Rebelious rules by Kristina Gallo

Before three years I gave a lot of free books. I don't remember the number, maybe over 100. Did you guess how many reviews I got? About ten, not more. Also, some of my reviews were deleted by Amazon. The reason was: "there is no track of the book." What does it mean? When you see a mark above the review, that says "verified purchase", it means that your reader bought a book or got it with Kindle Unlimited. If your reader is outside of the USA, his review will appear also in one of the Amazon countries (16 in total), depending on which state he is in. Mostly my readers are from the UK, Canada, Australia, Germany.  When you ask for a review, as an author, you will offer ARC copy. That is a double-cross because you don't know will you get a review. If your reader is buying your book, it means you will probably get a review sooner or later.  Why is a verified purchase important? Amazon will not delete your review if this is a verified review. You are giving resp...

  Today I am featuring awesome author Ben Christian. I read his book "Deep wounds". It was the first time I read Christian's thriller. Ben was born and raised in the small and quiet town of Silsbee, Texas. Crunching numbers by day as a formally trained accountant, Ben has written several short stories through the years and has begun fulfilling his lifelong interest in storytelling through adrenaline-filled novels based upon people that you know and see every day.  He firmly believes that behind every smile, every laugh, and every tear, there is a story. Understanding the power of passion and will, Ben applies this philosophy to his own aspirations, believing that anything is possible with faith. When not behind the pen, Ben is an avid car fanatic and enjoys attending car shows/races with his wife, traveling to new places, and enjoying new life experiences that can be incorporated into his work. His Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Ben-Christian/e/B084TWWD7V/ref=dp_byli...

What do you expect from the internet? Is it a place where you will meet the love of your life or earn money? Or do you just want to have fun or talk to someone, because you are feeling lonely? If you promote yourself on social media, one of your basic problems or obstacles is people who are following and unfollowing you. This is an unhealthy balance and fake support because one day your number of followers is lower when you realize some of them were unfollowing you. It is especially visible on Instagram. As someone who has an Instagram account, my number of followers is decreasing and increasing, depending on the circumstances. Why your followers are unfollowing you? Ego burst. They think they are famous, good-looking, and rich and you are not their match. Sad, but true, many people on Instagram do that to make others feel important in the eyes of the public. Expectations. People expect you will give them your free time, to pay attention to them, talk or open the camera. When this does...

Someone bought your book? You got a review? This is excellent news. But, always there is some catch in having potential fans. I am happy when I can deal with normal people, who will buy and read my books, without asking for something extra from me. After all, I am not Agatha Christie, I am not rich and I can't donate my money. It was a guy in Goodreads who liked my profile photos and left a review on my book. Then he started to send messages asking for my private life. I cut this off. He deleted his review, disappointed in his treatment. I was in a position of the reader too and I was never interested in a sort of private communication with some handsome, male author. We can joke and exchange our writing experiences, but to annoy someone is a different point of view.  Often on Instagram, I met some guys who pretend they're interested in my book and then start with their "how are you? do you have a husband?" questions. Or, they ask where to find my books even I clearly...

You wrote a book. Today is publishing day. Impatiently waiting, nervously expecting a miracle, every writer will watch his Kindle report. He will check every ten minutes if is there a noted sale.  How many sold books do you expect this month? Ten? Hundred? Thousand? Every indie author is faced with obstacles to book sales. Here are 7 kinds of obstacles: Competition. It means millions of other authors who want to reach the same score as you. Why should buyers buy your book? What makes you different from others? Tax system. Believe it or not, some countries have an impossible tax system for indie authors. They have no contract to avoid double taxes so guess who will get a smaller profit because of this law regulation? The indie author will pay 30% of his profit if he lives in a country with bad financial laws. Trolls. Negative people will try to ruin your sale with bad ratings or reviews, but unless the book is not rated with a mark of 3.00 incomplete rating, it will not affect the s...

If you are an indie author, you will do everything alone. Writing a book is an easier part. You will do promotion, editing, marketing, choosing cover creators, and your editor for a final manuscript. Indie authors are aware of this so they do the best they can to look professional.  There are some exceptions, those are people who are just starting or they are naturally egoistic so they think everyone will listen to their demands. What kind of mistakes do indie authors do in approaching their audience? Send private messages to unknown people.  Tag unknown people with their book links. They post above-pinned tweets of other authors their book links. They post under other authors' links their book links. Underestimate other authors, trying to make laugh at their work. Selling a book means you need to find a market. If you are lecturing others, you will not be popular. If you try to use others, it will come back to you. Here are three tricks that some indie authors use: Fake promi...

  I have a long TBR list. I made it by myself, nobody pushed me, even some people tried :) The point is, I support some people.  I support books I like, these deserve my attention. If I don't like a book, I will not review it. Recently I saw Goodreads deleted my 10 ratings. Even though I don't prefer Goodreads, I support this decision because ratings come from people who did not read my books. That leads me to the question: Why do some people rate books automatically, even if they did not read them? Do you think you are helping authors? No, you are spamming. I saw three profiles on Goodreads who did it around. My 12 books got a 5-star rating without explanation.  I feel the same as they got 1 star. Because I click on these profiles, I saw they rated over a thousand books with 5 stars, again, without explanations. I understand not everyone is a book lover. Some people want to seek attention, claiming they are reading books. They want to be present in the author's world....