Video Games are Real

Category: Study (the world/the craft)

  • The Second Conducting: What is the Value of a Goodreads.com book giveaway? 84% had never heard of me. 34% plan on reading my books.

    The Second Conducting: What is the Value of a Goodreads.com book giveaway? 84% had never heard of me. 34% plan on reading my books.

    Does giving away your books lead to more readers, and in turn, more fans?

    A few weeks ago I conducted a pretty in-depth study regarding the effectiveness of a Goodreads.com book giveaway in which I found that 93% of entrants had never heard of me and 88% planned on reading my books. Couple that with 51% of entrants signing up for my email newsletter, and the giveaway was well worth the two books I sacrificed.

    Science must be repeatable, right? A couple of weeks ago I ended yet another giveaway.

    The Setup

    I listed a 2 copy giveaway for I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin to take place between 3/14/2012 and 3/31/2012. During this time the giveaway received a total of 378 entries. After the giveaway was closed for entries, I sent a 9 yes/no question questionnaire to 222 entrants. 156 entrants could not be sent the questionnaire, either because I know them personally or because they entered the previous giveaway. I figured sending to these 156 entrants might spoil the results. The questionnaire contained the following questions:

    • Had you heard of author Caleb J. Ross before this Goodreads.com giveaway?
    • Had you entered a Goodreads Giveaway for a Caleb J. Ross book before?
    • Had you heard of the book I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin before this Goodreads.com giveaway?
    • Do you intend to purchase I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin in the future?
    • Do you intend to read I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin in the future?
    • Do you intend to read any other books by author Caleb J. Ross?
    • Do you plan to connect with author Caleb J. Ross on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+?
    • If Caleb J. Ross were to visit your city/town for a reading, would you consider attending?
    • Did you answer these questions honestly?

    The Results of my Goodreads.com Giveaway

    • 84% of non-winning entrants had never heard of me before this contest. Translation: I’m speaking to an audience who might not otherwise have heard me. This is down from 93% from my initial giveaway. Am I becoming more popular among readers?
    • 86% of non-winning entrants had never heard of I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin before the contest.
    • 24% of non-winning entrants said they planned on purchasing the book, even though they didn’t win. This is a strange percentage when compared to the 8% of people who intend to read the book. This number is down significantly from the previous giveaway, I assume because of the addition of the “Not Sure” option into this recent questionnaire, which accounted for 67% of the entries.
    • 34% of non-winning entrants intend to read other books by me. This is a strong number, especially when compared to the 86% of entrants who had never even heard of me. Also, keep in mind the “Not Sure” option which made up 65% of responses.
    • 19% of non-winning respondents plan to connect with me on social networks. Not sure: 57%
    • 78% of non-winning respondents would come to a reading event if I were to visit their town. Not Sure: 19%

     Additional Results Not Included in the Chart Above

    • 62% of non-winning respondents signed up for my Email is Dead email newsletter (not included in the chart above). This is up from 51% from the previous giveaway. I credit a couple of things to this increase: 1) the newsletter purpose was spelled out more explicitly this time around. 2) I gave the questionnaire takers the choice of receiving newsletters for readers, one for authors, or one for both (as opposed to offering just a single non-descript newsletter option). Transparency about the content of these emails I feel made people more comfortable with signing up.
    • 26% of non-winning respondents left additional comments. New to this most recently giveaway, I included the option for the takers to provide feedback in a comments section. Generally speaking they were great comments, most of which I responded back to directly.
    • 31% of entrants for I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin also entered the As a Machine and Parts giveaway. This could mean they really liked my book idea and was inspired for another try, or it could mean they are serial giveaway-enterers.
    • The incentive to complete the questionnaire was free ebook copies of my story collections Charactered Pieces: stories and Murmurs: Gathered Stories Vol. One. 31% of entrants downloaded at least one copy of the books. Either people love filling out surveys or they’ve simply forgotten to download the books.

    Why so effective?

    The response-rate for the survey was an amazing 41% (compared to 29% for the previous giveaway. I wonder why). The industry open-rate for Art/Artist newsletters is 17.54% [1]. This isn’t exactly a parallel comparison, as open-rate is not the same as response-rate, but it’s a close enough comparison to provide some valuable insight. The response rate is also likely inflated because of the following factors (these are the same factors as the previous giveaway, so if you’ve read those, you’ve read these):

    • The entrants were already “in the sales funnel” in that they had already reached out with an interest in my book. In other words, I’m not blindly sending the survey to readers. I’m instead sending the survey to interested readers.
    • It’s possible that users may have only considered certain actions because the survey included them (connecting on social networks, for example). Would the respondents have connected with me on social networks had they not been introduced to the idea by way of the survey itself? Possibly not.
    • I promised free ebook downloads to all respondents. Obviously, free books must have a lot to do with the high response rate.
    • My communication was very sales averse. I approached giveaway entrants with respect. Truthfully, I am a naturally respectful guy, so I just spoke the way I would normally speak.
    • The survey was incredibly simple. 11 questions with 9 of them being yes/no questions.

    What are your thoughts? Have you conducted a similar survey? What did your results indicate?

  • Story Seeding and Social Media, I’m teaching both at the Tallgrass Writing Workshop in June.

    Story Seeding and Social Media, I’m teaching both at the Tallgrass Writing Workshop in June.

    I am honored to have been asked to teach a couple of sessions at the 2012 Tallgrass Writers Workshop at Emporia State University in June.

    If you will be in the Emporia area, you should register. Let me manipulate your mind to reflect my morbid desires. THE POWER!!!!

    I’ll be teaching:

    PLANTING A STORY: How to Grow a Plot from a Single Seed

    Author Stephen Graham Jones has said that many of his story ideas stem from misheard conversations. This session will explore the process of building an entire story from practically nothing, with special consideration given to dismantling the sham known as writer’s block.

    SURVIVING ONLINE: Why Social Media is Not a Waste of Time for Authors

    Some writers claim that time spent engaging in social media is time wasted. But what is an author but a communicator of ideas, and what is social media but a platform for exchanging ideas (primarily by text, I might add). This session will focus on how the entrepreneurial author, even without a book yet to promote, can use social media not just for nurturing a potential readership but for nurturing story ideas as well.

    Other workshop faculty include Thomas Fox Averill, Thomas Fox Averill, Linda Apple, Max McCoy, Jim Hoy, Cheryl Unruh, and Annie Wilson

    See full details at the Tallgrass Writers Workshop website or by downloading the workshop brochure.

  • Does posting purchase links in social network comments lead to book sales?

    Does posting purchase links in social network comments lead to book sales?

    It’s been only two days since I started my Annoying Links test, and though I originally intended to stretch the test for a full week, I am going to cut it short. Why? A couple of reasons. One, I simply feel dirty posting links everywhere (even though I stated very explicitly up-front that the links were for study purposes only). Two, though only two days have gone by, the test isn’t looking too positive.

    The abbreviated results

    Will posting self-promotional links in social network comments lead to book sales? Maybe. But is feeling like a dirty sales person worth it? No.

    The process

    Over the course of 2 days, I posted a total of 42 comment replies on Facebook and Google+, each containing two links at the end of the post. The posts themselves were genuine responses to comments, things I would have posted even if I weren’t conducting a test.

    The two links at the end of the post were 1) a self-promotional link for my book I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin and 2) a link to the original annoying link blog post which explained why I posted annoying links in the first place. Examples below:

    The results

    44 visits to explanation blog post. During the two day test I received 44 social referral visits to the You may notice some really annoying links out there during the next week post. The most important ones to look at are those from Facebook and Google+ (which are the two networks on which I posted links).

    • 19 visits from Facebook
    • 1 visit from Google+

    10 visits to the I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin purchase page. The I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin campaign page was established strictly for the purpose of this test, so it was restricted from being indexed by search engines which would potentially disturb the test. In other words, the most likely way someone could get to this page is through one of my comment posts.

    • 6 visits from Facebook
    • 1 visit from Google+
    • 2 direct visits (meaning the URL was likely copy/pasted)

    1 click on a link to purchase a book. I tagged each one of the bookseller links on the buy page with a Google Analytics event tracking code so I would know exactly how many times each was clicked.

    • 1 click

    Was it worth it?

    Out of 44 annoying links I received 1 potential book sale. In short, no, it wasn’t worth it.

    Sure, expanding the networks in which I posted links may have helped. I could have also posted more than 20 (x2) links per day. I might even have had some success by being more strategic with my posts. Or perhaps by rejecting the desire to qualify the links with a comment about their annoyingness could have helped. But, even with those assumptions, I’m just not comfortable with the shotgun link approach.

  • Reading Riddley Walker and Fighting a Cold. Likely Not a Coincidence.

    Reading Riddley Walker and Fighting a Cold. Likely Not a Coincidence.

    I’m fighting a cold. And losing. Viruses seem to attack at times that I otherwise have both time and motivation to write (fiction, that is, not a quick blog post). One day, I’ll write an entire collection of vignettes under the influence of TheraFlu. Until then, I’ll stick to complaining that my body apparently doesn’t want me to write fiction.

    Today’s bout comes at an especially bad time as I have two projects underway that I am damn excited about. One, I’ve hinted at a few times before (coded 4C until myself and the other writers involved come up with something better), which is about 80% complete. I can smell the maggots on the bloody horizon. The other, a project I haven’t much started but for sketching a few ideas and doing some homework reading, is already gnawing at me. The homework: read Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. The assignment: a dare to write something, anything really, immediately afterwards. The teacher: Sarah D’Stair, writer and wife of writer Pablo D’Stair. Together, they are a formidable peer pair of peer pressure.

    A couple weeks ago in Chicago Sarah, Pablo, and myself (along with an entire host of friends and writers) sat down to a few drinks at Miller’s Pub. Conversation drifted to writing, then needled down to my own writing (Sarah’s insistence, not mine, I assure you), then further pricked at my style of writing, one which was described in variations of meticulous, precise, and, perhaps, over-wrought. So, a dare to write something more lose, more free-flowing, something to explore language rather than wring some beautiful (what I think is beautiful) language drug from it. I accepted. And now that I’ve had a few days to think about my drunken acceptance, I’ve leveled, but in a way that’s made me even more excited about the project than I was when first dared.

    I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to loosen up the way Hoban did with Riddley Walker—the book reads like a mix between Middle English poetry and the ramblings of a dented waterhead—but the core concept, that of letting language, for lack of a better term, flow, is intriguing. I look forward to it. Once I get over this damn cold.

  • Quotes from Flannery O’Connor’s “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction”

    Quotes from Flannery O’Connor’s “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction”

    In the world of grotesque fiction, Flannery O’Connor is the go-to mouth to voice what’s worth our academic time and what’s worth ignoring. Knowing my love of the grotesque and my respect for Flannery O’Connor, Richard Thomas passed along a copy of O’Connor’s important “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction” (1960) which somehow I had never read before. I’m glad I have now rectified that problem. Below are a few choice quotes, words I’m sure I will cite for the rest of my writing career, especially when citing my own grotesque fiction.

    On mystery as motivation

    …if the writer believes that our life is and will remain essentially mysterious, if he looks upon us as beings existing in a created order to whose laws we freely respond, then what he sees on the surface will be of interest to him only as he can go through it into an experience of mystery itself. His kind of fiction will always be pushing its own limits outward toward the limits of mystery, because for this kind of writer, the meaning of a story does not begin except at a depth where adequate motivation and adequate psychology and the various determinations have been exhausted. Such a writer will be interested in what we don’t understand rather than in what we do.

    On exhausting human knowledge

    Fiction begins where human knowledge begins–with the senses–and every fiction writer is bound by this fundamental aspect of his medium.

    On the path of least resistance

    Henry James said that Conrad in his fiction did things in the way that took the most doing. I think the writer of grotesque fiction does them in the way that takes the least, because in his work distances are so great. He’s looking for one image that will connect or combine or embody two points; one is a point in the concrete, and the other is a point not visible to the naked eye, but believed in by him firmly, just as real to him, really, as the one that everybody sees.

    On sentimentality

    Even though the writer who produces grotesque fiction may not consider his characters any more freakish than ordinary fallen man usually is, his audience is going to; and it is going to ask him–or more often, tell him–why he has chosen to bring such maimed souls alive. Thomas Mann has said that the grotesque is the true anti-bourgeois style, but I believe that in this country, the general reader has managed to connect the grotesque with the sentimental, for whenever he speaks of it favorably, he seems to associate it with the writer’s compassion.

    On being Christ-haunted

    Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one. To be able to recognize a freak, you have to have some conception of the whole man, and in the South the general conception of man is still, in the main, theological. That is a large statement, and it is dangerous to make it, for almost anything you say about Southern belief can be denied in the next breath with equal propriety. But approaching the subject from the standpoint of the writer, I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. The Southerner, who isn’t convinced of it, is very much afraid that he may have been formed in the image and likeness of God. Ghosts can be very fierce and instructive. They cast strange shadows, particularly in our literature. In any case, it is when the freak can be sensed as a figure for our essential displacement that he attains some depth in literature.

    On audience limitations

    The novelist must be characterized not by his function but by his vision, and we must remember that [the author’s] vision has to be transmitted and that the limitations and blind spots of his audience will very definitely affect the way he is able to show what he sees. This is another thing which in these times increases the tendency toward the grotesque in fiction.

    On novelists and and poetry

    The great novels we get in the future are not going to be those that the public thinks it wants, or those that critics demand. They are going to be the kind of novels that interest the novelist. And the novels that interest the novelist are those that have not already been written. They are those that put the greatest demands on him, that require him to operate at the maximum of his intelligence and his talents, and to be true to the particularities of his own vocation. The direction of many of us will be more toward poetry than toward the traditional novel.

    photo credit: http://marcyankus.com/site/

  • What is the value of a Goodreads.com book Giveaway? 93% of entrants had never heard of me. 88% plan on reading my books.

    What is the value of a Goodreads.com book Giveaway? 93% of entrants had never heard of me. 88% plan on reading my books.

    Does giving away your books lead to more readers, and in turn, more fans?

    I’ve long read of the marketing effectiveness of giving away books using the Giveaways option at Goodreads.com. And though I’ve conducted one giveaway in the past (for Stranger Will) I’ve not yet been able to confidently attribute any gains in readership or sales due to that giveaway. With this attribution gap in mind, I set out to conduct a giveaway for  As a Machine and Parts, that would allow me to more precisely measure the value of a Goodreads.com user. My conclusion: a Goodreads.com user stands a great chance of becoming a reader.

    The setup

    I listed a 2 copy giveaway for As a Machine and Parts to take place between 2/3/2012 and 2/15/2012. During this time the giveaway received a total of 398 entries. After the giveaway was closed for entries, I followed up with all but 46 entrants (because I either knew them personally, which could skew the results, or the user was not accepting personal messages) with a survey of 8 simple yes/no questions that touch on topics such as prior recognition, intent to read/buy my books, intent to connect on social networks, and the desire to connect with me, as an author, in real life. The actual questions asked in the survey include:

    • Had you heard of author Caleb J. Ross before this Goodreads.com giveaway?
    • Had you heard of the book As a Machine and Parts before this Goodreads.com giveaway?
    • Do you intend to purchase As a Machine and Parts in the future?
    • Do you intend to read As a Machine and Parts in the future?
    • Do you intend to read any other books by author Caleb J. Ross?
    • Do you plan to connect with author Caleb J. Ross on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+?
    • If Caleb J. Ross were to visit your city/town for a reading, would you consider attending?
    • Would you like to subscribe to the Caleb J. Ross newsletter?

    The results of my Goodreads.com giveaway

    • 93% of non-winning entrants had never heard of me before this contest. Translation: I’m speaking to an audience who might not otherwise have heard me.
    • 94% of non-winning entrants had never heard of As a Machine and Parts before the contest.
    • 36% of non-winning entrants said they planned on purchasing the book, even though they didn’t win. This is a strange percentage when compared to the 90% of people who intend to read the book. I suppose most readers will look to their library for this book?
    • 88% of non-winning entrants intend to read other books by me. This is an incredibly huge number, especially when compared to the 94% of entrants who had never even heard of me.
    • 37% of non-winning respondents plan to connect with me on social networks
    • 92% of non-winning respondents would come to a reading event if I were to visit their town.
    • 51% of non-winning respondents signed up for my Email is Dead email newsletter. Though I’m convinced that an email newsletter can offer what RSS feeds and social statuses don’t offer more effectively, I do believe that newsletters play a role in summarizing valuable content (which was affirmed with an earlier Facebook poll conducted on this very topic).
    • 38% of non-winning respondents added As a Machine and Parts to one of their Goodreads.com bookshelves
    • 25% of non-winning respondents downloaded Charactered Pieces
    • 25% of non-winning respondents downloaded Murmurs: Gathered Stories Vol. One downloaded

    Additional Goodreads.com giveaway results not included in the chart above

    • 51% of non-winning respondents signed up for my Email is Dead email newsletter. Though I’m convinced that an email newsletter can offer what RSS feeds and social statuses don’t offer more effectively, I do believe that newsletters play a role in summarizing valuable content (which was affirmed with an earlier Facebook poll conducted on this very topic).
    • 38% of non-winning respondents added As a Machine and Parts to one of their Goodreads.com bookshelves

    How many people actually downloaded the free ebooks?

    These percentages are interesting because it means that 75% of people who filled out the survey did not download either of the free ebooks. Either people love filling out surveys or they’ve simply forgotten to download the books.

    • 4% of non-winning respondents added Charactered Pieces (one of the free ebooks given away to survey respondents) to one of their Goodreads.com bookshelves
    • 1% of non-winning respondents added Murmurs: Gathered Stories Vol. One (one of the free ebooks given away to survey respondents) to one of their Goodreads.com bookshelves

    These percentages, when compared to the download percentages above, are interesting as they may elude to a few possibilities: 1) Goodreads.com users may be averse to adding ebooks to reading lists, 2) Goodreads.com users may not always add a book to their lists as soon as they receive the book; perhaps they wait until they actually begin reading it, 3) something else entirely. This seems too big of a discrepancy to ignore, so if anyone has any thoughts, please let me know.

    Why do I think my survey was effective? OR Here Come the Caveats.

    The response-rate for the survey was an amazing 29%. The industry open-rate for Art/Artist newsletters is 17.54% [1]According to Mailchimp. This isn’t exactly a parallel comparison, as open-rate is not the same as response-rate, but it’s a close enough comparison to provide some valuable insight. The response rate is also likely inflated because of the following factors:

    • The entrants were already “in the sales funnel” in that they had already reached out with an interest in my book. In other words, I’m not blindly sending the survey to readers. I’m instead sending the survey to interested readers.
    • I allowed only yes/no answers, leaving out “uncertain” responses. In hindsight, I probably should have provided an “uncertain” response (and perhaps a comments section for each answer).
    • It’s possible that users may have only considered certain actions because the survey included them (connecting on social networks, for example). Would the respondents have connected with me on social networks had they not been introduced to the idea by way of the survey itself? Possibly not.
    • I promised free ebook downloads to all respondents. Obviously, free books must have a lot to do with the high response rate.
    • My communication was very sales averse. I approached giveaway entrants with respect. Truthfully, I am a naturally respectful guy, so I just spoke the way I would normally speak.
    • The survey was incredibly simple. 12 questions with 9 of them being yes/no questions.

    What are your thoughts? Have you conducted a similar survey? What did your results indicate?

    Footnotes

    Footnotes
    ↑1 According to Mailchimp
  • Book Metadata. Let the Algorithm Sell Your Books For You. A Primer.

    Book Metadata. Let the Algorithm Sell Your Books For You. A Primer.

    There’s a rule when it comes to search engine optimization: Content is King. Basically, this means that above everything else—all the link building, code tweaking, and social networking—the most important factor of any well-optimized web presence is the content itself. What good is your website without compelling content? And without compelling content, how can you expect other websites to link back to yours? I would go so far as to suggest the rule should be Content is God, but then we lose out on the lovely alliteration.

    But the Content is King rule governs everything, not just your website or social profiles. Your books themselves actually contain Kingable Content that can be tweaked and optimized for marketing benefits. I’m not suggesting that you to manipulate your book’s words for the sake of search engines; that would be [keyword]ing+<h1>stupid</h1>. Rather, I’m here to clue you in to an area of underutilized content that supports your book even after publication. Metadata.

    What is Metadata?

    Metadata, whether it’s book metadata or webpage metadata, is basically the same thing: behind-the-scenes data (subject, genre, theme, etc.) that describes the front-and-center content (the book itself). The categories assigned to help shelve books within the Dewey Decimal system, that’s a form of metadata. Those Product Details on every Amazon.com book page. That’s metadata. When you do a search on a computer for an author or topic, the search results are partially powered by metadata. Those Amazon.com If You Liked ____, You May Also Like ____ recommendations…metadata factors in to those.

    Why Care About Metadata?

    The more information available to search engines and book sites about your book, the more information those search engines and book sties have to use in providing relevant results and recommendations to readers. And while descriptions such as publisher, shipping weight, and product dimensions (pictured above) may be useful for some purposes, they don’t speak to the general concerns of most readers, such as theme, genre, subject, etc. That’s where enhanced metadata comes in.

    Not many people realize just how deep the metadata rabbit hole goes. Which is why, for lack of a better term, I’m using “enhanced metadata” to refer to all those unseen rabbit hole nooks and crannies. Enchanced metadata allows you, the author or the reader, to supply book sites with in-depth information about a book. Such information may include, but is not limited to:

    • fiction or nonfiction categorization
    • genre
    • subjects
    • pace
    • tone
    • writing style
    • perspective of the narration
    • tense (past, present, future)
    • are there strong male or strong female characters
    • errata
    • movie connections
    • books that influenced this book
    • books influenced by this book
    • books that cite this book
    • books cited by this book
    • characters
    • first sentence
    • how many characters does the book follow
    • literary devices used

    Where Can Metadata be Manipulated?

    Shelfari (refers to enhanced metadata as Book Extras)

    Shelfari is a social networking and book cataloging site which powers much of the enhanced metadata provided to Amazon.com. Existing Book Extras data can be seen either by accessing a particular book’s page at Shelfari.com or by accessing the book’s page via your Author Central account at Amazon.com.

    More about Shelfari Book Extras

    Goodreads (refers to enhanced metadata as Book Metadata)

    Goodreads, like Shelfari, is a social networking and book cataloging site. Goodreads feels to me like a much more engaging platform than Shelfari, with far more opportunities for networking with readers.

    To access the Book Metadata at Goodreads, first click on the “edit review” link of any book you’ve read. On the next page, toward the bottom, you’ll click on the “edit book metadata” link.  If you have not read a book, Goodreads requires that you become a “librarian” to edit the Book Metadata.

    Goodreads also allows some users to become Librarians, meaning they are able to edit not only book metadata, but also all information about a book including authors, descriptions, publishers, page numbers, and on and on. I highly recommend applying for librarian status. Not only am I an organization nerd, I love being able to more fully control the data with the books I’ve written.

    LibraryThing (refers to enhanced metadata as Common Knowledge)

    LibraryThing is yet another book networking site, and in my opinion is the least user-friendly. But readers use it, so as an author it’s important for me to be there.

    To access the Common Knowledge section, simply open up an existing book page and scroll down to about the middle of the page.

    More information about the LibraryThing Common Knowledge metadata can be found here.

    Additional information on metadata (as well as general SEO information for authors) can be found in this amazing PBS.org article, “A Self-Publisher’s Guide to Metadata for Books.”

    top photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leprecon/