Derek’s Comments (group member since Jan 01, 2011)

Derek’s comments from the Q&A with Derek Haines group.

Well, now we have consoled and congratulated ourselves, let's all get on with selling some of our bloody books! lol

Actually Gerry, I recall the thrill of publishing my first book. That was success in itself for me. I was so pleased to have an ISBN number and be able to 'look myself up'! Any sales have been a bonus.

But I must admit, with my new book I am for the first time taking the marketing and pre-release much more seriously. It's the first time I have set up advance readers and taken a more patient approach. Although I finished the book in August, it won't be released officially until next month. For a self-pub book, that's a lot of ground work!

I suppose it depends on what we regard as success Gerry. As with any product. Is success 10, 50, 100 or 1000 copies per month?

I read once that most 'overnight successes' take about 15-20 years of hard work!

Welcome Gerry!

Couldn't agree more about developing a following. I'm just coming to grips with the CRM concept (Customer Relationship Management) as it relates to authors. Social networking is obviously the way to go, but the dangers in creating 'personal' contact instead of 'potential buyer' contact is a fine line. In essence, friends don't buy from you. Exactly the same as in our own family and friend circles.

So the challenge is to create a following that consists of potential readers. Then price and medium becomes less important.

Hi Charlie! I think it is proof that no one knows what the e-book market is about yet. A lot of trial and error by everyone. I think indies have been driven by Amazon's 70% royalty cutting out at $2.99. This seems to have now become the new standard indie price for Kindle books.

Certainly Stuart.

My blog is : http://dereksvandalblog.blogspot.com/

There's also links to some other good blogs as well. Including Jack's !

http://akhen1khan2.blogspot.com/

Send me yours so I can link it to my blog also.

Ha! That's where my idea came from Jack. Why waste words!

It interesting that you mentioned your blog Stuart. It's the most important part of author marketing I believe. The conduit between social media/search and your website and sales. I have to say that I classify my writing for my blog as creative, but also as a sales tool. As my blog gets 4 time as many visitors as my website, it deserves the time and attention.

I've had some good success recently by re-hashing (revisiting) some of my better posts. By 'tweeting' out a link to older posts I've increased my visitor rate by 30%.

Even 'repped' authors are being told to get out and promote themselves now Jack. Ad and promo budgets have been cut from underneath them by their publishers. I've come across a number of them who are now swimming in our swamp. So maybe it's now a reality that we need to spend equal time 'marketing' ourselves as writing. Or maybe more.

I think you hit the nail on the head Stuart. We'll all spend spend more time trying to get noticed than we will writing! Pity, but very necessary now to market yourself.

So will 2011 be the year that e-books become part of the mainstream? And how will Indie authors be able to exploit this new market?