K. Elliott's Blog, page 2

Can a 99cent ebook make you rich? Maybe… Maybe not!

The price range for eBooks is wide from free eBooks to $9.99 or even higher. So when it comes time for you to assign a value to your novel, how do you decide? There's no easy formula, but you can learn some lessons by evaluating the pricing of other eBooks.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, successful self-publisher John Locke gave the following rationale behind his price point, "When I saw that highly successful authors were charging $9.99 for an e-book, I thought that if I can make a profit at 99 cents, I no longer have to prove I'm as good as them. Rather, they have to prove they are ten times better than me." You might not think you can make money at that price, but Locke made over $100,000 in March selling on just the Kindle. Being cheaper is a huge advantage.

On the other end of the spectrum is Ken Follett's Fall of Giants, which currently has an eBook version for $19.99 on Penguin. Would it be selling better at only 99 cents? Probably, but the hardcover is currently selling for $36, so an extremely low price for the eBook might cannibalize sales of the hardcover.

Most of us, of course, aren't so lucky to have Mr. Follet's "problem," and would drastically improve our sales the lower our price goes. Still, that doesn't mean you should rush to lower all your prices to 99 cents. Think it through, do what's best for you – and know the facts. Like how Amazon pays a 35% royalty for books under $2.99, but a whopping 70% for books between $2.99 and $9.99. There's a huge financial advantage to bumping that price up a little. By pricing the eBook at just $2.99 (still a third cheaper than those bestsellers,) John Locke would be bringing in $2.10 for every book instead of just 35 cents.

But again, think about what's right for you. At this point, Locke has built himself a sizable fanbase and could probably raise his prices if he wanted to do so. Are you at that level, or is selling a higher number of copies better for your career right now than having a better profit margin? There are no easy answers, and it's clear that the major publishers and self-publishing authors are still testing the waters on this. You should do the same. Research, test the waters, and adjust accordingly. Let's review what lessons you can apply to your own pricing decision:

Having a lower price point than competitors can be a huge advantage.

Research the royalty percentage you will receive from each delivery system.

Consider how the price of your eBook might affect the sale of print copies.

Compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. Find out the price of eBooks in your genre from major publishers as well as self-published authors.




Being a Self-Publishing Champion Means Being Content Agile

Content Agility: The measure of an author's ability to market his/her books across multiple delivery systems (books, mobile devices, tablet PC's, eReaders).

Self-publishing may fast be becoming like a prize fight where the content agile become the winners of the championship payouts. Are you content agile? Are you able to sell your print books while breaking eBook download records at the same time? Where are you in the world of self-publishing? Are you hitting every possible delivery platform or have you yet to cross the digital divide at all?

Maybe you're a new author who has discovered success by going strictly ebook. Yeah, at 70% royalties, you get a better cut from selling Ebooks. But once you've created a demand for your title why wouldn't you go to press if the demand existed Did you know less than 3% of the US population owns Ipads? There's a slightly higher percentage of ereader penetration due to lower price points.  The point here, is even though print books sales have dropped significantly, they're still proving to be profitable. That's why if you have the budget to print and you've created a strong demand for your Ebook, you may be content agile enough to include more potential fans who have yet to adopt eReader technology. Though Ebooks are changing your sales and fast, you still may be able to make money from print publishing.

This shouldn't really change your eBook strategy unless you don't have one at all. As blogged at this site before, Ebooks are revolutionizing publishing. Because of the Ebook, it's easier than ever to self-publish and compete and compete the with big houses. This trend will probably continue as Tablet and eReader pententration will continue to expand to 15% according to a Bain & Company report. Why wouldn't you want in? There are some things to consider though, especially age. The Bain report states that the largest eBook demographic is a male in his early 20's to early 30's. But it also reports that the segment most likely considering an eReader purchase is a woman around age 35. In all, the report states, people who use reading devices are most likely to be the avid readers. These numbers are promising because though males tend to be the early adopters, women with higher purchasing power are now making the transition. What's great is that people who download one of your stories are most likely to be those who love reading books. That means if you can tell this person a good story, they're likely to appreciate this and come back for more.

The tricky notion to all this data is that people who use eReaders still tend to buy printed books, even among the younger generation who've come of age in the digital era.  That's why, as soon as you've sold enough books to both create the demand and the capital, you should consider going to press. The big takeway here is that though ebooks provide the best return on investment, the print media still offers an earning potential that's worth your consideration, especially if you aspire to be a self-publishing champ.

The self-publishers who take the time to learn demographics and learn who's most likely to read their stories are the ones best prepared to set up sales channels  just right to reach their potential fans. The lesson here: If rule out print publishing – simply because it's cheaper to create and distribute Ebooks, or if you blow off print publishing because you're selling Ebooks like bonkers – you may very well be opting out of the content agility it takes to be a self-publishing champion.

Are you content agile? If so what are some things you do to follow who's buying your books and how they are having it delivered?

WSJ Report: Self-Publishers 'Short-Circuiting' System to Their Advantage

If you're a self-publisher, you'll want to watch this Wall Street Journal report on how "self-publishers are short circuiting the system" and tilting the advantage their way in the process.

Blogger Outreach Can Lead to More Sales

As an author, it's not only important to have your own blog. To really sell your book, you need to cross pollinate with other bloggers, bloggers who'll help you reach tried and true fans of your genre and style and bloggers who'll help you enter new markets of potential fans.

What's your outreach like now? What are you doing to help bloggers entertain and inform their fans? Have you emailed a blogger asking what types of stories they look to cover? Doing so let's you in on how to how help them with topics? Do you actively follow blogs and regularly leave comments? When you do this you demonstrate loyalty and trust. Being helpful, loyal and trustworthy: these are elements that naturally inspire relationships. Relationship building is what blogger outreach is about. As an author, if you support a blog with your good ideas and regular participation and duplicate this with other bloggers, you're bound to land reciprocity. You're bound to have someone share your latest title with his readers. Some of these readers will buy your book. You get all this for the low cost and being friendly, helpful and loyal.

E-Books Are Here To Stay? But What About the Autograph?

As I've blogged before, Amazon told us they were now selling more Kindle downloads than print books. Yes, E-Books are here to stay and this is a good thing for authors because of the low overhead it now costs you to publish. But apparently this doesn't have to mean the death of the personalized autograph. A new company, Autography.com has developed new technology that allows authors to personally autograph their fans' E-book downloads.

Imagine appearing live via Ustream to discuss your latest release while instantly autographing E-Books from hundreds of miles away.

Currently there is no online sign up for the service. But I'm going to keep following this and will keep you updated. Feel free to learn more by watching the video below or by emailing info@autography.us.com.

The numbers are in.

Whatever It Takes Selling, Are You Doing Enough To Sell Your Book?

When is the last time you've written a letter to a friend, put it in an envelope, licked a stamp and mailed it off? I hardly do it myself because it just takes so much time that it's not worth it. Or is it? I usually don't get letters. But when I do I'm always like "Cool!" because it feels good that someone took the time to actually put pen to paper on my behalf. Here's the takeaway. It's often hard for me to remember who sent me a particular email from months back. But this person went the extra mile with that letter and still has my attention.

This post is not a challenge for authors to start penning handwritten letters to fans.  What it's about is you doing "Whatever it Takes" to stand out in order to sell  right now and for your rest of your career as an author.

What is "Whatever it Takes  Selling"? It's being the most personable, engaging guy or girl in the room, always interested in what the other person has to say, always ready with your 30-second commercial. Next it's always having a few books and a felt-tip pen on hand to sell right there on the spot because you never know who you might charm into purchasing an autographed book.

Whatever it takes Selling means always following up if someone mentions you in a tweet, posts on your wall and/or sends you a Direct Message/email. Not everyone does this. But just about every successful author finds a way to regularly engage and follow up with their fans via social media.

Whatever it takes Selling is staying as long as you must to sign every autograph, have every face-to-face conversation until you've touched all the fans who came to the book club or signing just to see you.

Maybe Whatever It Takes Selling is sometimes writing that personalized letter because t here's noa set guidelines. Yes you do need a plan. But underlying any plan should be driving characteristics like: graciousness, patience, compassion, ambition and earnestness.

Whatever it Takes Selling is no gimmick. It takes hard work and requires you to be ready to engage all the time.

Whatever it takes Selling is non-stop. But don't give up because if you have a good story to sell, Whatever it Takes Selling works.

Are you doing whatever it takes?

Good Blogging Improves All Sales, Including Your Books

New authors and old authors can really benefit from regularly blogging. If you're new to publishing, blogging can help you more quickly build a following of fans to help you buy your book. If you're already established, and keep up with your fans on Facebook and Twitter, blogging could help your numbers explode exponentially. One thing is certain for both new and established authors. Regular blogging of good stuff is a sales multiplier.

The Sales Is Indirect

I believe the Well-Fed Black writer has helped me sell my books, but I've never posted an entry asking anyone to buy something. Not once. What I have done is freely given tips to self-publishers – tips on the ups and downs of publishing and distribution, tips on marketing to make direct sales now. Some of my blogs have gotten little attention. Some of have drawn praise. Some of have been criticized. But the point is over time, my blog is becoming a body work of that makes me relevant to fellows authors and fans of my books who want to be authors looking for tips on how to get on themselves.  Will all of these fans go to my Amazon page and buy now? No. But some will. Some already have.

Now I'm not saying you should blog about author tips. I'm not saying you shouldn't either. The key point here that you need do something from your voice that's interesting to all those fans who'd probalby buy your books, if you'd only freely give them a good reason to follow you. I promise, if you do this. If you add value to peoples lives through your blog, and do it consistently, sales numbers will rise for anything you're hocking, including your books.

Book Deal Anatomy: The Advance

When it comes to a book deal, an advance is a loan you'll pay back against your royalties before getting paid again. If this doesn't give you pause, it should because taking the wrong advance could be costly. Are all book deals bad? Absolutely not! In fact they've helped a lot of authors. The biggest benefit is distribution. Publishing Houses can get your books everywhere from Borders to Barnes and Noble to Amazon to Wal Mart to all the E-Readers, all at the same time. Not to mention, they can expose you to several foreign markets as well. I can see how that sort of distribution works for a lot of authors. But in my case, the math has never added up to make it worth it. I'm not bashing book deals though. Some are very lucrative. What this post is about is the price you, the author, must pay for taking that loan.

Nothing is free and every loan has interest, right? Your interest is going to be a lot of hard work you probably didn't consider. Let's break it down. First there's the advance. If you sign a four-book deal worth $500,000, you're guaranteed $125,000 per book, no matter what! But not so fast, your agent gets 15% first. So subtract $18,750 and now you're down to $106,250. Still, not too shabby, right? Here's the part that might hurt. Until you earn back $125,000 in the royalties your were advanced, you get no more money. That's right, NO MORE MONEY. Now you might be thinking, "Trade paperback books usually sell for around $15. That means I only have to sell around 8,300." Think again. Chances are you're only getting 7% to 10% in royalties. Let's say your royalty deal is 10%. Now your $15 per books has suddenly shrunk down to $1.50. That means number of books you have to move before getting paid again has exploded to around 83,000! (Now when I say $1.50 per book in royalties, I'm being very generous. I've never met an author who earns that much. Realistically, the take home is more like 1$ per book.)

Every time I've entertained a deal, I've put the advance beside my own earning potential as a self-publisher. Just about every time I've chosen to self-publish. Sure there was no advance and I had to cover storage, shipping and printing costs upfront. But instead of my per book earnings being $1.50 against an advance, they were now $5 to $7 against a few thousand dollars of printing and distribution costs. As a self-publisher, that same 83,000 books sold at $5 per unit would have netted me at least $415,000. I don't know about you, but I like that number better than $125,000. Remember, I started publishing when there was no real market for e-books. I had to have a $10,000 to $15,000 to launch a book and I still liked that self-publishing better. A lot of new authors back then didn't have any upfront money to do it themselves, so I understand why they took advances. But today with, e-books exploding like they are, self-publishing can cost almost nothing upfront and is more lucrative than ever. With a 70% to 80% royalty per book and a limitless distribution, a self-published author has the leverage sell their books at a low price point and wait for the right deal for them.

Last year a new author, then 25-year-old Amanda Hocking, chose this direction, self-publishing nine e-book only novels at $0.99 a download. Too low? I don't think so. At that price she sold 1 million downloads netting her about $700,000. This year the publishers came courting and Hocking was in a much better position than if she'd pitched her titles as an unproven author. The publishing houses now saw her results, and they smelled money. Hocking now had more leverage to entertain multiple offers before agreeing to the seven-figure deal that was right for her. In the meantime, she made around $700,000 in her year as a self publisher. If that's all you had to work with, you'd definitely find a way to scrap by, right?

Now, most authors will never land a seven-figure deal. It's just not possible. But we can all do that math before taking the money. To me what's always added up is that I can work about as hard at self-publishing as I'd have to work to earn back an advance. As I self-publisher though, I get 100% creative control and a percentage that's much much higher per book with no advance to beat at all. To me that's always been the more lucrative deal.

Books Will Be Free One Day!

Give us free books? That's right Cinque. Books will one day be free.

Books will be free one day! Well not literally free, there will still be book publisher's still trying to make money from the sale of printed, but theold business model of publisher's charging top dollar is quickly dissipating. Content wants to be free and content will be free. Book content that is. I'm predicting there will be a new business model, where  the books will be free and the most popular authors will be the WINNERS. Why? Because not only can you publish your books whenever you want, thanks to technology, but if you have a following you will be able to make money off advertising, T-Shirts, public speaking, or maybe even a PHYSICAL Book, as people will still want autographed copies as collectors items. This trend will create opportunities for the author to monetize his or her work. Big advertisers will team up with the most popular authors and therefore that author will make huge dollars.

Should we fear that books will be free? No, we should embrace it and authors should work extra hard to make sure they are branded because this disruption is coming whether we like it or not. 3 of the top 20 e-books are by author John Locke. I believe Locke figured out that content is not the commodity taking your ideas/stories viral is. By charging as little as possible for his books or intellectual property, he's one of the top sellers on Amazon.  Locke is selling his books for $0.99, but you know what's bigger? The major publisher's will never be able to afford to compete with Locke. You know why? Because they have advances to pay and, Editorial departments and cover designers. These people want top dollar for their work because they know the big publishers have it. What Locke has figured out is that the more content he puts out there the more popular he gets and the easier it is for him to compete.

You can believe that he's making a killing off those $0.99 books because the money is in the volume of the books downloaded, not in making $8.00 for each book but you know what's better than $0.99? You guessed it, Free.

How Treasure Blue Sold 100,000 Books – Find Out What He Knew!

I first met Treasure Blue around early 2004. My first book, Entangled, had come out a few months earlier in 2003. When it came to book sales, I was on fire. At least that's what I thought until I came across Treasure for the first time. I was up in Harlem promoting Entangled and there he was moving books at a pace I'd never imagined. When it came to selling, this guy was a whole different animal. He had a team, a very diverse team at that, out there selling his book. And the thing that stood out was this middle-aged white dude standing out in Harlem, holding up his book, shouting out "Harlem Girl Lost!". That's how diverse his team was.

"Who's that guy selling those books like that?," I asked someone as I watch this new author approaching people.

"That's Treasure Blue," someone said.

The only thing I could think is, "What a cool name."  My first thought of a name like that, for some reason, sent my mind to some smoke filled Jazz club with a cool-ass Jazz musician playing the sax.

Still, at first, my competitive by nature kept me at arm's length. As I stood back that day and watched him sell out of all his books, I admit I was a bit jealous. I'd thought I was the top dog in self-publishing and this guy was making look like an amateur. But when we finally met, I couldn't help but be happy to know the guy. He had such an infectious personality. It's always common to see Treasure playing with babies and hugging old ladies to this day. And it's not an act to sell books, it's just who he is. After leaving a Harlem Book Fair one year, his hand hurt from autographing so many books.

When it came to his hustle, the thing I noticed is that he made the demand for Harlem Girl Lost so hot on the streets, that bookstore merchants couldn't ignore him. Basically, Treasure would sell out on the streets, leaving his hungry customers no choice but to request it from the bookstores. With the buzz now high and the streets empty, Treasure had created a perfect storm. Now Harlem Girl Lost had no choice but to move from the distribution house to the stores.

Ironically, though distribution was important to Treasure, working distribution channels never mattered to his daily routine. Whether books were selling out of book stores or not, he only had one thing on his mind.

"No matter what, I would get up every morning and [personally] sell my books," he said. "I was determined."

I have to say I agree with him 100%. To me as an author, I have to be the most excited to sell my story. So I appreciate this about Treasure. Another notable attribute is his willingness to try new markets.

He didn't stick to NYC exclusively but spent a year in DC to see if he had a market for his books there. While there, he learned a valuable lesson about competition and how it affects pricing.

Eventually though, Treasure was lured back to NYC to sign an unprecedented high six-figure deal with Random House.  Honestly when I found out he'd signed with a major, it secretly broke my heart. I wasn't hating on him. I was happy for the man. I was just disappointed because I thought Treasure was one of the ones winning at the self-publishing game. So as happy as I was for him, it still sort of  felt like I'd lost a teammate.

That's not to say landing such a deal wasn't big. It was. In fact, it's important to note that Treasure had to do more than sell books to even get Random House's attention, let alone ink the deal. Sales can only get you so far. Treasure also had to tell a good story. I once asked my mom if Harlem Girl Lost was better than Entangled. She took a long time before she got back to me before telling me that his was better. Mom is a tough critic. Her opinion confirmed something I'd already figured, that he was a really good author.

This past Saturday, I interviewed Treasure and queried him about his start, the direction he thought new authors should take, competition, and his thinking behind his decision to ink that deal with a major publisher.

WFBW: Treasure, what did you figure out back then that the rest of us didn't know?

Treasure:  It wasn't so much what I figured out. I approached authors and asked them to share their biggest mistakes. Most of them said not taking the time to learn the business of publishing. There's a funny story about the how I met one of the first authors to advise me. While I was in college, one of my teachers told me about this author giving a speech. The only reason I went is because they were giving away free food and I wanted to eat. When I went in, all I saw was wall-to-wall women. All of them were engrossed with what this author had to say. If I'd never met Shannon Holmes that day, seeing all those women that made me want to be an author. But I'm glad I met him because when I needed advice it was good to have him around. He actually saved me from making one of the biggest mistakes of my career. I was about to sign a publishing deal with a company that had a bad reputation. He warned me, so I changed course.

WFBW: What is the most important quality a self-publisher can have?

Treasure: People skills, I'm always positive and personable. For example, I gained trust by offering a money back guarantee if they didn't like my book. Also, I always made sure that everyone who wanted an autographed book got one.

WFBW: Treasure, you sold 65,000 to 100,000 books on the streets. Do you think it's possible today?

Treasure: No, I don't think it's possible. Timing played a big part in my success. There weren't many books out like my book. Today it's a different story. But if you can carve out a new niche within this Urban Fiction niche, then you can possibly fill in and have success like I had.

WFBW: You sold books in both D.C. and NYC. What's difference between the two markets?

Treasure: I discovered that different markets demand different pricing. In DC, I was able to raise my prices because there less was less competition among authors there than in NYC at that time.

WFBW: You made so much money on your own. So why did you sign with a major?

Treasure: To be honest, it wasn't about the money. It was to satisfy my ego. I liked the fact that [a major publisher] wanted me. The difference between working with a major [publisher] and being independent is that I lost control with the publisher. Often I didn't see eye-to-eye with my editor. I felt like they didn't understand my genre, I felt like a dog would feel, if you took away his bark.

WFBW: What advice would you offer to new authors?

Treasure: Read every book you can on self-publishing. Don't be afraid to ask advice. See what's on the market and don't be afraid to create your own niche. Quit writing the stores that have already been told. Don't try to be Treasure Blue. Don't try to be Zane. Don't try to be Shannon Holmes. Writing something no one has written yet. Be original.

Final Recap of Treasure's Main Takeaways:

To duplicate Treasure's early sales success, authors must find their own unique niches. There's not enough room for another Zane or another Treasure Blue or another Shannon Holmes. Be original!
Be Personable. You have to do more that write a good book to sell like Treasure, you have to be gracious with people. Appreciate their loyalty.
Be a learner. Read every book you can on self-publishing. Get to know successful self-publishers and ask them for advice. Don't just ask about their successes, ask about their mistakes too.
Learn your markets. Some markets might have less competition for your type of story, so you may be able to charge more money. Others may be more competitive, forcing you to charge less.
The right publishing deal might be worth taking, but authors will probably have to give up a lot of creative freedom.
In the end telling a good story is what it's all about. If Treasure hadn't told a story people wanted to read, he'd have never achieved such high numbers.
Try out new Markets. Don't just stick to your home town.
Offer a money back guarantee. It puts people at ease about giving your book a try if they know they can get their money back.