Continuing with the writing/ebook obsession…

A few months ago, I discovered Smashwords. It’s a site which allows anyone to upload an ebook, free of charge, then sell said ebook on the site – obviously, giving Smashwords a cut of the proceeds. But an interesting angle is that it’s also completely free to upload an ebook, then offer it free of charge. Or as ‘Pay what you want’ (although, again, Smashwords gets a cut of any proceeds), which is a feature I think is fantastic to have available.

Now, Smashwords doesn’t seem happy to rest on its laurels as an easy-to-use, well-featured site. They also run promotions almost constantly, and have just started up an affiliate scheme. That last promotion is another dash of genius – as the writer/publisher of an ebook, you can offer a cut of your proceeds to anyone who successfully promotes your ebook (ie, causes people to buy it). They link to it, people buy it, and everyone gets a bit of cash. Except the buyer, obviously, who gets an ebook instead

So, given all the things I was impressed with, I decided to upload DEAD(ish) and give Smashwords a go. I’d already hit around 500 downloads on the PDF version, and I wanted to see if offering it free on the site would increase the ebook’s profile. I had to reformat it – remove the cover page, take out the ToC and remove page breaks – and save it as a .doc file. But the upload itself was simple, and it transfered to the various formats beautifully. I’m very impressed with the formatting bot – it does a simple job well. <— that may sound like faint praise, but in this day and age it's near miraculous!!

Link to DEAD(ish) on Smashwords

So, DEAD(ish) has been up on Smashwords for a week now, and their neat lil dashboard tells me that it’s been downloaded 42 times. I suspect my own marketing, and offshoots of it, have accounted for about 30 of those… meaning that Smashwords might well be helping me increase my writer profile It’s certainly a bonus to have it available in a multitude of formats. So far, me = happy.

Have you noticed that I’ve been a tad obsessed with writing, lately?

To be honest, it’s concerning me juuuuust a little. I don’t usually get this into anything. Except that, well, I’ve always had a thing for writing, and it’s always been a back-of-the-mind obsession, I guess. It’s just that now it’s coming to the fore a bit more because I’ve finally worked on a project enough to finish it to my almost-satisfaction!!!!

As an aside – that’s one of the ‘joys’ of being a happy-go-lucky Sanguine personality with a strong controlling urge and a streak of perfectionism. Lots of projects get started, but they’re rarely completed because I think too big AND don’t like to let anyone else help. Hrmmm.

Anyhow, this wasn’t supposed to be an insight into my messy brain.

Oh yeah, writing and obsession.

The next level of my obsession can be seen over at Smashwords, where I’ve published my own dear DEAD(ish) ebook, all professional-like, and made it free to download. Right now, I’m not overly interested in making money from writing fiction – rather, I want to win fans. Hence the free thing… in future, I want to make my fiction ‘pay what you want’ instead. Which may not seem any different, but some people have difficulty getting over the guilt-concept of not paying for a ‘pay what you want’ book, and hence don’t download it at all. Eeep!

So, ramblings aside, my point is that DEAD(ish) is now available in many formats!!!! W000000t!!!!

Oh, and I got a fan email! *blush*

I was walking from work to the train station last night, when my street-crossing became slightly more complex. A ute was parked on the street. In the middle of the lane. Its lights were on, its driver was in his or her seat… they were just parked there, waiting. For something. Me being the paranoid bint I am, I decided that it was waiting to run me over. I’m not the fatalistic type, but something about my day at work caused me to shrug and step out onto the street. And the ute started up, and drove straight at me. Sigh.

Obviously, it didn’t hit me. Stuff that for a joke. I’ve had so much practice on Brisbane’s streets that I can probably dodge traffic in my sleep. Not that I’ve tried… I think.

Anyhow, I was meandering down the marginally-safer footpath and pondering the general Brisbane attitude to pedestrians – those unlucky souls who, whether by moral decision or economic necessity or lack of stomach for hour-long traffic delays and psychotic parking-space-seekers, happen to be travelling on foot. And I realised something.

Brisbane hates pedestrians.

Brisbane hates pedestrians with a passion.

Think I’m suffering post-almost-runover-stress-disorder? Pffffft to you too.

Look at this standard intersection:

Pedestrians can cross, with the lights, each way. Fair enough. That varies a bit in many places – only three crossings, whatever.

Now look at a standard Brisbane intersection:

Pedestrians have to cross a ‘left turn any time with care’ lane with NO signals, NO pedestrian crossing, just… a keen eye, quick feet and even faster wits.

See? Brisbane hates pedestrians.

I’m not sure whether it’s a hatred of greenies and hippies (historically likely – thanks Joh!), or a desire to increase the socio-economic status of the city through a ’shoot-the-horse’ kinda process, or a simple recognition of the basic human desire to run down anything that it’s too hard or too illegal to shoot.

Come to think of it, maybe all of the above.

I’m going out on a bit of a limb here.

But – if you’ve read DEAD(ish) and liked it, and you’d like to spread the word… here’s a moderately painless way to do it

Just cut and paste this code into a blog post (HTML view, on wordpress) or website -

<p style=”text-align:center;”><strong>FREE Ebook!</strong></p><p style=”text-align:center;”><a href=”http://freefictiononline.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/deadish1.pdf”><img src=”http://freefictiononline.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/deadish_cover6_sm.png” width=”100px” /><br>DEAD(ish)<br>Naomi Kramer</a></p>

No pressure! It’s not like I can afford to pay you or even run a decent competition right now. But if you do add the above to your blog/site/whatever, let me know and I’ll give you a huge virtual SMOOCH

I guess this is my practice ebook… I’m trying to go fairly slow with it, but not let neuroses about it not being ‘perfect’ stop me from making it available.

As far as I can tell, the first edition has hit 400 downloads. So, I figure it’s time for a 2nd edition, right?

Click here to download DEAD(ish)

The new edition has a less manky cover, and a few typo fixes.

I’m NOT a graphic designer. I don’t have the right hardware, either. But, considering I don’t have money to pay someone to do it for me…

What do you think?

This search for a decent ‘cover’ for Dead(ish) is driving me batty.

Here’s my latest attempt:

What do you think?

You’re like a ball of wool.

If you stay tightly wound too long, you’ll lose all your bounce.

… has been more successful than I imagined.

To recap, this was the experiment:
- start a twitter account called @onlinefiction
- post three or four links to free, online fiction each hour (other people’s and mine)
- follow heaps of people (initially) to build some followers
- see what happened

(check out Twitter Promotions over at Publishing Renaissance for a more in-depth explanation)

HOLY CRAP!

This has been amazing. I’m gaining around 100 followers a week (and I’ve stopped following anyone except those who followed me first). People are clicking on those links I send out at an average of 70/hour – but up to 120/hour in busier periods. Writers are telling me that they’re gaining more readers and commenters. Readers are telling me that they’re finding some fantastic fiction.

Here’s an example from a fairly average hour of tweeting:

That’s part of a bit.ly personal page. The main part of the page displays my most-recently-added links, the box over to the side tells me how many people have clicked one of my twitter links in the last hour, and which ones they clicked on.

Is this sustainable? Will click-throughs increase or decrease over time?

Honestly, I have no idea.

But I’m kinda enjoying the ride.

I finally did something worth reporting on!

Check this out:

OK, the cover’s a little manky, I’ll admit, but I don’t have the budget for a cover designer, sorry

But let’s focus on the important bit…

My first ebook’s out on the internetz!!!!

W00000t!!!!!