Charnell's eBook Progress Thread [Here we go, it's getting serious!]

[Bellini]

It sucks being 24 in class with a bunch of 18 year old people

Gosh, I thought you were in your late 30's or so from your writing. lol

Great thread. Appreciate all the info.

When do you anticipate your book about ebook publishing to be ready?

Or is it already out....

 

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[Charnell]

Gosh, I thought you were in your late 30's or so from your writing. lol

Great thread. Appreciate all the info.

When do you anticipate your book about ebook publishing to be ready?

Or is it already out....

Haha thanks for the compliment.

As far as the book goes, it's something I add to on occasion. The best way to find out what needs to be added next is through conversation, so feel free to PM me any questions you have about publishing. I've had a few 200+ message conversations with people bouncing ideas back and forth and dropping knowledge.

Right now I'm testing out better ways to market (up from zilch), and am going to be spending the next few days building a website for my biggest pen name.

From what I did last month, I can safely say that Instagram is not a very good marketing platform for authors. 900+ followers in a month, ~20 e-mail subscribers driven from Insta, and no noticeable boost in sales. I think I interacted with more authors asking me about cover designs than actual people interested in reading.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

I think I interacted with more authors asking me about cover designs than actual people interested in reading.

1. Find a freelancer that will make cover designs cheap.
2. Set up a website that makes cover designs. Have it seem like he's a different person than you yourself.
3. Direct authors to that page. "Hey, I use this guy. He's pretty good. Tell him Charnell referred you and he'll probably give you a discount."
4. Keep growing on Instagram.

 

[Charnell]

It feels good to have a plan!

I know I've neglected to keep this thread updated, but I will start once again. I actually have a game plan for the rest of this month/until tasks are complete. They're mostly marketing my largest and best pen name, experimenting a bit so I can save everyone else time from failed attempts.

June Tasks

Instagram

• Continue with the 'gram. I amassed around 940 followers in my first month, which has slowly drained down to a hair below 900. I just posted a book cover after no activity for over a month and got a new follower and around 15 new likes.
• I changed my website link from a mailing list signup page to my new website, which I will talk about shortly.
• Use https://www.latergram.me/ to schedule posts, between 3 and 5 posts per day of book covers and over niche related images. I want to keep the advertising to niche related image ratio at around 1:3, a la jab, jab, jab, right hook.
• Purchase another 30 days credit to https://instagress.com/ to automate the liking and following of people using targeted hashtags.

This shouldn't take much time out of my day. I can schedule those whole week with latergram, then it will send me a notification on my phone to post. All I have to do is ok and submit, everything is already typed up.

Website

• Have already set it up, installed WordPress and a premium theme (BTW, creativemarket.com gives away a free premium theme and other goodies every Monday). It's a responsive theme, so no worries about people on mobile from Instagram.
• I'm going through and making blog posts for each book. Woof. There are quite a few. I used getbookreport.com to create a list of all the books under this pen name's earnings from the last 90 days, and that's my priority for what blog post to do next. Each blog post consists of the book title, the description from Amazon, and the "look inside" portion from Amazon as a sample. I also have a clickable "buy now from Amazon" button before the sample, as well as a clickable book cover after the sample.

This will absolutely take up a majority of the time. Hopefully well worth it. Will report back haha.

The eBooks

• Because the summer months are absolutely dogshit when it comes to book sales, I ended contracts with all my freelance writers minus the one who I considered the best. He always over delivered, so I'm increasing his contract rate so he can provide 1 new story a week.
• I also am going through reports from the getbookreport.com plugin and seeing which books haven't been on their quarterly free book giveaway via Select. I'm updating their front and back matter to include a link to my website. In the last 90 days, there were 22,943 free downloads from this pen name with $0 spent on marketing. If even 1% go to the website, that's around 200 visits. If 10% are repeat buyers/borrowers or join the mailing list this will be worth it. It's a lot of effort upfront doing all the changes, but after that every 3 months will be like clockwork.
• I'm also going to do a few more permanently free books as well. Last month, one title, no advertising, did over 1,450 downloads on Amazon and over 2750 downloads from Draft2Digital sales channels. Non-stop advertising for a bit of upfront costs.

Well...that's most of my gameplan. Time to read then go to sleep.

 

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[AgainstAllOdds]

It feels good to have a plan!

• Because the summer months are absolutely dogshit when it comes to book sales, I ended contracts with all my freelance writers minus the one who I considered the best. He always over delivered, so I'm increasing his contract rate so he can provide 1 new story a week.

Why not create more content now? Then have it all ready once fall comes around + the few sales that come between now and then?

 

[Andy Black]

1. Find a freelancer that will make cover designs cheap.
2. Set up a website that makes cover designs. Have it seem like he's a different person than you yourself.
3. Direct authors to that page. "Hey, I use this guy. He's pretty good. Tell him Charnell referred you and he'll probably give you a discount."
4. Keep growing on Instagram.

Genius...

 

[Harti]

Sorry if this has already been discussed - couldn't read the whole thread: But where did you hire these incredible cheap writers?

 

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[Ajtothec]

Nice thread, just a short question @Charnell: You say you're a publisher, not an author. How do you handle book authorships? Are you creating your own brand name and hire them as ghostwriters or do you display the real name of authors?

 

[Charnell]

Why not create more content now? Then have it all ready once fall comes around + the few sales that come between now and then?

The biggest reason is this pen name has gotten pretty large (volume wise, not necessarily popularity), so there's already plenty of older content for readers to consume. There's also the horrible shelf life for short, adult fiction (which is why I plan to slow down working with this market and get back into nonfiction). On average, after about a month a book stops selling well. Again, this is with 0 marketing and advertising, which I want and need to change.

Here are two of my better selling examples:

Good ROI, paying ~$60 for each of the stories, but it's a constant churning out content.

For the first book, after 94 days (release Feb 27th and June 1), on average made $2.08 per day. In the first 30 days (Feb 27-March29) it made on average $4.59 per day.

The second, after 103 days (released Feb 18th and June 1), on average made $1.29 per day. In it's first 30 days (Feb 18-March 20) it made on average $4.11 per day.

Here's a graph of one of my nonfiction books, again 0 marketing and advertising.

Doing the same number crunching from previous posts:
First 30 days (Jan 29 to Feb 28) daily average: $2.89
From release to June 1st daily average (123 days): $2.189

DAMN CONSISTENT

I actually have, 12 short stories waiting to be published under this name, some of them 1 month+ old. I could easily do 1 a week for the rest of the summer to maintain standings/turn them into freebies to drive traffic to the website and to paid books.

Sorry if this has already been discussed - couldn't read the whole thread: But where did you hire these incredible cheap writers?

Formerly odesk, now upwork.com.

Nice thread, just a short question @Charnell: You say you're a publisher, not an author. How do you handle book authorships? Are you creating your own brand name and hire them as ghostwriters or do you display the real name of authors?

I am creating my own pen names for the books. There is no way to tie back the final product to the original creator.

In my previous post I mentioned 1 single Instagram post, made during the writing of that post. So far that post has gathered 46 likes and 2 new followers, a post on a whim. Does anyone know a good way to track how many clicks my IG link gets? I don't want to use a 3rd party like bit.ly. If I setup a page like www.mydomain.com/instagram would I be able to track clicks through there with either Jetpack or Google Analytic?

 

[KennyJA]

the summer months are absolutely dogshit when it comes to book sales

Wow, that's real encouraging to a guy who's about to come out with his first fiction series sometime this month. I just noticed a pattern, I always start things when the time is at its shittiest (unknowingly).

I noticed you said you are going to continue with Instagram even though you said that in a month 900+ followers didn't deliver much. Got something special in mind?

 

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[Charnell]

Wow, that's real encouraging to a guy who's about to come out with his first fiction series sometime this month. I just noticed a pattern, I always start things when the time is at its shittiest (unknowingly).

I noticed you said you are going to continue with Instagram even though you said that in a month 900+ followers didn't deliver much. Got something special in mind?

Hey, at least you'll know if sales aren't what you want them to be.

I think my problem was that I was trying to drive my IG traffic to a mailing list signup as opposed to a website where they could buy the books I was promoting. I guess my biggest thing was there was no good way to track if IG was providing much as far as traffic and sales go.

 

[KennyJA]

I think my problem was that I was trying to drive my IG traffic to a mailing list signup as opposed to a website where they could buy the books I was promoting

Right, as for my own website, it's not official. I'm gonna keep up with your thread and see what you do when I decide it's the right time. It still has the Wix trademark on it but my business isn't anywhere near successful yet. Mail list on MailCheat(Chimp) at straight zeros across the board. I expected some interest at least when I did a free promo.


These last few days have been dead (all non-fiction) and I'm real surprised you're doing well with non-fiction. One guy practically said non-fic isn't good business as a publisher/author on here and made it big with fiction only.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

Hey, at least you'll know if sales aren't what you want them to be.

I think my problem was that I was trying to drive my IG traffic to a mailing list signup as opposed to a website where they could buy the books I was promoting. I guess my biggest thing was there was no good way to track if IG was providing much as far as traffic and sales go.

Stop driving traffic for now. Just give value.

Pretty soon (could be as soon as a month), Instagram will be releasing call-to-action buttons. That's where you'll be able to capitalize. Example: "Click through to get the first 3 chapter of [ENTER TITLE HERE]."


As for the earnings going down over time ... here's my best guess:

Amazon rewards new books in its search engine/market visibility. If that's the case, then debate doing this:

• Creating new titles for every book
• Creating new covers for every book
• Adding a "prologue" to each one.

Then ... release the same exact books. In my opinion, buyers that bought your books before will recognize it's the same book, and won't accidentally buy. However, new buyers will find you via the "new book boost".

 

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[Charnell]

In my opinion, buyers that bought your books before will recognize it's the same book, and won't accidentally buy. However, new buyers will find you via the "new book boost".

You seem to be overestimating the perception of the most vocal readers of these genres.

I don't mean to insult them in any way, but you could have 100 downloads, 99 would be satisfied and won't say a word, but that 1 that didn't bother to read the description will give 1 star because it's either too short or too graphic or too [insert complaint that could have been mitigated with an extra 30 seconds of reading the description].

These last few days have been dead (all non-fiction) and I'm real surprised you're doing well with non-fiction. One guy practically said non-fic isn't good business as a publisher/author on here and made it big with fiction only.

This month sales aren't as high just like every other genre.

 

[webcomber]

KennyJA said: ↑
These last few days have been dead (all non-fiction) and I'm real surprised you're doing well with non-fiction. One guy practically said non-fic isn't good business as a publisher/author on here and made it big with fiction only.

Steve Scott does very well with nonfiction.

http://www.stevescottsite.com/

I have about nine fiction books out and none of them have the staying power of the nonfiction book that also sells for about eight times more.

There are pluses and minuses to both of them, but for me personally my nonfiction book sells even when the fiction books drop off the radar.

 

[KennyJA]

KennyJA said: ↑


http://www.stevescottsite.com/

Thanks for the site. Some stuff I figured out myself through the old trial and error method like Fiverr being complete shit at advertising.

Some stuff seems it's like for intermediates

EDIT: Most of his shit is. What a read through.

 

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[Charnell]

I got some traffic to my website!

Yesterday was the first day of a few books getting put on their 5 day free promo. Besides that, I sent an e-mail out to my list yesterday morning which proved less than successful. Around 25% clicks on the website. My mistake for sending it out at 11AM, when most people are working.

That brought a small boost in the midday, then 5PM hit and that's where a majority of people came to the website. I had around 200 giveaways, and in total around 130 people went to my website, minus the 20 or so times it counted me.

Protip: disable tracking of your own IP in Google Analytics.

When does watching real time visitors get old? Sure it was never more than 2 or 3 at a time, but knowing that someone in Georgia and LA and Oregon are all browsing my books seems pretty cool to me.

In other news, my IG account was banned. No big deal. If I ever start a new IG account, I'll have 90 days worth of Instagress time lined up.

Probably after a week from today I'll post site statistics. Wont count yesterday as I probably heavily influenced bounce rates and time on the website.

Gameplan

• Take the best of the dozen books waiting to get published, and make them permanently free. Get covers made and format.
• Received an e-mail from a reader, liked the work just wished they were longer. Noted.
• Continue adding old books to website as blog posts, so people can browse more. I can, on average, do 1 ever 15 minutes.
• Stop watching real time visitors so much.

 

[Charnell]

What's going on folks!

Still over here keeping on with the books, despite such dogshit sales this month. Really looking forward to the fall coming, I sit inside a majority of the day anyways haha.

Website
The website is still a WIP. 1/3 of the books are uploaded, and it's getting between 40 and 140 visits per day, and around 2.5 page-views per person. I turned off my adwords to see how much traffic I could get organically before resorting to paid traffic.

Books
I'm having my lone freelancer writer bring me 1 book every week or two, 10k+ words. I'm also getting covers made for the 12 books on my desktop, which I plan on making at least 8 permanently free. A lot of free traffic to my other books as well as the website. Should create, theoretically, perpetual advertising.

On Wednesdays, I go through and check which books haven't been given up for free days in the past 90 days. I go through and setup a free 5 day, as well as update the books front and back matter with the new website.

Gameplan

• Continue creating posts for individual books.
• Think about life and whatnot.

 

[Charnell]

For those who write, if you've never tried Dragon or other similar software you may be missing out.

I put up a YouTube video the other day, just talking about the skills I learned while outsourcing. Decided, hey, what the heck, might as well test these features out.

5:09 video = 702 words. This was before formatting and fixing misfires and whatnot.
3600 seconds (1 hour)/309 seconds (5 minutes, 9 seconds) = 11.65...
11.65*702 = 8178.64.

8,000 words an hour just by running my suck! Hell, even if only 2,000 of those are usable, that's a bit more than I can type realistically.

 

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[Faithlaine]

Hello,

The man who is writing for you, 9 doll for a short story, it's for how many words?

Thanks

 

[Charnell]

Hello,

The man who is writing for you, 9 doll for a short story, it's for how many words?

Thanks

It was for between 2 and 4 thousand words. Would not recommend under any circumstances in retrospect.

 

[Carlitos]

How you doing Charnell,

This is an awesome thread, and I am amazed how this has developed out for you. I noticed you haven't post an update since April, I hope everything is well. I do have some questions you can perhaps answer for me.

How many words is a short story consider to be of?

What would a crazy good deal be consider per 1K words?

By the way Semper Fi, I have a brother in the corps as well.

 

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[Charnell]

How many words is a short story consider to be of?

Maybe @ChickenHawk can chime in on this, but as far as I know anything less than 20k words is a short story, 20k-50k (or 70k depending on who you ask) is a novella, and anything more than that is a novel.

What would a crazy good deal be consider per 1K words?

Writing it yourself.

 

[Carlitos]

Maybe @ChickenHawk can chime in on this, but as far as I know anything less than 20k words is a short story, 20k-50k (or 70k depending on who you ask) is a novella, and anything more than that is a novel.


Writing it yourself.

I meant if I was to hire a ghostwriter.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Maybe @ChickenHawk can chime in on this, but as far as I know anything less than 20k words is a short story, 20k-50k (or 70k depending on who you ask) is a novella, and anything more than that is a novel.

Yup! Those numbers look about right to me.

 

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[Charnell]

I meant if I was to hire a ghostwriter.

Man, there are so many factors that go into what's a "good deal" when it comes to hiring a ghostwriter.

• Turnaround time
• Editing on your end
• Quality of work
• Research
• Availability

If you're going after the bottom of the barrel as far as paying them goes ($1/100 words), pick 2 of those and that's what you get. You might hire someone who can pump out 10k words a week, every week (turnaround time and availability), but you're not going to get well thought out, original (not necessarily plagiarised, but just the same shit rehashed), or edited work.

As you go up the hierarchy of payments, you'll get a few more options.

If you're looking for a deal, you're going to get deal quality. If that's what you want, go for it. Just expect a lot more work.