Patrick Jones's Blog, page 54
February 26, 2013
How to Sell 8 Million Books - by Jonathan Gunson
Reblogged from Savvy Writers & e-Books online:
Jonathan Gunson has written (again) a great blog post: "How to Sell 8 Million Books" - in several decades I must add.
The author he is talking about, is best known through his novel Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury's success didn’t happen immediately. While he eventually sold more than eight million copies of his novels and short stories, Bradbury actually struggled for years to support his family before making any meaningful progress.
Great information from Doris-Maria Heilmann at Savvy Writers & ebooks Online!
February 25, 2013
Game of Thrones Trailer
For the Game of Thrones Fans!
The Price of a Book
When I was a kid…I keep going back to those carefree days.
I was twelve years old when I bought my first paperback book. The price was twenty-five cents. For a quarter of a dollar (plus a penny for sales tax), I received a weeks worth of an exciting tale, taking me to places I never dreamed I may really go someday.
Not long after I started reading paperbacks, my dad got really sick. He was in the hospital for a long time. I did not know he liked to read but learned his favorite genre was Westerns. So my twenty-six cents went to Zane Gray.
The author Zane Gray was a member of Penn’s varsity baseball team in 1895 and 1896 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Then one day I went to buy a book and they were up to fifty cents. I had just enough money. I planned to buy two. That was okay, Dad was not working but was starting to get around.
By the time I graduated high school, paperbacks were up to seventy-five cents. There was no money for college and my grades were not good enough to think of a scholarship. The Vietnam war was raging, and I had a choice: Get drafted and go straight to war or enlist. I would get enough training to keep me alive. So, enlist I did.
During those days of training, I learned that cold was not a totally bad thing and that an hour of sleep spread out over twenty-four was actually a lot.
Reading any type of novel was out of the question.
Some years later, I went past a drug store that had rows of paperbacks to buy.
My father passed away not long before. So when I started looking at the books, my first tendency was toward the Westerns. All the ones the store stocked I had already read. It didn’t seem right to read Westerns any more.
I bought another book. That cost me a dollar & twenty-five cents.
Since those days I have bought many books; a great many at used book stores where most were slightly discounted.
One day at a used book store in St. Louis, the owner and I were talking about what a new book would cost to publish.
He explained things simply: A person takes a year of their life to write the book. Then they spend money for the edit. Perhaps, the person lands a literary agent who gets 15%. Then if it gets sold to a publisher, they have the cost of cover design, printing, stocking and distribution. For that they get 50% or a little more. The book store that sells the book also gets a percentage.
At this point the poor author who thought he hit the mother lode" target="_blank">mother lode is, for the time and energy to write and promote a part of his life, the recipient of the smallest amount from each sale.
On a twenty dollar paperback he makes maybe $5.00 per sale, but more like $3.00.
That made a great deal of sense.
Now I am an Indie author. I pay those costs out of my own pocket.
I am lucky enough to have a wife who is not just a business manager but does as much as a creative consultant. She did my cover design, as well as the book trailer. Sandy stays up with what I have going and need to attend. My wife designed the webpage and tends to it.
My paperbacks sell for almost $17.00 per copy. My e-book sells for $4.99.
I am not saying anything bad about a person selling their book for 0.99 cents, but ask yourself: Would James Patterson or Stephen King?
Nope!
February 24, 2013
Something extraordinary
I found this beautiful, utterly extraordinary little animation on Metan's blog, Buried Words and Bushwa.
Thank you Metan, it's not often I tear up from joy.
The video goes for 15 minutes. It's a short film. Give yourself the time to watch it because ... you'll thank me. And Metan.
love
Meeks
This is fantastic animation! Thanks for sharing Metan!
Review: "Wolf's Moon" by Patrick Jones
Reblogged from Charles Ray's Ramblings:
Part techno-thriller, part horror, and all entertaining, that’s the only way to describe Patrick Jones’ novel Wolf’s Moon. Mark Lansdowne, aka Mike Linden, lives with his three dogs in the small Ozark town of Maple Hills that’s not supposed to have wild wolves. But, when people start dying, with clear evidence that they’ve been attacked and eaten by some large carnivore, Mark finds himself thrown into the middle of a mystery that could lead to his death.
Thanks to Charles Ray for the great review!
Author Interview with Patrick Jones
Reblogged from True Knights Blog:
Hey everyone, got another author interview for you to check out, this time with Patrick Jones, and we're talking about his book The Wolf's Moon.
Patrick Jones was born and raised in St. Louis, Mo. He has taught himself paleoanthropology, archaeology and woodworking. He and his wife Sandy raised a son and daughter in St. Louis. When their children graduated from school, the couple moved to rural Crawford County, Mo., where they now reside with their dogs.
Great author interview with Steven Vincent
You will be HOWLING over this Book Trailer!!!
LOOK INTO MY EYES
GET YOUR COPY NOW!!!!!!
February 23, 2013
February 22, 2013
Book Cover Design 101 OR, "That which does not kill me, makes me stronger" - Friedrich Nietzsche
Reblogged from The Linden Chronicles:
By Sandra L. Jones, wife of The Author, Patrick Jones
SO...He wrote a book...Now what do we do??
As The Author and I continue on through the Indie Author self-publishing platform, it is very obvious that the process typifies a continuous learning model. It never ends!! We continue to read, learn and implement our strategy toward discovering new and better ways from the ground up.
February 21, 2013
Extending Your Reach
Reblogged from C Giovanni Writes:
You've published your novel! Congrats! You have it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, now what's next? Both of these retailers are great and will give you a generous reach to all over the world, but they don't get everyone or to every device. After a few months of selling on both, but mostly Amazon, I saw an advertisement on Goodreads for Google Play.
Savvy Writers and eBooks Online (111Publishing) recommended this article. Great information here.
