eBook Giveaways

Copyright Michael O’Gara 2013  All Rights Reserved

OK, “going in” I know some readers are not going to like what I have to say here about  eBook giveaways.  Let the cards fall where they may.  This post is really about why it is not in an author’s best interests to give away their work to the public and how the practice of eBook giveaways distorts the market. 

First let’s look at it from an author’s point of view. It seems a lot of indie authors are  using eBook giveaways of their work in the hope of building an audience.  I think this is a big mistake.  Some point to the fact that traditional publishers have used giveaways.  My response is yes, but they did it in a targeted way as part of a marketing plan.  They did not distribute freebies to the public.  There was a method to their use of promotional copies.

Indie authors should be smart about eBook giveaways; using them only as promotional tools that are part of a marketing plan.  This means only sending free copies to reviewers / bloggers etc.  Use giveaways  to expand visibility.  For example a contest for a print copy on Goodreads exposes your book to a lot of readers.  In reality though it is a form of promotion that has a real cost of advertising.  The author or publisher pays for the printing of the book and the shipping.  That is using giveaways as marketing tools.

 

According to blogger feedback I’ve received, such contests for eBooks gain little interest.  I think it’s because there are so many eBook giveaways available.  This indicates the value of eBooks is perceived as lower.

I think authors that  give their  eBooks to anyone who wants them just devalue their brand. They are saying the only way they can get readers is to give them the work. Is that the message an author wants  to send? Of course it may be that for some authors the only way they can get any readers is to give their books away. That goes to quality of a work.  If a work is of poor quality, people are not going to put out their hard-earned money for it. 

Now let’s look at how eBook giveaways distort the market.  In the past the marketplace sorted out issues of quality based on how people voted with their dollars to read a book; it was a way of determining marketability.  Sure there were “gate keepers” such as agents, editors etc. that often passed on publishing truly readable and marketable work; no system is perfect.  The fact is though that the market was not flooded with freebies and readers only took books off the shelves they thought they would actually read.

Now people take a lot of eBooks “off the shelf” just because they’re free.  I think that eBook authors who give their work away hurt the entire market place. Too many readers may just collect lots of freebies which they may never read.  After all they didn’t cost anything. This just serves to give the author and the market a false impression of the interest in the book and distorts what is happening in the eBook market. 

I propose something very radical.  Those who are really interested in a work will pay to read it. Perhaps those authors who don’t have what it takes will eventually fall out of the market or perhaps the market will find a better way to discern what is good work.  Who knows?  In spite of the fact that a lot of people think they are good writers “it ain’t necessarily so.”  Giving eBooks away won’t change that.

In summary, I think authors should only use freebies for marketing purposes to gain visibility.  That means giving free books to those with market influence like reviewers, bloggers, advertisers and group leaders. Author’s should only be giving their book to those who influence many others.  It’s about business savvy and being smart about marketing a work.

 http://www.amazon.com/Michael-OGara/e/B009E5UMGO

Michael O’Gara Interviews Indie Author Jessica Flaska

Posted on May 2, 2013

      

       If this was a newspaper article the headline would be Michael O’Gara Interviews Indie Author Jessica Flaska – so now you know what this piece is about.  Jessica is an indie author who published her first book titled “Two Storms” in 2008.  Since then she has published 10 more books in various genres. 

          You can find out about Jessica’s books at:

 http://www.amazon.com/Jessica-Flaska/e/B00AY7THAI/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1367489248&sr=1-2-ent

         

 Here is the interview with Jessica:

Jessica, please tell us how long have you’ve been writing and how you started.

Technically I started in Junior high with a writing assignment in my English class. The teacher had only wanted us to 5 or so pages and just a short story. I ended up writing quite a bit more and didn’t finish it in time the assignment was due. I handed it in before class because I was embarrassed with how long it was. My parents encouraged me to self-publish at that time, but of course when you’re in junior high you don’t want to listen to your parents on some things. I put it off and regretted it until 2008 when I self-published my first book Two Storms. I do wonder where I would be today if I took my parents up in Junior high.

What do you like best about being a writer?

I love letting my imagination go. I’ve always had an overactive one and thought of stories as they pop in my head or run through ideas. I love that I get to entertain the person reading my books and hope they enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

What’s your least favorite thing about being an author?

With family, working full-time and going to school for English lit, I don’t have as much time to write as I would like to. Also self-editing. As I’m writing the book I read over my manuscript numerous times that it gets to a point that as I read it I read what I meant to write and that is why I take up my friends offers when they ask to edit it.

Are you a full-time writer or do you have another job outside of writing? 

I work full-time so write part-time.

What is your routine for writing; do you work better in the morning, afternoon, or  at night?

Any time of day. If the manuscript is less than 60 pages (not yet in book format) there is no problem doing it at any time, however the longer the manuscript the longer it takes me to read through it and start writing from there especially if I have not been able to write in a month or so, I need to read it again.

Where do you prefer to do your writing?

Where it’s quiet or I can have music on. Sometimes listening to music helps the writing.

Where’s home for you? 

With my family, but I will admit with living out west for most of my life.  I love the mountains and would want to live either east or west coast as long as there are mountains or an ocean…lakes and rivers don’t count though they’re beautiful. I love the never-ending of oceans, other than that, with my family doing what we enjoy.

Tell us one weird thing, one nice thing, and one fact about where you live.

Weird thing can’t really say, nice thing: my parents are close and we are five hours from California so can take long weekend family vacations, and the fact would be the summers are too hot to enjoy being outdoors.

Do you prepare an outline before starting a book or do you just start writing?

No. I attempted that once and I will admit it helped keep the story in line with what I originally planned, but it was harder to keep with those ideas. I like writing more freestyle and just let the ideas come.

Did you participate in the design of your cover art and if so to what extent? Tell us about the artist.

I publish through Createspace and they have a cover design center we can use. On all but one cover I downloaded the image from veer and used Photoshop to do the title and name in certain fonts.

How do you go about developing your characters?

Pretty much what pops in my head and I think about what I want them to be like. I don’t want them to be perfect, I want them to be like anyone else with things that may happen. On the current manuscript I’m working on, Captured, someone I have on Facebook posted a picture of themselves awhile ago and that picture brought the story to life and with the main character I wanted to base it off of that person and what I picked  up from the picture and what I’ve seen of that person. I had a hard time starting that book out, but it’s amazing what some things can do to inspire and bring something to life.

Do you have a favorite of your characters?

The characters from my first book because it was my first and I like the characters from The Medallion and Captured-not yet published. Their strong characters with what they believe in and I don’t have a favorite one out of them because they are different enough from each other.

When you start a new book, do you know who all the characters will be before starting to write?  Please explain your process.

Not always. I want to get the main characters narrowed down but they grow as I’m getting further into the book. With characters that are born during the writing, I think about what I want from them and how I want them to be. To be on the side of the villain or the hero sort a speak. The hardest thing I have when it comes to the characters is their names. In some books I think I repeated some of the names by accident and need to start writing down what I use, but I go online and look up names. I like to use Irish and Scottish names mostly or something just different that you don’t hear every day.

THANK YOU JESSICA !

Find out more about Jessica at:

•  Website: www.jessicaflaska.com
• Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jessicaflaskaauthor 
• Amazon author page:

http://www.amazon.com/Jessica-Flaska/e/B00AY7THAI/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

 

 Jessica’s books can be found at :

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Medallion-Lochlyn-OMalley/dp/1478315210/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367427586&sr=1-1&keywords=Lochlyn+O%27malley 

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/lochlyn-o-malley?store=allproducts&keyword=lochlyn+o%27malley

Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/3948798

7 Characteristics of Good Fiction Writers

You might ask how I came to develop the 7 Characteristics of Good Fiction Writers. It all started early one morning when I was reading tweets from other authors; I realized fiction writer’s are a diverse group. I had an intuitive insight that there are some common characteristics that good writers share. I came up with the 7 characteristics of good fiction writers:

 1. First good writers are born with a talent for writing. As with most things in life, you can become better at anything but you must be talented at something to be good at it. However, having a natural ability alone will not make a writer successful which brings us to characteristic number two.
2. Good writers are passionate about their work. Writers write a lot. They develop their natural talent by doing. There is some truth in the saying that practice makes perfect. A problem can result though from practicing bad habits instead of developing good ones. This brings us to the third characteristic.
 3. Good writers learn from feedback and training; whether formal or informal and usually both.
4. Good writers are also prolific readers. I have yet to meet a good writer who has not read “tons” of books and probably so many they can hardly begin to remember them all.
5. Good writers are creative story tellers. They blend the who (characters), what (happenings), where (place), why (plot) and when (time period and sequence) together in ways that appeal to their readers.
6. Good writers create virtual realities that entice the reader to forget the real world around them and leave real-time to "get lost" in the virtual world of the book.
7. Last but not least, good fiction writers are organized when it comes to the details of their books. A good writer must protect the integrity of the characters created, how the characters relate, the timeline of the story, the details of the happenings, the logical progression of the story line, and the names of places, persons and things. This list is not extensive but it demonstrates why a good writer must be organized.

So here is my conclusion. Good writers do indeed share common characteristics; hence the 7 characteristics of good fiction writers.

On a personal note, please remember not everyone may have the same amount of talent but that does not necessarily diminish a writer’s passion for writing. Not every writer will be a “super star” but what’s wrong with being a “journeyman” writer? If you enjoy writing and people are willing to buy and read your books be thankful for that.

Oh, and a word of caution to consider, there is a difference between wanting talent and having talent.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Michael-OGara/e/B009E5UMGO

Featured Author Michael O’Gara Interview

Featured Author Michael O’Gara Interview first appeared on “A Blue Million Books” blog on March 15, 2013 and mainly centered on my book Ambassador Death. My blogger colleague Amy Metz operates that blog at http://abluemillionbooks.blogspot.com. Here is the interview. Welcome back, Michael! When was Ambassador Death published? It was published by Heartland Indie Publishing LLC on February 20, 2013. Would you tell me about the book, including its genre and what
 it’s about? The book is a thriller. It’s about a former spy, Cassandra Crossing. Cassandra is beginning to feel like the bishop on the President’s chess board. She is moved around to keep the country’s enemies in check. Cassandra is no longer an unknown intelligence operative. Now she’s a celebrity and hero after a very public assignment protecting the southern border. This time Cassandra is assigned to foreign soil and to a very dangerous job. She will be a very public target for those who would sabotage her vital mission to help keep a continent at peace. It is a job she is uniquely qualified for by heritage, experience and training. To complete her mission, the first order of business will be survival. She will also unexpectedly have to deal with something new; a serious romantic interest. It is an assignment that will require the balance of a tight rope walker, the wisdom of Solomon, the courage of a hero, and unusual diplomacy. It is a unique challenge for an unusual woman. This is the second book in the Cassandra Crossing Assignments series and the follow-up to Crossing Cassandra. How long have you been writing and how did you start? I started writing in early 2011, so it’s been about two years. I started writing just because it came so naturally to me, and I enjoy it so much. I joke that I daydream in Technicolor and the stories in the books I write are just feature-length daydream stories. I guess at heart I’m just a creative story-teller. There is no trick to starting a writing career. I just started writing and twelve books later I’m still at it. Wow. Twelve books in two years. That’s amazing. What do you like best about writing? I like the process of creating a good story full of interesting people, an intriguing plot or mystery, different places, and in the case of a series, character growth over time. What’s your least favorite thing? My least favorite thing is the patience required during the editing period. The book has to sit for a while and go through a number of edits before it is ready to publish. How did you come up with the title of the book? Oh that’s a surprise one needs to read the book to discover. What a hook! How did you create the plot for this book? Like all of my books, it happened organically. What I mean by that is I start writing with a general idea and no outline. It’s creativity run amok within an organized mind. In other words, I can’t explain the process, I just know it works. I do keep a spreadsheet of characters and such as the plots and character relationships can get quite complex. Did you have any say in your cover art? Good or bad, I have to take responsibility for the covers. I have designed the covers of all my books, though I have some help with the photography for the backgrounds of some of the books. My wife and a dear friend have donated photos for use on my covers. I use Photoshop and another photo program to create the designs. I think they’re great. When you start a new book, do you know what the entire cast will be? No way. Too many interesting things can happen in the process requiring the addition of characters. Do you have any secrets on how to name your characters? Usually I just pull a name out of “thin air” that seems to fit the nature of the character. Sometimes if I’m stuck for a name I’ll pull one at random out of a phone book. Are any of your characters inspired by real people? No. I don’t know people like those I write about. They are strictly creatures of my imagination. Are you like any of your characters? I’m not like the heroes and heroines of my books. That’s the fun of writing. I can create these characters from scratch. What are you working on now? I’m presently working on three books at the same time. One is a romance, one is an action thriller, and the other is a fantasy. The romance novel is the only one close to being finished. I can’t wait to read it! Come back when it’s out, and tell us about it.

Previewing Books

Previewing books is a time-honored tradition. We have all seen people in a library or book store reading the first few pages in a book. We’ve probably done it. We’ll look at a book read a bit and maybe put it back and choose another. It’s like taking the books for a “test drive”. People are in the habit of previewing the books they are considering. Now we can do that in the comfort of our homes online using our laptop, PC, etc.
Since most recent books, even print books, are available in e-Reader formats, there is opportunity to preview large sections of books for free before making a buying decision. On Amazon.com you can look up a book, both Kindle and print, and “Look Inside!” to read a sizable excerpt. You can also download e-book excerpts on Smashwords.com for all major e-reader formats and in PDF for your computer. Some books offer as much as 20 to 30% of a book for previewing.
I recommend previewing books you are considering before you spend your time and money. I do it. I know not every book nor every writer will appeal to all readers. Previewing will give you the upper hand in making a purchasing decision.

Interview with Amy Metz author of "Murder and Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction"

Murder and Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction
The title of Amy's book has such a nice ring to it. Yes, I know it’s a long title for a blog but not for a book. Amy graciously agreed to an interview about her book. (It’s part of what we authors do to promote our work.) Amy’s book deserves the attention so I was excited to interview her about it. You can find the book on Amazon by following this LINK . Ok, so here is the interview.  

Amy what is the title of your book?
Murder & Mayhem In Goose Pimple Junction  

How was it you came to write this book?
I needed an outlet for stress when my mother was diagnosed with dementia. As time passed and she got worse, every time I was with her I felt like I was on Candid Camera. Taking care of her was both funny and sad, but it was almost always contentious. So each time after being with her, I’d go home and relive it again by writing about it, which helped to some degree, but also was depressing. I needed something to make me laugh, so I began writing GPJ.

When did you start the book and how long did it take you to finish it?
I began writing it around late 2009 or early 2010. I worked on it on and off while I also wrote the book about my mother. I think it took about a year. I started querying in May 2011–I think! I’ll have to start keeping better records.

Would you tell me a little about the book including its genre and what it’s about?

The main genre is mystery, but it’s a cozy mystery. It has a bit of humor and romance along with the whodunit and also a little suspense. The book is centered around John Hobb’s murder, which took place in 1935 but was never solved. Tess, my main character, moves into Hobb’s house and during some mild remodeling, she finds a key. At first, she’s just curious and wants to know about its owner. But when she learns about the unsolved murder, and as weird things begin to happen to her, it’s clear the key has a history, and she’s intent on finding out the truth.

Please tell me about the main character.
Tess Tremaine is a Yankee. Yes, it’s true. When she moves to the southern town of Goose Pimple Junction, she’s kind of in culture shock. She sometimes has trouble understanding people’s accents or the goosepimpleisms they say. But she has Jackson Wright to help her out with that. He becomes her unofficial translator. Tess is in her forties, she is a writer, and she ends up getting a job at the town bookstore. She’s newly divorced and determined to stay away from men. But Jackson is persistent. What challenges does this character face in the book? Tess faces a couple of challenges. First, she’s sworn off men, but Jackson is testing that oath; she finds him hard to resist, but she does try her best. Second, she wants to find out to whom the key belongs, but she runs into a lot of roadblocks. Third, someone doesn’t want her to find out anything that has to do with the key, and they produce quite a few dangerous deterrents. Fourth, Tess is sometimes culturally challenged when it comes to understanding the local dialect and her new friends’ many southern sayings.  

What do you see as the main similarities and differences between you and your main character? There are actually a few similarities. We’re both klutzes (Jack says Tess could trip over a cordless phone.) We both like to garden, we’re both writers, and we both like to bake. But we’re also very different. People ask if Tess is me, and the answer is no. She’s a Yankee, I’m a southerner. She’s also braver, younger, and more attractive. I’m sure there are more similarities and differences, but those are the main ones.  

Tell me about the three most important supporting characters in the book.
Louetta is the owner of the bookstore where Tess works. She’s also the daughter of the 1935 murder victim. And she’s a hoot. She’s the life of the party, kind of the unofficial matriarch of the town, and she always speaks her mind. Jackson is Tess’s love interest and unofficial translator. He’s extremely attractive, a successful author of mystery books, and the owner of a very precocious Basset Hound. And then there’s Pickle. Pickle is a teenager who works in the bookstore with Louetta and Tess. He’s very tall and skinny, and he wears a different funny t-shirt every day along with different colored Chuck Taylor tennis shoes. He’s a little—no, make that a lot—clueless, but he means well.

 Where does the book’s story take place and how did you choose that location? Goose Pimple Junction, Tennessee is the town where my story is set. There is a real Goose Pimple Junction, Virginia, which is where I got the name. I visited it in 1985, loved the name and never forgot it. When I decided to write a humorous mystery, Goose Pimple Junction seemed perfect for the name of the town where my quirky southern characters would live. Just as a sidebar: someone once told me to change the name to Goosebump Junction, and someone else told me to change the name altogether because it would make people think of the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine. I’m glad I stuck with Goose Pimple Junction.

What makes your main character unique?
Tess is flawed, but she’s also very likeable, I think. She’s not your typical leading lady for a romance because she’s in her forties, but I wanted her to be different from the twenty-something main characters you usually see. Tess is older and wiser, but I think she shows that romance is good at any age. How does your character earn a living? She has one published children’s book, and she’s writing a novel. She works in the bookstore, of course, she also gets those alimony checks every month.

When was this book first published and where is it available?
Murder & Mayhem In Goose Pimple Junction was published in August 2012 and it’s available at any of the online bookstores, and the local bookstores, if you live in Louisville.  

Is there anything you’d like to add about the book?
I’ve had a few reviewers tell me there is no southern town with people who would talk like my characters do. I’d just like to say they’re absolutely right. This is a work of fiction. It’s meant to entertain. It does not reflect anyone real and is not meant to be stereotypical. I’d also like to say thank you to those whom have purchased the book. Thank you! I’m truly grateful for your time and money. And thank you to Michael, too, for hosting me on his blog.

You are welcome Amy. I enjoyed learning about your book.

The Happenstance Marshal - Free Chapter 1 Read

Free Read – Chapter 1 of “The Happenstance Marshal” – by Michael O’Gara

Posted on February 4, 2013

Here’s your chance for a free read of a full chapter of “The Happenstance Marshal” by Michael O’Gara (that’s me). Watch for the link to Chapter 2 of The Happenstance Marshal coming later this week.

FREE READ LINK

ABOUT THE HAPPENSTANCE MARSHAL

If you think you’d enjoy a mystery with a some romance, humor, and action thrown in and wrapped in a cast of interesting characters, this is the book for you. It is the story of a young war widow who faces adversity but is not about to let it get her down. There is a saying that if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Well in the heroine Millie’s case it is a life lesson, her first, that “If life give you lemons set out to save a town and in the process get the badge and the gun you always wanted.”

Millie’s lakeside hometown of Safe Haven Harbor is broke and times are tough for the community. No one can understand why developers aren’t “breaking down the doors” and the little city isn’t a tourist destination. The city hires a new hunk of a city manager named Mitch to sort out the mess. By chance Millie is thrown together with him and in the process of unraveling the city’s financial problems, they create sparks and uncover the roots of the mystery. It doesn’t take long for Millie to realize there is a greater mystery within a mystery.

Millie sets out to prove she has what it takes to be what she has trained for. With a little help from her friends and her community, she sets out to save the city. Her quest will put her life in danger more than once and prove she has what it takes to be “The Happenstance Marshal”.

One buyer of the book wrote, “”I found this book to be truly enchanting. It is a rare blend of mystery, romance and humor – which is rare in books these days. It is well-written, with strong character development and good chemistry between the players. When I finished it, I was eager to find the next book in the series. I haven’t enjoyed a book this much in years.” 5 Stars