes, definitely!

They are NOT paying their way, and those who can’t see that are ruining it for everyone else.

I am convinced that Amazon has changed its algorithms to disadvantage indie authors because they sell their books too cheaply?

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Are Indie Authors Their Own Worst Enemies?

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