C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

See all my books at AllThatChazz.com.

07/04/2015 • 6:35 AM 0

Fierce Lessons, The End of the World and a free ebook

Enough of worries about Amazon KU and the coming apocalypse. Let’s talk about a fun little Armageddon.

It is time for great fun and a free ebook, isn’t it? Please click the covers for your links.

The third book in the Ghosts & Demons Series, Fierce Lessons, is now available.

In your new favorite dark urban fantasy, join the Choir Invisible to save the world.

Come to fight demons in California. Stay for the very Buffy banter.

Click the image to get The End of the World As I Know It. Climb into the ride that is book two in the series and see what blows up from New York to Iowa.

Oh…but you want the first in the series, right?

You want to meet Tammy Smythe and see how the adventure begins.

AND YOU WANT IT FOR FREE!

For a limited time, you can get a review copy, sweet and easy.

Click The Haunting Lessons below and

shoot over to my author site, AllThatChazz.com, to join the Choir Invisible and find out what all the fun is about.

From Iowa to New York, the world is changing. You can’t quite see it yet. Then you’ll see it everywhere.

Filed under: armageddon, dark fantasy, demons, ghosts, holly pop, new books, robert chazz chute, #amwriting, advanced reading copies, Amazon, Amazon Kindle, dark fantasy, fierce lessons, free ebooks, free sample, holly pop, publishing, Robert Chazz Chute, the end of the world as I know it, The Haunting Lessons, urban fantasy, writing

03/27/2015 • 11:12 AM 0

The End of the World As I Know It: Pre-order

Click the cover now to order your copy!

In The End of the World As I Know It, Tam Smythe is a young woman from Iowa and a warrior for the Choir Invisible. The Darkness Visible is coming for you. This is a very Buffy dark fantasy packed with swordplay, witty dialogue and lessons on surviving Armageddon. You’re going to find a lot of fun and surprises in this series.

This is the follow-up to first book in the series, The Haunting Lessons.

Are you a book blogger or reviewer who wants a review copy? Email Chazz at expartepress [AT] gmail [DOT] com. I’ll send you one.

Cheers!

~ The All That Chazz podcast is going off in new, life changing directions. Check it out and subscribe for updates at AllThatChazz.com.

Filed under: Books, All That Chazz, Buffy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chazz, comedy, dark fantasy, End of the World, Haunting Lessons, holly pop, horror, Iowa, Podcast, review copies, Robert Chazz Chute, urban fantasy, witty dialogue

01/30/2015 • 8:04 PM 3

TOP 10 Tips: KDP Ads, Updates and the Writing Biz

The only zombie apocalypse with an autistic hero. If you liked The Stand, you’ll like this.

Tip #1: Tweak your print descriptions.

I use the Author Marketing Club description tool to develop my book descriptions for Amazon. The template makes ebook descriptions look great. Don’t just copy and paste your ebook descriptions to your print book descriptions, though. The text will run together into one big block.

Add editorial reviews and more information to your author sales page Author Central. Give the readers more reasons to check you out and revisit those descriptions from time to time to try out fresh ad copy.

Tip #2: Update old books.

I know it’s a pain, but after a new book comes out, go back and reload old books to update your calls to action. I used to give readers too many choices when they were done reading. Now I just send them to AllThatChazz.com and encourage them to subscribe for updates.

Tip #3: When something isn’t working, change it.

I realized I was getting behind in podcasting because I hate reading my own work aloud. I remember being called upon to read aloud in class in fifth grade and I don’t like it anymore now. (If you must read, don’t rush it like I did.)

It took me forever to get through reading a book I love when I turned on the microphone. Lesson learned: renew the All That Chazz podcast. Changing the format. Go back to my comedy roots.

Also, I’ll get voice over artists for my audiobooks. Podcasting is so much fun as long as I’m having fun. I’m back to that with the latest episode. Click below to hear some jokes.

Tip #4: Experiment

KDP Select came out with an advertising tool within Amazon that’s sort of like Google Adwords without all the bells and whistles. The beta test of this new discovery tool did not go well and the changes since the beta run are not apparent to users.

So far, according to my totally unscientific survey of players in the know and my own testing with three campaigns, it’s not working…yet. It may not. However, it’s CPC (cost per click) so, it’s not like it’s a huge risk. It’ll either work or it won’t.

Opt in or opt out for your books within Select via your bookshelf. Don’t decide to avoid early adoption because your still angry about Kindle Unlimited. These are business experiments and business decisions.

By the way, not for nothing but once again, Amazon innovates and experiments while the other platforms watch and wait for…something.

UPDATE: So far, a lot of impressions but no clicks. I imagine an underground marketing bunker on high alert far below Amazon. The accounting and IT departments are running in circles like they’re at Defcon 2 and they’re screaming at each other, “Figure it out! Figure it out! Why is this so much worse than Adwords?”

The experiment continues.

Tip #5: Tweak pricing

If you go through Draft2Digital, for instance, notice from your pricing dashboard that you can manage pricing for individual territories. The automatic pricing tool is based on the US dollar.

I fiddle with pricing a bit. For instance, the book price they set for India is always high. The figure you see on Amazon that is commensurate with the US dollar exchange could buy you three books in India. Also, when I see an odd number, say $4.11, I change it to $4.25 or 3.99. If I see a price where I’m also charged the VAT, I bump up the price a bit more to cover the VAT in that territory. People are used to prices that end in .99 or .25, .50, or .75. Odd numbers look too odd.

Tip #6: Perspective.

I won an honorable mention from Writer’s Digest for the This Plague of Days Omnibus. This is my eighth writing award, but the truth is that, sadly, these awards don’t really matter much.

The win did boost my sales of the Omnibus a bit. However, unless you win first prize, it’s not going to change your life (and not even then.) I’m happy to win an honorable mention. Also, the judge said nice things about TPOD I used for a strong editorial review. I got $50 worth of WD books that cost me $30 to ship so that puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?

Entering the contest cost $100, so I hope the prestige pays off in the long-term. I’m leveraging the happy as much as possible. The book is up forever so that balances out the expense somewhat, but the usefulness of the recognition is an unknown value. I don’t know how to solve for x in this case.

Tip #7: Productivity

If you missed last night’s podcast with Mat Morris, it was fun and informative. For instance, Mat talked about what he has learned from an app called Rescue Time and I’m a new disciple of that software. You can watch that episode of the Self-publishing Roundtable here.

Good tips amongst the hilarity, though sadly you missed my Sean Connery impression in the after-party. Tune in every Thursday night at 10 PM EST.

Tip #8: From to-do until to-done

Since the beginning of January I’ve added an old-school method of tracking my work, daily sales and expenses. I mark it all on a paper calendar. I don’t write down what I will do. I write down what I’ve accomplished at the end of the day. (And now I’m adding metrics from Rescue Time).

That which is not measured will not be changed, so word counts are of prime importance. You can use your project targets and stats in Scrivener to keep on track, too. It feels good to fill up that calendar each day and it tells me when I’ve gone off the rails.

Coming soon! Get The Haunting Lessons now so you’re ready for Book 2! THL is about a young woman from Iowa trying to stop Armageddon while dodging ghosts, demons, a bad doctor and a dead boyfriend. Come to New York. Join the Choir Invisible. Fight for the future.

Tip #9: Reassess

This Plague of Days is by far my flagship, but I have other books that sell well on Amazon. As long as that continues, I’m still exclusive to KDP Select with those products. I take note of the books that aren’t moving. That’s when I give the other sales platforms a chance at selling my brain babies.

On Amazon, my branding is diffuse. On Kobo, I appear to be a crime novelist and only a crime novelist. I’m told thrillers can move on Kobo. We’ll see, but I do like that my brand is more focussed on other platforms.

Tip #10: Consider teaming up

I am collaborating with three authors on three separate projects this year in addition to my own lonely and solitary writing. If you find the right partners, you can divide the work and multiply effort and resources.

Keeping up with their pace on Google Drive is motivating. I often write faster by the power of pure excitement. I don’t want to let my writing partners down, so guilt works, too.

~ I hope you found one of these suggestions helpful. Find out about deals, review copies and advanced review copies first by subscribing for updates at AllThatChazz.com. In the new podcast, I do terrible, terrible, entertaining things.

Filed under: author platform, advertising, All That Chazz, allthatchazz.com, Amazon, Chazz, death lessons, ebook awards, ebooks, Haunting Lessons, holly pop, KDP, KDP Select, Podcast, publishing, Robert Chazz Chute, This Plague of Days, Top 10, Top Ten, WD, writer, Writer's Digest, writing, writing awards, writing contest

01/17/2015 • 4:45 PM 0

Publishing: The Next Evolution is…

Get a review copy for subscribing! Click this cover, go to AllThatChazz.com and subscribe for updates from Ex Parte Press. Subscribers get a complimentary ebook through Amazon. It’s Holly’s new novella, What Angels Dread, a forboding ghost story about a young actress away at college for the first time. Evil is lurking. It might even be stalking you, too.

One of the myths of independent publishing is that we go it alone. We don’t. Indie authors outsource and trade skills, collaborate, cross-promote and form partnerships. The next evolution is to form collectives and networks.

To expand our reach and range of projects, we need to think about how our varies skill sets can fit together. For instance:

♦ This summer I’ll be in a non-fiction self-help project with multiple writers. That project is headed up by my friend Shermin Kruse, author of Butterfly Stitching. Shermin is an ambitious, connected person determined to make the world a better place by organizing a team. I was shy about working with her, but who could say no to working with such heavy hitters?

♦ I’m writing a new series with a popular author. We both wanted to create another brand that was more focused. Our aspirations fit nicely, 50/50. That series will be under a new pen name for both of us. It’s exciting to experiment, and I’m finding two authors working together multiplies the energy and output. That’s a good thing, too, since we don’t plan to release any books until we have a trilogy.

♦ I just met another author with whom I hope to co-create new podcast episodes as I shift the focus of the All That Chazz podcast. (More on that another time.)

♦ I’m also co-creating the Ghosts and Demons Series with Holly Papandreas, author of Ouija: Based on a True Story.

Check out the Top 100 Kindle Short from my coauthor Holly Pop.

The first book in that dark fantasy series is The Haunting Lessons. How that partnership came to be is explained at the back of the book, but the short version is, we can all do more by helping each other out, filling holes in each other’s game plan. (Hint: not everyone who writes wants to face all the complexities of publishing, even though they don’t want to find a traditional publisher, either.)

Cool cover, huh? The story is a fast-paced adventure about a girl from Iowa who, following a tragedy, discovers she has supernatural powers that lead her into more and more trouble, like swordplay, dangerous weirdness and inter-dimensional warfare.

As we face the uncertainties of the book publishing industry, remain calm and carry on. If you’re one of us, you’re going to write no matter what, whether you sell a bunch of books or very few. Relax and enjoy the writing process. There have always been ups and down in writing books and there always will be. You are not alone in your worries and aspirations.

Being a writer can be a lonely business, but it doesn’t have to be. We are not alone. We have each other.

Filed under: author platform, All That Chazz, allthatchazz.com, author marketing, Butterfly Stitching, dark fantasy, holly pop, Podcast, Robert Chazz Chute, Shermin Kruse, The Haunting Lessons, What Angels Dread, writing partnerships

01/15/2015 • 3:56 PM 0

Self-publishing Roundtable Podcast tonight!

Tonight, January 15th 2015, at 10 PM EST, tune in to the Self-publishing Roundtable. I’m a guest and we’ll be talking about KU, new strategies and what the future holds for us in 2015. It’s interactive so you can chime in in the chat.

Here it is on Google+.

The podcast is all about independent authors helping independent authors. Please do drop in. I’ll be opening up about my approach to the obstacles ahead, what doesn’t work for me and what’s helpful.

Cheers!

~ Chazz

Check out my collaboration with Holly Pop. It’s a little This Plague of Days and a little Buffy. Enjoy!

Filed under: author platform, Buffy, dark fantasy, Haunting Lessons, holly pop, horror, Robert Chazz Chute, This Plague of Days

12/23/2014 • 1:16 AM 3

Sanity: Another reason to write more books

Do you ever feel like you’re reaching for success and someone is slapping your hand? Does every Monday feel like Thwart Day?

I just had one of those days that drains energy. I read a review from a guy who apparently thinks I believe in the supernatural because I often write about it. (Fiction, people! Fiction!) A cop stopped me today. He was unnecessarily dickish. That put me in a dark mood. I haven’t been feeling great so I had to go for some medical tests. A nurse was in a panic over my paperwork and apparently trying to panic me, too. I’ve got a big birthday coming up which I’m not excited about. I feel pressure. Sometimes, despite my big plans, it seems time is running out and the news for indie authors seems to be all whoa and woe at the moment.

**Therefore, it’s not time to give up.**

It’s time to put the hammer down (because I was thinking of doing terrible things with that hammer) and remember what’s working. To review:

I got this letter today:

“This Plague of Days, Omnibus Edition was awarded an Honorable Mention for Writer’s Digest’s Self-Published e-Book Awards in Genre.”

Whoo. Also? Hoo!

Check out the Top 100 Kindle Short from my coauthor Holly Pop

I’m collaborating with several authors and a publisher in 2015. The first was Holly (Pop) Papandreas, author of Ouija.

We wrote The Haunting Lessons. In this fun and dark fantasy, a girl from Iowa discovers she has amazing capabilities. The world is a richer and more dangerous place than she ever imagined. Parts of it may remind you of This Plague of Days, but the tone is lighter and the pace is lightning quick. Don’t miss out on 81 lessons to survive Armageddon. I like you and I want you to live.

Just released for Christmas reading!

My friend and author of Butterfly Stitching, Sher Kruse, has invited me to participate in a non-fiction anthology.

More on that in 2015.

I’ll be contributing to a horror anthology for a publisher and working with another author friend of mine on a secret book project to take paranormal readers by storm. I also have big plans for several books in the Ghosts and Demons Series, a big standalone book and more Hit Man books.

It’s been a big building year for me. I put together six books in 2014, so Mom and Dad will have to take back those accusations that I’m too lazy to live.

It’s so fun and gritty and fast, I’m very happy with Hollywood Jesus, the third adventure in the Hit Man Series. The John Leguizamo joke alone makes it for me!

“Perhaps the most underrated crime novel of all time.” ~ Robert Chazz Chute

And, maybe best of all, I wrote my criminal autobiography!

That’s one adorable bear holding that bloody knife.

And I’m part of the Horror Within Box Set with some very heavy hitters in horror fiction.

In other words, it’s been a productive year. It seems I have a lot to live for, after all. I can’t wait to get more of my ebooks into print, too. So stay busy. It will keep you out of trouble. Works for me. When you’re feeling down, write another book. That’s what I do. I’m all nerves a lot of the time, obviously. Writing soothes me and keep me from acting on impulses to hammer things.

Writing works that way for many people. Writing or reading, I hope you find escape, as I do, in imagination.
Merry Christmas.

If you had mixed feelings about 2014, let’s make 2015 better, hm?

Filed under: author platform, Horror, publishing, Writers, writing tips, based on a true story, bizarre themes, books, box set, box sets, Butterfly Stitching, Christmas, Christmas gifts, crime novels, dark fantasy, ebooks, holly pop, hollywood jesus, horror, Horror Within, intense viiolence, John Leguizamo, leguizamo joke, merry Christmas, Novella, Ouija, Robert Chazz Chute, Shermin Kruse, the writing life, This Plague of Days, writers, writing

12/16/2014 • 11:12 PM 7

What’s the right price for a book?

When discussing book marketing, writers often debate free versus cheap versus charging what a book is worth. “What a book is worth” can be a moving target, depending on who you ask and when. Here are some factors to consider:

1. Length of the book.

My friend and co-author, Holly Pop, wrote a novella, Ouija: Based on a True Story. It charted at 99 cents, but since going up to $2.99, it’s still charting and doing well. Short doesn’t have to mean 99 cents. It’s around 8,000 words and people still want it. Pick it up. It’s really compelling.

2. Genre.

Some genres, like epic fantasy or historical romance, seem to have readers who expect higher word counts. They often want more than 100,000 words.

I think many readers are becoming less sensitive to word count. That’s good. What should matter to us, as readers and writers, is providing value for money. My books are getting shorter. I start looking for the exit around 50,000 words and I generally find it north of 60,000 words. Still a good-sized book that doesn’t feel to the reader like it’s full of shortcuts. Consider that a lot of people are grooving on shorter, fast-paced books, too. They don’t feel they have time for very long books. (I think that trend will continue.)

3. Intent and timing.

Is this book a loss leader? Is it meant to be an introduction and sales funnel for a series? You might put it at perma-free or you might decide to offer an introductory price of 99 cents. You might also choose to put it at whatever you consider full price and hold a sale once in a while to move more books (and include a call to action to your other, similar, books.) You might even just write the bloody book, slap on the price you think is fair, never drop the price ever. You might start high and slowly drop (the traditional approach) or you might start low to get more attention and reviews and slowly raise the price.

4. Is it time to reevaluate your book prices?

Here’s my little case study:

I had the first Season of This Plague of Days set at 99 cents for a long time. I don’t personally like that price — not much sense having a pulse sale on a 99 cent book — but it got people looking at it who might have passed me by otherwise. It’s at 100 reviews now and more people are opting for the This Plague of Days, Omnibus Edition (greater value for the price and it contains all three books for an epic saga many compare favorably to The Stand.) All things considered, time to assert worth, right?

I put the price up to $3.99 today. According to Amazon’s price estimation tool, I should be charging $5.99 for a revenue increase of 451% and a drop in unit sales by half. However, Season One is the first in the series and the other books are also $3.99 each (while the TPOD Omnibus is at $6.99 and around 300,000 words.) No reasonable reader could say I’m trying to gouge them by keeping the price to $3.99. Arguably, I priced the first book in the series too low for too long. In the long-term, price should reflect value, but value is not the lone factor.

5. You.

Another consideration when setting prices is your sensibility and your confidence in the value of your product. Do you feel you’re well-known enough to set a higher price or are you still stuck enticing them with a low price? (Note: that strategy may well be deep in the Law of Diminishing Returns since competing on price is far less effective now.)

Also: Is the quality high? Do the reviews back that up for someone happening across your author page for the first time? Are you marketing your work well? What does “full price” mean to you, anyway? If you get a complaint about a price point, comparing it unfavorably to a low word count, for instance, will that send you reeling into a rage and/or depression?

Here’s one thing you don’t have to worry about: history.

If you priced a book too low or too high, you can always change it. You can experiment with price until you find the price that moves books effectively but still pays. Some writers worry that readers will complain about cost, comparing it to what it has been priced in the past. That’s rare. If I hadn’t just given you the history of a couple of my book prices, how many of you would really know what I charged yesterday? A few to none. Feel free to experiment.

6. Don’t discount free unnecessarily, either.

The truth is this: I think my crime novels rock. The Hit Man Series is a fun and funny romp with some serious power and punch behind it. (My fave is Hollywood Jesus, for the John Leguizamo joke alone.) However, it’s one of those best kept secrets that needs to get out there and mingle. I’m not seeing enough movement nor enough reviews on those titles. To get more readers to take a chance on my funny Cuban hit man, Jesus Diaz, I’m going to make the first novel in the series perma-free or at least tempo-free. Bigger Than Jesus is already on Kobo for free and I’m hoping Amazon will price match soon.

(Let Amazon know it’s free on Kobo here.)

If a series isn’t moving the way it should, consider doing a giveaway so you draw more readers into the fold. It’s not necessarily that your book series is ugly. It could be that Book #1 hasn’t gone on enough dates yet. Those who know it, love it, so eventually, everybody is going to love Jesus.

7. Stay flexible.

It may take a lot of experimentation and experience before you find the price move that’s right for you. Then you’ll have the same journey of discovery when you publish the next book, too. I’m on that journey, still experimenting. I don’t think that experimentation ever really stops. It’s just forgotten for a while until we figure it’s time to reassess sales and marketing and pricing again.

~ Robert Chazz Chute will publish his next novel (with co-author Holly Pop) later this week. It’s called The Haunting Lessons, an urban fantasy about a young woman from Iowa who, when tragedy strikes, discovers she has powers she never suspected. It’s the beginning of a fun series packed with jokes and disaster. If you want to join the fight and survive Armageddon, look for it on Amazon this weekend.