One interesting thing I've noticed since We are the Monsters went free on Amazon (and it still is as of this writing): people who wouldn't normally read your book will review it when they paid nothing.
From a recent two star review:
"This book was not good. It jumped from reality to nonreality."
Well, yes... That's what I write. Fantastic fiction. Speculation. Horror and the surreal.
"Nonreality."
This post isn't about the review (it's folly to do these things), but it is about reviews in general. A wealth of book-related websites now exist (with the best of them being Goodreads, LibraryThing, and the all-powerful Amazon), and they all have star ratings.
Once upon a time, an author looked to a handful of powerful review sources for validation. Now, anyone with WiFi can hang out in a coffee shop and spread his/her opinion. This is positive, of course... I believe in free speech and the open internet... But there is a caveat.
Take this example: I do not read romance novels. I think they are drivel. You are welcome to disagree with my opinion because, quite frankly, that's all it is: opinion. I'm sure many folks would say the same about the "nonreality" nonsense I write. Drivel.
But what if I decided to review a romance novel? The power to do so is only a few clicks away.
One star: mushy and unrealistic.
One star: cheesy love scenes.
One star: this is why my students can't read literature.
You get the idea. Of course, I wouldn't ever do such a thing--I don't read romance and have no grounds from which to review a romance novel.
Even in the age of the internet and a voice for all, not all reviews are created equal. They just appear that way on the surface.
For all of my marketing and promotion, I could not touch the toenails of what Amazon.com has done. Since We are the Monsters became free, the book has been downloaded 6,418* times in less than two days.
My best month for any book, even at 99 cents, was 37 sales.
37. If I wait a half-hour, I'll have 37 more "sales" at the free price. Probably more.
We are the Monsters is now #1 in Kindle Store>Kindle eBooks>Fiction>Genre Fiction>Horror>Ghosts and #23 in the Free Store.
Talk about scary. It's even bumped sales of my other books (The House Eaters in particular--24 copies in two days). I couldn't pay for this kind of advertising, but I guess I am, in a way. The book is FREE. It's a good little book. I thought about sending it out on submission, but went the Kindle route instead. Glad I did. I'll speak about "writing magic" in another post; for now, just believe this little ebook is special. I need special right now.**
* 6450 by the time I finished the post.***
** Not only is our house in pieces on purpose (remodeling), we lost our phone, my computer (hands cramping on the netbook right now), and the fan on our furnace/air conditioner due to last night's thunderstorm/too close for comfort lightning strike. Not good. Not good at all.
***6456. Scary.
...is a damn good movie. But I'm talking about one of my books.
I killed We are the Monsters last week. It was a hard choice to make because it had already received one nice 5-star rating at Amazon.
I planned on changing the cover (and I do like the new cover much better than the old), but I wouldn't have needed to kill the book without the digital rights management (DRM) debacle.
See, I accidentally selected "enable DRM" when I first published the book. (Don't know what DRM is? Read this.) I don't believe DRM is good for authors. The debate rages on, of course, but in my opinion, it hurts.
If I want people to read my stories (which I've decided is goal #1), why would I put roadblocks in their way? Some writers get all kerfluffled about pirates giving away their books. I say go for it--as long as you don't start selling those pirated books under a different name. Just give me credit, and we're good. Go ahead. Steal my books. Give them away. Grow my audience.
The only way to free We are the Monsters from the DRM monster was to kill it and publish it again from scratch. So I did. It has a brand new, completely linked table of contents, new cover art, and freedom from DRM. None of my other books have DRM, either. It just doesn't make much sense.
And you can download it at Smashwords for free (for the time being). The Amazon Kindle edition is only 99 cents.
How do you feel about DRM? Piracy?
(And if you've read We are the Monsters, I'd love to hear what you think--good or bad. Amazon reviews are a writer's friend.)
A quick note before the main attraction: you can download a free PDF of We are the Monsters for a Tweet or Facebook update. Check out the button in the top right-hand corner of this page. I've also started a Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/aaronpolsonauthor You can't deny the evil empire...
Dario Argento's Opera is a flawed film, but the visuals are great. Forget the last 20 minutes, and you'll be really happy with the result.
*Spoiler Alert* Just about every kill in the film is hinted in this clip.
After all this schtuff about e-book pricing, I thought I'd run a totally non-scientific experiment:
The buyer can set the price for We are the Monsters when downloaded from Smashwords.
I don't have to run a scientific experiment to act like a scientist, so here's my hypothesis: I won't sell enough copies via Smashwords for accurate data. But you can read the first 50% for free.
(Mwhahahahaha...)
Welcome to Sample Sunday...
1: We’re All Liars Here, or The Death of Leonard Jantz
Here’s the truth about growing up in a small town: you tell lies to survive.
I worked at a grocery store during high school, part time on the evenings and weekends. I saw plenty of strange things there: avocados stuffed in a barrel of fresh popcorn left to rot, a coworker who punched holes in the caps of beer bottles with an awl, pies marked “Verda’s own home-baked” which came frozen on pallets with the Sunday dairy truck. I found a body in the trash bin once, but nobody can prove who put it there. No one can prove it was there.
There were too many bodies for a town the size of Springdale. The name of the town is a lie, but the bodies aren’t. All of them. When you find a body lying with the outdated yogurt, wilted lettuce, and cardboard boxes, you make up stories to cope. You can’t process a body in the grocery store trash bin. A trick of the light, you say. The way the shadows fell across certain bits of debris like the coat hanger beast in a little boy’s bedroom. That head of lettuce, there, in the corner, looks like a human hand.
Bodies are bodies.
Dead is dead.
And lies are lies.
~
We killed a man during the fall of 1992, our senior year. I say we, but BJ did the killing. The rest of us were just there.
BJ was a big kid, six-feet tall, four feet wide, all linebacker. The local team, the Saints, kind of sucked—sucked as in they won seven football games during our four years—but BJ made all-league three times. He managed forty-six tackles for losses during his career and dished out seven concussions. One guy, a lanky kid from Abilene, still gets tingles in his toes when the weather changes. At least he says as much on Facebook. BJ was boiled over anger and clenched fists, and he hated Leonard Jantz.
Jantz had fired BJ’s father from the grain elevator.
Mike, Dan, and Tony were all there when BJ killed Leonard. I was there, too, after my shift at Larry’s Grocery. We were all drunk, either from stolen beer or revved hormones. I’d met them at the Shack after work. I still wore the red polo from Larry’s. Red polo and jeans, the store dress code. The other guys, little Mike with his embarrassing mustache, fat-mouthed Dan, and Tony the liar, had been hanging out at the Shack, telling stories and passing out a battered copy of playboy Tony had stolen from his father’s stash. The beer was his dad’s, too.
Tony lied so well his old man never suspected a single can went missing. The lies came easily, especially after years of practice. By the time he was sixteen, Tony had lied about grades at school, fights, which girl he kissed at recess, and even how Max, the Robertson’s cat, died. That was a big one, but not as big as Leonard Jantz. The big lies he reserved for special occasions, but all of them—big or small—came from his lips with a sliver of magic.
Lies can be a shield, a force field, a special aura of protection.
Lies can keep you from seeing the truth, no matter how grim.
2 Comments on We are the Monsters #samplesunday, last added: 3/20/2011
It's the anniversary of my birth, and I'm giving the gifts.
Well, one gift in particular: a Kindle copy of my new novella, We are the Monsters. (Well, it's a long novella or a very short novel...depends on your definition, doesn't it?) Don't have a Kindle? No sweat. You can download a free Kindle app for PC, Mac, iPod...etc. Yes, I know it's part of Amazon's evil empire. I just haven't had time to up load the book to Smashwords yet and my birthday (hence the gifting) is today.
About We are the Monsters:
While cruising a dark country road late one Saturday night, five high school friends accidentally kill an old drunk. Hiding the body is easy. Lying about what happened is even easier. But lies have a way of breeding Monsters in Springdale, Kansas, and the Monsters have come to play.
"Here’s the truth about growing up in a small town: you tell lies to survive.
I worked at a grocery store during high school, part time on the evenings and weekends. I saw plenty of strange things there: avocados stuffed in a barrel of fresh popcorn left to rot, a coworker who punched holes in the caps of beer bottles with an awl, pies marked “Verda’s own home-baked” which came frozen on pallets with the Sunday dairy truck. I found a body in the trash bin once, but nobody can prove who put it there. No one can prove it was there.
There were too many bodies for a town the size of Springdale. The name of the town is a lie, but the bodies aren’t. All of them. When you find a body lying with the outdated yogurt, wilted lettuce, and cardboard boxes, you make up stories to cope. You can’t process a body in the grocery store trash bin. A trick of the light, you say. The way the shadows fell across certain bits of debris like the coat hanger beast in a little boy’s bedroom. That head of lettuce, there, in the corner, looks like a human hand.
Bodies are bodies.
Dead is dead.
And lies are lies."
Interested? Either comment with email address below (you can use (at) instead of @ in the address to fool spam bots) or email me directly at aaron.polson(at)gmail.com.
Enjoy the Ides of March!
I sold five books (two copies of The House Eaters and three of Loathsome) at the signing today, all within the first 30 minutes. If I would have known, I could have gone home at 2:30. (Ha!) All my earnings are going to the Red Cross for earthquake/tsunami relief.
Here's what I'll do this week (through Friday, March 18th): anyone who wants to donate to any reputable disaster relief fund can send me a message (via email: aaron.polson(at)gmail.com), and I'll send you a free e-copy of any of my books.
We are the Monsters (Brand-spanking new but only on Kindle...for now)
The House Eaters (Kindle only)
Loathsome, Dark and Deep (multiple formats)
The Bottom Feeders (multiple formats)
Black Medicine Thunder and the Sons of Chaos (Kindle only)
Rock Gods and Scary Monsters (multiple formats)
(I'll talk more about We are the Monsters later...oh yes)
February was busy. You've all read, I'm sure, of my 2677 edits for The Saints are Dead. Yes, most of them made the book better....but whoa. Just whoa. I wrote several new stories in February ("What Julie's Dad Doesn't Know" and "The North Lantern" being my favorites) and managed my Write 1 / Sub 1 goal of a story submitted a week.
Three stories "sold" in February: "Poe's Blender" to Death Rattle, "Upon Leaving the Candy Factory" to Bourbon Penn, and "The Ballad of Arkady and Nadia" to 100 Stories for Queensland. The latter was a "sale" sale, meaning no money flowed to the writer because it is a charity antho.
On to the Big Experiment...
Because I believe in full disclosure, I present:
Well...I won't be retiring any time soon, but a few things of note:
- One of those Bottom Feeders sales was a gift. So I sold eleven legit copies for Kindle, plus one through Smashwords.
- February's numbers represent the most copies of The Bottom Feeders I've sold since releasing the book last April. The trend is rising from seven last month. Short story collections don't traditionally do as well as novels (in any format), but I'm not complaining.
- The Bottom Feeders had a crazy little bounce this weekend, selling five copies between Friday and Monday. Not big numbers for some of the Kindle people, but I can't explain the bump. I'll be watching this closely. After all, it is an experiment.
I hope to have
We are the Monsters ready by the end of March. It's a novella (35K), and they are traditionally hard to place, after all. Jekyll and Hyde are welcome to live in one skin as long as they want, because
I've decided I want one thing out of writing: to tell stories.* To do this, you have to have an audience who wants to listen. Anything which puts a barricade between me and an audience is bad form (did you hear that, Hyde?). In addition, I want my "craft" to be top form so the audience keeps listening (keep subbing to those fine markets, Jekyll).
*wait...I've sort of known that all along.
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I'm beginning to believe that people who receive books and stories for free are not only more likely to leave a review, but they are more likely to leave a negative one.
It might be as simple as they literally have no stake in it. After all, they got it for free, and therefore need no validation that they spent their money wisely. Indeed, they're telling the world how smart they are that they didn't pay for it, and their not paying for it was validated by how "bad it was."
Have no idea why they seem more likely to leave a review on free stuff, but I do know my free stuff has been reviewed far more (and more harshly) than anything I sell. I sometimes wonder if it's worth it, like, is the free stuff (being reviewed badly) undermining what I have for sale.
Anyway, I suspect someone smarter than me or more knowledgable about psychology could explain it. But for what it's worth, I'm seeing it too.
Everyone's a critic.
I wrote a blog post a while back about netflix user reviews, and how--forgive me--95% of the people who write them are imbeciles.
Scroll through some of the reviews and you'll find 1 star reviews and 5 star reviews. Very few in between. Sometimes I wonder how the people can watch so many "worst movies of all time" in a year. Seriously, every other day they see a movie that was "the worst movie they ever saw." Fascinating.
I want to believe people who write Amazon reviews for books are more intelligent, but sometimes I wonder.
I'm being mean. I'm sorry. I should say, "They believe their opinion is the only right one, even if it's an opinion about a genre they don't even like," but I'm allowed to be a little mean because I don't have any books on Amazon, and I've never had a review written for any of my work, so this isn't personal. Right? Right. ;-)
I finished We Are the Monsters this weekend, and I've got to say: I think it's your best work to date. Much better than Loathsome which dragged a bit for me and could have been tighter/shorter. I'd give Monsters nothing less than 4 stars, maybe even 5. Anybody who rates it lower is, to quote Mr. Rapino, an "imbecile."
Maybe a little off subject but I think frame of mind plays into it as well. Some people have to be sold on what to expect up front. A couple of years ago a coworker that I always talked movies with had just seen the last Desperado movie “Once upon a time in Mexico”. He hated it, said it was too outlandish and “Cartoonie”. In the weeks before he had seen both the James bond with the invisible car and Charlie’s Angles and loved both of them.
for what its worth I think We are the monsters is 4 stars.
I'm of the opinion that everyone is entitled to an opinion. Especially me.
Seriously though, although I was being semi-serious above, if a review praises something that I think I did right, then I try to remember that for next time, and if a review points something out that I did badly and I agree, then I remember that for next time too. Everything else is gratefully received because folk taking the time to read your stories is awesome, they are awesome (and of course you know that).
Some people say you shouldn't read your reviews. Those people are mad--it's impossible to resist. My opinion. :D
I love your response to the two star review. Personal tastes and opinions are not adequate indicators of good or bad writing.
There are plenty of people who dislike King, Gaiman, John Hart, and I don’t even understand how books like “The Invisible Wall” could get a one star. Talk about monsters.
Brendan - Very good point re: free. Free means nothing to a reader. What's the point?
Anthony - But you did get that Stoker suggestion... ;)
Milo - Thanks. I trend toward shorter story lines, and one of the benefits of the e-revolution is that your tiny book doesn't look wimpy compared to 500 page "epics".
S. - Thanks. I'll take Once Upon a Time in Mexico over Charlie's Angels any day of the week. Sheesh.
Cate - Time is the most precious resource, so yes--of course any read is a good read. Thank you all!
Erin - There are one-star reviews of amazing books (The Things They Carried, etc.). Taste is taste.
I've seen reviews where the person states they never read the book but gave it one star because they didn't like the synopsis. O.o
Yeah, these people are idiots. It's that whole "opinions are like assholes..." thing my granddaddy used to say.
Double-edged, though. The same freedom that means we can get our stuff out there (and do it RIGHT) means they can get their opinions out there. In that way, at least, the good of easy access net stuff outweighs the bad, to my mind.
Freedom to be awesome or be an idiot. Just wish it wouldn't eff up peoples' stars :/
Yes, that's a very fair point. I suppose that, given enough reviews, the odd anomalous one gets drowned out. It is weird what people base their reviews on, though. Amazon, for example, seems to have many 1 star reviews that were given because the delivery service was bad or something, completely ignoring the product being reviewed.
Everyone has the right to review something now, but everyone has the right to ignore obviously biased, ill-informed, or blatantly insane reviews.
I've frequently been persuaded to buy a book or CD due to a 1-star review from someone who appeared to someone who's tastes were the opposite of mine. Of course some 4/5 stars help...
You can't leave reviews on Amazon unless you have an account, which always annoyed me.
I'd love to know exactly what this person does like to read.
Most of the reviews my novels have received were from free books from Librarything giveaways.
Most of them have been positive.
So the "people who receive free books mostly leave negative reviews" may just be... a negative review. That isn't my experience at all.
Interesting thoughts here, I am not a big fan of Romance novels either, but I will probably give an honest review if I was given a free book.
@J.R.: Not sure who you're quoting there, but it certainly isn't me. I'd point out too that becoming a member of and then signing up for a Librarything giveaway is quite different than simply anonymously downloading something from the Internet. After all, if the Librarything giveaways are anything like the Goodreads giveaways . . . you have their addresses! (:>)