Hello from Denver - self publishing success

[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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[stormjb1]

Congrats on your success Ransom. I've published 5 non-fiction books over the past 6 months but the sales have been mediocre at best. But I did notice with one of my books once I got a few reviews on it the sales started going up. Is there anyway to generate 'honest' reviews?

I've posted my books on library things, but had hardly any results.

Thanks!

 

[Held for Ransom]

Congrats on your success Ransom.

Thanks, very kind of you!

But I did notice with one of my books once I got a few reviews on it the sales started going up.

Do you suppose this could have been due to any other factors? Getting on the Also Bought list of a good seller in your niche, etc.? Just curious how you came to that conclusion...

Is there anyway to generate 'honest' reviews?

Hmmm, well, do you have a presence outside of your non-fiction works? In other words, do you have some business or something that you are using the books to promote? If so, perhaps your regular customers would be willing to give you "honest reviews".

Full disclosure... I really don't put much stock into reviews at all - good or bad. For the kind of stuff I write (fiction), I just don't think they matter much. However, I am willing to acknowledge that the situation could be different for non-fiction but without knowing for certain, I'd just be speculating.

Sorry I can't be of more help on that.

 

[Rawr]

Guys I am beginning to edit and could use some help on how to write fillers in dialogue.

my descriptions are fine, but dialog seems to be without much:


"quote"

"quote" - he said

"quote"

"quote" - she smiled.

I am having a hard time figuring out what to put in there, there is only so much 'he smiled' 'she grinned' i can do.

Imagine two guys talking in a room, what are they doing when talking, looking at each other studying faces, sitting down, standing up, doing what exactly?? all this filler would seems distracting to me, but without it too plain.




Also wanted to make a comment on how lucky we are to be on this forum, where people who KNOW HOW, and DID, can give real, actionable, WORKING advice instead of what others THINK they know. I looked over the Amazon kindle forums, and the advice is general stuff that HFR wrote doesn't really matter - facebook pages, editing more, etc. Shows the importance of asking the right person and how much value they really have, so thank you once again bud!





Lastly here is a resource which may be some find useful. Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases by Grenville Kleiser It is completely free, a collection of good phrases, what I do is search Ctrl F for ones I might want, or just skim to pick something up when I have the time.


some highlights from my 'research'

His heart asserted itself again, thunderously beating

His lips seemed to be permanently parted in a good-humored smile

His mind echoed with words

Vibrations set quivering like harp strings struck by the hand of a master

Her mouth quivered with pleasure

It's free:


http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18362

 

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[Boyd]

I am having a hard time figuring out what to put in there, there is only so much 'he smiled' 'she grinned' i can do.

I am far from being an expert and I have not (YET!) published my first book, so take this reply for what it's worth. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with the good old fashioned "he said/she said." Too much description attributed to dialogue can become distracting. Unless it is pivotal to the story line, I would say just leave out a lot of the extra stuff. Does the reader really need to know every time the character scratches his head or looks at the floor while he's talking? Unless, of course, it's vital to the scene. Like trying to avoid answering a question or something.

There's also no need to attribute every individual line of dialogue to a particular character. Unless there are twenty different characters talking to each other at the same time, the reader shouldn't have a problem keeping track of conversations without all the "he said, she said, Dave said, Jane said..." etc. Sometimes those things just take away from the flow of the story more than anything.

Also wanted to make a comment on how lucky we are to be on this forum, where people who KNOW HOW, and DID, can give real, actionable, WORKING advice instead of what others THINK they know. I looked over the Amazon kindle forums, and the advice is general stuff that HFR wrote doesn't really matter - facebook pages, editing more, etc. Shows the importance of asking the right person and how much value they really have, so thank you once again bud!

I could not possibly agree with you more. I have been frequenting a couple other forums (KDP forums and KBoards) in an attempt to learn as much as I can about self publishing and some of the questions (and the replies) are simply ludicrous. Too many people are wasting a lot of time redesigning covers, rewriting blurbs, setting up blogs and facebook pages, etc. all in the hopes of getting their *one* book (published eighteen months ago) higher than their current 400,000+ sales rank.

Not that I think some promotion isn't important. It is, at least for beginners with only a couple of titles. But I was listening to an interview with Jack and Jasinda Wilder (the "Big Girls" authors featured in another post here) and they gave some excellent advice. They said they do have a blog and facebook page but they don't actively spend time promoting their books on them. It's more of a listing service for new titles and what not. They gave an awesome quote, that I'm going to paraphrase, about how they became so successful: "Nothing promotes books better than more books."

How's that for fastlane thinking? Anyway, that's my two cents on the subject. Huge thanks to HfR and everyone else who has contributed to this thread. I'm learning more by reading this than I ever could trying to figure it out all on my own. That's why I love this forum!

 

[KirbyRaymund]

actually, i was going to ask if there is a forum or a thread here that's more specific to fiction writers?

 

[joanna]

I am far from being an expert and I have not (YET!) published my first book, so take this reply for what it's worth. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with the good old fashioned "he said/she said." Too much description attributed to dialogue can become distracting. Unless it is pivotal to the story line, I would say just leave out a lot of the extra stuff. Does the reader really need to know every time the character scratches his head or looks at the floor while he's talking? Unless, of course, it's vital to the scene. Like trying to avoid answering a question or something.

There's also no need to attribute every individual line of dialogue to a particular character. Unless there are twenty different characters talking to each other at the same time, the reader shouldn't have a problem keeping track of conversations without all the "he said, she said, Dave said, Jane said..." etc. Sometimes those things just take away from the flow of the story more than anything.

In general "s/he/name said" is considered to be invisible to the reader, so don't worry too much about these repeating. As for any extra descriptions I have to agree with the above - the reader doesn't need to know about every er scratching, neck rubbing, nose picking, etc. If the character doesn't do anything IMPORTANT or out of the ordinary, there is no need to draw attention to it. With that said you can use these descriptions to slow down or speed up the pacing and help readers imagine the scene as it develops. Make sure that if you use the gestures they are meaningful. When the character rubs their neck, there should be a reason for it - is that an indication he's nervous for example? Don't add this kind of description just because there's twenty lines of dialogue already

Also a good exercise is to take away the tags and see if you can still differentiate the characters. You've done well with the character's voice if you can still recognize who is who without the tags.

I'm just quietly stalking this thread, but thought I'd add a quick comment.

 

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[tormat]

Hehe, looks like a lot of people would love a peak at that tool of yours, are you sharing it at all?

 

[ChickenHawk]

I am having a hard time figuring out what to put in there, there is only so much 'he smiled' 'she grinned' i can do.

I know others have already addressed this, but I can't resist chiming in too. I've followed tons of fiction writing blogs over the years, and they're consistent in saying "said" is the best dialogue tag unless your character is truly doing something other than saying, meaning they're screaming, whispering, or in the case of erota, ahem, moaning, squealing, or panting.

Supposedly, excessive use of words other than "said" marks the writer as an amateur. Still, there are times when "said" simply won't do...

"Do it again, Fabio," she squealed.
"Do it again, Fabio," she moaned.
"Do it again, Fabio," she said. (Yikes. Poor Fabio.)

 

[Held for Ransom]

Also wanted to make a comment on how lucky we are to be on this forum, where people who KNOW HOW, and DID, can give real, actionable, WORKING advice instead of what others THINK they know. I looked over the Amazon kindle forums, and the advice is general stuff that HFR wrote doesn't really matter - facebook pages, editing more, etc. Shows the importance of asking the right person and how much value they really have, so thank you once again bud!

You are too kind, man. However, that advice existed long before I got into this. I'm just following the insight of real pros that have been at this for a very long time. It's worked for me so far and for that, I am very grateful.

actually, i was going to ask if there is a forum or a thread here that's more specific to fiction writers?

??? Pretty sure most of the people contributing to the thread are fiction writers...

I could not possibly agree with you more. I have been frequenting a couple other forums (KDP forums and KBoards) in an attempt to learn as much as I can about self publishing and some of the questions (and the replies) are simply ludicrous. Too many people are wasting a lot of time redesigning covers, rewriting blurbs, setting up blogs and facebook pages, etc. all in the hopes of getting their *one* book (published eighteen months ago) higher than their current 400,000+ sales rank.

So true...

As MJ would say, they are focused on the SUGAR.

Sure, promote your latest book, pick the best keywords/categories you can, put together the strongest title, description and cover possible but then MOVE ON. The simple truth is that most writers, even those that make six figures a year, will never have to worry about any of that. It's the mental masturbation of the fiction world.

The FLOUR is the grind - it's researching, refining and most of all TYPING. That is where the money is. It's in the boring, tedious stuff that has to get done - over and over and over and over...

They gave an awesome quote, that I'm going to paraphrase, about how they became so successful: "Nothing promotes books better than more books."

I think this the edge that the greats have in common. Somehow, they internalize this belief early on and live by it to the exclusion of everything else. If you ever doubt it, look at the size of the catalogs that most of the best writers have. They are substantial. More often than not, being prolific is the difference maker...

Hehe, looks like a lot of people would love a peak at that tool of yours, are you sharing it at all?

PM sent.

Rawr's questions about dialogue...

My 2 cents on all of this "said" stuff...

So everyone here knows that I am never wanted to be a writer, don't know much about it, blah, blah but I am about 5,000 words away from my 30th title. To be honest, in all the stuff I've written I never paid any attention to any of that. AFAIK, I don't believe anyone has ever complained from a review standpoint about me doing this "wrong" or "right".

So, with all of that said, I 100% agree with Boyd, CH and Joanna. I think it's important to keep it simple and not overthink stuff like this. If you write a good story, it won't matter at the end of the day!

I'm just quietly stalking this thread, but thought I'd add a quick comment.

Stalker... Welcome!

 

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[COSenior]

I am having a hard time figuring out what to put in there, there is only so much 'he smiled' 'she grinned' i can do.

Breathed, whispered, murmured, moaned, groaned, growled, shouted, urged, shrieked, explained, went on, continued, cried, demurred...shall I go on?

 

[DavidofMN]

HFR and other authors:

So after doing some research on Amazon and with the search tool I have a question: How many pages are the books that you are writing? I know that you (or someone) mentioned 8,000 - 20,000 words but most of the bestsellers in any category seem to average at least over 200 pages.

The ones with the smaller amount of pages seem to really drop off in the total sales.

I have read through this whole thread and took some good notes but the most important part, the researching of what category and what the market wants to read, is throwing me for a little loop.

Anyone have any insight into how they are getting their market research done?

For example, if you search in Fiction --> Erotica the average # of pages is like 320 (i know that includes some compilations).

So am I looking to broad first and need to niche this down to something like BBW stories or Werewolves or something like that? Thanks for help.

 

[Michael Raphael]

The book I am trying to write (my main one) is just about 200 pages and 30,000 words. I will tell you how it works.

 

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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!

 

[Texan]

I started reading this thread when it was first posted back in April. It's pure gold and I wanted to share about how I've been inspired by it.

I wrote over 50K words in a novel last summer and like most people who attempt that, I just walked away from it. My fastlane business got busy (which is a good thing!) and I had some medical issues that had to be addressed with my baby daughter. I spent the last year reading as much as a I could of Amazon bestselling novels that are similar to mine. I am my own worst critic, so I decided that my novel may not work out. After reading this thread, I've dabbled in some short stories and I kept reading. Finally, two weeks ago, I reread my novel and I was shocked - it was actually decent and entertaining.

So now it is 95% complete and it should be 60K words when finished. I've rewritten portions of it and done a surface edit, but as soon as I am done with the actual writing (should be tomorrow), my wife has volunteered to read it for content. I may end up hiring an editor from Fiverr or eLance to go over it once more, and then I'm publishing it. It's the first of 5 books in a series - if it sells.

That's all to say that I appreciate HfR and all the others who contributed to this thread. I'll let you know how it goes...

Peace!

 

[M&N]

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!

From my experience I can say it really depends on the niche and your research. I earned around 650$ in my first month*.

*once I started treating it like a real business (I published two really short stories 3-4 months before that with almost no research etc. But I had a couple of sales then too).

 

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[ChickenHawk]

once I started treating it like a real business

If you're willing to share, it would be interesting to hear more about this. When you say you started treating it like a real business, what did you do differently? For example, was it in the quality of your writing, choosing a different niche, or marketing/promo efforts? $650 in your first month sounds pretty darn impressive, congrats!

 

[Thriftypreneur]

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!

I may be wrong, but I understand that Amazon pushes new titles pretty heavily. Which is probably why you see so many of the successful writers pushing out books as fast as possible; not only so they can build off their own catalog, but because they want as many books as possible in the "Newly Published" lists.

 

[M&N]

If you're willing to share, it would be interesting to hear more about this. When you say you started treating it like a real business, what did you do differently? For example, was it in the quality of your writing, choosing a different niche, or marketing/promo efforts? $650 in your first month sounds pretty darn impressive, congrats!

Thanks. My first attempt looked like that: I checked on Amazon what genres were "ok" to enter and outsourced two short stories in two different genres. I published them without putting any effort into description, keywords and the covers weren't that cool too.

Couple months later I decided to give Kindle another try. This time I did things differently. I chose one niche, the one that was popular and not "strong" enough so I could compete with other authors. I published 5-6 ebooks in one month (but $650 regards sales of 4 ebooks). I paid more attention to my covers, keyword, categories and descriptions. What's interesting, the first book had a really nice start and it generated most of the sales for that month. Funny thing, this is the only ebook I've written myself (hey maybe I should be a writer?!). When I saw that I can really make money with this model, I started outsourcing all my writing and acting more like a publisher.

But please don't be fooled by the numbers, unfortunately the sales went down significantly. However, I admit that I haven't done any marketing outside Amazon so far. I just find it hard to spend time on promoting $2.99 ebooks, I prefer to gain more exposure by publishing more of them. Now I enter more niches and I plan to have around 60 ebooks total by the end of the year. It's a nice side passive income, but from my experience it's pretty unstable and I don't have much control. I outsource everything so I'm not going to be a famous author or something like that. I rather plan to work on this business until the end of the year, analyse things and maybe sell all my ebooks.

I learn a lot, it's a great experience, but I know it won't be my fastlane business this time. But if you're a creative writer, it can totally work for you. Self-publishing is huge right now, but in my opinion you need to be the author yourself to be able to take things to the next level.

Hope that helps!

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Hope that helps!

Very helpful, thanks for the info!

 

[dru-man]

So I've made some major changes to my writing setup recently. I was having all kinds of chronic neck and back pain some of which kept me bedridden for weeks on end. It's basically been a problem since January but it reached a breaking point in the late spring.

Anyway, I finally had some breakthroughs with my therapy. In addition to that, I have since invested considerable amount of money into a sit stand desk, a new computer set up with multiple monitors and also I have revisited utilizing dictation software.

I am using the latest version of Dragon Naturally Speaking (Version 12). The single most important advancement that they've come up with is an app which allows you to do dictation through your smartphone. This is great for me because whenever I'm stuck I tend to walk around and think about what I want to write next.

In the past, I would have to walk back to my computer, sit down make a quick note of my idea and then get back up. Now, the app is always running on my phone and so if I get stuck while I'm typing I can walk around until the ideas come to me. And I find that the more I use the app the less and less I type. I am just getting better at dictating my books.

So, I just thought I'd throw that out there. I'll continue to experiment with it but at this point if I can realize a 20% increase in my typing speed that could mean 20% more books per year. Of course book sales could grow by much more than 20% since it's not linear by any means.

Hope that is useful to someone.

Sorry to hear about the health issues - a lot of people don't realize that spending a lot of time on the computer can really destroy your body (here's me being a hypocrite in real-time lol). I've been a freelancer for about six years, so I've got a little bit of experience in this arena too.

Anyhow, I'm sure you've already done a lot of your own research, but here's a good article on creating a healthy workspace: Reinventing the Office: How to Lose Fat and Increase Productivity at Work

Another solid piece of advice is to make sure you're taking a lot of breaks. I set a timer when working and take a 10 minute break after working for 50 minutes straight. After two of these blocks, or two hours, I take a thirty minute break. On my breaks I make sure to get up and move around - maybe even crank out some pushups.

I honestly think people who make their money at their computer should be getting twice as much exercise as people with regular jobs (though I've yet to take that advice myself haha). And as far as the back, have you tried swimming? I used to have chronic back issues and then I started swimming in the morning for exercise and it seemed to sort itself out within a week. Never really had problems again even though I haven't swum in quite some time.

On another note, how are you finding Dragon Naturally Speaking? I used to use it for writing articles but I stopped after a while. I just find that when speaking I have a tough time getting in that flow. I think it's because it takes more time to type than talk, so by the time I've finished typing a sentence, I already know what I'm going to write next. When speaking into the computer I'm always stopping to collect my thoughts and I didn't like that pace.

But maybe it just takes some getting used to?

 

[Breaking Free]

Hey everyone; thanks for this great thread.

I've been a longtime hobbyist writer with dreams of publishing, but was always turned off by how tough it would be to find an agent, get published, and then not make a whole lot of money off my book. Now, I'm feeling a whole lot better about picking up the proverbial pen again (in reality, I can't think of the last time I actually used a pen) and giving it a go.

Since there's some hesitation to share results from Amazon-based book research on what sells (and I totally get that), any chance I can get in on your research tool, HfR?

 

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[WhiteBlackbird]

First of all, thanks to Held for Ransom (although I first remembered you as Held TO Ransom - slight difference). Not only do I respect you for all the work you have done, I truly appreciate what you are doing here. You are the reason I have signed up for this forum.

I am a beginner and maybe I have had beginner's luck but my first ebook has been making me over $1000 a month for fifteen months now. (My second book, which was an unpleasant experience to write, I shall not bother to mention again). And now I am raring to write my third, and my fourth, and my fifth . . .

So, please, HfR, could I also try out your New Improved Research Machine? If later you are going to sell it in some way, I would be happy to give you a testy.

Thanks in advance.

 

[DavidofMN]

Saw this post and thought it was pretty funny: 5 Steps to Writing Successful Erotic Fiction | Cracked.com

It seems like there are some good tips in there (underneath the humor - I know it is from Cracked but still seems like some good tips). Anyone agree/disagree with what they were saying?

 

[COSenior]

I think I can confirm that Amazon pushes new books. I have published three short stories in the Erotica genre, and purchased the first copy of each myself to generate the sales ranking. Each of them started off in the 50,000 or so range, and quickly dropped off. The competition in that genre is fierce, but it's quick and easy to write, with little or no research as to story details required. :smxB: My initial strategy was to publish a lot very quickly, however I have taken a different tack from HfR as regards publicity/promotion.

I made a new Facebook account under my pen name and went looking for like-minded readers by searching through fan page categories. As I 'liked' more and more pages, probably about a dozen now, I discovered 'book blogs'. These are outstanding opportunities for free publicity to several thousand fans of the blogs. I've seen everything from about 1200 to over 20,000. Right now I'm sending review requests myself, but I understand that most authors have what are called 'street teams' who post to these pages and blogs in behalf of a favorite author. I don't know more details than that, but I'm under the impression that they do it for nothing more than loyalty, or perhaps free copies of their authors' books. I can well imagine that once you have a fan base from this method, it gets easier with each book published.

For those on this thread who are not writing in this or the romance genre, there are a number of Facebook pages that are devoted simply to fiction--it could be well worth your time to spend a few hours seeking out people who will expose your work with little or no cost or effort on your part. What's in it for them? As near as I can tell, most of them are Amazon Affiliates, so they are making commissions on the sales through their links. That's as good a reason as any to really push your stuff.

I just got started on this over the weekend, so I'll let you know how long it takes to get one of my stories reviewed, and what the results are with regard to increased sales.

The book I am trying to write (my main one) is just about 200 pages and 30,000 words. I will tell you how it works.

Is my math off? I thought 250 words was considered a page. That would make this book only about 120 pages. Sorry, dude.

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

Congratulations!

 

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[Chazmania]

I am a beginner and maybe I have had beginner's luck but my first ebook has been making me over $1000 a month for fifteen months now. (My second book, which was an unpleasant experience to write, I shall not bother to mention again). And now I am raring to write my third, and my fourth, and my fifth . . .

Wow that's a great start! Nothing wrong with an extra G-note per month, good luck on your other titles.

 

[dru-man]

First of all, thanks to Held for Ransom (although I first remembered you as Held TO Ransom - slight difference). Not only do I respect you for all the work you have done, I truly appreciate what you are doing here. You are the reason I have signed up for this forum.

I am a beginner and maybe I have had beginner's luck but my first ebook has been making me over $1000 a month for fifteen months now. (My second book, which was an unpleasant experience to write, I shall not bother to mention again). And now I am raring to write my third, and my fourth, and my fifth . . .

So, please, HfR, could I also try out your New Improved Research Machine? If later you are going to sell it in some way, I would be happy to give you a testy.

Thanks in advance.

Awesome? Was it a novel? If I were you I'd just write more books in that exact genre. Can you turn it into a series?

 

[DavidofMN]

Authors,

For your Erotica stories are you writing them in 1st person or in 3rd person? And which one do you think sells better in this genre?

 

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[RahKnee]

I just hit the "save and publish" button in my kindle publishing account on a 120,000 word book. That is a great feeling. Looking forward to getting many many more out there.

 

[Held for Ransom]

shall I go on?

Please...

Stuff about page length...

I've written longer and shorter. Neither is really a guarantee of success or failure. There's so much more to giving your market what it wants than just numbers of pages. My goal always is to give them what they want first. Find that NEED. If it takes you 50 pages, 100 pages or whatever, it doesn't matter. Someone will ALWAYS complain that a book is too short.

I hope that's clear. If not, please let me know.

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

I sent you a PM about this but I wanted to say in the thread how happy I am for you CH. Speed++!!

That's all to say that I appreciate HfR and all the others who contributed to this thread. I'll let you know how it goes...

Keep us updated Texan! Speed ++!

From my experience I can say it really depends on the niche and your research. I earned around 650$ in my first month

I sucked so much, I barely made more than $200 my first month and I was researching from day one!

I may be wrong, but I understand that Amazon pushes new titles pretty heavily.

This is my experience. I am actively exploring ways to improve things so I can overcome this churn but it will take some time I am afraid.

But maybe it just takes some getting used to?

It's a process, like everything else. Unfortunately!

any chance I can get in on your research tool, HfR?

PM sent! No hesitation here. The more the merrier as far as I am concerned.

I am a beginner and maybe I have had beginner's luck but my first ebook has been making me over $1000 a month for fifteen months now.

Wow! That's pretty amazing man, good for you. Please school us on your tips for longevity like that! PM sent!

I just got started on this over the weekend, so I'll let you know how long it takes to get one of my stories reviewed, and what the results are with regard to increased sales.

Please, yeah, if you are comfortable sharing that. I'm always open to hearing how to sell more stuff.

I just hit the "save and publish" button in my kindle publishing account on a 120,000 word book. That is a great feeling. Looking forward to getting many many more out there.

That's like three or four of my novellas, wow. Way to go RahKnee! Speed++!