Dale’s
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(group member since Sep 15, 2017)
Dale’s
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from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.
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Should be a "big" week for me on Medium. I have two new stories today and one more coming tomorrow. The ones out there now are:Book Publishing Is Easy (but bookselling is hard) (in Publishous)
Stuck (fiction, in Curiosity Never Killed the Writer)
Thanks Anna and Alex. I have to check again, but at least some of the prices I saw were in excess of $1000. Of course, I'm a U.S. author with wide distribution (since I go through Ingram) and I think I may have checked one price based on international promotion. Still, that just seems like a terrible lot to take a chance on. If I can get some traction with cheaper promos first, I might step up to them eventually, though.
Anna Faversham wrote: "The idea of Fibonacci murders sounds wonderful. So clever. Hope it does well."Thank you! So do I . . .
Here's a Halloween story I submitted to a recent Reedsy contest. Didn't win, but I rather like how it turned out. It's in Don't Wake the Mage on Medium: Count to Ten
Has anyone here ever used BookBub? I created an account there, but when I started looking into their services, I discovered they charge a great deal for promos. Granted, they have a huge distribution list and they claim really good results, but I'm not sure I can plop down as much as they want, at least not yet.
The Fibonacci Murders will be featured in the ManyBooks promo on Monday, 11/11/2019, and also on Bargain Booksy on Saturday, 11/16/2019. The ebook is on sale for the next 2 weeks for $2.99 (regular $4.99). The sale price should go into effect over the weekend. If you can read and review the book or otherwise promote the sale, I'd be grateful. Thanks!
Thank you both!
The NYC Midnight round 1 part 2 results are in, and taking both stories into account, I tied for 10th/11th out of 30, which is pretty darn good since my second story was a no-show. If I had submitted it and scored 8 points (which would have been 8th place for that story), I would have made it into the top 5 and earned a place in round 2. As Carole said: next year!
I recently happened upon what I think it a new writing and organization app called Journal. I signed up for it, but it seems they are trying to build a user base and put you on a waiting list, then encourage you to get others to sign up in order to move to the head of the line. I won't twist anyone's arm, but if you'd like to learn about the app, visit https://usejournal.com/. If you decide to sign up, I can get credit for the referral if you do so using https://usejournal.com/?r=xulwk.
If you're not interested, that's fine, too. Thanks.
It may be a fair assessment of how some self-published authors who work full-time as self-published authors, who write well, who write in popular fields, and who have keen marketing skills make. A better assessment is probably found in this Author's Guild survey of published authors. A couple of notable items:53% of all authors (not just self-published authors) consider authoring books their primary occupation, spending half or more of their work time writing.
46% are traditionally published; 27% self-publish only; and 26% do both—meaning that slightly more than half of the respondents have done some self-publishing.
The median book-related income for all authors surveyed was $6,080. Median book-related income for full-time authors was $20,300.
25% of all authors earned nothing in book-related income for 2017, and 18% of full-time authors earned nothing in book-related income.
Self-published authors saw a significant increase in book-related income over the past 4 years, but they still earn 58% less than traditionally published authors. The median book-related income for self-published authors in the top decile (those lucky few who are raking it in) was $154,000, while the same figure for traditionally-published authors is $305,000.
It seems that on average it is more lucrative to be traditionally-published, if you can find a publisher. (But we all know the odds of that.) But either way, the fact remains that although a few authors make good money at it, the overwhelming majority do little more than earn a modest living, and a great many never even manage that much.
Like anything else, if you want to succeed, you need to have talent, hone that talent through practice, practice, practice, practice, persevere, get a bit lucky now and again, practice, practice, practice . . .
. . . and, I suppose, not lose faith in yourself.
Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Of course, we won't know the true effects of these changes until December 8th when we are paid for November's articles. "Exactly. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Thank you, Dale. I did not receive this email yesterday. I even checked the SPAM and trash folder. Naturally, I'm worried. However, since Medium has so many members, perhaps it's not possible for t..."They might send them out in batches over time, I suppose...
Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Shawnta Grimes posted a 9-minute column on Medium with a tone of information titled: "Medium Just Majorly Changed The Partnership Program. Here’s My Take."She states these changes take effect on ..."
Yes, this is correct. I received an email from Medium about it yesterday (and assume anyone else enrolled in the partner program should have, although who knows?). The email links to this post about the changes.
The main change looks to be a switch from using claps as "the main signal" to using read time. It looks like claps will still be utilized in "boosting" stories to a wider audience, which should also help read time go up, but they won't be the primary determiner of earnings.
They will also be rolling out new tools for tracking earnings and allow non-member reads of a story to earn money IF said non-members become members within 30 days of reading said story.
Assuming the tools are good, this should help improve transparency around earnings. How it will affect actual income for any given writer is probably impossible to say until the new system has been in effect for a while.
I received an inquiry from a contact named Tom who wrote:---
Would Amazon reject my barcode without telling me, and then just slap theirs on top? The reason I ask is my proof had their barcode printed awkwardly over mine, even though I specified KDP not to. I heard this was normal practice for the proof, but would vanish in the final. Oddly, I could not find this answer anywhere online.
---
I don't know the answer. Does anyone here? I invited Tom to join us here, so he might see your answer or ask the question himself if he doesn't see this first.
Thanks!
Anna Faversham wrote: "Grrr indeed, Dale. But you'll be an old hand at it by next year..."Yeah, I'll probably take another shot at it next year.
By the by, I misspoke on a couple of counts. The contest is in 4 rounds, but round 1 is in two parts, so I scored well on round 1 part 1 and missed out on round 1 part 2. There is probably an outside chance I'll still qualify for round 2, but only if a lot of people who scored well in round 1 part 1 flop in round 1 part 2. Not likely. The other mistake is that groups were composed of 30 writers, not 15. The top 15 in each group receive non-zero scores.
Alexis wrote: "Oh no, that sucks!"I was definitely annoyed 10 minutes, then I managed to shrug it off. It was just one of those things. What else can one do?
