Help for Starving Authors

This page is a work in progress. I am going to chronicle some of my struggles trying to get my books in front of people. Including advertising and promotions. How to get good, unbiased reviews. Some that worked for me, while others did not. I will finish this page soon. Please come back and check it out in a few weeks. Thank you

Okay, FIRST of all. I suggest as a new author you (DO Not!) use a traditional publisher. I spent about $5000 publishing my first book. This includes things like cover design, editing, page design, printing, advertising and distribution. It will be years before this book shows a profit. Then after being completely broke from the first book. I got smart and used Kindle Direct Publishing from Amazon to publish my second book. KDP is absolutely FREE. This book showed a profit from day one.

Also, with my first traditional publisher, once the book was published I couldn't go back and fix or change anything, like misspellings or like a date I had wrong. With (KDP) I can go in and make changes daily if I feel I need to. I am in total control with KDP. Also with my traditional publisher I couldn't set the price on my books. I had to charge whatever they said to charge, because of all of their overhead, or just the logistics and middlemen involved in getting my books to market. However with KDP I am in total control. I can go in every day and change the price on my books if I want to. I can even give books away for FREE if I want to. Giving books away for free with my old publisher was like breaking the golden rule. Every time I asked to give books away. They said they couldn't afford to. The best they would do is give me a discounted price, changing my book price from $17.95 to $9.99 for a limited time.

For editing on the second book. I used a group of Beta readers to help me find mistakes and misspellings. These (Beta) readers are better for TWO reasons. (First), they are FREE, you don't have to pay then. Just find ten or twelve people who will read and review your book, and help you look for mistakes. They need to be (new people) you don't know , or are not related to. This way they will be unbiased and give an honest review of your book. Also, you have to find people who like to read books in whatever (genre) you write in. You can find these people online in places like Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. These all have author help communities that are awesome help for you as a new author. (Second), They are unbiased towards you and your books. So they will leave great reviews, (good or bad), once your book is released. Plus these Beta readers will prove to be invaluable when you write future books. They will be your biggest fans if you write good books. They will be chomping at the bit to read your future books as you write them.

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Next. I found out the hard way how valuable good reviews are for your success. You need at least 15 or 20 good reviews right from the beginning. (And you can get these from your Beta readers if you play it right). It is very hard to go to (Joe's) book promotions website and post your book. If you don't have any good honest 4 or 5 star reviews to show Joe. Joe isn't going to want to promote your book on his website if you have zero good reviews to show people. And again these reviews cannot be from your friends and family or spouse. They have to be from legitimate people who are not connected to you in any way. Honest, unbiased reviewers. In other words. If Joe goes to Goodreads and reads your reviews and all 6 of your reviews are from people with your last name. He will probably not want to promote your book on his website.

And getting these reviews can be very expensive. If you are a single parent like myself and money is tight. Be careful! Every Tom, Joe , and Harry out there is trying to get (your) money into (their) pocket. Again, I learned the hard way. You don't need 500 reviews. All you need is about 15 good reviews in the beginning. Then you can post said reviews on any website and promote your book from there...

My first HUGE mistake was. I paid (Onlinebookclub.org) $500, the very first week my book was out. For this $500, they gave me two, that's right (TWO) of their top reviewers. These two reviewers gave my book an awesome review. They absolutely loved my book. I was so excited to get these reviews back. I thought I was on my way to the top. But I was naive, I knew nothing about the book business. After those reviews came out I waited. I waited for weeks and (NO) books were sold. I didn't understand. I thought those top reviews would sell books for me. The problem is, no one will ever see those reviews unless you start using them in advertisements and promotions. Onlinebookclub.org does not post their reviews on (Amazon). They only post them on their website. You need reviews on (Amazon) because that is where your books are for sale. I told Scott (who runs Onlinebookclub.org), that the $300 book reviews is a scam. They just take your money and you won't ever sell any books from their review. Trust me, don't use Onlinebookclub.org. Before that day I had never been on a social media website. I didn't have Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn or Goodreads or Instagram... I still used a flip phone. Old school to the bone. Again, I learned everything the hard way. That's why I'm writing this now. I'm hoping it will help some of you guys with the struggles I had in the beginning. Hopefully you won't make the same mistakes I made. You need to take those 5 star reviews and post them on social media outlets to get maximum exposure for your books. You need to concentrate on getting good reviews on Amazon. If someone wants to read your book but they don't have the ability to post their review on Amazon. You need to go to the next person. Otherwise you are wasting your time. You need reviews on sites that are offering your book for sale.

ps. Your traditional publisher is charging you big bucks to put your book on Amazon and Ingram. You can do this absolutely FREE yourself. Go to (Ingram Spark), upload your book and cover picture. Bam, like magic, your book is now available world-wide on Ingram. Same thing on Amazon, just upload your book and cover to Kindle Direct and Bam, it's available world-wide on Amazon. Ingram will automatically put your book on (Barnes&Noble) and many other sites.

For FREE or almost free editing. I suggest you start with Grammarly.com

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Here I will list several websites that review and promote books, either for FREE or for under $25.

One of my favorites, (and one I've had success with) is (askdavid) -- https://askdavid.com/reviews/book/memoirs/17026

Carter Novels-- https://www.carternovels.com/indie-author-promotions.html

Kimberly's Book Nook-- https://kimberlysbooknook.com/

Andria Redlin-- https://www.andriaredlin.com/book-review-policies

Digital Book Girl-- https://digitalbookgirl.com/blog/free-book-promotion/

My Book Place-- https://mybookplace.net/

Diabolic Shrimp-- https://diabolicshrimp.com/

Writers Pay it Forward-- https://writerspayitforward.com/product/book-promotion/

Book Club Pro-- https://www.bookclubpro.com/

Bargain Booksy-- https://www.bargainbooksy.com/

The Independent Author Network-- https://www.independentauthornetwork.com/tj-wray.html

AllAuthor-- https://allauthor.com/author/tjwray/

More to come soon.

Also, I would like to help other starving authors. I would like to read and review your book. I leave my reviews on Goodreads and on Amazon. You can read some of my reviews on Goodreads if you would like to see how I review books. I give honest, unbiased reviews. And I would never charge another author, to review their book. However, I won't read just anything. I like true stories, memoirs, biography, adventure, some travel, history, nonfiction, some (police drama), some (military), some (sci-fi), some (who done it). I won't read erotica, romance, fantasy, horror. I really don't like fake, made up stuff. I once read a book about a guy who grew a third arm. This arm would beat him unconscious each night to punish him for all of his sins and transgressions. That's how he fell asleep... I have a tough time wrapping my brain around this kind of book. I didn't finish that book.

Being a single father makes money tight. So, I will not buy your book. You will have to either gift me an ebook copy from Amazon. Or email me a PDF copy. Please let me know what you have. Tell me what your book is about. Give title and author. Thank you.

Contact info is at the top.