The Ethical Author

"The Ethical Author" has not been a phrase or quandary I've come across during times of big publishing houses ruling the readersphere. But it comes into play more when independent authors are seeking ways to gain exposure.

Can you buy reviews?

Can you scour your friends and family for possible boosts in the amazon charts? How much do you charge for your book without the same overhead as a big box publisher?

There develops a bit of a question about the Ethical Author. A google search of this phrase will yield over 81,000 results. I found the discussion time and time again on blogs, in goodreads groups, and on amazon threads.

Most recently, digging through twitter feeds for something worthwhile, I stumbled upon a question: Are you an ethical author?

Immediately I said to myself, yes! I am fundamentally committed to keeping labor as local as possible, even if that means more expense for my product design, and I don't reflect that cost in the price of my book. I write the stories in my heart for the reader and no one else, and I've chosen the indie pub route because that allows me to be choosy, to craft my own ideal publishing house.

Want to know if you're an ethical author? Download the checklist and find out!

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The Alliance of Independent Authors offers a badge for the Ethical Author. They give you a list of responsibilities. Reading though this I felt a tug toward the importance of acknowledging the question.

Check it out:

Ethical Author Code

Guiding principle: Putting the reader first

When I market my books, I put my readers first. This means that I don’t engage in any practices that have the effect of misleading the readers/buyers of my books. I behave professionally online and offline when it comes to the following practices in my writing life:

Courtesy

I behave with courtesy and respect toward readers, other authors, reviewers and industry professionals such as agents and publishers. If I find myself in disagreement, I focus on issues rather than airing grievances or complaints in the press or online, or engaging in personal attacks of any kind.

Aliases

I do not hide behind an alias to boost my own sales or damage the sales or reputation of another person. If I adopt a pen name for legitimate reasons, I use it consistently and carefully.

Reviewing and Rating books

I do not review or rate my own or another author’s books in any way that misleads or deceives the reader. I am transparent about my relationships with other authors when reviewing their books.

I am transparent about any reciprocal reviewing arrangements, and avoid any practices that result in the reader being deceived.

Reacting to reviews

I do not react to any book review by harassing the reviewer, getting a third party to harass the reviewer, or making any form of intrusive contact with the reviewer. If I’ve been the subject of a personal attack in a review, I respond in a way that is consistent with professional behaviour.

Book Promotions

I do not promote my books by making false statements about, for example, their position on bestseller lists, or consent to anyone else promoting them for me in a misleading manner.

Plagiarism

I know that plagiarism is a serious matter, and I don’t intentionally try to pass off another writer’s words as my own.

Financial ethics

In my business dealings as an author, I make every effort to be accurate and prompt with payments and financial calculations. If I make a financial error, I remedy it as soon as it’s brought to my notice.

Responsibility

I take responsibility for how my books are sold and marketed. If I realise anyone is acting against the spirit or letter of this Code on my behalf, I will refer them to this Code and ask them to modify their behaviour.

Especially at a time when finding reviews is difficult. When your book feels like one-in-a-million-in-a-mire, do you stick to your feelings about quality, readership, and responsibility? I'd love to hear your thoughts about this.

Are you an ethical author?

Download your very own ethical author checklist and find out!

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Looking for an Original Dark Fantasy? *Giveaway*

How about a badass anti-shero who seduces the most licentious men? Enter to Win an AUTOGRAPHED copy!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

**ONLY 6 DAYS LEFT!**

Ella Bandita and the Wanderer:

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"What a rare treat to find everything I look for in a story in one book: gorgeous writing, complex characters, a little magic, real emotion, and many surprises."

*Recipient of the Individual Artist Project Award from the Rasmuson Foundation.

Eternal Novicehood and the Saving Grace of Good Friends

Let's reach back to August 13, 2005, when I was on the first legs of my journey through Alaska, touring with my collection, Ella Bandita and Other Stories.

Hey y’all,

This road trip was shaping up to be an exercise in humiliation until Joe showed up.  For instance, in Homer, at my first open mike, I had right in front of my stage the Christian kiddie contingent.  They were there to play cards, talk loud, and make smart-ass speeches after different musicians played just to show how cute they were, while the folks that were actually listening attentively were behind them. 

I was lucky though, they got even more obnoxious when the guy after me went up to play his guitar and sing. 

At the Land's End in Homer, my first night was the exact same time and date as the post-Memorial service for Drew Scalzi, a former state Representative, so everyone there was going to that.  One couple tried to get me to go upstairs, have some food and drink and let people know I was there, but there's just something about going to somebody's funeral, especially someone that I'd never met, to hustle some business that is...distasteful to say the least.  The same couple came down and bought a book - probably out of sympathy because nobody showed up that day, and the wife suggested that I should come in the winter, people are looking for things to do during that time.

The next day, a couple of acquaintances and a couple of total strangers showed up.  I sold two books and all I could think was that it was a mighty fine thing that I did not pay a dime for that space and that my beginner's luck had run out, and I'm back in the time and space of being a novice...again.

I packed up the brown beast (that is burning oil, but other than that is running beautifully) and headed for Seward.

It seems like every year I decide to do something different that I know nothing about, just so I can be a novice all over again.  Perhaps Zen Buddhists would applaud my embrace of Zen mind by constantly being a beginner; but given that I learn by making many many mistakes, the novice/beginner period can be agony.   

In  Seward, at the Resurrect Art Coffee House, I had set up a tableside storytelling for the sake of promoting my book.  The owners are every artist's dream come true as they support the arts and would let me do whatever I wanted - so I set up for three days, hoping positive word of mouth would help.

Day one, told several stories and sold...nothing.

Granted, I'm sure it could have been worse, I could have been insulted on top of it.  But to be in a place for four hours and have people nod politely at my efforts is...awful, humiliating.

Why would any sane person put herself through all this?

It didn't help that I had a Homer friend tempting me to go back to Homer, go charter fishing and party.  It was so demoralizing, I almost went, but I made a commitment and as much as it hurt, that commitment must be kept.  I gritted my teeth to bear it on Thursday, where at least the day would be mercifully short.

Told two stories to four people...sold two books.  I perked up a bit.  I've survived painful learning curves before and it was always better.  I even sold two more books to a waitress and one of her followers at the bar where I refreshed myself with a beer after hiking. 

And then came deliverance...

Friday brought the arrival of Joe, who has absolutely no boundaries, and therefore, no inhibitions.  A born balls-to-the-wall salesman type.  For those who know Joe: after fishing in Bristol Bay, his dreads got inflected with fish bits and he said every morning when he woke up his head smelled like fish and he couldn't take it anymore, so he shaved them off, along with his beard - and damn! – now he looks like a respectable young man. 

He listened to a couple of stories, and even stopped being a smart-ass half way through the first one.  A Colorado woman who calls herself "Soozie Creamcheese," bought a book, and the two over-friendly studs I'd met at the youth hostel bought none. And Joe took it upon himself to take a few books and go to the bars.  He took four and within 45 minutes, came back with forty bucks and left with ten more books.  By the time people were only caring about getting drunk, he sold seven.  While I stayed put, told more stories, and sold two more.

I'm busting my butt telling stories and recommending myself to strangers and this is Joe's sales pitch:  "Dude, you should really buy this book...." usually to a female.

And it works.

I just might have to pack up Joe in my luggage...

Thank God for good friends.

Montgomery

How to get more out of Social Media

If you read my last post, you can tell this has been on my mind. Social media is a great way to build community, but it can be infuriatingly difficult at times. This article from StandoutBooks (LOVE their helpful posts) tells you more about how to use social media for maximum effect. It's clearly written and gives thoughtful, practical advice. Let me know if you have any other methods for negotiating the online social territory!  

Whether you’re a newly self-published author or someone who’s been around the block a few times, chances are you’ll wish that your social media following was a little more engaged.

Some writers struggle to gain a single ‘like’ online, while others who’ve patiently cultivated their following can become frustrated when even after months of building hype, many of their followers fail to buy their latest novel.

I find that there are four levels to any author’s fan community. I like to call them the Disinterested, the Interested But Lazy, the Engaged Who Don’t Follow Through, and finally, the Die Hards. The trick, as far as I’m concerned, to an effective social media campaign is to encourage followers to climb the ranks, slowly rising through the levels to become Die Hard fans.

Influencing fans isn’t always easy though, and as such, in this article I’ll talk a little about each of the three lower levels, and how you can encourage your fans to level up.

Read more on StandoutBooks

Twitter Campaign for Independent Authors

Hello all! I've got some exciting news. I've just launched a twitter campaign to help promote self published authors. I'm so glad to give to the indie community and offer a little bit of exposure to my fellow writers who are working to promote their own work (and find time to write the next novel!) Twitter has been a tough social media format for me. It's so loaded with garbage it's hard to sift through to find the gems. Instead of scrolling feeds, I decided to find a way to check out new authors as well as use twitter to promote them. With an open-invitation system (just email info@freeflyingpress) and author-designed tweets (send me 140 characters and an image of your book) I can quickly schedule in 4 tweets to help spread the word about new books.  

I hope this model will connect me with other authors & help strengthen the indie community while sharing news about hot new titles. I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts about how to use twitter to build community and help each other grow our author online presences!

& in the meantime, check out a preview my latest ebook release The Heart of the Lone Wolf  coming in September. For only .99 you can get your preorder copy today!

Get your FREE copy of Challenge today & Sunday only!

We're giving away a copy of Montgomery Mahaffey's steamiest novelette Challenge today and Sunday only on Amazon. Download now and read later!

The Wanderer should have known better. Growing up with the Bard's fireside stories about the predatory seductress Ella Bandita has done nothing to prepare him for meeting her. When he crosses paths with a mysterious vagabond girl in the woods, his loneliness pulls him toward her. But the strange woman spurns his friendship. It should be easy enough to leave her behind. But the Wanderer can't pull himself away, captive to his stubborn will and the haunting dreams that linger when he wakes up every morning. Drawn in by the legendary allure of Ella Bandita, the Wanderer is caught up in a game of cat and mouse fraught with desire that is only fueled by his neighbor's disdain. Soon, the words of his grandfather's warning becomes a fading echo in his ear...always remember, follow your heart. Will the Wanderer resist in time to hear those words, or will he lose the one thing that matters to him most?

http://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Ella-Bandita-Wanderer-Book-ebook/dp/B00Y9HOGBE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437855367&sr=8-1&keywords=challenge+montgomery+mahaffey

Tapestry of Life on the Human Highway

Today I'd like to revisit one of my journeys while on the road for my first book tour. As I'm moving through the developments for the major release of my novel, Ella Bandita and the Wanderer, I find myself thinking back to those days on the road where I met well...keeping reading...you'll enjoy it. :) August 9, 2005

Every time I'm on the road, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly friendships are bonded and easily untied - especially as the need arises.  There's something about traveling - being suspended from the day to day life of jobs, rent, bills, social obligations, community service, and established groups - that suspends the usual rules of how people interact with each other.  Boundaries are lifted, discretion is almost an insult when making friends and forming temporary community from town to town.

I met Ann at the Amped Cafe in Homer, the day after I arrived in town.  She's torn between career and more school, and which way to turn.  There was an immediate bond that forged itself when she mentioned living in her truck, with a dog, and a Holly Golightly-style best friend that was halibut fishing with a new fling, who "wore his mullet well," and thus, was currently unavailable. 

What a coincidence!  I'm also living in my truck.  

Ann talked me into doing a reading at the open mike that night to get warmed up for the Concert on the Lawn that first weekend.  The next morning, she met me at 8:30 to help me set up my booth and was in and out every so often, as the need arose.

Hey, she got into the concert for free.  After the week-end, she felt comfortable enough to let me stay in a tent outside the mullet-fisherman's house and I had a place to reorganize my truck and make coffee in the morning.

At the Concert on the Lawn, a volunteer named Lia offered to let me park my truck and sleep in her van with a double bed if I needed a place to stay.  She was widowed from the love of her life two years before, and she had done her fair share of adventuring in her youth.  She was also letting a young man stay on her property that was on a spiritual path of Buddhism and daily meditation, so it was really no big deal.  But she felt the need to assure me that she wasn't coming on to me and that the young man was not her lover. 

When Ann moved on to Seward to look into a possible dream job, I gave Lia a call and after it took her a moment to remember me...

"Oh yes, the Scheherazade..." she said.  (I totally dug that compliment) before giving me directions to her house. 

She got a little reluctant about using her van, but I had a place to park, and a kitchen to make my coffee, and an outhouse to do my business, and my body was scrunched again into my truck's proportions. 

She told me her story, and it turns we have much in common.

"We are all interconnected," she said. 

If she ever comes to Juneau, of course she'll have a place to stay.

Ann's sweet dog was hit by a car on Saturday night and killed, so she left Seward by the time I got there and the Holly Golightly-style best friend met her in Anchorage.  I doubt I'll see her much from here on out, but I have a couple of pieces of mail and her PO box key.  I'm sure we'll keep in touch and all, but I suspect that Ann was my Homer friend.

So here I am in Seward to do table to table storytelling at the Resurrect Art Coffee House.  I'm staying at the hostel and it feels like high luxury accomodation to be able to stretch out in sleep and have a place to put food.

This morning I was looking forward to coffee in the communal kitchen and writing in my journal when a born-again Christian wrecked the peace of my morning today when she had to tell me her life story of giving her life to the Lord and how happy she was that she didn't have to be good enough to get into heaven, because God sent his Son to die on a cross for her.  It's incredible that Christians never stop to think how sadistic and cruel that is... 

I felt my energy being sucked dry...dammit, I knew I should have kept my distance.

When I couldn't take anymore of her being saved speeches, I got up and told her abruptly that I had gotten screwed by the same system that had done so much for her, and would she please stop.  She said, yes of course and we made banal chit chat and wished each other a good day.

I'm only one thread on the tapestry of life, and these intersections are only a moment and some are a part of beautiful patterns and others...are not.  

But then my thread runs on, as does theirs.

As Lia said, we are all connected.