Jonnathan Strawthorne

I just unlocked the Master Wordsmith badge! 🚀

Your book is wonderful.
If it's alright with you, I'd want to have a little conversation.
Do you have openness?

Please check out my books and let me know what you think of them! Thank you!

Hi you were contacted a few month back to answer a quick survey about an upcoming app that we were thinking of developing. One where all authors would be rewarded financially for their art and services would be provided to help authors grow and improve. 😁 And for readers, they would be able to reward their favourite author for a job well done without having to take out their wallet or spend actual money.
We are ecstatic to tell you that after more than half a year of research we’ve decided to launch this app!! 🔥We’re still at an early stage of our development but our first prototype is launching in March! For those that left their email addresses, check your emails and spams cause you’ve received an invitation (if it's not there yet, then it's coming) 😉. If you’ve changed your mind and want to be part of this journey from the very start, join the Instagram page @dreaminked.app --> https://www.instagram.com/dreaminked.app

Hey Everyone. I'm up to 20 chapters now on the Red White & Grey novel. Please feel free to read and comment. I have not had any editing done yet so it is still a rough draft but I thought, for beta purposes, I would upload what I've got and hopefully some of you will help me out. Thanks and take care.
Also, I think, cloclovilla is onto a good idea. Perhaps read her survey. I'm not affiliated with her in any way shape or form I just thought it was interesting.

Hi! I need your help if you have some time 😊. I'm currently doing research on authors and readers from large platforms. It will only take you a minute. I'd really really appreciate it if you could answer my super quick survey. Here is the link (Please help me): https://forms.gle/4gshA8N4GmTFfKcH6

Hello Everyone:

It's been a while since I've posted and boy has a lot happened in the meantime. I am writing this blog/post to share with you a couple of experiences I've had with Amazon, Goodreads, and Facebook. I am not complaining, I am just sharing the experience.

I am suggesting, for any of you new authors who are contemplating on using Amazon, Goodreads, and/or Facebook to publish and/or market your book, not to use them, and here's why.

I put my books on Amazon through KDP Publishing and started to advertise using Amazon's bid system. I quickly realized the bid prices were being pushed up by authors who had a lot more money than I did. Subsequently, this resulted in me not being able to advertise on Amazon. I was completely priced out of the market. This had a detrimental effect on my ability to sell my books. Because of this, the rankings for the books fell precipitously thus triggering an algorithm to assign one star to one of my books. This was not given by a verified purchaser hence reader but instead by Amazon's algorithm. Additionally, when I tried to get in touch with someone at KDP there was no phone number, only an email. I emailed them and received a response three days later indicating I should submit a ticket which I already did and that is how I got in touch with them in the first place through the email. (Unbelievable, I know.) I do not advertise nor sell my books on Amazon now. I don't need the stress and anxiety. Additionally, I don't need an algorithm to arbitrarily decide the value of my books due to overpriced in-house marketing services thus trying to force me to spend money on more advertising. That is a lose/lose proposition (Obviously, I am not happy with Amazon.) Also, I most certainly don't need a book store to determine the success of my career.
At the same time that I was having issues with Amazon, I was marketing through Facebook. It was working very well but suddenly Facebook arbitrarily cancelled my account and to this day I still do not know why it was cancelled. I spent tens of thousands of dollars on advertising and thousands of hours on my pages, blogs, videos etc. I had close to 67,000 followers on one page, 43,000 followers on a second page and over 127,000 followers on a third page. I paid for those followers through Facebook's advertising campaigns and they ultimately deleted them all. (Yes, I am very pissed off.)

Finally, with Goodreads, I've had no success with any of their services whether that be getting reviews, beta readers, or sales of my books. I paid for a giveaway of 100 books for reviews and received over 150 requests however to date I have not received one review. I asked Goodreads for verification that the readers received the books, who they were and if there was a follow-up program and I was basically told no, be patient and mind my own business, which by the way I was. The attitude was terrible and to add injury to insult I received nothing for the money I paid to Goodreads for the promotion.

So, those are the issues I had to deal with from three of the top players in the publishing and marketing of books. From my perspective, they were terrible experiences and ones I never want to have to deal with again. I paid hard-earned money that I could not afford to waste. Buyer beware.

On the bright side, I've moved all of my books over to a publishing company I used about five years ago but left because I was focusing on Amazon. The company is Publishdrive. I have no special interest in the company other than the fact that they act as a publishing and marketing broker. It does not work for one company. My books are now on twelve different book sites, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Chapters, Indigo, Google Books, etc., all over the world. I am not beholden to any one of them. I am free to pick and choose whom I want to sell through including Amazon as Publishdrive does represent them however due to my distasteful experience with Amazon I have decided not to use it. I don't want the risk associated with the earnings from Amazon. The success of my book writing is much too important to me.

I hope you found the first-hand experiences, advice, and suggestions helpful. Take care and may your authorship and writing flourish and pay back the dividends you deserve.

I've submitted The Armored Wolf into a contest. Please vote for it

Thank you so much for the follow! Have a great weekend!

Hi, please check out my books! :) any feedback would be great! :)
Thank you.
https://www.inkitt.com/stories/fantasy/287495?utm


https://www.inkitt.com/stories/scifi/85105?utm