Andrew Gates's Blog, page 8

Apex Predator Out and Selling

My newest and shortest release, Apex Predator, is now out and selling. The book was officially released on Kindle on Christmas Eve, but it has been available in paperback for a few days longer.

During the first few days of release, Apex Predator was selling well. However, priced at $0.99 on Kindle, a single sale of Apex Predator amounts to very little royalties for me. As a result, despite a large number of sales, I made about twice as much from Apex Predator as I did with Iris during the week of Christmas, despite selling 10 times the units of Apex Predator.

After reading that information, you may be wondering, “What’s the point of having a book so cheap if a single sale of Iris makes five times the amount of money as a sale of Apex Predator?” Great question!

Firstly, I do think the price is justified. The Kindle edition of Apex Predator comes out to only 98 pages and Amazon’s algorithm considers the book a “two-hour read”. Iris, on the other hand, comes out to 664 pages on Kindle. So, if anything, the fact that I make 1/5 of what I make from Iris on Apex Predator is actually high if you consider a price-per page ratio.

In simpler terms… Apex Predator is a short short short book. So of course I don’t think it should cost a lot of money. Would you want to pay a lot of money for a book you can read in two hours? No, of course not. And therefore it should be priced as such.

Secondly, I don’t see having a cheap book as a bad thing. A lower-priced book can act as a hook or preview for the author’s other works. If someone reads it and enjoys it, they may say, “What else has this person written?” and discover that the author has produced some longer stuff. In fact, there are many authors out there who put out Kindle books for free for this exact reason.

So overall, while Apex Predator is technically selling, that’s not to say I’m making any money. Apex Predator was my best selling book this past month, which being a new release, is not surprising. But on the other hand, that also meant this past December was one of my least-profitable months to date.

Still, despite all this, I do not consider the low price or low profitable month to be a negative. I look at Apex Predator as a way to lay ground work for the future and to build my repertoire. If anything, it’s existence will help me in the long-term.

If you want to read Apex Predator, buy your copy of the book today for a low price of just $0.99 on Kindle or $5.99 for the paperback! Click the link here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08193RP4G/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

New Book Announcement: Apex Predator

Welcome back to the blog! I know it’s been awhile.

As time has passed, I have written less and less on this blog. That it not to say, however, that I have abandoned my writing. Don’t worry about that. I am still writing books. Rather, I find that as the process of writing and publishing fiction novels becomes more and more familiar to me, I feel less excitement around the act of reaching major milestones. When at one point finishing a rough draft was a major deal, it has now been something I’ve completed several times over. Therefore, the need to write and celebrate it on this blog feels diminished.

While readers of this blog may have enjoyed reading about my major writing or publishing milestones, and I certainly understand that, I find it important to consider that some milestones once considered major may not be as significant anymore. Certainly the fact that I now have 10 published works to my name should indicate that, at least to me, reaching a major point in the process of writing or publishing a book is no longer as big a deal as it once was.

Still, that is not to say that I am outright done with this blog. I will continue to write on it and keep my readers informed of updates. Which, of course, brings me to some major news regarding an upcoming release. Yes, I do have news to get to after all…

I have a new book complete!

… Or should I say, a new rough draft.

The book is called Apex Predator and it already has cover art. Check it out here:

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This is my first cover that is primarily text-based, rather that image/picture-based. Frankly, I find that it fits the tone/theme of the book well. I did play around with having images or art in it, but this simply worked much better.

Wondering what the book is about? Well, I’ve got you covered there! Keep reading for my draft of the official blurb:

 

“Author Andrew Gates’s first foray into the horror genre is a claustrophobic shock to all five senses.

Stranded in a subterranean cave somewhere in the Pacific, two American pilots shot down over the Sea of Japan find themselves cut off from all light. Blinded and lost in the pitch-black darkness, both pilots must rely on their other senses to navigate the treacherous caverns. But they are not alone. A predator rules this cave. And unlike the men, darkness is all it has ever known.”


As you can tell, this is my first true horror story. While other books I have written had a lot of scary parts in them, they were never true outright horror stories… until now.

While I do not have a release date for this book just yet, realistically I expect it can be out by Christmas time. I recognized that I potentially missed a major opportunity by not having it out by Halloween, but as long as I can get it out by Christmas, I believe things should work out well. And honestly, getting this released by Christmas should be easily attainable.

Apex Predator is the shortest book I have ever written. It is even shorter than my short-story collection, Kangblabla! At first I was worried that a book of this length may not sell well, but after having seen similar books of this length out and available for sale, my worries were put to rest. I am confident that this book, as short as it is, will sell.

Keep checking back on this blog for more information on the upcoming book, Apex Predator.

First Book Selling Event at Tower Hill Artists and Authors Showcase

I attended my first real book selling event over the weekend on Friday and Saturday as part of a 100-year celebration at the school I attended as a kid. The event was an Artists and Authors Showcase hosted at Tower Hill School as one part of a big 100-year celebration.

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This was my first time taking my books with me on the road, setting up a booth and selling. As a writer who has been working on this for several years now, I honestly feel as if this was long overdue. Most authors I network with have done several even more high-profile events like this. But although I might be late to the game, I view this as a good opportunity to “get my foot wet” and learn the ropes before I dive into a real higher-profile, more sci-fi niche, event.

Because this was at an event for people affiliated with the PK-12th school, there was a hugely broad audience in attendance. That meant only a minority of the people were actually interested in science fiction to any degree. Obviously more niche sci-fi novel events would cater more heavily to my target demographic. Still, even with a hugely broad audience, I managed to sell a good deal of books.

To give you a sense of the folks there, on Friday I shared the table with a children’s author who writes non-fiction stories about lesser-known historical people. Also in attendance were biographers, western writers, poets, tech writers, romance writers and so forth… The good news was on Saturday, my table-mate was not there, so while I shared a table on Friday, I ended up getting the entire table to myself on Saturday.

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With all the inventory, posters, credit-card reading hardware and so forth, I knew I had to sell a minimum of 19 books in order to break even on my expenses (well, technically 18.5 books). Again, the audience was broad and not necessarily sci-fi people, so I ended up selling nine books, coming up about $100-ish short on my break-even costs.

Still, I don’t view that as a bad thing. Nine paperback book sales in two days is more than I normally see in most months (seeing as the majority of my sales are Kindle sales and therefore only get me < $2 per sale typically). And the extra leftover inventory is just product to sell again at another event in the future. So overall, I don’t view this as a loss by any means.

Now I know what I need to work on and improve on at these types of events. I found it excitingly informative and, more importantly, it was great to see my old school and some people I used to know. I had a wonderful two days and now I must look forward to my next event in the future.

Where will I go next?

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Iris Selling Well – Best Sales Day Yet

Due to a recent successful advertising campaign, Iris recently had its best sales day yet.

In all the years since its release in September 2016, Iris‘s best sales month has only ever maxed out at 18 units, which broke down to 10 paperback sales and 8 Kindle sales. That month was November 2016.

That statistic is for Iris alone. As for book sales overall, my best month was June 2017, where I sold 29 books total across all titles. This number broke down to 5 paperback sales and 24 Kindle sales.

If these numbers are surprising and you are wondering how I make any money off of selling less than 20 books a month, it is important to recall that authors do not exclusively make money from book sales. Authors like myself also make money through subscribers of the Kindle Unlimited subscription service. In fact, most of the money I make from my books comes from this source.

Earlier this week, on June 22nd, in just one day, Iris alone sold 50 Kindle copies. That same day, three copies of Kholvaria were sold, one copy of Veznek, and one copy of Hive. That puts the total sales for the day at 55 Kindle units across all titles. The following day, June 23rd, I sold 10 copies of Iris and the day after that, June 24th, two more were sold. That puts a 3-day total of 67 titles sold.

All of this builds on what would have already been an impressive sales month regardless. All in all, I have sold a total of 82 books this month, exceeding my old record of 29 books by 53.

This increase in sales is due directly to a highly successful advertising campaign, which these sales numbers have already paid for in full. Additionally an increase in sales leads directly to an increase in KU subscribers reading my books too.

All in all, these numbers look great and I am excited to see where this momentum leads.

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Introducing New Short Story Anthology – Horizons Beyond

Horizons Beyond is a new short story anthology with stories set in the not-too-distant future. The book features stories from 10 different authors. My story, Salvation of the Seas, was written back in December and January, then submitted in time for a February deadline. Salvation of the Seas centers on a luxury cruise ship caught at sea during a pandemic, which kills most of the planet’s human life. This story joins nine other stories to make up this awesome collection. Click HERE to check it out!

Horizons Beyond is the second published work of Keystroke Medium following their first anthology collection, Kingdoms of Iron and Stone.

Currently Horizons Beyond is only available in Kindle format at the low price of $0.99, though it will be released in paperback soon. At the time of writing this post, the book is ranked #37 on Amazon.com in the category of Science-Fiction Anthologies.

I am very excited that this book is out and selling. I am also happy to be included with a few big-name authors in this set, which will hopefully give me a bit of attention. I never intended to write so much about the ocean in a sci-fi context, but I do think the fact that this story has many consistent themes with some of my other books will make it a good introduction for people looking to see similar but more expansive content by the same author.

To read Salvation of the Seas and all the other stories included, check out Horizons Beyond today.

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Seas of the Red Star Starting to Sell

It had a rocky start, but momentum is finally carrying Seas of the Red Star along. The back-to-back-to-back release approach didn’t quite have the result I was hoping for on its own, but thanks to a recent advertising push, I have seen a considerable bump in sales for Seas of the Red Star in particular.

Out of the three books I released all at once, Battle Planet has been doing the best. In fact, of the three, that is the only one that did about as I expected. The other two have not been as popular.

All in all, this tells me I should put more attention on quality advertising. One thing that has come out of this is I am now beginning to learn which forms of paid advertising seem to garner results and which are wasted money. This is helpful for me going forward and I am definitely beginning to tell which forms of advertising fall into which category.

One thing that may be holding these three books back right now is that none of them have any Amazon reviews. Customers like seeing reviews, even bad ones, to be more confident in their purchase. Without reviews, it’s tougher to sell these books.

And of course, finishing the third part of my three-part pirate trilogy, Pirates of Vexa Prime, will help too. Customers like to see a series that is fully released before starting a new one. Therefor the sooner I can release part 3, the better I can sell part 1.

The unfortunate reality is that it has been difficult for me to motivate myself to work on part 3, which I am calling Return to Red One. The massive amount of time off from when M.D. Cooper and I came up with the idea to now, plus the fact that this wasn’t entirely my full idea to begin with, but rather a shared idea with another person, makes it difficult for me to want to follow-through and complete the project. Still though, I am working on it, albeit at a slower pace than I have written my other books.

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In other release news, Horizon’s Beyond, a near-future short-story anthology published by Keystroke Medium, is set to release any day now (I don’t know the exact date). I have a story featured in it called Salvation of the Seas (there seems to be a big sea theme going on here), which is about a virus that wipes out most of the human population. That collection should be out very soon, which will hopefully put a lot of attention on my other books. Perhaps the similarity in titles (Seas of the Red Star and Salvation of the Seas) will draw people in to my pirate series in particular.

In the meantime, it is good to see that this book is finally selling at all. I expected the pirate series to do better than it has, but perhaps it just needed a bit of a push.

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After 3-Book Release, What’s Next?

My three-book back-to-back-to-back release is at its half-way point, with Seas of the Red Star releasing tomorrow on Kindle. With everything primed and ready to go on my end, you might be wondering: What’s next?

I have two projects currently in various stages of completion. Both of those will be addressed.

First up: Return to Red One, the third part of the pirate trilogy that starts with Seas of the Red Star. Looking at my draft this morning, I would say I’m about 1/3 through that story. Looking at my outline I have 32 chapters left to write. Wow! That’s a lot of chapters, which will undoubtedly make Return to Red One the longest of the Pirates of Vexa Prime series. In fact, this book could very well come out to be twice as long as the others.

My current plan is to finish up that book. Assuming I write a chapter a day (which I HIGHLY doubt), I could theoretically have my draft finished in a little over a month, though I find that unlikely.

Cover art for Return to Red One is already complete. I had all three of the pirate book cover art done at once. You can see the cover here:

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Because the cover art is finished, I have been toying with the idea of putting the book up for pre-order now. It would be a LONG pre-order since the book will not even be complete until a couple of months from now. But there are pros and cons to doing this.

The pros: If I put Return to Red One up for pre-order now, I take advantage of all the momentum I’m building from my back-to-back-to-back release, particularly with the momentum built from the first two books in this series.

The cons: The book is so far from complete right now that if I put it up for pre-order, I am unsure if I will honestly have it done by that deadline. I don’t want to risk putting myself in a deadline I cannot accomplish. I can only put a pre-order date out so far. Kindle limits how far out I can push the date and there are repercussions if the date has to be changed prior to the book’s release.

Whatever I decide to do, long pre-order or not, you can be sure that Return to Red One is my current priority and I would expect this book to be out sometime this year.

Second up: I have eluded to this project in the past, but never out-right confirmed it. Months ago I was working on a short story collection of stories set in the Color of Water and Sky world.

Two of those stories are already written. While I originally had plans to include four stories in that collection (which I am tentatively calling Atlantia), I now think I will include just three.

So after finishing Return to Red One, I will write the final story for that collection. I do NOT have cover art made for it yet, nor even a confirmed title, but I intend for that to be my next project.

You may be wondering why I am choosing to finish the project that is 1/3 done before finishing the project that is 2/3 done. The reason is, I want to build on this momentum that I am getting from the Pirates of Vexa Prime series and close this out. As soon as I have the series complete, that will be all the better.

After that…

I am thinking about a Battle Planet prequel book set in ancient times.

Potentially all of these aforementioned projects could all be out this year, though it is too early to say for sure.

In the meantime, feel free to check out all the new books coming out right now! There’s a lot to pick from!

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Battle Planet Release – Early Sales Reactions

Battle Planet is now for sale in both paperback and kindle formats! This release marks the first of three back-to-back-to-back releases each happening one week apart. Next week we will see the release of Seas of the Red Star (April 30th) followed by The Daltus Conspiracy (May 7th).

Today (only a few minutes before writing this) I put the finishing touches on all remaining projects in my upcoming releases. That means from this point out, everything is primed and ready to go and I no longer have any work to do on these three books. It feels GREAT having this finally past me. The looming pressure of hitting deadlines is gone and I can now rest easy knowing that I submitted the final versions of everything.

Now all I do is sit back and wait for the books to release.

Battle Planet released yesterday and already sales numbers are excellent. KENP reads (pages read in the Kindle Unlimited subscription service) show that people have read enough pages to get through the book multiple times. Additionally there were pre-order sales from three countries and even a number of paperback sales.

As seems to happen, the increase in attention to Battle Planet has caused other books to get more page reads too. Surprisingly, Iris, not Battle Planet, is actually my top-read book right now, though I am certain that the increase in Iris‘s KENP reads is tied directly to Battle Planet‘s release. This reaffirms my belief that the best way to sell old books is to release new books. That is why I hope this back-to-back-to-back release is going to pay off in a big way.

Now all I do is sit and wait and coast and let the magic of this master plan work itself out.

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Sci-Fi Deals for $2.99 or Under

Hello all,

As final progress comes together on books like Battle Planet, Seas of the Red Star and The Daltus Conspiracy, I have an awesome list to share with you all in the meantime for sci-fi books priced at $2.99 or less! Click this link to see the list:

https://storyoriginapp.com/bundles/58d66978-50bd-11e9-8ff3-7f5bea441fc8?bundleLinkId=snNVGENt

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Release Dates for Three Books Announced Including BATTLE PLANET!

The time is ready! My manuscripts are in various stages of completion such that I can confidently begin to set release dates for the triple-book release I have planned.

Here are the details:

Battle Planet: The Champion of Earth (Release Date: April 23rd)

(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PWTB6GL/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i8)

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Battle Planet: The Champion of Earth is completely written and ready to go in a fully-finished state. In fact, it is secretly already available for purchase right now in paperback. At this point it is ready and set for the release date.

2. Seas of the Red Star (Release Date: April 30th)

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Not up yet for pre-order, Seas of the Red Star is the first of three pirate novels in the series I am now calling Pirates of Vexa Prime. This novel is fully written and has undergone its first stage of editing. The next step for this book is to go through physical beta copies and make changes.

3. The Daltus Conspiracy (Release Date: May 7th)

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This is the first official unveiling of cover art for The Daltus Conspiracy, which is the second part of the Pirates of Vexa Prime series. This novel is fully written but still contains elements of back when it was part of M.D. Cooper’s Aeon 14 series. Those elements need to be removed, along with several rounds of editing for the book.

4. Return to Red One (Release Date: TBD)

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Concluding our pirate adventures, we have Return to Red One as the third and final part of the Pirates of Vexa Prime series. This is also the first time this cover art has been shown to the public. Since this book is only about half to maybe 2/3rds written, I cannot confidently include it in this back-to-back-to-back release schedule. The date for this book’s release will likely be later, possibly in the summer or even fall.

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