AN UNBIASED LOOK AT THE INDIE PUBLISHING WORLD
Here we will be taking an unbiased look at some interesting behaviour in the indie author community.
All of the information, photos, articles and comments are taken from publicly available resources,
or evidence provided by others that they have sent in to us to investigate.
<<<<We have compiled the information and leave it up to you
to make your own decisions,
we have no agenda, no bias and no axes to grind.
We are not the legal system and are not judge and jury,
with that in mind everything you read here is ALLEGED.
We simply compile and post tips and information we've been sent in>>>>
All we are trying to do is shine a light on what is going on in this community,
and how many are embarking on, and using, the same tactics/techniques/strategies as those who have been recently brought to our attention.
There's been some excellent uncovering of information by other individuals about one specific person,
but we feel it's now time to cast our net further afield and see what else is going on and how far the rabbit hole goes.
<<<We will not cherry pick who we shine our light on.
If it's wrong for one individual to do it, then it's wrong for ANYONE to do it.>>>
That being said, no-one is off limits, no-one is placed on a pedestal.
Even if you're the veteran of a writer community, an aficionado of the bestseller's lists, or a regular to the Amazon Top 100, if we uncover disheartening evidence about you, it will be brought to the public's attention.
A lot has been said about a certain organiser's tactics when organising boxed sets, the focus has been on this one person, however, we will now look into who exactly is using the exact same tactics themselves.
THE MAGIC & MAYHEM BOXED SET
(In episode 157 of the Self Publishing Roundtable, author Jasmine Walt went into specifics about the methods she used during the sale of the boxed set "Magic & Mayhem". )n
CLIFF NOTES:
<15:18 ~ some authors in the Magic & Mayhem bed set were not comfortable with ‘’buy trades’’
Note: A "buy trade" (similar to a buy/borrow ring) is where one author buys the set,
then they buy that authors book in return & so on.
Another author said: “I don’t feel comfortable, it feels like cheating.”
Jasmine Walt: “I don't see how it's the same as cheating,
Authors ask other authors to buy their book’s all the time.”
Self Publishing Roundtable didn't chastise or correct her, instead they all laughed and said:
“At least there wasn’t a sweat shop involved with several people buying your book.”
And they all laughed along.
Jasmine replied: “No, we didn’t do that, I feel like we were pretty legit...for the most part & we earned it.”
COST OF ADVERTISING & MARKETING BOXED SET:
There’s a lot of mis-information going round about the costs of ads to promote boxed sets,
here are some exact numbers from Jasmine Walt (who would know seeing as she by all accounts is a successful author, experienced in marketing and the cost of doing so, this isn't someone throwing out random numbers on a forum, someone who has no clue what they're talking about, so we feel she's more qualified to speak on exactly how much it costs to promote these huge sets).
BOXED SET ADS:
Jasmine says: “We booked around 20 different promo email newsletter type services.
Cost: $1500-$2000 on ads.”
"$5000 between FB & Bookbub Ads."
All totalled: $8000 (approximately)
$8000 just for ads/promo,
promoting & advertising to a level where you’re competing with the Traditional Published titles costs significant amounts of money, costs the average joe isn't familiar with.
Strategy:
Jasmine Walt: “Alot of it was just following Rebecca Hamilton’s successful strategies for all of her boxed sets.” - From her own mouth, she ALSO used/uses the exact same strategies as Rebecca Hamilton.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
As, from her own words she used/uses the same strategies and tactic that Hamilton uses, why hasn't this been openly discussed? Or is that too inconvenient for some to venture into for whatever reason?
Are the same individuals who found Hamilton's techniques distasteful going to put their money where their mouth is & treat everyone who indulges in the same tactics in the same way they are currently treating her?
It can't be one rule for Person A, but another for Person B.
We cannot pick & choose who we are outraged over...or can we?
This rabbit hole goes very, very far down and deep.
Running A Boxed Set is Major Work:
Jasmine Walt: “Running a set is so much work, I don’t know how Rebecca Hamilton does it, I would never organise a boxed set ever again.”
Conclusions: It’s extremely clear from her own words & those of others involved in boxed sets that these sets require a huge level of organisation & task work & aren’t as simple to do as some tend to think.
Interesting To Note:
It's come to our attention through tip-offs from others that some complaining about Hamilton's boxed set methods still continue to use the title "New York Times Bestselling Author" on their author sites, amazon pages and profiles to this day.
This is perplexing as, surely,
if you feel that any "letters" gained through these sets are illegitimate
then why would you continue to use them?
We would seriously ponder the reasoning behind any author's who have done fantastic work
shining a light on the questionable tactics of other indie authors,
but who STILL continue to use the bestselling titles they gained from being in the questionable boxed sets they're railing against.
It doesn't quite make sense to us.
Either something's wrong, or it's not.
Don't muddy your cause by continuing to use the same letters/titles you recieved via the shady methods of the organiser you've opened so many peoples eyes to.
Hopefully this was just an oversight by these authors, as surely,
they wouldn't knowlignly continue to use the titles/letters they'd achieved via the questionable efforts of the same set organiser they're spending significant amounts of time trying to open other peoples eyes to...right?
As ever, we'll leave you to draw your own conclusions about everything we've discussed here.
WoWe w
Other Authors Using Boxed Sets To Hit Bestseller Lists
& Using The Bestselling Author Title:
In the indie book community MANY other authors are ALSO using & have used a
boxed set, anthology, and/or author story collection to make
USA Today, Wall Street Journal or New York Times Bestsellers List.
After doing so, these authors now call themselves “USA Today Bestselling Authors/NYT Bestselling Authors, etc."
Some community heavy-weights are now are calling for these authors,
ones who gained "letters" via boxed sets, ANY sets,
to drop the tagline altogether.
Is this something you agree with?
Let us know in the comments.
***
What's going on in other boxed sets then?
For now, let's take a closer look at another boxed set,
entirely unrelated to the boxed set organiser whose been widely discussed of late,
to see whether the tactics & methods, allegedly, used by said organiser are ones that are implemented by others also**
**Disclaimer: We refer only to the methods some are calling in to question as morally questionable, such as:
mass gifting, incentives for ordering, incentives for pre-orders, etc.
So for your viewing pleasure,
here are some other recent Boxed Sets that have reached USA Today and now the authors in the boxed set have ALSO began using the “USA Today Bestselling Author.” on their books after doing so:
1. BEGGING FOR BADBOYS:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NAXLV6T/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
Did this set also use similar techniques to help them reach the bestseller lists as the ones being publicly discussed & dissected?
We are raising questions & NOT hurling accusations.
Instead, as gifting, incentivizing & the like have been discussed so much in relation to boxed sets,
we aim to see whether these practices are isolated to just one boxed set organiser,
or if they're common practice with many authors doing the same, or similar, things.
Thank you to those who provided screenshots.
(if anyone has any further photos, screenshots or screen-grabs they'd like investigated & brought to the communities attention then please see our "Got A Tip?" page above, your anonymity is assured.)
Let's have a closer look at what was going on in this particular set:
& Using The Bestselling Author Title:
In the indie book community MANY other authors are ALSO using & have used a
boxed set, anthology, and/or author story collection to make
USA Today, Wall Street Journal or New York Times Bestsellers List.
After doing so, these authors now call themselves “USA Today Bestselling Authors/NYT Bestselling Authors, etc."
Some community heavy-weights are now are calling for these authors,
ones who gained "letters" via boxed sets, ANY sets,
to drop the tagline altogether.
Is this something you agree with?
Let us know in the comments.
***
What's going on in other boxed sets then?
For now, let's take a closer look at another boxed set,
entirely unrelated to the boxed set organiser whose been widely discussed of late,
to see whether the tactics & methods, allegedly, used by said organiser are ones that are implemented by others also**
**Disclaimer: We refer only to the methods some are calling in to question as morally questionable, such as:
mass gifting, incentives for ordering, incentives for pre-orders, etc.
So for your viewing pleasure,
here are some other recent Boxed Sets that have reached USA Today and now the authors in the boxed set have ALSO began using the “USA Today Bestselling Author.” on their books after doing so:
1. BEGGING FOR BADBOYS:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NAXLV6T/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
Did this set also use similar techniques to help them reach the bestseller lists as the ones being publicly discussed & dissected?
We are raising questions & NOT hurling accusations.
Instead, as gifting, incentivizing & the like have been discussed so much in relation to boxed sets,
we aim to see whether these practices are isolated to just one boxed set organiser,
or if they're common practice with many authors doing the same, or similar, things.
Thank you to those who provided screenshots.
(if anyone has any further photos, screenshots or screen-grabs they'd like investigated & brought to the communities attention then please see our "Got A Tip?" page above, your anonymity is assured.)
Let's have a closer look at what was going on in this particular set:
This Raises The Questions:
Are these authors, who received their "letters" through a boxed set, expected to no longer use these titles?
Are these authors who used some questionable tactics to procure pre-orders any different to the same ones, - i.e gifting, (*Special Tip-Off: one seasoned author in the set has repeatedly mentioned on forums that they felt uncomfortable with the level of gifting going on in this set*), incentives, buy trades, etc. -
used by those who've been thoroughly discussed recently?
Are they going to be held to the high level of scrutiny as others have been of late?
Are they/Did they use processes that are/were really that different to those used by others running/compiling sets, such as Hamilton & Walt (who confesses to using the same ones as Hamilton in her SPR interview)?
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Does any of this really negate the hard work put into these story collections?
After all their hard work, should these authors really stop using their "letters" attained via boxed sets?
As ever, we leave the conculsions up to you.
We just provide the information, as unbiasedly as we can.