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Marie Silk: the value of permafree?
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Marie Silk
(last edited Apr 27, 2017 09:39PM)
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Apr 27, 2017 09:34PM
In an interesting turn of events, I just saw that Amazon included my prequel in the series as Book 0 of 7! Alrighty then! It's been a month since I talked to them so I have no idea what this is about haha. 
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That is so AWESOME that they paired your prequel finally with the remainder of the Davenport series. Everything you posted about the day-by-day results seems to be matching quite nicely to the webinar I just listened to by Adam Hogue and Derek Doepker.
Slow boil and then spike! Is this the marketing tactic you were pursuing to have the Amazon Algorithm sell books for you?
Well I'm mostly back now...physically, at least :D. After crossing a ridiculous number of time zones and handling about 6 different currencies since last month, my brain is basically mush. But it was a great time! So back to writing stuff...Launch update: My 10-day launch plan went pretty smoothly. I saw about 400 downloads of the prequel (at 99 cents) during the campaign and it's been selling steady since then. I really didn't know what launching a novella prequel with no reviews would be like but it went much better than expected. I think Early Bird Books brought in the biggest results.
Audible update: Audible sales have been...slow? I'm not sure what ratio of digital to audio books is typical, but I've had a grand total of 3 sales so far. The dashboard doesn't say anything about royalty rate so I'm not sure how this will go down when it comes time for payment. Guess we shall see!
I'm going to take a nap that will hopefully last a week and then write a new book! :) I hope everyone has been doing well!
Welcome back, Marie! Missed you! Hope you enjoyed your trip and that is was everything you hoped for. Hugs
Welcome back and congrats on the numbers! I'm so jealous of your trip! Almost enough to get back into the travel industry. Almost.
Alex wrote: "It may be, Marie, that they've seen the recent success of your books, someone has noted your contact with them and thought they'd better do something about your request since it could well lead to ..."Thank you, Alex :). I'm starting to think it has to do with publishing my paperback. I published it a week after the ebook and I think that's when it started appearing as part of the series.
Amie wrote: "Slow boil and then spike! Is this the marketing tactic you were pursuing to have the Amazon Algorithm sell books for you? Thank you, Amie. I hadn't heard of the slow boil and spike strategy, but that sounds fantastic :). I was mostly concerned that I was about to leave for a month which would render me unable to do my usual online promotion. I hoped that by having a big promotion and long-haul book launch that it could sell books for me while I was away from the internet. It really helped, I think :).
Christina wrote: "Welcome back and congrats on the numbers! I'm so jealous of your trip! Almost enough to get back into the travel industry. Almost."Thank you, Christina!
I'm jealous of your background in travel because that probably means you know how to get the best deals :D. I've wondered about going all-out travel writer to hopefully make some of this stuff pay for itself, but still trying to work out the details. Plus I'm not sure I have much to add to what's already out there travel-wise.
Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Welcome back, Marie! Missed you! Hope you enjoyed your trip and that is was everything you hoped for. Hugs"
Thank you, Sam! It was a dream come true <3
I'm jealous of your trip too! Welcome back!(Though I don't remember where you went.)
Guess I'm late to the party but it sounds like Marie is unstoppable!
Ha! The secret to getting good deals is to work for a good agency and have the kind of corporate clients the hotel and airlines want to woo into contracts. ;-p
Welcome back, Marie! Glad you had a great time and your launch is doing well.
Thank you so much, everyone :).Aurora Borealis: Hey, I finally got to see the northern lights! The funny thing is, I've been wanting to see the them soooo bad for years and have visited Alaska, Iceland, and Norway and hoped to get a glimpse of something...but I didn't see them until just last week from my own front yard in the Pacific Northwest haha. On rare occasions we have northern lights activity here :). I was very happy to see it with my own eyes! Something to check off the ol' bucket list :).
Free Promotion Today: I decided to do a last minute free promotion of the first book in my series again. I was getting nervous watching the sales of this book fall flat and thought it best to give it a little pick-me-up with a new promotion. It was short notice so the only site I advertised with is Freebooksy. Instead of getting a regular feature this time, I went with the "series" feature. This puts my book on the Freebooksy website permanently in the "find a series" section. It also gave it nice primary placement today on their Facebook post and website so I'm expecting good things of this promo.
New (and last) Davenport House Book: I'm planning to do a cover reveal of my newest book soon. I love this particular cover so I'm excited to show everyone. I'm just feeling pressure to get the book closer to publishing before I reveal it to the world :).
So here is my "enchiladas reveal" in the meantime :D.
Back in the Kitchen: I made enchiladas last night. This is my signature dish and it usually gets scarfed down pretty quick so I took a photo for evidence. (P.S. these weren't all for me, I just happen to be cooking for 9 people this weekend)
Chicken Enchiladas
Chicken (marinated in lime and honey, grilled over BBQ)
Jasmine rice
Black beans
Sauce: Tomato sauce, garlic cloves, chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper
White flour tortillas
Cheddar jack cheese
Marie, Sounds like you had a wonderful trip. I'm so happy for you. Oh, how I'd love to see the northern lights! And those enchiladas look yummy! Thanks for sharing the recipe. Looking forward to seeing your new book cover. Hugs
Oooo! I'm so jealous! I want to see the Northern lights too. I've somehow never been at the right place at the right time. Also, enchilada reveal made me laugh. :-)
I'm so jealous of your traveling, Marie, I can barely form sentences about it. lol But someday, I WILL travel and I will compare notes with you. ;)Also, your enchiladas look AMAZING. Ok... that sounded weird. :P
I went to Iceland to see them, but the weather was bad. Glad you got to see them! I will try Alaska next, I guess.And your enchiladas looks so yummy... *tummy grumble*
Marie, would your prequel be a good place to start reading the Davenport series or should one read books one and two first?
Justin wrote: "Marie, would your prequel be a good place to start reading the Davenport series or should one read books one and two first?"The prequel is a perfect starting point, Justin :)
Here is the cover for the final book in my Davenport House series! Now available for Kindle pre-order HERE:) 
I've seen the advice to look at other best sellers in your genre before choosing a cover and then choosing something that looks similar. Well, I can tell you right now that my covers look absolutely nothing like the others in their bestseller category lol. So I'm not sure how important this advice is. I just picked these because I love the look!
Sweet. I have a ton of books to read but I know your series are popular cause I still see posts about it all over. I'll definitely check this out and read it since its short and a great place to start. :)
Looks great, Marie! So glad the preorder went through for you:)
Oh! I like that! I mean, it's no enchilada, but it's a damned stunning cover! ;-)
Oooooh! How striking! Love it, Marie! Hugs
Mod
It seems much different from the others, but it's certainly catching! It has a sense of mystery to it.
Nice cover! I read the blurb and wow! :)
I love it too! It looks highly suspenseful. Are you sad your 'first love' has come to an end? I think I would cry after such a long run of successful books and late night writing sprees. I'm sure the characters have become like family to you. How will you celebrate after you type that final "The End"? :)
Mod
Great cover, Marie. Makes me want to read the book.
Thank you so much, everyone :) yes it is quite sad yet a little bit of a relief to finish the series. I definitely got choked up when I wrote this line on the blurb, "The family saga concludes in this final installment..." When I first knew I wanted this to be a series, I planned for the last book to be set during the Great Depression. I have so much interest in this time in history, but it was going to severely affect the timeline of the characters if I stretched it out from 1915 to 1929. So I changed my mind and set this book in 1920 instead. This way, the characters stay about the same age and I can still write about the early indicators of the Depression. This is the reason I chose the title "Hard Times".
I think the big question for series authors is, when do you stop? How do you know when a series is over? This has been heavy on my mind, and my answer has been that as long as the next book can be at least as good as the previous, and the story has not gone stale in my mind, I'll write it. Reader response is important to me too. I have watched the ratings and reviews of book #6 to see if readers were still enjoying the story and (hopefully) wanting more. Some readers have been kind enough to send me emails asking for more. It is encouraging to see that anyone made it with me through 6 whole books. Kind of amazing!
Now I plan to focus on getting the rest of this series on audiobook (Book 3 is currently in production) and marketing the series as a whole. After that...we shall see!
True, Alex :) I've considered doing some short stories or novellas that involve the same characters or fill in some of the gaps, but I haven't really committed yet. I think I'll probably try out a couple other stories I've been wanting to write and see how that goes before I return to this series.
So amazing to think all that you've accomplished in less than 18 months, Marie! :)
Audiobooks: Expectation vs. Reality Toward the end of last year, I began to feel pressure to get my books on audio. I thought, the work is already done (book written), so what's stopping me? I started to find out more of what was involved and was glad to see that I would not have to necessarily pay any money up front. My first book has now been available as an audiobook for 2 months. I have regularly tweeted it, posted to Facebook groups, sent it out in my email newsletter...I thought that since the Kindle version was selling well, the auido version would too. So I got my first statement on sales for April through May. Six. Six sales. When royalties are figured, that amounts to just under $8 income for the month. Ouch.
Especially since I went with royalty share with my narrator, I cringed to see the total income from the first month of audio release. At this rate, my narrator and I would each earn less than $100/year. The narrator only gets royalties for seven years. Some narrators don't see royalties for months after producing an audiobook, and many end up working for less than minimum wage. I guess this is much different than I was expecting to see from the audiobook market for my book.
Fortunately I discovered a pattern of audio sales picking up after a free promotion of its Kindle book. When a reader "purchases" the Kindle copy (even for free) they can get the audio for a substantial discount. So this could be another benefit to running free promotions (encouraging audio sales).
During my recent promotion, my book's rank went up to #84 in the free Kindle Store. I also noticed a new subcategory where my book ranked #1: "whispersync for children's ebooks". I'm not thrilled about it being in the children's book category lol, but I'm not really sure how to change that. At least it was visible somewhere that audio listeners might see it :). Whispersync involves the Kindle and audio versions being synchronized with each other so that a reader can click a button on his/her kindle copy and listen to it in audio.
My book now has a grand total of 23 audio sales since its release in April. For some perspective, this same Kindle book sold over 350 copies in the same time frame. I'm really hoping to learn more about how to promote the audio so the numbers might hopefully be comparable someday. If anyone has tips, I'd love to hear them. I hope that sharing my experience is helpful to others considering dipping their toes in the audiobook market. Some goodreads authors say they sell more audio than kindle books. I've been asking around but still don't have an idea of actual numbers or how the authors are getting audio sales.
Marie, you might be able to contact Amazon directly to get your book put in the correct category. I know you can do that for ebooks.Sorry the audio sales aren't working out like you've hoped, though. :/ This is what makes me nervous about investing the time/energy/money in audio. Thanks for letting us know how it went, since it really helps us make decisions.
Thank you Aislinn. It's definitely good to know for the future. Since many audiobooks cost between $750 and $1500 to produce for indie authors, it's good to have some idea at what rate some sales might be expected. I confess I know nothing about the algorithms associated with audiobooks. ACX promises to sell them on itunes, Audible, and Amazon, but is there promotion of any kind? Do new audio releases get extra visibility like new Kindle books? Here is a helpful article I found (written for narrators, not authors necessarily) yet it explains what is involved in making an audiobook and what payment options may or may not be great for the narrator:
http://www.thevoicesinmyhead.com/newc...
That new cover for your final book is amazing, Marie! They all have been great. It's so hard to know when the series is finally done. I suppose it's when the story finally loses its hold over you. ;)
And that's disheartening about the audio books. I've always been meaning to make the audio version of my Shiva series, but haven't had the time. I've been wanting to do it with my own narration and my husband's music though, so that's why it's taken so long. But wow...I've always been told that they do nothing but help sales. I hope it picks up.
Thank you for the kind words, Lyra <3
Today is "release day" for the final book to my family saga. I published this book for pre-order about 5 weeks ago, and it turned out to be my best pre-order yet! I am thrilled and grateful that readers have made it this far with me in the series ♥ ♥ ♥ ! Davenport House 7: Hard Times this morning:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,510 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Historical Fiction > United States > 20th Century
#3 in Books > Teens > Historical Fiction > United States > 20th Century
#93 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Mod
Nice cover too! :)
Excellent ranks, Marie! So glad to hear:)
Congratulations on your wonderful stats, Marie! Nice cover! Hugs
That's great Marie! How did you advertise your preorder, if you don't mind me asking?
Thank you so much, everyone ♥. Aislinn, I sent out some social media posts and an update in my email newsletter when the book went on pre-order. I didn't use paid advertising with this one since it's 7th in the series. As far as I can tell, the pre-orders and sales today are from readers who have been waiting on the book. Very exciting!
Oh I'm glad that worked out! (I wish it worked that way for me hahaha)Congrats again!
Congratulations on the numbers Marie! That's awesome
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