Two years ago, my first digital editions were offered on my own platform. I created a website to make my digital books available to Malaysians for whom Kindle books are not available. I toyed with the idea of offering the platform to other writers whose Amazon digital books were also unavailable in their own countries. I did not know of Smashwords then. Smashwords makes digital books available all over the world, in multiple formats which can be downloaded several times over as many days.
People then asked, what about printed books? How was I going to make those available if I didn’t use the PODs (Print on Demand) portals on the internet? I put off creating the paperbacks then as my first editions were not professionally edited. I paid good money for my first edition book covers as I didn't want to distract from the several levels of editing and dozens of proofreading runs that I had to do for practical reasons. There was difficulty in finding a local editor who could resonate with my content and the foreign quotations (not that they were a match for my genre) were simply outrageous. At the time, I was surrounded by sharks in the industry and couldn’t afford the 8-9 cents a word they were going to charge me for editing. Insane, right? I thought I would do my best on my own and just put the book(s) out there to test the market.
People then asked, what about printed books? How was I going to make those available if I didn’t use the PODs (Print on Demand) portals on the internet? I put off creating the paperbacks then as my first editions were not professionally edited. I paid good money for my first edition book covers as I didn't want to distract from the several levels of editing and dozens of proofreading runs that I had to do for practical reasons. There was difficulty in finding a local editor who could resonate with my content and the foreign quotations (not that they were a match for my genre) were simply outrageous. At the time, I was surrounded by sharks in the industry and couldn’t afford the 8-9 cents a word they were going to charge me for editing. Insane, right? I thought I would do my best on my own and just put the book(s) out there to test the market.
It was a blessing in disguise that my website didn’t take off. My website was hosted on a Malaysian server and we would have had to pay Malaysian income taxes. I’m better off now that I’m on Amazon and Smashwords since income earned overseas is not taxable locally. Since Amazon and IngramSpark printed books are so expensive to ship outside of the USA and Europe, I’m going to have to photocopy and bind my manuscripts for sale locally. This is the only way to make the book marketable locally.
I’ve never been able to work the Facebook friend thing. Now that Amazon doesn’t allow Facebook friends to leave reviews, I can’t see myself suddenly getting excited over a Facebook friendship. I like that we are able to exchange messages without being Facebook friends. The only advantages to being Facebook friends, it seems to me, is that we get to tag our friends on various posts and we get to send posts in private messages. Other than those features, it’s all the same friend or no friend.
I’m told Amazon's search engine algorithms are driven by keywords and reviews and that both help with the book’s discoverability. Yet, reviews are merely opinions and are subjective. Reviews are only as good as the reviewers or as good as the reviewers invest the time to make them. I just got a review from a friend for whom English is the third language. The comments are positive but the review itself needs editing! Being his third language, I can’t place a lot of value on his opinions of my ideas, can I?
When I first got on the self-publishing scene, the various writers’ groups were all about “you read my book, I read your book; you review mine and I’ll review yours.” I couldn’t play that game as a) I’m in a country that cannot download Kindle books. b) I couldn’t read other indie authors’ books so they weren’t going to read mine. c) I thought that I couldn’t exchange reviews with other authors even if they sent me the PDFs as Amazon wouldn’t allow reviews unless the book was purchased on Amazon. (I was mistaken. As long as someone has spent USD 50.00 on Amazon on any purchase not necessarily books, that person can leave a review. The idea behind this is the person may have purchased the book from a different portal.) d) Even if the authors were interested in accepting my reviews off of Amazon, I found I simply couldn’t invest my time reading fiction genres. I read to remember; most of those books are for people who read to forget. Clearly, if I wasn’t going to read their books, they were not going to read mine. That was the mood of the writer forums.
This time around, with my second edition (my first on Amazon and Smashwords), my experience is different. I stumbled upon Dan Bowlds who authored Are We Just Bubbles? It was a book about “An Alternate View of Existence.” It was non-fiction, about the Universe and energy and in Dan’s words, “we (he and I) are both searching for answers to questions that have plagued mankind since the dawning of our consciousness: How we are here, why we are here, what is to become of us. Each of us has to seek the answers to these questions in our own way, and one that satisfies us. There are no wrong ways, except when we deny our own reasoning and logic to falsely gain the favor of someone trying to force their beliefs on us. Above all, we have to have a humble heart and be thankful for our existence.” Here was a book that I thought I could interest myself in reading and reviewing.
Here’s Dan’s review of my book:
Mena Koo's “The Dance of the Chi”, is about her journey of “going where the imagination, magic, and mystery are” through the practice of Tai Chi. It is written chronologically with current updates interspersed, and is a history of her progression from the early practice of Tai Chi for health and self-awareness reasons, to a higher level of meditation and spiritual enlightenment. She believes that Chi is a vital yin and yang force, two energies that operate the Universe to make it whole, and through the practice of Tai Chi, we can tap into this infinite energy of the Universe.
She has written this book to share her Tai Chi experience so that others may benefit from what she has learned. The book is interspersed with her poems and songs which are a good read in themselves. I would recommend this book to students of Tai Chi who also want to develop their metaphysical spirituality.
Dan admitted his book review is very brief and wanted to make sure that I am okay with what he has said. Dan added he went through my book rather quickly and highlighted points that he thought were important, then wrote the summary from his take on what he surmised from the notes. Dan apologized if what he has said is not correct and asked if I would like him to change anything in his review.
I have declined Dan’s offer as I want reviews to be as authentic as possible. I now appreciate why Amazon doesn’t allow friends to review books. Friends tend to do favors for each other and they would write biased reviews which would not be fair to the purchasing public. I also appreciate that writing reviews are not easy things to do if we want to do them honestly. It’s a huge responsibility all around, whichever way one views it.
I see that Dan has left out many major ideas in The Dance of the Chi of which I’m particularly fond of. I feel that his review tends to limit my audience. I feel that ‘My EFAW Theory’ and ‘My Outer Space Experience’ is not limited to Tai Chi students. I feel the chapter ‘Differences and Similarities of Tai Chi and Yoga’ and the ‘Healing Therapies’, among many other ideas, are not limited to Tai Chi students. My philosophy of life throughout the book is also not limited to Tai Chi students.
I see that Dan has left out many major ideas in The Dance of the Chi of which I’m particularly fond of. I feel that his review tends to limit my audience. I feel that ‘My EFAW Theory’ and ‘My Outer Space Experience’ is not limited to Tai Chi students. I feel the chapter ‘Differences and Similarities of Tai Chi and Yoga’ and the ‘Healing Therapies’, among many other ideas, are not limited to Tai Chi students. My philosophy of life throughout the book is also not limited to Tai Chi students.
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