Haven't posted here for a while. I'm now living in France. Last year I published two books on Amazon and CreateSpace. Sales are non existent and I wondered if anyone else has had the same experience?
Haven't posted here for a while. I'm now living in France. Last year I published two books on Amazon and CreateSpace. Sales are non existent and I wondered if anyone else has had the same experience?
James, I've had a look at your books on Amazon. You've had some good reviews, but there's one that stands out: 'oh so difficult to read without any paragraphing or quotation marks. Its just a continuous jumble of sentences and very confusing.'
Without serious editing, it's not a good read. You need to put speech on separate lines, and to use punctuation properly. Thick chunks of text that should have been broken up; tenses all over the place; may/might used indiscriminately: these are my impressions from the first page. The potential reader who is leafing through the book will be put off completely. I suspect this is why you aren't selling more.
Another reviewer said 'the print version requires some technical improvement.' Take note of what your readers are saying, and don't just read the reviews you like.
Looking at the next book, the same applies. Typos - 'the only we he knew how'; punctuation at random - single and double quotes for speech; " used instead of apostrophes; using a fresh quotation mark for each sentence of the same person's speech; 'indignance' isn't in the OED.
It is almost impossible to edit one's own work; it is completely impossible if you don't know the rules of punctuation in the first place. Every famous writer's work has been scrutinised and polished by an editor, or team of editors, and a proof reader, before it hits the bookshops. It's not something that can be by-passed unless you are completely sure of what you're doing.
I'm not being harsh, just realistic. If you want to sell a product, it's got to be the best it can be to stand out in an overcrowded market. Hope this helps.
Lorraine