Writers in the Storm

Penny Sansevieri

Vanishing Amazon reviews have become a consistent part of being an author. It’s a sadly popular problem, and my blog posts that focus on this issue are still some of our highest viewed. Many authors still struggle with this, even with Amazon relaxing their review pulls.

These ideas may help with the disappearance of Amazon reviews. If this is happening consistently to your book, there may be a more extensive issue. I’ll touch on this as well.

Secure Your Current Reviews

You know how it happens, right? All of a sudden you notice a number of reviews are missing from Amazon! For this reason, I urge you to constantly check for new reviews.

One thing I recommend is to take a screenshot of the “Customer Reviews” on your Amazon Author Central page, so you can not only capture new reviews, but observe if any reviews are missing. You may still lose that review on Amazon, but it’s secured in your screenshot, so you can add it to your book page later. You can repost any missing reviews to the “reviews” in Author Central.

I do this regularly: once a week if I’m in between book releases, and more frequently if I’m on top of a new book release.

Sometimes Amazon Malfunctions

The Amazon website is massive, and although it’s hard to believe, Amazon does make mistakes.

This sometimes impacts book reviews. Lately, I’ve had many folks tell me their Amazon reviews disappeared and ask for advice on how to move forward.

It happened that these reviews were posted around the same time. Luckily when the authors reposted the reviews as instructed, it worked successfully. So, sometimes it’s an odd glitch, and it’s worth asking the person who posted the now missing review to try and repost it.

If you are noticing Amazon reviews vanishing (and you took the screenshot to verify this), I encourage you to enlist Amazon’s help via the Help button in Author Central. But, give yourself some time before contacting Amazon because you don’t want to be emotional. I know, easier said than done. When reviews get pulled we feel like Amazon is in the wrong – and maybe they are, but a helpful conversation with Amazon could shed some light on why this is happening and what you can do.

It’s important to inquire with Amazon about your reviews. I’ve had some authors tell me that once they enlisted Amazon's help, they received all of their reviews back.

Ask Your Readers for Reviews

Lost reviews can’t be recovered — and even if Amazon never displaces your reviews, you still want to continue building your number of reviews. I know this may seem very apparent, but authors sometimes forget to keep motivating their readers for reviews.

Dear Reader letters are a great way to boost your reviews. I’ll add a link below to another post I’ve written on this.

https://www.amarketingexpert.com/turning-your-book-into-a-24-7-book-sales-tool/

This may seem obvious, but whenever I’ve asked authors when the last time they asked their readers or mailing list for a review, they can’t recall. Authors seldom remember to do this. Mailing lists are helpful and if you don’t have one, I recommend you start one asap!

By creating a mailing list and asking readers for reviews, it allows the readers to feel like they are truly contributing to your success. If you respectfully request reviews, you will obtain them.

Help your readers recall why reviews are so important and encourage their input (good or bad). This input can sway a person to buy. Remind readers to provide an impartial assessment of the book.

Vanishing Amazon reviews are unfortunately a battle that will continue happening. Following these key ideas will help you secure your current reviews and continue compiling new ones!

About Penny

Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. (AME) and Adjunct Professor at NYU, is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. To learn more about Penny and her company, visit www.amarketingexpert.com

by Ellen Buikema

There are times I’m absolutely certain of the characters’ surroundings,
the shape of the scene crystalizes in my mind and I can write it all in one sitting. Don't you love those times? But there are moments when that just ain’t happenin'.

I see the setting as one of the story’s characters, and I need a clear vision of the locale to weave the dialog into the setting for a strong scene. When it "ain't happening," it’s time to set aside my introverted tendencies and make some calls.

Research Avenues

For my current book, The Hobo Code,I contacted business owners in locations where my protagonists traveled, historical societies, museum docents, read historical documents, library archives, student dissertations, and perused Pinterest and YouTube.

For example, at one point I needed some information on making a fishing pole and how to gut fish. Having never gutted a fish and no real desire to do so first hand, I found what I needed in a few different YouTube videos enabling me to put together a good, gross description to create a believable scene.

In the name of research, I've traveled on city trains, both subways and elevated. I’ve walked through old trains in Midwestern train museums, but I've never taken a long trip on a train nor ridden an older passenger train.

In The Hobo Code, my protagonists do a lot of train travel, primarily on freight trains but also on some passenger trains.

Dialogue from Setting

I already had a good feel for what they would say to each other and was confident of their individual levels of anxiety and relief, but wasn’t sure about the inside of the train. How would they react to each other within and due to the confines of the space? How might the interior of the train effect what my characters would do? Would there be any physical distractions or hazards to keep in mind?

Sitting down and chatting with local train enthusiasts was a real eye-opener. They gave me some suggestions for places to look online that they used to make historically accurate representations and also lent me some large hardbound books on trains of the late 1800s and early 1900s that had some interesting photos.

One particular scene in the story placed three children and their father sitting across the aisle from each other on a passenger train from Wausau, Wisconsin to Milwaukee. To assist with this scene I located several photographs on Pinterest.  I found the following photo helpful for the travel scene across the state of Wisconsin. It gave me a feel for clothing, hair styles, size of aisles, and seating. Those blocky structures over the seats are beds, so this particular train car is a sleeper.

These seats are fairly narrow. Since the father and eldest son in my story had the most trouble with each other I kept them separated. There seems to be enough room for their carpetbags to rest on the floor by their feet, and sufficient window space to peer out into the distance to ponder and observe.

Finding Local Experts

Gathering information from local experts requires a bit of digging but is well worth the effort. I contacted several museum docents along the route my characters traveled. I received a goldmine of information from Mark Shafer, the director of the Carnegie Museum in Fairfield, Iowa, one of the stops on their journey. We communicated primarily via cellphone texts. He sent a plethora of photos and was forthcoming with information about the history of the area and the local college, Parsons, which was in existence in the early 1900s.

The following photo, taken at Parsons College, was not used specifically to help set a scene. Instead it was used to develop a secondary character, an acting student whose parents believed she was studying something else more practical. Her personality sang out to me as vibrant, full of mischief and fun. This character sparked a desire to act in the sister of the main protagonist who goes on in the next story to become an actress in the early days of Hollywood.

I spent about an hour on the phone with the owner of a bar, now known as The Glass Hat, in Wausau, Wisconsin, where the father of my protagonists spent a good deal of time and money. In the early 1900s this same bar was named The Langsdorf Saloon. The owner, Gisela Marks, sent several photos. Our conversation helped me breathe life into the early chapters of the story.

For the first bar scene I wanted to have music and wasn’t sure if I should include a piano or have a patron bring in an accordion. The current owner found part of a piano case in the bar’s basement when she first acquired the building and so I could be certain to use the piano for that particular scene.

These two photos Gisela sent me helped make the exterior and interior scenes come alive.

For a while now I’ve followed an Australian author, acflory, who writes science fiction and does a lot of world building.

I expected her process would be very different from my own. I imagined she’d find a topic of interest, do the research, then scenes would form in her mind and she’d write them. When I asked about her process, this was her reply:

“It's probably a bit more circular than that because my stories are always about /people/ responding to tech. For example, I play online games so I'm very familiar with playing in a digital world. From there it wasn't a huge stretch to wonder what it would be like to actually live in a digital world. Why would someone want to? Perhaps because they were very sick? So then the internal world of the character had to go hand in hand with the tech that would make it possible, at least in theory. So then research about how you might make it happen. What would you need? And who would pay for it? Apart from the fear factor, would there be dangers?

“ For me, the stories literally grow, layer by layer. And of course, all the research and tech and thinking about the world /is/ world building.”

Andrea (acflory) also uses information gleaned from YouTube and includes the videos on her blog. Much of what she’s sent along is new and exciting technology.

What do you use for inspiration to create scenes? Do you prefer to use three-dimensional objects, online images, take vacations near or at your story’s local? What is your process?

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About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents and a series of chapter books for children with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Work In Progress, The Hobo Code, is YA historical fiction.

Find her at http://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

by Kris Maze

How does one become a superstar editor? Or even just a better self-editor? Take a class?  Get a coach? Getting an editor job takes years of study and experience, but if your goal is to strengthen your manuscript and to gain satisfaction from growing in your craft, there's a resource that may be a good starting point.

When I researched “empowering your inner editor”, the internet protested that this secret superpower (editing) was taboo. Pages of Google Search Titles portrayed the Inner Editor as badly as an addiction to a smarmy ex-boyfriend:

• How to Silence…
• Why You Need to Restrain…
• 9 Tips to Defeat...
• How to Shut Up Your…
• How to Turn Off...
• Four Ways to Control your…

INNER EDITOR.

Whoa, now. I have to disagree. The inner editor serves a vital purpose after the first draft, taking one’s writing from fluffy to fog-free. But it doesn't happen without practice and guidance.

When I finished my first novel THE TALENT, I was overwhelmed by the steep journey of editing.  I hired a professional editor but didn’t want them to waste their time working on errors I should be able to fix myself.

As I navigated the how-to of trimming the wordiness from my writing, a friend suggested Don McNair’s 21 Steps to Editor-Proof Your Writing.  Packed with examples and exercises, this book takes a writer from understanding to implementing with precise editing strategies in three parts:  

• Part 1: Putting Words In examines the developmental part of editing.  
• Part 2: Taking Words Out moves into specifics of what makes an editor cringe.
• Part 3: Sharing Your Words advises how to utilize critique partners, work with professional editors and find publishers and/or agents through querying.

Here is a raw scene from a short story in progress, which I'll use to show the before and after of McNair's lessons.

Draft #1

She played the bow across the string with a final dissolving note, while the dinner chatter rose. A man rattled ice in his cocktail glass, at a nearby pub table. “It was a fine performance, but not exquisite.” he commented to a woman checking her phone.

“Let’s call that a set.” her pianist declared, raising from the piano bench and disappearing to the bar as she slowly bobbed her head.

She wandered from the room to the adjoining study with towering windows flanked by thick curtains to keep out the winter chill.  The glass was visible and framed the star-dotted sky.

One paned glass door was open a crack, a bucket with half extinguished cigarette butts on the concrete enclosed patio. The chilled air bit into her bare arms and she pulled the sparkling gown training behind her up and around her feet. She welcomed the cold and invited them to snap her to her senses. Her performance was weak and she knew it.

McNair offers lengthy lists of sample words and phrases to search out to cut the fluffy parts from your writing. He provides brief exercises with answer keys to ensure you understand how to make your writing clearer.  The process of going through his book trains your writing brain to find the sticky parts common in first drafts (along with tools to fix them).

5 Steps to Self-Editing Stardom

1. Fix your verbs! Seriously, almost half of his list is dedicated to this powerful grammar motor.  Make the verb tense concise and select the most accurate words to carry your story.
2. Eliminate and Avoid Dead and Redundant Phrases.  See what I did there?  Don’t do that.  Get rid of the fog by picking just the important details. Only add visual elements that further your story.  Get rid of the fluffy words.
3. Deconstruct and Realign. Could you regroup your description to streamline the reader’s experience?  Could the order of the actions change to make the words flow better?  Pulling apart the scene can help a writer reorder the details in powerful ways.
4. Prepositional Phrases – Keep an eye out for these sneaky extras – phrases like “on top of” or “down below” are easy to cut out and replace with stronger expressions.
5. Dialogue – Do you need it?  How much?  Simplify to only what pushes the story onward.  Let actions evoke the mood and set the scene.  Less is more.

Draft #2 - in progress

Those edits paved the way for scene setting, improved sensory details and smoother dialogue.

Draft #3

She tugged the violin bow through a dissolving finale while dinner chatter rose.  A man rattled ice in his cocktail glass, “A fine performance, but not exquisite,” he said to a woman checking her phone. Evalyn set the bow in its case, feeling a flush form on her cheeks.

She couldn’t afford another mediocre review.

“Let’s call that a set, “her pianist said. He bolted from the bench to the bar before she could bob her head in agreement.

Evalyn wandered to the balcony entrance where brocade curtains insulated tall windows and framed the star-dotted sky.  A planter full of half-extinguished cigarette butts smoldered as she exited through the glass-paned door.

Her steps echoed across the concrete as her sequined gown flowed behind, cascading like a crystalline waterfall and exposing her well-scuffed heels. Goosebumps formed on her legs as she invited the cold to bite at her bare arms. Her breath formed clouds in the crisp air.

She wished for the cold to wake her muse and make it heed her summons. 

Final thought

Self-editing can be a satisfying part of the writing process but I hear mixed reviews from writers. It's a joy to some and a tedious chore to others. I recommend Don McNair’s book for anyone who needs clear direction to navigate the foggy parts of writing.  His thorough process was the perfect guide to a stronger manuscript worth submitting.

What favorite resource made a difference to your newbie writer self? Please share the editing resource that helped you refine your writing in the comments below.

About Kris:

A recovering grammarian and hopeless wanderer, Kris enjoys reading, playing violin and piano, and spending time outdoors with her fur babies and family. She also ponders the wisdom of Bob Ross.

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