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

Shepherd

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Congrats! That sounds like a euphoric moment.


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Much appreciated. Unfortunately, I don't tend to have a ton of euphoria because my mind is always working toward the next task, evaluating where I'm at, etc. Thank you for the reminder to at least pause and appreciate the moment.
 
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ChickenHawk

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Well, I finally hit "Publish". I will start a separate progress thread to chronicle how things go with the book and my progress moving toward the Fastlane overall, but I'm excited and thankful for the guidance I've gotten here. Hopefully I can pay it forward.
How exciting!! Congrats!!! Looking forward to your thread!
 

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Ugh. I was hit with more this month. (I'm like on my tenth migraine day in a row. WAH!) But I've still managed to cut them down considerably. You know how some people have weak stomachs, and everything makes them queasy? I'm one of those people, except that instead of stomach problems, everything gives me a migraine. Stress = migraine. Hormonal changes = migraine. Sinus problems = migraine. Change of seasons = migraine.


My sister in law had great success with cooling her spinal cord and the base of her neck. Basically, laying on her stomach and having the length of her spine from the base of the skull down her back covered with a row of wet washcloths with ice inside for several minutes a day. She got the suggestion from someone she knew, and said it really helped reduce her chronic migraines. I'm not sure about the science behind it, but I know that cooling of the spine and brain after an injury is an established technique to preserve function and accelerate recovery. Perhaps one of our MDs has more insight.
 
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I know you posed this to MJ, but I'll take a stab at this. It's no longer a passive machine because it's no longer a matter of publishing a good book and waiting for the sales to roll in. You've got to advertise, promote, work your mailing list, keep an eye on pricing, etc. Several of my books were huge successes, but without advertising or a new release by the same pen name, they sink like a stone.

Are your books still in KDP Select?
Real sales definitely generate more money than pages read for me. I'm thinking of trying the following with my new fiction series: Publish part 1 as KDP Select and the rest without it. Have you tried that yet?
 

ChickenHawk

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Are your books still in KDP Select?

At the moment, I'm still in. But within the next couple of months, I'm going to transition at least half of my books out of KDP select and then publish them wide. If it goes well, I'll probably transition all of my books out of KDP Select before the end of the year.

Real sales definitely generate more money than pages read for me. I'm thinking of trying the following with my new fiction series: Publish part 1 as KDP Select and the rest without it. Have you tried that yet?

I can totally see real sales generating more money, especially with the ever-falling payment-per-page. I've heard of authors making more money on Amazon (not even factoring in sales at other outlets) simply by dropping out of KDP Select and focusing on sales rather than borrows. As far as your new fiction series, I'm a little hesitant to say it's a good idea, because I think there's a good chance that you'll make a lot of readers angry, and thus, receive negative reviews -- only because if book #1 is available in the program, but the subsequent books aren't, readers might feel like they've been snookered. But it's an interesting idea, and I can see where you'd consider it. I hope you'll keep us posted either way!
 

ChickenHawk

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Whew! Time for another update...

Well, I've published my latest book, and here's the short summary. I'm glad it's over, and this isn't going to be a home run. But then again, I wasn't really expecting it to be. Basically, most of the last year has been spent finishing up old business -- writing books that I already committed to, selling rental properties, just generally getting stuff out of the way. It wasn't terribly profitable, but it was necessary, and at least it's over. (Thank goodness!)

The BAD: Mostly, it was a grind. No surprise really. My last two books (a two-book series that I'd already committed to) were both base hits (as opposed to home runs). And here's why:
  • Shifting Tastes & More Competition: My genre was super-hot a couple of years ago, and now is over-saturated. The end result is too many books competing with too few of readers.
  • Series Vs. Standalones: My books trend heavily toward series, almost a serial in nature, where you have to read multiple books to get the whole story. That was hugely hot when I started out. Now, standalones are the big thing.
  • Kindle Unlimited: It's a magnet for scammers and publishers of 99-cent books. Also, because a book's rank is boosted for every "borrow," black-hat types can "bot" their way onto the bestselling lists, which means it's harder than ever for non-scamming writers to get visibility.
  • Pay for Play & Ethical Challenges: These days in romance-fiction, it's very, VERY difficult to get any traction on Amazon without spending a fortune on advertising. And sadly, it's also becoming harder to achieve success and keep your ethics intact. This is especially true for the romance market, because it's a nice, juicy target with lots of money for scooping up. Also, Amazon has been doing nearly nothing to rein in the scammers, which means that even non "black-hat" writers are becoming tempted to engage in less than ethical behavior. All in all, it's a huge train wreck that's starting to feel like a race to the bottom.
The GOOD:
  • Relief: HOLY CRAP, am I glad that's over!!!!
  • Obligations Met: I know some will disagree, but I felt compelled to write the books that I promised. If I were willing to burn my pen name and start over, I would've just said "screw it" a couple of books ago and let this series die, uncompleted. However, I've been blessed with some very rabid, enthusiastic fans. These are the ones who recommend my books, share my FB posts, and tell their friends. Once you say "screw you" to your customers, that trust is a hard thing to regain. Also, once you break your promises on books, it makes readers hesitate to pick up your books in the future, because they have no way of knowing if you're going to live up to what you're promising. Basically, I took a short-term loss, hoping that the long-term gains will be worth it. A gamble? Maybe. We'll see.
  • Books Transitioning Out of Kindle Unlimited: At last, half of my books are heading out of Kindle Unlimited. No doubt, this will hurt my Amazon sales ranks, but I've been generating my own sales anyway (through paid advertising and my mailing lists), so sales rank is no longer quite as important. It will no doubt take time to regain lost traction on other outlets (Barnes & Noble, Apple, etc), but the diversification will be a good thing.
  • The Future Awaits: I already have my next book in mind and will be outlining it over the next week. Ideally, it will appeal to current fans and be able to get me some new ones, too. If this book isn't a smash hit, I'll write the next one. Write, rinse, repeat. My goal is still to have at least 20 books published, and I'm halfway there. Must write faster!
What I Must Do Better
  • No more promising books so far in advance. This was a huge mistake and caused me to miss opportunities. If I'm promising a book that won't be available for a year (simply because each book takes months to write), then I can quickly find myself painted into a corner, fulfilling less profitable obligations while more profitable opportunities pass me by. I need to be more nimble, which I plan to be in the future.
  • Less Reliance on Kindle Unlimited: I made a lot of money on Kindle Unlimited. But it's time to move on. I may always keep some of my books in it, just to diversify and gain eyeballs on Amazon. But mostly, I'm going to return to the business of selling books rather than renting books.
  • Write Faster: Actually, I'm doing much better with this. But it's time to keep the trend going. I need to write lots of books, knowing that not all of them will be home runs, but they will get me more drones in my passive-income army. Every book I've written, even my base hits, make me money every day. And if I play my cards right, they'll make me money for years to come.
Wow, this was a long update, huh? But I'm really trying to show both sides of this business -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. Still, overall, there's a ton more good than bad, and I feel incredibly lucky to be doing what I do. I just need to do it faster!
 
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rogue synthetic

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Thanks for sharing your updates ChickenHawk. I've learned a lot from reading through your threads.

As an outsider looking in, it certanly looks like the Kindle space is hitting (well past?) a point of saturation.

What's your outlook on that? Does the Kindle store still look like a good opportunity for new authors moving into 2018?
 

ChickenHawk

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Does the Kindle store still look like a good opportunity for new authors moving into 2018?

I do think it's harder to gain traction, but I still don't think it's impossible. If you're a strong writer with a good "writing-voice", I still believe you can make money and gain an audience. For new writers, I might, however, suggest a different approach than I might've suggested a few years ago.

A few years ago, a great way to make money (and build an audience) was to target those super-profitable genres, because the theory was this: If there's a ton of money to be made, even getting a small fraction of that money/exposure can be really worthwhile. Now, those super-profitable genres are jam-packed, not only with genuine authors, but also with "black-hat" types. It makes it nearly impossible to gain traction without spending some serious cash, especially if you're a new author without an existing fan base and mailing list.

If I were just starting out, I might look at filling a niche in a less profitable (and thus, less crowded) genre. Or, I'd publish on Kindle Unlimited and plan to move wide more quickly. Through all of this, something has occurred to me: With so many writers going exclusive to Amazon, this might mean there's less competition on other outlets, such as Barnes & Noble or Apple.

I might be wrong, but I suspect that Amazon is heading for some sort of correction, which might clear out some of the scammers (or not, who knows). I simply don't see how they can continue their Kindle Unlimited program as it stands. An interesting side note: Three of my books expired from Kindle Unlimited today. The two super-popular ones were "accidentally" re-enrolled without my permission. The less popular book was allowed to expire unhindered. This makes me wonder if Amazon realizes they have problems keeping their most popular authors satisfied and engaged.

I hope you'll keep us posted whatever you decide!
 

rogue synthetic

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That's about what I suspected, but it's good to hear it from the horse's mouth.

I'm actually not a Kindle store virgin. Back in 2013, I released a book there which grew out of a blog I was then running. It was in the fitness space, where I'd built a small but committed following (more by accident than skill, make no mistake). With no marketing push -- and I'm talking minimal, barely-announced-it-on-my-own-site, fanfare -- I managed to hit #13 in the kindle sports training category and #20 in books on weight training.

This was all social media and word-of-mouth that happened through very little involvements of my own.

I won't bore you with the details of why I let this drop, but back then I wasn't in an entrepreneurial mindset. I had no business sense at all; I'd gotten frustrated with the topic; I was still in a scarcity mindset, and on top of that I was doing graduate study in another subject which took up most of my time (still does, for another year or so).

But I'm starting to kick myself for missing that boat, when I see the kind of success you and others have had the last few years. The "what if?" thinking has my eye back on the "what can I do now?"

Thanks for your input!
 
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dru-man

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  • Series Vs. Standalones: My books trend heavily toward series, almost a serial in nature, where you have to read multiple books to get the whole story. That was hugely hot when I started out. Now, standalones are the big thing.

Thanks for the updates on all these changes.

Do you feel like these standalones are usually pretty long too? I see all kinds of advice given out around the web about the idea of publishing shorter novels and novellas to get a bunch out there, but when i cruise best seller lists, I'm seeing some pretty beefy novels.

I'm not genre- or micro-genre shopping, though - I was looking at the top overall paid books.
 

ChickenHawk

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Thanks for the updates on all these changes.
You're so welcome!

Do you feel like these standalones are usually pretty long too? I see all kinds of advice given out around the web about the idea of publishing shorter novels and novellas to get a bunch out there, but when i cruise best seller lists, I'm seeing some pretty beefy novels.
Yup, I agree with you. The top-selling standalones tend to be full-length novels. I could see publishing a novella or two to gain more visibility, but I still believe that full-length works are where the real money (and visibility) is. Some writers will, for example, write a novella as a freebie or maybe as a 99-cent book, just to get readers hooked and lead them to the longer full-priced books. The possible exception is erotica, where shorter books do rather well. But then, you're dealing with a whole different set of challenges, like lack of visibility and advertising opportunities.

Personally, if I were just starting out, and had a budget of 320K words, I'd probably still choose to write four 80K books rather than eight 40K books -- just because I don't see those 40K books as having the same odds of breaking out into home-run territory.

Of course, we never know what will be popular a few months from now. Sometimes, things change crazy-fast!
 

dru-man

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Have you ever done anything to revive an old book or give it a second chance? Something extreme like a title and cover change?

I have one novel from about four years ago that got gushing reviews from anyone who ever took the time to read it, but then it stagnated. I always felt like the title and cover might have been a poor choice and that perhaps a rework would make it more of an obvious choice to new readers.

Then again, I probably couldn't keep the currently great reviews if I did that.

Anyhow, it's not top priority in my to-do list, of course, but I've considered tinkering with it in my spare time.

Thoughts?
 
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ChickenHawk

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Have you ever done anything to revive an old book or give it a second chance? Something extreme like a title and cover change?

I have one novel from about four years ago that got gushing reviews from anyone who ever took the time to read it, but then it stagnated. I always felt like the title and cover might have been a poor choice and that perhaps a rework would make it more of an obvious choice to new readers.

Then again, I probably couldn't keep the currently great reviews if I did that.

Happily, you could keep your reviews, so don't let that stop you. :) You can change almost anything in your Kindle books and still keep your reviews. And if you got gushing reviews from strangers, I can definitely see the potential.

Funny, I've replaced covers on more than half of my books. Did it help? Maybe. But in those cases, it wasn't so much to revive sales as to (1) replace covers that I grew to hate over time, or (2) make them less risque so I could safely advertise them on Facebook and Amazon.

In your case, the book is four years old, so it's unlikely that changing the cover and title will net you much benefit (only because Amazon's algos so strongly favor newer books) unless you can also get more eyeballs on it. You could to this by writing a new book in the same genre under the same pen name. Or you could advertise it. If you go the advertising route, Amazon AMS ads would be a better option than Facebook ads. In my experience, Facebook ads stand a much higher chance of paying off if you're really promoting multiple books. For example, let's say you write a 3-book series. You advertise book#1, and might lose money on FB advertising, but make it up as readers move on to Books 2 & 3.

Were you writing in a profitable genre? If so, that might make for a great foundation for writing more books, and building on that first book. I hope you'll keep us posted!
 

dru-man

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Happily, you could keep your reviews, so don't let that stop you. :) You can change almost anything in your Kindle books and still keep your reviews. And if you got gushing reviews from strangers, I can definitely see the potential.

Funny, I've replaced covers on more than half of my books. Did it help? Maybe. But in those cases, it wasn't so much to revive sales as to (1) replace covers that I grew to hate over time, or (2) make them less risque so I could safely advertise them on Facebook and Amazon.

In your case, the book is four years old, so it's unlikely that changing the cover and title will net you much benefit (only because Amazon's algos so strongly favor newer books) unless you can also get more eyeballs on it. You could to this by writing a new book in the same genre under the same pen name. Or you could advertise it. If you go the advertising route, Amazon AMS ads would be a better option than Facebook ads. In my experience, Facebook ads stand a much higher chance of paying off if you're really promoting multiple books. For example, let's say you write a 3-book series. You advertise book#1, and might lose money on FB advertising, but make it up as readers move on to Books 2 & 3.

Were you writing in a profitable genre? If so, that might make for a great foundation for writing more books, and building on that first book. I hope you'll keep us posted!

Cool - that's really good to know. I will definitely consider a title and cover change then, especially since it'd be such a simple little project to take on. Then brainstorm some ways to try and get it out there again. Again, I know one single book is nothing in the big scheme of things, so I don't plan to spend a ton of time and energy on it that could be better spent writing new stuff.

To answer the question about profitable genres, though, I began that novel when I was 17, and over the years picked it up off and on with the the vague intent of finishing it, and then eventually when the Kindle publishing opportunity arose, I sat down and finally did, so it was more of a passion project than something I wrote with the markets in mind. At the time I conceived of it, I just had a notion of a story that I'd hatched while under medication from surgery and then ran with it. When I opened the file up years later it was just something I had to finish at that point. So I wouldn't say market was much of a consideration at the time.

And I must admit that I could still use some brushing up on how to identify paying markets even now.

Then again, my feeling is to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. Writing a book that's unmarketable would be a silly move for obvious reasons - so I don't mean I would purposely write something against the grain. But on the other hand, if it just happens, it's still a chance to get better and grow as a writer, and I feel like if you've read enough books throughout your life, you should have a general sense of what kind of stories would go big and what kind don't already (I've been adding to this "feel" by reading books on storytelling).

On the other hand, two other realities stand out to me: 1) best-sellers, in cinema and books, often cover such a wide range of genres, and 2) there are different viewpoints constantly spouted on whether you should be chasing genres with the most readers or genres with less competition.

Given the nature of the changing market and all these opposing viewpoints, I feel my best bet is to focus on the quality of my writing and the quality of my stories and "go from the gut" a bit, so to speak, unless or until I come across what looks like a golden opportunity. I realize this will no doubt turn me down a few dead-ends along the way, but given that most writers, even the ones who chase profitable genres, end up with a good many books sitting in their library getting little to no sales, and a few that inexplicably do well, I can't see how the approach I take makes a huge difference.

So at least for now I plan to spend time reading successful books and watching gripping movies and swinging from the gut a bit, so to speak. I do realize how naive all this sounds.... It seems to me that especially as the self-publishing markets change, there's a great deal of luck and talent playing into getting noticed, so for now I'd like to focus on improving my talent and creating more books for more chances of getting noticed. Of course, if I was writing nonfiction, which I may at some point, I'd surely be a lot more conscientious about niche. Feel free to rain on my parade if you want.

One thing I've been brainstorming is how I might seek out other channels of creating a buzz about a book if I write one that is getting a good response, like how to get it out in front of mainstream voices that may not be all that involved in the fiction world. It just seems like a lot of writers are advertising their books directly to readers or getting their books out on review sites, but I feel if one were to rack their brain, reach out to the right people, and tap into their network, there might be some potential in finding a creative way to get a book mentioned on other types of platforms and create a bit of a viral buzz if they hit the right note on the right platform.

This would be very difficult to orchestrate, of course, and I'm just theorizing here, but I'm going to continue brainstorming the idea to see what I come up with and pick up some books on creative marketing to see if I can unearth any interesting ideas to take a stab at it.

Another question, if you don't mind - have you noticed significant changes in rankings when you add new formats to your older books? Does it give it a bump in current rankings at all or just provide more options when people land on the page?

I realize you've probably covered this - I read a decent chunk of this thread years ago, but it's probably time for me to go back through now. Thank you for taking the time to share your insights.
 
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ChickenHawk

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And I must admit that I could still use some brushing up on how to identify paying markets even now.
Here's a book that might help. It's Write to Market by Chris Fox (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AX23B4Q/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20). He has some really good insight on finding a profitable niche.

On the other hand, two other realities stand out to me: 1) best-sellers, in cinema and books, often cover such a wide range of genres, and 2) there are different viewpoints constantly spouted on whether you should be chasing genres with the most readers or genres with less competition.
. Oh yeah, it's always a balancing act, that's for sure.

So at least for now I plan to spend time reading successful books and watching gripping movies and swinging from the gut a bit, so to speak. I do realize how naive all this sounds..
I think that's a great plan. You'd be surprised at how many "novelists" don't read. It's crazy. By reading successful books, you can get a real feel of what makes a book a success. My only caution is not to spend so much time analyzing, etc., that you don't act, meaning actually write a book(s) of your own.

Another question, if you don't mind - have you noticed significant changes in rankings when you add new formats to your older books? Does it give it a bump in current rankings at all or just provide more options when people land on the page?
. Nope. I haven't noticed any significant ranking changes when I add a paperback or audiobook, for example. But I do notice that when I have a BookBub promotion or when I'm advertising extensively, my audiobook sales increase, even though I'm technically advertising the kindle version.

I read a decent chunk of this thread years ago, but it's probably time for me to go back through now.
Funny to think of how much has changed since I started this thread. For example, advertising and marketing played almost no role in the beginning. Now, it's a huge part of it. It will be interesting to see how things go from here.
 
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dru-man

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Here's a book that might help. It's Write to Market by Chris Fox (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AX23B4Q/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20). He has some really good insight on finding a profitable niche.

Cool - picking it up now!

My only caution is not to spend so much time analyzing, etc., that you don't act, meaning actually write a book(s) of your own.

Yes, most definitely. I've been finding time to do both. I'm fortunate that my days are pretty much free. I do have to write for clients from to time, but I get paid well enough that I can get by without working everyday.

At the moment I'm averaging around 5000 words of fiction per day (that's raw, unedited work, though and it will take some serious time to clean it up). Eventually I'll need to slow down to avoid burnout, but I'd like to hammer out this main novel I'm working on now to build some momentum before setting a more reasonable pace.
 

ChickenHawk

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I always swear I'm going to update this thread more, and here it is, months after my last update. *Hangs head in shame.* Anywhere, I'm long overdue for a status update, so here we go... But brace yourself, LOL!

*Cue Horror-Movie Music*
Invasion of the Internet Marketers!!!


Here's the ugly truth: My genre (contemporary/new adult romance) SUCKS at the moment, and it's been very hard to gain any traction, not just for me, but for the vast majority of truly independent romance authors. Here's what's happened: A gang of internet marketers has moved into my genre (because it's so lucrative), and is cornering the market through means that aren't quite ethical. Basically, they're hiring ghost-writers, "stuffing" their books with bonus content, dropping their prices to 99-cents, and using a combination of click farms, gift cards, email spamming, and super-aggressive advertising campaigns (some including stolen images, apparently) to dominate the romance lists and claim an oversized portion of visibility and Kindle Unlimited "borrows."

Now, you might say, "Hey, it's just business, so if you can't beat them, join them. After all, there's nothing wrong with aggressive marketing, right?"

Here's my response: "I can't. And I won't, because their methodology goes well beyond marketing, and their approach is unethical and dangerous long-term."

Their methods might make money short-term (LOTS and lots of money for now), but even if I were willing to join their group (apparently for a $3,000 buy-in) it would destroy my pen name and potentially risk my Amazon publishing account when it all comes crashing down. And I believe it will come crashing down eventually, because the current system appears to be in a death spiral -- attracting more scammers and driving away legitimate authors. The customer experience is also suffering as readers have to wade through more crap to find something worth reading.

I've always maintained (and still do) that unless you're a very skilled editor, you can't build an audience of true fans with ghost-writers. However, these guys aren't building an audience so much as rigging the game for clicks.

Basically, they're exploiting all of the vulnerabilities in Kindle Unlimited, such as the fact that a "borrow" counts the same toward rank as a "buy", and the fact that Kindle Unlimited pays according to "pages read," even if huge portions of that book are skipped. (Amazon claims they've fixed this loophole, but testing reveals otherwise. Depending on the device, a click to the end of the book can count as a full read, even if the entire middle was skipped.) By "stuffing" their books, all they need to do is get some schmuck (or click-farm employee) to click to the end of the book, and viola! The "author" earns up to nine bucks from a borrow, even though an actual sale nets them only 34 cents (35% of 99 cents). With this inflated payment per borrow, they're able to throw tons of money at advertising and snag an oversized portion of bonus money, too. They use that money to hire more ghost-writers, step up their marketing, and the cycle continues.

On top of all this, these "authors" are publishing new "books" every two weeks (per "author"!), so genuine books are continually getting pushed down in the charts by books with huge marketing budgets and dubious promotional methods.

If you're willing to scam, and don't care if you eventually lose your Amazon account, you can get even more creative and hire a click farm to ride your way up the charts. (One dude made it to number-1 in the whole Amazon store until Amazon abruptly rank-stripped him. Oddly enough, this particular guy wasn't in romance, but I digress...) And, you can join a consortium, where they all click on each other books, and spam their email lists, sending out multiple emails per DAY and tricking legitimate authors to email swaps, where the scammers exchange the dregs of their own lists in return for good, solid leads from true indie authors.

Over the weekend, I went through and looked at some of the biggest names in romance, and almost all of them have dropped out of Kindle Unlimited, and are, as a result, suffering rank-wise. Going wide doesn't help much, because Amazon has done such a great job of cornering the romance market, and other outlets haven't quite attracted those super-frequent romance readers.

Rather than continue my rant, here's a funny article that highlights what is going on: NaNoWriMo Writing Prompts – Bad Boy Romance Edition

Where does this leave me personally? Since this post is so very long, I'll continue that in my next post...
 

Lex DeVille

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I always swear I'm going to update this thread more, and here it is, months after my last update. *Hangs head in shame.* Anywhere, I'm long overdue for a status update, so here we go... But brace yourself, LOL!

*Cue Horror-Movie Music*
Invasion of the Internet Marketers!!!


Here's the ugly truth: My genre (contemporary/new adult romance) SUCKS at the moment, and it's been very hard to gain any traction, not just for me, but for the vast majority of truly independent romance authors. Here's what's happened: A gang of internet marketers has moved into my genre (because it's so lucrative), and is cornering the market through means that aren't quite ethical. Basically, they're hiring ghost-writers, "stuffing" their books with bonus content, dropping their prices to 99-cents, and using a combination of click farms, gift cards, email spamming, and super-aggressive advertising campaigns (some including stolen images, apparently) to dominate the romance lists and claim an oversized portion of visibility and Kindle Unlimited "borrows."

Now, you might say, "Hey, it's just business, so if you can't beat them, join them. After all, there's nothing wrong with aggressive marketing, right?"

Here's my response: "I can't. And I won't, because their methodology goes well beyond marketing, and their approach is unethical and dangerous long-term."

Their methods might make money short-term (LOTS and lots of money for now), but even if I were willing to join their group (apparently for a $3,000 buy-in) it would destroy my pen name and potentially risk my Amazon publishing account when it all comes crashing down. And I believe it will come crashing down eventually, because the current system appears to be in a death spiral -- attracting more scammers and driving away legitimate authors. The customer experience is also suffering as readers have to wade through more crap to find something worth reading.

I've always maintained (and still do) that unless you're a very skilled editor, you can't build an audience of true fans with ghost-writers. However, these guys aren't building an audience so much as rigging the game for clicks.

Basically, they're exploiting all of the vulnerabilities in Kindle Unlimited, such as the fact that a "borrow" counts the same toward rank as a "buy", and the fact that Kindle Unlimited pays according to "pages read," even if huge portions of that book are skipped. (Amazon claims they've fixed this loophole, but testing reveals otherwise. Depending on the device, a click to the end of the book can count as a full read, even if the entire middle was skipped.) By "stuffing" their books, all they need to do is get some schmuck (or click-farm employee) to click to the end of the book, and viola! The "author" earns up to nine bucks from a borrow, even though an actual sale nets them only 34 cents (35% of 99 cents). With this inflated payment per borrow, they're able to throw tons of money at advertising and snag an oversized portion of bonus money, too. They use that money to hire more ghost-writers, step up their marketing, and the cycle continues.

On top of all this, these "authors" are publishing new "books" every two weeks (per "author"!), so genuine books are continually getting pushed down in the charts by books with huge marketing budgets and dubious promotional methods.

If you're willing to scam, and don't care if you eventually lose your Amazon account, you can get even more creative and hire a click farm to ride your way up the charts. (One dude made it to number-1 in the whole Amazon store until Amazon abruptly rank-stripped him. Oddly enough, this particular guy wasn't in romance, but I digress...) And, you can join a consortium, where they all click on each other books, and spam their email lists, sending out multiple emails per DAY and tricking legitimate authors to email swaps, where the scammers exchange the dregs of their own lists in return for good, solid leads from true indie authors.

Over the weekend, I went through and looked at some of the biggest names in romance, and almost all of them have dropped out of Kindle Unlimited, and are, as a result, suffering rank-wise. Going wide doesn't help much, because Amazon has done such a great job of cornering the romance market, and other outlets haven't quite attracted those super-frequent romance readers.

Rather than continue my rant, here's a funny article that highlights what is going on: NaNoWriMo Writing Prompts – Bad Boy Romance Edition

Where does this leave me personally? Since this post is so very long, I'll continue that in my next post...

With that last question you predicted my thoughts! :D

What can you do? How can you overcome this? Sounds like a nightmare situation!!! Do you release audiobook versions of your current books? Would romance readers spend the money on it?
 
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Did you get through my last post? Congrats if you did, because it was quite the rant, wasn't it?

Now, where does this leave me? Already, I've pulled half of my books from Kindle Unlimited and published them wide. On the writing front, I'm still plugging along. I'm drafting my next book, with tentative plans to release it in the Spring. However, I'm not announcing a release date quite yet. If the market is still messed up, I might hold off until conditions are more favorable. The only problem is, if I wait too long, I risk losing my audience, so it's always a balancing act.

I do think that Amazon will eventually have to address the loopholes of Kindle Unlimited, and I'm cautiously optimistic that it will happen sometime this year. If it doesn't, I might consider moving into another genre or potentially into non-fiction, where the price-points haven't been driven down by scammery. Happily, I'm a strong writer and actually write non-fiction much faster than fiction, so it would be a nice change in a way. The big downside, of course, is that I'd be starting from scratch as far as building an audience is concerned.

Either way, here's a sad truth. If these guys are allowed to continue, the poison will spread until they've ruined every profitable category in the Kindle Store. Even if it's not the same exact team of marketers, the loopholes are there to exploit. It's only a matter of time.

For anyone thinking of getting into self-publishing, here's the big takeaway. Strike while the iron is hot. If you've got a great idea, and your genre isn't filled with 99-cent crap, publish your book now, damn it! The longer you wait, the more opportunity you risk losing. If, however, you're writing in a genre that's been targeted by Kindle Unlimited exploiters, I'd suggest holding off a bit to see what happens. (While you wait, write that book! And the followup book, so you can be ready.) Amazon has a history of changing the rules very suddenly. And when they do, this might be the perfect time to slip in and claim some of that lost market share as the scammers scream in pain at the injustice of it all.

Here's a funny thing, too. These dudes are purely chasing money. No doubt, they're raking it in, bigtime. But it's all based on artificial, unsustainable conditions. After all, nowhere in the real world can you SELL a product for 99 cents, but RENT it out for nine bucks. When this unnatural condition evaporates, so does their "business." Poof! Overnight. Of course, they'll regroup and move onto other things, but this will present a nice opening for genuine authors to jump back in and reclaim some lost ground.

That's my plan anyway. I'll keep you posted!
 

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With that last question you predicted my thoughts! :D

What can you do? How can you overcome this? Sounds like a nightmare situation!!! Do you release audiobook versions of your current books? Would romance readers spend the money on it?

Oh yeah, it's a nightmare for sure. Genuine indie romance authors are trying strategies like more frequent newsletter swaps, higher advertising budgets, heavier discounting, and including a free "bonus novel" at the end of each new release. Oddly enough, this is also fueling the death spiral as email lists get burned out more quickly, advertising costs rise due to increased competition, and readers grow to expect cheaper and cheaper books.

Aside from the damage to legitimate authors, Amazon MUST be losing money on this. After all, if a reader pages through ten scam "books" a month, that alone costs Amazon 90 bucks in "royalties," even as it collects only $9.99 for that reader's Kindle Unlimited subscription. (In my example, this represents a monthly loss of 80 bucks for Amazon, yikes!) My own personal theory is that Amazon is making its money on other things, such as government contracts, cheap shipping, sponsored product ads, etc., and is willing to tolerate Kindle Unlimited losses in order to fully corner the ebook market and drive their competitors out of business. (I just pray they don't succeed!)

Either way, in the process, they're turning their own ebook store into an absolute train-wreck. Regardless of what happens, it will definitely be interesting!

About audiobooks, yup, I've released audiobooks for all of my romance books, except for the two most-recent ones. The audiobooks have provided some nice bonus income, but it hasn't been a huge percentage compared to the ebooks. At one time, I figured out the ratio. I can't recall specifics, but I think it was something like 100 to 1, meaning that for every 100 ebooks, I'd sell one audiobook. But don't quote me on that, hah!

Regardless, diversification is a good thing, so you're definitely onto something!
 

ChickenHawk

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Oh hey, speaking of train-wrecks, here's a KBoards thread that discusses the dynamics of book-stuffing. The discussion eventually became so heated that the thread was locked, but you can still read through it if you're interested. It offers some pretty interesting pros and cons.

KU Page Stuffing Explained - Helpful Video
 
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Lex DeVille

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You're moving out of KU and you have your processes down. You write well. Everyone else is competing for bottom dollar sales. Amazon is crushing the market by driving prices down and unethical marketers are destroying everything else. My next thought on combating the problem is what if you went the other direction?

I've done 0 research on this in regards to book writing, so it's just a thought. But knowing I can spin a story and people enjoy it means I have a product that's good enough. I want to stand out from everyone else, without spending absurd amounts on marketing and promotions. If I were writing fiction, I might approach it the same way I'd approach entering a crowded ecommerce market (I'm doing this now). Instead of writing for the masses, I'd write for minorities, and specifically target wealthy individuals.

The goal would no longer be "just" writing. Instead I'd aim to create a strong brand, and a price tag that most people can't afford. You can still pay attention to what's hot and what's selling on Amazon. But you'd only write stories for people willing to pay the most instead of the least. To do this you'd probably have to change some things in your process. You might need to place ads in magazines wealthy individuals would buy. You'd have extra work up front to gain traction.

The goal is to sell the feeling of exclusivity (and good stories of course). Maybe it even becomes some kind of private book club with a recurring membership. Ultimately, you end up writing the same quality of stories, and in the same genres and niches, but you make more money per sale and cut out bottom dweller competition.

Who knows if it would work, but things aren't exactly working right now, so that's what I'd try. :D
 

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You're moving out of KU and you have your processes down. You write well. Everyone else is competing for bottom dollar sales. Amazon is crushing the market by driving prices down and unethical marketers are destroying everything else. My next thought on combating the problem is what if you went the other direction?

I've done 0 research on this in regards to book writing, so it's just a thought. But knowing I can spin a story and people enjoy it means I have a product that's good enough. I want to stand out from everyone else, without spending absurd amounts on marketing and promotions. If I were writing fiction, I might approach it the same way I'd approach entering a crowded ecommerce market (I'm doing this now). Instead of writing for the masses, I'd write for minorities, and specifically target wealthy individuals.

The goal would no longer be "just" writing. Instead I'd aim to create a strong brand, and a price tag that most people can't afford. You can still pay attention to what's hot and what's selling on Amazon. But you'd only write stories for people willing to pay the most instead of the least. To do this you'd probably have to change some things in your process. You might need to place ads in magazines wealthy individuals would buy. You'd have extra work up front to gain traction.

The goal is to sell the feeling of exclusivity (and good stories of course). Maybe it even becomes some kind of private book club with a recurring membership. Ultimately, you end up writing the same quality of stories, and in the same genres and niches, but you make more money per sale and cut out bottom dweller competition.

Who knows if it would work, but things aren't exactly working right now, so that's what I'd try. :D

Novel approach! (No pun intended.) @ChickenHawk, what you describe is what I'm hearing from a friend of ours. I stopped writing romance after an unfortunate bout of writer's block, but I've been ghostwriting action/adventure pretty regularly since then. Both the clients I've written for report a 60-80% drop in income that was largely dependent on KU. Other romance author friends haven't said much about it, but I'll be sending them the links you've provided.

It's a shame Amazon let it get to this pass, knowing there's a scammer ready to find the advantage in any KU revision they've made so far and presumably any fix they propose. I hope you're wrong about them willing to tolerate it to corner the market, but I fear you're right. The only answer I can see is for them to employ a legion of gatekeepers to deny entrance to books that clearly are designed only to skirt the rules for monetary advantage. And then we'll have cadres of new indies crying foul because they haven't learned to write yet, and the gatekeepers will be back in charge of who gets to publish.

It's the main reason I've turned my own business efforts to a different industry altogether, and only ghostwrite for 'now' money to support my development and training costs in the new venture.

Sure hope you can continue to do what you love best and make the living you deserve.
 

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Sorry to hear about the latest frustrations, but thanks for sharing this journey. I have recently written a 100,000 word music theory book that is currently being edited. I likely won't be doing an Ebook with it, as it just doesn't seem correct. The books in my genre, of similar length, go more like 25 to 30 dollars. Which makes no real sense the way the pricing structure is with E-books. However, I also have 3 other books that I wrote and never released that do fit the mold. I know I need to stop stalling and just get them out there. This was very inspiring. Thank you!
 
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My own personal theory is that Amazon is making its money on other things, such as government contracts, cheap shipping, sponsored product ads, etc., and is willing to tolerate Kindle Unlimited losses in order to fully corner the ebook market and drive their competitors out of business. (I just pray they don't succeed!)

Nice theory. As you know, Amazon's strategy from day one has been to lose money or break even while cornering the market. They are, though, making money hand-over-fist with Amazon Web Services, the absolute behemoth in cloud computing.
 

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You're moving out of KU and you have your processes down. You write well. Everyone else is competing for bottom dollar sales. Amazon is crushing the market by driving prices down and unethical marketers are destroying everything else. My next thought on combating the problem is what if you went the other direction?

Thanks so much for the feedback and ideas, @SinisterLex! I always appreciate them! I like what you're thinking. The primary challenge, I think, would be scaling it up. Just to get crazy, let's say I priced a high-end book for $20 or even $200. I think it would be harder to sell a single high-end $20 (or $200) book than it would be to sell 20 (or 200) 99-cent books, if that makes any sense. The thing that makes the wider digital book market so lucrative is that there's the potential for massive scaling. Unfortunately, this is part of the reason that scammers have taken up residence. Payoffs can be huge when you hit the Amazon top 100, and they've been perched there pretty much nonstop.

But you know what? You really ARE onto something, even if I don't take it quite as high-end as you're suggesting. I still think there's still a huge market for non-scammy books, and I'm resisting the temptation to lower my prices. Speaking as a reader (not as an author), I've started avoiding those 99-cent books like the plague they are (which is sad, because not all 99-cent books are scam books.) But there's something to be said for differentiating yourself, and price is one way to do that. Both of my last books hit the top 100 in my category (not in the whole Amazon store), and it was funny to see that my books were among just two or three that weren't 99-cents.

All this to say, I'm going to hold my ground on pricing, if only to avoid "training" my readers to expect 99-cent books. I price at $3.99, which is still a bargain, IMO. We'll have to see if the market agrees, LOL!

Thanks again for the response and ideas! Even if I don't act on every single one, they're a huge help! :)
 
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Both the clients I've written for report a 60-80% drop in income that was largely dependent on KU. Other romance author friends haven't said much about it, but I'll be sending them the links you've provided.

Interesting. There's definitely something strange going on with KU. I can't help but wonder at what point customers might start to wander away from Kindle Unlimited entirely. A challenge, I think, is that romance readers are particular voracious, with some fans reading a book a day. (!!!) At first glance, we might not expect this to impact readers and authors in other genres. However, with romance readers "taking" (aka consuming/reading) much more than they're paying into the system, that money has to come from somewhere. Probably, readers and authors in other genres are hugely subsidizing all those voracious romance reading habits. I can't remember the specifics, but there was another subscription service that went belly-up, thanks to romance readers over-consuming.

About the gate-keepers, you're absolutely right. If Kindle Unlimited is so survive, Amazon might have to go this route. What's really sad is that when readers had to actually purchase books, this wasn't so much a factor. But something's definitely gotta give.

I've turned my own business efforts to a different industry altogether, and only ghostwrite for 'now' money to support my development and training costs in the new venture.

Man, I can see where you'd run into writer's block. You wrote more words in a few short years than 99% of writers write in a whole lifetime. I hope you'll keep us posted on your new venture, and that you see lots of success!
 

ChickenHawk

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Nice theory. As you know, Amazon's strategy from day one has been to lose money or break even while cornering the market. They are, though, making money hand-over-fist with Amazon Web Services, the absolute behemoth in cloud computing.

True on all counts! What's particularly interesting is that a lot of those cloud services are provided to the U.S. government. Traditionally, the government isn't known for being particularly cost-conscious. However, with a new administration, I've wondered if some of those lucrative contracts might be scaled down or renegotiated. If this happens, Amazon might have to take a closer look at their bottom line and perhaps do more to stem the losses in Kindle Unlimited. To me, this would be a positive development for almost everyone concerned because it would restore some balance to the ebook marketplace.

@ChickenHawk Is it possible to pivot to similar genre or have the scammers taken over every single niche in that category?
Thanks so much for the suggestion! I think you're onto something, and I've definitely considered it. In fact, a lot of romance authors are shifting to smaller, less lucrative categories. For example, rather than writing "new adult" romance, they're moving into sweet & clean romance, or maybe cozy romantic mysteries. Some are leaving romance all together, while others are just sitting it out until the dust clears. I do believe, though, that if this isn't stopped by Amazon, the scammers will spread to every profitable category. This is one thing that makes me hesitant to switch. Odds are, it would only be a short-term fix.

That being said, I still might eventually end up switching categories or going into non-fiction, but I'm stubbornly refusing, at least for now. Under my pen name, I'm a USA Today Bestseller, which is something I'm reluctant to give up. If I tried to use this same pen name and write something too different, I'd probably face a reader revolt and a bunch of negative reviews. ("What? There's no sex or cursing in this book? WTF!!!! ONE Star!") In line with your suggestion, I could try to make a gradual shift though, and that's what I'm contemplating -- edging my way toward more mainstream contemporary romance, for example. Regardless of how this ends up, it's definitely nice to know I have options, and I really appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on this! More heads are definitely better than one! :)
 

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