LLEONE's Self-Publishing Fiction/Non-fiction Ebook Journey

[lleone]

Thanks for all the feedback.

I like the one with the vines, but that just me.

Since your covers are so great, I was really interested in what you thought.

The one with the silhouettes caught my eye first, but after reading the blurb I like the other one better

I went back and forth also!

This helped me

Thanks for this Rawr...very helpful.

Based on the input here and elsewhere, I am going to choose the one with the vines.
Now to tweak the description a bit more and get this up on Amazon.

By the way, does anyone know how updating on Amazon works. For example, if I found a bad misspelling or wanted to change something slightly in my story, can I just upload a new version of the book?

 

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[COSenior]

By the way, does anyone know how updating on Amazon works. For example, if I found a bad misspelling or wanted to change something slightly in my story, can I just upload a new version of the book?

Yes. You will have to go through the whole process, but as far as I know, the original version is still live until the updated version replaces it live. Click on the Edit Book Details in the Bookshelf and scroll down to the area where you upload the book. Then follow the prompts.

 

[joanna]

I haven't read the blurb, so just going on title/genre/cover. The window one definitely looked more like a mystery. The silhouettes pop a bit more, but combined with the title, don't really speak of the genre well. It could be hiking, sports, adventure or something else. I like where the window is going, but the blood could pop a bit more for the murder part. The title effect is nice, but the letter alignment could be tweaked a bit further so both word are equal width. Personal opinion: the title doesn't grab me, and I would say if your title is generic you need to convey more with the cover, and vice versa.

 

[lleone]

Feb 21st Update

Ugh...so my launch date on the Early Decision novel will have to be next Friday since I get a whole bunch of comments back on it from a writer's group on Thursday. Then I will at least be able to report some numbers (or most likely lack of based on most people's experience). I set up a mailing list signup on MailCheat(Chimp) and will set up an Amazon affiliate link. I had to re-organize the non-fiction book because it's not flowing well. Hope to get that out close to the launch of the fiction book.

Now, here's the real rub. I was going over some findings on Edward Robertson's blog and he does a nice job of reporting how successful self-published authors are on Amazon compared to the bigger publishing houses by genre. Here is the breakdown for Mystery/Thriller (my genre) for Top 100 Bestsellers:

MYSTERY/THRILLER/SUSPENSE

Self-published: 11%
Small/medium: 5%
Amazon: 16%
Big 5: 68%

It is one of the only genres that self-published authors seem to really have a hard time ranking high. As HfR and others have pointed out, picking the right genres and categories can make a world of difference. In response I've developed a spreadsheet that breakdowns many of the categories to the lowest sub-categories and am going to look at the 1st, 5th, 10th and 20th title to see how they breakdown and relate back to overall ranks and potential to penetrate the sub-category rankings. So I can keep focused on writing I hired someone from Elance to work on it for a fixed price. Interested to see what comes back.

 

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[COSenior]

Feb 21st Update

Now, here's the real rub. I was going over some findings on Edward Robertson's blog and he does a nice job of reporting how successful self-published authors are on Amazon compared to the bigger publishing houses by genre. Here is the breakdown for Mystery/Thriller (my genre) for Top 100 Bestsellers:

MYSTERY/THRILLER/SUSPENSE

Self-published: 11%
Small/medium: 5%
Amazon: 16%
Big 5: 68%

It is one of the only genres that self-published authors seem to really have a hard time ranking high. As HfR and others have pointed out, picking the right genres and categories can make a world of difference. In response I've developed a spreadsheet that breakdowns many of the categories to the lowest sub-categories and am going to look at the 1st, 5th, 10th and 20th title to see how they breakdown and relate back to overall ranks and potential to penetrate the sub-category rankings. So I can keep focused on writing I hired someone from Elance to work on it for a fixed price. Interested to see what comes back.

Oh, that's not good news! I'd put my ghostwriting in that category, and we were hoping for a good response based on the superior subscriber numbers in that category on BookBub. Of course, only now am I realizing that BookBub must advertise for everyone, not just self-pubbers. I'd be very interested to see your spreadsheet results, if you're comfortable sharing it. I'm sure my client would be grateful as well.

 

[Held for Ransom]

Oh, that's not good news!

Agreed. That is a bummer but there's plenty of folks that do well. It will just take more work, time and words. You know, the glamorous stuff.

In response I've developed a spreadsheet

Spreadsheet says... Romance. Any takers?

J/K... Love to see it if you feel like sharing. Hang tough @lleone, you'll get there.

 

[lleone]

J/K... Love to see it if you feel like sharing

I'd be glad to share it. It should be done by Thursday next week. I went with someone in Bangladesh, but they were a little shady, so had to switch to someone in Pakistan. In the meantime, here is how the other categories compared if you haven't seen it:

ROMANCE

Self-published: 49%
Small/medium: 11%
Amazon: 9%
Big 5/Harlequin: 30%


MYSTERY/THRILLER/SUSPENSE

Self-published: 11%
Small/medium: 5%
Amazon: 16%
Big 5: 68%


SCIENCE FICTION

Self-published: 56%
Small/medium: 9%
Amazon: 5%
Big 5 (plus Baen): 30%


FANTASY
Self-published: 49%
Small/medium: 7%
Amazon: 7%
Big 5: 37%

As you can see, Romance, Sci-Fi and Fantasy are the clear winners for self-published. If you're looking at Mystery/Thriller/Suspense, may want to get an agent! --- (unfortunately my book is in this category - will have to re-evaluate)

 

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[lleone]

hoping for a good response based on the superior subscriber numbers in that category on BookBub

You never know...seems some people have had good results with them...interested to see how BookBub performs for you. Good luck!

 

[Rainy_TX]

Ugh...so my launch date on the Early Decision novel will have to be next Friday since I get a whole bunch of comments back on it from a writer's group on Thursday.

Hey, I was just thinking about this statement... do you have any beta readers that read in YOUR genre? The reason I'm asking is because if the people in the writers group who gave you the critique don't read in your genre, they may not like it period.

Hope you're having a good Saturday! (Love the avatar, by the way!)

 

[lleone]

do you have any beta readers that read in YOUR genre?

There's about 15 people in the group and I know a couple that are in my genre, but you're right most of them are not (e.g. vampire romance, memoirs, etc..). It's my first time in this group and I'm preparing myself to get hammered. I'm sure it's going to be tough, but hopefully I'll get some good input. Based on your advice, I'm going to give more weight to the writers in my genre (especially the better ones!).

Enjoy the weekend.

 

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[lleone]

Feb 26th Update

Okay so I've formatted the book for both Createspace and Kindle and finalized the description and other information required for both. I'm waiting to get slammed by the writing group tomorrow night and will take whatever good suggestions and update the book and re-generate both versions again. At least at that point I'll have something "live". I've decided to go with KDP Select since it's my first book and I can use whatever promo I can get to build my mailing list. I appreciate those that continue to give support even though this thread really doesn't compare to some of the heavy hitters on this forum. I will try my best to pick up the pace and really make this interesting and valuable. Hopefully show some success as well.

I'm waiting for the spreadsheet on the breakdown by genre of some of the key areas I'm interested in and will start to create for a number of those genres once I can evaluate the information. I feel like I need to quicken the pace, but I want to make sure I can keep a decent level of quality on anything I put out there.

 

[lleone]

Feb 28th Update

Ha..well, the writing group session on the first 10K of my novel I'm going to publish was a grueling session to say the least. It was basically 3 hours of pulling it apart. Kinda of a lot of abuse for one sitting, but some really good points were made so I'm going to definitely take a couple of days to tweak it before posting on Amazon. My genre analysis is almost complete but still waiting on my overseas friend to finish entering the data.

One idea I have since the novel takes place at a high school is to use one of the Young Adult categories. I do having some heavy cursing in sections and wondering how Amazon handles that. Do I need to take it out?

Will continue plugging along...

 

[ChickenHawk]

Congrats on your progress, and for taking the hard hit of getting a critique. Man, those are brutal, aren't they? I like how you're taking a methodical approach up-front to fine-tune your craft. That should serve you very well as you move forward.

One idea I have since the novel takes place at a high school is to use one of the Young Adult categories. I do having some heavy cursing in sections and wondering how Amazon handles that. Do I need to take it out?

This is a tough one. I don't think you'd run into problems with Amazon, but there's a chance it might be reflected in your reviews. If you look at the mega-sellers in the young adult genre, there's almost no cursing. I know there are books that break this rule, but I think they're the exception. I'm vaguely recalling one YA book I read where the romantic lead was a gang member, so there was cursing in that one. But for the most part, YA books tend to be relatively clean, language-wise. At least that's been my experience based on the books I've read. It would be interesting to hear other opinions.

 

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[lleone]

I know there are books that break this rule, but I think they're the exception.

Hmm...that's what I was worried about...I may have to clean up some of the language then. It seems a bit silly since many of the teens curse much worse than the adults. Makes some of the character exchanges not as believable. Gee whiz and dagnabbit don't seem to quite get the right mood across...haha

 

[COSenior]

It seems a bit silly since many of the teens curse much worse than the adults. Makes some of the character exchanges not as believable. Gee whiz and dagnabbit don't seem to quite get the right mood across...haha

One of my pet peeves.

 

[lleone]

So I've doing a bit of analysis on some of the genres to pursue and started with an overview of each of the categories first (see attached). I think it confirms a lot of what people have been targeting on the forum. I've highlighted the categories that are good targets, but I know Amazon will include some books under different paths, so I'm sure there is some double counting but the data should be in the ballpark. I have a further breakdown by genre of some of the categories and am still reviewing and trying to make sense of the data. I'd be glad to send those spreadsheets to anyone else who would like to pour over the data (just PM me).

 

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[webcomber]

Thanks Lleone - good info. Does anyone know why some categories that rank lower don't have as many sales as other categories that rank higher?
For example, History has a lower sales ranking than all the others but the sales volume does not come close to the other top categories. Also, Romance has a lower rank but YA has over twice as many est. sales. I am sure there are some overlapping categories that may account for the difference (e.g. YA romance).

 

[lleone]

Mar 8th Update

Okay....so I uploaded my first book to Kindle Thursday night (yeah...) and also submitted the Createspace paperback. I had 3 sales (one being mine) and the Amazon rank has been fluctuating. The lowest I've seen it was #98,570 and #15 in the sub-genre. I'm wondering if I should try to promote it in any way or just get the next book out there. I changed the author name to a pen name also since I think I will use my actual name for the non-fiction book I'm writing.

Definitely need to write faster and get more books published!

P.S. Also got into this habit of eating Oreo cookies every night....averaging about 1 whole large box every 2 days....need to shake this!

 

[COSenior]

Congrats on your first book being published, and on the sub-genre ranking. I think that's pretty amazing, as mine fell out of the sub-genre rank at around eight thousand. You must have hit a pretty tight target.

Somewhere in all this tangle of progress threads is a discussion of rank in a small niche vs. buyer pool. My guess would be in the Hello from Denver thread. Before you start your next book, take a look at that and aim for a market with lots of buyers.

However, keep an eye on this one as it may just need a few reviews to get the ball rolling and take off in the less-specific sub-genres on the way to the one you're already ranking in. Hope you can sort that sentence out, lol.

Finally, step AWAY from the cookies, and no one will get hurt.

 

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[lleone]

Thanks @COSenior! I appreciate the support. I checked this morning and rank went back up 200K in overall rank and 43 in the sub-genre.

Before you start your next book, take a look at that and aim for a market with lots of buyers

Yeah..I tried to pick a sub-genre that was pretty small, yet part of larger genre as one of my choices, but not sure if it was too low. Do you think I should do some promo for the book. I was going to do the five day free that KDP Select offers, but beyond that wasn't sure what are promos are worth it.

 

[COSenior]

Unless you somehow get the word out about the free promo to a group of readers that are interested in the genre, your downloads will probably be random rather than targeted. If I were you, I'd go to Goodreads and use your sub-genre as a keyword to see if there are any groups devoted to it. Follow group rules, but you should be able to post that your book will be free soon, and THEN do your promotion. I think it was you who asked on another thread about free promo timing...HfR has told me that weekends are better, but my free promo was timed to coincide with the Bookbub ad, which came out on a Tuesday, and we did just fine.

 

[lleone]

I'd go to Goodreads and use your sub-genre as a keyword to see if there are any groups devoted to it

Yeah...my rank has dropped quite a bit since no promo going on. I'm going to definitely take this advice and start joining groups on Goodreads as well as other sites so I can get some traction. I'm going to do a 5 day free promo from March 29th to April 2nd to see how that goes. Based on what I read, it seems Sun through Wed is the best 5 day period, with Sunday and Monday being the best days according to this research (it's a bit old, so curious if it has changed): http://digitalbooktoday.com/2012/09/19/which-days-are-best-to-promote-your-free-kdp-select-book/

In any case, don't really expect much until I get some more books out there. The one positive is I feel my writing is getting better based on feedback I'm taking to heart from the first book.

 

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[lleone]

Apr 2nd Update

So today is the last day of my 5 day free promotion through KDP Select. I signed up on numerous sites that promote free kindle books prior to the promo to see if they would help. Here are the stats for the month of March:

Sales - 5 (including 1 I purchased)
Free Promo - 189

Since it's my first book, I kinda expected the minimal sales (was expecting 1 or 2), but was a bit surprised about the free promo. I guess I should get over 200 by the end of the day, but not sure if that is good or not. My question to myself is whether I should opt out of KDP Select at then end of the 90 days.

As for rankings, here were the best I achieved for the month of March:
Sales - AR - #98,570; Sub-category - #15
Fre Promo - AR - #2886; Sub-category - #2

The sub-category ranks got pretty low, put my sales didn't really spike so I'm also thinking at this point if I picked sub-categories that have too little demand. Wondering if I should change them up.

 

[COSenior]

I'm also thinking at this point if I picked sub-categories that have too little demand. Wondering if I should change them up.

Sounds like that might be the case.