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  1. ChickenHawk

    Made barely anything from erotica, any advice?

    PUBLISHING 
    The Good News...My first guess would have been that your titles are being caught up in Amazon's adult filter, which makes titles virtually invisible for readers to find. However, yours don't seem to be impacted by that. To tell, I usually check www.salesrankexpress.com. If your title is...
  2. ChickenHawk

    [PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

    GOLD! 
    Interesting! I didn't know that HM Ward tinkers with her intros. It's definitely worth looking at. To answer the question, this book wasn't a pure romance at first, because it's a rework of a romantic mystery novel I'd written a few years ago. Oddly enough, the rewrite was more work than a fresh...
  3. ChickenHawk

    [PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

    GOLD! 
    Hey, a question...Would you eliminate the prologue entirely? (Edit: I think one thing I'm learning is that trying to take a book that's one genre, and change it to another genre is really hard to do. Because let's say you have a book with a fairly complex plot, and then you want to add more...
  4. ChickenHawk

    [PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

    GOLD! 
    Oh no kidding! One thing I've semi-concluded is that the audience for my first two books is probably different than for my third book. I'm guessing, in terms of those who enjoyed the first two books, this latest book is too long (120,000 words), too complicated (has a strong mystery plot, along...
  5. ChickenHawk

    [PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

    GOLD! 
    A quick update...Book #3 of this pen name is released, and doing well, although not nearly as well as Book#2. I've sold about 500 in the first four days, and my current rank for just inside 1,000. I expect it will drop outside the #1,000 range any minute now, but am still beyond thankful to have...
  6. ChickenHawk

    [PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

    GOLD! 
    This will be interesting to see. I do think my income will spike, but I don't anticipate it spiking nearly as much as it did in April. With the April thing, I was pushing out the conclusion to a two-book series. When Book#2 launched high out of the gate (thanks to my mailing list), Book#2 pulled...
  7. ChickenHawk

    [PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

    GOLD! 
    Nope. I'm trying not to put all my eggs in the Amazon basket. Of course, Amazon still represents most of my sales, but still, I like the idea of diversifying. Besides, I'm not a fan of free, so there's not much that Select could do for me at the moment, promotion-wise.
  8. ChickenHawk

    [PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

    GOLD! 
    In happy news, I just pushed out my latest book. Yay! I'll definitely be posting an update within the next couple of days with more specifics. But suffice it to say I'm really glad to get another title out there. Crossing my fingers! For planning plots, I usually start by basic brainstorming...
  9. ChickenHawk

    Questions about owning a book publishing company

    PUBLISHING 
    If you're talking about Amazon, they take a small fee for the actual download, depending on the file size. Usually, however, this is a very small amount, pocket change really...unless your book is heavy on the graphics, in which case the download will be more expensive. But there are no upfront...
  10. ChickenHawk

    Misleading book title and cover?

    PUBLISHING 
    Alas, if you're hoping that the copyright owners would track down the Fiver guy somewhere overseas and sue him rather than you, you might be in for a bit of a shock. Look the top sellers on Amazon in your genre. How are their covers different from yours? Identify those differences, and then...
  11. ChickenHawk

    Creating my Fastlane with fiction books

    PUBLISHING 
    Those seem like really great numbers out of the gate. Congrats and keep us posted! I like this idea! Assuming your commission structure is the same over there as it is here in the U.S., this could boost your profits nicely. For one thing, you can earn 70% commission rather than 35%. It will be...
  12. ChickenHawk

    Questions about owning a book publishing company

    PUBLISHING 
    You will want to confirm this, but I believe the three-name limit refers only to your author-profile pages. This means you could publish under many pen names, but wouldn't be able to have author pages for all of them. As an example, this is an Amazon author page for one of my favorite authors...
  13. ChickenHawk

    Kindle Unlimited... Authors in trouble?

    PUBLISHING 
    What I've heard (via self-pubbing podcasts) is that a borrow counts at approximately 1/10 of a sale. Apparently, it helps your rankings, but not quite as much as a buy. But of course, Amazon's algos are always changing, so you never know... Either way, a boost in numbers is always exciting!
  14. ChickenHawk

    Kindle Unlimited... Authors in trouble?

    PUBLISHING 
    I'm guessing that if something shows up on your dashboard, it's a sale/borrow/whatever. Probably, anything less than 10% wouldn't even show up. About borrows, I've heard that after a free run, borrows in general will rise. I don't know if you've run a free promo lately. But if so, that might...
  15. ChickenHawk

    Kindle Unlimited... Authors in trouble?

    PUBLISHING 
    Totally off topic, but I loved the first part of TMF. It really spoke to me, because I'd been struggling for some time on the slowlane path and was incredibly frustrated. As a writer, this also goes to show...what appeals to one reader won't appeal to another. I see that all the time in the...
  16. ChickenHawk

    Kindle Unlimited... Authors in trouble?

    PUBLISHING 
    A few thoughts: My gut feeling is that initially at least, the library will consist primarily of books in KDP select. (As a refresher, authors publishing their books in KDP select agree to make their books exclusive to Amazon. In return they get the opportunity to offer their books for free...
  17. ChickenHawk

    [PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

    GOLD! 
    Nope. My husband and best friend read it, and that's about it. I do know that beta readers are beneficial. I just haven't made getting them a priority. Similar to giving out advance-reading copies for reviews -- those are also beneficial, but I'm always so tight to my deadlines that I haven't...
  18. ChickenHawk

    Bundles for fiction series

    PUBLISHING 
    My vote is to release the bundle only after you've released all three books. By offering both options right out of the gate, you run the risk of diluting your sales numbers, which could hurt your rankings. That's just my opinion though. I'd be interested to hear what others think.
  19. ChickenHawk

    [PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

    GOLD! 
    Hah! Oh to dream... Funny, just listening to the audiobooks was a HUGE thrill. The voice-actress was amazing, and it was so cool to hear the stories read out loud by a professional. I almost felt like a "real" author!
  20. ChickenHawk

    [PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

    GOLD! 
    Thanks so much for the encouragement! About the new book, it's been a slog, but happily, I'm only 2,800 words from writing "the end." This book is huuuuuge, over 120,000 words. I expect to hit publish within the next ten days. Whew! About the first two books, sales are still pretty decent. As...

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