Where Do Avid Readers Go?

I know avid readers exist; I've dealt with a couple (not always in a positive way), but the internet has managed to eliminate a lot of previously prolific readers. I know; I used to be one. Look at it this way ~ before the internet, there weren't a ton of things for someone to do in their free time. TV was as dull as it is now, plus there was no way to skip those irritating commercials. One of my big pleasures was taking a trip to the library. I put myself on the wait list for the best sellers in a quest to broaden my reading horizons, plus I dug into the shelves of biographies. I wouldn't call reading a time filler, but most off-duty pursuits were essentially that. Reading, at least, unlike TV, engaged one's brain.

Once the internet matured (trust me; at the start it was extremely limited. AOL, anyone?) a new time filler was born. While I still read books, I didn't read as many. Now any news I want to read is a click away (which also sort of killed TV), and social media allows me to interact with people, or to at least read what other regular people have to say. I've read maybe one and a half books so far this year. A book has to hook me or I won't say with it.

For those who are still avid readers, my hunch is that Goodreads is their go-to. Apparently those readers are not simply content reading a lot of books, but they want the world to know just how many they've read, and Goodreads lets them keep a tally. I fervently dislike Goodreads. There are many reasons, from their "librarians'" intransigence, to their author groups that are populated by the most inane people on earth. Most of all, the place cultivates an culture of meanness. I'm no Pollyanna, but neither do I go out of my way to be negative (this blog notwithstanding). A visit to Goodreads leaves me gloomy, which is why I refuse to go there anymore. Its air is heavy.

I had a feeling that LibraryThing was like a rich wine ladies book club, and I was correct. Its groups consist of faux-sophisticates and are blatantly political. No thanks. Members also apparently only (say they) read the classics or only form groups around them.

(By the way, today was the first day I logged onto LibraryThing since my giveaway, and sure enough, Inn Dreams has no reviews.)

So, I guess there is no "happy" place where avid readers gather. Or else everyone is just crabby in general. Interacting solely with other writers gets repetitive. Indie writers are the most negative of anyone; even their "advice" is sour. I would love to know what actual readers have to say. That's what would help me. That might inform my writing ~ what people like, what they dislike. What causes them to not finish a book? What type of characters turn them off?  

A place like that would provide real value to an indie writer. Of course, the stupid authors would ruin it by spamming everyone with ads. But if everyone behaved, it could be a two-way conversation. Authors could remind reviewers that while critical reviews are fine and often helpful, personal attacks are devastating. They could remind readers that authors are actually real people. 

Alas, there isn't and likely never will be a place like that. So I'm back to Reddit... 

 

 

 
 

Well...

Google Analytics informs me that my attempt to drive more visitors to my website failed. Of course, it's only been one day since I added more news to my blog. I frankly don't like posting my work, especially work in progress, anywhere, but I was willing to do it ~ post one scene ~ in the hope that someone would be intrigued enough to want more. But my visitor count hasn't budged. 

I'll keep trying, of course, up to a point. I don't know if I'll post more scenes or just talk about some of the characters and offer hints about things that happen. I'm not going to reveal the whole book just to get clicks! 

 

On another note, I'm running a free book promotion Friday through Sunday for Lies and Love. It'll be just as successful as my last free offer! Some authors reap thousands of downloads when they offer their book for free; I reap zero. Ehh, I've got nothing else to do right now, and its failure will give me something new to blog about. I keep going back to the same well anytime I run one of these promotions. It's always either Lies and Love, Shadow Song, or New Kaitlyn. Maybe I should branch out. I don't have much confidence in the others, generally because of either a lack of reviews or one bad one. (I'm easily discouraged.) I really should read some of my lesser-known (LOL ~ they're all lesser known) books to find out if I'm being too hard on myself. The trouble with doing that is, something will strike me as wrong and then I'll be forced to edit the manuscript and re-upload it, and I just don't want to have to do that. 

While I purchased every one of my books, I've not read any of them, and I probably never will. I wonder if other authors read their published works. Maybe the confident ones do. 

"Hey! What have you been reading?" 

"My own book."

"Cool. I hope you'll be surprised at the end."

??

I suppose I could always advertise my free book promotions on my website, but it seems like busy work with no reward, and I'd forget to delete the announcement until months later, which will make me look like more of a loser than I already am.

 

If you're a successful author, you probably read my bitchy posts for laughs. I'm okay with that. But if you are an author who, like me, can never get any traction, well, I've found a kindred spirit. That's always nice.

 

 

 

Is My Catalog Stale?

I'm not a prolific writer; quite the opposite. There was one year in which I published four novellas, perhaps two of them good, and that's the problem with writing fast or striving to be prolific ~ quality will inevitably suffer. No, I'm a plodding writer, a tweaker. I won't move on until the previous scene is exactly the way I want it. 

So, I have an apparently stale catalog of books for sale. It's not that the writing is dated, but that the books are. Amazon never made my books easy to find, but it's even worse now. Really, the only way my books are discoverable is by entering the title and the author name in the search bar. I previously noted how I finally located my novel, The Apple, on the 46th screen after searching for it by title. Even books that didn't have the word "apple" in the title or subtitle appeared before mine.

The only way to remain on Amazon's radar (apparently) is to constantly publish new books. Well, it doesn't work that way for me. I've been working on my current novel since...I don't know...it's certainly been months, and the finish line is nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, my catalog keeps growing older. I'll probably never net more than one or two sales of any of them again. That makes me sad. I'm not the world's best writer, but I'm good ~ when I'm not trying to set some kind of publishing record. Even the couple of novellas I denigrate really aren't bad. I just don't consider them my best.

I have no idea how Amazon's algorithm works; I doubt that anyone knows. I've scrutinized their search results enough to know that it doesn't sort results by sales or reviews, so it has to be publication date. What else is there? 

I'm comforted knowing that it's all out of my control. But a bit of reader recognition would be nice. 

 

  

Experimenting

When I was thinking about starting a newsletter, I did some research on the types of content authors include in theirs. "Sample writing" came up a lot. I never followed through on that because pasting a snippet of my work into a newsletter would be so out of context, it would confuse readers more than it would enlighten them. 

But as you know if you've been reading along, even though I've given up on the idea of a newsletter all together, I'm doing my best to enhance my author website and drive more visitors. I'm still unsure how that happens, regardless of my lovely revamped site. My Google Analytics report leads me to believe that most of my visitors have stumbled upon my site by accident. Still, there's no harm in trying.

So, after talking about my work in progress in my "news" section, I decided to paste in one short scene. It's a pretty benign one, but it does introduce my favorite supporting character. I guess in my dreams I hope that if I keep revealing more about the story, people will want to come back for more spoilers.

Not to be cynical, but nothing I've tried to date has worked, not just with my website, but with everything associated with my publishing endeavors. This probably won't work, either, but trying isn't going to kill me. Prior to my website revamp, nothing ever changed on it. The only additions I ever made was posting a newly published book, and considering how long it takes to write and edit one, those postings happened rarely. Who wants to come back to a site that never changes? 

Since I'm rarely writing nowadays, I need to do something. Shoot, by the time I finally get back to my novel, I'll have lost the thread of the story. 

I don't want to overdo it ~ I want my site to look clean ~ but even I was bored with things the way they were before. At least now I'm semi-interested in it.

 

 

My New and Improved Author Site

One thing I can say about me, I work with what I have. Yes, Blogger does not convert to an ideal website, but it's free. And it's generally not frustrating to configure (although it does have some quirks). 

This week I redesigned four of my five website sections and I'm mostly happy with the changes. I would prefer to have a background that's not white, and I will research to find out if I have the option to change that, but I will say that my site is now more professional in appearance.

Take a look here.  

I was unhappy with the "please like me" vibe of the previous iteration, such as my pronouncement that my site and I were "a work in progress". Really? That inspires confidence! I also went overboard posting multiple reviews for each of my books, another sign of insecurity. Now each book has one. 

I could probably humanize my bio a bit more ~ maybe add a touch of humor ~ and use the current one as a press kit (as if I need a press kit). And no, I don't have a profile pic, and I won't. I write under a pen name, so let's just keep me anonymous, shall we? I'm not so sure an author needs to paste their photo anywhere anyway. 

I removed most of my previous blog postings. I don't think I need to "announce" the release of a novel that's three years old. And I'm thinking that a blog shouldn't be hawking my wares; there are other sections for that. I think I'll share more of my writing process instead.

CTA's? Well, there's still my newsletter signup (for my defunct newsletter), plus I blogged that I give away freebies. I also added a "contact me" widget.

I'm actually quite proud of my changes. And they weren't painful to make at all.

 

 

The Week's Roundup

While I haven't had much time to write, I did manage to sneak in a few minutes here and there. Slow writer that I am, what I added doesn't do much to move the story forward, but it moved it a smidgen. I did get my main character back to Nashville, at least. As I am wont to do, I have to keep reminding myself to add colorful elements, particularly description. My characters are always "doing" and not "observing". I even went back to a specific paragraph and typed "add some description here" and highlighted it. Most writers wouldn't need to be reminded of that; they would instinctively know that a lack of description removes readers from the story. When I finally reach the editing phase, that'll be my biggest challenge. 

As for this week's scenes, of course they're mostly dialogue. I don't feel like apologizing for this tendency. I can't effectively tell a story without having people talking. Internal monologues have their place, but navel-gazing wears out its welcome quickly. Plus, as you know, I'm infatuated with the Paula character, and I love hearing her talk. Her middle of the night phone call to Leah is as frustrating as always, because Paula is always doing two things at once ~ talking on the phone and speaking to whoever is in the room with her. Leah is never sure if she's the one being addressed at any given time. Paula offers Leah some career advice, except it's so cloaked in aphorisms that it's undecipherable.  

Finally back in Nashville, Leah knows she needs to face the record label that she ran out on, if for no other reason than to make arrangements to pay back her advance. But she feels guilty, too. She calls the A&R guy's office, hoping to simply make an appointment, but the man himself answers the phone. He's not in a conciliatory mood. (I haven't yet portrayed how her snap decision affected his job, and Leah, in fact, hasn't even considered that yet. But she will eventually.) She asks to meet with him; he declines. She's probably going to end up hanging around outside the building and collaring him. 

That sums up my writing output. It's something. 

 

On another note, I am revamping my author website. It's amazing how five sections can amount to so much revision. Really, every section needs improvement. I'm off to a slow start. I redesigned my home page and removed the introduction, which almost read as "too needy". Nobody cares that my website and I are "a work in progress"; that screams amateur. I replaced that with a large image of my latest book and one five-star review. After all, I'm supposed to be selling books, not me.

I fattened my bio a bit by adding what I'm reading, listening to, and watching. What the heck? Doesn't hurt, I suppose. I also found some new free images to use as garnish. The old ones had worn out their welcome. That still leaves my books section, my blog, and my reviews. I probably do need to blog more; the problem is coming up with something to say. But I at least have an overall plan for improving my site. I'm not getting any visitors and I'd like to change that, especially since I've written off my newsletter. I added a "contact me" widget, but couldn't find one for comments. Comments are a double-edged sword anyway ~ I received tons of spam comments on my music blog, and not much else. I suppose on the one in a million chance a real person visits my site and has something to say, they can use the contact form. 

If nothing else, I'll have something different to look at once the revamp is done. That matters, since I'm the only one looking. 

What If No One Visits My Author Site?

From time to time I check my Google Analytics, and the stats for my author site are underwhelming. I think the average time a visitor spends on it is something like 37 seconds, so to me that means that someone either clicked on it or pulled it up by accident. They can't wait to exit. Realistically, there would be no reason for anyone to visit ~ my sales numbers certainly don't generate buzz, my (very) sparse social media posts are ignored. The only explanation for any visitors at all has to be "oops". 

I would like to get visitors, but I don't understand SEO at all, and the articles I found are too complex for a novice. So, scratch SEO. There must be other ways to drive visitors. Aren't there?

Overall, my site is pretty basic. I think I've overdone a few things, like the number of reviews I post. I probably should just pick the review I like most and use that, or maybe two reviews per book at the most. I think I was so thrilled to receive any reviews at all that I wanted to brag about them. 

I've also skimped on some areas. I don't have a profile pic, for one, because I write under a pseudonym, so posting my picture would defeat the purpose. I use a free image of a woman in silhouette, shot from behind. She's framed by trees and water, and the mood is right for what I want to convey. I suppose my bio, too, could be more "personal". One article suggests that an author list their favorite whatevers ~ music, books, etc. ~ but I worry that my personal tastes are too niche and might be limiting. Plus, favorite books? I'm kind of lost there. "Currently reading" might be more appropriate. Who wants to know about books that are four or five decades old? The article advises providing links as well ~ reciprocation and all that ~ but thinking a famous author is somehow going to reciprocate is laughable.

I dipped a toe in the waters of trying to generate interest in my in-progress novel by adding little snippets of the plot in my blog section, but I don't know if I'm supposed to be pasting passages from the manuscript or simply providing hints of what happens in the book. It's kind of hard to isolate provocative passages to post, since that's not really how my writing works. It's the whole that matters, not a paragraph here and there (plus, who'll get anything from out of context scenes?) I'm sure there's a right way to do that; I just haven't found it yet.

I've lately realized that my Blogger-configured website is limiting. I'm not going to suddenly migrate over to a paid hosting site, because number one, redirecting a domain name is nigh impossible ~ I tried it before and gave up, which is why my nice "dot com" name is now a "dot net". I couldn't get my dot com domain to transfer over and had to buy a new domain name. Also, Blogger is too free-form. I'm presented with a blank page and need to figure out how to make it attractive. Or at least professional. Maybe I need the structure that a web hosting site provides. That, unfortunately, isn't in the cards (see above).

My home page ideally should spotlight my most recent book, or at least my most popular one (which one would that be, exactly?) 

I'm not doing myself any favors with my current layout. I'm smart enough and creative enough to build a better site; I just became complacent. Now, with little going on, I need to spend some time making it better.