Where is the time going? It’s already getting close to the middle of October!
I finally finished edits on Soul of a Vampire. Everything is almost ready. I say almost because I always let my mom have a go at my manuscript before publishing. She’s caught things that NO ONE else has. She doesn’t see very well, so I still can’t figure out how she does it. LOL. Also, I think Anya had a couple of questions, so I need to get those from her. So it’s almost time. Publishing should happen this week or the beginning of next week. Once again, I have something going on to distract me from writing stuff. Our church congregation does a little dinner and program for our senior citizens every year, and I’m part of the entertainment. So there’s practicing, rehearsing, then the real thing. I hope I can find a really being pair of overalls. Got you curious now, haven’t I?
So what do the rest of you think of the Author Rank thing going on at Amazon?
lauralynnelliott.com 
Apparently I’ve been living in a hole. What Author Rank thing?
I saw someone mention Author Rank the other day. Today I had an email from Amazon about it. They are now ranking authors, not just books. You can check your rank on Author Central. There’s a tab up at the top for it. My rank has gone down steadily for the last few days. I’m like 9,000 or something out of all authors. On the bright side, they said I was 216 in romantic suspense. LOL. I’m not sure this is necessarily a good thing. Just more pressure, IMO. You’re supposed to be able to see other author’s rankings, but I haven’t found that yet.
Oh I forgot to send you the notes! I’ll do that today. And yes everyone needs to know what the overalls are for. 😉
So many of my online friends are younger than me, so I don’t know if they would remember Hee Haw or Junior Samples. LOL
I know about it and I’m younger. 😉 Maybe you should find a video clip and post it.
I might do that tomorrow. LOL
About the Author Ranking thing…I mostly feel neutral about it, but something I don’t like about any sort of ranking is that it turns an art form into a popularity contest. Obviously, Amazon gets some benefit from it, but does it front load reader choices to the top of the heap and steer them away from trying something that is off the beaten path? It seems like “bandwagon” marketing. Lots of hipsters pride themselves on listening to music from obscure bands and shy away from Top 40 fare while the masses are easily spoonfed from a limited, heavily promoted list. How does ranking authors affect consumer choices in books?
It’s not fair, IMO, because it takes the authors that are ALREADY popular and puts them before the public and doesn’t give authors who are just starting out a chance. Some of these lesser known authors are BETTER than the higher ranking ones. You can bet I won’t use the ranking to determine what I read. I’m not so sure even book ranking is a good idea, either. I got so excited when Guardian Vampire got up to 134 at Amazon. But, really, I don’t look at a book’s ranking to determine whether or not to buy it. It just means a bunch of people bought it…but have they read it? Do they like it? Would I like it? Ranking won’t tell me that.
You’re almost there now! I had no idea about the author ranking apart from what I’m reading in the comments above.
Getting closer, Emma. I have to see what my mom says. LOL
I think I’m going to ignore the whole ranking thing. I judge a book by the sample. 🙂
Congrats on finishing revisions!
I don’t like the idea of author ranking. You can guess where I probably am on it. I don’t even want to know mine.
Thanks, Jennette!
I don’t like it, either. Bleh.
I’m excited for Soul of a Vampire to get out there. 🙂
Just like the Klout score thing, I’m not in favor of author rankings — actually, I’m not in favor of bothering to check my author ranking. Obviously, it will not be good. But that says nothing about my potential. So, I believe for many authors it will be another distraction, and another metric to obsess over…and that’s not what’s going to result in a long and productive (and happy!) writing career. In terms of its effects, I bet it is good for authors with really great rankings (like top 500 or top 1000), but won’t have any impact for authors outside that. Other things, like cover and description, will just far outweigh it.
Thanks, J.R.! 🙂
I agree. I don’t see an upside for anyone here. About that Klout score. I was followed by someone on Twitter and I went to check on their tweets (I always do before following). All of the most recent tweets were about Klout scores and what he had given different people. No interesting tweets about the person’s life or nothing funny or worth reading. I just don’t think people get what Twitter is for. 😦
I remember ‘Hee-Haw’ it was on every sunday after ‘The Muppet Show’, and I’m not that old. Well at least I don’t act that old. Wait, am I old now? Heh, I just watched the new Muppet Movie the other day so I don’t feel old. But anyway, I remember that show, the one line jokes and country music and a cornfield, that’s all I remember, but I think I liked it. I was young, and in Germany so not a lot on TV plus there’s only one American channel, I might have just liked it becuase it was the only thing on.
As for the ranking, I didn’t get an email about it that I know of (maybe I’m unrankable). I never look at that stuff when perusing for a new novel to buy, I look at the reader comments. I trust the readers more than sales numbers.
Still waiting for that next book of yours, waiting, foot tapping, impatiently sighing…
They still have reruns on Sunday nights. Hubby and I watch it for laughs sometimes, but we fast forward pass the music (we love our DVR). I’m going to play Junior Samples in a skit. And we are all going to do those one-liners in the cornfield. It’s going to be fun for the oldsters. 🙂
I would have thought all the Amazon authors would get that email Do you have an Author Central page on Amazon?
The book will come soon, I promise. I hope everyone likes it. My beta readers did. 🙂
Looking forward to when the book is out! 😀
I remember Hee-Haw from when I was a kid. It sounds like a lot of fun to do something like that.
I got the email about Amazon ranking authors and figure it’s something that will hurt my visibility and other self-published authors’ visibility somehow. I try not to think about what’s going on over there. I’ll never be able to write my next book if I do. I keep telling myself that there are jobs outside the home. If I have to, I’ll find one. I’d keep writing, even if it’s at a slower pace. You can’t separate the writer from their books. 🙂
Thanks, Ruth! Hopefully, soon.
I used to watch Hee Haw all the time when I was a kid. It’s SO corny.
I think we should just keep writing and forget all the reviews, the rankings, all the stuff that gets in the way. I just told my husband yesterday, if Soul of a Vampire doesn’t do well, I might just stop pursuing this career. Book sales suck like a big vacuum cleaner right now. I don’t know if it’s just me or if it’s everyone’s sales. But then I think about how much I love this and would love for it to be my career someday, and I want to just keep on going.
From what I’ve heard and from my experience, sales are dropping for a lot of authors. So it’s not just you. I can’t say this is just a September/October thing because in the past, I don’t recall sales falling so much for me and others I’ve talked to. Something’s going on.
I think a lot of it is more and more competition as everyone can publish now. Everyone always says just write a good book and readers will find it, and stop worrying so much about marketing. I’m beginning to think that might not be true anymore. It may take some marketing to get our names out there.
I agree. It was a lot easier back in late 2009 when I started gaining momentum because so few people were self-publishing, and all you really needed was a good story with a low price. I’m still trying to figure out what the effective method is, and all I keep coming up with a free book with a nice backlist so people will go on to buy other books and interact with people. And even after your name is out there, you still have to worry about attracting new people. I could publish a new book and see a significant rise in sales for two months on all of my books. Now I see a bump but it’s not the same. I have six new books out this year, and I’m breaking even with what I did last year. I think it’s time I got more involved on Twitter and Facebook again. I’ve been neglecting those. I’m not sure I want to get involved on forums since it’s hard to focus on writing when the discussions pull me in. 😀
Yay, congrats on finishing up the edits! That’s a huge accomplishment.
I’ve been hearing rumblings about the Amazon author ranking, but I think Chuck Wendig had the best advice on Twitter today–to keep writing, and to ignore the whole ranking business (I am, of course, paraphrasing). But I haven’t read up on the whole system to form a full opinion yet.
Hope you have a great rest of the week, Lauralynn!
Thanks, Lena! I’m ignoring the ranking and just writing. That’s what will be best, I think.
I hope you also have a great week. Happy writing!
I haven’t heard a lot about the author rank thing, but to me it just seems like another silly thing for authors to obsess over; doesn’t look particularly useful though. Great work getting your edits done, it must be a great feeling to be so close to publishing. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly the rest of the way 🙂
I agree, and that’s why I’ve decided I’m not going to worry about it.
Thanks. I’m SO ready to publish this book. It seems like this one has taken forever! LOL
Best of luck with the upcoming publication – hope everything goes smoothly!
Thanks, I hope so, too. 🙂