While I have spent the last six years writing, re-writing, editing and revising my third thriller, Fool Her Once, author Eldon Farrell has written and published eight full-length novels and two books of short stories set in the world of his full-length novels.
His latest, titled Unthinkable will be released tomorrow, November 9, 2021. It is the seventh in a series set in the dystopian, sci-fi universe of Singularverse. I reviewed the first of the series, Singularity in 2018. This is what I wrote back then:
“Singularity combines the genres of dystopian fiction, sci-fi, and weaves in elements of the medical thriller and police procedural genres, with a doff -of -the- cap to the world of comic books. [It] exploded on the page for me, and demonstrated what a fertile imagination can create when unrestricted by the boundaries of more conventional genres… Farrell writes as if he is truly enjoying himself, and that enjoyment is infectious.”
Social Media Friends
Eldon and I have been social media “friends” since I decided to return to writing fiction. We met on Goodreads in 2016 and have been following each other since then. After five years of exchanging likes, reviews and comments on Goodreads, on Eldon’s newsletter and on this website, I decided it was time to interview Eldon.
I wanted to explore some of his — and our mutual– views about Goodreads and Amazon and how they help — or hinder– authors. Additionally, we both wanted to touch on the subject of e-book pricing and pesky book reviews.
I also wanted to discuss his decision to continue self-publishing; how he’s found the time to complete eight novels while engaged in a day job as an accountant — and I wanted some facts and figures from him about the actual business of self publishing.
The Self-Publishing Business
Eldon readily admits that his very first novel, Stillness —a medical thriller that touches on bioterrorism — is his top seller to-date. It has sold 1,200 copies over the five years since he published it. In the first year, 2016, he sold 75 copies and made a profit since he invested no money in marketing. “I just thought, I’ll put my book up and see what happens.
“The second year, I sold 316 copies but lost money because I spent on marketing. In 2018, sales dropped to 53 copies.”
What are some of the marketing services he has used? One, he says, promised to find subscribers for his newsletter. As most authors are informed, newsletters are supposed to be effective marketing tools because they are aimed at interested readers of the genre/genres in which an author writes.
“It was okay for a while,” he said. “I got over 1500 subscribers because the service offered a prize in return for potential subscribers passing on their email addresses to an author. The trouble is once the prize was handed out, those subscribers were not really interested in my books, and they unsubscribed.”
Another service was one to which he farmed out the writing of the blurb for his fourth Singularverse novel, Horde Protocol. The cover and the book blurb are considered by most self-published authors to be the most important factors in catching readers’ eyes and ramping up sales of a book.
Costs of Publishing
“For most of my novels, I’ve written my own blurb/back cover copy,” Eldon says. “In this case, I paid $350+ for the blurb. I can’t say I was wowed by it. There was a little uptick in sales but the e-book was priced at $4.99 so I would have had to sell 70 copies just to break even on that cost — which I didn’t do.”
He penned the tagline —One whispered word is all it takes to turn friends into enemies –– and blurb for Unthinkable himself.
Eldon acknowledges that even with Stillness, his top-seller, he has not recouped his costs of publishing it. Nevertheless, he is committed to publishing more novels. He writes regularly for 2-3 hours a day usually in the evenings after he’s home from work and his son Connor is in bed.
He has a new series in the works and is also planning a book with dinosaur characters in collaboration with 6-year old Connor. Eldon makes clear this will not be a children’s book. “It will be a novel for my usual audience but Connor will help me with the plot and the dinosaur characters, and I’ll write it.
“My writing isn’t a business,” he adds. “It’s a hobby. I love writing, and self-publishing gives me a control I wouldn’t otherwise have. I like being able to do my own thing.”
Which brings us to the subject of the Amazon behemoth which now includes ownership of Goodreads — a website with some 90 million subscribers world-wide.
Horror Stories
Amazon’s power over authors who are self-published and who do not have the support of a traditional publisher is frightening. Eldon mentions the “horror stories” that circulate among self-published authors about authors who Amazon discovers have had “friends of friends” review a book.
“In extreme cases, Amazon eliminates their reviews and ratings and bans those authors from the Amazon website,” says Eldon.
It’s a hot-button issue. I, for one, would like to know when Amazon has uncovered overly-enthusiastic –5-star only– reviews from friends and friends of family. On the other hand, what methods does Amazon use to determine exactly who is an illegitimate reviewer?
Of course, this just begs the question of the value of armies of reader/non-professional reviewers opining at length on sites like Amazon and Goodreads.
“What does it matter to you what a stranger thinks about something so subjective as a book?” asks Eldon.” The way it should work is, you go find a book, read the blurb and the first few pages and you decide whether you want to buy it.
“I wouldn’t get rid of professionals critics who are paid to do the job like the reviewers at Publishers Weekly who take the job seriously, but we’ve empowered people to the point where any little thought they have is treated like gold.”
E-Book Pricing
Eldon blames the traditional publishers for the glut of self-published works on the market. When the capability of publishing e-books first appeared on the scene, he reminds me, traditional publishers priced them much higher than they needed to be priced because they wanted /preferred to sell the print versions.
“Back then if they’d priced them reasonably, for example, at $7.99 or $6.99 for a traditionally published, best selling author’s book, would there have been any market for a self-published novel for $2.99? Would readers have chosen a self-published novel over a reasonably priced one from a traditional publisher?
He adds: “A good price for an e-book is $6.99-$7.99. Once a publisher has covered the cost of cover design and formatting and editing, there are no more costs for an e-book.”
As for free? Both Eldon and I agree we dislike the idea of ever giving away a book for free. Personally, even if given the opportunity to download a book for free, I will not do so. Ever.
Free Books?
Meanwhile, Eldon adds: “I don’t want to do free as an author. I’m an accountant and I’ve never know a business where they’ve given away a product for free. When Kindle first came on line, you could go “free” for a short while and it was a good thing because you’d shoot up the charts, and then when you went back to a priced version of your book, you were still on the charts at whatever position you’d landed while your book was being given away for free. But now the game has changed, and you end up being at the bottom of the paid chart.”
“Nevertheless,” he adds, “after a few years of swimming against the current, I’ve had to start going with the flow.” Eldon now offers one free e-book, Phantom Echo, on his Amazon Books page (see below.)
Like Going To The Prom
As for Goodreads, the website where I first met Eldon? The site is touted as “must” social media for authors. After all where else are you going to find an audience of 90 million?
Not so fast, says Eldon. “There are readers on Goodreads and there are authors. The readers don’t really want to be sales-pitched to, and the authors are constantly just looking for marketing advice.
“It’s sort of like going to the prom and looking for someone to dance with, but when you get there it’s just a bunch of guys standing around.”
Check out Eldon’s latest thriller Unthinkable on his Amazon page — and take a look at some of his earlier thrillers while you’re at it.
You did a fantastic job with this interview Joanna 🙂 I really enjoyed speaking with you on all the topics we covered!
It was good fun actually talking, wasn’t it? Wish you all the very best for your launch of Unthinkable today, Eldon. Please keep us posted on its progress.
Will do Joanna!! It’s nice in this day and age to actually “talk” to someone once in awhile.