So what have I learnt?

As you might know, I recently ran a survey with the intention of getting to know my readers better. Except it didn't really work out that way. I was getting a low response rate, so publicised the survey anywhere and everywhere I could. This pulled in a lot more responses but not from my readers, just readers in general. So it became a "trends in reading" survey rather than just a "my readers" survey.

I offered a prize too, an e-book copy of Dark Steps. Congrats to Dara England on winning that.

Okay, enough pre-amble, here are the results.

Q1: gender?

• Male : 27.3%
• Female : 72.7%

What does this tell us? Nothing, other than women are perhaps more inclined to respond to surveys and/or try to win prizes?

Q2: age?

• 0 - 18 : 3%
• 19 - 35 : 18.2%
• 25 - 55 : 63.6%
• 56 - 75 : 15.2%
• 76 + : 0%

What does this tell us? Nothing, apart from the fact that I was most successful at publicising the survey to people in my own age bracket.

Q3: where do you live?

• UK : 24.2%
• Europe (other than UK) : 9.1%
• USA : 60.6%
• Other : 6.1%

What does this tell us? That Kindle Boards, which generated most response traffic, is very popular in the US. The "other" countries were Australia and South Africa.

Q4: which e-readers do you own?

• Kindle : 69%
• Kobo : 0%
• Nook: 3.4%
• Sony : 3.4%
• iPad / iPhone / iPod : 31%
• None : 20.7%
• Other : 10.3%

What does this tell us? The Kindle predominance was expected, partly because we all know it dominates the market and partly because Kindle Boards generated most response traffic. I'll be honest, I hadn't expected almost a third of respondents to have an e-reading Apple device. The "other" devices were an Entourage Edge, Android smartphone and Google pad. I wonder if there would be a swing towards more Android devices if I were to repeat this survey in 18 months time?

Q5: how do you PREFER to read?

• "Real" book : 39.1%
• E-book : 60.9%

What does this tell us? That I got a lot of stick for using the phrase "real" book to mean a physical print book, and should have included a "no preference" option. Given that this question was only asked of respondents who had indicated owning an e-reader in Q4, maybe I shouldn't be surprised to see such a clear result. But I am, because I own (and love) an e-reader... but still prefer holding, and reading from, a print copy. Maybe it's just me.

Q6a: what's a fair price for an e-book novel?

• 99p ($1.59) : 3.4%
• £1 - £2.99 ($1.60 - $4.79) : 44.8%
• £3 - £5.99 ($4.80 - $9.59) : 51.7%
• £6 - £8.99 ($9.60 - $14.39) : 0%
• £9 - £11.99 ($14.40 - $19.19) : 0%

What does this tell us? That people don't want to pay a lot for e-novels, maybe figuring that they should be cheaper than print editions. And that someone thinks I should be giving away 85,000 words and three years of effort for 99p...

Q6b: what's a fair price for an e-book short story?

• 99p ($1.59) : 82.8%
• £1 - £2.99 ($1.60 - $4.79) : 17.2%
• £3 - £5.99 ($4.80 - $9.59) : 0%
• £6 - £8.99 ($9.60 - $14.39) : 0%
• £9 - £11.99 ($14.40 - $19.19) : 0%

What does this tell us? Short stories and "singles" should be cheap. I agree.

Q6c: what's a fair price for a paperback novel?

• 99p ($1.59) : 0%
• £1 - £2.99 ($1.60 - $4.79) : 3.4%
• £3 - £5.99 ($4.80 - $9.59) : 58.6%
• £6 - £8.99 ($9.60 - $14.39) : 31%
• £9 - £11.99 ($14.40 - $19.19) : 6.9%

What does this tell us? That people understand, and are accepting of, the need for a physical product's price premium. And that someone thinks I should be giving away 85,000 words and three years of effort for no profit whatsoever...

Q6d: what's a fair price for a paperback short story?

• 99p ($1.59) : 34.5%
• £1 - £2.99 ($1.60 - $4.79) : 44.8%
• £3 - £5.99 ($4.80 - $9.59) : 17.2%
• £6 - £8.99 ($9.60 - $14.39) : 3.4%
• £9 - £11.99 ($14.40 - $19.19) : 0%

What does this tell us? That four fifths of respondents don't understand the cost of producing a print edition. Selling a paperback at £2.99 is just about the break-even point for me. I can safely say that the only way you'll be seeing short stories from me in paperback form is in a collection, where I can justifiably charge enough to cover costs.

Q7a: how many e-books have you BOUGHT in the last 12 months?

• 0 : 4.3%
• 1 - 10 : 30.4%
• 11 - 20 : 21.7%
• 21 - 30 : 8.7%
• 31 + : 34.8%

What does this tell us? That e-books have really taken off. And that someone has bought an e-reader but no books for it...

Q7b: how many FREE e-books have you added in the last 12 months?

• 0 : 8.7%
• 1 - 10 : 21.7%
• 11 - 20 : 17.4%
• 21 - 30 : 8.7%
• 31 + : 43.5%

What does this tell us? That free is a popular price point, but that some people just don't bother with freebies. Perhaps there's an assumption that free = rubbish. Further investigation is required, I suppose.

Q7c: how many e-books have you SAMPLED without buying in the last 12 months?

• 0 : 30.4%
• 1 - 10 : 30.4%
• 11 - 20 : 8.7%
• 21 - 30 : 13%
• 31 + : 17.4%

What does this tell us? Either that "try before you buy" isn't as popular as I had expected, or that people usually buy what they end up sampling.

Q8a: how many "real" books have you bought in the last 12 months?

• 0 : 17.2%
• 1 - 10 : 48.3%
• 11 - 20 : 6.9%
• 21 - 30 : 13.8%
• 31 + : 13.8%

What does this tell us? That people are buying fewer paperbacks than e-books? At least the respondents to this survey are.

Q8b: of these, how many were by authors you hadn't read before?

• 0 : 34.5%
• 1 - 10 : 48.4%
• 11 - 20 : 10.3%
• 21 - 30 : 3.4%
• 31 + : 3.4%

What does this tell us? That people are less willing to invest in print books by authors new to them than they are e-books, presumably because of the price differential? Although I'm guessing the pleasure of holding a beautiful print edition in your hand from an author you love may also be a factor.

Q9: have you read anything written by me?

• Yes, "Dark Steps" : 0%
• Yes, "Turn Around Where Possible" : 3.7%
• Yes, in "Unthology No. 1" : 7.4%
• Yes, in "Streetcake" magazine : 3.4%
• Yes, in "Alliterati" magazine : 0%
• Yes, in "Artillery of Words" magazine : 0%
• No, nothing : 92.6%
• Other : 0%

What does this tell us? In general that I need to sell myself more but also that, given this adds up to more than 100%, some people have read more than one thing by me. Am I acquiring Constant Readers...?

So there we have it. Interesting? It was for me, even if I didn't learn about my readers per sé. I promise two things: firstly that these findings will shape my future output, even  if only in terms of pricing, format and markets; and secondly, I won't do another survey like this for a good long while, okay?

Help me out, and you could win Dark Steps!

I want to understand my readers better and, to that end, I've put together a little survey. If you need an incentive, one lucky respondent will win an e-book copy of Dark Steps. I know, I spoil you!

The survey will run until 12 noon (UK) on May 11th, so hurry, hurry, hurry. Here we go...

The survey was here but it has now closed so, you know, this is just a place-holder... you can view the results here.

I'll take that!

As you may know, when you look at an author profile on Amazon there is a sidebar that shows you other authors whose books were bought by customers who bought work by the author you're looking at. I know, that's not a very elegant sentence but my point is this: today, I took a quick look at my UK author profile and that "also bought" sidebar showed this:

Yes, a whole load of authors I've never heard of, but Dean Koontz and Stephen King at the top of the "a bit like me" list? I'll take that!

The great Twitter experiment

Before this week, I had a whole 107 followers on Twitter. I know. Stephen Fry can rest easy. But then I read one of the many "how I sold thousands of copies of my self-pubbed book" articles that indie authors cling to like drowning men. As usual, it waxed lyrical on the importance of social media as a promotional tool. What was different, though, was the strategy for using Twitter that was described.

I have always been selective about who I follow on Twitter. I like a nice, uncluttered timeline to read, full only of things that are likely to interest me, written by people I have an interest in, so before this week, I only followed 77 people. But this article suggested that was where I was going wrong. It suggested I should be actively seeking followers, specifically followers of other authors who write in a similar genre or tone to me, and that I should be following them in the hope that they would follow back.

The author I most aspire to emulate is Stephen King but he's not on Twitter (yet). There are a number of King fan/news Twitter accounts though, so I picked a popular one of those (@SoStephenKing) and went after its followers.

Now Twitter imposes limits on following, in relation to how many followers you have. For average Joes like you and me, that's 2,000... so I could add nearly 1,900 people. Not something I wanted to do manually, so I used Tweepi to do it in bulk.

At the time of writing, I now follow 1,940 people... and have a mighty 337 followers. I know, not the greatest return on my investment, but let's give the experiment time. Will an increased following (just writing that makes me feel like a cult leader, but hey) translate to increased sales? Well, it hasn't yet, but it's early days. Let's give it a month and see what happens.

One positive I've noticed already is that there is a much greater international mix in those 337, judging by the sudden spike in visits to this very website. My stats tell me they're coming in from all over the world, compared to an almost exclusively British demographic before. Again, will this translate to more sales globally? Again, we'll have to wait and see. What I can tell you is that this has led me to use Twuffer to schedule tweets for when I'm in bed and the US are doing their evening surfing...

Downsides? My Twitter timeline is crammed full and too fast-moving to be of any real use. I've had to resort to using lists to follow the people I originally followed, the 77. But that's not so bad. I can live with that. My plan, such as it is, is to treat the next month as a massive Twitter experiment. Can I use it to generate sales? In a week or so I plan to unfollow all the followers of @SoStephenKing who didn't follow me back, and then follow the followers of another author, maybe David Morrell. Then rinse and repeat for other authors for the rest of the month.

Does this make me cynical? Yes, I fear it does, twisting Twitter to my own ends like a capitalist pig-dog. But I just want to sell more copies of Dark Steps and, more importantly, build a readership ready for when Drawn To The Deep End is published. Will it all work? I'll let you know.

On getting reviewed (or, the hard slog, the wait and the pay-off)

For the struggling independent like me, getting reviewed is hard. Yes, the Internet is awash with book review blogs, journals and websites but once you knock out those that don't accept self-published works and those that don't accept books with less than ten Amazon reviews, you've halved the list. Then take out all the ones that have currently closed their doors to new submissions, usually because they've been inundated, and the list shrinks further. And of course you only want to consider review channels that fit with the genre, theme and tone of your work.

Looking back through my e-mail sent items, seems I've sent out 30 review begs, jumping through whatever hoops are deemed necessary: the book must be a PDF; the book must not be a PDF; links to Amazon must be supplied; send no links or attachments; a recent photograph of the author is required; the author biog must contain inside leg measurement (only one of these was made up). It's been a giant faff, in short... but a faff that is starting to pay off. Take a look at my Media page - reviews for Dark Steps are starting to rack up, and I've just had emails promising me two more imminently. Good news. When it comes to promotion, it really is a case of "every little helps".

I'm starting to accumulate more customer reviews too - three on Amazon.co.uk, two on Amazon.com and, most satisfying of all, my first five-star review anywhere, on Lulu. Happy days.


First review on Lulu... and my first 5-star anywhere!



New cover art for Dark Steps

Dark Steps has new cover art!

The third edition of Dark Steps features the new design, shown right, which hopefully will help the book stand out a bit more.

To ensure a bit of continuity from the artwork from previous editions (which you can see here), I've stuck with a broadly similar palette of colours, and have used the same story from within the book (Waiting Room) as inspiration for the picture, specifically the EARN YOUR PLACE slogan.

So what do you think? Better? Worse? Hopefully the former, as the new cover will start filtering through to various outlets from today, and is already live on Lulu. Experience suggests Amazon will be next, and then all the channels that are fed by Smashwords.

P.S. In case you were wondering about the second edition... it fixed a solitary typo.

Dark Steps reviewed at Sabotage (or, 'on being reviewed')

My collection of short fiction, Dark Steps, has been reviewed by Ian Chung for Sabotage. Like all the best reviews, it isn't a breathless love song to the book, neither is it a hatchet job. Ian has written a balanced, fair review in which he, knowingly or otherwise, adheres to the 'feedback sandwich' approach of couching constructive criticism within praise.

Of course all such critiques are subjective. I don't necessarily agree with everything Ian says, but equally he does raise some interesting and valid points. And no, I'm not just talking about the discussion of things in the book that he likes.

Now being the author (and, for Dark Steps, editor, cover artist, agent, promoter, manager, chief cook and bottle-washer), I am naturally going to cherry-pick the best bits out of the review, and use them whenever and wherever I can. Things like:

When the techniques [narrator-reader gap and ending with a twist] succeed, the outcome is masterful.

And:

...the surprise reveal ... forces the reader to rethink the significance of everything that has just been read.

And I'm going to ignore some bits too. You can cherry-pick those for yourself.

All in all though, Ian's review makes for very interesting reading, and I am grateful to him and Sabotage for its publication. Have you read Dark Steps yet? How does the review equate to your impression of the book? I'd love to know. You can comment below or after the review itself, which you can find here.

The thing about writing is...

I know not all writers will agree with this view, but sharing something you've written with the world is hard. No, not brain surgery hard, or rocket science hard, but emotionally hard. You invest time, effort, energy and yourself into something, struggle to find the time and words to get it down on paper, and then have to sit back while others decide whether it's any good.

There's a line in the excellent Black Swan Green by David Mitchell that captures it perfectly. Our protagonist, Jason, has just shown the eccentric Madame Crommelnyck some of his poetry. And this is his reaction.

I felt giddy with importance that my words had captured the attention of this exotic woman. Fear, too. If you show someone something you've written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin and say, "When you're ready."

And that's exactly how it feels, for me at least. Sticking your head up above the parapet in the full expectation of being knocked down.

Publishing Dark Steps was therefore a big thing for me, a literal dark step into uncomfortable and scary territory. So far, the reviews have been kind. And I'm actively searching for book review websites and blogs that will publish a review of my little book. It's hard though - lots won't take what is, effectively, a self-published book. Others are so swamped with submissions that they've temporarily closed their doors. Others will write reviews for money, and I'm definitely not going there. I have a couple of irons in the fire though, so hopefully something will come good. I need publicity, and reviews can only help!

But back to the Black Swan Green quote. I am a one-man band. I don't have someone to prepare artwork, or edit, or proof-read for me. I don't have an intern tweeting on my behalf. I don't have an agent or a publisher or even someone doing my marketing and publicity. I have to do it all myself. This is difficult, and actually impacts on writing time, but more than that, if showing someone something you've written is handing them a stake and lying prone for them, then trying to do your own publicity is forcing a mallet into their free hand. Go on, world, knock yourself out!

The point of this post? I don't know, really. I do know that Black Swan Green is an excellent read, and I'd recommend it to anyone, especially if you were twelve or thirteen around the time of the Falklands War - you'll love the cultural references. Beyond that... well, I've tried all kinds of things to promote Dark Steps, really forcing the mallet and stake into your hands. I haven't had the success yet that I'd hoped for (and I had very modest expectations)... but then I haven't been staked through the heart either. Yet.

Platform podcast now available

I promise this'll be the last time I mention that I was on the radio recently. But just so you don't miss it, I was talking about Dark Steps on Future Radio's Plaform arts programme last Sunday. The podcast of that show is now available here - I think my interview starts at about 17:45 in. And don't think I don't cringe every time I hear myself say hello in that "I am on the radio" voice....

...today we've got Martin Pond in the studio...

Following on from my recent phone interview with Future Radio's Kate Roma, last Sunday I went into the studio to do a longer interview with David Eastaugh as part of Future's arts programme, Platform. David is pictured left, holding a preview copy of Dark Steps. I was very nervous but David put me at ease and we had a nice chat about writing, the book and more besides. You can have a listen below - sorry if the sound quality is a bit tinny, but I had to really compress it to beat my host's 5MB file size limit.

Future Radio interview, 23-Oct-2011

Si vous habitez en France...

Si vous habitez en France, maintenant vous pouvez acheter Dark Steps (ça c'est-a-dire Étapes sombres) chez Amazon.fr (et je suis désolé pour mon Français écolier...)

More radio!

The interview on Future Radio's drivetime show, with Kate Roma, must have gone well. They've invited me into the studio on the 23rd October to do a longer interview, live, for their arts programme, Platform, with David Eastaugh. Naturally I've said yes - watch this space, and I'll tell you how it goes. You'll be able to listen live online here and, of course, if you're in the Norwich area you'll be able to tune in on 107.8 FM. The programme will start at 5pm.

Radio ga-ga (or, the Future's bright)

I've been trying all manner of ways to promote Dark Steps lately, some more successful than others. I've been tweeting relentlessly, for example, and it was by the miracle of Twitter that I discovered Kate Roma, a director and drivetime DJ at nearby Future Radio. Turns out we have mutual friends at Unthank Books.

I emailed Kate explaining that I'm a local author promoting his first collection of short stories and would Future be interested in giving me, or it, a mention. As it happens, Kate suggested a little more than that. She emailed me this afternoon asking if I would do a five-minute telephone interview, to go out live on her drivetime show at 4.30pm today. Yes, today! My first reaction was "blimey" but luckily my second was "yes please". Although I've been interviewed for radio once before, when I was involved in the (unsuccessful) campaign to get The Who a number one single, I was still a bit nervous.

I needn't have been; the interview has just happened. The entirely lovely Kate phoned and explained how she would introduce me. I sat listening to the end of The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen down the phone and then suddenly Kate was saying hello and we were on the air. And apart from one moment when I had a complete mental blank and couldn't think of the word "consideration" (as in "I submitted a story for consideration...") it went pretty well, I think. We talked a little about my writing history; we talked about the case for e-readers; we talked about Dark Steps (obviously), particularly which genre the stores therein might fall into (not horror, just unsettling - tales of the unexpected, perhaps); we mentioned this website a couple of times; and then, all too quickly. it was time to go.

Kate tells me I can get a recording of the interview from them in a couple of days time - if I can I'll try to post it here for your listening pleasure.

Another nice review

One of the hardest things about getting publicity for a new book, especially if you are an undiscovered writer doing his own PR, is having your work reviewed. I mean properly reviewed too, where the reviewer actually takes the time to read the whole book and construct their own opinion about the contents, rather than just cobble together a 50-word summary based on the Amazon synopsis.

Imagine my delight, then, at having Dark Steps reviewed by well-read (in both senses of the phrase) blogger and professional word wrestler Rol Hirst at Sunset Over Slawit.

Not only was Rol very complimentary, he also offers interesting perspectives on some of the stories in Dark Steps that are perhaps different from those you'd get from me. And that's one of many beauties of story telling - each reader adds their own layer of meaning to those intended by the author.

Rol has also added the nuts and bolts of his review to Dark Steps on Amazon.co.uk and given it four stars - result!

Interview on Kindle Author

Kindle Author is an excellent endeavour by one David Wisehart, its aim being to help you discover new writers. To that end, David conducts interviews by email with Kindle authors, and blogs the results. And he's interviewed me!

You can read the terrible truth (don't worry, it's not so terrible) here at Kindle Author... and observe the fact that I suddenly realised I didn't have an author photo to go with my bio. Oh well.

Dark Steps gets its first review on Amazon

The great thing about buying and selling on Amazon is that people can, and do, leave reviews.

For someone who's published a book on Amazon, this could be a double-edged sword though. Okay, so nothing is going to appeal to everybody, but what if you get lots of negative reviews? Unhappy days...

Having said all that, I'm pleased to report that Dark Steps has got it's first review on Amazon (here) and it's a good one - four stars and lots of nice comments ("an excellent collection of short fiction", "didn't want to put it down", and so on). Happy days...

Dark Steps published

Dark Steps, my collection of eight short stories, is published as a Kindle ebook on Amazon today. Take a look if you don't believe me.

The eight stories included therein are Waiting Room, Dream Feed, Egg, Near-Death Experience, A Bit Christmassy, Resolution, The Inheritance and an extract from the forthcoming novel Drawn To The Deep End.