Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is based on a principle: Software Freedom. It is given away under a license that allows you to do with the software as you please. You can modify it, redistribute it, and never pay a penny for it so long as you abide by the terms of the license. This model has worked very well for FOSS. But this model doesn't work for everything.

Amazon's KDP Select allows you to give your book away for free for up to 5 days out of a 90 day period. Taken at its face value this seems like a good promotional tool, but I don't think so. Consider this: How many indie authors out there have made it big because of KDP Select promotions? How many have maintained a good sales rank for any significant length of time after the promotions are done? How many of those free giveaways actually get read?

Ask around, I think you'll be surprised.

Some report decent sales bumps when the promotions are done, but those don't last. They are bumps in the road. Many are okay with this, happy to be "good enough". To each his own, but I've never been willing to settle for "good enough".

There's a second side effect of this program, something that not many people thought of. Not even Amazon themselves, at first. If people are always scheduling books to go on sale for free, eventually you breed a culture of consumers who expect everything for free. I'm positive this isn't what Amazon wanted, and their actions appear to reflect that.

If you're going to give your work away for free, I highly recommend you do it for the right reasons. I'm simply not willing to give away 10,000 books to sell 100. That doesn't make sense to me.

I want to see my books at the top of the bestseller lists. That's best "seller" list, not best "free" list. The only way that's going to happen is through hard work, perseverance, and constant work on my craft. I would suggest the same thing to all indie authors out there.

I believe I have a good product, and they're only going to get better going forward. This is what will drive my sales. My exposure comes from you: the people who believe in me enough to keep coming back, the people who enjoy my writing enough to share my posts, and the people who refer others to my books so that I might win over more readers. I love you people. I want you to know how much I appreciate it every time you click the tweet, +1 and stumble buttons, or otherwise share my work.

But don't take me at my word. I do free for the right reasons. The first chapter of my debut novel, The Time Weaver, is available to read right here on my website, and for the first time, I'm going to offer the first chapter in a downloadable PDF, Kindle Format, and ePub format. Grab it, read it, and then pick up the whole book for a measly $2.99. That's less than a cup of coffee at certain coffee shops, and don't forget, a portion of that money is donated to Reglue, a charity that distributes computers to underprivileged children.

PDF Format

Amazon Kindle Format

ePub Format

If you already think you'll enjoy my book, you can pick it up in the following places with my full appreciation:

Amazon Kindle eBook

Kobo Books ePub eBook

Paperback

But here's the thing: I don't automatically follow back. This runs counter to most people's advice that you should follow back everyone that follows you, because it's polite, right?

I don't feel that way, and here's why...

Quality is the key

"I spend a fair amount of time tweeting and building up a quality list of followers."

I highlighted the important part of that statement to emphasize my point. I want quality followers. This means different things to different people. To me, it means someone who matches one or more of these three things:

1. Somebody directly in my target audience.

2. Somebody who is already my friend on another platform.

3. Somebody who is actively engaging me.

This is not to say that all the lovely people who follow me aren't quality people, but if you don't match one of those three criteria, you aren't adding value to my platform.

I'm first and foremost a sales person. I need active, engaged followers to help me spread the word about my product, which happens to be my book. Many of my followers do help me spread the word, and I truly appreciate everything they do for me.

Who I Follow

In general, I will follow anyone who matches one of the above criteria. I'm looking to add value to my experience. I'm looking to sell books, and get the word out about my work. People who match those criteria are the most likely to help me accomplish that goal.

What good is having 200,000 followers if none of them care about what you tweet?

Who I Don't Follow

In general, if you follow me expecting a follow-back, you must do something to engage me. Heck, say "hi", check out my website, find something interesting about me and tweet about it. In my opinion, expecting somebody to follow you back just because you followed them is pretentious.

If you do nothing but spam, or if your follower to following ratio is all out of whack, there is a good chance that I will not follow back.

The Numbers Matter

There is a special ratio in twitter between following and followers. Once you hit 2000 followers, Twitter will not let you follow more than 10% more than your follower count. Thus, if you have 2000 followers, you can not follow more than 2200 people. They limit it in this way for a very good reason.

If you are following drastically more people than are following you (I'm talking in the thousands), then chances are good you're building up a large number of followers for the purposes of spamming them. Twitter limits the impact of this kind of campaign by enforcing the 10% rule.

I research every single person that I follow on twitter. At the time of writing this, I follow 1119 people. I looked at every profile, checked out websites, and read tweets from every one of these people. Sometimes I even check out their books, if they're authors, and very occasionally I buy them. I want people to be of value to me, and I want to be of value to other people. Why follow somebody who doesn't fill either requirement?

There Is Hope!

If you really want me to follow you, try introducing yourself to me. Show me that you care about the people you follow by sparing me at least 140 characters (less my twitter name of course) to let me know what kind of value you can add. You never know, maybe we could be friends, or maybe I could do something that could add value to your twitter experience.

I love talking to new and interesting people and making new friends. Heck, I've already made some great friends on Twitter, and am looking forward to making many more!

Here are a number of things that you can do that will almost certainly get you an instant followback:

• Be interesting. I like interesting people. I like people who talk to me and tweet about interesting things. If I find you interesting, I'll check out your profile, your website, your books, and might even buy something from you.

• Buy my book. Yeah, I know, this is a stretch. But if I know you've bought my book and are planning on reading it, reviewing it, or helping me promote it, this will thrill me. I have a few twitter followers who do just that, and I truly appreciate what these people do.

• Help promote my book or my blog. Doing this will get my attention in a big way. I love it when people tweet about my book or blog, or retweet what I post about them.

• Be part of my target audience. My target audience being people like me. Not authors, but gamers. People who play RPGs and card games, and people who play other types of fantasy games.

Social networking is about being social. It's not about selling stuff or who can gain the most followers. I do my best to give my followers a quality experience, and I hope that after reading this, you will too.

A new line has formed over the last few months. It's a line between self-published or "indie" authors and traditionally published authors. I don't think we really meant to draw this line, it just happened. It's in our nature.

I have a great many friends in the publishing industry. Many are authors. Some are traditional, others are indie. We all use our vast imaginations, our experiences, and large amounts of our time to create stories we hope people will enjoy. We really aren't that different when you boil it right down to basics.

Traditional authors get their stories published through a tried and tested publisher. If they're lucky, it's one of the big 6. Many of these authors have spent a good number of years writing books, querying these books, and dealing with hundreds or even thousands of rejections before finally catching the attention of just the right editor at just the right time. They get passed through what's usually referred to as a "gatekeeper" to the publishing world. Traditionally published authors are almost guaranteed space on bookshelves in brick and mortar stores, have marketing teams and publicists behind them, and editors to make sure their work is free of dreaded typos and many other writing mistakes. But they work hard for this, and I have the utmost respect and admiration for these authors. Some of my best writerly friends are now traditionally published authors.

Indie authors bypass the "gatekeepers" and publish their work directly to the distrbutors, either electronically (through Amazon KDP, KoboBooks, Smashwords, etc,) or through Print-On-Demand services (like CreateSpace, Lightning Source, etc.). This seems at first glance like the easy road. I assure you, it's far from it. Indie authors are responsible for putting up all financial backing for their books. They take all the risk, but typically take home a greater reward as well. Indie authors must write, edit, format, illustrate, market, print and distribute all of their own books, all by themselves, or pay for such services out-of-pocket. This is a tremendous amount of work, and it's ongoing.

The line between indie and traditional authors has been drawn by one phrase I think, and it's one that bugs me any time I see it: "Paying your dues". In the publishing industry, the process of submitting your work and dealing with the countless rejections is referred to as "paying your dues" to the publishing industry. There are some authors out there who feel that if you haven't paid your dues, then you are not a "real" author, thus the line drawn between indie and traditional authors.

I'm on the indie side of that line. The Time Weaver is self-published by me under the imprint DragonWing Publishing. I didn't turn to the indie side of the line out of frustration, but out of choice. I've never submitted a single query to a traditional publisher. Not because I don't think my book is right for them, but because I don't think I am right for the traditional process.

There have been many times that I've doubted myself for the choice I made, but recently I had some validation. I attended a convention recently, the London Rogues Sci-Fi/Fantasy Convention 6, to do a book signing. I had hoped to sell more books than I did, but what I took home from this convention was so much more: acceptance. Many of the people I talked to were very supportive of the indie route I chose, even commending me for the immense amount of work involved in publishing my own book. I shouldn't be surprised by this; the sci-fi/fantasy industry has always been more open to independent work.

I'd love to wipe the line away. To have indie and traditionally published authors coexist in a friendly atmosphere. I have great respect for both sides of the line, and if confronted by a traditional contract from a publisher, would likely have no qualms with taking that contract if the terms were right. I chose my path because I felt it was right for me. I fully expect each person to do the same. At the end of the day, I know I made the right choice.