KU – C.G.Coppola

Last week was…interesting.

Mostly due to the exorbitant amounts of slobber, and the unintentional slip-n-slide we had going in the kitchen. But I like to think that kept us on our toes. And maybe…in some weird way…mopping the tile floor as well? No? Guess I still have to do that, then.

Appa went to the neurologist on Wednesday. According to the doctor, he didn’t see signs that pointed to anything “nefarious” (actually used the word nefarious) so I’m taking that as a win. He’s still having trouble closing his mouth, but we’re giving him anti-inflammatory medicine to combat that, so he doesn’t continue through life as a slack-jaw motherfuker. It seems to be getting a little better, but he’s still follows me around like a canine Darth Vadar, reminding me of his medical issues. At least he’s not one with the dark-side, unless you count his flatulence, which kills us all daily.

Our washing machine is still broken. The attendant came out—tried to schedule the legit same time as Appa’s appointment, so that was fun—and when he finally did arrive, he wasn’t able to fix it. He was missing a part and it would have to be this week. So…we still have giant piles of absolutely everything needing to be cleaned since, again, I made the intelligent, executive decision to put it all off until the last moment last weekend. This is the kind of CEO brain working behind writing and selling books, guys. MUAHAHA. Welcome to the funny farm, bitches.

That brings us to the writing updates—and the mistake I made because I didn’t check the details. (Guys—check the details. Just do it. It may take only a moment but it’s worth it. Trust me.) So, what didn’t I check the details on and basically, created a huge clusterfuck for myself? It was my last scheduled advertising for In The Moment Before—a paid, promotional newsletter that went out on Sunday. How did I screw it up? Well…without getting too into it, there are two basic ways to sell books:

Through Amazon ONLY. You enroll in KU (Kindle Unlimited) which is a program that readers pay to be a part of, and they get every book in the program. Kind of like signing up for a streaming service.
Through Amazon AND OTHER RETAILERS. This is called going “wide.” Readers are able to buy through Amazon (but must pay) and they can also buy through other retailers as well like Barnes & Noble, Apple, Google Play, ect.

Because I want absolutely anyone able to read my stuff (and I don’t believe in putting all my eggs in one basket) I’m a WIDE author. However, someone forgot to check her details and the promo listed In The Moment Before available as being in KU (it’s not.) Why is this such a big deal/goof up:

I paid $115. You have to spend money to make money, right? (If you find a way around this, please tell me)
All readers in KU who went looking for ITMB probably got pissed that it’s actually 2.99
All WIDE readers saw it was in KU and probably didn’t think about it again.

This is what we call an *epic fail*. But we also call it—and repeat after me—a learning experience. Check those details. They could be really frigging important.

I also discovered that my scheduled blog posts aren’t posting as should be (hence the last two weeks they’ve gone up in the afternoon when I discovered they never posted in the morning). I contacted their help service who advised my website theme/appearance has been retired. Of course it has. Now that I’m working on my website and got it to the way I like. Of course.

All I can say is I’m tired, but at least these are champagne problems. Everyone is still here, healthy, and happy. That’s literally the only thing that matters.

I have another promotion running this Friday (the 13^th – MUAHAHAHA!) for Escape from Harrizel, and you best believe me I’m checking the details. Last month I featured my BTT series and put it on sale. This month I’m focusing on promoting Arizal Wars, so…let’s see how this goes.

One last thing…it dawned on me that this is my tenth year of publishing. Yeah. I officially published Escape from Harrizel in 2013…a whole decade ago. Clearly, I’ve barely made any progress, but I wouldn’t change a thing. This is my journey, and I may be taking the real business steps a decade later, but I’m doing it. And I’m proud of myself for not quitting. And I’m proud of you too.

Okay, that’s all I got. I hope you have a fabulous week and weekend. First official 2023 Newsletter is going out on Sunday to the VIPers 😊

~ LC

There’s been a lot of craziness going on in the Indie world (in case you didn’t know. Which I assume you didn’t, since you’re not a self-published author. Unless you are, in which case, you probably know all about this. Recap for you!)

The first thing is this whole trademark thing. If you haven’t heard, an author by the name of Faleena Hopkins has successfully trademarked the word ‘Cocky’ in book titles, meaning no author—regardless of their publication date—is allowed to have that word in their title. It might not seem like such a big deal, but SHE TRADEMARKED A WORD IN A TITLE. So sorry, but I thought words were free for all of us to use? You know, to write and talk and communicate with. Is that not the case anymore? But, if the possession of a word in a title isn’t crazy enough, every other author who has that word in their title HAS TO CHANGE IT. LEGALLY.

(pause to really let that sink in)

You’ve worked for hours (and hours and hours) writing the thing, several more on imagining the brand/theme/colors, spent (even more) time and (lots of) money on cover design, editing and marketing, and now…what? You’re just expected to change it all? Because of ONE word?

But okay, let’s forget those who had to (or are in the midst of) changing everything for a second. Trademarking one word in the title isn’t really too terrible, right? Except that authors—now scared at the *possibility* of having to update their work—have come forward with their own trademarks. ‘Forever’ and ‘Dare’ and ‘Shifter World’ are all in the process of applying for trademarks. GUYS. What’s happening?!?!?!

The second other huge crappy thing is that Amazons is fucking us over. Authors, I mean. I considered going to KU (Kindle Unlimited) with my Arizal Wars series since I do absolutely no advertising and figure maybe I can score some page reads (KU pays by the page read, not the book purchased) and gain a little something there. Except, authors with LEGIT page reads are not able to access their royalties because Amazon’s saying they’re committing different kind of fraud like book-stuffing. Then a BUNCH of reviews went missing from like, a BUNCH of authors and they’re not sure if it’s a glitch or what. Regardless, losing reviews means less people’s opinions on a product which means (possibly) less interest from a potential buyer. And that’s the other thing—supposedly, Amazon is only allowing a ‘verified purchaser’ to leave a review, so if I lent you a copy of my book, you wouldn’t be able to review it there because you didn’t buy it. I don’t care who bought it, JUST REVIEW IT BECAUSE REVIEWS HELP US.

So those are the things swimming around in my head. That, and pushing BTT and writing/planning to market for BTN. And Deadpool. And maybe going to see Solo.

If you’re interested in following the “Cocky” situation, check out #cockygate. The RWA (Romance Writers Association) is even involved with the reversal of the trademark. This shit is getting super real.

What do you guys think? Big deal? Not a big deal? Having a lovely Wednesday?