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

[EricZ]

Chickenhawk, I've been a lurker at this forum for a while now your thread has been very motivational, inspirational and flat out eye-opening. I'm so happy for your success. You truly deserve it. Your openness about your journey helped me stay grinding at my path as a self pubbed author.

I've been doing it about a year and a half now...to moderate success. Enough to say "yay, I actually make money doing what I love" but also say "something's not right here". I publish in the romance genre, new adult to be exact. I right novellas and have about 30 published. Sales are okay, but not where I know they should be and that's not to boast but I know that my books are in some deep corner of amazon. lol They're just not being seen by customers.

The keywords are my lacking point. I just can't seem to find out a way to use them to become seen by visitors. I don't want to be lost in a huge pot where i'm pushed to page 30 on the search results but I don't want to be on page 1 on the results that no one looks at. I've read books, purchased kindle samurai and kindlespy, while they help, I'm still stuck. Do you or others have any insight that you could help me with? I know I'm so close to wrapping my head around this. I'm probably staring right at the answer, just with a blindfold on! Thanks for you time!

A quick rundown on keywords, because this thread is so big I don't know what was already said:

According to the big guns like Nick Stephenson and Steve Scott you should change-up your keywords about once a month.
(I super duper highly recommend Nick's FREE training, just go to his website and sign up at noorosha.com - you get the first 3 videos for free and they are invaluable - AND keywords are in there.)

Q:OK, but how do you do that?
A:To do this effectively you need to reverse engineer them with a NOT free tool like KDspy, or KbookPromotions (subscription!)

1. Go to your target category page
--the tool shows you not only the keywords most authors used in that category but also if the category is lucrative or not!

2. Use the exact keywords displayed by the tool to get your book in that category.

But before this we have researched (also with the tool) what the first book and the last book on the page are ranking.
More exactly, if the last book on the page is ranked at e.g.25,000 you compare that to your book's rank.
-- If your book is above the minimum required to get on that first page (20 books per page) then you go for it and adjust your keywords accordingly.
-- If your book is not above the minimum -- you go searching for other lucrative categories and put your book there, and do -everything- else possible to get the sales to bump your book up over that first limit so you can eventually end up on your ideal target page.

You do this "stairstepping" up through the categories until you reach your ideal sales page right next to Mockingjay or Stephen King! ;-)

Unfortunately I really don't see any way possible to do this without the tools.
KDspy is 47$, -ONE time fee- but if you have it, it is totally worth it. I'll even send you my aff.link! (hahahaha)
What KbookPromo does better is that they have a submit function that will submit your book to over 50 different FB pages and free book promotion sites.
But like said it is a subscription , somewhere around 30$ per month so that's a definite no-go in my book.

Hope this helps
Eric

p.s.
Remember there are other authors out there doing the same thing. The rankings in amazon are updated HOURLY(!) - so it can really be a horse race if you are in a hot category.

 

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[Boozoon]

Chickenhawk, just wow! Amazing thread! Thank you so much for taking the time to share everything with the forum. I had read the thread before joining and I just re-read it now.

From what I gather you had already reached a level of mastery when it comes to writing. Can I ask if there are any books on plot creation and writing in general that you can recommend? I seem to have problem with taking an idea and creating the plot around it, so I was wondering if there is kind of resource out there!

 

[Boyd]

A few pages back, @ChickenHawk gives some advice on learning the craft of fiction writing:

The very first thing I'd have suggested is reading some of the top sellers in your genre. This will give you an idea on some really important things. For example, as you read these books, ask yourself these questions: Is this written in first-person or third-person? How long is this book? Does it have a happy ending? Is there sex in it? If so, how explicit is it? How long are the chapters, and how many are there? Just basic stuff, but keep an eye on it. It will help you as you map out your own stories.

Aside from this, there are generally two novel-writing books I recommend. They're both somewhat old, but they helped me forever ago when I first decided to write a novel. One is so old, I think it's out of print. But they have lots of great info to keep in mind when crafting your story, especially if it's your first. These books are: 'Writing the Breakout Novel' by Donald Maas and 'The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing' by Even Marshall.

A quick note about these books: These were both written when books tended to be longer than they are today. If you do end up reading them, you might want to keep that in mind.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Thanks @Boyd for pulling out the above info!

From what I gather you had already reached a level of mastery when it comes to writing. Can I ask if there are any books on plot creation and writing in general that you can recommend? I seem to have problem with taking an idea and creating the plot around it, so I was wondering if there is kind of resource out there!

To add to the advice pasted above, I will say this. It's true I already had a lot of writing experience, but I still struggle with plot creation. I don't think it will ever be easy for me. All I can suggest is keep on writing. Take a sentence, turn it into a paragraph, turn it into a page, turn it into a chapter, and turn it into a book. It's amazing how those words add up. Also, do at least a rough outline beforehand. I almost never stick to mine, but they're still a huge help in moving the process forward.

Good luck!

 

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[EricZ]

Thanks @Boyd for pulling out the above info!



To add to the advice pasted above, I will say this. It's true I already had a lot of writing experience, but I still struggle with plot creation. I don't think it will ever be easy for me. All I can suggest is keep on writing. Take a sentence, turn it into a paragraph, turn it into a page, turn it into a chapter, and turn it into a book. It's amazing how those words add up. Also, do at least a rough outline beforehand. I almost never stick to mine, but they're still a huge help in moving the process forward.

Good luck!

There are some really good posts from Lise Cartwright who went to Chandler Bolt's book publishing school, I especially like using the mind map technique to map out your plot/book. It's a lot like the snowflake technique. Besides that my favorite "killer" technique is to work backwords from your goal.
So put it this way, you should have the ending in mind already. A scene that could be adapted for a hollywood film.
When you know EXACTLY how your book ends, all you have to do is figure out how to get there - work backwards from the goal etc.

http://www.outsourcedfreelancingsuc...n-6-weeks-and-reach-1-in-your-category-part-1
http://www.seanogle.com/guest-posts/launch-a-kindle-book

 

[Vincent Law]

Hey guys, you wouldn't happen to have advice on how to go about ordering a cover design? Is there any guide to getting good designs-not making themselves I mean, good places to find quality illustrators. I've been using upwork so far.

I have an e-book ready to go (almost) I need advice on the where to find a good illustrator. Also, how much weight do you guys put on interior book design? Fancy chapter fonts and such?

I'm new here, but i'd love some advce. Thanks in advance,
Vince

 

[mws87]

Hey guys, you wouldn't happen to have advice on how to go about ordering a cover design? Is there any guide to getting good designs-not making themselves I mean, good places to find quality illustrators. I've been using upwork so far.

I have an e-book ready to go (almost) I need advice on the where to find a good illustrator. Also, how much weight do you guys put on interior book design? Fancy chapter fonts and such?

I'm new here, but i'd love some advce. Thanks in advance,
Vince

Go on fiverr.com some really good designers on there

 

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[MTF]

Hey guys, you wouldn't happen to have advice on how to go about ordering a cover design? Is there any guide to getting good designs-not making themselves I mean, good places to find quality illustrators. I've been using upwork so far.

I have an e-book ready to go (almost) I need advice on the where to find a good illustrator. Also, how much weight do you guys put on interior book design? Fancy chapter fonts and such?

I'm new here, but i'd love some advce. Thanks in advance,
Vince

Do NOT use Fiverr for covers. Try 99Designs.com, find someone on Upwork (but pay at least $50-100 per cover if you want to get something good), or buy pre-made covers (e.g. on goonwrite.com).

Interior book design doesn't matter much, especially for Kindle (and particularly for fiction). Just do basic formatting so it all looks good.

 

[Rawr]

This book got a lot of great reviews when it comes to helping with outlines. I read it and liked it, haven't applied it yet though.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UKC0GHA/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

 

[Held for Ransom]

I read it and liked it, haven't applied it yet though.

Why?

 

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[GiroudJD]

Do NOT use Fiverr for covers. Try 99Designs.com, find someone on Upwork (but pay at least $50-100 per cover if you want to get something good), or buy pre-made covers (e.g. on goonwrite.com).

Interior book design doesn't matter much, especially for Kindle (and particularly for fiction). Just do basic formatting so it all looks good.

I use 2 different girls on Fiverr for all my covers. Been doing nothing but Kindle for 4 years now. So...it's possible to use Fiverr for covers and still succeed

 

[Boozoon]

I think it depends on the cover you want. If it's something unique and you want to come up with something different, then Fiverr is not a good place.

That being said, you will be completely satisfied with Angie -> https://www.fiverr.com/pro_ebookcovers

Great at communication, free stock photo (others on Fiverr have you pay extra for it) and quickly grasps what you want. Really a diamond on Fiverr. And not, I am not getting paid to promote her, she is just awesome and I go out of my way to recommend her. Cheers ^_^

 

[GiroudJD]

If it's something unique and you want to come up with something different, then Fiverr is not a good place.

This is just so completely untrue that I can't even begin to respond to it...

 

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[Vincent Law]

This is just so completely untrue that I can't even begin to respond to it...

I ended up using a cover that a friend drew up for me. You can see it in my profile. I thought it looked pretty cool-and that's only the smaller version that Kindle allows- I ended up not doing UpWork or Fiverr because of how generic the designs I got looked. And I really wanted a hand-drawn element to it.

Anyways my book went up this Monday, and honestly the reason I tried my hand at self-publishing was because of CH's thread and assorted posts. So thanks CH for the inspiration. And obviously for sharing your insights.

It took me about 6 months after reading these threads to finally launch my first book. Keeping in mind that it was my first time and all the other stuff I had going on, I'm confident that I can drastically reduce that time for my second book.

So far, I've enrolled in KDP select because wth why not I thought, it didn't seem like there was a consensus that it was a horrible thing to do and I wasn't going to enroll anywhere else. So far I have a grand total of 0 sales and about 350 pages read on the KENP (my book is 260 pages long). I'm thinking with Christmas coming up, maybe its a good idea to whip up an advertisement and try to promote the book... Would love to hear the forum's thoughts on that. It seems that CH and others didn't really do that, they just kept writing their series and eventually started making money organically.

I'm confident that my book idea is fresh, new, and well-written. The few (admittedly biased) people I gave the rough draft to read said it was gripping and that they just had to finish it. In short a good thriller. I think I just need to get it more exposure, it's definitely not a throw-away book that I just pulled out of my butt. At least that's how I feel ha.

Its sci-fi/dystopia stuff. Here's a link for it. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019M349WU/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

I was thinking of doing review swaps, I got a bunch of my friends to read it and promise to post reviews, but it might come out to maybe ~8 reviews. So maybe it's worth doing the review swaps... Thoughts on that guys?

I'd be really interested if anyone offered an estimate of how sales usually track. Whether they pick up or not and that sort of thing. I'm wondering if I'll make any money at all by letting it stay up for free on Kindle unlimited...

So yeah, sorry for not offering any insight and just asking for advice. I guess this is just a "r8 my fastlane attempt" post. You guys rock though, it takes guts to try and break away from the 9-5 corpogrind. I'm glad I gave it a shot either way, I struggled and sweated over this book, but it was incredibly fulfilling as well. I mean how many people can say they've written a book? Or that they're an author. Whether or not I'll be a successful author is another question entirely though!

 

[GiroudJD]

I ended up using a cover that a friend drew up for me. You can see it in my profile. I thought it looked pretty cool-and that's only the smaller version that Kindle allows- I ended up not doing UpWork or Fiverr because of how generic the designs I got looked. And I really wanted a hand-drawn element to it.

Congrats on taking the big step of actually publishing something - you're ahead of 90% of people out there!

One thing I would say: I like the hand drawn idea of the cover, but the Y is cut off the edge of the book, and the shadow outline of your name in grey is redundant and also gets cut off. Some readers won't care, some will absolutely care and not even give your book a chance (unfortunately). I'd also break the blurb up a bit. It's not bad, but if you make a couple of line breaks, it'll really help hammer home the idea of the blurb. Just my $0.02 from 4+ years of publishing! And, hey, you'll have at least one sale today, because I just picked it up

 

[Vincent Law]

Congrats on taking the big step of actually publishing something - you're ahead of 90% of people out there!

One thing I would say: I like the hand drawn idea of the cover, but the Y is cut off the edge of the book, and the shadow outline of your name in grey is redundant and also gets cut off. Some readers won't care, some will absolutely care and not even give your book a chance (unfortunately). I'd also break the blurb up a bit. It's not bad, but if you make a couple of line breaks, it'll really help hammer home the idea of the blurb. Just my $0.02 from 4+ years of publishing! And, hey, you'll have at least one sale today, because I just picked it up

Thanks for the practical advice. Did you mean the one in my profile picture or the one that you got from following the link?

And wow! Thanks! You just made my day haha. I can see it now, when I'm accepting my Pulitzer (or w/e, not really sure) 20 years from now. I'll dedicate my speech to you.

 

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[GiroudJD]

Thanks for the practical advice. Did you mean the one in my profile picture or the one that you got from following the link?

I meant the cover on the actual Amazon page, where potential customers are seeing it.

 

[ChickenHawk]

I mean how many people can say they've written a book?

So true. Congrats! A ton of people think or say they're going to write a book, but very few actually follow through and complete it. This, alone, puts you in a pretty rare category. On a forum like this, where you have lots of ambitious people, it's easy to forget this. But in the rest of the world, that kind of accomplishment is pretty rare.

So far, I've enrolled in KDP select because wth why not I thought, it didn't seem like there was a consensus that it was a horrible thing to do

I think this is smart. Especially if you're a new author, KDP Select gives you the chance to build an audience, because your book is "free", and thus, lets more people sample it for zero risk.

I'm thinking with Christmas coming up, maybe its a good idea to whip up an advertisement and try to promote the book.

I did Facebook Ads for a while, and will probably do them again, so I do think advertising can be effective. But the best way to build sales, IMO, is to write good stories in popular genre, and keep on writing. As you build an audience, you then benefit from word of mouth.

was thinking of doing review swaps,

Review swaps can be a good way to get the ball rolling. Especially in the beginning, I've done that with fellow authors, and found it to be a win-win. One thing to be careful of, though, is that Amazon is apparently cracking down a little on these. Like deleting reviews, maybe? I haven't had that happen personally, but I've heard of it happening to others. Once you get established, you don't need to rely on review swaps, because you'll get reviews organically, and from your "advance review team."

It took me about 6 months after reading these threads to finally launch my first book.

This seems like a good timeframe to me. I know that lots of people write faster, but alas, I'm not really one of them, so I think your pace is pretty darn good.

I'd be really interested if anyone offered an estimate of how sales usually track. Whether they pick up or not and that sort of thing.

This is really tricky. If your book doesn't do well out of the gate, there's always the chance it will pick up later, but as time goes on, the chances become slimmer and slimmer, unless you happen to release a new book that does well. When your new book comes out, if THAT does well, it can lift all of your books. On the other side, if a book does well out of the gate, you'll see encouraging sales within the first couple of days, and then often a sales bump about four weeks out.

I'm wondering if I'll make any money at all by letting it stay up for free on Kindle unlimited...

You might not make a lot of money if you're not having a lot of borrows/pages read. But you'll still have the chance to gain exposure, which might lead to sales down the road. if I were a new author starting out, and if my sales weren't quite where I wanted them to be, I'd stay in KDP Select to help build the audience.

So yeah, sorry for not offering any insight and just asking for advice.

No need to be sorry! If you keep at this, you'll be able to offer your insights to those following in your footsteps.

So thanks CH for the inspiration. And obviously for sharing your insights.

You're so welcome!

 

[ChickenHawk]

Just a quick update...
I haven't posted in a while, because I've been in near-seclusion, writing my little heart out. I still write too darn slow, but I don't want to mess with it too much, less I break what has been working fairly well for me. (Fewer words produced, but higher income per word.)

So far, I can say that 2015 was a nice year, income-wise, although not as nice as 2014. But that's a reflection of the fact that I simply didn't release as many books, because it was such a crazy year on the non-writing front. I plan to pick up the pace for 2016, so we'll see how that goes.

Happy New Year, everyone!

 

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[Vincent Law]

Just a quick update...
I haven't posted in a while, because I've been in near-seclusion, writing my little heart out. I still write too darn slow, but I don't want to mess with it too much, less I break what has been working fairly well for me. (Fewer words produced, but higher income per word.)

So far, I can say that 2015 was a nice year, income-wise, although not as nice as 2014. But that's a reflection of the fact that I simply didn't release as many books, because it was such a crazy year on the non-writing front. I plan to pick up the pace for 2016, so we'll see how that goes.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Happy New Year CH!

Keep us posted. Believe me there are loads of lurkers like me who read your thread with rabid interest, and it may even inspire some people to write a book and try to become an author as well.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Gosh, it's been FOREVER since I updated this thread, and honestly, I feel a little guilty, because this forum was such a HUGE help as I got started. So in light of that, here's a quick update, closing out 2015. I just finished my tax prep, and here's an annual summary, along with some observations.

Annual 2015 Summary

• Gross Earnings: $280,000
• Advertising Expenses: $43,000
• Net Approximate Earnings: $237,000

Some 2015 Observations

• Advertising: Holy crap! Did you see that giant advertising expense? Well, sadly, that's a big change from the earlier days of self-pubbing. I'm sure many of you will recall that I repeatedly stated that I did almost zero advertising. Not anymore. Most of my 2015 advertising was on Facebook, but I will say this... It's easy to lose a ton of money on Facebook ads. I've personally found them to be profitable, but that's not universal. If, for whatever reason, your book (including its blurb, excerpt, cover, or whatever) isn't compelling, you can spend a ton of money on advertising and and not see the corresponding book-sales. meaning you'd lose money, not gain money.
• Book Covers. Until recently, I was designing my own covers. They were decent, and actually probably better than a lot of the other stuff out there. Not anymore. Almost everyone, it seems, has stepped up their game, going to professional cover-designers. If your cover doesn't look like a bigtime publisher's cover, you're going to be fighting an uphill battle.
• Kindle Unlimited. Oh, how I loathe it. Probably, the majority of my 2015 earnings came not from sales, but from borrows via Kindle Unlimited (where authors are paid per pages read, not actual book sales). But the entire program seems to be on a death-spiral due to scammers and other trickery that is hugely deflating the earnings of genuine authors. And it's also a major force in pushing down ebook prices. Hopefully, Kindle Unlimited will die a gruesome death in the not-too-distant future.
• Price Competition. It's tougher than ever out there. Bigtime publishers are now competing head-to-head with indie publishers on price, so it's not nearly as easy as it used to be, especially if you're new to the writing world. For example, most bigtime publishers were listing their ebooks for approximately $9.99. Now, you see traditional publishers pricing some of their ebooks as low as $2.99 or $3.99. This has made it harder for indies to compete, because just slashing the price isn't enough to gain an edge. This means you've got to up your game as far as the writing, cover, and promotional activities.
• Comparison to the Previous Year. Just like last year, I'm so very, very thankful for my earnings and the opportunity to compete in this biz. My earnings were down compared to the previous year, but competition aside, my reduced earnings were the result of two things -- fewer books published and Kindle Unlimited. This year, I should be releasing more books, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Final Thoughts

• How About That Gold Rush? In short, if you're looking for a gold rush, self-pubbing isn't what it used to be. But there's still very nice money to be made, especially if you're a good writer who produces a lot and is willing to keep up on trends. Some people are still making a TON of money out there. Hey, I consider my earnings a ton, but there are still authors making double or triple what I make.
• Higher Barriers to Entry. Yup, they're definitely getting higher. The days when you could throw up a book, create your own cover, do zero advertising, and make a ton of money, well, those days might be over. On one hand, that's a bummer. On the other hand, increased barriers to entry probably gives an advantage not only to established authors, but also to authors willing to take those risks and make those investments.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Gosh, it's been FOREVER since I updated this thread, and honestly, I feel a little guilty, because this forum was such a HUGE help as I got started. So in light of that, here's a quick update, closing out 2015. I just finished my tax prep, and here's an annual summary, along with some observations.

Annual 2015 Summary

• Gross Earnings: $280,000
• Advertising Expenses: $43,000
• Net Approximate Earnings: $237,000

Some 2015 Observations

• Advertising: Holy crap! Did you see that giant advertising expense? Well, sadly, that's a big change from the earlier days of self-pubbing. I'm sure many of you will recall that I repeatedly stated that I did almost zero advertising. Not anymore. Most of my 2015 advertising was on Facebook, but I will say this... It's easy to lose a ton of money on Facebook ads. I've personally found them to be profitable, but that's not universal. If, for whatever reason, your book (including its blurb, excerpt, cover, or whatever) isn't compelling, you can spend a ton of money on advertising and and not see the corresponding book-sales. meaning you'd lose money, not gain money.
• Book Covers. Until recently, I was designing my own covers. They were decent, and actually probably better than a lot of the other stuff out there. Not anymore. Almost everyone, it seems, has stepped up their game, going to professional cover-designers. If your cover doesn't look like a bigtime publisher's cover, you're going to be fighting an uphill battle.
• Kindle Unlimited. Oh, how I loathe it. Probably, the majority of my 2015 earnings came not from sales, but from borrows via Kindle Unlimited (where authors are paid per pages read, not actual book sales). But the entire program seems to be on a death-spiral due to scammers and other trickery that is hugely deflating the earnings of genuine authors. And it's also a major force in pushing down ebook prices. Hopefully, Kindle Unlimited will die a gruesome death in the not-too-distant future.
• Price Competition. It's tougher than ever out there. Bigtime publishers are now competing head-to-head with indie publishers on price, so it's not nearly as easy as it used to be, especially if you're new to the writing world. For example, most bigtime publishers were listing their ebooks for approximately $9.99. Now, you see traditional publishers pricing some of their ebooks as low as $2.99 or $3.99. This has made it harder for indies to compete, because just slashing the price isn't enough to gain an edge. This means you've got to up your game as far as the writing, cover, and promotional activities.
• Comparison to the Previous Year. Just like last year, I'm so very, very thankful for my earnings and the opportunity to compete in this biz. My earnings were down compared to the previous year, but competition aside, my reduced earnings were the result of two things -- fewer books published and Kindle Unlimited. This year, I should be releasing more books, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Final Thoughts

• How About That Gold Rush? In short, if you're looking for a gold rush, self-pubbing isn't what it used to be. But there's still very nice money to be made, especially if you're a good writer who produces a lot and is willing to keep up on trends. Some people are still making a TON of money out there. Hey, I consider my earnings a ton, but there are still authors making double or triple what I make.
• Higher Barriers to Entry. Yup, they're definitely getting higher. The days when you could throw up a book, create your own cover, do zero advertising, and make a ton of money, well, those days might be over. On one hand, that's a bummer. On the other hand, increased barriers to entry probably gives an advantage not only to established authors, but also to authors willing to take those risks and make those investments.

Thanks for the update! This is all so true.

I published a 30k+ story the other night in a fiction niche.

Custom cover, FB ads, solid copy. New pen name. 0 sales. Was like wtf?!

At least it's not just me.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Wanna see one reason I'm so thankful for the Fastlane? Well, here it is. These are my workspaces before and after.

See that cubicle? That's where I spent most of my days. Windowless. Musty-smelling. Littered with sticky mouse-traps, along with the occasional belly-up cockroach. Too cold or too hot, depending on the day. See the box of tissues? Those were for sobbing at my desk when my TPS reports were done incorrectly. See the empty mocha cup? That was for keeping awake in long, boring meetings where nothing of real importance was ever discussed. See that little green ball thingy on my desk? That was a portable foot-massager that I took to meetings to make the process slightly less excruciating when someone started yammering about diversity training, ISO audits, or appropriate door-decorations for the office holiday party.

See that Window on the Right? Now, that is my view every single work day. I work from home and live on a mountain top. I don't commute. I take lunch when I want and keep my office-temperature whatever the heck I want it. I don't do TPS reports, and most of my "meetings" are with my family. I do work a ton of hours (maybe even more than before), because I'm a really slow writer, and there's A LOT to do, even aside from writing. But holy crap, is my view on everything so much better.

So very, very thankful...

 

[MJ DeMarco]

View attachment 11816

Wanna see one reason I'm so thankful for the Fastlane? Well, here it is. These are my workspaces before and after.

See that cubicle? That's where I spent most of my days. Windowless. Musty-smelling. Littered with sticky mouse-traps, along with the occasional belly-up cockroach. Too cold or too hot, depending on the day. See the box of tissues? Those were for sobbing at my desk when my TPS reports were done incorrectly. See the empty mocha cup? That was for keeping awake in long, boring meetings where nothing of real importance was ever discussed. See that little green ball thingy on my desk? That was a portable foot-massager that I took to meetings to make the process slightly less excruciating when someone started yammering about diversity training, ISO audits, or appropriate door-decorations for the office holiday party.

See that Window on the Right? Now, that is my view every single work day. I work from home and live on a mountain top. I don't commute. I take lunch when I want and keep my office-temperature whatever the heck I want it. I don't do TPS reports, and most of my "meetings" are with my family. I do work a ton of hours (maybe even more than before), because I'm a really slow writer, and there's A LOT to do, even aside from writing. But holy crap, is my view on everything so much better.

So very, very thankful...

Thanks for the update, freaking incredible. Warms my heart and soul!!

Just saw your YISA expired... renewal coming up!

 

[ChickenHawk]

Thanks for the update, freaking incredible. Warms my heart and soul!! Just saw your YISA expired... renewal coming up!

Thank YOU, M.J. Honestly, your book and this forum not only changed my life, but the life of my husband and child, too. All of us are so thankful. I need to spend more time here to repay some of that.

(I've been so buried in writing that I didn't even realize that my YISA expired. Thanks so much for the renewal!)

 

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[germandude]

I am getting into the field, but trying it with a multichannel approach. I believe that by advertising my website, developing fans through social media and good information organization, I could increase sales. My goal could be eventually to go through only one sales channel (my website), but I also might do it like MJ, with the partner program (when someone goes to do a buy of whatever on amazon through your link, you get a cut).

1. What is your opinion on my approach?

2. How much paid/unpaid marketing do (hours/month, money/month)?

 

[Guest12120]

Most of my 2015 advertising was on Facebook, but I will say this... It's easy to lose a ton of money on Facebook ads.

Congrats on your success! I have a question regarding FB Ads. My wife has just released her third part of the series and is doing pretty good. In January she was able to match her monthly paycheck from her last job. However with the recent changes with page counts and amount per page decrease things are not as good right now as they used to be. She saw a significant drop since February.
She's been trying many things to promote from Amazon and Goodreads ads to blog tours. She also tried FB Ads but no success there. Would you mind sharing what approach to FB Ads you took? Do you send people to your book listing directly or to your website or something totally different. Also, how to make the ads work as the books are $2.99-$3.99? Does increase in sales help you rank higher and this leads to more organic sales? Thanks!

 

[ChickenHawk]

I am getting into the field, but trying it with a multichannel approach. I believe that by advertising my website, developing fans through social media and good information organization, I could increase sales. My goal could be eventually to go through only one sales channel (my website), but I also might do it like MJ, with the partner program (when someone goes to do a buy of whatever on amazon through your link, you get a cut).

1. What is your opinion on my approach?

2. How much paid/unpaid marketing do (hours/month, money/month)?

1. It sounds like your product is non-fiction? That's not really my area of expertise, but I will say this...It's harder to sell a written product through your own Web site, because you'd have to generate every sale yourself. Even the non-fiction heavy-hitters do most of their sales through places like Amazon, because that's where the customers already are.
2. As far as marketing or advertising, I think you'd do as much as you afford, as long as you had a strong return-on-investment. For me, that's how I limit my advertising. If I have a positive ROI, I'll spend as much as $500-plus a day. When the ROI is no longer positive, it's time to cut back or stop advertising entirely. The time factor is trickier. Like for me, writing is my most profitable activity. You can't spend so much time marketing that you don't have time to write. This was part of the reason I didn't write as much last year, because I spent a ton of time and energy on the advertising side. It's always a balance, I think.

 

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[germandude]

1. It sounds like your product is non-fiction? That's not really my area of expertise, but I will say this...It's harder to sell a written product through your own Web site, because you'd have to generate every sale yourself. Even the non-fiction heavy-hitters do most of their sales through places like Amazon, because that's where the customers already are.
2. As far as marketing or advertising, I think you'd do as much as you afford, as long as you had a strong return-on-investment. For me, that's how I limit my advertising. If I have a positive ROI, I'll spend as much as $500-plus a day. When the ROI is no longer positive, it's time to cut back or stop advertising entirely. The time factor is trickier. Like for me, writing is my most profitable activity. You can't spend so much time marketing that you don't have time to write. This was part of the reason I didn't write as much last year, because I spent a ton of time and energy on the advertising side. It's always a balance, I think.

What do you advertise on? Only facebook?

 

[ChickenHawk]

Congrats on your success!

Thanks so much!

My wife has just released her third part of the series and is doing pretty good... However with the recent changes with page counts and amount per page decrease things are not as good right now as they used to be. She saw a significant drop since February.

Oh yeah. That payment-per-page has been dropping so much that it's harder and harder to make money. That's part of the reason I wish Kindle Unlimited would die a gruesome death already. Plus, I don't know if your wife saw this, but there''s been some BIGTIME scamming going on. There's a thread on the Kboards if you'd like to throw up in your mouth after reading it. Hopefully, when/if Amazon eliminates the scammers, the payments per page should rise. But I guess I wouldn't hold my breath. Ugh.

Would you mind sharing what approach to FB Ads you took? Do you send people to your book listing directly or to your website or something totally different. Also, how to make the ads work as the books are $2.99-$3.99?

With my FB ads, I only advertise the first title in a series. For example, if I have a two-book series, I only advertise the first book. I have a nice sell-through, though, so that's part of the reason my ROI (Return on Investment) on FB ads is usually positive. I think it's actually harder if you have a standalone book, because you don't get the chance to sell two books through one ad, for example. That's actually good thing for your wife. If she focuses her advertising on book 1 of her series, and if the story grabs readers, she'll continue to make sales down the line, onto book 2 and book 3, etc.

As far as linking from the FB ads, to the reader, it LOOKS like I'm sending them straight to my Amazon book page, but I do this through a redirect. The FB ad goes (very quickly) to my Web site, and then rerouts to the Amazon book listing. By taking that quick detour through my Web site, this gives me the ability to take advantage of Amazon's affiliate program along with a FB tracking pixel, so I can show the same ad-clickers advertising for my next book.

About the pricing, my books are also priced in the $2.99-$3.99 range. If you're looking for a positive ROI on SALES (not borrows), then it might be worthwhile to do a box set, because the higher price point will mean you have to sell fewer products to achieve a positive ROI. If you're looking for a positive ROI on Kindle Unlimited borrows, it all probably comes down to the writing. If readers can't put down a book, they'll keep sending you money in the form of Amazon pages read.

Does increase in sales help you rank higher and this leads to more organic sales? Thanks!

Yup, definitely. But man, it's a real challenge to hit those ranks. It's been harder recently, because Amazon has been cluttered with garbage (meaning scam books). Hopefully, as Amazon cleans things up a little, it will get easier.

Hope that helps!