It's been awhile, Fastlane...

[GiroudJD]

Hey all,

Haven't been around for awhile, so thought I'd check in! We've seen a world of changes in the digital publishing game since I was last here. I'm glad to see this place is still active, but strategies have definitely changed. I'm still publishing, still writing, still helping others publish. I still work from home and it's still the greatest.

KU2 has changed the game big time. I had already started a new plan but KU2 has shown it's the right plan (personal opinion).

The greatest thing you can do in the summer of 2015 is: GO WIDE.

Take the shackles of KU exclusivity and throw them away. Run away from putting all your eggs in the Amazon basket.

I publish on Amazon, Smashwords, and, through D2D, on B&N, Kobo, iTunes, Oyster, Scribd, and wherever the hell else they publish. I do Google Play. I do print books on Createspace for every single book. I do audiobooks through ACX for ever single book over 10k words.

If you're only publishing with KDP in 2015, you're leaving all kinds of money on the table. I used to be a big fan of Select and doing everything through Amazon. With their new payment structure and algorithm changes, it just no longer makes sense to subscribe to their exclusivity requirements.

GO WIDE!

How have you all been doing?

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

GO WIDE!

You mean diversify so Amazon doesn't have so much power?

I remember reading something about that in some book... can't quite remember the book or who said it.... the Cornerstone of Control? Or maybe it was Commandment, errr, hmmmm.... dunno, it was something about control and that praying for an Amazon algorithm change isn't a business model. Well nevermind, anyhow, glad to hear things are well and you are adjusting as rules change.

 

[GiroudJD]

You mean diversify so Amazon doesn't have so much power?

Exactly. I don't want my entire business and my entire monthly earnings to be in the hands of Amazon and their crazy mood swings. Amazon used to be 90% of my monthly income. It's now about 40-50%. I can sleep way better at night when they do crazy things like KU2, knowing that half my income won't be affected by their ridiculous changes!

 

[Rawr]

I do audiobooks through ACX for ever single book over 10k words.

Really? How do you make money on this? I always thought my fiction books weren't good enough yet to go do this with. Did you get someone off craigslist to read the book to save $? Can you give some kind of a metric for ratio of books sold vs audio books sold (in fiction and non fiction both if possible)

 

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[GiroudJD]

Really? How do you make money on this? I always thought my fiction books weren't good enough yet to go do this with. Did you get someone off craigslist to read the book to save $? Can you give some kind of a metric for ratio of books sold vs audio books sold (in fiction and non fiction both if possible)

I do every ACX book with the Royalty Share option, so I pay $0 upfront and just split the royalties 50/50 with the narrator. It's worked well for me - they do all the hard work and I just collect royalties for having an audiobook version.

There's really no correlation between books sold vs audio books sold. I was really surprised to see that. But with 3+ years of data now, I can conclusively say that it's the case. I have some books that sell terribly low numbers, but are my biggest audio earners. And some of my really high-selling fiction books don't sell hardly any audio. It's strange. May come down to a narrator's voice and style (I always interview many to find a great one, but who really knows what the audience wants to hear, I guess). May come down to something else random. But that's why I put every single book over 10k into ACX - I never know which one is going to be a hit. Over the past 6 months, ACX has consistently added 4 figures/month to my income, so I'm gonna keep sticking every single book in there that I can!

 

[Rawr]

Wow, I need to get into that ASAP. Thanks dude. If you have more on selecting/interviewing and what you look for, I'm all ears.

 

[GiroudJD]

Wow, I need to get into that ASAP. Thanks dude. If you have more on selecting/interviewing and what you look for, I'm all ears.

Well a big mistake I made at first was just posting my book and then waiting for the audition to come flying in.....that was stupid.

You can search for narrators on ACX and it's pretty good actually. You can narrow it down by genre, male/female, accent, and, most important, those that are willing to work on a royalty split basis.

Now as soon as I post a book, I search for narrators and send them a message inviting them to audition for my book. Since doing that, my auditions went way, way up and I completed way, way more books and they got to the market way, way quicker which, most importantly, equals money in my pocket!

 

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[EricZ]

Thanks Guiroud!

I can't believe you missed GUMROAD! There is a huuuuuge advantage to gumroad: When someone buys your book you automatically have their email address - BIG difference. I think email sign-ups should be the #1 focus now.
But I'm more interested in your opinion, I'm still a little fish making at most 60$ per month(!) with 4 books.
Have you tried gumroad???

 

[EricZ]

p.s. I would also be super interested in your FREE models or what you think about perma-free now in the new market.

e.g. I published a book on google play for free, it got massive downloads and over 40 reviews in a matter of weeks, then I switched it to 2.99 and....-dead as a doornail- , radio silence. wtf? GP no good?

My idea is now:
Us amazon and the other platforms ONLY for exposure, i.e. publish free books there to get people to your website where you collect their emails and sell with gumroad.

brgs
Eric

 

[GiroudJD]

Thanks Guiroud!

I can't believe you missed GUMROAD! There is a huuuuuge advantage to gumroad: When someone buys your book you automatically have their email address - BIG difference. I think email sign-ups should be the #1 focus now.
But I'm more interested in your opinion, I'm still a little fish making at most 60$ per month(!) with 4 books.
Have you tried gumroad???

Honestly, I've never tried Gumroad. I have MailCheat(Chimp) lists set up and links in the front and back of all of my books, and I've built up pretty big lists just through that method, so I've never thought about using Gumroad to grow those.

Then again, it might be a good idea....you've given me my task for the day

 

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[EricZ]

There is another thing I forgot, Gumroad has an affiliate program, which I am going to try out! But I'm still a noob , check out my thread
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...oad-join-me-on-this-exodus.61476/#post-472588
So it's going to be interesting indeed. The affiliate program "should" drive traffic to your website and , well you take care of the funnel from there right?
This author on the kboards has some awesome infos and advice with her experience:
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,217952.50.html
Seems to be working great for her,
Keep us udpated! you are the fastlaner!

 

[GiroudJD]

There is another thing I forgot, Gumroad has an affiliate program, which I am going to try out! But I'm still a noob , check out my thread
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...oad-join-me-on-this-exodus.61476/#post-472588
So it's going to be interesting indeed. The affiliate program "should" drive traffic to your website and , well you take care of the funnel from there right?
This author on the kboards has some awesome infos and advice with her experience:
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,217952.50.html
Seems to be working great for her,
Keep us udpated! you are the fastlaner!

Gumroad looks interesting, but my problem is that I write under a TON of different pen names, and Gumroad requires you to sell books from your own site. So I'd have to set up a site for each pen name and promote dozens of different sites and...well, it would be a logistical nightmare and a huge time sink every day.

HOWEVER, Gumroad looks great for the right type of author! I'm going to try it with one pen name only, because I think the niche would suit itself well to selling from my own website.

 

[EricZ]

How do you manage your pen names?
If going wide , that's a nightmare too right?

Right now I have my anonymous books in Amazon only, can't handle the hassle with every platforms different handling of aliases.
I think Amazon is good with that, however you only get 1 author profile...

However I'm still a struggling author , my books don't make enough to mention per month.

So what do you think for us beginers and ACX?
Nobody would be interested in doing a 50/50 split with low wage earner right?

 

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[GiroudJD]

So what do you think for us beginers and ACX?
Nobody would be interested in doing a 50/50 split with low wage earner right?

There's always someone interested in a royalty split. Maybe they are just starting. Maybe they are back after a break. Maybe they are looking to expand their portfolio or try a new genre. But if you invite enough people to audition, you'll always find someone willing to do a split. That has been my experience with 100+ ACX titles, at least.

 

[Funke]

@EricZ You can have multiple author central accounts registered on different e-mail accounts. Confirmed by Amazon. And of course 3 pen names per 1 author central account.

 

[Writer7]

Hey all,

Haven't been around for awhile, so thought I'd check in! We've seen a world of changes in the digital publishing game since I was last here. I'm glad to see this place is still active, but strategies have definitely changed. I'm still publishing, still writing, still helping others publish. I still work from home and it's still the greatest.

KU2 has changed the game big time. I had already started a new plan but KU2 has shown it's the right plan (personal opinion).

The greatest thing you can do in the summer of 2015 is: GO WIDE.

Take the shackles of KU exclusivity and throw them away. Run away from putting all your eggs in the Amazon basket.

I publish on Amazon, Smashwords, and, through D2D, on B&N, Kobo, iTunes, Oyster, Scribd, and wherever the hell else they publish. I do Google Play. I do print books on Createspace for every single book. I do audiobooks through ACX for ever single book over 10k words.

If you're only publishing with KDP in 2015, you're leaving all kinds of money on the table. I used to be a big fan of Select and doing everything through Amazon. With their new payment structure and algorithm changes, it just no longer makes sense to subscribe to their exclusivity requirements.

GO WIDE!

How have you all been doing?

Have you ever thought of entering kind of "high end" publishing market a la Nathan Barry - finding a field where you can present yourself as an authority and offering multiple packages with different pricing. Barry is offering a non-fiction book for $37, the same book+videos for $99 and final package (book+videos expanded) for $249.
I understand that in such case the marketing is a huge task and if you are already involved in Amazon self-publishing it is hard to find additional time and energy for parallel venture but every sale could give an author a significant amount of money.
And you are (in a certain way) controlling your destiny.

 

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[GiroudJD]

Have you ever thought of entering kind of "high end" publishing market a la Nathan Barry - finding a field where you can present yourself as an authority and offering multiple packages with different pricing. Barry is offering a non-fiction book for $37, the same book+videos for $99 and final package (book+videos expanded) for $249.
I understand that in such case the marketing is a huge task and if you are already involved in Amazon self-publishing it is hard to find additional time and energy for parallel venture but every sale could give an author a significant amount of money.
And you are (in a certain way) controlling your destiny.

I have kicked around that idea before. But...I've never found a niche that I could present myself as an authority in. It's a great idea if you can swing it, and certainly beats Amazon when you can charge that much. But I'm still searching for that niche...

 

[Writer7]

Hey all,

Haven't been around for awhile, so thought I'd check in! We've seen a world of changes in the digital publishing game since I was last here. I'm glad to see this place is still active, but strategies have definitely changed. I'm still publishing, still writing, still helping others publish. I still work from home and it's still the greatest.

KU2 has changed the game big time. I had already started a new plan but KU2 has shown it's the right plan (personal opinion).

The greatest thing you can do in the summer of 2015 is: GO WIDE.

Take the shackles of KU exclusivity and throw them away. Run away from putting all your eggs in the Amazon basket.

I publish on Amazon, Smashwords, and, through D2D, on B&N, Kobo, iTunes, Oyster, Scribd, and wherever the hell else they publish. I do Google Play. I do print books on Createspace for every single book. I do audiobooks through ACX for ever single book over 10k words.

If you're only publishing with KDP in 2015, you're leaving all kinds of money on the table. I used to be a big fan of Select and doing everything through Amazon. With their new payment structure and algorithm changes, it just no longer makes sense to subscribe to their exclusivity requirements.

GO WIDE!

How have you all been doing?

Well, our friend, maybe little late, but one more comment - it is great to see you starting this thread. It is great to see you are still in your publishing boots, alive and kicking.
I would personally like to thank you on your previous thread, on this forum and on some other forum, which I followed. Attracted some seriously smart people and was a great inspiration for me. And I believe you know very well - when you are alone working towards your dream, success nowhere in sight - inspirational stories of people like you really count.
This forum, in my very humble opinion, is a pretty unique place on the web.
Thank you once again, man.
Wish you place on the Amazon Kindle Bestseller list.

 

[GiroudJD]

Well, our friend, maybe little late, but one more comment - it is great to see you starting this thread. It is great to see you are still in your publishing boots, alive and kicking.
I would personally like to thank you on your previous thread, on this forum and on some other forum, which I followed. Attracted some seriously smart people and was a great inspiration for me. And I believe you know very well - when you are alone working towards your dream, success nowhere in sight - inspirational stories of people like you really count.
This forum, in my very humble opinion, is a pretty unique place on the web.
Thank you once again, man.
Wish you place on the Amazon Kindle Bestseller list.

Thanks for the kind words...best of luck to you, too!

 

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[Chazmania]

Hey @GiroudJD

It's great to see you've returned! I'm wondering roughly how many books do you have published by now? Glad to hear you are doing well and still pubbing.

 

[Rawr]

How many people you hit up to do your audio book before you get one? I sent a couple and no one even left me a message after a week! Looking at it, some people want like $150 to do an audio hour. (do they say what's that in word count?0 I think for a well selling book I could swing for that option, have you had books where you went "crap, shoulda not split royalty" - how often does that happen? Cheers

 

[GiroudJD]

Hey @GiroudJD

It's great to see you've returned! I'm wondering roughly how many books do you have published by now? Glad to hear you are doing well and still pubbing.

Good question...counting all the erotica shorts I churned out over the past few months, my KDP dashboard says I'm over 350 books... And those are all wide, published on numerous sites. So it's a big footprint.

 

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[GiroudJD]

How many people you hit up to do your audio book before you get one? I sent a couple and no one even left me a message after a week! Looking at it, some people want like $150 to do an audio hour. (do they say what's that in word count?0 I think for a well selling book I could swing for that option, have you had books where you went "crap, shoulda not split royalty" - how often does that happen? Cheers

You can narrow down the search by those who will do Royalty Share. Once I get it narrowed down, I usually send a quick message to maybe 20 or so, I've never had a situation where not even one person has written back after that!

 

[Rawr]

Good question...counting all the erotica shorts I churned out over the past few months, my KDP dashboard says I'm over 350 books... And those are all wide, published on numerous sites. So it's a big footprint.

jeeezzzus. that's that work ethic!


my question about ACX was have you ever had a moment where you looked at a well selling book and said - 'yeah, i think i WON'T do a split, because I think it'll sell well' Like, how many books do you have where you wish you didn't split because they made so much?

cheers

 

[GiroudJD]

jeeezzzus. that's that work ethic!


my question about ACX was have you ever had a moment where you looked at a well selling book and said - 'yeah, i think i WON'T do a split, because I think it'll sell well' Like, how many books do you have where you wish you didn't split because they made so much?

cheers

I haven't had any moments like that. Sure, looking at sales now, there are a handful of ones that I probably would've made more money on if I had paid up front. BUT (a) I didn't want to invest any money upfront and (b) the ease and lack of risk at putting things up for royalty-share more than make up for the 'what ifs'.

 

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[Chazmania]

I have kicked around that idea before. But...I've never found a niche that I could present myself as an authority in.

You're an authority on the topic of this thread!

 

[GiroudJD]

You're an authority on the topic of this thread!

I don't know if I'd go that far....

But it has been my only source of income for 3 or 4 years now

 

[Rake]

Giroud, I just finished reading your AMA from last year--the ying to Held for Ransom's yang. So to speak. Thank you so much for sharing in such detail. It's amazing and invaluable to see two people finding success in this area through such fundamentally different paths--though there are essential similarities too.

One of those similarities of course is the importance of research, focusing on what's already working.

I am puzzled by one thing, though--in all of the threads I've read so far, I see little if any reference to the Kindle research tools that are out there. Giroud doesn't seem to need anything like that, other than what's built-in to Kindle combined with his own insight an experience. And some of you will recall one of your colleagues PM'ing out his own private tool for that in the past. Regardless, although my own day-old burrowing here is far from exhaustive, if there's a thread titled MOAR KINDLE RESEARCH TOOLS I haven't come across it. I'm seeing some such tools out on the web, with what seems to be quite detailed options for drilling down into genres, authors, estimated sales returns, keyword searches etc etc. (And one of them claims an Amazon "loophole" that games rankings, but hey it's cool, while another claims a promotional boost that's like totally in accordance with Amazon rules, man).

So apologies if this area is exhaustively discussed hereabouts, but if not, I'd be interested in whether anyone thinks they're useful. I'm not seeing crazy prices--$27 to $97, one time--and if they work they sure seem like time-savers.

 

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[GiroudJD]

Giroud, I just finished reading your AMA from last year--the ying to Held for Ransom's yang. So to speak. Thank you so much for sharing in such detail. It's amazing and invaluable to see two people finding success in this area through such fundamentally different paths--though there are essential similarities too.

One of those similarities of course is the importance of research, focusing on what's already working.

I am puzzled by one thing, though--in all of the threads I've read so far, I see little if any reference to the Kindle research tools that are out there. Giroud doesn't seem to need anything like that, other than what's built-in to Kindle combined with his own insight an experience. And some of you will recall one of your colleagues PM'ing out his own private tool for that in the past. Regardless, although my own day-old burrowing here is far from exhaustive, if there's a thread titled MOAR KINDLE RESEARCH TOOLS I haven't come across it. I'm seeing some such tools out on the web, with what seems to be quite detailed options for drilling down into genres, authors, estimated sales returns, keyword searches etc etc. (And one of them claims an Amazon "loophole" that games rankings, but hey it's cool, while another claims a promotional boost that's like totally in accordance with Amazon rules, man).

So apologies if this area is exhaustively discussed hereabouts, but if not, I'd be interested in whether anyone thinks they're useful. I'm not seeing crazy prices--$27 to $97, one time--and if they work they sure seem like time-savers.

I can only speak for myself, but Kindle Research Tools are pretty worthless. To pick a Kindle niche, all you need is Amazon's website. They provide so many best-selling lists, drilled down into extremely tight niches, that you could easily do all of your research from within the site itself. Save the $97 to buy your coffee or beer while you're writing - better use IMO

 

[Rawr]

I've been doing FB ads that work pretty well, and also look into low cost nice ROI ads such as Bknights. Found a few. Which ones have you found that fit the bill?

overall, how has your game changed in the last 3 months, if any?