I received the final beta reader report for The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone, and sometimes, feedback has implications beyond the text itself. I also have some new experience with Amazon ads, and it reinforced a suspicion I had. And, amazingly, I actually wrote some words this week! Let’s talk about the details after the key performance indicators.
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers
One Real Life Family Event (RLFE) plus an unexpected need to cast four new characters impacted my word count this week.
Amazon ads are both simple and ridiculously complex. Simple, because the idea is no more than bidding on keywords that apply to your book. Complex because a) you have little idea on what keywords your readers are using, especially if you’re a new writer, b) keywords represent a market of variable pricing that you have to master to win a bid, and c) you have to match your pricing to your keyword bids or you’ll end up with a loss.
I think I have a handle on which keywords I need. At the very least, I have some for also-boughts that seem applicable. I suspect I need more work here, and that’s fine. Selecting keywords, independent of bidding, seems as much art as science. I expect I’ll need to tweak. But now, twenty-two days into July, I think I have more evidence for another aspect of keyword bidding that’s making it hard for independent writers.
I started bidding at a point that was low even whenI took my first Amazon ads class years ago: $0.33 per bid. Yes, I knew I wouldn’t win many bids at that point, but I wanted to start gathering data. I won precisely zero bids, so my ad did not get served to anyone. A week in, I increased the bid to $1.11 per impression. I would lose money at that level, since I was advertising a $0.99 book. But since the book is the first in a series, I was willing to bet on read-through to make up the deficit between what I earn on a sale and the bid price. I still won precisely zero bids.
A week ago, I increased the bid to a profit-killing $3.33. Over the last week, can you guess how many bids I won? If you guessed zero, you win! Even at that bid, my keywords did not earn a single impression. In the Facebook groups I belong to (especially those dealign with advertising/marketing), I’ve seen several writers express concern that the big publishers have learned how to dominate Amazon ads by driving up the cost of bidding. I think, though I’m not sure, that I have evidence in support of that.
I’ll experiment with other keywords, but I’m not hopeful. At least, so far, Facebook ads continue to deliver.
The Final Beta Read for The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone
Real Life Family Events Have an Impact
I found a new beta reader on Fiverr. Her feedback was spot on. Detailed, too. And the problem was, I knew what she was going to say before she said it. I had come to the same conclusions. But I didn’t listen to myself.
The arcs for both Ira Malhotra and Luisa Brunner lacked impact. I knew that. But I wouldn’t admit it. The part that bothers me the most is that even as I wrote the chapters in question — the beta reader provided chapter-by-chapter feedback — I knew I wasn’t hitting the notes I needed to. But there’s some good news: looking back, I know why I didn’t listen to myself.
I’ve talked about Real Life Family Events (RLFEs) before. One the details I didn’t discuss is that they can hit at any time. I try to write weekdays between 7:00PM and 9:00PM. But at any instant — really, 24×7, but particularly from 3:30PM to 10:30PM — I might get a catastrophic text. Those texts might mean I have to drop everything and drive 20 minutes. That’s all the detail I want to give. I knew that was wearing on me. Looking back on the chapters the beta reader commented on, I can remember the texts I got while writing them.
An Emotional Interruption Has Ripple Effects
When you’re writing, even a minor interruption can present challenges. In that instant after I hear the ping of an incoming message and before I read the text, when I don’t know if it’s a big deal or a little deal, my adrenaline goes through the roof. Anything I had in my mind — an emotional movement for a character, a slow reveal of a relevant detail, anything — is gone. Not just gone. It’s blasted away. So the best case is that I have to recreate the mental environment to finish a chapter, or a paragraph. Or a sentence.
Worst case? I might be done for the night. Or a few days.
This is an artist’s depiction of what happens to my concentration when I get texts.
As I tried to re-engage with those chapters after receiving a text, I knew I wasn’t rising to the level of creativity I needed. I knew I had not immersively envisioned the characters. I’ll give full credit to the beta reader — she saw through my attempt to paper over the gap.
It’s fixable, of course. The manuscript’s just words. But it highlights something I need to better come to terms with. I can’t go into do-not-disturb mode. The consequences are not acceptable. I think what I need to do is be honest with myself. If I get blasted out of a chapter, I need to aggressively reacquire my creative state. If I can’t, then I need to mark the chapter as in need of more than just a read-through the next day.
I guess I had hoped I could work through it without incurring a significant time penalty. Now that I have confirmation that’s not happening, I need to adjust my processes to account for it. I’m glad the beta reader’s feedback helped me understand that and make it actionable.
Progress against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I did against last week’s goals:
- Finish the helper plot chapter tentatively called “Getting Situated”: Done!
- Write Jadwiga Janczak’s Midpoint: Done!
- Write the helper plot tentatively titled “False Start”: Pushed! I decided it fit as a later beat
- Write Trent Raven’s Midpoint: Pushed! I decided it fit better as a later beat
- Take delivery of the final beta read for The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone: Done!
- Take delivery of the first beta read for The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak: Done!
Instead of “False Start” and Trent Raven’s midpoint, I wrote parts 1 and 2 of Atticus Porter’s Midpoint.
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2024 Week 30
Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
- Finish Trent Raven’s Midpoint
- Finish the helper plot chapter called “False Start”
- Finish Atticus Porter’s Pinch 2
- Finish Jadwiga Janczak’s Advance
- Pitch another beta read for The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak
- Bid the cover for The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak (Stretch objective)
What Do You Think?
Do you ever experience a nagging suspicion that you’re not writing as well as you should? How do you distinguish that from a normal lack of confidence, imposter syndrome, or something like that? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!