Trying Out Self-Publishing

[Lex DeVille]

WHat's the price of the KU right now?

$1.39 per borrow.

 

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[Gabriel]

$1.39 per borrow.

Well it's not that baaad, you just need like 700 borrows per 1k dollars... But KU it's getting pretty popular right now ---> so more borrows. On low selling prices, borrows are even higher than the royalties.

 

[Gabriel]

Yeah, that's only a couple hundred books more than when it was at $1.80.

Every 10 to 20 cents they drop is a drop in revenue of a couple hundred dollars.

Yes but also Kindle Unlimited accounts are growing up at a fast rate! Though I guess KU under 1.10-1.15 would be really really bad. Right now it's on the low side.

 

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[Charnell]

I foresee it as going to be up and down in 3-6 month trends. It reaches an incredible low, say less than or around $1, then a bunch of the big timers pull out because their royalties are going down (some of which already did at the $1.33 mark). That leaves the small fishes in the pool, raising borrow rates back up 20-50 cents. The bigger fish come back in for three months, it goes back down, rinse and repeat.

 

[Charnell]

I think these will depend more on total Borrows customers do, not authors. I don't think Amazon watches too much who pulls out etc. The thing is Amazon can't keep high priced Borrows if there is a huge increase in Borrows. The more Borrows from new customers, the less each Borrow will be worth. Amazon would go in the hole for too much otherwise.

I hear what you're saying. It would be nice to see how many people are enrolled in KU every month so we could predict borrow rates. There has to be a correlation between total amount of cash and number or subscribers. Unfortunately one of those numbers is unknown and neither is constant.

 

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[Gymjunkie]

I hear what you're saying. It would be nice to see how many people are enrolled in KU every month so we could predict borrow rates. There has to be a correlation between total amount of cash and number or subscribers. Unfortunately one of those numbers is unknown and neither is constant.

Yeah, that would be good. But not with Amazon haha

Anyway, if big names withdraw from KU, then it will build up some new names and that will be good. More midlist Indies. That is good. Like Select used to do few years ago. Temporary boost.

 

[Selfy]

Aww, thank you for being so lovely, I really appreciate it.

I agree that it does make more sense when you look at it like that, though. I think for my next venture, I'll try for a series of novellas. When you say 85k, do you mean 85k words per book, or for the entire series? I'm assuming you mean the former, which is super impressive. I'm very inspired!

Caution. Dig deeper in the forum.

I'm not sure if you're an English grad or what. But I'm sure you know writing 10k is different from writing 5k. And 80k is pro.

So, don't blast through it; instead, take your time to perfect your writing at the 5k level before inching ever slowly to higher word counts involving more complexities. You may even reduce the erotic content by percentage to give more shine to your plot. Romance is written. Erotica is better outsourced. You do not want to burn a pen.

Bundles, do not work as well in ku as before. Held for ransom had turned dinosaur. There is however new bundling variations cropping up which works for shorts for the time being

 

[Selfy]

Romance includes paranormal *flash pearly smile*

While it takes you 5 hours to write ero, some guy out there takes 30 mins to download a word file, pay, slap cover, categ etc.

But you're on the write track(haha), sales means nothing without production TIME. And word counts are useless without the sales. Like mj said, time is our primordial resource.

At the end, you have to pay your bills. What moves will help you get there?

Good luck, Aimee.

Subscribed!

 

[Gabriel]

So far in Dec: 490 borrows, 70 sales
This week: 220 borrows, 22 sales

So far I've released 23 titles (including bundles) across two pen names. I know most people said not to put bundles in KU, but it seems to have worked much better for me that way, so I'll be leaving mine in.

Don't have much to say this week, really. I've been quite busy doing various other things, so I haven't dedicated as much time to this as I'd have liked. Either way, I still plan to meet my 30 titles by New Year goal, so that's 7 titles in 7 days...should be fun (or not). Outsourcing is still work in progress.

what's your regular sales and borrows per book? Do you have any book that oversales?

Why shouldn't I publish bundles in KU? I was thinking of publishing a series of 4 books the next month on KU...
thankk youu

 

[GuestUser116]

So far in Dec: 490 borrows, 70 sales
This week: 220 borrows, 22 sales

How much $ is 1 borrow?

 

[Charnell]

(490 + 70)/23 = 24.3 units sold per book.
One book that took 10 hours has 5 sales, one book that took 3 hours has over 120 sales, hence why I'm concentrating on shorter stuff right now.

People say not to publish bundles in KU because you're essentially losing money if someone borrows the bundle as opposed to buying the books individually. Publishing a series is fine, just make sure to publish each book individually.



Charnell is correct for the most part, I think borrows were $1.39 last month.

There were really that high? Man I forget already and it's only been 7 days since the report.

 

[Aimee]

There were really that high? Man I forget already and it's only been 7 days since the report.

Haha yeah, it was a shock. Will be interesting to see what December's rate is!

 

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[Charnell]

I crossed 40 outsourced shorts. I pay anywhere from 25 to 200 per work, with my better writers locked at 5 work submission contracts or more, or never ending until I pull the break (submit all you want extravaganza). Caveat: you get what you pay for. I'll be expanding this next year.

You'll need to figure out how much one title in its lifetime will net you, so you can determine the price to pay. Data analysis is your friend here. You can lose money.

I heard that. I'm taking a gamble moving into non-fiction. It hasn't been the first complete month yet so I don't know how well each title is going to be. I know with fiction I could make 3 or 4 times the initial investment in the first month then have it never sell again...but want something more long term.

 

[Gabriel]

I heard that. I'm taking a gamble moving into non-fiction. It hasn't been the first complete month yet so I don't know how well each title is going to be. I know with fiction I could make 3 or 4 times the initial investment in the first month then have it never sell again...but want something more long term.

If you put the titles thrugh KDP, wouldn't that solve the logenvity concern? It will get a little activity burst every 3 months, even if it is not much, or lowering the price to .99 I am editing and revising my first non-fiction book hence just take my advice as what it is, a cold guess.

 

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[Gabriel]

@Aimee Hey! So how are you doing so far? I have a few questions:

Do you do any kind of advertising? Do you have a blog an email list? Do you recommend any good book about writting fiction? Thank you very much, also if you have any advice you considerate important, don't hesitate to say it!! Thank you a lot, your thread is an inspiration to me.

 

[Hicks]

Hey Aimee.
any updates?

 

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[Neutral]

Interesting Concept. Since I am not much of a writer I probably am not going for this route but it definitely inspired me!
Thanks a lot

 

[ZeroTo100]

Hey,

Read some of the thread. Personally, if I was trying to earn a living publishing ebooks, I'd probably hire a writer so that I can focus on other areas of the business such as selling books. There are a few things you can probably do, one being press releases for your ebooks, paid ads, and even affiliates.

With amazon, you have to understand that your competing not just against publishers but internet marketers as well. Most of them give away books to prop up reviews so that they trick Amazons algorythem into moving them up the rank. This method also gives them tons of reviews which convinces people to buy. There is a blog I read by a writer who earns his living publishing ebooks. His name is Steve Scott and his blog is stevescottsite{dot}com. When I was fooling around with building an authority site, I used his blog as a reference.

One of the important things that you should be doing is building your email list. The list will enable you to engage with your readers. You can give a few books away and than pitch them on others. Amazon will drive a lot of traffic to your site but you shouldn't just rely on Amazon. If I were you and I really wanted to get serious in this business, i'd find the writers who are in your niche and follow them. Connect with their audience on sites like twitter.

Best of luck.

-Steve