Hello from Denver - self publishing success

[Held for Ransom]

When you starting writing your first book, what was your career status at the time? You mentioned the working hours it took you to achieve your numbers, but was that drawn out over a period of time, in between other work/activities, or did this receive the focus of your attention once you started?

Uhhhm, I had a bunch of stuff going on that produced marginal enough results to allow me time to at least get started. But, once I saw the potential, I just ditched everything else and went nuts basically. I should mention that I am fanatical budgeter so I have a pretty good handle on my income and expenses for months in advance. I sort of knew what I had available to me in terms of time and resources so I figured it was worth the gamble.

It has been so far *fingers crossed*!

Secondly, I know that you mentioned that you read within your genre to help stay on top of what your readers want, but prior to getting into self publishing, were you someone who spent a fair amount of time reading books? Did you start reading in your chosen genre before you wrote your first book or did you decide to start reading once you started writing?

No, I was never a fiction reader. I'm still not. Honestly, I find most fiction reading to be sleep inducing...

I only started reading in the genre once I decided to write in it. I'm investigating a new genre at the moment and just repeating the process all over. Not being a reader or a writer, much of this process was very tedious for me. But, as I continued to get good results I just looked at it as kind of game. Every time I see something I want to try, I just imagine myself as some sort of writing chameleon. You know, just to see if I can do it.

Other than that, I really don't know any other way to describe it. My feelings about reading fiction have not changed - if I'm not researching it, I'm not reading it.

It just bores me to tears man.

By the way, I certainly don't mean to offend fiction readers or writers who love reading fiction. It's just the way I am. As I've said since I first came into the forum, in my case I am running a business that is all about identifying market needs and filling them. In that respect, I'm really no different than the guy doing importing or e-commerce or lead generation.

So, no disrespect to writers who love everything about the craft. It's just not my cup of tea personally.

Finally, if I may be so bold, would it be possible to ask for the link to the tool you are using for your research? I would be curious to see how the areas I have been looking at stack up.

I'll shoot you a PM!

Another question... do you write for a particular gender?

Women.

I have a hunch that the majority of fiction buyers are female? It could be different for each niche, if so, do you factor that in somehow?

I don't know about fiction as a whole but for my niche, overwhelmingly female.

..You probably get this a lot HfR, but would it be possible to get a copy of that there tool you were mentioning?

PM on the way.

 

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[JackTackett]

Check out the following link for some examples you can use.

6 Copyright Page Disclaimers to Copy and Paste Into Your Book

You can use a pen name and even register your US copyright in your pen name.

Here's a question for Held for Ransom or anyone who feels like chiming in...

Regarding copyright notices, do you post them in your books? And if so, how do you handle them?

Specifically, I notice on a lot of Kindle books, there's a copyright notice in front. Sometimes it's associated with a publishing house (even if it appears to be a small, privately owned publishing house). Sometimes it's associated with the author's name. Let's say you're writing a Kindle Book under a pen name, would you include a copyright notice under the pen name? Or your real name? Or, would you start a small publishing entity?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

 

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[Held for Ransom]

I put it at the very end of the book after all the back matter...

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.

In the front of the book I put the standard fiction disclaimer...

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.

As to your other questions, it's associated with my pen name. I do not have a publishing company at this time.

 

[Held for Ransom]

Anything above 1000 that I faint.

Wait until you get there, then it won't seem like nearly enough...

HFR, do you believe book covers is an important asset and if so do you mind looking at two of the ones I designed and telling me what you thin?

Sure man, I can take a look but my advice in general (again) is to mimic what sells. Look at the bestsellers and study all the elements that they have in common.

Also what is your opinion on a copy sale page?

It's arguably the most important thing of all - even more than the book itself.

I feel like the order of importance is Title, Cover, Description and the first 10-12% of the book that people can read for free (e.g., "Look Inside" feature). I'm not the first one to say all of this by any means but I totally believe it to be the case for me.

It's amazing to me how people will pour all their energy into the book but quit at the finish line by botching one or all of the above. I spend HOURS on the cover, the title and the description sometimes before I ever type a SINGLE word of the actual manuscript.

That's how important I think all of that is.

As far as the "Look Inside" portion, I put the very best of the best of the best stuff I have in the beginning of the book. I want someone to read that and be like, oh yeah, I have to keep going now...

(Edit: I should add that I don't want to speak for Held for Ransom, but a lot of the members here shy away from giving input one-on-one, because answering multiple, private questions can really eat up a lot of time once they go down that path.)

I don't mind as long as folks are patient especially when I'm writing more like I have been again, finally.

 

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[Rawr]

Just thinking out loud here if the first 10-12% is shown, and it makes sense to have that be the beginning to draw the reader in, then the ABDCE formula would work well!

formula when writing a short story, which goes ABDCE, for Action, Background, Development, Climax, and Ending. You begin with action that is compelling enough to draw us in, make us want to know more. Background is where you let us see and know who these people are, how they’ve come to be together, what was going on before the opening of the story. Then you develop these people, so that we learn what they care most about. The plot—the drama, the actions, the tension—will grow out of that. You move them along until everything comes together in the climax, after which things are different for the main characters, different in some real way. And then there is the ending: what is our sense of who these people are now, what are they left with?

I might have mentioned this book this is a really really helpful book on writing and the psychological struggles. Quick read and helps a lot with how to get better. Charachter autonomy and agency is so important for me personally, the part on them writing their own story and you just typing it and saving yourself time is invaluable alone.


Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life: Anne Lamott: 9780385480017: Amazon.com: Books







What is your guy's process on editing? Do you let others read? How good is "good enough?"

 

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[Rawr]

Interesting observation, wish there was a larger study on this. But you may be right. At the same time is it necessary to have the same amount of sales for 1 book at 8.99 as one at 2.99 to have same total. Prob not, but I guess it looks 10x better to have 100000 downloads on the 2.99 than 1/3 of that for 8.99 for same profits.

So, gonna do more research on this and have discount to make book 3.99 or something.

With that said, have you ever impulsively purchased a 5$ ebook? If so, did you do more research beforehand or did you just purchase it immediately.

Dude, look, people are trying to say this in so many ways and it looks like it might need to be said like this:


The issue is that it is easy to buy something for a dollar, than something for $100. You can't do the math that you will sell x at $2.99 or 1/3x at 8.99, that's not how the real world works. In reality you will probably, MUCH LIKELY, sell a lot less at 8.99 because it is a lot higher than 2.99 and THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE SELLING AT 2.99

supply and demand. Real world has tons of competition. People will go for what they want, not for what you think they should go. You want it to be one way, but it is the other way.

Just accept this as a fact of life. Understand how the system works and win within the system. It will not change for you just because you wish it did, get it?

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Another Update and Some Insights: (If anyone gets tired of these, definitely let me know...)

So far, book 3 continues to outsell books 1, and 2. I'm not sure if it's because Book 3 is better (which I believe it is) or because I'm gaining more traction from having two previous books under the same pen name.

Here are my stats, including international sales, so far:
Book #1 (Published 8/1/13): 17 sold, 6 borrows, about 300 "sold" during a two-day free promo.
Book #2: (Published 8/4/13): 17 sold, 1 borrow, about 200 "sold" during a two-day free promo.
Book #3: (Published 8/17/13): 43 sold, 3 borrows, about 600 "sold" during a two-day free promo.

(Edit w/additional info: Book #1 is about 18,000 words for @2.99. Book #2 is about 300 words for $1.25. Book #3 is about 14,500 words for $2.99. All books are heavy on original illustrations though so they're quite longer than these word counts suggest.)

The good: Momentum is going in a nice direction. I do realize that sales of Book #3 will likely drop off suddenly, but for now I'm pleased to see it's outselling the previous two books, even if it's not setting the world on fire. It's been lingering in the top 40 of my sub-sub genre, with a decent amount of time being featured as a "hot new release" and in the top 20 of my sub-sub genre. That's definitely encouraging!

The bad: I'm surprised to see that the stronger sales of Book #3 aren't resulting in many additional sales of my first two books. I'm not sure what this means, but I hope to have more insight after publishing Book #4. I also realize that by picking a genre I thought I could compete in, I also picked a genre that doesn't have a huge, deep pool of buyers. For example, the top sellers in my genre are doing well for themselves, but not necessarily superstar well. I estimate that some of the top-selling books are making 10K per month, as opposed to many times that for top-selling books of the "Fifty Shades of Gray" variety. In short, I've picked a smaller pond, which can be good and bad -- good because I've been able to gain a small foothold within a relatively short timeframe, but bad because there's not as much upside potential.

I'm working on Book #4, which will be under the same pen name, and Book #5, which will be under a completely different pen name because it's a very different genre, a genre with a deeper pool of buyers. (Held for Ransom advised this right from the get-go, but this really didn't hit home for me until I was a little ways down the road in this process. It's funny how much more you pick up after you've actually DONE it.)

 

[Jonleehacker]

Some inspiration for you guys. I know most of you are writing fiction, but my Vegan diet book just went below 6,000 sales rank... keep at it everyone

 

[Held for Ransom]

Hey WC,

My first month, I published three books across Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.

In all, for the entire month, I sold 21 books. Those freaking books took me forever to write and I *barely* made $40.

Not the greatest of starts. My wife thought I was nuts. :coco:

Anyway, fast forward 8 months and 20+ novellas later and I broke the symbolic $10,000 in a month barrier. Since then, I've struggled with all sorts of various issues but I just kept at it. Today, I bounce around between $15,000 - $20,000 most months and I currently put out a novella a month.

Now, is that "legendary" money? No. Of course not. It's "good" money. It's hard to believe that's what I consider $15,000 a month now but it's the truth. When you start making more, $15,000 won't seem that great.

Still, what earning "good" money has done for me was give me two things I hadn't ever had in abundance in all the years of trying to become successful - time and options. Now, I have both of those and my family *finally* has some breathing room to really accelerate things.

As for me, I aiming for "legendary" money now but as you can see, I'm still a ways off. In my mind, that looks like six figures monthly but at the same time, it will take a lot of time and a lot more books. I think that building a business as an independent publisher is really no different from any other business you read about on here. What I mean is that "overnight success" usually takes more than a few books (and a few months) to manifest itself.

Sure, you'll have breakout authors like Jasinda Wilder but if I were you, I wouldn't waste time comparing my results to theirs. Rather, consider the fact that you are playing on a field where the home run is a real possibility. That's far more important. It's like MJ says, you have to play on a field where you can hit home runs and with e-books, at least with fiction, it's possible.

The last thing I would say is that it could be that writing in the genre you're in or just writing in general isn't for you. That's something that only you can decide. Frustration and doubt is normal but believe me, if you want to do this badly enough you can. I've been fortunate enough to get PMs from other folks here that are really doing well. I won't mention names because they've asked me not to but trust me, there are people here that are doing very well and haven't been at it all that long either.

I hope that's somewhat encouraging to you. I understand your struggles as much as anyone here which is why I felt compelled to chime in.

Here's some links to some things that you might find inspirational/helpful:

List of the top selling authors at Kindle Boards. Take note of how long most of them have been at it. And, that's just with Kindle. Most of them have years of prior writing experience.

The collected posts of H.M. Ward. The thing to consider is this woman's fanatical work ethic - she's a beast.

Here's a particularly relevant quote from her this past June...

Dut du-duuuuuuh! The impossible has happened. These are crazy times, people! Crazy! I passed the million books sold mark this month. The only reason I noticed was because a KBer asked for my sales numbers for May. I did a double take when I tallied them up. I was all bleary eyed after being at a funeral and assumed my brain broke. I don't talk too much about numbers or money, but we were so strapped when I started self pubbing. I had tons of medical bills and have been sick for so long that I didn't think I'd get better. OMG. Anyway, I paid my medical bills and was able to buy a house. We're moving out of the 'hood! Hooray!

I just wanted to share. Everything happened so fast that I still feel blindsided, but in a good way.

My first month of publishing March 2011, I sold 20+ books
My second month 200+
In Jan 2013 I passed 100,000 books sold total

Total number of published works: 37 (about 1/2 novellas, 1/2 novels)

I don't know if that's helpful but it's the truth as I see it with over a year in the game now.

 

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[AubreyRose]

Createspace doesn't give sales, what it gives is the illusion of a deal on your ebook. The createspace copy will ALWAYS have a higher pagecount, and when you price it high it makes the kindle price look like you're saving a lot of money. Check out how the pricing looks on my novel here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DK8LG52/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Of course it's not worth it to do for shorts, but if you ever do collections or novels, it's absolutely worth it imo.

 

[AubreyRose]

I've put two of my novellas through Createspace, and it cost me nothing but around 30 mins of my time, while giving the benefits of having a paperback you already mentioned (plus an easy extra income stream).
Why isn't it worth it outside of novels and collects? I'd argue it's pretty valuable, even for novellas.

Here's a good example:

I don't doubt HM Ward sells paper copies, but she's not exactly a normal example In my experience, I sell roughly 5,000 ebooks for every one paperback, which nets me nearly nothing since the royalties on paperbacks are shit.

Regardless, I don't want to format my stuff like crap for paperback readers. That means I put a lot of time into formatting the text, creating a COMPLETELY new cover which changes size every time for different templates, and generally doing things right. I'd say maybe 4 hours. And I have 75 shorts published under my last pen name. That's a lot of time that I honestly think would be better spent writing or doing other stuff. YMMV, of course, and if you don't mind doing it then more power to ya!

 

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[Held for Ransom]

So many sources give you all this advice about what publishers want, how many words your book should have, writing what you like, etc... The bottom line is that if you're going to make this fast lane, you have to look at it like any business and focus on results and scaling. I have changed my view because of this post and will adjust.

Hey there,

You know what though... I feel like you kind of have to do what is best for you. For some people, that could be the traditional route but that wasn't really an option for me. That's sort of a decision you have to make for yourself. You know?

TBH, I have to plead ignorance about what mainstream publishing wants because I never went that route. If it wasn't for Kindle, I wouldn't be doing this. It was that way almost a year ago when I joined here and it's still the same way now. That's just me though!

HfR, just wondering if anything has changed since you first started this post.

Yeah, I made a few changes but really they are all related to giving me the ability to produce more.

First of all, these days I pretty much know what my core group of readers buys so I don't spend as much time researching as I used to. I still pay attention to what sells in my niche but it's much more (now) about becoming more productive in terms of putting words on the page. Even so, if I was starting from scratch, I'd still research a new market in much the same way. Not much has changed for me in that regard.

The rest of this will be pretty boring but when I got to the end of 2013 and looked back, I had to be honest about where my weaknesses were/are. Unfortunately, there are so many! Haha.

But, the big ones were...

1. I take wayyyy too long to come up with storylines.

2. My experience in the craft of writing is still very new. I put in a few thousand hours last year but if you listen to folks like Malcolm Gladwell, it takes much more than that to near proficiency. So, I'm still on that path. I learn slower than most!

3. I am a very slow typist so I'm working diligently to get better.

Other than that, I still don't go out of my way to market anything I do other than the occasional e-mail with other authors in my genre who I am friendly with. My system is as simple as it was nine months or so when I joined.

I've gone through ups and downs in the meantime but I figure as long as I can keep writing, I'll reach my goals sooner or later. I've adjusted to all that stuff these days. Variance (good or bad) is inevitable but in the end this really is a numbers game so I figure I'll just sit here pounding keys and grinding it out until I get to where I want to be.

No matter what, this still beats working for anyone else in some Slowlane mindf*ck job!

 

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[MTF]

OK, who here is still in self publishing? Show yourselves, as going through the thread there were dozens interested.

The game has changed with KU2.0, what are you currently up to?

Still going strong after a year. This thread was one of my inspirations to enter this industry. I couldn't be more grateful to @Held for Ransom for sharing his incredible experience. You're one of the several people from this forum who have tremendously changed my life.

August was also by far my best month ever, but I don't have any titles enrolled in KDP Select (most of my sales come from non-fiction, and new KDP Select is not great for non-fiction). I'm still debating whether to use it for my incoming fiction book. All I know is that while I don't really enjoy KDP Select in general, I'm kind of happy they changed it because the gold rush era of self-publishing is now probably nearing its end.

 

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[COSenior]

OK, who here is still in self publishing? Show yourselves, as going through the thread there were dozens interested.

As you know, @Rawr, I'm still here. Also experienced my best month in August, to the tune of more than eight times my previous best-month earnings from my own titles. Still receiving royalties from previous pen names and partnerships, but completely stoked that I broke out on my own and am now making a livable income from my writing. With current trend, looking to double last month's gross as well. I'm nowhere near HfR's level yet, but chasing.

 

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[KirbyRaymund]

Uhhhhm, down pretty good from last month.

But, that's not that unusual only because (1) my bestsellers have cooled off and (2) I haven't put much new out until last weekend. But, that one is beginning to pick up and I have one more scheduled for next weekend so we'll see if I can recapture some momentum. It usually takes me about 10-14 days to really gauge how well something is going to do.

I've also transitioned to longer works in the hopes of keeping sales alive for longer periods of time so that will be another factor I am evaluating.


Wow, that's something. Sounds like this is right up your alley man. Put that talent to use for yourself and start shipping those e-books out!

thanks for the encouragement man. after i finished the book, i actually didn't want to let it go. so i decided that the next book i am writing will be for me. and i am on chapter 2. hurray!

 

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[dru-man]

Latest Progress Update:

Now have published novel and two published stories, all with covers completed. So three total.

I finished another short story today and am going to give it a few days to simmer before redrafting and publishing. I have another story and a novel started already and a few more ideas in mind.

Making some sales here and there but nothing spectacular - although feedback on my work from those who have read it is extremely enthusiastic! People seem quite taken with it, and my novel seems to be bringing yet more people to tears. Would be nice to see some of those strong emotions translate into more sales.

I'm cross-promoting between books, and I've even had people I gave free review copies to (other writers) email me to say they were thinking about buying the other pieces. So that clearly has an effect.

Again, none of the stuff I've uploaded so far has been targeted to a particular market, as it was all written quite some time ago without a market in mind. I have the tool access so hopefully that will help me there.

Held For Ransom: I think in another post you said you promote and link to your other books in your Amazon descriptions (or am I thinking of a poster in another forum?). I saw JA Konrath does this too - are you doing it similar to the way he does?

 

[Jonleehacker]

I've been using Literature and Latte - Scrivener Writing Software | Mac OS X | Windows as an outlining and writing tool and it has helped a lot, I'm much more organized and efficient.

The best thing is that the outline is tied to the writing, so you can adjust the outline as you go, which is how it should be. In the past I just abandon the outline at a certain point, which often leads to confusion.

 

[Held for Ransom]

Do you stay away from a genre that is dominated by established authors?

Only if you don't want to make any money.

Kidding aside, this is *absolutely* where you want to direct your energy. Study what winners do and emulate it to the best of your ability. In my terribly brief time doing this I've noticed two things - (1) winners write and (2) losers opine about what the winners write. So I follow winners and ignore losers.

As to your situation... It's *possible* that you will break out and have a huge seller right off the bat but it isn't likely. However, that's nothing to be concerned about. It just makes writing like every other business on earth.

In other words, it takes time to "get rich quick" (a.k.a., the "process").

So, don't get too wrapped up in it for now. Instead, take time to study your market in depth and be prepared to not do so great for a while. But, *never ever* shy away from writing the same kinds of things that the best authors in your niche do. To the best of your ability, that is the only thing that you should be doing if you want to earn a good living as a fiction writer.

Others may have a different perspective of course but that's all I have ever done and will do.

HTH!

 

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[COSenior]

I've been lurking on this thread for a while, feeling that as a complete novice in the fiction category, I had nothing to add but plenty to learn. I don't know what the right answer is to the body part question, but I am a female, and I'm naming them. Turns me on, so I figure it turns on some other women too. I started writing after this thread started, and I have sold a handful of the two stories I've published so far.

My only other comment is to Chickenhawk. Dude, do you HAVE a 10-foot um, pole? (Bats eyelashes). JK

 

[Held for Ransom]

I use this one other method of writing dialogue without stopping for "he said", "she replied" or such. So I just write how it would flow.

I do this alot as well. It's effective and, in my experience, does very little in the way of slowing down edits.

Interesting about the 500 words. I just read my description, and it's only 97 words. I hate the thought of padding it, because I think it might make the book sound boring. I wonder if the situation might be different for fiction versus non-fiction.

CH, my descriptions are always much longer but not for the reasons stated by the other poster above. I see this kind of advice in various places and it's pretty much useless IMO. I would never write a description to try and game an algo. No one really understands these things or knows anything about them anyway.

If you need proof, look at the bestselling writers, there is absolutely zero correlation between doing any of these kinds of things and making lots of sales. Sure, pick good keywords and put your book in the best possible category but beyond that, there's not much that remains to be done.

I guess what I'm saying is... write your descriptions for people, not machines. And, then write another book, and another, and another...

Perhaps include the first chapter or introduction/preface?

I wouldn't do this. SELL your story. That's what the description is for... When a movie studio puts out a new flick, do they just show the first 15 minutes on TV?

Heck no! They show you hints of the best stuff... The stuff that makes you want to get your butt in there and see it.

THAT is how you should write your descriptions - tantalize, tease but NEVER, EVER tell!

Do you let others read? How good is "good enough?"

My wife edits them. When she's done, it's "good enough" and we put it up for sale. It'll never be perfect so you just have to kind of let it go and publish...

I don't know what the right answer is to the body part question

Whatever sells.

I have sold a handful of the two stories I've published so far

Terrific, way to go! Looking forward to hearing more from you.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Well, I posted my first book this weekend, and I'll be posting another one within the next couple of days. Whew!

I'm glad I know up front that it takes a while to build any kind of readership, otherwise I'd be pulling my hair out, waiting for sales to roll in. To those who have already gone through this phase, I'd be interested to know how long it takes before you start to see any kind of results. For example, if you don't mind sharing, did you sell any books during the first month? And if so, how many?

Thanks, in advance, for any feedback!

 

[Thriftypreneur]

@HFR

Regarding best-selling authors in a genre, I think, with kindle's mainstream popularity, that best-selling authors are really killing it. Here's a sales chart I found from an authors personal experiences and records. I've cross checked the chart among popular author hangouts and, for the most part, people seem to agree on the numbers.

Theresa Ragan: Sales Ranking Chart

Based on the chart, if you were to be in the top #5-#10 of Amazon best selling titles for six months, that's an average of 540000 books sold. At 3.99 each, that's $1,506,600.00 that Amazon is cutting you a check for (70% commission - and this doesn't even include sales on other platforms or print-on-demand, etc). I'm not saying it's easy to get there, but I'm saying that, since mobile and ebooks are now so widely adopted and accepted, that best-selling authors are really, really killing it. And this platform is still in it's infancy.

Edit: Don't really know what my point was for this post, just wanted to share these numbers in this thread.

 

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[Jonleehacker]

I think I need new friends... who wants to grab a drink in Phoenix?

I'm just about finished my first non-fiction book, inspired by this thread.

Your question got me thinking, I have a good group of friends that support each other in email and skype for my eBiz, anyone into an accountability and peer to peer mentoring group for writers?

 

[ALSL]

I promised I'd report on my progress with the book blogs. First I'm going to share with you all the results of a question that one of the Facebook pages I found posed on Thursday. The question was 'Does size matter?' The size of the BOOK, guys, get your minds out of the gutter. :eusa_naughty: The overwhelming response was that readers won't pay more than 99 cents for a short story, and most don't want to pay more than $2.99 for a full-length novel. If it's under 10,000 words, a lot of readers want it free.

Doesn't this directly contradict HfR's experience? He didn't put anything up for free and priced all of his works at the $2.99 level in order to take advantage of the 70% profit margin.

Now, after 34 titles, all of which were anywhere between 8,000 - 20,000 words, he finally broke his first $15,000 month.

It seems to me that people aren't to be trusted. I'd even go so far as to say that the majority answering your question aren't being honest to themselves.

Of COURSE I'm going to say I won't pay more than 99c for a short story. Of COURSE I'm going to say I won't pay more than $2.99 for a novel. This is because if I say otherwise, you'll charge me more. I want to pay as little as possible for as much value as possible.

However, I've yet to find someone who would refuse to pay $3.99 or $4.99 for a book in a series they really enjoyed. Sure, maybe the first book needs to be priced at $2.99 and put on sale for a limited time at $0.99 just to hook the reader. But if they enjoyed your first book, and you made a conscious effort to make it impossible for a reader to not pick up the sequel, then they're going to pay your $2.99 or even $3.99 for that second book.

This is where quality trumps quantity. Quantity will establish you as a serious writer, but quality is what will hook repeat customers.

HfR or someone else with historical data correct me if I'm wrong here.

 

[Breaking Free]

An update...

I started writing my novella Wednesday, and after maybe 6 hours of work, I have a 9000 word novella. It's gone through one round of editing, and after I flesh out one scene, I think I'll be ready to proceed.

My plan:
- Revamp my desk. I feel I could have been more productive if it wasn't so damn uncomfortable. Already researching new chairs
- I was considering KDP select, but I think being able to publish everywhere at once looks to be a better option
- I want to produce at least three more stories before I epublish. I unfortunately have a demanding day job, but want to release content at least every two weeks. I know working a 9 to 5 isn't very fastlane, but i would like some income first before i quit
- I've eliminated all distractions, from video games to tv to non essential hobbies. My focus is my writing, until it gets me on the fastlane


Questions:
- Should I reconsider KDP select?
- Should i leverage social media for my work and pen name or just let my work do the talking?
- Any recommendations on how to create covers for my stories?
- Is there anything else I haven't considered?

 

[RahKnee]

I just hired a couple people on Fiverr to do promotions through social media for my ebooks. I'll come back and share the results if you guys are interested.

 

[Jonleehacker]

Trust me, there is no reason you should charge <$8 for your book, just no reason what so ever. If anything you can sell for 12 and charge 10.

From what I have seen in my own buying and from what I'm hearing from other authors, the reason to price them low is to get them into the "no thought" category.

Traditional books cost $20, but now when someone wants to read on Kindle, they go, search a genre and select 5 or 7 books that are all < $4 and buy them all. You want to be in that group of options.

I know I do the same thing, my buying patterns on Kindle are different than anywhere else in my life. If I want to research a topic, I'll buy 5 books and just scan them and read the best of them.

The lower you price them, the more impulse buying you will get, and the more more you sell, the more likely, if you are good, the more you will sell in the future.

There is no per unit cost here to the author, in most cases it will be much easier to sell 3 at $2.99 than 1 at $8.99.

I don't think perceived quality based on price plays into it very much. Based on Cover, yes and whether or not it is self published, but don't think price works the same as physical products.

 

[Rawr]

For dialogue I had the issue of paragraph blocks as well, more writing will help. After 15-20 hours of writing you will start to FEEL the flow a lot better and will be able to work it with more grace.

I approached it this way:

dialogue is stretching what can be said in a paragraph, where you just want to give the facts.

But women reading the book don't want a factbook, they want to feel, to flow through the lines. This is what dialogue is to me. It might sound silly to stretch out the dialogue but it is important to get the vibe, the connection, through it.

Saying "she was my best friend" vs writing out 10 lines that show THROUGH the dialogue that they are best friends.

The masterful dialogue is where the author can move the story along, and introduce new things in it. Making the reader's mind reach a bit, and take in more with each line, to understand the context. Now this I am not sure if women want, may be they want easy reading at all times, but for me, this is the art of writing.

Seriously, just keep writing... it will come, and then you will rewrite.

 

[Rawr]

Had no idea that you needed to do this.

You can use keywords to get your book into more categories, and I've done it. Here's some info. from amazon which I found extremely useful: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A200PDGPEIQX41

And examples are -
Sci-fi and Fantasy: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2G3ZMYDPB9VRM
Teen and YA: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2G3ZMYDPB9VRM
Romance: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A19G4ONBAU6NO3

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Like I wrote, it would have been awesome to started when you guys did a year ago, instead of dabbling in the failures

I can relate! I felt exactly this way when I first read HFR's amazing thread, wishing I had gotten on board sooner. But just think...In a year, you'll be the seasoned veteran with a whole bunch of new insight and potential titles under your belt. I can also relate to the "failure" thing. Just the other day, my husband and I were marveling at my obvious insanity in not giving up after such a looooooong list of failures.

Here's looking forward to following your progress!