THE Group for Authors! discussion
Writer's Circle
>
Worst & Best of Self-pubbing?
date
newest »
newest »
message 151:
by
Arie
(new)
Nov 16, 2014 09:21PM
Thomas, care to elaborate? Why short stories? I get that they would be primarily advertising for books, but even so, I doubt I have personally met any readers who really read short stories on any regular basis. I may simply move in the wrong circles for that. I have been thinking about developing some "lost chapters" for readers of my series that could also be used as freebie teasers but I don't expect that to be hugely successful. It would mainly be fun because it would be a nice gift to give my existing readers that could also have the side benefit of possibly bringing in one or two more. But as an overall strategy? There might be something here I'm not getting.
reply
|
flag
Arie, I'm not recommending short-story writing as a long-term strategy. But during this next year, write a bunch of short stories, each about 4,000 to 8,000 words, and each priced at $2.99.If you can publish at least one such story each month, you can take advantage of Amazon's software, which gives any Kindle book a ranking-boost during the book's first thirty days. The $2.99 is an impulse buy, people can afford it, but it still earns you 70 percent.
Finally, DON'T write in the world of your series. Diversify. You want to bring in readers who, for whatever reason, are not willing (yet) to buy your series. Even those who eventually buy your series books will feel better about their bookbuying decision if they know you're a good writer in general.
Write a story that you would want to read during your lunch hour. Then write another such story. And another one...
I don't find that readers are buying at $2.99 as an impulse buy even for book-length stuff. 99 cents, now that they'll do if they're just a bit interested, but $2.99 requires a bit of commitment. Still the short-story strategy is an interesting idea, even if I might worry about that high of pricing for those of us who really don't have the prestige yet.
$2.99 is less than the price of a Starbuck's coffee. Nobody will object to that price for a little entertainment. The main thing is, Arie, at ninety-nine cents, you only get 35 percent commission, so the math says you have to sell SIX stories at $0.99 in order to earn the royalty of ONE story at $2.99.As for the perceived value of the two prices: I argue the opposite, that ninety-nine cents says "I'm an amateur, and I'm desperate." I don't buy ninety-nine-cent stories anymore; I pay a minimum of $2.99, or I pass up the story. Of the stuff I sell as publisher, I have exactly one work that is priced under $2.99; it's only $1.49, but it's very short.
In short, if you sell your story at $0.99, I'm sure you won't get six times the number of sales (after returns) as if you'd sold the story at $2.99.
A long time ago (in the late Jurassic era), I was in college, and I tutored math. My second year of tutoring, I doubled my rates from five dollars an hour to ten dollars, when minimum wage was $3.50. When I doubled my rates to something more "professional," my appointments didn't drop, but my no-shows dropped drastically. Lesson learned: Charging too little for your services actually hurts your status.
Now the books that I publish are all priced between four bucks and eight bucks, and nobody has told me that my prices are too high. Surprisingly, my return rate is much less than cheaper-priced books.
I have been pretty skeptical of the 99 cent thing until the past couple of weeks myself. Except now I've finally seen some "unaccounted for" sales and they seem to be because of a fluke that caused my first book to be on 99 cents for a week instead of one day as planned. Beyond that it is the first in a series and the series is structured in such a way that a reader who likes the first one really is going to want to read the next. So, I'm reconsidering my previous dislike of 99 cents. I get your issue about the royalties. They suck. It is really just advertising. I'll think on what you said for sure and at least dabble with some short stories to see what comes out. Thanks for the ideas.
Thomas and Arie, I can barely give away a free short story, let alone sell one at $2.99. I know other short story authors and none of them sell single stories at $2.99. Then again, it has a lot to do with genre and category. I write literary fiction, and that's a very small slice of the pie, short stories even more so.
Literary fiction may be hard because of the demographics, Ken. Try The Sun magazine. I know a lot of people who read it avidly. It has great literary shorts. But literary fiction fans do not demographically tend to be ereaders. I would say that is your worst problem.My hunch is that in dystopia/contemporary fantasy (my current genres) one could sell short stories, IF one had a following and access to some specialized genre sites and lists. I don't currently have that access or enough of subscriber list. I think I may try it for the experimentation, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I am really unsure what to do about pricing. I think some readers do think the way Thomas says. I do personally. But the results I see from sales are that 99 cents sells something to new readers and $2.99 and $3.99 sell only to my established base. I need new readers now more than I need short-term money. I'm in it for the long haul.
Great thread this.Best part: getting reviews from people you've never met or have any contact with (even better when they like it!)
Worst part: Reading 'advice' from scammers who don't know anymore than you. Being told to write a blog regularly (well if I had time to do that, I'd have written another two books this year!). Having people in bookshops look down their nose at you because its self published (I get a double hit here as its also a horror book).
Now I do write a regular blog, but it's something I enjoy doing. I post every Thursday (or Friday, depending on how the week is going). I have a journalistic background so for me, it's like getting to write an opinion column every week. A blog written by somebody who's only doing it because someone told him it's a way to sell books won't appeal to anyone. You can't just say "Hey, I've written a book and this is what it's about" week after week. You have to have something interesting to say.
My most recent post was about the process of self publishing my latest book, but I've written about the suicide of Robin Williams, Rush Limbaugh's "award winning" children's book and what it was like being a contestant on Jeopardy!
Obviously it's time that I could use to write books, but the nice thing about it is that I get the feeling of having published something every week.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Answer: Like nothing you can imagine!Question: What was being a contestant on Jeopardy like?
(I now return the thread to the regularly scheduled discussion.)
Judy wrote: "Now I do write a regular blog, but it's something I enjoy doing. I post every Thursday (or Friday, depending on how the week is going). I have a journalistic background so for me, it's like getting..."I think that's great, but I just have don't have the time. I'm a teacher by day so don't spend enough time writing as it is.
"Write a blog" was advice from my publisher as one more way to promote the book. It is always about the book and/or writing, so I find it helpful in terms of blocks, working things through (i.e., liking female characters), and feeling connected to others doing the same. I've ended up liking it more than I thought I would.
David wrote: "I think that's great, but I just have don't have the time. I'm a teacher by day so don't spend enough time writing as it is. ."
Personally, I think teachers make a far greater difference in the world than bloggers. Or self published writers. We're a dime a dozen. A good teacher touches lives forever.
I self-published because I enjoyed myself writing my novels and a consumer's guide. It felt fine to me to share. The costs of self-publishing, and more - marketing is great compared to the returns although my books sell monthly on Kindle or other forms. As any artist, write because it's you, publish because you want to share and teach because you have something worthwhile to give. I'm writing another short consumers guide ebook, just to share what I've learned. If it's worthwhile to some, they'll buy it.
Wish there was a "Like" button on this blog. There are so many good comments that I don't wish to add to but simply "Like."
June, it is wonderful to be an artist and many of the great artists of history never made a real living doing their art. That is true. And yet there are people who make a living writing. I know my craft is good enough. Readers love it. I want to do more of it than I can do with kids and multiple jobs. So shoot me. I want to be able to make some money at it, so I can actually develop my art to my fullest. There are people who can. Some are better writers than me. Some simply have better platform. I won't give up trying to find the little chink in the system that allows me to make a living doing the one thing in life that I have found I actually excel at. If that means self-publishing so be it. It appears that in 2014 it does not mean self-publishing. I am going to keep trying until I find where that chink is because I don't want to just do my art in a few snatched moments. I want to have the time to reach my potential with it and the only way to have that time is to make a living doing it.
A friend of mine was a contestant on a TV show called Bait Car. Actually, I'm not sure if that can really be considered a "contestant?"
After I published my book, I was advised I should write a blog. I've embraced this opportunity because it lets me discuss subjects that are important to me (as well as concepts I explore in my book).
The best thing about being a self-published author for me is the total responsibility. The worst thing about being a self-published author is the total responsibility.
How do I stop following this discussion. It's interminable?
Above the comment box, Sylvie. It says in grey "You are following this discussion" and then 'edit'. Click on that and we can stop boring you.
You can also just not visit it. GR will only send you one notification to email until you visit the thread again. This is far better than the FB policy. But I still like this thread for now. :)
Best: Putting the book out there. I'd been told that my books were too niche (read: gay) to appeal to anybody. While sales haven't been amazing, it's proved that such advice just wasn't true. Hopefully self publishing will be the saviour of many genres that publishing houses have previously looked down upon.Worst: Marketing can be extremely difficult - you don't want to come across as spammy or hackneyed - but by far the worst element of self publishing is how odd your book can end up looking, with severely indented paragraphs and typos that definitely weren't in the original MS. I've self pubbed two books so far; hopefully practice will make perfect!
Rachael, if it's niche, then niche market. Lots of niche groups like that are enthusiastic about a new book that actually appeals specifically to them. It's about getting in the right groups and then very occasionally letting people know about it in a non-spammy way.
Rachael wrote: "by far the worst element of self publishing is how odd your book can end up looking, with severely indented paragraphs and typos that definitely weren't in the original MS"I don't know how typos turned up, but by far the best (and the original) guide to formatting your MS to make a good ebook is Mark Coker's Smashwords Style Guide. And it's free.
Good luck!
Angel wrote: "The best thing about being a self-published author for me is the total responsibility. The worst thing about being a self-published author is the total responsibility."Absolutely! This sums it up very nicely....
I'll second Jemima's note about the Smashwords Style Guide. The best for formatting!
Scrivener makes formatting easy. I've never had any real trouble. Just a trial run. Fix a couple of glitches. Nothing major. Just saying. I got Scrivener primarily for the easy formatting. All the other nice functions of Scrivener are a bonus. :)
THE Group for Authors!
Books mentioned in this topic
Smashwords Style Guide - How to Format Your Ebook (other topics)The Billionaire's Butler: Mystery, Murder and Romance in the Wacky World of the Super Rich (other topics)
The Subtle Beauty (other topics)
