Ben’s Comments (group member since Oct 19, 2016)

Ben’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

This week's featured indie author is fantasy author Grady P. Brown!

http://www.indiepublishinggroup.com/a...

If anyone would like to write a guest blog about anything to do with indie authors or writing, publishing etc. then write me at ben.jackson.writer@gmail.com I'll give you and your book a shout out in the article!

Jennifer wrote: "Ben wrote: "Thanks all for the shares and continued support! This week we have the lovely and exciting Jennifer S. Alderson!

http://www.indiepublishinggroup.com/a......"

Thanks! It's very much appreciated!

Alex wrote: "To add to the earlier grrrr, while waiting around I got an email from Createspace asking me to confirm that I have the rights to A Perfect Pose which I published with them the other day.
It has be..."

Lol don't panic. They do this with every single Little Fart book. Because the titles are similiar. They publish it, then suppress it, then I send them a snarky email about how incompetent and stupid you would need to be to not see that they are A. different books, B. different titles, and C. All on different ISBNs.

One of my children's books runs at about $800 to produce. That's for proofreading, cover, formatting for Ingram Spark, Createspace, Amazon, and illustrations.

All the formatting is free, my wife does it lol but if I had to put a price on it that's about $200-300.

We invest basically nothing in marketing one book in particular and try to focus on sites where you can create profiles and list more than 1 book.

At the moment, I'm selling about 150 books a month, but 100 of those sales are The Day My Fart Followed Me To Hockey, the others are about 50. Over the next three months the numbers I'm aiming for, based off of last years sales, are 200, 300-400, 1k+ That's all going well.

I like to think of books as investments. You want it to be the best it can be, quality costs money. Just do your homework and get lots of different quotes before you agree on one person.

Basic editing/proofing is fairly cheap, but line editing can be scary expensive. $100 will get you a great cover.

If I look at a book and the cover looks like someone made it themselves, I won't pick it up unless I know the author. I haven't got enough time to read the books I love, so won't commit to something that looks unprofessional.

Hope this help!

Thanks! I'll check it out!

Kay wrote: "I’ve sent you a message Ben :)"

Emailed you :) Thanks!

Hi Kay, can you send me your email again lol I would like to feature my Children's Xmas book, The Day My Fart Followed Santa Up The Chimney! I can also do a paperback giveaway in US, Can or Aus Thanks!

Karen wrote: "Thank you, Ben for having me as a guest on your blog. I do appreciate it."

It was my pleasure!

I'm all caught up!

Come on guys and girls! There's over 450 of us in this group and I'd love to be following you all! Let's keep commenting!

The latest author interview on Indie Publishing is the amazing Karen Ingalls!

http://www.indiepublishinggroup.com/a...

If anyone would like to write a guest blog about anything to do with indie authors or writing, publishing etc. then write me at ben.jackson.writer@gmail.com I'll give you and your book a shout out in the article!

I know right? Geez. It links them all, they can click right on the series, they get their own page, and the list of books in the series is predominantly displayed above other books you may like. Anyway, sheesh.

I emailed KDP so that they make the series available as a bundle purchase. Don't even have to format them as a bundle!

I think you should do all your country/period educational books into a series. Would be great for teachers to see them all linked together as a resource.

Not the dumbest, but I just realized I could link all my little fart books into a series. DUH! Then, Amazon lists them all as part of the series, creates a series page, and then if you ask KDP nicely, they bundle them all into one easy to purchase pack. OMG It took me like 10 minutes, and I could have been doing this for 12 months. Anyhow! Oh, and then they do the series page on UK, JP, and DE Amazon stores as well. Oh my....

Nope, they’re your characters now! I imagine they wear overalls, no tops and truckers caps lol. One is super skinny, the other is big.

Carole wrote: "Foreword Review's review of Bulwark https://www.forewordreviews.com/revie..."

LOL @ Bobby Ray & Trout. Classic. Love It. Nice work!

Carole wrote: "shared!"

Thanks!!

Got everyone above that I wasn't already following :)

The latest author interview on Indie Publishing is the lovely Scerina!

http://www.indiepublishinggroup.com/a...

If anyone would like to write a guest blog about anything to do with indie authors or writing, publishing etc. then write me at ben.jackson.writer@gmail.com I'll give you and your book a shout out in the article!

Carole wrote: "I really hope it's making a difference, Ben. I feel like it's all our battle- to get noticed."

Well. Has it got someone a sale? I hope so. Has it got me any sales? No. Has it increased awareness of my company and increased traffic? For sure.

It takes me about an hour per interview, so in the scheme of things, if it helps someone, it's worth it. A lot of people have helped me, (you especially) so I'm just paying it forward.

Carole wrote: "shared."

You're a champ!