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Pointers for Kindle Fiction publishing?

Jessica Pals

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I've written 3 cozy mystery Kindle ebooks that are 90K words each. Combined, they do about $18 in sales a month, which is pathetic, but I haven't done any marketing (They started earning $60 a month but then came down to $18). I do, however, get a couple of emails every year from readers who are eager to read the next instalment.

The trouble is that I am a slow writer. It takes me about 10 months to write a book (Cozy mysteries require a lot of work to set up and resolve red herrings).

I changed tracks and decided to do a romance book, as they don't require as much planning. This time I developed the concept but hired a ghostwriter to produce the book as I figured it would be quicker. Finding a writer that stuck to my concept was hard work (nearly as time-consuming as writing a book), however, I eventually found one, who delivered the finished manuscript in a week. The work produced was weak, but re-writing it into something decent only took a fortnight. Clearly, I am much faster re-writer than a writer.

This single book does about $10 month in sales (after the initial launch where it did $150), which is also pathetic, but again I have done no marketing. As before, I get emails from readers who are keen to read more.

I got sidetracked by life and so haven't done anything book-related for almost a year, but I would like to give it another stab to turn it into a viable business.

The areas I need to crack are:
1) Hiring ghostwriters
(so I can turn around books more quickly). They don't have to be great writers, as I will be re-writing their work, but they do need to stick to my concepts.
2) Marketing my books.
There's a lot of information on the internet, which is often contradictory. I've tried some of the free marketing options such as submitting to book sites and notice I get a tripling in sales when I do this. However, I am not sure what paid solutions to use.

I would appreciate it if someone could give me some pointers. Thanks!
 
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RazorCut

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NC Bidniss

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I've written 3 cozy mystery Kindle ebooks that are 90K words each. Combined, they do about $18 in sales a month, which is pathetic, but I haven't done any marketing (They started earning $60 a month but then came down to $18). I do, however, get a couple of emails every year from readers who are eager to read the next instalment.

The trouble is that I am a slow writer. It takes me about 10 months to write a book (Cozy mysteries require a lot of work to set up and resolve red herrings).

I changed tracks and decided to do a romance book, as they don't require as much planning. This time I developed the concept but hired a ghostwriter to produce the book as I figured it would be quicker. Finding a writer that stuck to my concept was hard work (nearly as time-consuming as writing a book), however, I eventually found one, who delivered the finished manuscript in a week. The work produced was weak, but re-writing it into something decent only took a fortnight. Clearly, I am much faster re-writer than a writer.

This single book does about $10 month in sales (after the initial launch where it did $150), which is also pathetic, but again I have done no marketing. As before, I get emails from readers who are keen to read more.

I got sidetracked by life and so haven't done anything book-related for almost a year, but I would like to give it another stab to turn it into a viable business.

The areas I need to crack are:
1) Hiring ghostwriters
(so I can turn around books more quickly). They don't have to be great writers, as I will be re-writing their work, but they do need to stick to my concepts.
2) Marketing my books.
There's a lot of information on the internet, which is often contradictory. I've tried some of the free marketing options such as submitting to book sites and notice I get a tripling in sales when I do this. However, I am not sure what paid solutions to use.

I would appreciate it if someone could give me some pointers. Thanks!

I'd hold off on writing another book. If you're only making $18 per month on your 3 books, all writing another one would do is give you another $6. You need to focus on marketing the books you have already written. Rather than trying to find a paid service, do some research on marketing yourself.

Also, why don't you sell hard copies? It may very well be that there are loads of people out there who would be interested in your book, but do not have/want to use an eReader. I personally know a lot of avid readers who blatantly refuse to read a book if it's not on paper.
 

Jessica Pals

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User Power
Value/Post Ratio
250%
Mar 10, 2019
2
5
Thanks, I am looking into marketing. I think that is the main issue with my titles. My readers seem to like them but no one knows about them! I do actually sell hard copies, but they don't tend to do as well as the ebooks, although I think that's the norm for this genre.
 
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