Claude Bouchard Books

A popular topic of late amongst writers, be it in blog posts or group discussions, is bad book reviews. To clarify, I’m not referring to solidly supported constructive criticism which could, in fact, help a writer improve. I’m talking about those annoying one star reviews one finds on Amazon and other sites which are without substance and just plain vicious, cruel, nasty and destructive.

The question which I’ve heard or seen asked over and over on this subject is, “Why do people write such bad reviews?” The purpose of this blog post is to answer precisely that question, allowing writers to understand why they shouldn’t take it personally or feel victimized when they receive such a review. What follows is a partial list of reasons why people write such bad reviews.

• To start, it is important to realize that those who post these reviews are unattractive. I don’t mean simply average looking here, I’m talking about damned ugly. Even their mothers find them ugly. The kind of ugly that makes one shudder and often evokes screams of terror.
• Their living quarters, if we can call them that, are highly uncomfortable. Dark, damp and musty basements, cramped attics with no ventilation and so on come to mind. Their heating is faulty and they have no air conditioning for warmer periods. Their water heaters, if they even have one, don’t work most of the time. This, incidentally, partially explains why they generally smell bad.
• Their IQs are below average. This is clearly demonstrated by their lack of comprehension when they try to read as well as their absence of writing skills. They are further plagued with a limited vocabulary which explains why they often use a word like ‘stupid’ or ‘terrible’ half a dozen times in a two line review.
• They rarely, if ever, have sex. If they do (i.e. If they can find someone who WILL accept their money), they either suffer from impotence, premature ejaculation or do not attain orgasm.
• They hate kittens because they are intimidated by them. They kick puppies for similar reasons.
• They feel inferior to everyone and everything they come in contact with because, let’s face it, they are.
• They have no friends because they are very dislikeable.

So, fellow writers, the next time you get such a review on one of your works, take it in stride and have pity because you are much better off than the moron who wrote it.

The Barry/MCall crime thrillers ~ 54K copies out & counting ~ U.S.: http://amzn.to/z72IeA ~ U.K.: http://amzn.to/Id3mDm

A writer friend's recent experience spurred me to write this short story...

The Spoiler

Done with his research, Shawn downloaded the GPS data to his smart-phone then closed the map page, PeopleFind and a handful of other sites he had consulted. He glanced at the time before shutting down the computer and nodded as he calculated his ETA. According to Google, getting to the small town of Landsview would take a little over two hours, which would put him there around eleven. He just had to get some things together and he’d be on his way.

He headed to his workshop off the garage to select tools he might need for the job, not knowing precisely what would be required until he got there and assessed the situation. One couldn’t always rely on appropriate tools being available at any given location. The hammer-drill was a must as was the nail-gun. He checked his tool case, just to make sure, but there were already a couple of rolls of duct tape in there along with the usual variety of hand tools. The small crowbar was often handy and joined the other equipment, followed by the propane torch, once he’d ensured the canister was full.

Satisfied he had everything he might need, he closed the case and lugged it into the garage, storing it in the trunk of his car before donning his overalls and work-boots. Ready to go, he slid into the driver’s seat, buckling up and starting the engine while the garage door rumbled open. Backing out onto the quiet street, he hit the remote again and, as the door started rolling down, he headed off towards the highway, as directed by the GPS app on his phone.

The drive was quiet and uneventful as he cruised along the almost deserted highway towards Landsview, allowing him some musing time. He chuckled as he considered how stupid some people could be, publicly insulting and bashing others on countless websites, too naïve to realize how they could easily be tracked and located via the same medium they used to cause pain, the Internet.

An established author of horror novels, Shawn had received his fair share of bad reviews over the years and taken them in stride as they had never impeded his journey on the road to success. He could handle the fact that some people didn’t enjoy his novels or like his writing style. He would even laugh when reading some of these dreadful critiques, often written by people who clearly had missed the plot completely. However, some people pushed things too far, taking it upon themselves to be spiteful to authors and other readers by giving away the story on public book sites, doing their damnedest to cause ruin and harm to people they didn’t even know. This was something Shawn could not accept, something he considered the ultimate crime in the literary world… The spoiler… Those guilty of such an offence had to be punished, had to suffer for the malicious damage they had willingly caused…

Like this Al Coughlin, a fifty-seven year old idiot residing at 395 Mill Road in Landsview, Shawn’s destination. That very day, he had posted a spoiler about Shawn’s latest novel on a highly popular book site… And soon he would have to endure the consequences…

Have you read Vigilante, the first thriller in my crime series? U.S. http://amzn.to/pyMBQj ; U.K. http://amzn.to/H5jgBd

Since the arrival of Amazon’s KDP Select program last December, I’ve read and heard of both successes and failures though, in this case, failure really means not any worse off than prior to a promotion. One might argue that giving away a number of books with little or no additional sales in the aftermath results in a loss. My view is that:

1. The giveaways represent zero cost to the author, therefore should not be considered as a cost or loss.
2. Nobody can state with certainty that people would have paid for those books if they couldn’t get them for free. If that was the case, why would anyone give away any books in the first place?
3. Even if a promotion results in little or no increase in paid sales after the fact, the giveaways are free additional exposure and there’s nothing wrong with zero cost advertising.

Moving on… From March 20th to March 22nd, Vigilante, the first of six novels in my crime series was free via a KDP Select promotion, during which time I gave away 25,626 copies. As a result, the book resided on the Top 20 free page from midday on the 20th right to the end, attaining #9 in the U.S. and #11 in the U.K.

What’s happened since? I’ve never gone public with my sales figures and that isn’t going to change, at least for now. However, I can share some information to show why I consider this venture with the program a success.

• I’ve sold almost 1.5 times as many Kindle copies of Vigilante post-promotion than I had since the book became available on Kindle in January 2011. In fact, my post promo Kindle sales represent more than half of all my Vigilante sales via all retailers (ebook and print) since I published it in April 2009.
• Vigilante Kindle sales are currently 964% versus February. Of the other five novels in my crime series, two have more than doubled in sales this month and two others have more than tripled. Sales of The Consultant, the second of the series, have more than quadrupled.
• Vigilante was ranking at #29,708 (U.S.) and #80,696 (U.K.) just prior to my promotion. Paid sales ranking went as low as #211 (U.S) and #187 (U.K.) post promotion. At the time of posting this, the sixth day following the end of the promotion, overall rankings are #875 (U.S.) and #487 (U.K.).
• My overall March sales to date are 353% those of February and represent 46% of my total cumulative sales with all retailers (ebook and print).
• The Kindle royalties for my March sales will more than cover the total cost of a ten day European vacation my wife and I are taking next May. We’re also enjoying our new iPads.

So, though it may not be the case with all who have or will try the KDP Select promotion, in my case, I found it rather successful.

 You can give Vigilante a go right here: U.S. http://amzn.to/x3ndMq and U.K. http://amzn.to/HkZ78Z

Anyone who is a published writer will eventually have to deal with a bad review and the odds are, more than once. Like it or not, it’s impossible that everyone who reads your work will like it. Child, Brown, Grisham, King, Baldacci, Connelly, Konrath and many others have lived through it and so will you. It’s a fact of literary life.

No matter how many months, even years, you have slaved—researching, developing, editing, perfecting—to create your literary masterpiece… Some people out there will go the extra mile to savage it, rip it to shreds, publicly scorning your work of art, ridiculing you and your efforts.

Their intent often seems to be spiteful, their goal only to hurt you. Frequently, these bad reviews demonstrate that the reviewer didn’t even understand what he or she have read. They missed the point. Other times, you’re left wondering if the review actually pertains to your book or if this sad critic got confused with some other work.

Regardless, these reviews will show up on occasion and, in most cases, you are left powerless to do anything about them. They have been posted for the world to see, forever etched on a website somewhere, a stain on your record, a jab to your ego.

However, all is not lost. I’ve developed a simple method which can help alleviate the pain, anxiety and feelings of depression generally caused by bad reviews. I now wish to share this process with all of my fellow writers, in hopes of helping you overcome the one-star blues.

When I come across a less than desirable critique of any of my works, I read it carefully, making sure to capture the essence of any flaws described to support its negative tone. I then fully analyse this information, considering its merits, drawing from it anything which might prove helpful in improving my writing going forward. Once this is done, I take a deep breath, relax and murmur, “Fuck you, asshole.”

Have you read my Kindle best-seller, Vigilante? http://amzn.to/uBDh1T

I wasn’t planning on writing this post. It more came to be as a matter of chance. It all started a few days ago when author, editor and blogger, C.S. Lakin (@cslakin and @livewritethrive on Twitter), contacted me via my website to ask, “How did you get so many followers?” As I’d done in the past with a few others who asked, I emailed C.S. and explained my process. She replied back, suggesting this should be a blog post and even offered to put my email into blog format, leaving me with only whatever fine tuning I desired. I said, “Cool,” she said, “Here you go,” and voilà, here it is, I’m laying out how I really got a quarter million followers on Twitter.

When I joined Twitter in August 2009, I went with the simple logic that the more followers I had, the more people would learn about the thrillers I wrote. With that in mind, I got busy with an easy process requiring little account management time which I’ll now share with you. The basic plan was to follow people, some of whom would follow back. Those who didn’t, I would unfollow. All I did was repeat this process over and over again. It obviously works because I now have almost 250,000 followers.

So What?

Why would anyone want so many unknown followers? Does it make a difference? I’ve found that it does. Sure, I don’t know most of them, and they don’t know me. But many of them are readers, and with having that many followers, odds are some of them like to read thrillers. Numbers play a big part in exposure on Twitter. If 1% of my followers actually read thrillers and like to hear about new books in that genre, I then have a potential 2,500 new fans that I wouldn’t have reached had they not been following me.

Getting Past the Twitter Barricade

If you’re like many, you're currently stuck at that pesky 2,001 spot. Twitter lets a tweeter follow up to 2,001 accounts without any problems. Past that, the 10% rule applies, which means the number of accounts you follow can't exceed your follower total by more than 10%. This leaves you faced with two choices—wait until enough people follow you (don't hold your breath unless you suddenly become a superstar) or unfollow those who weren't smart enough to follow back, thus making room to follow others who might.

The easiest way to do this is with http://www.justunfollow.com and I suggest you splurge the $4.99/year (price may have changed) for the premium service. This site will find all tweeters you follow who aren't following you back and will list them with the oldest non-follower first.

Once you've cleaned out non-followers, you'll have room to follow other prospects, which you can do from the same site with the “Copy Followers” function. There, you enter the Twitter name (without the @) of an account you’d like to follow off of and, bingo, the system generates a list of that account’s more active followers.

Who to Choose?

I follow off of a variety of active accounts, some writing related, others not, just to get a mix of followers. Not everyone writes but many do read and my goal is to reach them. Whether you are a writer, artist, dancer, etc, a lot people out there are going to be interested in what you tweet about. You probably know some more active accounts already, but if you want to find more such accounts, go to http://tweet.grader.com ; and check out “Twitter Elite—Top Users,” which will give you the current top accounts on Twitter.

A Simple Ten-Minute-a-Day Plan

To illustrate, this is what I do:

• Daily, I follow 500 accounts from various other accounts. Twitter allows 1,000 follows a day (though their counters are not always accurate), so I leave room to follow back people who follow me first.
• Once that's done, I check my non-followers and unfollow enough to bring my total non-followers down to around 1,000 (i.e. the 500 I just followed plus the 500 I followed the previous day).
• I repeat this process every day, which takes me roughly 10-15 minutes, max.

I've never fully trusted auto-tweeter apps and would hate to have one go nuts on me, suddenly sending out hundreds of tweets and turn me into a suspended account spammer, so I don't use them. However, I do use the free version of Social-Oomph, strictly for welcome DMs to new followers (which generally works fine) and to auto-follow those who follow me (which seems to work sporadically). Note added April 17, 2012: It has been brought to my attention that the Social-Ooomph functions previously mentioned are no longer free for new subscribers. I also have all seven of my novels up on Freado, which sends one auto-scheduled BookBuzzr tweet per book daily.

Daily Dealings on Twitter

Over time, many have commented in wonder about my ability to keep up with a following of such a size. With this many followers, I rarely, if ever, look at the general timeline. My Twitter home is my Mentions page, so anything with @ceebee308 in it, I generally see (though even just my Mentions page CAN get busy at times).

One thing I’ve given up on is looking at received DMs because of the volume of hacker-spawned crap which fills the page. Anyone who wishes to contact me via DM about something important had best send me a timely tweet to let me know about it. Otherwise, rest assured that I’ll never see it.

Does This Really Help?

Has all this helped? I'd say yes, as Twitter is definitely my main promotion platform. Through Twitter, I've sold books, but more importantly, I’ve developed relationships with others, which has resulted in various cross-promo activities. But here’s the big one—with over 245,000 followers, my reach is nothing to sneer at, and when I did my recent Vigilante giveaway promotion, it allowed me to give out 25,623 copies. As a result, Vigilante spent most of the three days on the Top 20 Free Kindle page, reaching a high of #9 in the U.S. and #11 in the U.K. Post promotion, Vigilante is ranking in the 200s (U.S.) and 100s, (U.K.) on the Amazon paid Kindle sales at the time of posting this. I’ll be writing about my KDP promotion results in the next day or two.

A Final Word of Advice

One last point I can make about Twitter is the importance of not just promoting your books, music, website, blog or whatever you’re trying to pimp but also promoting others AND actually chatting with people. Many are amazed when they send me a tweet and I reply but why shouldn’t I? I like it when folks respond to my tweets and my followers deserve nothing less. Chatting with people, making jokes, helping others is all part of Twitter success and I can confirm it's a definite rep-builder.

Remember, it’s not just about numbers and lots of them. This is a social media tool, and if you are an artist striving to build true fans, you want to be present and interact with them. Show them the appreciation they deserve for retweeting your posts or sending you a message. You’ll find a universe of new fans and friends out there if you do.

You can learn more about C.S. Lakin, the catalyst to this blog post, by visiting her website at http://www.cslakin.com and her blog at http://www.livewritethrive.com I also invite you to follow her Twitter accounts, @cslakin and @livewritethrive as something tells me she’ll figure out a way to follow you back.

Haven’t read Vigilante yet? It’s right here: U.S. http://amzn.to/H5i7cR ; U.K. http://amzn.to/H5jgBd

Though I originally posted this on March 13th, I've now updated it as the saga continues.

A few months ago, I posted a blog about my unhappiness with Lightning Source and their new payment policy which discriminated against content providers residing outside certain select geographical areas. More recently. it was Amazon's turn when I criticized their practice of drastically discounting the print version of a book and then applying their price-matching policy to discount the Kindle version in comparison to the print price they had set.

Well, it seems that Smashwords is of the jealous type and also wanted its turn in the spotlight and since I'm all for equity and fairness, I figured, why not. Here's the deal.

Since some of you may not be familiar with Smashwords, I'll start by giving you a brief intro and some pertinent information about what they do and how it works. Smashwords is an ebook distribution firm where one can upload one's work and make it available for sale to the public. In addition to selling said ebooks directly, Smashwords also distributes them to other retailers like Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and Apple. As per the information found on Smashword's website, books or subsequent modifications made are transmitted to other retailers weekly on Thursdays or Fridays. Their site also indicates that support requests will be responded to within 72 hours. However, as they say, don't believe everything you read on the Internet...

On February 18, 2012, precisely 29 days ago, I unpublished Vigilante and ASYLUM at Smashwords as I wished to enroll them in Amazon's KDP Select which requires exclusivity. At the same time, I modified the pricing of my other books. As these changes would have an impact on a planned promotion, I sent a message to Support on February 21th indicating my appreciation for anything which could be done to accelerate the process. Sure enough, during that week, the modifications were sent to retailers across the board... Except Apple...

By February 29th, 11 days after having made my modifications, nothing was reflected at Apple so I sent another support request to Smashwords. The end of the week came and went and though there was a data transmission sent to Apple on March 2nd, my modifications were not included. On March 5th, I received a response to my February 29th request telling me there had been a shipment on March 2nd and that my modifications would be included in the next Apple shipment. Shortly after, I received a response to my February 21st request informing me that my modifications had been expedited to Apple. GREAT!

Not quite... While I understood this to mean my changes had been transmitted to Apple, what it apparently meant was they would be sent the next time data was transmitted... On the coming Thursday or Friday... So I thought... Wrong... Nothing was sent...

A support request sent on March 9th and a follow-up sent March 12th remain unanswered to date... So much for their 72 hour maximum response time. An email sent to Mark Coker, head of Smashwords, on March 10th also went unanswered but when I followed up on March 14th, he replied, apologizing for the delays, informing me he'd asked their tech team to investigate and, I quote, "We'll get to the bottom of it."

Thursday and Friday have since come and gone... Nothing has been sent to Apple. As a result, Vigilante and ASYLUM remain available at Apple. In the meantime, I've now received a first notice from Amazon, informing me that I am not respecting the KDP Select exclusivity clause. The price changes for my other books at Apple have not been made either, resulting in lost revenues for any sales made there. In addition, it's useless for me to adjust my pricing for Kindle (93% of my sales) as Amazon's price-matching machine will kick in as soon as I do so. Yep, more lost revenues...

Oh, I should mention that I contacted Apple about this issue but was informed I should contact Smashwords, their content supplier...

So, in summary, after 29 days, I remain unable to proceed with my promotion plan and powerless to do anything about it as I'm held hostage by Smashwords...

The novels I refer to in this post can all be found at Amazon for your Kindle at currently reduced prices so you might want to take advantage of it while you can. http://amzn.to/z72IeA

Finding realistic character names when writing a novel is not as easy as one would think. It's not too bad when I'm working on something which is part of my Barry/McCall series as a number of characters are recurrent. However, when working on something new, as is the case with my current project, The Last Party, the task of finding names which are original and distinctive becomes a bit more arduous.

When I wrote my last stand-alone, ASYLUM, I solved the problem by giving all my fictitious characters the names of real people I'd met on Twitter. Out of respect, I asked each if they had any objection and then acknowledged them in the book when it was released.

That said, anyone who would like their name in The Last Party is invited to simply leave their first and last name PLUS their Twitter handle, either in a comment below or via my Contact Me page above. As I proceed with the weaving of my tale, I'll select names from the list as required. Characters will not be depictions of any of you but rather creations of my own. Also, I can't guarantee that everyone's name will be included as I will use only as many names as needed for the number of characters developed.

So, the ball is now in your court. Would you like YOUR name in a novel? You know what to do.

A brief intro although the emails which follow explain the story quite succinctly. Last week, I did a free promotion with ASYLUM on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, I noticed two things. First, the retail price of the print version of ASYLUM had been reduced by Amazon from $11.99 to $3.13. Strange but not alarming since I'm paid for print sales by the supplier, not the retailer. Second, the price for the Kindle version was discounted 2 cents to $2.97. This was cause for concern since Kindle books under $2.99 pay a 35% rather than 70% royalty. What follows is the email I sent to KDP, the response I received this morning and my subsequent response:

Sent to KDP Feb 24, 2012, 8:28am

My novel, ASYLUM (ASIN: B005CBWQ22) is priced at $2.99 but, for some reason, Amazon has discounted it to $2.97. Does this two cent decision taken by Amazon throw me in a 35% royalty bucket rather than 70%? I trust this isn't the case as if it is, it is theft and completely unacceptable. Please advise ASAP and rectify as required.

Regards,

Claude Bouchard

Received from KDP Feb 27, 2012, 6:02am

Hi Claude,

I'm sorry for the delay in responding to your query.

After researching this issue I found that your Kindle edition of "ASYLUM" is being price matched with the paperback version. Keep in mind that the digital version of your book can not be more expensive than the physical version.

Also, I can confirm that you will still keep the 70% royalty rate.

Feel free to write back to us for further concerns or clarifications. Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

Regards,

Craig V

Kindle Direct Publishing

Sent to KDP Feb 27, 2012. 7:38am

Hi Craig,

Thanks for your response which, although probably no fault of your own, I find completely ludicrous. The print version of ASYLUM retails at $11.99. This is the retail price set by me with the supplier and should be the retail price with any distributor. For some reason, AMAZON decided to discount the print version to $3.13 which I initially noticed on Friday, February 24, 2012. Since, AMAZON has further lowered the price to $2.82. You are now telling me that due to AMAZON's decisions to reduce the retail price of of the print version to well below the cost of production, I am being penalized by price-matching for my Kindle version? What if AMAZON decides to give away print versions of my book? Will the Kindle price drop to $0.00, thus reducing my royalty to 70% of nothing?

I find it curious that this whole pricing issue came into play on the first day following a two day free promotion of ASYLUM via the KDP Select program. As a result, during the period when I was maximizing paid sales, AMAZON has arranged to lower my price and effectively reduce my royalties by over 10%. This is theft, pure and simple and completely unacceptable.

I impatiently await a logical response,

Claude Bouchard

Received from Amazon.com Customer Service Feb 28, 2012, 2:47am (Sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail.)

Hello Claude,

I understand your concern about discount offered on paperback edition affecting the price for Kindle edition.

Our decision to discount books is based on a number of strategic considerations, which can vary over time. As a result, we cannot confirm how long your title will be discounted. I can assure you that many people work to make our pricing calculations as competitive as possible for both you and your readers.

Please also be assured that the discount does not affect the royalties you receive for sales made while the book is discounted. Royalties will continue to be calculated from the list price provided by your publisher, which you can see listed here above the discounted price on your book's Detail page:

http://www.amazon.com/ASYLUM-Claude-Bouchard/dp/0981279090/

It's possible that a future change in policy will result in the discount's removal from your title. In that case, the discount will disappear automatically and immediately.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Best regards,

Preethi R.

Sent to KDP Feb 28, 2012. 8:00am

Hello Preethi,

I'm sending this email to the address to which I had replied to Craig yesterday since your response was sent from an address I could not reply to. Why make it easy to solve an issue, yes?

Once again, I must point out that the information supplied to me by Amazon fails to address the issue at hand. I have no concern whatsoever about royalties received for my print version of ASYLUM. Any given retailer could order 1,000 copies and give them away and I would receive full payment from the supplier. What I AM concerned about, as explained in previous emails found in this thread, is that Amazon has arbitrarily decided to discount the print version of ASYLUM to a price low enough that Amazon's price matching policy affects the selling price of the Kindle version of the same book. The result of this decision by Amazon has a direct negative impact on MY Kindle royalties. Simply stated, this is stupid. How can Amazon give me the price-matching argument when it is Amazon who is setting the comparable price to begin with?

That said, I will once again impatiently await for a sound, reasonable response which accurately addresses the issue I have brought to your attention. If this is not clear, please advise and I will explain it once again.

Claude Bouchard

Final email received from KDP Feb 28, 2012, 4:00pm

Hello Claude,

We're sorry we haven't been able to address your concerns to your satisfaction. We will not be able to offer any additional insight or action on these matters.

Regards,

Nicholas Y.

Kindle Direct Publishing

So, the moral of the story for all my writer friends out there, if Amazon screws up, rest assured, it's YOUR problem...

Final note: Upon rising February 29, 2012, I found the print version of ASYLUM back at its regular price of $11.99 and the Kindle version at @2.99 as it should be.

If you're curious about ASYLUM, you can check it out here: http://amzn.to/xzSuz3

If you’re here to learn the answer to the above question, you’re out of luck because I’m asking it myself. What does make a book sell? Why do some books suddenly blast into the Amazon stratosphere while others sell a copy or two monthly, if that?

Of course, I understand that if an author releases a book and makes no effort to get the word out, chances are high nobody will buy it. Or if a book leaves to be desired due to a poor story or sorry grammar, spelling and presentation, we could expect sales to go stagnant as word of mouth gets around.

But what about when an author with solid writing does get the word out and works at bolstering sales through social media, website, blogging, reviews, interviews, cross-promotion, specials, giveaways, reasonable pricing, etc yet still fails to see any sky-rocketing phenomenon? This is a mystery which baffles me as well as many others writers I know.

I’m not saying I’m not getting any sales because I am. Though I don’t divulge specific numbers, I will state people are buying my thrillers daily and I’ve sold several thousand to date. What I have yet to grasp is what it takes to really get noticed and jump to the next level. I’ve developed a strong presence on Twitter with 237K+ followers and receive 4K to 5K visitors to my website monthly. I would have thought that this, combined with a growing number of strong reviews, would result in exponential sales increases but so far, the exponent is rather small.

If I take Vigilante, the first of my crime series, as an example, it now has 33 reviews, 30 which are 5 stars and 3 which are 4 stars on Amazon.com. My sales are such that it ranks consistently anywhere between #15,000 and #45,000 day after day. Comparatively, I see other novels in the same genre with a similar number (but even more mixed bag) of reviews ranking under #1,000. ASYLUM, my stand-alone psych-thriller released last July, has garnered 13 reviews to date,12 of which are 5 stars, yet currently ranks at #170,000.

Adding to my confusion is a growing number of dedicated fans who have read and praised all seven of my thrillers to date. Many downloaded my latest, Discreet Activities, and read it on January 31st, the day it was released and are impatiently awaiting my next which I just started writing, all of which tells me my work is worthy.

So, what am I missing? What makes a book sell?

If you're wondering which books I'm blabbing about, they're all right here: http://amzn.to/jfbH1k

I use Twitter as a means of contacting friends, acquaintances and the world at large. It is, at times, a social medium where I greet people and chat with them, at other times, a promotional medium where I tweet about my books, the books of others and anything else I deem worthy of sharing. Some people don’t like it and unfollow or block me and that’s fine. Others don’t like it and try to tell me what I should be doing. I find their comments, coaching, directives and demands rather self-centred and annoying.

I have never told anyone what to do or not do, say or not say on Twitter. When someone is abusive or bothersome and starts filling my timeline with what I consider crap, I drop them. If they persist by mentioning me specifically in their tweets, I block them. Simple as that...

So, I’m saying this for the last time. If you don’t like my tweets, unfollow or block me but don’t tell me what to do. Simple as that…

My crime thrillers also tell it like it is. http://amzn.to/yrZXbX