Tomas’s Comments (group member since May 15, 2018)

Tomas’s comments from the Support for Indie Authors group.

Of course - Black Friday and Christmas are coming - both vigorous discount seasons, and who would make a discount without reviews, right?

E.M. wrote: "if you search free advertising for authors, you can probably find many more."

The hard work will probably be sorting out the good ones.

I know, but it seems a bit naïve to expect that. Trad-pub books, done by companies who can spend thousands on editors, can't do that if they tried. It's almost impossible for self-pub authors.

Then, I guess if they went with "edited to the best of your ability" would be easy to abuse - because authors could then try to pass their books in bad shape claiming they've done their best. So I guess it's about a simple formulation. But it's still impossible, as I know just by reading books...

Eldon wrote: "Error free. We look for content that is well-formatted and free of typos and grammatical errors."

To quote David Gaughran: "Typo-free book wasn't ever published." It just isn't possible to catch all of them, even if you had 10 people to go through it. I've seen typos in professionally published books, small typos that are easily overlooked. But I get the point.

Anyway, My point about followers/reviews is that I guess it'll be hard to push a book if I don't fully know my target audience to help me with choosing the right parameters. I may have some idea of my primary audience (20-ish males) but that is subject to my own biased view. Before I'd make at least a couple of sales, and get some reviews, I have no way to verify that.

Eileen wrote: "The painful thing writers need to learn is that it is not easy to make money as a writer so don't quit the day job."

I know that, and I don't count on quitting my daily job - not anytime soon. I'd consider $100/year a success. Sure, it's a nice dream that it'd make $100 a month and I'd chuck that into my retirement fund but I know it's tough work to get anywhere close to that.

Gail wrote: "You don't need reviews, but you do need followers to be considered for their feature ads"

That seems even harder to achieve, tbh.

Don't you need some amount of reviews to be considered at Bookbub? That's the main hurdle for new authors, I'd say, getting the first couple of reviews.

Caroline wrote: "What do you do to light the fire again?"

A walk in the woods does wonders, more so now in autumn when they're all colorful. As does reading anything that's not my own draft.

Yes, the KDP select is in 3-month periods, but it auto-renews, so if you want to leave, you need to think about it beforehand.

Keep in mind that trying to promote a book that has very few reviews may be similar to banging your head against a wall... which definitely makes it hard for people just starting out.

I have started with Kindle Unlimited enabled when I self-pubbed almost a year ago. I still am enrolled.
KU has made roughly 50% of my $11 royalties so far.

A gazillionth twist on the same idiom...
"You see, they’re not the sharpest blade in the rack.."

And sometimes, when you're under attack, a simple line may work the best.
"Don’t just stand there watching him!" a cultist shouted. "Fire on the mage, for hell’s sake!"

(both from Secrets of the Eternals working drafts)

The Kindle Unlimited monthly fund is steadily growing, if the e-mails I receive are using true numbers. The per-page payout was bound to drop. COVID gave people more time for their home-bound hobbies, which means the people subscribed to it are reading more books while paying the same, thus diluting the payout.
I was expecting that.

Another thing to mention that while Amazon may still be the lesser evil. Traditional publishing companies still cling to outdated practices that hurt both authors and readers (chiefly among them totally-useless DRM and inflating the prices of e-books to the same level as print) while asking authors to shoulder more of -their- work.

You should post asking for betas in the Writer's workshop folder, with enough detail to let people know what kind of book it is. Make a new topic for it there.

Well, the fact is that trying to promote book 1 in a future trilogy when I, despite my best tries, won't release book two sooner than late 2022 and book three in (probably) 2024 would have dubious efficiency. Many of the people would forget who the hell I am by the time the next book is out, hence I'll be saving some money on the side and try to give book 1 a nudge 5-6 months before book 3 is ready to be released, then bump book two 2-3 months ahead. That sounds like a good plan to me.

Whether it'll happen to be a good plan... ask me in 3 years. If it goes well, then I'll consider a hardcover. And by that time, Amazon will weed out all the bugs it may have *grins*.

Mark wrote: "Margin and/or font reduction or size increase? Just a thought."

It could be possible, but I probably won't consider it unless I get some decent momentum with my book. Considering I'm at 2 sales, 2 KU reads, and 12 free downloads over the 11 months since the launch of e-book, and 0 paperback sales, paying for another size of the cover adjusted for hardcover would be a waste of money. So, if I push through at some point, maybe.

The page limit for hardcover is 550 pages.
My book is 680 in paperback so I guess I'll sit that one out.

Phillip wrote: "I like that one. It reminds me of the famous LOTR scene from the movie."

Haven't seen it for a while, so I can't comment on that. Glad that you like it, though :)

We need more lines from our books! So, I'm bringing this thread back from the pit.

A quote from my current draft of Secrets of the Eternals, book two of my to-be trilogy. Said by one of the major supporting characters - and the MC's best friend - to the MC.

“You wanted me as your cover in battle. That’s what you’ll have. For as long as there’s blood in my veins, air in my lungs, and arrows in my quiver, I’ll stand behind you and shoot anyone foolish to oppose you.”

Thanks!

Hello fellow authors,
as I only truly joined the ranks of authors less than a year ago, I'm quite curious as to what level did the Kindle Unlimited global fund (henceforth mentioned as "jackpot") has been before the pandemic and during it. This is mostly because I've heard various theories about how the pandemic might affect reading time, and find myself curious what the effect might've been on KU specifically.

I know that 2021 began with the jackpot being just a bit above $33M, and has been growing ever since (July jackpot being $38,1M), so I'm curious if it's merely returning to pre-covid numbers, or if it's going above that.

So, if anyone has numbers for 2018-2020 and is willing to share them, I'd appreciate it.