Donald J. Bingle

November 2020 Newsletter

In the writing world, November isn't so much the time of Thanksgiving and elections, it's the time of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where writers (more especially independent writers and aspiring authors) encourage each other to push up their wordcount so as to produce 50,000 words of text on a single project. And, while I'm not a NaNoWriMo participant, I will be working on writing this month, finishing up on some things for both Flash Drive and Love-Haight 2, as well as doing some marketing things. But, if you are a NaNoWriMo participant and you know someone who is, there are a few things which I've written which may be of particular interest to you as they touch on the trials and travails of the next step after an author finishes the draft of a story or book--getting it critiqued by a writers' group or some other editing or critiquing service.

 

The first one is my book, Frame Shop, which deals with murder in a suburban writers' group. I had a lot of fun writing Frame Shop because, along with the usual plot twists and character development of any suspense thriller, I got a chance to offer a bit of writing advice, poke a bit of fun at the nature of workshopping a project in front of other writers, and incorporate several different writing styles (from the over-the-top violence of the prologue to a noir mystery piece read by one of the characters to including as an appendix the entirety of the cat mystery the group critiques at one point during the book). In retrospect, the ersatz violence in the prologue probably turned off some potential buyers, but, then, I'm not exactly a marketing genius.

 

The second one is my Christmas Carol Critique Collection. These short, humorous pieces imagine an aspiring author writing and submitting the lyrics to classic holiday songs as stories to a critique service and getting their comments and criticisms about the stories. So far I've done Season's Critiquings (about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer), Merry Mark-Up (about Frosty the Snowman), Holiday Workshopping (about Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!), and Santa Clauses and Phrases (about Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer). You can get them individually for less than a buck apiece or grab them all collected in a single Christmas Carol Critique Collection volume for less than three bucks. (Kindle Unlimited subscribers can grab them for free.) By the way, these stories also make great holiday cards and require no postage or balky mail service to send.

 

People Can Change Their Minds: Evolution of My Thoughts re Writers on Kickstarter

 

If you have an open mind, your opinions can change over time, especially as situations develop and you gather additional information. In the wake of a recent interview about writers using crowdfunding (I'll post it when public later this month or early next month), I thought I'd highlight my own evolution on the topic by posting several of my own old blogs. First, my early bafflement about why writers would use crowdfunding. Then, a how-to about using Kickstarter. And, finally, some reflection on how my first Kickstarter project went.

 

Authors and Kickstarter (October 26, 2011)

 

Over the past several weeks I've received a number of Tweets (follow me @donaldjbingle) or Facebook or other forwarded posts about authors who are using Kickstarter to finance their next novel or somesuch. I'm not going to post links or name authors or such because I don't really want to single anyone out and I don't really think that they are bad guys or their projects don't warrant writing, but I don't really want to give such efforts a boost either.

For those few of you who know even less about Kickstarter than I, it is simply a site where people who are trying to raise fairly small sums of money for a business or a project or a cause can solicit others to contribute to such effort, generally by offering bonuses for various-size contributions.

The point of this post isn't to condemn the practice, but just to say that I simply don't get it and that the practice rubs me the wrong way in some mild fashion. While having the equivalent of an advance and a deadline are both good motivators to get a large project like a novel done, for many, many writing projects, you really don't need money up front in order to write a novel. A bit of paper, some toner for the printer, and good battery life on your laptop will suffice. I understand that there are exceptions--heavily researched non-fiction, travel for interviews, and the like--but writing is simply not a capital intensive project, so the Kickstarter effort is not so much about capital--the focus of Kickstarter--so much as about marketing and pre-selling. Obviously, I'm no marketing genius--the Amazon ranking on my novels and story collections prove that (and, I hope, only that), but hitting up your friends, family, fans, and small-time investors to pre-fund a novel just feels a bit off to me.

One part of this feeling may, I admit, arise from the fact that I am a securities attorney in my day job and I see all the hoops big companies have to jump through to raise capital from even big, sophisticated investors and I worry that something as informal and unregulated as Kickstarter can't help but attract some people who end up taking advantage of their subscribers in some way. I don't know that's the case and I'm not saying it is--Kickstarter seems to have a pretty good reputation so far. It's just something that helps generate some unease.

In addition, I feel it is a bit cheesy to ask people to pay premium prices for an autograph, or a first printing, or to view the book in installments as written, when the general public will get those things free or at Kindle-typical prices later on. Heck, I sometimes feel guilty even asking (or even wanting to ask) my friends, writing pals, and relatives to buy my books at all, rather than get them from me gratis, so maybe it's just me.

As one columnist said to his mother (paraphrasing): "Just buy my book, Mom, please. What does it say when even my own mother won't buy my book!" (Full disclosure--I give my mom copies of most everything I write, though she often buys some copies, too.)

So, not here to condemn. Certainly not here to praise. Just wanna say the whole practice puzzles me.

What do you think?

Donald J. Bingle
Writer on Demand TM

 

After asking advice from my readers in a subsequent blog about using Kickstarter for the upcoming release of my book, Frame Shop, I took the plunge. Here's a link to the pitch, including a sales video. I then wrote this blog:

 

Planning Your Kickstarter: Pre-Launch (October 1, 2014)

 

As most of you probably know by now, I launched a Kickstarter today for my novella, Frame Shop. It’s a mystery/thriller set in a writers’ group and punctuated by violence, humor, and occasional writing advice. I’m hoping it appeals not only to my regular readers (“Hi, Mom!”), but to mystery readers in general, along with authors, NaNoWriMo participants, writers’ group members, and aspiring writers. If you haven’t checked it out yet, take a look at http://kck.st/YMyWaS and feel free to pledge, tweet, and FB share while you are there. I’ll wait.

So, I thought I’d share a bit about getting to launch date for a Kickstarter on a book for those of you thinking about following my lead for similar ventures. Here goes:

The Basics:

Once you’ve set up a name and password for a Kickstarter account (if you don’t already have one), Kickstarter has you fill out a basic form to get more information about you so that they can verify you are who you say you are and arrange to make payments (through Amazon) to you if your Kickstarter succeeds. Now, of course, Kickstarter and Amazon probably have a lot of this information about you already, but rest assured, you have to give it to them again. It’s how they know you are the person you say you are and, frankly, they care more about that question when you are running a Kickstarter than they do when you are paying money for other peoples’ projects or just buying books, CDs, DVDs, electronics, and everything else in the world.

They’ll also want to know if you are doing the project in your own name or through a company, corporation, or llc. If you are using some kind of entity, they will ask for a bunch of information about that. This can get a bit confusing if you use the same email address for both your personal and entity emails and your personal Amazon Payments can get put on hold while you are verifying your entity information (which, in my case, meant a couple of Kickstarter pledges bounced and had to be done through a separate Amazon account—I just created a new one to handle it after a bit of confusion and frustration about my credit card getting declined). You’ll also need to send them bank account information, IRS information, and maybe even a piece of mail addressed to your entity. Most of this may be done by email, but sometimes they will require a fax (which, of course, you can still do electronically through a bunch of different services).

All of this can take a week or more, so don’t wait until the last second to do this. Also, don’t believe it when you get an email saying everything is verified. I got a bunch of those before everything was verified—confusing and frustrating me a bit until I chatted with a nice guy at their customer service. Rely only on what it says when you go to the Account page on your Kickstarter project.

I had the additional complication of having a corporate name with an odd symbol in it. My company is called 54°40’ Orphyte, Inc. (in case it didn’t translate, the symbol after the first 4 is a degrees sign; points to you if you know where the name comes from). Many forms don’t allow a degrees sign or don’t have any way to include it, which can cause issues. Long ago, I had such an issue with the State of Illinois and we agreed that a simple hyphen (-) meant a degrees sign. But banks and the IRS have done various things to deal with the issue, with the result that sometimes the name is correct, but sometimes it is written 54-40’ or 54 40’ or 54 40. When computers are doing the name verification, that can be an issue. But, once again, the nice customer service guy took care of the problem when it got auto-bounced.

The Story/The Project:

Here’s where you make your pitch, explain your project, implore people to pledge, explain budgets/timing/processes and the like and talk about things like stretch goals. Remember, you can always add stretch goals, so my recommendation is to not set them too close together at first, then see how things are going and add more—perhaps in intervals between the existing goals—so as to spur pledges as needed. I’ve been a story author in a number of anthologies that have done Kickstarters, so, although I didn’t run those, I have some experience in seeing how those work. For a book Kickstarter, the author will often have other books or stories that he or she can add as stretch goals, including goals for the first 100 and/or 200 participants to encourage people to pledge right away. Often other writers, especially writers of series, may have a book or story (especially the first book in a series) that they often give away as a loss leader and/or can give away to all participants once a goal is met. For them, it helps spread the word of their series or books and generate more reviews. For you, it gives the customer more value at little or no cost.

Don’t set your threshold goal for funding too high. Remember, you get nothing if the goal is not met. Better to set it low enough that you break even on the project (i.e., you can afford to deliver what you promised), then make money as the goal is exceeded. Projects that blow through their goals also make better press and generate more enthusiasm. As those stretch goals are reached, even a small pledge can get a lot of reading material, so expect the last days of your project to have a bit of an uptick on pledges.

Lots of Kickstarter projects have various add-on, in addition to the base goals and stretch goals. Buy this book or t-shirt or item for an extra $10 or whatever. These are usually listed in this section. I think they are confusing for customers and always seem to involve a lot of clarifying email exchanges. Accordingly, I made more different Reward levels and avoided add-ons, unless we hit the stretch goal for an audio version of the novella.

Photos are easy to attach to your posting. Make sure they are large enough to be visible on a smartphone read of the page, but not so large as to overwhelm the page or necessitate too much scrolling to get to the text. I set my pictures of book covers in this section at 300 pixels wide.

Kickstarter also recommends you do a video. I made a quick, free 30-second video on Animoto, which I’ve done for a few book trailers, not that there seems to be any evidence they really help sell my books, but unless you subscribe for money, you can’t upload those videos (so you can download them to Kickstarter), although you can post them on YouTube. Friends tell me there are ways to download from YouTube to get around this restriction, but I’m pretty much a Boy Scout about such things, so I decided to open the completely unused movie-maker software that came on my five year-old laptop and make a video of my own. I used mostly images of book and story covers I already had on my computer, but found that some of them looked fine at small sizes, but were terrible if someone watched the video in full-screen format. So, I had to chase down some better resolution photos and redo that part.

Eventually, the video montage was fine, but the sound from my laptop mic sounded like I was in the bottom of a well, so I got a plug-in mic at the local Best Buy, the kind gamers use to chat with each other. It was better, but still not great, but I decided to go with it. I sent out the preview link to a few friends for reactions.

Fortunately, I have a friend who was blunt enough to say that the sound was not acceptable. Even more fortunately, I have a friend, Randy Martin, who makes documentaries. (In fact, he is currently making one about writers’ groups.) I asked and he agreed to help out, so we met at the library, 

 

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Link to my Stuff on Amazon
 

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secured a room and recorded the audio with three different mics about five different times. Naturally, the first take on the first mic was fine and I substituted it in and re-jiggered the fades to sync properly.

 

Kickstarter says that projects with videos do better, but unless you have a complicated project, I’d try to stay under two minutes. Also, try not to sound forced and unnatural as you read your script.

The Rewards:

I think rewards are pretty straightforward with books. An e-book at the cheapest level and then combos of e-books as you get more expensive. A print book, then combos of print books at the higher levels. I think you want a good spread of price points, so that people who want to spend a bit more to support you can get something cool. With books, it’s also easy to add writerly things like autographed copies, critiques of stories written by the customers, and Tuckerizations (agreeing to use someone’s real or chosen name for a character or place in a story). Since I’m an attorney by trade, I shied away from Tuckerizations just because I’m super-cautious, but I did add in opportunities for groups to get me to come for writing presentations and the like. Sponsorships, ads, dedications, and the like are good, too.

I avoided things like art, posters, postcards, playing cards, challenge coins, and personalized thank-you notes. They seem to me to cause a lot of additional administrative work and shipping and most people who are buying the promise of a book really just want to read more stuff. For this first Kickstarter, I also stayed with U.S. only shipping, but if you have a greater international presence or platform, you might want to ship internationally. Just remember, it can be expensive and uncertain, so charge accordingly for it. U.S. shipping is part of the basic reward price, so price accordingly. If you are doing international shipping, indicate it will be extra and how much (I’d say a minimum of $20 extra).

Set conservative dates for when things will be delivered. You’d rather surprise the pledgers with early delivery than send updates about why you were delayed by a home crisis, printer problem, or delayed artwork.

Summing Up:

Now that you’ve read all this, go back and take a look at the Kickstarter for Frame Shop at http://kck.st/YMyWaS and let me know what you think. Feel free to pledge, tweet, share, etc. while you are there.

Hopefully, in thirty days’ time, I’ll be posting here about how successful my Kickstarter was due to your help. Or I’ll be dissecting why it failed to meet goals. I’d rather not do that, but my fate is in your hands.

Aloha.

Pledge NOW. http://kck.st/YMyWaS

Donald J. Bingle, Writer on Demand
Author of Frame Shop.

 

After that Kickstarter was done, I posted another blog, this one about lessons learned on my first Kickstarter.

 

Some Kickstarter Lessons (April 19, 2015)

 

As most of you know, I ran a successful Kickstarter through my publishing company, 54-40' Orphyte, Inc., for my mystery thriller, Frame Shop, last October. The great news is that I am easily in the black for Frame Shop (partially, of course, because of how inexpensive it is to self-publish these days), which is always a good thing for an author. The bad news is that post-Kickstarter sales have languished since the launch despite good reviews and the book being named as a semi-finalist in a book competition for Illinois authors. No doubt, part of the problem is that my platform is limited (see my post on platforms at https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...) and my marketing efforts are lackluster and run in fits and starts. I have learned, however, and continue to learn a few things as I go through life as an indie author, including some things about the Kickstarter process. The purpose of this posting is to share some of those with you.

I'll skip over things I've talked about before, primarily planning your Kickstarter (see my post on that at https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...) and, instead, focus on lessons learned post-launch.

Prepare for that first day: Perception is reality in the world of marketing and you really want to hit the road running with a big first day. That means letting your social media network know that your Kickstarter is coming up a couple days ahead of time, arranging and writing a bevy of guest blogs (whether project-specific or not) ahead of time, so they will post in the first few days of your crowdfunding), creating your press releases and ads ahead of time, and setting your funding goal low enough that a sizeable portion of it can be met on that first day in order to give the project buzz. Also, drop Kickstarter a line beforehand about something unique and interesting about your project in order to try to get their attention and increase the possibility of a special mention or staff recommendation from the get-go.

If you are going to use one of the fulfillment services or Kickstarter advertising companies, already have that in place before you start. Since their pricing generally is the same no matter when you engage them, you might as well get the momentum boost from having them from the very start. Hit your email/newsletter list with an announcement and don't be shy about telling your biggest fans that an early pledge helps you out by establishing momentum and making it more likely you will get noticed by third parties. Give special rewards to early subscribers in order to reinforce this. You can do this by having special limited quantity rewards or a cheaper price on basic rewards for the first so many backers or a time-limited bonus or reward for those pledging in the first few days. Given a choice, make these reward limitations lower/shorter, rather than higher/longer in order to push people to pledge immediately.

Ads can work, though I had little success from my Facebook advertising. Just remember to make things simple, fun, and visual. People can always get more details by clicking through on the link, so no need to explain everything in a simple ad. Posting on the FB pages of various crowdfunding FB groups is not effective in my experience. Sharing in your updates about other similar Kickstarters that might be of interest to your backers can be an effective way to expand your reach as those campaigns return the favor. Just don't expect too much boost from any one source or you will be bound for disappointment. Spread the net wide--you can't know where all the big fish are.

Do updates on your Kickstarter to let people know how things are going and highlight new rewards, stretch goals nearing completion, stretch goals met, and the like. By the way, ALWAYS include the short link for your Kickstarter on every ad, blog post, email, and update. People click-through with ease, but ask them to type in a URL or search for you on the Kickstarter site and you will lose them for sure. (By the way, I was less than impressed by the search function on Kickstarter's site. Get your key search words in the title or brief summary of your submission to Kickstarter, because if they merely appear in the lengthier description, they may not trigger on searches.)

Lead time for delivery of ebooks and print copies should not be overly long. Instant gratification is a selling point and, if your book is already written or your anthology already in editing, you will have little to disclose in the risk factors section.

Price your book so that you aren't selling it elsewhere for less within a year of the Kickstarter. Early backers should be rewarded, not punished.

Understand that most of your backers will likely come from your family, friends, and fans. Sure, some will come from ads, Kickstarter browsers, recommendations from other supporters and the like, but a Kickstarter is only an opportunity to expand your fan base, not an automatic guarantee of increased exposure. One of the reasons anthologies fare better than stand-alone novels in Kickstarters is that you automatically have a better inherent social media reach with multiple authors, instead of just one.

Most of the pledges on Kickstarter occur during the first few days and the last few days, with a burping flatline of activity in the middle, which can lead to frustration, anxiety, paranoia, and severe depression. Be prepared for the bumpy ride. Weekdays are generally better than weekends. Holidays are especially quiet. Schedule your ads, pushes, social media activity, therapy sessions, and medications accordingly.

Kicktraq was very useful for keeping tabs on what has happened, as well as what your trends, and potential ranges of funding are as you go along. Use it; it's free.

Shipping is expensive. International shipping is mind-boggling expensive. Shipping materials (envelopes, boxes, bubble-wrap, etc.) are expensive. Fulfillment is a soul-sucking hassle as you chase down surveys and addresses, stuff envelopes, weigh packages, and stand in line at the post office.

A few people will not pay. The more backers you have, the more likely that you will have some deadbeats. Some people like to pledge, but don't ever really mean to pay. Some forget or use an expired card and can't be bothered to fix the problem later. Oh, well.

Be prepared to deal with certain recurring questions/concerns:

1. Why do you need to do a Kickstarter for a book? Can't you cover your upfront costs yourself?

True, books without heavy graphics and/or formatting don't have very high upfront costs (though they do have some for research, editing, copy-editing, cover art, etc.), but Kickstarting books (novels or anthologies) isn't really about covering expenses incurred well in advance of publishing. Instead, it's all about pre-marketing.

2. Why are you begging for money?

You are not begging for money. You are selling a product. Writers, artists, and other creative types deserve to be paid for producing content.

3. Why do I have to create a Kickstarter account? Why do I have to pay through Amazon?

Because Kickstarter gives you no choice in the matter. Besides, both of these are free and easy to set up. Join the 21st Century. If resistance continues, you can always take their cash, give it to a friend or relative who has an account, and have them purchase through that separate account with updated shipping information. Or you can tell the potential buyer they can pay you now for a purchase in the post-Kickstarter after-market. Just keep in mind that all of these little side pieces of administration are a hassle to deal with later.

Here's some links for my later Kickstarters, just in case you're interested.

 

Familiar Spirits, a ghost anthology

 

 

Net Impact/Wet Work

 

 
Free Audible Trial

Donald J. Bingle Writing Update: Although I've been noodling about the edges of projects, I've spent a lot of time in the last few weeks waiting. Not just for election results, but also in connection with writing projects. Beta readers have been busy reading and sending me some terrific comments on Flash Drive, the third book in my Dick Thornby spy thriller series. And, the final audio has been submitted for Wet Work, the second book in my Dick Thornby spy thriller series, for review by ACX. We're at 37 days and counting waiting for their clearance or comments. If social media posts about their turnaround time are accurate, there could be a bit more of a wait. Rest assured, I'll let you know when it becomes available.

And, since we're talking about Frame Shop and Kickstarter, here's a short trailer I did for the book and crowdfunding (above) followed by the video I did for the Kickstarter page itself (below).

The Axe, by Vaughn Ashby

 

Time doesn’t work the way you think it does.

 

2018 After a successful social justice hack and a sexy night of celebrating, Micah arrives home to a gift left outside his apartment door. An Axe, that when touched causes Micah to lose time and allow other people to use his body. After one of such events, Micah returns to his body, blood covered and holding The Axe, with police knocking on the door. Micah has to use his hacker skills to evade the police and a corporation hell bent on controlling The Axe, all while unraveling the secrets of the gift.

 

1810 In the woods of western Canada, something is stalking and devouring people. Entire settlements have been abandoned, the residents missing. The people refer to the monsters as Demons. Mehall, a demon-hunting nomad, has returned home, leaving a trail of dead Demons behind her. By her hands and her Tomahawk, she continues killing the creatures even as she begins having visions from the future.

 

3015 The Circle, an oppressive governing religion, is trying to insight an AI genocide while also releasing a plague on the universe to control its people. Life is as normal as it can be for Miko, a social outcast and data broker. While on a routine data delivery gone bad, Miko is chased to the galaxies edge, where she is confronted by a mysterious ship that leads Miko on a mission to stop The Circle itself.

 

All three lives are more interconnected than they know. One thing wants them all dead. The Infection.

 

One thing binds them all together. The Axe.

 

Click on the cover above to download the story.

HIMAGUS & Other Books 

The Shifters' Revenge by Maria Vermisoglou 

 

The stakes are higher than ever...

As I recover from my last trial where I was confronted by the darkest creatures in history, I hoped things would return to my normal, peaceful life. Not a chance. With my return to Oklealia academy and the arrival of a new headmistress whose inhuman ways turn the academy into a jail, my plate is full enough, but signs of an upcoming threat awaken my fears once more.

Time is running out— for me and the world. When the final battle arrives, will I make the right choice?

 

Donald J. Bingle is the author of six books and more than sixty shorter works in the horror, thriller, science fiction, mystery, fantasy, steampunk, romance, comedy, and memoir genres. His books include Forced Conversion (near future military scifi), GREENSWORD (darkly comedic eco-thriller), Frame Shop (murder in a suburban writers' group), and the Dick Thornby spy thriller series (Net Impact; Wet Work, and (soon to come) Flash Drive). He also co-authored (with Jean Rabe) The Love-Haight Case Files (a three-time Silver Falchion winning paranormal urban fantasy about two lawyers who represent the legal rights of supernatural creatures in a magic-filled San Francisco; sequel is in the works). Don also edited Familiar Spirits (an anthology of ghost stories).

Many of Don's shorter works can be found in his Writer on Demand TM collections.

 

Full disclosure: Various links in my newsletter or on my website may include Amazon Affiliate coding, which gets me a small referral fee (at no cost to you) if you purchase after clicking through. 

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