Advertising on Amazon

 As promised, I will blog not just about general writing and publishing topics, but I want to get into the nuts and bolts of what I'm doing.

Right off the bat, I ran into an issue I did not expect. When attempting to launch an ad campaign for my first anthology, the moderators at Amazon suspended the campaign, stating the following:

"Your ad contains content prohibited from advertising. This may include images and videos of weapons (including realistic and non-realistic firearms, swords, bows and arrows, etc.) that are shown in a violent, threatening manner, displayed in a gruesome way, pointed at a character, or directed out toward the customer. Please review section 6.4 Weapons under Book Advertising Guidelines and Acceptance Policies and update your ad."

See if you can spot the problem...

The moderators do a job, so I certainly don't blame them for suspending the ad campaign. I suppose a knife with blood on it qualifies as 'gruesome'.

Now, with the knife airbrushed out, the ad campaign went live. 

If you bought the paperback before this week, congrats! You own a rare early version depicting a gruesome knife!

Setting aside the specifics of a bloody knife, I suppose I should provide a bit more context. To come up in generalized searches on Amazon, one must buy ads which push your book up the results of any given query. For instance, if you search a general term like 'Black Mesa' you'll get a load of results. One of which is a vampire romance series involving werewolves. Fun.

So, if I run an ad campaign which outbids other advertisers, the algorithm pushes my book up the general search results, where it will, I hope, catch the eye of potential readers.

Amusingly, a friend messaged me, saying that even when he looked up the book by title and my name, the vampire romance series came up before my book. I chuckled. 

On a more serious-ish note, this is an aspect of self-publishing I wasn't entirely prepared for. I knew that running ads helps sell books. Shocker. But more to the point, I didn't realize HOW MUCH the Amazon algorithm favors advertised products in generalized searches. Again, I'm not shocked, just wearily disappointed at the ways Amazon makes money, not just off sales of the book, but on advertisements for the book. There's a reason Jeff Bezos is the richest (?) man on earth. God help me if anyone at Amazon bothers to read the book and notices the subtext of 'Summoners of Smith'.

One way to Cure Writer's Block

At a recent(-ish) event, I met another local writer who said she has trouble editing while she writes, and as a result feels she cannot get anything completed.

Hoping my response sounded witty, I quoted Mark Twain's saying: 

"Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the right words."

To be clear, I didn't try to pass it off as an original observation.

Anyway, I've never had much trouble with the first part. Crossing out the right words always seems to drag on. Delaying deadlines and publication becomes routine when you tell yourself, "Just one more round of revisions..." 

So, to keep myself on track editing the next set of novellas, I'm posting this calendar I put together in January. 

If you don't want to zoom in or try to read my handwriting, I'll throw out a few highlights:

1 - Anthology Two should be done and ready for publishing this July. 

2 - Anthology Two will include Part Two (of Three) of Black Mesa, and three novellas. 

4 - Anthology Three should hit the Amazon in time for Halloween, and will include the conclusion of Black Mesa, as well as at least two more novellas, maybe a third. We'll see how the brainstorming goes.

That's all I have to say about that. 

For now...

Way-too-early Spring Gardening

"Why are you gardening in late February?" asked the chickens.

I shook my head and continued breaking up the hen bit and grasses that sprang up in the east raised bed over the winter.

   

"You gonna just compost that hen bit?" one of them clucked. 

They were less than thrilled when I did, indeed, just compost that bit.

At least, I think that's what they were carrying on about. Then again, maybe not. I may be giving their cognitive abilities too much credit. They're chickens. They will try to murder their elders given half a chance.

Wanted for elder abuse by multiple jurisdictions.

I'm nursing our oldest hen, who survived a hawk attack, two polar vortexes, and multiple rounds of molting, back from getting beat up by the roosters.

The strawberries I planted last fall came through winter just fine under a layer of mulch and pine shavings. I'm currently debating wether I should pinch off any flowers they put out this spring to encourage green growth. If I do, they should spread all across the raised beds and put out more fruit next spring. If I don't, they won't spread as fast, and the fruit this spring (probably) won't be as numerous. As with everything, it will be a trade off.

Those green patches are strawberry plants. I promise. 

On the right side of the bed, I sowed two rows of carrots. On the left, I planted four clusters of broccoli seeds. I've never had great luck with broccoli, but I'll thin it more aggressively this spring than in hears past and see what happens. 

Along the weld wire running the length of the bed,  I directly sowed a handful of peas. I also started a bunch of peas in toilet paper tubs in a pair of planters. I plan to transplant them into this bed, and the west bed, when they get about four inches tall. But that should happen in a few weeks. Say, mid-March. 

Speaking of transplanting things in mid-March, I've got quite a few blackberry canes that rooted outside e their enclosure. This is prime time for transplanting dormant plants. If you're interested, let me know, and we can dig them up and you can take 'em home.

Trust me, the roots are down there. Under the leaves and dirt and stuff.