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

[COSenior]

What is Kindle Unlimited? Do you get paid if someone borrows?

New subscription offer from Amazon. $9.99/mo, download and read most KDP Select books only, up to ten at a time and keep as long as you want. Once you delete a borrowed title, you can borrow more, unlimited. The borrows pay authors once the person has read at least 10% of the book. Comes from the KDP Select fund, just like Prime borrows (KOLL). They set the fund, divide it up among authors who had borrows each month. Amount varies. Go to Amazon and check it out. Great way to research your genre for not much money.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ChickenHawk]

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 made the top 1,000.

What's funny is I STILL can't figure out what made book#2 take off like a rocket. Either it was the cliffhanger ending on Book#1, or it was just one of those things.Or maybe I had some weird help, from a blog or something, because my sales far exceeded my mailing list, especially on the first few days. As I referenced earlier in this thread, if any of us knew what made one book break out versus another one, we'd probably all be millionaires.

The trajectory for book#3 seems more similar to the trajectory for book#1, where the rank/sales were encouraging, but not rocket-like. It will be interesting to see where this goes, because none of my books reached their full potential until at least two-four weeks after launch. It would be nice if this one followed the same pattern. Of course, there's part of me that wonders if this book will break that pattern and just sink from here. So hard to say! Either way, I'm still thankful for each and every sale, and believe that the most important thing to do now is start thinking about the next book.

Must Write Faster!

P.S. I've been debating a BookBub ad for Book#1, now that I have more than one product available. I didn't see the point of an ad when I just had the one book, or just the two books. Now that I have three, it might be worth seeing if they'll accept mine for consideration. Something to ponder.

 

[Lex DeVille]

I would love to hear how a BookBub ad goes for you. A lot of people talk of great results with it.

I think you've probably reached a point where you have plenty of social proof, so tossing an add may catch a lot of readers that might not bite for others.

 

[RHL]

What's funny is I STILL can't figure out what made book#2 take off like a rocket.

Is there any way you can poll the audience? If it wasn't some sort of organic "tipping point" than maybe asking your email list will turn up the answer.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Selfy]

500 in books in four days

*drool*

 

[COSenior]

BookBub will undoubtedly accept any of your books, but remember you'll have to at least heavily discount it or even make it free for them to do so. If the first one is still doing well without it, I myself would think twice about doing that. Mossie and I have seen some success with certain fiverr gigs, which are far less costly. Suit yourself, I'm just playing Devil's Advocate. BTW, the BookBub ads for my books were decided upon by my publisher and I had no say in it. It was thrilling the first time, with so many downloads. Now I wish I had a quarter for each of them.

Edit, BTW, I blame you for my unprecedented reading until two this morning. As soon as some reviews start coming in, this one is even going to top the second one, imho.

 

[Magik]

Mossie and I have seen some success with certain fiverr gigs, which are far less costly.

Can you elaborate on this? Is this one of the gigs where they tweet about your book, or is it something different?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[COSenior]

Similar to that. Check the reviews and the number of subscribers. We don't want to overwhelm the capability of our guy, since between our thrillers and my romances, we put out an average of two books every six weeks, so please forgive me for not sharing his link publicly.

I will elaborate on results, though. Mossie thinks this gig was responsible for selling over 400 copies of our second book one day earlier this month, which drove it to the 800's paid in our genre, and to #2 in one category. We're pretty much usually in the top 100 of the categories, but somewhere around 10k in the store, so that was a big deal for us. We didn't quite knock off #1 in that one category, but we came close. In related news, that #1 book and its two sequels have just been signed to a movie deal at CBS. We're now waiting for our call from Hollywood.

 

[LisaK]

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 made the top 1,000.

What's funny is I STILL can't figure out what made book#2 take off like a rocket. Either it was the cliffhanger ending on Book#1, or it was just one of those things.Or maybe I had some weird help, from a blog or something, because my sales far exceeded my mailing list, especially on the first few days. As I referenced earlier in this thread, if any of us knew what made one book break out versus another one, we'd probably all be millionaires.

The trajectory for book#3 seems more similar to the trajectory for book#1, where the rank/sales were encouraging, but not rocket-like. It will be interesting to see where this goes, because none of my books reached their full potential until at least two-four weeks after launch. It would be nice if this one followed the same pattern. Of course, there's part of me that wonders if this book will break that pattern and just sink from here. So hard to say! Either way, I'm still thankful for each and every sale, and believe that the most important thing to do now is start thinking about the next book.

Must Write Faster!

P.S. I've been debating a BookBub ad for Book#1, now that I have more than one product available. I didn't see the point of an ad when I just had the one book, or just the two books. Now that I have three, it might be worth seeing if they'll accept mine for consideration. Something to ponder.

I've heard a lot of good things about BookBub. One author said it increased his sales by 3x. I would hope with your success they would accept you. They are also a little hard to get onto but I'm sure you won't have a problem.

How is it that we can't figure out the "why?" It makes this so hard. Nice job by the way!

 

[ChickenHawk]

How is it that we can't figure out the "why?"

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 with shifting time-perspectives), too much chick-lit, and not enough romance. This offers some good and bad news.

The bad news: I doubt that book#3 will be nearly as successful as the previous two.

The good news: Even if this book doesn't appeal to those who liked the first two books, there's a chance it might find its audience, which could potentially draw in new readers.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple of months. I'll definitely keep everyone posted!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Rawr]

CH, one unwarranted opinion from this side of the room - I think the prologue could be reworked to be a bit to flow easier. To me it throws too many things at you at once. Timing, location, issues, relations, MORE drama, delivered in separate quick short sentences.. I am a dude, so obviously maybe women find it compelling, but to me that reads "WTF, too complicated." The Chapter 1 opening is great, once the reader gets to that.

 

[ChickenHawk]

CH, one unwarranted opinion from this side of the room - I think the prologue could be reworked to be a bit to flow easier. To me it throws too many things at you at once. Timing, location, issues, relations, MORE drama, delivered in separate quick short sentences.. I am a dude, so obviously maybe women find it compelling, but to me that reads "WTF, too complicated." The Chapter 1 opening is great, once the reader gets to that.

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 romance, the book is going to be reeeeeally long, even if you cut like crazy, which I did. Sadly, I probably cut like 30,000 words from the original version, and it's still too long. So maybe, in trying to bring two genres together, I only created a book that fans of neither genre will like. Mystery fans will probably be disturbed by the language and graphic sex. New adult fans will probably be bored by the mystery elements. But to put a positive spin on it, this is all a learning process, and knowing what doesn't work is sometimes half the battle.)

 

[Rawr]

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 romance, the book is going to be reeeeeally long, even if you cut like crazy, which I did. Sadly, I probably cut like 30,000 words from the original version, and it's still too long. So maybe, in trying to bring two genres together, I only created a book that fans of neither genre will like. Mystery fans will probably be disturbed by the language and graphic sex. New adult fans will probably be bored by the mystery elements. But to put a positive spin on it, this is all a learning process, and knowing what doesn't work is sometimes half the battle.)

I would. If HM Ward tinkers with her intros after release, then I don't see why any of us couldn't experiment to get better results. To the other point, I guess I'd channel HFR - "Are you writing what your readers want?" Why mix genres, was this book not romance at first? I think one of my books fell more into younger crowd and I have a feeling it DID open up more sales by introducing a different market. I hope this is the case here too, but its kind of better to hit where you know the spot is, don't you think? The reason my series is mixed (or became something else) is I just couldn't write about feelings so much, so I had to talk about something else.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ChickenHawk]

I would. If HM Ward tinkers with her intros after release, then I don't see why any of us couldn't experiment to get better results. To the other point, I guess I'd channel HFR - "Are you writing what your readers want?" Why mix genres, was this book not romance at first?

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 novel because the plot was complicated. This is a good lesson, I think. For my next book, I'll be starting from scratch again, so it will be interesting to see what happens. Thanks for your insight. I really appreciate it!

See, this goes to show, I've FAR from figured it out!

I think one of my books fell more into younger crowd and I have a feeling it DID open up more sales by introducing a different market. I hope this is the case here too, but its kind of better to hit where you know the spot is, don't you think?

Interesting about introducing new markets. And yeah, this is SO true...it's MUCH better to hit where the spot is. I'll be working hard to accomplish that for the next book, and will definitely keep everyone posted.

 

[Vigilante]

Thank you for continuing to share this journey with us.

 

[Karla]

I love love love this thread ChickenHawk !! I wish I had only have your sales yet but I still know what you are talking about. I have 3 kids books so far. They are all the same genre, same type of cover (characters are the same), I am trying to be perfect with the description and they all have the same keywords (since they kind of belong together). But still one of these 3 books is outperforming the other two 3 or 4 times. I would love to know WHY this is the case. Keep posting!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Cyberseraph]

CH: Thanks for your updates!

I have 3 new, short fiction stories ready to publish. They are independent from each other. Is there any disadvantage if I publish them at the same time? What would you do in my case?

 

[ChickenHawk]

I have 3 new, short fiction stories ready to publish. They are independent from each other. Is there any disadvantage if I publish them at the same time? What would you do in my case?

I'm no expert, but if it were me, I'd release them at least a week or two apart. Here's why...For all of my books, sales peaked approximately one month after release. This seems to suggest that releasing book#2 while book#1 is at the peak of its sales cycle would help boost sales of book#1 and so on. It almost seems that releasing all of them at the same time shoots all of your ammo at once.

But that's just a theory. I'd love to hear what others think. Please keep us posted on what you decide to do, and how it works. Good luck!

 

[Cyberseraph]

CH: Thank you so much for your input. This is also what I thought, that releasing at the same time might be a bad move in terms of marketing.

I have released only the 1st book now and will focus on marketing it. That means discount it to 99 cents for one week, then make it free for 5 days (not sure if in the same order), to climb up the ranks and get reviews. After this it will be the regular price. Two weeks later I will do with the 2nd book.

Here is my experience with my first 3-part series: 3 books, released them at the same time. Discounted book#1 to 99 cents, then free promo for 5 days. The result was great, during free promo I've got sales for book#2. After the promo was over my book#1 was in the Top-100 of my genre, and is still selling very good for 2,99 and book#2 is selling quite good, while book#3 is doing ok.

But my new books are independent from each other, therefore I am adjusting the strategy.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[britnidanielle]

Congrats on the new release @ChickenHawk!!!!

 

[ChickenHawk]

Congrats on the new release @ChickenHawk!!!!

Thanks so much!

Since it's near the first of the month, this reminds me that it's time for an update...
Book#3 is still doing well -- better than Book#1 at this stage, but worse than Book#2 at this stage. During its first week, I sold about 1,200 copies of Book#3. Now, I'm selling almost 100 a day. Based on the sales trajectory of previous books, within the next week, I predict that Book#3 will either drop significantly lower, or begin trending higher. Obviously, I'm hoping for the "higher" option, but either way, it will be interesting to see. Crossing my fingers!

In the meantime, I'm mapping out Book#4 and pondering a promo for Book#1. I'd love to release two more books this year. But if I go this route, I need to be better about balancing family time with writing time. I fear I've been terribly neglectful this summer. In happier news, I just returned from visiting family. And it was sooooo nice to not have to beg for vacation-time to go.

 

[M Collins]

Hey ChickenHawk, congrats on all the success!

Have you considered outsourcing some of the writing? You could be the one developing the outline and have someone else write out the story. Hard part would be finding an exceptional writer.

It could be under a different pen name. You could still announce the book to your email list as a recommendation. Maybe add your pen name as a coauthor to the book to interlink it.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ChickenHawk]

Hey ChickenHawk, congrats on all the success!
Have you considered outsourcing some of the writing?

Thanks so much for the congrats! As far as outsourcing, I totally see what you're saying, but I'd never do that. Each writer has a unique voice. For whatever reason, readers have embraced the "voice" of my current pen name. I'd never risk my current success by introducing a new voice to the mix. Plus, in all honesty, I'm not a fan of the ghostwriting model. I realize that others have had success with it, but I don't like the idea of putting my pen name (whether new or established) on a product that was, in fact, written by someone else.

Plus, in order for ghostwriting to work on any serious level (unless you're purely into the numbers game, meaning publish as many inexpensive books as humanly possible), you need to be an amazing editor to make it work -- because you must edit the book to make it appear that the original writer wrote it. I hate editing other people's stuff, and honestly, I'm not all that good at it.

My personal belief, whether right or wrong, is that quality will win out. And the best way to ensure the quality remains consistent is to write it myself. What I really need to outsource is housework. I'm not even kidding. It's become painfully obvious to me that every hour spent on housework is a huge waste of time and money.

 

[M Collins]

Okay, maybe something to consider in the future. High quality writers do exist on elance and odesk, it just takes a lot of digging and wasted money to find them. I've recently burned over $600 on a novella that I ultimately decided was unpublishable.

Yeah, I definitely agreed quality is very important. That in combination with visibility, packaging, market research, building up a mailing list, a range of other books should result in killer sales.

Seriously, hire a maid.

 

[TheChosenOne]

Did you ever have a feeling that if you didn't write fast enough, someone would steal your idea? (How I've been feeling.) @ChickenHawk

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ChickenHawk]

Did you ever have a feeling that if you didn't write fast enough, someone would steal your idea? (How I've been feeling.) @ChickenHawk

Happily, I never feel this way, and I don't think you should either.
IMO, even if ten people had the same plot idea, all ten books would be very different. Consider this: What makes a book unique? The story itself? Or the way it's told? Personally, I think it's the way that it's told.

This means that no one can tell the story like you can. Don't worry about someone stealing it. Just write the very best book that you can and let your own style and personality shine through. Good luck!!!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

@ChickenHawk Any plans to try a BookBub promo? You'd be perfect for it.

 

[ChickenHawk]

@ChickenHawk Any plans to try a BookBub promo? You'd be perfect for it.

Yup! As a matter of fact, that's on my plans for this next week, to submit a 99 cent promo-request for Book#1. Now that I have two other books, the timing finally seems right, because it could potentially result in crossover sales. It'll be interesting to see if they accept me, and if so, what kind of results it achieves. I'll keep everyone posted. (Again, crossing fingers!)

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

It'll be interesting to see if they accept me,

LOL. And Tiger Woods hopes Augusta National asks him back for the 2015 Masters.

 

[Magik]

It'll be interesting to see if they accept me

Just send them a screenshot of your earnings. That should pretty much seal the deal.