Nick Stephenson's Blog, page 3
June 27, 2014
Breaking Free Part 2 – One Month Later
The results are in! I had a bunch of emails last time I posted on this subject, asking me to update how my adventures outside of KDP Select were going after a month – so, if you haven’t read the previous post, go check that out here. For everyone else, here’s the skinny:From my very first book release in March 2013, there had always been a common trend. Book sales would spike massively around a promotion (usually Bookbub) and then fall right back down again within a few days. Not that I’m com...
June 6, 2014
Breaking Free – What Happened when I left KDP Select
“KDP Select is evil”. “Free promotions are pointless”. “Nick, you’re an idiot”. These are things I hear on a daily basis, the latter usually being something I say to myself when I’m looking in the mirror. As for the first two, I talk to a lot of authors who have a strong opinion on the relative merits of signing up for 90 days of exclusivity with Amazon, and the words “shackled” and “dungeon” come up a lot. It’s the same for free days – half of authors think they’re a God-send, the other half...
May 30, 2014
On Hachette, Keywords, Collaborations, and Sword fights…
It’s been a manic month – between waiting for the next Game of Thrones episode (sword fight of the century coming up this Sunday…) and the Hachette vs Amazon brouhaha (which, oddly, is pretty similar to Game of Thrones when you think about it) I’ve been experimenting with a couple of new book-related strategies that are starting to pay off quite nicely. So, being the standup guy that I am, I figured I’d share what I’ve learned with everyone else in author-land.
First up, this month has seen me...
April 26, 2014
Are You Underselling Yourself?
I’ve been doing some pricing research today – I’ve taken the last 4 months’ worth of sales, and looked at which price points have been the most successful. There were a few surprises – but I’ll get to that in a minute. First of all, I’m taking the opportunity to announce the next Leopold Blake novel is going through some editing and should be available in the next few weeks. This is a particularly exciting release, as it’s the first time I’ve worked with a co-author – the talented Kay Hadashi...
March 22, 2014
The Power of Not Enough
I listened to an interesting podcast yesterday over at Rockingselfpublishing.com, featuring indie heavyweight Russell Blake. If you’ve got a spare 55 minutes, go have a listen – or check out the key points in the accompanying commentary – you’ll be glad you did. The podcast got me thinking:
How do we know when we have succeeded at something? How do we set realistic goals? More specifically, when it comes to selling books, how much is enough?
Russell cites James Lee Burke as a perfect example of...
February 25, 2014
The Power of Ebook Pricing – Where’s the Sweet Spot (Part 2)
If you haven’t read the first part of this series on pricing, go take a look. In this earlier post, I talked about finding that “sweet spot” that yields the greatest overall profit, without sacrificing too much on volume. I found, overall, that the number of people buying my books at $2.99, $3.99, and $4.99 stayed pretty much the same as prices went up. Obviously, as you probably guessed, I’ve now set the majority of my prices at $4.99 to capitalise on this.But, at that price, I’m only attrac...
February 11, 2014
Indie Authors Earn More than Big 5 Authors
Hugh Howey has been busy. He and a few friends have done some in-depth analysis on the top 7,000 genre fiction titles selling on Amazon and have come to some startling conclusions. Before you read the rest of this, go look at the full report HERE or HERE. Is that the sweet, sweet taste of vindication? I think so. Here are my top takeaways:
Indie authors are keeping 47% of author revenue vs 36% for those authors published by the Big 5. This means for every $1 an indie author makes, their Big 5...
February 5, 2014
A Word on Ebook Pricing – Where’s the Sweet Spot?
First off, it’s worth remembering that there’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to book marketing – other than to say that pricing is an important part of any author’s overall strategy. Personally, life would be much easier if there were a clear “market price” for books, but we all know that’s not the case – especially not for ebooks. Prices range from free to $20+ and nobody has (so far) been able to provide a definitive answer on what works best – in fact, most people can’t even ag...
A Word on Pricing – Where’s the Sweet Spot?
First off, it’s worth remembering that there’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to book marketing – other than to say that pricing is an important part of any author’s overall strategy. Personally, life would be much easier if there were a clear “market price” for books, but we all know that’s not the case – especially not for ebooks. Prices range from free to $20+ and nobody has (so far) been able to provide a definitive answer on what works best – in fact, most people can’t even ag...
January 9, 2014
Playing with Permafree Books – The Results
I’ve been experimenting with a permafree book over the last few weeks – admittedly, I’m a little late to the game, but with so many indie authors using this approach, I figured it was time to dip my toes in the water.I chose my shorter title, “Paydown” (a 95 page novella) as the guinea pig for this little experiment. The book has been well received, with a 4.2* rating on Amazon over 15 reviews at the time the title first went free. A few weeks later, reviews are still good, averaging 4.1* ove...
