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Giving everything I've got into ebook publishing

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Ziva

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Hey Everyone, I've been self-publishing on Kindle for the past year or so. I started out in non-fiction and had little success. After publishing 24 non-fiction books, in April I decided to try my hand at publishing fiction. I published a few more fiction ebooks over the next few months and saw they were way more lucrative than the non-fiction books I published. In mid-August I made the decision to go for it and publish as many fiction books as possible until Christmas. I outsource the writing and cover design, and I do all of the editing myself. Each ebook costs me $50 to create, including cover.

As of mid-August I had 5 fiction ebooks published. Between August 29th and today, Sept.26th, I have published 9 more fiction ebooks. Since July 1st, I have gone from around 20 downloads (sales and KU borrows) per day to as many as 92 downloads in a day. My average downloads per day for the past week was 81.

I've started this thread to keep myself more accountable to keep publishing a few books every week. I feel like I have a lot of momentum going, and I want to maintain it. I've uploaded a screen shot of my sales dashboard since July 1st.

I'm motivated to publish as much as I can over the next few months (3-5 books per week) so I can spend more time with my family and have more freedom. I am definitely sacrificing some present comforts and time to achieve this goal, but I look at my downloads increasing every week and it keeps me motivated.

My first goal is to get 100 downloads per day. I am planning on achieving this sometime in October. My next goal after that is 200 downloads per day, which I could see happening by Christmas.

I'll keep you all posted on my progress! :)
 
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Jam Wheel

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I'm curious about your approach here. Friends who are in the self-pub game tell me I should "write a book about your business knowledge!" but frankly I wonder about the ROI when I see stories on this forum of people who have had the opposite experience of fiction being more lucrative. I also have a different idea of how to leverage my knowledge to make more money/everlasting income, etc. Would you be open to sharing your non-fiction niche and avg sales?

For the above - what sort of promotion (if any) and length of book? From what I can tell after lurking for a while in this thread, those are really good daily totals!

Thinking about getting into this line as an outlet for creativity and a way to fund this weird career break/life overhaul journey I am on. I love postings like yours where people just up and got it done - looking forward to the updates!
 

Ziva

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Would you be open to sharing your non-fiction niche and avg sales?
The non-fiction books I published were in the health and wellness niche. The sales I've made from these books this month range from 0 to 34 downloads.

For the above - what sort of promotion (if any) and length of book?
I do no promotion at all for the fiction books I've published. They are all in the steamy romance niche and most are around 10,000 words.

I published another book and it is live in the Kindle store! That brings my total number of fiction books published to 15. I finished editing and formatting another book today and it will be ready to publish tomorrow. After publishing that one tomorrow, that will bring me to 3 ebooks published in the past week. I'm aiming to publish between 3 and 5 books per week, so I'm right on track.

I received a book from one of my writers today, I'm expecting two more to be submitted to me tomorrow, and then two more again early in the week. I'll have lots of editing and formatting to keep me busy this next week!

I'll continue to post my progress and results :)
 

Ziva

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Friends who are in the self-pub game tell me I should "write a book about your business knowledge!" but frankly I wonder about the ROI when I see stories on this forum of people who have had the opposite experience of fiction being more lucrative.

It really depends. There are some really successful non-fiction authors out there, and I find they usually have used links in their books to generate mailing lists and develop a following. This is something a lot of fiction authors do too, and this is something I'm going to implement in the next couple of weeks. I already have an Aweber account, so I need to build a squeeze page or even just get an opt-in on my website and then put a link in all of my books for people to sign-up to my list. I'm planning on sending weekly emails to my list with links to new releases.
 
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Jam Wheel

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Very interesting, thanks for the info!

I've also considered outsourcing the writing because while I would consider myself a good storyteller and can generate lots of ideas, I absolutely love editing and would find it more fun to come up with story parameters to be filled in by a ghostwriter and then do the editing and marketing myself. Something to think about.

What % of sales/KU do you typically see? Although I suppose purchase provides the opportunity to get a new reader on the mailing list.
 

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One thing I've always wondered when it comes to self publishing fiction books on Amazon is the security behind your work. Let's say I spend the next few weeks writing my first fiction book, with unique characters and a compelling story that I created myself... What protects me from those malicious few who would buy the book (since anyone can come up with $2.99) and start ripping from my ideas?

Any insight on this would be great, along with some mention of your progress since your last post!
 

Ziva

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One thing I've always wondered when it comes to self publishing fiction books on Amazon is the security behind your work. Let's say I spend the next few weeks writing my first fiction book, with unique characters and a compelling story that I created myself... What protects me from those malicious few who would buy the book (since anyone can come up with $2.99) and start ripping from my ideas?

Any insight on this would be great, along with some mention of your progress since your last post!

There is really no protection or way to prevent that. If you catch someone ripping off your work, you could report them to Amazon. I wonder how common that is though. hmm.. something to think about! Don't let that fear prevent you from publishing. In all honesty and reality, interesting characters and compelling stories aren't the most important ingredients for books that sell on Amazon. Of course it is a good thing to have a good story, but there are thousands and thousands of "good stories" published on Amazon that don't sell. Awesome covers, good titles, good keywords, good descriptions, and reviews are what sells books.

As far as my progress goes, I have another book edited, formatted, and ready to publish, but I'm waiting for the cover to be done. I sent it back to the designer today with a few modification requests, so I should get it back tomorrow and publish that next book then. I have three more books ready and waiting to be edited and formatted, so I'll be busy with those for the rest of the week.

AND, I reached a goal of mine sooner than I thought I would. Yesterday, with paid units and KU borrows combined, I had over 100 downloads (104 to be exact). I stated in my first post in this thread that I thought it would happen in October. So, by the end of October I plan on averaging over 100 downloads per day. I've attached a screenshot of my sales dashboard from yesterday :)
 
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Ziva

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Very interesting, thanks for the info!

I've also considered outsourcing the writing because while I would consider myself a good storyteller and can generate lots of ideas, I absolutely love editing and would find it more fun to come up with story parameters to be filled in by a ghostwriter and then do the editing and marketing myself. Something to think about.

Yeah, I really enjoy doing the editing. Some of the stories I edit quite extensively and add content too, so I put a lot into all of the stories.

What % of sales/KU do you typically see? Although I suppose purchase provides the opportunity to get a new reader on the mailing list.

I see way more KU borrow from my books. I think it is because I'm in the romance niche and people who read in that niche really consume a lot. A reader doesn't need to purchase to get on a mailing list. I will put a link to an opt-in page in the front and back of all my books, so if someone buys or borrows the book the can follow the link to the opt-in page to sign up for the mailing list if they want.
 

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Congrats on achieving your goal and sounds like a great idea for residual income. Now on to the next milestone!

Noted that fiction sells better (at least for you) as well.

What are you pricing these at/what did you find to be the magic price? At 10,000 words obviously they aren't that long.I am guessing you may make more on each at one price but guessing can surpass that with volume at lower. Just wondering what you found that magic number to be.

Thanks
 

Ziva

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Just wondering, what are you pricing these at? At 10,000 words obviously they aren't that long.
I am guessing you may make more on each at one price but guessing can surpass that with volume at lower.

I price all the books at $2.99. I played with pricing at $.99, and I may have made a little bit more in paid units at the lower price point, but that was before the introduction of Kindle Unlimited. Now most of my earnings come from KU borrows, and the royalty per borrow is the same regardless of the price of the book. I've changed all my book prices to $2.99 now, with the idea that higher perceived value will make KU subscribers more likely to want to borrow the book.
 
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early riser

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... but that was before the introduction of Kindle Unlimited. Now most of my earnings come from KU borrows, and the royalty per borrow is the same regardless of the price of the book. I've changed all my book prices to $2.99 now, with the idea that higher perceived value will make KU subscribers more likely to want to borrow the book.

Awesome. That just rolled out, so good info to know. Repped.
 

Jam Wheel

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Thanks for the continued thoughts and congrats on achieving your new milestone! Maybe 200 by Thanksgiving instead and 300 by xmas? :D
 

Y.B.

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What i'm always curious about is what kind of quality are the books when you're outsourcing them for only $50
 
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Ziva

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What i'm always curious about is what kind of quality are the books when you're outsourcing them for only $50
Hey, The books I get for $50 are what I would consider a "skeleton". I certainly don't publish what I receive from the writers. I spend a significant amount of time extensively editing each book. But you would be surprised! I have received some really decent stories for $50.

I spent 10+ years as a freelance writer, so editing comes second nature to me. I plan on doing all of the editing until Christmas and then potentially outsourcing the editing and formatting of the books starting in the New Year.
 

Ziva

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I made some more progress today! I published another book, bringing my total number of fiction books to 16. I will publish at least two more books this week. After reaching over 100 downloads on my sales dashboard on Sunday, the last couple of days were a little slower, but if I recall my university stats knowledge, regression to the mean should be expected :)

I really worked hard for the whole month of September and it has paid off. I published 11 books this past month. I'm looking forward to to receiving my royalty report in the middle of October to find out exactly what my earnings were for the month. Excited to keep rocking it through October!
 

Ziva

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More progress to report! I published another book tonight, bringing my total number of fiction ebooks to 17. I also finished editing another book so it's ready to go. I'm just waiting for a cover because my cover designer is on vacation.

Since reaching a new milestone on Sunday with 100 sales, this week saw sales on Monday and Tuesday dip down a little. But, sales rebounded yesterday and I had 101 downloads. Today has been great too, as it's almost 10pm here at so far today I've had 87 sales. Not too shabby! I'll attach my screen shot since the weekend for you guys to check out.

I think I will realistically be able to publish 2 more books by the end of the weekend. I'm really enjoying this whole process and it's very motivating when the sales start rolling in. However, I also have another business (slow lane) and I'm a mom, so I have no free time at all, but I'm totally ok with it. I know that I need to be making big sacrifices now with my time so that I can have a lot of free time after Christmas. I am also a yoga teacher, and I have a goal to take from mid December until the end of January off from teaching so I can spend lots of time with my family :)
 
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Ziva

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I've had a really productive weekend, which has been great! I got two more ebooks published and they are now live in the Kindle store. That brings my total number of fiction ebooks to 19. Sales have been steadily increasing, and today I reached another personal record! So far I've had 106 downloads today combining sales with KU borrows. I'll attach a screen shot of my sales today.

I really feel like my process is getting smoother and easier, and publishing 3 books a week doesn't feel at all overwhelming anymore. I have 2 more stories waiting to be edited and formatted, and I already have covers for them. I'll publish those in the next few days. I should be receiving another few stories from writers later in the week, so I'll publish at least a total of 3 ebooks by the end of next weekend.

My goal of 200 downloads per day by Christmas is seeming more and more attainable! :)Capture.PNG
 

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I know I've commented before but I really enjoy this thread, your enthusiasm towards, and that you pair it with action.
 

Ziva

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It's been a great week so far! I published another book today, making a total of 20 fiction books published. I'm ready to do some last edits on another one tomorrow morning and I have a cover for it, so I'll be publishing that one tomorrow. I'll be getting another couple of books from writers in the next couple of days, so I'll get another one published by the end of the weekend, making a total of 3 new ones for the week. Publishing 3 books per week has been totally manageable and the pace that my sales are growing at has been great.

Today my daily sales reached another new high! With paid units and KU borrows combined, I had 125 downloads today. Over the past week my average daily sales were 102. I had a goal of reaching a daily average of 100 sales by the end of October, so I'm happy with my progress at this point. I'm thinking I can reach average daily sales of 150 by the end of October.

I've attached a screenshot of my sales dashboard from the past week for you all to check out. If anyone has any questions at all about Kindle publishing or I can be of help in any way, please let me know :)Capture.PNG
 
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Bananas

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Ziva,

Congratulations on reaching your goal of 100+ downloads per day.

What source are you using to purchase the book 'skeletons'?
 

Ziva

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Thanks Bananas!

I have a few writers I use regularly on Odesk. They've worked out well so far, but like I stated earlier, I edit all of the books myself.
 

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Thanks Bananas!

I have a few writers I use regularly on Odesk. They've worked out well so far, but like I stated earlier, I edit all of the books myself.

Yes, I have been following and did see you state you were receiving a skeleton of work and polishing it up once received. :) Plus the addition of a well done cover and obviously your skills in genre selection, key word choice, and book description.

Do you run these skeletons through some sort of plagiarism checker before you polish and publish, or do you just assume that you are adding enough on your own to avoid any accusation of plagiarism? Not that you would intentionally plagiarize, but that your hired writer might plagiarize in order to rip you off for the $50 pay out.
 
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Ziva

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Do you run these skeletons through some sort of plagiarism checker before you polish and publish, or do you just assume that you are adding enough on your own to avoid any accusation of plagiarism? Not that you would intentionally plagiarize, but that your hired writer might plagiarize in order to rip you off for the $50 pay out.
Yeah, I run the stories through copyscape. I also have a ghostwriter agreement I use with all of my writers.

Are you into ebook publishing Bananas?
 

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Yeah, I run the stories through copyscape. I also have a ghostwriter agreement I use with all of my writers.

Are you into ebook publishing Bananas?

Yes, but in the totally opposite manner of you. I write them myself and only publish nonfiction, and I do have success there. My 20th book was just published last week. I also put most books which are the right length (neither too long nor too short) through Createspace and have paperback sales as well.

That's probably why I am so curious, since we are totally opposite. I read the KDP forums but hardly anyone there sells enough to bother talking to, probably because the ones selling don't bother to post there. So I never speak to other writers, let alone anyone with any measure of success, and especially anyone doing any better than me.

Here in a few days, we will know what the KU payout is going to be for September.
 

Ziva

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Here in a few days, we will know what the KU payout is going to be for September.
Yes! I'm looking forward to it. As you can see from my sales dashboard, my KU borrows by far outnumber my paid units. I saw on the KDP site that the KDP Select Fund for October is 3 million, which is the same as September. Maybe the royalty per KU borrow will be around $1.54 again? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

How are KU borrow in comparison to paid units for your non-fiction books?
 
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Ziva

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That's probably why I am so curious, since we are totally opposite.
Yeah, we are definitely opposites! I'm in a genre where Createspace is non-existent, as far as I know. The discreet nature of smartphones and e-readers makes them the perfect media for people to read cringeworthy steamy romance stories... haha.
 

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Yes! I'm looking forward to it. As you can see from my sales dashboard, my KU borrows by far outnumber my paid units. I saw on the KDP site that the KDP Select Fund for October is 3 million, which is the same as September. Maybe the royalty per KU borrow will be around $1.54 again? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

How are KU borrow in comparison to paid units for your non-fiction books?

My borrows are less than my sales. I do 70 or 80 a day and its 20-30 borrows versus 40-50 sales. November through January are always phenomenal compared to the rest of the year so I'm really looking forward to seeing how that plays out this year with KU.

As for the rate for September, I'm really hoping it stays around $1.50 mark. People should be about out of their free month of KU now so things should stabilize as we move from people who were just utilizing their free month to people who are actually paying the $9.99 per month to borrow. I'm one of the people who chose to stay in and be billed $9.99.
 

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Hey Ziva! Congrats on your success with ebooks! I've had a little success with cookbook ebooks myself and I was wondering where your writers are typically from that they'd be willing to work for such small wages? Most of the quotes I get (even from people in India/ Malaysia) are around 150+. Any hacks?

Thanks!
 
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Ziva

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I was wondering where your writers are typically from that they'd be willing to work for such small wages?
The writers I have worked with have been mostly from the US, and a couple from Africa and Asia, but with outstanding English skills. The quality of the writing I receive from the writers is OK as a skeleton only. I do a lot of editing to all the books.

In my experience, fiction writers work for way less than nonfiction writers. The cheapest non-fiction writers I ever found charged $.01 per word, and they were generally non-native English writers.
 

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hmm...I've been reading a lot of people's books and I find the thing that is happening is, either they're outsourcing and they can't feel the writer. I mean I just read a book someone wrote about Steve Job's life story. Basically they just took his story like they were doing a term paper, and than added their lessons what they got out of it. I mean maybe it would sell, but I didn't even read the book, because I already knew the story, and the lessons at the end were good, but I don't see how long-term it would make you a name or a brand as an author.

I see a lot of those books where they just go read articles and put the same info in there, slap a cover on, and call it good. I can't say whether they sell or not, but there's something to say about using your perspective, writing it in your own words, and sounding like a real person that knows something about the subject. Like they say write what you know. If you're an expert in cook books, I can tell by your writing. If you're just pasting and copying, well I know you're just trying to make money. There's not personality, no heart, and it just comes out as information like and empty soul or robot response.

If they're like that, I don't tend to read them. I've been reading some of the books people are wanting to exchange reviews for, and I can't say that they'll sell anything with even a good review. When readers buy a book they see a book rated high, expect something good, and get shit. I'm not familiar with outsourcing writers, because I write everything myself, but I ask myself if these books I'm reading are outsourced.

Readers want to know about the author. They're real. They're genuine. They're authentic. So having someone else write books, I don't believe they get that unless they have someone that is seriously a good ghost writer. As I know one retired professor in the U.K. that can pull it off for someone else. I suppose their is something for everyone.

Then of course for reviews you have the problem with other authors bashing yours because they're competing in the same genre. I'm not sure if people investigate whose giving them bad reviews, but it stands out quite a lot if they're another writer.

Then you have the reviews that are just fake, because people are exchanging the reviews just for the sake of reviews. They don't even read the book. Then you have the one's that ask you for review exchange, get a review, and don't return the favor. lol

Anyway, I suppose it's someone trying to make money, and I suppose people buy it, or don't buy it, but to tell you the truth, I can tell when someone doesn't write themselves. lol It's just very obvious. Maybe I'm just hitting the bad one's I don't know. I just know it's standing out when I read.
 

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