C Gockel Writes

The “Lost Email”

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This email disappeared when my new email sender went on the fritz. I’ve posted it here for posterity.

Android General 1. Archangel Seven.

A Name Change and Two Bits of Good News

So, it turns out that the word “Droid” is trademarked by Lucasfilm, and they protect their trademarks fiercely. A friend pointed it out on Facebook when I mentioned progress on my next book, which at that time was a name that could have gotten me into serious trouble.   You may say to yourself, “Was Star Wars really where the term ‘droid’ originated?” No. It originated in a short story by Mari Wolf titled Robots of the World! Arise! written in 1952. But to the one with the most expensive lawyers go the spoils.  (Jokes about evil empires practically write themselves here.)   I had to go back through Darkness Rising and The Defiant and change all instances of the word. I also had to do an emergency cover modification Book 7. I hope at most I only get a cease and desist. I have ceased and desisted, but some of you may be looking for a different title for book seven. Archangel Project Book Seven is now Android General 1. 

Let’s move onto some good news. The Defiant broke even less than two weeks after release! I hope you enjoyed it. I loved writing 6T9, Volka, and Carl of course, but I also loved writing Alexis’s tricky mind–the tricks it plays are mostly on her, of course. She is so clever, but also so broken. I know a few readers have written to tell me that they are now rooting for Alexis and Alaric, and I’m glad of that. 

I love writing–and probably always will–but I could not continue to publish without fans buying my work. I appreciate your support, and am honored that you want to spend time in my day dreams.

I am almost done with the rough draft of Android General 1. I have just a little bit of the last two scenes to write, and then I have to wade through the rewrites. I actually like cleaning up the rough draft–finding plot holes, figuring how to fix them, and expounding on things that should be clearer. That part is a fun puzzle. It’s the comma catching that I do not like. I do not like it at all. 

Starship Waking

More good news! Starship Waking has 35 Reviews

Reviews on Starship are especially important because it is a series starter. At a certain number of reviews, the big advertisers start paying attention. If you review just one book, reviewing this would be the most helpful. 

If you could leave a note at Amazon US, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Nook, Kobo, iBooks, or GooglePlay it would be most appreciated. Audible reviews are great, too!

Thank you so much to everyone who has read it and reviewed it already! 

All the Other Stuff 

I am almost done with the rough draft of Android General 1. I have just a little bit of the last two scenes to write, and then I have to wade through the rewrites. I actually like cleaning up the rough draft–finding plot holes, figuring how to fix them, and expounding on things that should be clearer. That part is a fun puzzle. It’s the comma catching that I do not like. I do not like it at all. 

Internet Memes are Stupid … the love story of Hannah and Martin Van Buren

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Martin Van Buren, 8th president of the United States wrote an 800 page autobiography, but didn’t mention his wife even once.

Ah, yes, ye Olde Misogyny, but was it really?

Hannah and Martin Van Buren were born in the same tiny community of Kinderhook, New York. They were, in fact, cousins, but they didn’t know then about genetics and the dangers of inbreeding. As cousins, they probably knew each other almost from the time of Hannah’s birth–a year after Martin’s. According to accounts by their contemporaries, they fell in love as children.

By the time he was fourteen, Martin had said he would marry Hannah but couldn’t until he had a way to support her. Martin was of modest means. His father was a farmer and tavern keeper with eight children and a wife to support. Martin left school at 14 and accepted the only gift his father could procure for him through his tavern connection: a job as a law clerk in far off New York City.

Law Clerk perhaps sounds more important than it was. He was an apprentice and basically a go-fer: he swept up the office and kept it clean, delivered messages, and filed papers. It paid next to nothing, but it gave him access to books of law. By night Martin hit those books. It took seven years, but by the time he was 21 Martin had passed the bar.

He could have stayed in New York, instead he went back to Kinderhook. and Hannah. He still had no money, but was able to open up a law firm with his half brother. They distinguished themselves by representing poor clients.

It took four more years to build up the business. He didn’t marry Hannah until she was 24 and he was 25–a little more than a decade after he had declared his intentions. Either one of them might have married someone else in the meantime, and certainly Martin, after establishing his firm, could have married someone else.

Hannah Van Buren

As Martin rose in prominence, Hannah hosted dinner parties for clients and contacts. She was sociable and lively, and their guests described their marriage as a happy one. Hannah and Martin were both of Dutch descent, and in fact, Dutch was Hannah’s first language. She never lost her Dutch accent. In public, Martin referred to her by a nickname he’d given her: “Jannetje”–Dutch for Hannah.

Despite being a woman of means, Hannah, like Martin, believed in service to the poor. Through her church she participated in many charitable causes, and was known for actually going to the homes of the poor and mingling with them. This wasn’t done by the other fashionable ladies at the time.

Together they had six children, though one died. It was during her pregnancy with the last that Hannah contracted tuberculosis. She managed to deliver the baby successfully, but the pregnancy and delivery weakened her. She died at the age of 35–18 years before Mr. Van Buren became President Van Buren.

It was fashionable at the time for pallbearers to be bought matching scarves. Mrs. Van Buren had requested that the money for those scarves be donated to charity to help the poor. Mr. Van Buren honored her dying request…

…And then he never mentioned her name again. Not to his children, not in his autobiography. When his son wanted to name a daughter after his mother, he had to confirm his mother’s name–perhaps because he remembered his father referring to her as Jannetje, yet the tombstone saying she was Hannah.

Martin also never remarried.

Van Buren built his entire early career around his Jannetje. They had shared convictions, and were in each other’s lives 35 years.

At the time they married, the woman’s vows included the words, “obey.” Did he blame himself for her death? Did he wonder over and over if he had just put his foot down and made her stop her charitable adventures she would she not have contracted TB? (TB loves the overcrowded, grimy, malnourished conditions of poverty. And it is often contracted by people who have weakened immune systems–who suffer from diseases like HIV, or malnutrition, or are pregnant.)

We can only speculate, but it seems he never recovered from her death.

Making the USA TODAY LIST–What I did wrong, and somethings I did right.

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I made the Bestseller list, thanks in no small part, to the support of kboards. I had no idea it was even a possibility. Posts like this one showed me the way: https://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,214032.0.html

So this is just my addition to the well of knowledge that I hope gives me good karma!

I want to start with the things I did wrong.

First: Facebook advertising without a plan or a clue! I spent $907 on Facebook ads–and received at most 610 sales from them. I could have sold more for less money if I’d done these things:

  • Dropped price four days before sale (I did this anyway, worried about fighting Nook support over the weekend) -> Started Facebook Campaign with $5/day per vendor to get an idea what worked on what vendors.
  • Had affiliate codes for each vendor (that worked in Facebook ads–my Viglink links didn’t work, not sure if Viglink links don’t work, or if Nook doesn’t like me) to recoup more costs and tracked ads effectiveness.
  • Spent Facebook money steadily and consistently over the course of the sale. An explanation: Facebook tries first to spend all your money for the day and second to get you the best cost-per-click. If you have less money to spend, it is going to be reaching for higher quality leads to give you the best bang-for-your buck. If you have more money to spend it is going to have to advertise to lower quality leads in order to exhaust your funds.

Second: panicking about Nook sales before BookBub/eBookbutterfly. If you look at my advertiser list you’ll see that I used a lot of advertisers that promote books on all vendors before my Thursday when ‘Bub hit. (BookBarbarian, ReadCheaply, ManyBooks, ReadingDeals, MyBookCave, ENT, BargainBooksy, Ebookhounds, SweetFreeBooks, Riffle, Fussy). Nonetheless, I only had about 99 sales on Nook by EOD Wednesday. The two BEST advertisers for non-Amazon sites are BookBub and Butterfly, but Butterfly’s posts don’t go out until afternoon/evening … so my Wednesday sales were low.

Third: Having a 99-cent sale on my box set when I first released it. I didn’t release Archangel Down at 99-cents, and probably should have, as it was a new series in a new genre. (That could be its own post!) Feeling guilty, I released the box set at 99-cents and sent out a note to my mailing list and mentioned it on FB. I got over 100 sales–mostly fans buying the set for friends. I should have released it quietly without fanfare, sent a note to my ARC readers for some reviews, and only told my fans during my sale.

Fourth: Not being completely informed to start. I didn’t know USA Today List sales are counted from Monday to Sunday evening. (I thought it was Sunday to Saturday — but that’s the NYTimes List.) I didn’t know I’d need 500 sales on Nook at least.

Fifth: Not working with the vendors. If I had really planned it well, I could have contacted Nook, iBooks, and Kobo and tried to get their help with promotions by being featured in Kobo First, Nook Next, and/or an iBooks editorial selection.

Here are the things I think I did right (and some things that were pure luck!)

First: I think my advertiser line-up was pretty good.

Second: Starting advertisements three days before the BookBub. This wouldn’t have worked if my sales was on, say Monday (so there is the luck of it!) … but it helped me rank higher on the day of my Bub. I started out that day at a rank of 339–I didn’t have as far to go to reach #16. Also, Amazon really rewards consistency above discounts “spikes.” I had friends who sold more on Amazon the days of their sales and not ranked so high.

Three: ebookButterfly This relates to the first two points above. eBookButterfly promotes your sale on a lot of various blogs over the course of several days. The spike isn’t as high, but I’ve always seen a steady stream of sales from them that gradually diminish over the course of a few days. It’s great for rankings.

Fourth: Promoting my permafree if an advertiser was booked or didn’t allow 99-cent sales. An example: KND owns BookGorilla, which is a pretty reliable advertiser. Gorilla was booked, so I used a KND $29 free day highlighter. This put my first in series on the KND Facebook Page and in front of the BookGorilla audience. I put a “Box Set on Sale” note on my permafree page on Amazon–I’m pretty sure this helped sales.

Fifth: Facebook. I didn’t do it well, but it was important. I’ve heard of people only hitting 250 sales with BookBub on Nook who’ve made up the difference with Facebook sales.

Sixth: New Promo Pictures on FB everyday. This kept my fans from getting bored, and allowed me to reach different audiences. I noticed guys preferred the promos with Loki, women preferred the Amy Promos.

And the last thing I did right …

POSTING ON KBOARDS and sharing the sale with all my author friends! I got sales here, but more importantly I got support. Everyone who shared my Facebook posts with their fans, or on their FB pages and blogs really helped me out! Also, I wouldn’t have had ANY Twitter presence whatsoever if writer friends hadn’t stepped up for me. I sucks at the Twitters (which is okay! We can’t all be dynamos everywhere.)

So, thank you, thank you, thank you everyone. I hope that you find this post and my first post useful and helps repay all your support in some small way … I don’t think I can repay you enough.