When to let go of your book...and what that really means for a writing career.

On February 6, 2014, my second novel, THE SOUND OF LETTING GO hit the shelves. It got lovely reviews and sold better than the first novel, AUDITION. Now, on the brink of July, the book hovers above the Amazon rankings million mark. Despite great feedback from teens, librarians and adult readers, it hasn't made lists, YALSA or otherwise. My Google alerts (I know, turn them off) begin with free download links so, thanks internet. I'm doing a Goodreads giveaway to remind people I exist and have spent wasted $50 on a Goodreads ad. And I've been toying with some summer promo. But maybe it's time to let go. I've done all I can and the time has come to focus on the next manuscript. That's logical, right?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Sound of Letting Go

by Stasia Ward Kehoe

Giveaway ends August 09, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Here's the catch in terms of a baseball metaphor in honor of my 8yo son: The odds of continuing a writing career after two base hits but no home runs are worse than the odds of the Mariners winning the World Series. You can write the book of your heart. It can be fantastic and beautiful. But you're tainted goods. You've been tried in the big leagues and come up short. Publishers, like ball club managers, now weigh the odds of betting on you a third time (heck, a few seasons of experience probably HAVE made you a better writer) or signing a fresh-faced, sales-figure-unblemished rookie debut novelist too green to realize the marketing department is ignoring them. OR they could pass on you AND somebody else and sign a sexy nerd superstar like Neil Gaiman or John Green or Andrew Smith who you will never be due to your enormous knockers (your welcome, hubs!) (and yes, that is me being a touch cynical & bitter).

What to do? Give up this business? Realize it's a chew-you-up-spit-you-out endeavor and even many editors wind up bailing so writers are likely to finish as casualties? Self-pub, try to monetize your blog, write swill for hire for the insurance industry? Realize you rolled the dice, lost and it's time to leave the table? Go back to school for your teaching certificate or an MBA?  Focus of marriage, parenting, friendships, communities less focused on word counts?

I know this isn't pretty. It's not meant to be a downer, either. However, I have met many wonderful writers in this business and, as we "grow up" together, these are the endgame questions for most of us. Prescriptives? Suggestions? Writing prompt for the week? Nah. But I'll leave with this fact:

Me? I'm still writing. So my Twitter description must be right. I am SLIGHTLY CRAZY! 

Nice words from VOYA and A FAVOR!

THE SOUND OF LETTING GO blog tour has wrapped and the time has come for the world to forget about my book. Which will happen, even in the face of lovely reviews like the one from VOYA (Voices of Youth Advocates) excerpted below. Not to get maudlin, but sophomore novels don't ride the wave of energy and notice that debuts do. And we writers in the throes of non-debut novel releases are severely humbled by the realization of how little we can do to support our own work.

So, I am not getting out on the road on my own dime, organizing a book tour, writing press releases, and pounding the pavement signing stock, like I did with my first novel. Instead, I am letting THE SOUND OF LETTING GO "go" (heehee) and if its fate is the remainder pile, well, it's pretty much out of my hands.

That said, here's a last-ditch request. Could you help the book hang on in the Amazon Rankings a bit longer? Just HEAD TO the TSOLG AMAZON PAGE, click "review" and give the book a rating and/or comment. If you do find a moment to lend a hand, let me know by leaving a COMMENT below. My thanks will be a visit to your blog or website (if you leave a link). That's all I've got ;)
Here's the VOYA review.

“Daisy is an honor student and an extremely gifted trumpet player in her high school band. Opportunities abound for her acceptance into prestigious music programs. However, life with her autistic brother, Steven, has caused major turmoil in her household, drifting her parents away from each other and from her… Kehoe does an excellent job of delving into Daisy’s feelings and insights as she wrestles through many problem-filled situations. For a coming-of-age novel with a romantic backdrop, The Sound of Letting Go ranks among the best in its genre. Introspective and at times heart wrenching, the book will have a wide appeal for many female teenage readers.”— VOYA (Ursula Adams)

Business on Tuesday: AUTHOR SHAMING EXPERIMENT RESULTS

On November 4th, I proposed a week-long experiment here on my blog. I also emailed a group of my author friends about what I was proposing and asked that they tweet about it to help spread the word.

Here are the results:

• My AMAZON ranking moved up from the dark, depressing 4 millions to the 137,000s. At last check it had wended its way back down to the 900,000ks.
• On the GOODREADS YA BOOKS of 2014 list, I traveled up from 137 up to a peak of 109 and is now at 110. There was a small uptick in additions to peoples' "to read" lists and a few other nods. On the GR February 2014 list, TSoLG remained solidly at #69. No additional votes.
• Not enough blog comments to do a giveaway.
• The needle did move but the absolute numbers (additional GR votes, additional pre-orders or whatever changes your Amazon score?!) were small.

IN SUM:
The aforementioned needle is very sensitive to even the slightest motion. Therefore, aside from the top and bottom outliers, these rankings are pretty insignificant.

QUESTION:
Were the results worth the time, effort and imposition on friends' goodwill the required? Not really (but thanks everybody!). In fact, the more the needle moved, the more I realized its insignificance for a midlist writer such as myself.

TAKEAWAY:
If your stats really bother you, you can probably just as easily move your Goodreads/Amazon stats by getting people like your mother-in-law to pre-order your book and your neighbors to click on your Goodreads links.  Or, see if somebody like Dr. Who can morph you into Cassandra Clare.  Either way ;)

Still running this, though...

GOODREADS ARC GIVEAWAY FUN!  Ready...set...click!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Sound of Letting Go

by Stasia Ward Kehoe

Giveaway ends December 01, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Author Shaming via Goodreads & Amazon--and a GAME with prizes

Should I care where my novel
ranks on Goodreads'
Most Popular Books of February 2014 list,
or the longer
YA NOVELS of 2014?
Should I wonder how many pre-sold copies moves a book from Amazon's millions ranks to the lofty 10,000s? Well, I do.  It's rough getting incessant statistical confirmation of your midlist status.
It's like officially getting NOT ASKED to homecoming in public! As I draft this post, the #1 slot on GR's 2014 roster is Cassie Clare's latest (47k+ votes). My book sits at #164.

Here's a game:  Wanna try to help move my baby up the charts? Click & vote via one of the two BIG links above. I'll Tweet and Facebook stats daily through next Sunday, so other struggling authors out there can get data about this effort. If you start a similar experiment on your site, please leave a comment below so I can stop by and click my gratitude right back to you!

Also: If you PREORDER THE SOUND OF LETTING GO ON AMAZON during this week, send proof (a screenshot of your Amazon preorder confirmation) in the body of an email, along with your address (US/CANADA only) to stasiakehoe (AT) msn (DOT) com and I will mail you a signed postcard and pack of super-pretty TSoLG sticky notes by way of thanks.

AND: If I have at least 15 comments, I will give away a signed copy of my first novel, AUDITION. All commenters will be automatically entered to win. This one IS open to international addresses! (Details: Deadline for entry 12:01 AM Pacific Time on 11 November 2013. Winner (drawn at random) will be announced on the blog by the end of the same day (11/11/13) and must contact me by 12:01 AM Pacific Time on Friday, November 15, 2013 to claim the prize.)

Finally (long post)...a Goodreads giveaway for a signed, annotated Advance Review Copy of THE SOUND OF LETTING GO begins on 11/10.  So, the gifty fun will continue!

Back to Business: WHEN IS YA NOT YA?

Currently at the top of my tbr pile is...

 

Book description from Amazon:

 

It is 1930, the midst of the Great Depression. After her mysterious role in a family tragedy, passionate, strong-willed Thea Atwell, age fifteen, has been cast out of her Florida home, exiled to an equestrienne boarding school for Southern debutantes...
Here's how it's cyber-shelved and scored:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

• #68 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical
• #91 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Coming of Age

Here are a few other titles I've been wanting to explore.

Book Description from Amazon:

 

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant...

 

 Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

• #17 in Books > Education & Reference
• #46 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary
• #76 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

 

 Book Description from Amazon:

Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts...

#14 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

#15 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction

#33 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

#54 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

 

Book Description from Amazon:

...a heartbreaking and redemptive novel about an intrepid girl who challenges the injustice of the adult world—a triumph of imagination and storytelling...

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

• #2 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Biographical
• #28 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Domestic Life
• #41 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Coming of Age

Stephen Chbosky, Markus Zusak and a few others are sometimes able to cross the line into sorts that begins with the category "Literature & Fiction." Still, for the majority of YA authors, I wonder whether being sorted first as "Teens" and then, with sad frequency (even if it's not the key theme of the story) "Love & Romance," predisposes those in POWERFUL SORTING POSITIONS

(term of art a conscious nod to Ally Condie, whose brilliant MATCHED is classified as
 #49 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy   
#55 in Books > Teens > Love & Romance )

to consider the words between the pages in a less literary light.

HMMM???? Thoughts????

Y’know it’s hard out there for a pimp, er author…

First, let me be clear, I am NOT passing any kind of judgment. I very much enjoyed the Harry Potter series and have great admiration for J K Rowling as an independent woman, ambitious writer, person of integrity, and possible modern-day Horatio Alger story protagonist. And, with no need for the money, I truly believe she wrote as Robert Galbraith for the sheer low-pressure pleasure of being an unkown.

THAT SAID, as a writer struggling on the ground and in the cyberverse to continue to have opportunities to publish work… As someone who does not write fantasy/dystopian/zombie/psy-fi and who is not Stephenie Meyer, Veronica Roth, John Green, Cassandra Clare, Ms. Rowling herself, or an author of the Official SAT Study Guide (second edition)…

The following data points about THE CUCKOO’S CALLING (pseudonymously published but now revealed as a JK original) are a tough swallow.

“The novel had sold around 1,500 copies in hardback. However, in the hours after Rowling was named as its author, it shot up the bestseller charts. It was listed as the third biggest seller on Amazon.co.uk on Sunday, having entered the top 100 only the day before.” THE TORONTO SUN

“A few hours after the news broke, New Statesman reported that the book's Amazon sales have gone up more than 150,000%.” THE HUFFINGTON POST

“On Amazon.com, sales soared more than 507,000% after Rowling acknowledged being the author.” CNN.COM

"The upside of being rumbled is that I can publicly thank…all those people at Little, Brown who have been working so hard on The Cuckoo’s Calling without realising that I wrote it, and the writers and reviewers, both in the newspapers and online, who have been so generous to the novel.  And to those who have asked for a sequel, Robert fully intends to keep writing the series, although he will probably continue to turn down personal appearances."    JK herself

Here’s my translation:

• It appears that strong reviews, a great cover, and a terrific publisher still often yield tragically low hardback sales.
• Unknown writers stand little chance of getting books noticed.  Not no chance. Little chance. The odds kind of suck.
• Name recognition is priceless
• I haven’t got any much.

Sigh.

I think I should go pour me a glass of wine.

Also, I plan to contradict myself next week.

Show Me the "LIKE" - and I'll show you a secret!

THE EXPERIMENT: I'm told the algorithm for Amazon rankings involves "likes" and review stars as well as sales. Today, AUDITION* is in the dungeon at #589,751. Could a big uptick in "likes" could improve this? Let's try a test. If at least 33 people LIKE the book by noon (PST) tomorrow (Wed), bringing likes up to 50, I will post a screenshot of my Amazon Author Central data for you all to see here at the blog tomorrow.  Curious about what authors see? Two quick clicks and this author's secrets could be yours!

*Note that there is huge hourly fluxuation in Amazon rankings. HC has been as high as 30,900 (in October) and has so far peaked at 107,538 for March (on the 15th). Today just really sucks. Also, if you've ever meant to star-rank or review AUDITION (middling reviews totally don't offend me!), maybe today's the day ;)