Sarah Wynde's Blog, page 101
March 14, 2012
How to Self-Publish
(I posted this as a comment to a goodreads thread. Then I read it again and thought, hmm, that might be useful information to save or share.)
Book already written? So here goes...
1) Revise and edit the book. Many people pay for good content editing, copy-editing, or proof-reading (three different things). Up to you to decide whether this is necessary or not -- readers will complain about errors, but it's still your decision as to what your work needs.
2) Create a cover. Many people pay for designers. I did mine with Powerpoint and public domain artwork. Whichever route you go, bear in mind that the thumbnail of the cover is the most important size -- make sure the thumbnail is appealing and does a good job of representing your book's genre.
3) Write a marketing blurb, a short paragraph of text that describes your story. Make it good. IMO, this is the single most important sales tool you've got, so make sure it both sells the book and doesn't have any errors.
There are lots of options from here. You can go the Smashwords route: personally, I am not loving Smashwords, but basically, you style your Word document in the Smashwords-approved way (using their style guide) and upload it to their site. Once you pass their review, they'll take care of distributing it to B&N, Apple, and other places in exchange for a share of your royalties.
You can also directly upload your file to Amazon through Kindle Direct and to B&N through PubIt. Amazon, at least, is a remarkably easy process. You download the free Mobipocket Creator software and use it on your document to turn your file into a Kindle file. You'll need to do some tweaking and reading to get it formatting properly and to make the table of contents work, but it's not difficult. Then you upload your file to Amazon and within a few hours usually, you're published. You can use a software called Calibre to convert your Kindle file to an epub to post to B&N.
If you decide you want a dead-tree version, you again have choices. I went with CreateSpace. You download their template, apply it to your document, tweak a bit to make sure your pages are as you'd like them, download a cover template and revise your cover so that it's a traditional print book cover (front and back) and then upload the files. CreateSpace will send you a proof of the book -- in my case, it took about five days. If it's okay, you click the button and two days later, Amazon will have a record for a print version of your book that links to your Kindle version.
As for the marketing, eh. I personally think the best marketing you can do is to write another book. And then another. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
That said, KDP Select is a worthwhile 90-day investment, IMO. I published my book three months ago, and I would have expected to have sold maybe 30 copies by now if I was doing well. I know that sounds small, but that's how it's supposed to work -- you start off small and slow and write steadily and sales grow over time. I had hoped that five years from now (or from September 2011, really, which is when I decided to try this) I could earn $1000/month from my writing. So far in March, I've sold 675 copies at $4.99 each and earned something around $2000. I haven't done any marketing except KDP Select, so yeah, I think it was probably worth letting Amazon having my book exclusively for 90 days.
So far my total costs are 0 -- I've done everything myself, paid for nothing. Total sales are about 1250, total giveaways are about 17,000. I'm not sure how much I've earned, but definitely over $3000. Given that the average advance for a first-time author is $5000, I'm on a pretty good track to earn more through self-publishing than I would through traditional publishing -- not to mention that if I'd started looking for an agent in December instead of self-publishing, I'd probably be getting my first rejections back right about now.
People talk a lot about how hard it is and how much effort marketing and promoting is, but it really doesn't have to be any harder than you want it to be. If you're in it for the long haul, just keep writing. Make your writing as good as you can, keep improving, try not to obsess about your sales numbers, and trust that over time--years possibly--you'll build an audience. And enjoy the freedom and the fun of it -- really, that's the most important part.
Book already written? So here goes...1) Revise and edit the book. Many people pay for good content editing, copy-editing, or proof-reading (three different things). Up to you to decide whether this is necessary or not -- readers will complain about errors, but it's still your decision as to what your work needs.
2) Create a cover. Many people pay for designers. I did mine with Powerpoint and public domain artwork. Whichever route you go, bear in mind that the thumbnail of the cover is the most important size -- make sure the thumbnail is appealing and does a good job of representing your book's genre.
3) Write a marketing blurb, a short paragraph of text that describes your story. Make it good. IMO, this is the single most important sales tool you've got, so make sure it both sells the book and doesn't have any errors.
There are lots of options from here. You can go the Smashwords route: personally, I am not loving Smashwords, but basically, you style your Word document in the Smashwords-approved way (using their style guide) and upload it to their site. Once you pass their review, they'll take care of distributing it to B&N, Apple, and other places in exchange for a share of your royalties.
You can also directly upload your file to Amazon through Kindle Direct and to B&N through PubIt. Amazon, at least, is a remarkably easy process. You download the free Mobipocket Creator software and use it on your document to turn your file into a Kindle file. You'll need to do some tweaking and reading to get it formatting properly and to make the table of contents work, but it's not difficult. Then you upload your file to Amazon and within a few hours usually, you're published. You can use a software called Calibre to convert your Kindle file to an epub to post to B&N.
If you decide you want a dead-tree version, you again have choices. I went with CreateSpace. You download their template, apply it to your document, tweak a bit to make sure your pages are as you'd like them, download a cover template and revise your cover so that it's a traditional print book cover (front and back) and then upload the files. CreateSpace will send you a proof of the book -- in my case, it took about five days. If it's okay, you click the button and two days later, Amazon will have a record for a print version of your book that links to your Kindle version.
As for the marketing, eh. I personally think the best marketing you can do is to write another book. And then another. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
That said, KDP Select is a worthwhile 90-day investment, IMO. I published my book three months ago, and I would have expected to have sold maybe 30 copies by now if I was doing well. I know that sounds small, but that's how it's supposed to work -- you start off small and slow and write steadily and sales grow over time. I had hoped that five years from now (or from September 2011, really, which is when I decided to try this) I could earn $1000/month from my writing. So far in March, I've sold 675 copies at $4.99 each and earned something around $2000. I haven't done any marketing except KDP Select, so yeah, I think it was probably worth letting Amazon having my book exclusively for 90 days.
So far my total costs are 0 -- I've done everything myself, paid for nothing. Total sales are about 1250, total giveaways are about 17,000. I'm not sure how much I've earned, but definitely over $3000. Given that the average advance for a first-time author is $5000, I'm on a pretty good track to earn more through self-publishing than I would through traditional publishing -- not to mention that if I'd started looking for an agent in December instead of self-publishing, I'd probably be getting my first rejections back right about now.
People talk a lot about how hard it is and how much effort marketing and promoting is, but it really doesn't have to be any harder than you want it to be. If you're in it for the long haul, just keep writing. Make your writing as good as you can, keep improving, try not to obsess about your sales numbers, and trust that over time--years possibly--you'll build an audience. And enjoy the freedom and the fun of it -- really, that's the most important part.
March 11, 2012
Smashwords
Oh, Smashwords, how I wish I could smash you. Such an annoying site! Gah. I shouldn't complain, you get what you pay for, and since I'm paying nothing at the moment, I'm getting what I deserve. But I just uploaded my fourth version of Ghosts, trying to make it past their review cycle so they will distribute it. This morning, the note said, "requires modification" and an empty box with a single bullet let me know what the modification needed was. Do you suppose it meant add bullet points? Because my text doesn't really support lists. Or maybe it was complaining about my punctuation? It's not exactly a lot of info to go on. If it turns out in the end that they insist you include their ridiculous and insulting licensing statement, I'm going it alone. I refuse to tell my readers that they're not allowed to loan the book or guilt trip people who are reading it on their sister's Kindle. Plus, I'm finding the process so ridiculously inefficient that I don't even want them to have the 20% of nothing that they're currently getting.
That rant over, here are the simple instructions for formatting a file for Smashwords. They insist you read a 72-page PDF to learn this, but if you have a straightforward fiction book with basic needs, all you need to know is the following:
Smashwords Instructions
Your file must be a Microsoft Word .doc file (not .docx).
Starting tips: Use Tools > Options > View > Formatting marks > All to see Word's hidden codes, and turn off AutoCorrect and Autoformat to avoid Word helpfully screwing up your formatting.)
Format the entire document using Normal style
In the Home toolbar, right-click the Normal style and choose Modify. In the dialog box that opens, use the following settings:
Under Formatting, choose Times New Roman, Garamond or Arial, at a size of 11 or 12. Click the Format drop-down menu (in the bottom left of the dialog) and choose Paragraph. Under General, leave the Alignment on Left and the Outline Level on Body Text. In the Indentation section, set the Special menu to First Line and the indent to .25 or .3". Set Line Spacing to Single or 1.5. All other numbers fields should be set to 0. Don't use before or after spaces, right or left indentation, or tabs, or any of the other line spacing options.Tip: Never use tabs or more than one paragraph return between paragraphs.
Format chapter titles with Heading 1
Modify the Heading 1 style using the following settings:
Fonts: Use Times New Roman, Garamond or Arial, at a size of 12 or 14. (Note: never use a font size larger than 14 anywhere in your document.) Alignment: Can be centered. Before and After spacing is set at default to 24 and 12pt: leave as is.Tip: Never use Heading 1 on more than a single line. Some formats, including epub, automatically insert a page break before each H1 line, so you could wind up with blank pages. Don't, therefore, use H1 on multiple elements on your title page or front matter.
Create a Centered style for formatting front matter (the cover and copyright page) and/or *** separators
Create a new style based on Normal. (Open the Styles dialog and choose the New Style button. In the paragraph window, change the alignment to center. Remove the first line indentation, by setting Special to none.) Apply the style to the text you wish centered.
Tip: Don't use headers, footers, or automatic page-numbers.
Chapter, Page, and Section Breaks
All breaks will mostly get lost in the conversion process. Use up to (but no more than!) four paragraph returns to separate text if needed. Don't use Word's breaks.
Navigational Control for XML (aka the NCX file) or Table of Contents (TOC)
Creating a table of contents is worth doing; readers like it and some resellers (Kobo and Apple) either require it or prefer it. The simplest method at Smashwords is to start your chapter names with "Chapter." The automated software will then create the TOC for you. For more control, you can create a linked Table of Contents.
Type out your Table of Contents. (Don't use Word's auto-generate feature; it doesn't translate.) Use Normal or Centered style, not a heading style. At the beginning of each chapter in the text, highlight the chapter name, choose Insert > Bookmark and name the bookmark appropriately. (No spaces allowed, and do not use Word's auto-generated H1 bookmarks.) In your table of contents, highlight an element name, ie Chapter One, right-click and choose Hyperlink from the contextual menu. In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, choose Place in This Document. In the text box, select the appropriate bookmark. DO NOT use Word's auto-generated names. Repeat for all elements. If desired, link the chapters back to the Table of Contents. In your table of contents, highlight the words "Table of Contents" and add a bookmark with the name "ref_TOC". Then highlight the chapter name (in the body of the text, not the TOC), and insert a hyperlink that links to "ref_TOC". Do this for each chapter. Test every link. Click (or Ctrl-click, depending on your version of Word) and make sure they all work. Clean up after Word! In the Insert Bookmark dialog, click the checkbox beside "Hidden Bookmarks" and look for bookmarks that are nonsensical and start with an underline. Delete them.Front Matter Creation
On the first page of your book, insert a title and copyright page. Center it, using the centered style. It should read:
Title
By Author Name
Smashwords Edition
Copyright Year Author Name
Smashwords Edition, License Notes (PDF says "encouraged" but this may be required. It was the only thing I could see that I might have done wrong on my third pass, except possibly having two H1s in a row. We'll see if it passes from me changing the H1s.)
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
******
And that's it. All the rest of the 72 pages is relevant for complicated files, repetition, background, or ways of making the straightforward confusing.
That rant over, here are the simple instructions for formatting a file for Smashwords. They insist you read a 72-page PDF to learn this, but if you have a straightforward fiction book with basic needs, all you need to know is the following:
Smashwords Instructions
Your file must be a Microsoft Word .doc file (not .docx).
Starting tips: Use Tools > Options > View > Formatting marks > All to see Word's hidden codes, and turn off AutoCorrect and Autoformat to avoid Word helpfully screwing up your formatting.)
Format the entire document using Normal style
In the Home toolbar, right-click the Normal style and choose Modify. In the dialog box that opens, use the following settings:
Under Formatting, choose Times New Roman, Garamond or Arial, at a size of 11 or 12. Click the Format drop-down menu (in the bottom left of the dialog) and choose Paragraph. Under General, leave the Alignment on Left and the Outline Level on Body Text. In the Indentation section, set the Special menu to First Line and the indent to .25 or .3". Set Line Spacing to Single or 1.5. All other numbers fields should be set to 0. Don't use before or after spaces, right or left indentation, or tabs, or any of the other line spacing options.Tip: Never use tabs or more than one paragraph return between paragraphs.
Format chapter titles with Heading 1
Modify the Heading 1 style using the following settings:
Fonts: Use Times New Roman, Garamond or Arial, at a size of 12 or 14. (Note: never use a font size larger than 14 anywhere in your document.) Alignment: Can be centered. Before and After spacing is set at default to 24 and 12pt: leave as is.Tip: Never use Heading 1 on more than a single line. Some formats, including epub, automatically insert a page break before each H1 line, so you could wind up with blank pages. Don't, therefore, use H1 on multiple elements on your title page or front matter.
Create a Centered style for formatting front matter (the cover and copyright page) and/or *** separators
Create a new style based on Normal. (Open the Styles dialog and choose the New Style button. In the paragraph window, change the alignment to center. Remove the first line indentation, by setting Special to none.) Apply the style to the text you wish centered.
Tip: Don't use headers, footers, or automatic page-numbers.
Chapter, Page, and Section Breaks
All breaks will mostly get lost in the conversion process. Use up to (but no more than!) four paragraph returns to separate text if needed. Don't use Word's breaks.
Navigational Control for XML (aka the NCX file) or Table of Contents (TOC)
Creating a table of contents is worth doing; readers like it and some resellers (Kobo and Apple) either require it or prefer it. The simplest method at Smashwords is to start your chapter names with "Chapter." The automated software will then create the TOC for you. For more control, you can create a linked Table of Contents.
Type out your Table of Contents. (Don't use Word's auto-generate feature; it doesn't translate.) Use Normal or Centered style, not a heading style. At the beginning of each chapter in the text, highlight the chapter name, choose Insert > Bookmark and name the bookmark appropriately. (No spaces allowed, and do not use Word's auto-generated H1 bookmarks.) In your table of contents, highlight an element name, ie Chapter One, right-click and choose Hyperlink from the contextual menu. In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, choose Place in This Document. In the text box, select the appropriate bookmark. DO NOT use Word's auto-generated names. Repeat for all elements. If desired, link the chapters back to the Table of Contents. In your table of contents, highlight the words "Table of Contents" and add a bookmark with the name "ref_TOC". Then highlight the chapter name (in the body of the text, not the TOC), and insert a hyperlink that links to "ref_TOC". Do this for each chapter. Test every link. Click (or Ctrl-click, depending on your version of Word) and make sure they all work. Clean up after Word! In the Insert Bookmark dialog, click the checkbox beside "Hidden Bookmarks" and look for bookmarks that are nonsensical and start with an underline. Delete them.Front Matter Creation
On the first page of your book, insert a title and copyright page. Center it, using the centered style. It should read:
Title
By Author Name
Smashwords Edition
Copyright Year Author Name
Smashwords Edition, License Notes (PDF says "encouraged" but this may be required. It was the only thing I could see that I might have done wrong on my third pass, except possibly having two H1s in a row. We'll see if it passes from me changing the H1s.)
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
******
And that's it. All the rest of the 72 pages is relevant for complicated files, repetition, background, or ways of making the straightforward confusing.
March 8, 2012
A KDP Select Success Story
Tomorrow will mark three months since I pushed the Confirm button at Kindle Direct Publishing and let
A Gift of Ghosts
go live at Amazon.
Today I hit Confirm at Smashwords and at CreateSpace. Within the week a print edition ought to be available at Amazon, linked to the ebook. It's already available at the CreateSpace store. Within a couple of weeks, assuming it passes the review process at Smashwords, Ghosts should become available at B&N.com, Apple, Kodo, and assorted other places that Smashwords distributes to.
Yep, Ghosts is finishing its time in KDP Select. KDP Select, if you aren't familiar with it, is a program of Amazon's in which an author makes their ebook exclusive to Amazon in exchange for five free days in which to promote the book, plus the opportunity to be included in the Kindle Lending Library and get paid when people borrow the book. I never intended to keep Ghosts in the program past the first 90 days. Personally, I don't have issues with the exclusivity: if Michael Graves can sell his household goods only at Target without being demonized for not letting them be in Walmart, I think I can sell exclusively at Amazon. But five free days always felt like a good number. I don't really thinking giving books away indefinitely is a marketing strategy with long-term potential.
That said, I did want to sum up the experience.
My self-publishing plans were to post my book, have a fun week while all my friends bought it, and then forget about it while I moved on to writing A Gift of Thought. That was a really sensible position, with plenty of reason behind it. Both my reading on self-publishing and my own ten years in book publishing had taught me a few things:
First books by unknown authors don't sell wellBooks with very limited distribution don't sell well Almost all book marketing and promotion is meaningless and doesn't help a book sellE-books are still only a fraction of the marketI thought I'd maybe sell 100 copies in the first year if I was lucky. I'm not sure what I hoped for from reviews, if, in fact, I hoped for anything. I assumed some people would like it and some people would hate it, because that's sort of the nature of people having individual taste.
When I made decisions about Ghosts, they were made with those facts and ideas in mind. I didn't pay for a professional to design a cover, because it didn't make economic sense. (I thought maybe for my third book, sometime late in 2012, I'd think about a professional cover.) I probably shouldn't admit this, but I didn't hire an editor or a proofreader for almost the same reason.* And I did next to nothing for marketing or promotion. I sent the book to two people who review books on their blogs, but neither one of them have reviewed it.
When Amazon announced the KDP Select program in December, however, I thought, hmm...and signed up for it almost immediately. So, yeah, that brings us to the title of this post...
I used my first free day after I'd gotten my first dozen reviews or so. (A couple of those reviews were friends & family, but the majority were from people who knew me only through my writing and had found the book via CritiqueCircle or Fictionpress.) To let people know about that first free day, I mentioned it in an author note on a Eureka fanfic, and told my mom's group, WOW guild, and Facebook friends. The day went well. (Understatement.) Over 2000 copies were downloaded and at the end of December -- three weeks after posting Ghosts for sale -- I'd sold just under 200 copies. In my very first month of self-publishing, I earned almost $500. Not bad for a hobby!
In January, I used three free days, giving away another 2300 copies or so, and sold 125 copies. My only real marketing moment came at the end of January, timed with that third free day. Laurie, from the Stellar Four blog, made Ghosts her weekend read. Reviews were up to 30 on Amazon, I think, with another 10 or so on GoodReads, mostly five stars, some fours, and a couple of threes on GoodReads. I think perhaps some of the sites that list free books mentioned it, too, because sales definitely picked up. I started tracking them and on the first three days of February, sales averaged over 20 a day. Whee! Total February sales: 258.
On March 2nd, I used my fifth and final free day. I mentioned it here and on Facebook but I'm not someone with thousands of followers in either place. Apparently, though, one of the freebie sites did mention it. It was downloaded over 12,000 times. I didn't take a screenshot or remember to write the number down, but I know it climbed into the top 20 on the Top 100 Best Giveaway List.
And then people started buying it. A week into March, over 500 copies had been sold, bringing my total copies sold since release to over 1000. I made it to number 8 on the Books > Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic list before dropping back down. Not even a Kindle list -- a best-selling book list for a book that didn't even have a dead tree version!
I don't know a solid dollar amount because of the variables (changes in pricing and royalty rates), but I think it's safe to say that I've earned over $3000 dollars in my first three months of self-publishing. And yeah, that's not what I expected.
I don't know that I would have changed anything if I could have seen the future. Eh, maybe I would have done a more traditional dedication--if I'd expected a potential 18,000 readers, I might have gone the mother-father-kid route, instead of dedicating it to some strangers from a television show. But maybe not, too.
Meanwhile, though, I'm really happy with how KDP Select turned out for me. The free days gave Ghosts exposure, which in turn got reviews and links on Amazon, which in turn got more exposure. I don't know what will happen from here on out. Maybe sales will slow and then stall entirely or maybe word-of-mouth will keep it moving. Maybe I'll pay for a Kirkus review with some of the proceeds and see if that wider exposure keeps it going. Maybe I'll finally get back to writing Thought and forget all about Ghosts. Who knows?
But I am quite sure that KDP Select was a good way to start my self-publishing career and I wanted to say so for any other self-published authors out there who might be wavering!
* And also because I'm a damn good editor myself, plus had lots of early readers and critiquers helping me catch errors. Many thanks to all of them!
Today I hit Confirm at Smashwords and at CreateSpace. Within the week a print edition ought to be available at Amazon, linked to the ebook. It's already available at the CreateSpace store. Within a couple of weeks, assuming it passes the review process at Smashwords, Ghosts should become available at B&N.com, Apple, Kodo, and assorted other places that Smashwords distributes to.
Yep, Ghosts is finishing its time in KDP Select. KDP Select, if you aren't familiar with it, is a program of Amazon's in which an author makes their ebook exclusive to Amazon in exchange for five free days in which to promote the book, plus the opportunity to be included in the Kindle Lending Library and get paid when people borrow the book. I never intended to keep Ghosts in the program past the first 90 days. Personally, I don't have issues with the exclusivity: if Michael Graves can sell his household goods only at Target without being demonized for not letting them be in Walmart, I think I can sell exclusively at Amazon. But five free days always felt like a good number. I don't really thinking giving books away indefinitely is a marketing strategy with long-term potential.
That said, I did want to sum up the experience.
My self-publishing plans were to post my book, have a fun week while all my friends bought it, and then forget about it while I moved on to writing A Gift of Thought. That was a really sensible position, with plenty of reason behind it. Both my reading on self-publishing and my own ten years in book publishing had taught me a few things:
First books by unknown authors don't sell wellBooks with very limited distribution don't sell well Almost all book marketing and promotion is meaningless and doesn't help a book sellE-books are still only a fraction of the marketI thought I'd maybe sell 100 copies in the first year if I was lucky. I'm not sure what I hoped for from reviews, if, in fact, I hoped for anything. I assumed some people would like it and some people would hate it, because that's sort of the nature of people having individual taste.
When I made decisions about Ghosts, they were made with those facts and ideas in mind. I didn't pay for a professional to design a cover, because it didn't make economic sense. (I thought maybe for my third book, sometime late in 2012, I'd think about a professional cover.) I probably shouldn't admit this, but I didn't hire an editor or a proofreader for almost the same reason.* And I did next to nothing for marketing or promotion. I sent the book to two people who review books on their blogs, but neither one of them have reviewed it.
When Amazon announced the KDP Select program in December, however, I thought, hmm...and signed up for it almost immediately. So, yeah, that brings us to the title of this post...
I used my first free day after I'd gotten my first dozen reviews or so. (A couple of those reviews were friends & family, but the majority were from people who knew me only through my writing and had found the book via CritiqueCircle or Fictionpress.) To let people know about that first free day, I mentioned it in an author note on a Eureka fanfic, and told my mom's group, WOW guild, and Facebook friends. The day went well. (Understatement.) Over 2000 copies were downloaded and at the end of December -- three weeks after posting Ghosts for sale -- I'd sold just under 200 copies. In my very first month of self-publishing, I earned almost $500. Not bad for a hobby!
In January, I used three free days, giving away another 2300 copies or so, and sold 125 copies. My only real marketing moment came at the end of January, timed with that third free day. Laurie, from the Stellar Four blog, made Ghosts her weekend read. Reviews were up to 30 on Amazon, I think, with another 10 or so on GoodReads, mostly five stars, some fours, and a couple of threes on GoodReads. I think perhaps some of the sites that list free books mentioned it, too, because sales definitely picked up. I started tracking them and on the first three days of February, sales averaged over 20 a day. Whee! Total February sales: 258.
On March 2nd, I used my fifth and final free day. I mentioned it here and on Facebook but I'm not someone with thousands of followers in either place. Apparently, though, one of the freebie sites did mention it. It was downloaded over 12,000 times. I didn't take a screenshot or remember to write the number down, but I know it climbed into the top 20 on the Top 100 Best Giveaway List.
And then people started buying it. A week into March, over 500 copies had been sold, bringing my total copies sold since release to over 1000. I made it to number 8 on the Books > Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic list before dropping back down. Not even a Kindle list -- a best-selling book list for a book that didn't even have a dead tree version!
I don't know a solid dollar amount because of the variables (changes in pricing and royalty rates), but I think it's safe to say that I've earned over $3000 dollars in my first three months of self-publishing. And yeah, that's not what I expected.
I don't know that I would have changed anything if I could have seen the future. Eh, maybe I would have done a more traditional dedication--if I'd expected a potential 18,000 readers, I might have gone the mother-father-kid route, instead of dedicating it to some strangers from a television show. But maybe not, too.
Meanwhile, though, I'm really happy with how KDP Select turned out for me. The free days gave Ghosts exposure, which in turn got reviews and links on Amazon, which in turn got more exposure. I don't know what will happen from here on out. Maybe sales will slow and then stall entirely or maybe word-of-mouth will keep it moving. Maybe I'll pay for a Kirkus review with some of the proceeds and see if that wider exposure keeps it going. Maybe I'll finally get back to writing Thought and forget all about Ghosts. Who knows?
But I am quite sure that KDP Select was a good way to start my self-publishing career and I wanted to say so for any other self-published authors out there who might be wavering!
* And also because I'm a damn good editor myself, plus had lots of early readers and critiquers helping me catch errors. Many thanks to all of them!
March 7, 2012
Dead tree version
The dead tree version. After seeing it, I decided to switch back to the brighter blue with white letters, so this is the only copy of this style that will ever exist. Funny thought! Knowing me, I'll leave it out and the bird will find it and chew on it. The pricing debate is a bit miserable. If I only distribute directly through CreateSpace and Amazon, I can set the price at $7.99 without losing money on every copy sold. I wouldn't make much either, but it'd still be better than the 35 cents per book that some indie authors are willing to take. But if I want to let it be distributed to other places, including libraries, independent bookstores, and so on, then the lowest it can really go is $9.99. If people buy it through Amazon, I'll still make $2 then, which is less than on an e-book, but is still pretty reasonable. Sales through those other places earn me next to nothing, though. But to raise the price to levels that earn me something on every book...it just feels too expensive to me.
Eh. Dead trees are expensive, I guess. But pretty! Very pretty!!
March 5, 2012
In the middle of the night...
The dog is driving me insane.
Insane.
I have no idea what her problem is, why she won't settle down, why she wants to go outside yet again at 2:30 when she was last out at midnight, why she insists on wandering the house with a click-clack of tiny claws on the floor.
And I can't settle either. The bed isn't comfortable, I wish I'd done laundry, no pillow feels exactly right and somehow my heart is racing as if I had too much caffeine. I didn't, though. Sushi dinner at Arigato -- no caffeine involved. I didn't even have chocolate for dessert.
So I let the dog out and I flip open the iPad. I'll play a little Pocket Frogs while I wait for the dog to be finished. But first, yes, I will check the Amazon ranking for Ghosts, because it was at 20 on the Books > Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic list when I first tried to go to sleep at 10 PM and even though it's probably dropped off, looking at it on the very first page of the list is gratifying. That's a book list, not even an e-book list.
And then, yeah, this...
[image error]
Insane.
I have no idea what her problem is, why she won't settle down, why she wants to go outside yet again at 2:30 when she was last out at midnight, why she insists on wandering the house with a click-clack of tiny claws on the floor.
And I can't settle either. The bed isn't comfortable, I wish I'd done laundry, no pillow feels exactly right and somehow my heart is racing as if I had too much caffeine. I didn't, though. Sushi dinner at Arigato -- no caffeine involved. I didn't even have chocolate for dessert.
So I let the dog out and I flip open the iPad. I'll play a little Pocket Frogs while I wait for the dog to be finished. But first, yes, I will check the Amazon ranking for Ghosts, because it was at 20 on the Books > Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic list when I first tried to go to sleep at 10 PM and even though it's probably dropped off, looking at it on the very first page of the list is gratifying. That's a book list, not even an e-book list.
And then, yeah, this...
[image error]
March 3, 2012
Wasted day -- not
I didn't exactly waste the day. Yesterday, I mean. I might have wasted today. Eh, actually, I made a bunch of possible covers for Ghosts, signed up for CreateSpace, submitted my files -- okay, I didn't waste today either.
But yesterday, the day I might have wasted by making Ghosts free on Amazon without doing anything to tell anyone that it was free? Not wasted.
12,286.
That's how many people downloaded Ghosts yesterday.
I have no idea why. Perhaps a $4.99 book looks like a better value and more worth downloading than a less expensive book? (That was part of my theory.) Perhaps my reviews have hit some point of critical mass where people actually believe them? Perhaps my blurb -- which is a little more typical although still not exactly revealing -- gives enough information to make readers feel safe in what they're getting? Honestly, I have no idea.
But twelve thousand people will get to meet Akira and Zane in the next few weeks, if they remember and if they feel so inclined and if they actually are readers and not just downloaders of every free text out there, and that's...well, exciting and scary and exciting again. It's sort of like having twelve thousand potential English teachers grading your work and it's also sort of like having twelve thousand potential new friends. I'm quite sure that if I ever do have a legitimately best-selling book, not just a temporarily best-giving-away book, chatting with readers will become my drug of choice.
Anyway, I got my first one-star review today, which was initially anguishing and then almost a relief. Whew, I got that over with. But the reviewer was just mad about the price changing at the moment between reading the Look Inside (free) and hitting download (4.99) and I totally sympathize with that. I think actually that made it even better -- she didn't actually hate the book, she was just mad. I hope that the experience will make me a little tougher for when the next one-star review shows up.
But yesterday, the day I might have wasted by making Ghosts free on Amazon without doing anything to tell anyone that it was free? Not wasted.
12,286.
That's how many people downloaded Ghosts yesterday.
I have no idea why. Perhaps a $4.99 book looks like a better value and more worth downloading than a less expensive book? (That was part of my theory.) Perhaps my reviews have hit some point of critical mass where people actually believe them? Perhaps my blurb -- which is a little more typical although still not exactly revealing -- gives enough information to make readers feel safe in what they're getting? Honestly, I have no idea.
But twelve thousand people will get to meet Akira and Zane in the next few weeks, if they remember and if they feel so inclined and if they actually are readers and not just downloaders of every free text out there, and that's...well, exciting and scary and exciting again. It's sort of like having twelve thousand potential English teachers grading your work and it's also sort of like having twelve thousand potential new friends. I'm quite sure that if I ever do have a legitimately best-selling book, not just a temporarily best-giving-away book, chatting with readers will become my drug of choice.
Anyway, I got my first one-star review today, which was initially anguishing and then almost a relief. Whew, I got that over with. But the reviewer was just mad about the price changing at the moment between reading the Look Inside (free) and hitting download (4.99) and I totally sympathize with that. I think actually that made it even better -- she didn't actually hate the book, she was just mad. I hope that the experience will make me a little tougher for when the next one-star review shows up.
March 2, 2012
Today is the free day
I was not terribly specific on my last post: today, March 2nd, is the final free day for
A Gift of Ghosts
. If you haven't reviewed it, today would be a great day to post a review. Or if there are people you'd recommend it to, again, today would be a good day. I'm at school all day, with two presentations, treatment plans, clients -- it's going to be a long day. It'd be nice to come home to a successful book giveaway!
I admit, though, I have low expectations. The problem with needing to use the day before my time ran out is that this week was/is midterms. I spent my time much more focused on school than on making sure the free book sites knew there was one more free book in the daily thousands of freebies. C'est la vie. It seems to me -- anecdotally, at least -- that people who get the book for free are much less likely to ever read it. It just sits on their Kindles, invisible amongst the multitude of other freebies. So I'm not going to feel badly about my own laziness, even if I have wasted the day.
I admit, though, I have low expectations. The problem with needing to use the day before my time ran out is that this week was/is midterms. I spent my time much more focused on school than on making sure the free book sites knew there was one more free book in the daily thousands of freebies. C'est la vie. It seems to me -- anecdotally, at least -- that people who get the book for free are much less likely to ever read it. It just sits on their Kindles, invisible amongst the multitude of other freebies. So I'm not going to feel badly about my own laziness, even if I have wasted the day.
March 1, 2012
Last free day for Ghosts
I'd always planned to publish Ghosts on other platforms once the 90 days of KDP Select were up and it turns out that they conveniently finish right in the middle of spring break next week. Handy, since it means I'll have time to work on the formatting and on creating a print-ready cover.
I'm going to use Create Space for the print version and Smashwords for the other e-versions. I think I'm probably competent enough to publish on all platforms by myself, but the Smashwords contract lets you stop publishing with them when you feel like it. If I reach a place where I'm making so much money (ha, ha, ha) that I feel badly about the 10% that's going to Smashwords, I can pull the book off that service, make my own editions, and publish them individually. But at the moment the 10% royalties they'll get seems as if it'll be a reasonably good deal.
Unfortunately, I've discovered why people all use the annoying 99 cent prices: Apple requires it. You'd think if they were going to be such control freaks, they could be control freaks with round numbers, but no. So I need to change my price to a 99 cent number if I want to be in the Apple bookstore. If I hadn't already been debating whether an unusual price forces potential buyers to think and potentially loses them, I'd be more annoyed than I am. But so it goes. I will join the ranks of the 99 cent pricers.
In fact, I already did. Since my time in KDP Select is coming to an end, I need to use my last free day. I wanted to experiment with the blurb again, but I decided I'd experiment with pricing, too. Unfortunately, it sort of messes up the experiment -- I'll never know whether the changes were the result of the blurb or the price -- but unless I keep Ghosts in KDP for another 90 days, this is my last chance to try these out. Well, last chance with a free book. Anyway, I wrote a "traditional" blurb -- the kind that most people use, no quotes, no parentheses, no authorial chatting, and more or less a summary of the plot. A little more less than more. And I changed the price to $4.99. The $4.99 price is mostly because of the free day: I'm curious to see whether I get more downloads with a higher price, because it will look like a better deal.
Immediate result: a dead stop to sales. I'd like to blame it on the blurb, but it's probably a result of the price change. But it will be interesting to see what happens next week, after the free day. That'll be the true test. The last time I changed the blurb I added details but also made it very first person -- me, the author, chatting with an imaginary reader. That time the post-free day results were terrific, averaging 19 sales a day for the week after, before steadily dropping off. If instead sales stay steady at nothing for a couple of weeks, I'll change the blurb back to quirky. With much happiness, I admit. I'll feel like my quirkiness is being validated!
Alas, however, the $3.50 price point is probably gone for good.
I'm going to use Create Space for the print version and Smashwords for the other e-versions. I think I'm probably competent enough to publish on all platforms by myself, but the Smashwords contract lets you stop publishing with them when you feel like it. If I reach a place where I'm making so much money (ha, ha, ha) that I feel badly about the 10% that's going to Smashwords, I can pull the book off that service, make my own editions, and publish them individually. But at the moment the 10% royalties they'll get seems as if it'll be a reasonably good deal.
Unfortunately, I've discovered why people all use the annoying 99 cent prices: Apple requires it. You'd think if they were going to be such control freaks, they could be control freaks with round numbers, but no. So I need to change my price to a 99 cent number if I want to be in the Apple bookstore. If I hadn't already been debating whether an unusual price forces potential buyers to think and potentially loses them, I'd be more annoyed than I am. But so it goes. I will join the ranks of the 99 cent pricers.
In fact, I already did. Since my time in KDP Select is coming to an end, I need to use my last free day. I wanted to experiment with the blurb again, but I decided I'd experiment with pricing, too. Unfortunately, it sort of messes up the experiment -- I'll never know whether the changes were the result of the blurb or the price -- but unless I keep Ghosts in KDP for another 90 days, this is my last chance to try these out. Well, last chance with a free book. Anyway, I wrote a "traditional" blurb -- the kind that most people use, no quotes, no parentheses, no authorial chatting, and more or less a summary of the plot. A little more less than more. And I changed the price to $4.99. The $4.99 price is mostly because of the free day: I'm curious to see whether I get more downloads with a higher price, because it will look like a better deal.
Immediate result: a dead stop to sales. I'd like to blame it on the blurb, but it's probably a result of the price change. But it will be interesting to see what happens next week, after the free day. That'll be the true test. The last time I changed the blurb I added details but also made it very first person -- me, the author, chatting with an imaginary reader. That time the post-free day results were terrific, averaging 19 sales a day for the week after, before steadily dropping off. If instead sales stay steady at nothing for a couple of weeks, I'll change the blurb back to quirky. With much happiness, I admit. I'll feel like my quirkiness is being validated!
Alas, however, the $3.50 price point is probably gone for good.
February 21, 2012
Thought
A Gift of Thought is going to be the weirdest book ever. I kind of love it. Even right now, when it's in its first draft stage and scenes wander and I get repetitive, it's...different. It's not young adult, but Dillon and Rachel are sure important. It's not really a romance. It's only partly a thriller. I have no idea what it is, really. But it is ever so fun.
I'm biased, of course. But still, I'm loving all my characters madly and that's really fun. And Sylvie--she just rocks. I'm so excited for her to get an HEA.
I'm biased, of course. But still, I'm loving all my characters madly and that's really fun. And Sylvie--she just rocks. I'm so excited for her to get an HEA.
February 17, 2012
OhLife
The strangest part of having started OhLife when I did (last April) is that my reminders wind up being all about grief. Or almost all about grief. Today's OhLife message:
"Spent the day hanging out with Mom at the hospice. It's almost the end. And the whole thing is surreal. You want the last moment to be right -- to be reading a psalm or saying I love you or being focused on her face (most beautiful as it happens, she is lovely in her last moments). And yet -- what the hell, eventually listening to Britney Spears is just a fucking relief."
Eventually, a decade from now, the days could all merge together. Maybe in ten years worth of February 17ths, there will be some good, some bad, some uncertain. Instead, though, I have a year that's almost all about dying. But hey, listening to Britney Spears is still a relief.
"Spent the day hanging out with Mom at the hospice. It's almost the end. And the whole thing is surreal. You want the last moment to be right -- to be reading a psalm or saying I love you or being focused on her face (most beautiful as it happens, she is lovely in her last moments). And yet -- what the hell, eventually listening to Britney Spears is just a fucking relief."
Eventually, a decade from now, the days could all merge together. Maybe in ten years worth of February 17ths, there will be some good, some bad, some uncertain. Instead, though, I have a year that's almost all about dying. But hey, listening to Britney Spears is still a relief.
