Short Reads, Short Stories: Kindling - RIP. (Updated: 26/5/2020) Kindling was the brainchild of Geoff Shaw. He had his roots in Affiliate Marketing and got into KDP in earlier days. I used to be a fan of Kindling and Shaw - until yesterday. And I occasionally return to a course I've bought to find out why I'm not using it any more. That process led me to stumble on a recent post on his Facebook group where he pointed out, among other things, that he was shutting Kindling down. Kindling was very typically an affiliate marketer's approach to things. It wasn't a course with modules, but more of a membership with lots of "stuff" dumped in there. And lots of claims where people "made it" with his system, but nothing really workable in terms of repeating, specific actions and steps. It … [Read more...]
The Milk Cow and the Cat – an example of great writing
The Milk Cow and the Cat - an example of great writing I just laughed so long this morning - and thought you'd like to as well. Here's a short story from Brett Pharo. (From Kit Pharo's excellent newsletter - Sorry, this issue doesn't seem to be posted yet.) Once you read it, see if it doesn't just draw you through all the way - and we'll talk about why it's great writing on the other side... Milk Barn Dangers... By Brett Pharo A family of seven can go through a lot of milk, and since a family of seven also has a lot of hands, having a milk cow or two seems a logical solution. Every morning before leaving for school, we would have a good home-cooked breakfast. But before breakfast the chores had to be done, and among those chores was milking. Not being a commercial … [Read more...]
The Great Writing Business Challenge – Week 05 Results
The Great Writing Business Challenge – Week 05 Results Working to get a new book out each week when my head is into the mechanics of my marketing is proving difficult. But - a breakthrough idea woke me up last night... Metrics Subscribers: Instafreebie/PW: 720 (IF recommended book - The Case of Jennie Brice) StoryOrigins: 9 Overall Total: 3972 Published Words Fiction: – free – Own Site: 0, Medium: 0, Wattpad: 0 – paid – Book Outlets: 8840, Medium: 0 Published Words Non-Fiction: – free – Own Site: 1088, Else: 0 – paid – Book Outlets: 0, Medium: 0 Books Books (pre-)published: The Faith of Jude Books In Progress How I Survived My First Year of Fiction Writing This Fiction Business - (H. Bedford-Jones re-publish) Think and Grow Rich for Authors Content Inc … [Read more...]
The Great Writing Business Challenge – Week 04 Results
The Great Writing Business Challenge – Week 04 Results Slow on a few fronts. Got that new book out, caught up on the last one. Working to give more entertainment value via my emails. Metrics Subscribers: Instafreebie/PW: 260 StoryOrigins: 8 Gumroad: 0 new Overall Total: 3910 Published Words Fiction: – free – Own Site: 0, Medium: 0, Wattpad: 0 – paid – Book Outlets: 8550, Medium: 0 Published Words Non-Fiction: – free – Own Site: 820, Else: 0 – paid – Book Outlets: 0, Medium: 0 Books Books (pre-)published: The Girl Who Saved Tomorrow Books In Progress How I Survived My First Year of Fiction Writing This Fiction Business - (H. Bedford-Jones re-publish) Think and Grow Rich for Authors Content Inc for Authors (working title) Book sales this … [Read more...]
How Kindle Unlimited is Slow Death by Suffocation to Authors
How Kindle Unlimited is Slow Death by Suffocation to Authors The long(ish) test of KDP Kindle Unlimited is starting to prove itself out. And the news isn't good. There has been anecdotal evidence for year-on-year results that authors who went and stayed exclusive to Amazon were making less and less money. The trick is analyzing wide against exclusive. Two different kettles of fish. The back-of-envelope calculation showed that an exclusive author was leaving between 20-30% of his potential income on the table. Because Amazon has between 70-80% share of the U. S. market, and maybe half of the International market - but we're only talking about ebooks. Now with Amazon slowly increasing the costs of self-publishing (while lowering payouts), this will be showing drops across the board … [Read more...]
The Great Writing Business Challenge – Week 1 Results
The Great Content Business Challenge – Week 1 Results Starting the New Year by keeping on keeping on. Last year's work on Fiction is just one avenue of my own content business. This year's challenge is to make that business more sustainable. Metrics Subscribers: New Instafreebie/PW: 531 Overall Total: 4025 Published Words Fiction: – free – Own Site: 5967, Medium: 0, Wattpad: 0 – paid – Book Outlets: 9009, Medium: 0 Published Words Non-Fiction: – free – Own Site: 1405+594, Else: 0 – paid – Book Outlets: 0, Medium: 0 Books Books (pre-)published: A World Gone Reverse Books In Progress How I Survived My First Year of Fiction Writing This Fiction Business - (H. Bedford-Jones re-publish) Think and Grow Rich for Authors Content Inc for Authors (working … [Read more...]
