I have recently had two manuscripts published as an E-book by a German company called 'Feiyr', they gave me a lot of help during the submission's. But there has been no sales or reviews made of the E-books. Is there a certain length of time before any work gets noticed. My stories are children's action/adventure, I am in the middle of writing a third story and have ideas for a forth and fifth. Do I stop now because of the present response? Or do I carry on writing?
Thanks Lorraine for the advice, which I will take on board and make the alterations. My problem now is 'how do I
p.s. Offering copies to schools etc requires paperback versions, which I see you don't have: you can make them yourself by uploading to Createspace or Amazon (though check your contract again). Libraries may have an e-book lending section: I'm in France and have lost touch with what's on offer.
Lorraine
Hi, Christopher,
This is going to sound brutal, but I'm not being unkind: you asked a question and I'm answering it as best I can.
I've had a look at the Feiyr website, and as far as I can make out, all they do is digitize your book. They upload it to Amazon and so forth (which anyone can do for free), and that's it. Once your book appears, it's up to you to flog it everywhere you can. Check your contract, to be sure of what was offered.
I have also looked at your two books on Amazon, and there are problems.
There's a misprint on the title page of 'Marley the Adventurer' - a floating 'a' after 'Stone'.
I have no idea what 'Inhalzverseichnis' means, but it's right there under the cover image in large letters, and it will put off most English speakers buying books for their children or grandchildren. See next point.
The 'look inside' feature has the cover, the title page, and a bit about you: I have no idea what's in the book itself. Is it an illustrated book? It doesn't say so anywhere.
I had to look for the age group you're writing for, and one is 6-8, the other 9-12. Yet they're the same series. The cover for Marley the Adventurer gives nothing away; will leaves attract children, who after all like to relate to people like themselves?
The blurb is full of errors: to begin with it shouldn't star with 'My story' - you as the author shouldn't be anywhere near this bit. Is it possible to be an old ten year-old? There are punctuation mistakes too. You've told the whole story here, and so there's no need to buy the book. This should be condensed into a sort of shop window, that hints at what's inside to draw the reader in, but doesn't give up all its treasures. You've got to make the would-be purchaser want to know more.
The blurb for the other book should all be in the present tense, and you should avoid repetition.
Then there's the price. None of us wants to sell ourselves short, but we've all got to go with what the market will stand. I think your book is overpriced compared with others for the apparent same age group. Have a look at others in the same genre, and see what you think. E-books do not command the price of a paperback, largely because there are no print costs involved, and the shipping is marginal. If a parent or grandparent can pick up something similar in town, in paperback, for 99p, they'll do that every time. These are small books at 49 and 51 pages, and you're charging 10p a page or more.
You have this listed under Action and Adventure, and Adventure Stories and Action: click on those links and see what comes up. You'll find Dan Brown and J K Rowling on the first screen, not young children's action and adventure. You have to be more specific. Look at the numbers in your rankings: that's how many other books are out there in your too-broad categories, and you're in competition with all of them. Choose something more apt and you shrink the odds, but you are still going to have to do something to make your books stand out.
If you are sure that they have been edited to perfection (and that title page is a case in point), offer copies to your local library or your nearest school. Have a stall at a craft fair, or find some other children's writers near you and join forces.
Amazon is a huge place, so try an exercise: choose a fiction genre, think of an author, and go hunting for books by them, and then others in the same genre that you haven't read. How many will you turn up? How many tempt you, and why? Was it the cover, or the blurb, or the author's biog?
There's nothing to stop you from writing more books: what you have to get to grips with is the proof-reading, and the selling, in order to make any sales. A series could well do much better than a single book or a pair of books (especially as you've jumped age ranges here), and if you had that stall at the craft fair, a selection of books by you might well interest parents more.
Lots to think about, but it comes down to the fact that you have to shout your wares like any street market hawker! No-one else will do it for you - but they will be shouting their own as loud as they can.
Hope this helps,
Lorraine