Aria Dunham / No Frills Florida

Another writer that I coached, that I didn't even charge a penny to, had a manuscript that was good but not as good as it could be, and I loved it. So, I coached him as well. 6 months post release on line, another unknown writer, made #2 of his category for Amazon book sales.

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It's sometimes difficult to interpret Ms Dunham's contorted syntax, but I understood this to mean that "another unknown writer" WAS the person she coached.

Again, a few names and titles would help.

AriaDunham said:

. What's worked about No Frills and those "covers" someone mentioned. No Frills has writers with great books, and understated covers to give the business impression of don't judge a book by it's cover. (How often does that happen with a writer) as that is the only real response that negates bad rumor.

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Can anyone make any sense of this bit? Because I'm afraid I can not.

@gingerwoman Beats me. I'm still trying to figure out the 10 copies in 11 stores. Is that 110 copies total, meaning 10 copies in each store? Or 10 copies period, meaning two stores have to share a copy? My fear is the stores have to share, which is scary anyone would think this was a good thing.

aliceshortcake said:

Oh, and I've just chosen a No Frills Buffalo book at random and had a look inside. The first thing that struck me - apart from the clumsy writing - was that the editor hadn't noticed the use of "tracks" instead of "tracts".

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Possibly the same person who spells 'strictly' as 'strickly'?

"Some writers have used strickly Amazon, or Smashwords."

gingerwoman said:

Can anyone make any sense of this bit? Because I'm afraid I can not.

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I take it as saying covers aren't that important and readers don't judge by them, so it doesn't matter if you think they're bad. And anyway, they're not bad, they're understated.

As for the covers, they're bad rather than understated. There's one standout exception, but a bit of digging found the artist, and he announced it as being a cover done for his friend's book. So I would assume the author went in knowing he wanted that artist (and thus dodged the terrible typography).

Polenth said:

I take it as saying covers aren't that important and readers don't judge by them, so it doesn't matter if you think they're bad. And anyway, they're not bad, they're understated.

As for the covers, they're bad rather than understated. .

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I think it's saying these covers are free, so good for our bottom line, but we've come up with a bizarre rational.

Vanity press book covers positively scream "The words inside me didn't undergo any quality control either!"

Screaming? An interesting strategy, but definitely a presence.

AriaDunham said:

Also, remember that you have to have more than just a good book. You have to have a strategy: social media presence, engagement, strong brand, good content, and a great personality --to compete in this new world of publishing

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Great personality? But I already purchased kooky oddball. Dang.

aliceshortcake said:

Vanity press book covers positively scream "The words inside me didn't undergo any quality control either!"

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The thing is you can buy the most gorgeous covers now from independent artists for $69 now and less gorgeous, but very decent covers for even less, if you choose not to go with a trade publisher.