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This programme contains podcasts of articles my websites Megan Publishing Services, and The Amiable Dragon… mostly written by me, Owen Jones a professional author.
Megan Publishing Services Podcast
Megan Publishing Services Podcast
How to Spot an ACX Bot
3 AUG 2022 · An ACX Bot?Photo by Alex Knight on Pexels.com
Silly, slightly off-topic answers are a strong hint that you are writing to an ACX bot!
In case you haven't read the previous article on my recent experience with ACX, I'll give you a brief resume before talking about how to spot an ACX bot.
ACX accused me of fraudulent audiobook sales in June last year. They don't discuss it with you, or even give you an opportunity to ask questions, explain, or even apologise. You are guilty and you are scum.
End of story.
Fraudulent Claims of Fraudulent Sales?
Well, I hoped that it was, anyway. Then a few days ago, almost exactly a year later, I received an email from Audible saying that 12 of my audiobooks had shown traits of further fraudulent sales. They actually showed me the list, which really surprised me. However, I have never promoted eight of those twelve ever, because they were volumes 16-23 in a series and authors always promote the first three or five even. I want readers to start my series on volume one, not volume 18! It makes obvious sense, right?
However, the same person had narrated all twelve of the books.
So, having been told that my account was to be closed, I wrote to the 124 narrators of my 174 audiobooks using the ACX message board.
ACX Bot
The next day, I received a very shirty letter from a DEBRA from ACX. It was very long-winded, and slightly off-topic, but basically it told me in dodgy legalese about the consequences that I could face, if I continued to threaten 'my narrators'.
I asked ACX/Audible to show me the threats, but am still awaiting a reply after two months. That is typical ACX/Audible high-handedness. All I did was inform the narrators that the books that they had worked so hard on would disappear in a puff of wind when my account was eventually closed.
Many contacted me.
So did Debra.
However, not with a reply to my previous question, but with even more ludicrous threats. I called her out again , but the cycle repeated... four times in all!
Then the penny dropped. Debra could not read or react in a human manner because 'she' is an ACX bot.
On the fifth stupid email, I wrote only that discussing such matters with ACX bots no longer interested me. That was two months ago and I have not heard from Debra since.
I can imagine a group of spotty, spineless, youths in Silicone Valley having a great laugh at my expense for trying to discuss any serious topic with an ACX bot. However, emails containing stodgy, slightly off-topic, seemingly automated text littered with dodgy legalese that do not answer concerns that you have previously brought up are examples of how I think that you can work out how to spot an ACX bot.
My Problems with ACX
27 JUN 2022 · My Problems with ACX
When the bottom drops out of your business...
I have been with ACX, the arm of Amazon that publishes audiobooks for Audible to sell, for about eight years. However, I have been active for only since 2018, about four years at the time of writing. During that time, I created 174 audiobooks with about 144 narrators.
My average monthly income until August 2020 was about $250. Then, in September of that year, I had a brainwave. I don't mind if you think that it was late coming, but ACX gives authors and narrators (or rights holders and publishers, as they call us) a number of free codes to give to those that we believe will leave an honest review.
We also used to get paid for giving away those free codes on books published before 26-3-20In September 2020, I had about 7,000 codes, and the narrators must have had about half as many again.
So, I was ticking along at about $250 p/m and discovered Facebook Groups. I began to target my books to specific groups, and my revenue quadrupled within a couple of months.
My Problems with ACX
In March 2021, two Bangladeshi students offered to help with my promotion. I hesitated, and dawdled for a month, but eventually took them on.
Within six weeks, my income had rocketed to $3,000 pm, and within another three months, Audible had de-listed my top 20 novels for 'fraud'.
Don't ask me why, because Audible is so high and mighty that they offered no explanations or right of appeal to my problems with ACX.
So, I continued under those conditions for nine months until June 2022, when I was accused of fraud again and my account was closed.
No appeal, no explanation...
However, an ACX bot let slip the fraudulent titles. There were twelve, but I know that I have never ever promoted eight of them.
The same person narrated all twelve. So, am I being blamed for someone else's misdemeanours?
Who knows? However, what is worse is that Audible doesn't care!
ACX
Be aware, that Audible has closed my writer's account, even though I had 174 audiobooks in that account, and 144 people had narrated those books.
Therefore, without any proper explanation, I, and 144 narrators have lost an income.
If your business relies on Audible/ACX as mine did, you need to take action now, because you could be next!
This happens more often than you think!
Email me to find my solution to my problems with ACX.
Book Translations
13 JUN 2022 · Book translations
Spreading the word...
I have spent most of this month doing what I should have been doing last year - adding references to book translations to my website.
I have admitted my error in not looking after this blog before, so I won't go into it again now.
However, translators have every right to expect an entry on our blog Megan Publishing Services, and that is what I am doing now.
Book translations
It has surprised me how many languages Owen Jones's books have been translated into. The current count is thirty-five (plus English), although not every book has been translated into each of those languages.
The book that holds the record is THE MISCONCEPTION, the first volume of the Psychic Megan Series. It's the lovely tale of Megan, a psychic teenager, who is looking for answers to questions about her nascent psychic powers. It is available in 35 languages at the time of writing. We are only missing Sinhala to get all of them).
The second one is A NIGHT IN ANNWN with 14 translations. It is also about a man's supernatural experience during an NDE (Near-death Experience).
There is a stunning number of applications to translate our books at the moment. We often receive up to ten a week from all over the world. It is not at all unusual to publish three of more books in a single day, and for a run like that to last a week. This is why Owen Jones has over 1,000 books registered to him. In fact, there are more than eight hundred in the British Library records, and we are adding more every month.
However, do you think that it is coincidental that the two fore-runner book translations are about Spiritual matters?
I don't think so.
How about you?
Best wishes,
Chalita.
PS: I am now buying new book covers at the rate of two-three per month, so look out for lots of changes :-)
PPS: I have changed the covers for both of the novels mentioned above. Check them out on this site!
My New Book Covers
10 JUN 2022 · My New Book Covers
Showing off your books...
I feel that I have already written too much of late about my new book covers, but it is a very important strategy in my plans for the future
I have quite a few books, but most of them were written years ago and the covers are stale. So, they need replacing. There is no argument about that. However, at what pace?
Obviously, cost is a constraint. People say that the benefits that the new covers will bring in... increased revenue... will pay for future investment. However, it doesn't always work like that. Returns can be slower than hoped for.
Unexpected Results of Cover Changes
This can be because old customers don't recognise the new covers or series formats. The benefits of change can be slow to accrue. Slower than hoped for, or expected anyway.
One thing that keeps me hopeful though is that I receive compliments on my new book covers several times a week, and mostly from people I don't know.
That is encouraging, because even using the best cover design company in the world, it is a big step to rebrand... expensive too.
The company that I use allows an infinite number of remakes, but, which is perfect for the novice, even if a little embarrassing. It is far better to have thought about what information you want your new book cover to display beforehand. My tip is get a book off your shelf that is ‘similar’ to yours, ie if yours is in a series use one from a series as an example to copy.
My New Book Covers Checklist
So, my checklist for book cover design is: you will need the book title and your name for a start. Other options include: a subtitle, a series name, the number of the book in the series, and collaborators. Then on the back cover: a description or blurb, an author bio (and photo?), the title(s) (again?), and the cover designer. All the while remembering that you will need to leave enough room for the barcode.
Check out where I buy my new book covers on this link:
My New Book Covers
Book Cover Obsession
8 JUN 2022 · Book Cover Obsession
A dog with a bone...
I'm sorry if I'm boring you, my regular readers, but I currently have a Book Cover Obsession.
As you probably know, I wasn't like this even a couple of months ago, but that is a sign of how rapidly these things can get a hold of you. Or, me at any rate.
In my defence, book covers are extremely important to a writer, but I just hadn't realised how much before.
My Book Covers
As people, we are admonished not to judge a book by its cover, but the plain fact is that we all do that several times a day. So, I am getting to grips with this now, and am commissioning 2-3 covers a month. Today, I was trying to decide which the next two should be, and I noticed that my two worst selling books have black covers! Well, have black as the predominant colour (or shade, for the pedants).
Obsession
I hadn't realised that before, but why hadn't I? Probably, because I made them, and think that they fit the story perfectly. However, when you analyse it, I know the story, but a potential reader does not! It could be off-putting, I suppose. It was amateurish, but now I a using professional book cover designers.
Someone said that black on the cover is acceptable, if there is a death in the story. Well, there is, but the book browser doesn’t know that. I think that people can get too bogged down in symbolism. Another person Tweeted that two bullet holes on the cover of a murder mystery might signify that it is the second volume... Really? My guess would have been that the shooter was a poor shot.
Interpretation
Not only that, but not everyone takes the same thing home from reading the same book. I have talked to many readers over the last ten years who loved a book of mine, but had a totally different take on what it was about... and their interpretation was just as valid as mine.
There is one fantastic reviewer who actually taught me what two of y books were really about! How about that?
It's why I love reviews. I often learn things about my books that I didn't know, and I mean that quite literally. However, when will this book cover obsession pass? I don't know... when all my novels have better cloths, I suppose.
Book Cover Sense
4 JUN 2022 · How is your book cover judgement?
I have always thought that my book cover sense was pretty good. Why would I think that? Well, I have been reading all sorts of books for all sorts of reasons for about sixty-five years, and I have published more than eight hundred books over the last twelve years.
It amounts to a lot of experience, I think you'll agree.
However, book sales have been dropping off this year, and most pro's will advise an author to look to his or her book covers in such a situation, since people do judge a book by its cover despite the sages' clear advice.
I checked my top sellers and found nothing wanting. Still, it is difficult to be objective about one's own work, so I took them to websites where people will evaluate them.
Book Cover Evaluation Sites
There is a Facebook Group called: ‘Does My Book Cover Suck’.
Nobody liked any of my top three covers! It was like a punch in the face :-( My pride and joy was being rubbished, and what was almost as bad, I could see what my critics were talking about, once the problems had been pointed out to me.
Now, I have eight hundred book covers, as I said above, so I realised that I had a very big, and potentially, very expensive problem.
After a few beers of commiseration with my book cover sense, or during them, actually, I set to work on a fix. Eight hundred times any figure is a lot of money, so I first went to Fiverr and the like. However, you won't find anything book-related there for $5 any more. Book covers were averaging $35-$60, so I gave that up.
QR link to book cover designers
To cut a long story short, I found a firm that surpassed my expectations and came in at a very reasonable price. Furthermore, people, even total strangers, have started complimenting my covers again.
The book cover above is one that came from there.
Here is my link to their site (the QR code leads there too).
Go check your book cover sense, and take a look at some of their off-the-peg designs! Prices start at $10! Or have one totally unique, tailor-made for your book
https://bit.ly/ukr-book-covers
Blog Stats
2 JUN 2022 · Blog stats
The ins and outs...
My blog stats for last month were quite unusual, but then so, perhaps, was my own personal activity on it I will explain.
For the first time ever, that is in more than twenty years, my blog received more visitors from the UK than from the USA! For the first three weeks, up to three times more. By the fourth week, that had evened out to about 50k from each country and by the month's end, America was just in front.
Years ago, China was always in the top five, but nowadays, it rarely ranks in the top ten. Third and fourth are Germany and The Czech Republic, which is normal, although the Czech Republic is so small compared with the other top three that it is surprising really.
Fifth and sixth are the rivals Ukraine and Russia, but again, the difference in populations is enormous. Far behind come France, Canada, Spain and Australia.
My blog is hosted in the USA, and where it is hosted has a big effect on the number of visitors and where they come from. Britain is about a fifth the size of the USA, so how could it get more visitors in three weeks? In fact, the total number of visitors was up by 10%. My content is universal, not aimed at any country.
Odd Statistics
Another strange fact is that AwStats reports my blog having received 135k pageviews, but Google says that there were only about 500.
Can anyone answer that one for me, please?
So, what have I been doing that could have influenced the blog statistics so much?
Well, I spent most of the month updating book pages with new covers and more relevant meta descriptions. That's all. I suppose I changed about thirty pages, but I can't for the life of me see why changing 30/1700 pages would have that affect on my blog stats. Can you?
Foreign Translations on MPS
5 APR 2022 · Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom on Pexels.com
What we mean by that.
I have noticed recently that this blog, Megan Publishing Services (MPS) is beginning to receive lots of visits from people searching for foreign translations. So, I would like to clarify what kind of foreign translations they an expect to find when they click through to us.
Foreign Translations
There are three main variations of what I think this phrase can mean. So, let’s take a look at them.
Languages Translation Service
Basically, MPS does not provide a foreign languages translation service as such. However, there are many companies that allow you to type in a few words, some up to several thousand, and receive an automated translation in the language of any country instantly. Most of these are pretty good if you keep what you want translated short and simple. They work best if you want a fairly accurate translation within a language group. By this I mean, German, Dutch and English is a group with a similar culture; so is Italian, French and Spanish. They work far less reliably if you are translating from say English into Yoruba, Thai or even Russian. In fact, you should never reply on these apps for more than a rough idea about the target language, because they make ludicrous mistakes very often. They translate words, not ideas.
Translate to Different Languages
This is pretty much the same as above, but I take it to mean not online, and not instantaneous. For example, you could submit a document to a human translator, who will give it the personal attention it deserves for a fee. We don’t provide this service either, although we, who are associated with this blog, speak eight different languages between us. Again, there are several companies that specialise in linking a professional to a private ‘gig’ for a small fee.
Foreign Language Services
Having said all that, there are two foreign language services that we can provide.
Authors
1] You will notice that Owen Jones has had many of his books translated in foreign languages. As I am writing this, the total is forty different foreign tongues. We use two companies to perform these tasks. Both will try to facilitate the finding of a translator in the language of your choice. However, it is not guaranteed, and things can and do go wrong. If you want your book translated, we can supervise the task. Or just help you find a translator, who will work for a set fee, or a percentage of the sales proceeds (60-75%). It can take from days to months to find someone suitable, although we can arrange that for you.2] If you produce an online publication, or want to, you can choose from about 125 niche ebooks of about fifteen 500-word articles to use in it. This is useful if you want quick targeted content, say to start a blog, or to use while sick or on holiday. Some of these ebooks have been translated into several important international languages.
Readers
There are more than 800 publications in forty languages on this site. If you liked one of our books in say, English, and you want your Spanish friend to read it, this is very often possible. Just look up the title in the relevant section on the title bar.I hope that this article has clarified what we at MPS mean by ‘Foreign Translations’, and, as always, if you think that we can help, just drop me an email or use the contact form above.
Chalita
Megan Publishing Services
4 APR 2022 · Megan Publishing Services - MPS - Logo
A piece of history...
My (step) father, Owen Jones, created this blog, Megan Publishing Services, in 2013. It was shortly after he had written the first couple of volumes of The Megan Series, and it was meant as a vehicle for that series alone. The logo is the cartoon characterisation of the Megan in the series
He already had websites for his other books such as Behind The Smile and The Eternal Plan - Revealed and a personal catch- all called Welsh Products Online.
Megan Publishing Services
However, as his book real estate grew, and it happened very quickly, he decided to use the Megan blog to represent all his books. So, he rebranded it Megan Publishing Services.
Websites and blogs appertaining to specific series are now not being renewed when they expire. The rebranding of the blog / website has not seemed to matter. Well, to no-one except Facebook, which has labelled Megan The Misconception dot com as a spammer. It's unfathomable!
In fact, people seem to have taken the site and the series to their hearts, even though we have rebranded The Megan Series as The Psychic Megan Series. We did this because it is more evocative of what the theme of the series really is. Megan is, after all, a psychic teen.
In 2020, he handed this blog over to me so that he could concentrate on writing.
Search Terms for MPS
Another interesting fact is that the three most popular search terms used to find our blog in order of usage are:
1] megs publishing services
2] meg's publishing services
3] megan publishing services
People looking for us used the first search term eight times more than the third one! I am proud of that in a strange sort of way. I find it touching that people think of our blog in those endearing terms and, that the search engines accept the compliment.
Amazing, or what?
MPS and #MPS
When speaking about our blog, most people refer to it as MPS, but I have so far failed to make the search engines associate the acronym with us. A search on MPS comes up with boring ‘Members of Parliament’. Likewise, searching for #MPS on Twitter reveals posts about MP’s.
Still, I won’t stop trying to get this blog associated with MPS!
Publishing Services
I'll take this opportunity to explain briefly what Megan Publishing Services actually does. It has two aspects:
1] Readers: we are showcasing about 800 books on this site. Owen Jones has written fifty-three stories and 125 manuals. All of the stories, and some of the manuals have been translated and / or narrated making up the 800 books mentioned above. For example, the first volume of The Psychic Megan Series now exists in 34 languages.
2] Writers: except for the basic writing skills that one learns at school, Owen Jones learned and taught himself how to write books. How to get them translated, narrated and published, and most importantly, how to get them in front of readers who might want to buy them. He is willing to share that knowledge with other (would-be) authors. He is also offering the said 125 manuals as niche PLR articles for writers to use in their own online publications in several languages.
Onwards and Upwards! Megan Publishing Services and everyone who uses it!
Chalita
Foreign Translations: Czech, Slovak, Chinese…
26 MAR 2022 · Owen Jones
A truly polyglot website!
The strength of this blog, Megan Publishing Services, is the number of foreign translations of my books on it. At least, that’s one of the ways that I see it. I have written fifty-odd novels and about a hundred and twenty-five other books, and people I have never met from lands far and wide have wanted to translate them. This represents a colossal amount of work, effort and collaboration from people right around the globe. I live in Thailand, but I have worked with narrators from Canada to Australia, Europe and the Americas. Then there are translators living from Peru to Mongolia, and most countries in between including all the larger European languages and several Asian and African ones too from Afrikaans to Russian.
At the time of writing, there are about seven hundred translations and narrations in about thirty-five languages on the Megan Publishing Services blog.
More Languages
Today, I added books translated into eight more languages new to the blog, namely: Czech, Chinese, Hungarian, Macedonian, Slovak, Telugu, Turkish and Urdu.
And I have more to add. Off the top of my head, I can say that I need to add: Hauza, Igbo, Mongolian, Northern and Southern Soto, and Zulu.
Sadly, no one has offered to translate a book into my own language, Welsh, yet. I’m working on it though. To clarify, I come from Wales, but write in English.
When I have posted a page for every language that my books exist in, I will add links to each of the books and, possibly, the translators and narrators, so that readers and listeners can get to know the better. I hope that we can help them along in their careers.
Support Narrators and Translators
So,if you are not a native English-speaker, please, follow the link below to see whether I have anything in your language, and know that if you actually buy a book, you will be encouraging the narrators, translators and me to keep this project going.
Thanks to all who have contributed foreign translations, and to all of you who have bought them!
The link to the list of languages covered so far is: Languages on MPS
Best wishes,
Owen
This programme contains podcasts of articles my websites Megan Publishing Services, and The Amiable Dragon… mostly written by me, Owen Jones a professional author.
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