I know I said in previous entries that I planned to enter Progenitor in Kindle Scout, but when I finally had the final manuscript in my hands, I had a change of heart that went back to these three reasons:
1. I learned more about the contract I'd get if I won, and wasn't happy with it. In essence, Amazon owned it, and I didn't feel comfortable giving them the keys to the kingdom, especially since it's the first book in a trilogy (which would mean limiting the entire trilogy to Amazon, if it won). Plus, it looked like I was still solely responsible for marketing and promotion. Excuse me, but how's that different from what I'm already doing with all of my other published books? It isn't, because that's the nature of the publishing industry these days. Even traditionally published authors can't rely on their publishers to get behind their books and get them moving. Other than the $1,500 advance to claim it as their own if it won, there really wasn't any benefit to it as far as I was concerned. I'd rather keep the control so I can run specials, etc when I feel like it. So I self published it, and put it on a $0.99 special on Amazon for the first week.
2. I like you, but I don't trust you. If I entered Progenitor in Kindle Scout, I'd have to solicit people to vote for it for 30 days. How likely are you to really to respond to me begging you for your vote every day for a month? How likely are you to do it anyway? Considering that "I'm busy" is the #1 thing I hear out of people these days, I'm not confident that people would take a minute out of their time to go to the website and place the vote. As it is, most of my book sales are to people I don't know anyway - I can count two people I personally know that actually read my books, and those people are Rick (my husband) and Mom. Honestly, my life is full of well meaning people that are struggling to keep their own business on track, and they can't be bothered with little things even if they do mean well and want to see others succeed. When I really thought about it, the truth is that I didn't want to set myself up to be disappointed and angry at people over it. It's just not worth it. Given that I wasn't entirely happy with the contract should I win anyway, it didn't make sense to set up personal problems on top of things. Plus, I do get it, because there have been many times when I meant better, but didn't do better. It's a problem we all have, and in fact it leads into my next point, which is:
3. It's the busiest time of year at my day job now, and it's been compounded by the fact that our area is expanding to include a new area TOMORROW (Tuesday). Not only are we in renewals which will keep us hopping through July, but we're getting another program, which I've been told is likely to be a 6 month transition. I know I'm going to come home from work tired, and squeezing in all of this would be a challenge. Progenitor is ready, and it made sense to just go ahead and publish it now. Promotion isn't nearly as intensive as writing and publishing and I know I can handle that while work is busy. It made sense to do the hard work ahead of the busy crunch for myself. This way, I can pick up revisions of the rest of the trilogy and Joy on the Journey in July when things let up a bit, and keep on track with my writing schedule for the year. And by the way, get ready to hear me join you in the "I'm busy" chorus, because here we go with that one again.
So that's why I went for it. I believe it's a fine program, and I certainly encourage other writers to take advantage of it, if that's something they like and feel led to do. I also will continue to support it by reading and voting for entries, because it is a great way to find new talent amongst independent authors. But in the end, it just isn't for me.
That's all today. Take care, and have a wonderful week.
Bye!
1. I learned more about the contract I'd get if I won, and wasn't happy with it. In essence, Amazon owned it, and I didn't feel comfortable giving them the keys to the kingdom, especially since it's the first book in a trilogy (which would mean limiting the entire trilogy to Amazon, if it won). Plus, it looked like I was still solely responsible for marketing and promotion. Excuse me, but how's that different from what I'm already doing with all of my other published books? It isn't, because that's the nature of the publishing industry these days. Even traditionally published authors can't rely on their publishers to get behind their books and get them moving. Other than the $1,500 advance to claim it as their own if it won, there really wasn't any benefit to it as far as I was concerned. I'd rather keep the control so I can run specials, etc when I feel like it. So I self published it, and put it on a $0.99 special on Amazon for the first week.
2. I like you, but I don't trust you. If I entered Progenitor in Kindle Scout, I'd have to solicit people to vote for it for 30 days. How likely are you to really to respond to me begging you for your vote every day for a month? How likely are you to do it anyway? Considering that "I'm busy" is the #1 thing I hear out of people these days, I'm not confident that people would take a minute out of their time to go to the website and place the vote. As it is, most of my book sales are to people I don't know anyway - I can count two people I personally know that actually read my books, and those people are Rick (my husband) and Mom. Honestly, my life is full of well meaning people that are struggling to keep their own business on track, and they can't be bothered with little things even if they do mean well and want to see others succeed. When I really thought about it, the truth is that I didn't want to set myself up to be disappointed and angry at people over it. It's just not worth it. Given that I wasn't entirely happy with the contract should I win anyway, it didn't make sense to set up personal problems on top of things. Plus, I do get it, because there have been many times when I meant better, but didn't do better. It's a problem we all have, and in fact it leads into my next point, which is:
3. It's the busiest time of year at my day job now, and it's been compounded by the fact that our area is expanding to include a new area TOMORROW (Tuesday). Not only are we in renewals which will keep us hopping through July, but we're getting another program, which I've been told is likely to be a 6 month transition. I know I'm going to come home from work tired, and squeezing in all of this would be a challenge. Progenitor is ready, and it made sense to just go ahead and publish it now. Promotion isn't nearly as intensive as writing and publishing and I know I can handle that while work is busy. It made sense to do the hard work ahead of the busy crunch for myself. This way, I can pick up revisions of the rest of the trilogy and Joy on the Journey in July when things let up a bit, and keep on track with my writing schedule for the year. And by the way, get ready to hear me join you in the "I'm busy" chorus, because here we go with that one again.
So that's why I went for it. I believe it's a fine program, and I certainly encourage other writers to take advantage of it, if that's something they like and feel led to do. I also will continue to support it by reading and voting for entries, because it is a great way to find new talent amongst independent authors. But in the end, it just isn't for me.
That's all today. Take care, and have a wonderful week.
Bye!
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