Patty Jansen

Today 27 April 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants Today when it is pouring rain outside, I mull about what makes books special, which is very difficult to define. For the vast majority of people, the magic doesn’t lie at the sentence level. Good sent...

In which I talk about what makes readers come back to certain authors or series.

Today 27 April 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/04...

In which I talk about why articles about writing income make me angry.

Today 21 April 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/04...

Today 4 April 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants As the world turns to dust, I finished narrating another backlist book! Yay! Only two more to go. All shall be revealed in November, which is when the last book covers out of ACX Royalty Share (don’t ...

When times are tough, don't make hasty decisions.

Today 4 April 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/04...

Today 31 March 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants As the world slowly turns to shit, I received another box of books to be sold as signed copies within Australia. I now have at least one copy of the entire Ambassador series. I sell them at $22 each w...

New books in the shop.

Today 31 March 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/03...

Today 26 March 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants Today I want to talk about back matter, because it seems that far too many self-published authors don’t know and understand how super-critically important it is. So what is back matter? Simply put, it...

I'm talking about how super-important it is to get your back matter right.

Today 26 March 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/03...

Today 25 March 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants The Ebookaroo newsletter just went out. I also just made live the Kickstarter for Expendable Heroes. It’s available in ebook, audio, paperback and hardcover. Both the paperback and hardcover have colo...

How you can get a copy of Expendable Heroes:

Today 25 March 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/03...

The Ebookaroo newsletter for indie SF/F books is going out tomorrow morning.

🦘Find new authors!
🦘Free books!
🦘Cheap books!
🦘New books!
🦘Kickstarters!
🦘Promotions!
🦘Books on all retailers!
🦘International focus

More info and subscribe here pattyjansen.com/pages/ebooka...

Today 18 March 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants Let’s talk about how to give books away. Hang on, I can hear people say, giving books away is easy. People always want free books. Tell me how to sell them instead. Well, yes, yes, and no. Giving away...

How to give away free books so that your sales increase:

Today 18 March 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/03...

Today 16 March 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants OK, I’m going to call it: the days of the old indie author model are over. The days of selling purely on Amazon are over. It used to be that you could put up a book, choose KU or wide, advertise a bit...

The traditional indie author model is dead.

Today 16 March 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/03...

Today 14 March 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants King Charles. Seriously. Every now and then we post something on social media that blows up. It’s never about our books, of course. Seriously, if you’re on social media hoping that a “Buy my book” pos...

In which I talk about King Charles and social media marketing.

Today 14 March 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/03...

Today 12 March 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants Sales are crap right now. “It’s the Amazon boycott!” people will say. “People don’t realise they’re not hurting Bezos, they’re hurting us poor indies!” I’m rather ho-humbug about this. Sales are crap ...

Going our own way.

Today 12 March 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/03...

Today 10 March 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants We had a busy weekend. I didn’t do any writing. I’m kind of at a crossroads with The Doomed Prophet. I had some ideas that will make the book even darker and more satirical, but I feel like writing so...

Destruction.

Today 10 March 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/03...

Today 6 March 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants I was working on The Doomed Prophet WIP and had thoughts a long the lines of… This is too over-the-top stupid. No one would actually run a society like this. And then I went to a news site to figure t...

Fiction reflects reality.

Today 6 March 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/03...

Today 5 March 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants Another Ebookaroo was sent out today! In light of *waves hand at political world climate* it might be a good idea to point out that not only am I not in the US (in case you’d missed that fact), but th...

About international writers:

Today 5 March 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/03...

Today 3 March 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants Let’s talk about books again. Everyone else is already talking about politics. It’s about finishing things. A few days ago, a writer in my social media feed lamented a lack of sales, that they were do...

In which I talk about the most important thing to get sales going.

Today 3 March 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/03...

Today 28 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants Boycott. So we’re not supposed to buy anything today, especially not from Amazon. (I don’t actually have a valid Amazon account. I “boycott” Amazon 365 days of the year) I doubt boycotts of this natur...

In which I talk about author direct stores.

Today 28 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 27 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants Today I am speechless. Besides plugging a long with the audio (needs to be done by November so I have a lot of time), I’m finding it hard to concentrate. Day after day of deeply disturbing news aimed ...

Why I am speechless.

Today 27 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 25 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants The Ebookaroo went out today. I’ve heard many writers complaining about their sales. Those complaints usually centre around Amazon, and since apparently there are all kinds of actions and boycotts goi...

About economic downturns and what you can do:

Today 25 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 24 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants OMG, this video. The level of subtle resistance. Look at how stunned the people in the audience are. They get it. Life imitates fiction. Years ago, I wrote a whole novel based on something similar. He...

Resistance and life imitating fiction.

Today 24 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 21 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants I finished narrating Fairy Bread*. It’s a ridiculous romp with a good number of hilarious characters. Apart from the main character, the hapless, middle-aged gay widower Perrin and Dorella, who owns t...

Meet some of the characters in Fairy Bread.

Today 21 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 19 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants I’m getting to the end of the audiobook of Fairy Bread and have also put up Iron & Rock for preorder or sale on my website. You will only get the special illustrated edition on my website. On an entir...

I have no words.

Today 19 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 18 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants Apparently we’re talking about book covers again. I’m not sure why some people online get so hot under the collar about everything, but also I deplore the use of inflammatory language (news services h...

In which I talk about the only thing I've found important about book covers:

Today 18 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 15 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants Apparently there is a big hullaballoo about KDP (Amazon) having drastically reduced the page payout rate for Kindle Unlimited reads. I don’t know. I’m not in Kindle Unlimited with any of my books. The...

In which I talk about the nature of loyalty programs, affiliate programs and subscription programs:

Today 15 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 13 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants I’m having a par-tay! I sent out all the Kickstarter rewards! It this was you, then look at your Kickstarter messages. All the info is in there. Pretty books have been sent. The plain versions will go...

Today 13 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 11 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants Impatience. Often you see new writers express their frustration at having no or only one book while someone else has so many. They want to spring fully formed out of the box, and then resort to blamin...

Persistence.

Today 11 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 10 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants I’m lucky that I got in two chapters of audio recording before the predicted thunderstorm came in. You might understand that thunderstorms are not very good for audio recording. Neither is bin day, an...

Today 10 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 9 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants There was a discussion online about how you say “February”. Most people in the world ignore the first r. There was some discussion about whether it is a three or four syllable word. According to Ameri...

How do you pronounce "February?"

Today 9 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 7 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants Oh, that old chestnut again. Free books. People bellowing: I don’t give away free books because it devalues books. They sit on people’s devices and they’re just freebie seekers. OK, mate, you do you. ...

In which I talk about why and when you should give out free books:
Today 7 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 6 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants A big box of books arrived today. It was very hot, but I managed to get a parking spot in front of the post office. So, after getting home, I unpacked all the goodies and photographed them and put the...

More pretty books!

Today 6 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...

Today 5 February 2025 - Must Use Bigger Elephants A new book! Book 2 in the cozy fantasy series Witch Lessons is now out. These are light-hearted stories about magic and teachers and silly politics in a school of magic. I published book 1 a few month...

A new book!

Today 5 February 2025 pattyjansen.com/news/2025/02...