Math, Guns, and Snark: SLHuang's Self-Publishing Thread

[usuallycountingbats]

That's super-cool about book 1 breaking even. Hopefully book 2 will do that even quicker. I'm sure my relentless peddling to all my friends will offset the bit where I bought book 1 and did not have to buy 2, right?! I might buy 2 anyway so the covers match on my kindle. Things like that please me greatly.

 

[slhuang]

Another post-Christmas note --

The Amazon rankings are DEFINITELY harder to climb around this time of year (either that, or they changed them significantly and I'm on the wrong side of the change -- not implausible if they're privileging Select / KU borrows). As far as I can tell having not kept the day-to-day sales from last April, I'm overall selling (a little bit) more than book 1 sold right after release, and the rank is about FIVE TIMES worse. Both books are in six figures ranks right now, whereas the first book took a good long while to drop below 100k after it came out and was usually hanging out around 20k (IIRC).

I know Amazon ranks aren't the be-all end-all of anything, but I admit it's somewhat dispiriting, and I had hoped for some Amazon-rank-reinforcing this time, which obviously didn't happen. Anyway, the business upshot is that I think I will avoid a post-Christmas release in the future.

The first couple editorial reviewers have read it and, via being @ed on Twitter, I hear they liked it (one said she liked it more than the first one, which she'd already been quite positive about!). Here's hoping the trend continues.

 

[slhuang]

Just did my December numbers. I published Book 1 on March 27 and Book 2 on December 25, so March and December are roughly comparable for how a series can/might build on itself (March went from 0 books to 1 book, December went from 1 book on sale to 2 books).

• I made more than double in December what I did in March (about 230% what I did in March, in fact). A lot of this was book 1 getting a bump, though -- book 2 made about comparable in Dec. to what book 1 made in March.
• The release of book 2 did increase sales of book 1, which had been diminishing to very few, back to steady handfuls.
• This increase was mostly Amazon -- Amazon revenue was about 250% what it was in March. Barnes and Noble revenue actually decreased from March, by almost half, and was the only retailer to do so. I don't know if this is to do with something about my book and its audience or something about B&N's general health as a company. (Not that this is really enough data to draw any meaningful conclusion anyway.)
• I broke even on book 1 in the strictest sense (excluding all general startup costs) at the end of the year, giving me an earn back curve for book 1 of almost exactly 9 months and a second title out.
• My largest source of revenue, by an order of magnitude, is Amazon. B&N, Kobo, and Unglue.it have made me about the same range to each other. I've sold almost nothing through D2D.
• Comparing Unglue.it, B&N, and Kobo (which are all very small next to to my Amazon sales), Unglue.it is my highest earner by a not-insignificant amount. Kobo is next -- it used to be B&N until I had a crap release month there in Dec. -- and finally B&N. OH, and this despite the fact that I don't have book 2 available on Unglue.it yet (it's on the to-do list but I wanted to do some extra coding for it).

Seeing as how I'm still behind the break-even point -- still in the red for the paperback and book 2 -- the way I'm approaching self-publishing is clearly not a get-rich-quick method. And to be honest, book 2 did not do as well upon release as I'd hoped -- but it increased the sales of book 1 more than I'd expected, so after looking at the numbers I'm pretty happy with the overall increase, as long as it doesn't drop off a cliff in a month or two. Furthermore, knowing myself and my non-burnout writing speed, I'm happy to see my numbers suggesting that I do seem to be (slowly) building revenue. Most people I see with success in self-publishing either have large prior followings in trade pub / online or release very frequently, so I've increasingly felt that my plan of building an audience more slowly is a risky one, and I'm glad to see the numbers (very provisionally) supporting my ability to grow my sales while still publishing at the speed that works for me personally.

 

[slhuang]

In promo news:

After getting rejected from Bookbub twice and also getting rejected from The Midlist, I got approved for an ENT promo for Feb. 2, for book 1. I'll be lining up a bunch of other free promos for that week and maybe 1-2 other cheap ones, but most of what I've seen suggests that paid ads other than Bookbub and ENT don't have good ROI. I'll report back what happens!

I also got my first editorial review on book 2 today, in Liz Bourke's column on Tor.com. Eek! Another reviewer has been live-tweeting it as he reads it and seems to be enjoying it. *bites nails*

 

[AndreaGS]

Wow! Congrats on the Tor.com mention!! I read it; she was quite complimentary

 

[slhuang]

Wow! Congrats on the Tor.com mention!! I read it; she was quite complimentary

Thank you.

 

[slhuang]

WHOA HEY. On the importance of learning to keyword correctly, I was just copy/pasting something from the Zero Sum Game Amazon page and realized it is right now:

• #44 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Suspense > Paranormal > Psychics

And it's NEVER been on that Top 100 list before, to my knowledge, even when the rank was way higher. What changed? I altered my keywords as I learned how to play the subcategories.

The importance of keywording smart, folks!

 

[phantasy]

Wow, congrats on everything on this page! Love seeing a fellow AW member succeed!

 

[slhuang]

Wow, congrats on everything on this page! Love seeing a fellow AW member succeed!

Thank you. I love the support I get here. *hugs everyone*

So, today was both the release day of my first short in the series, which has sold eh but was more about driving visibility to the series anyway, and the first day of my 99-cent sale on Zero Sum Game, which has done spectacularly.

I was a little nervous about running this sale because book 1 was already having one of its best months since release. But . . . holy cow.

I did almost NO promo today -- I had nothing planned because I didn't know how long it would take the price changes to go through. So once they all did, I blogged about it and then announced it on Twitter, and that was it. One promo I hadn't heard of found the discount and picked me up unasked -- before I'd even said anything about it! -- and I don't know how much they contributed to the bump. But the day's not over yet and I've moved almost seventy books. With ALMOST NO PROMO of the sale (!). Which is way, way better than I usually do and also way, way better than expected! (I was mostly hoping to use this for a handful of loss-leading purchases for book 2, but that's not what's happened.)

I expect it will calm down tomorrow when the sale is no longer new . . . I would think? Anyway, my big promos are all next week, with my biggest (ENT) on Feb. 2. I shall report what happens. In the meantime, I have broken the top 10,000 on Amazon for the first time:

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,638 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #11 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Suspense > Paranormal > Psychics
  • #40 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Superheroes
  • #41 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Superhero

I mean, obviously these lists are a lot easier to hit when you're at 99 cents. But shhhhhhhhhh!

On the other hand, remember how I said last month that my B&N sales nosedived? Well, this month I still have not sold A SINGLE COPY OF ANYTHING on Barnes & Noble. Which is terribly unusual. Has anyone else experienced a B&N flatline? I can't figure it out.

 

[slhuang]

So my first discount day was spectacular -- I don't know whether to credit its spectacularness to it being the first day of it, or the promo site that picked me up unasked, but just in case, that site is BookSCREAM. They're very new and in beta right now, and I'm only one data point, but if other people report a solid spike like I got I think they're someone who'd be worth looking into in the future! But anyway, after that first day, sales dropped down to about ~15/day.

Until today, when it's 7:30am and I've already moved almost twice that that many books. What! What magic is this! How do I explain it?? Gasp, do you think it's maybe possibly remotely because I have a guest post up at Chuck Wendig's site???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME THAT'S DEFINITELY WHAT IT IS.

(here's the guest post: )
SL Huang on the Subject of Unlikeable Women Protagonists

 

[Putputt]

You are like a shooting star pooping awesomeness as it putters across the sky.



I LOVE YEW YAAAAY THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY!!!!

 

[usuallycountingbats]

I think 'soar' or 'streak' would be better than 'putter'. Putter implies a degree of slowness and makes me think of a car about to break down

 

[Putputt]

Stabs. As she stabs through the sky?

 

[slhuang]

I think 'soar' or 'streak' would be better than 'putter'. Putter implies a degree of slowness and makes me think of a car about to break down

But what if I'm Puttering like a Putputt? Putputts are pretty awesome. I'd take that.

Thanks guys.

 

[usuallycountingbats]

I think stabs is perfect.

 

[phantasy]

Great article! Agreed with it 100%.

The whole strong female thing is unfortunately, still a fine line with me. Snarky, strong women are hard to write because there aren't too many examples to choose from. Even from crits I wince at words others use, like stubborn or bitchy to describe my character, even if they like her. I have to constantly wonder if I'm showing my ladies in the proper light. Then I worry if I'm making them too weepy or weak and so on.

 

[Strom]

Congratulations, it looks like you've got some great reviews.

I've just unearthed my Kindle and dusted it off (literally, I haven't used it for at least a year) to buy Zero Sum Game.
I am expecting to be dazzled. DAZZLED. Or you will be receiving a letter of complaint.

 

[Mclesh]

Just checked. You're now:

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,093 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #9 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Suspense > Paranormal > Psychics
  • #39 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Superheroes
  • #41 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Superhero
    

 

[AndreaGS]

Bought it for my husband. He's been specifically looking for superhero books. Look at you, killing it!

 

[slhuang]

Responded individually in rep, but wow, I just want to say thank you guys. I try to keep this thread about the concrete stuff, but -- as I'm sure many of you relate to! -- writing and self-publishing are also both full of a lot of difficulty and self-doubt, so having such a wonderful community here cheering me on means more than I can say.

Strom, I do hope you like the book, and if not I expect a magnificently creative letter of complaint. AndreaGS, thank you so much for thinking of me for your husband! I hope he finds it a good read.

GROUP HUG

 

[slhuang]

Number number numberyness . . .

I don't have the final tallies for January, but I have rough ones. Couple o' milestones!

First, I've just hit $2k in sales solely on Zero Sum Game, which is personally important to me for a few reasons:

• This means book 1 has pretty much paid for its own startup costs with its own sales (though of course it didn't do that till book 2 was out and being an advertisement for it ). Time for this to happen: 10 months
• To take a leaf from RedWombat's personal milestoning , given the book's publication date, $2k was the qualifying advance for SFWA membership for a novel. In the "how can SFWA admit self-publishers?" discussions, I've seen the qualifying advance amount bandied about as what SPers should gross on a single novel-length work to meet the bar for membership. I don't know whether I'd want to join SFWA or not even if they did allow self-publishers, but it's kinda nice to feel I meet my industry's standards of "working professional."

Second, book 2 is also already halfway to earning out its expenses! Yay!

The one thing that's lagging in earn-out is the paperback, but I completely expected that. I'm so incredibly happy with the paperback and have no regrets. But this does mean I probably won't even look at doing paperbacks for books 2-3 until I'm solidly in the black on the series as a whole.

Overall, this month I made about 165-170% of what I made the first full month book 1 was out. (Granted, I had a lot of excellent publicity this month and have been running a sale, but hopefully I'll keep doing things like that in the future, too . . . HOPEFULLY. ) I took my mean monthly earnings and multiplied by that exponentiation base -- if sales truly do follow an exponential curve with each release, this will put me at about 4 full-length titles before I'm able to make a living wage with the series.

Usual disclaimer about the vagaries of publishing, which may end up working for me or against me . . .

 

[LAgrunion]

I took my mean monthly earnings and multiplied by that exponentiation base -- if sales truly do follow an exponential curve with each release ...

You lost me at exponentiation ... but all this mathy gibberish is, like, exponentially sexy.

I has a total crush on you.

 

[slhuang]

all this mathy gibberish is, like, exponentially sexy.

I has a total crush on you.

Quoted to immortalize.

 

[JRTroughton]

I've seen some lovely comments about your stories, SLHuang. Some fantastic writers enjoying your work, to the point of mentioning you in the same breath as the Hugos? Wonderful.

I'd just like to say that I wrote a short story inspired by the cover and opening paragraph of Hunting Monsters. It's currently sitting with the full editorial board of a particular magazine.

You're an inspiration... literally!

 

[Putputt]

I've seen some lovely comments about your stories, SLHuang. Some fantastic writers enjoying your work, to the point of mentioning you in the same breath as the Hugos? Wonderful.

I'd just like to say that I wrote a short story inspired by the cover and opening paragraph of Hunting Monsters. It's currently sitting with the full editorial board of a particular magazine.

You're an inspiration... literally!

That's such a heart-warming thing to read. And yuh, slhuang is totes an inspiration, if only because she can kill people with her bare hands.