Share Your Successes!

[MissWrite]

You guys really are amazing. Nick, I've seen you in the KDP forum often (probably some others too but I don't recognize you on here) and the helpful advice you offer here and there is truly wonderful.

[Dani]

Haven't been by in a while. How's everyone doing? I know the free days have passed.

Elena, that cover is badass.

[Nick Russell]

Beverly, I wanted to share a Facebook post from one of my longtime readers about your Black Knights of the Hudson series:

From JerrieLea Hopf
I took your advice to download the free book, "Black Knights of the Hudson - Book 1". Now I have purchased books 2-5 and I'm waiting (not patiently) for book 6. What a great tool for selling books - give the 1st one out free and hook us, then charge only $2.99 for the rest and we buy them. Anyway, great books and I'm glad I took your recommendation. I love historical fiction. Wish I would have known about it when I hated history in school.

[EngineerTiger]

Thanks so much for passing that along, Nick. For me, that's what's it all about; giving folks something they'll enjoy. Let your reader know that I'm working very hard on the sixth book and hope to have it ready sometime this summer.

[Isabella Amaris]

Okay, never did I think - well, I hoped - that I would be able to post an entry on this particular thread, but I think I've had some success today

Free promotion for Mesmer's in its last stages, and on Amazon US, I'm currently:

#7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror > Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
#11 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Fantasy


Managed to chart in the freebie list for UK and Germany too....DDD


I'm so blown away... Not quite sure how this happened seeing as I'm not exactly a social butterfly online re promotional purposes, but I love this book so much and to think it's now in the hands of readers... Wow, am so excited!

[Nick Russell]

Wonderful news, Isabella! Congratulations on your success. I'm proud of you!

[Isabella Amaris]

Thanks, Nick This has been a great experience. From my last look at the charts (rankings have not been updated yet) Mesmer is standing at:

#6 Children's ebooks > Science Fiction, Fantasy and Magic
#9 Fiction > Fantasy

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself Here's crossing all fingers that the freebies are read and enjoyed!

[EngineerTiger]

That's terrific, Isabella, I hope things go very well for you. I like your cover, too.

[Isabella Amaris]

Thanks, Beverly

[triceretops]

Got a royalty check for all of last year's sales, which I mentioned were very tepid--low three-digits. But that comes from forever sitting on a hardback priced at $30.00--talk about being asleep at the frickin' wheel! However, since we went e-book and prequel shorts at the beginning of this year (with my heavy campaign), sales have sky-rocketed, and my publisher let me look at the figures for Jan, Feb and March. About five times the amount in sales, with quite a bit of foreign activity. April wasn't even added, which was the highest month yet, and we haven't even got into Sony, Nook and iPad because we're just now listing there.

We have another longer prequel short just about ready to list on Amazon, so that's another kick in the sales pants. And I'm running my blog pretty much full steam, but not as often as every day like I tried.

Publisher wants to know if I'm interested in a true book sequel. He thinks it will take off as a franchise. Judging from the recent activity, I would throw down a good bet with him. But I'm damn scared. Scared to go with a smaller press and donate huge chunks of time. He also wants to come out in trade paper, about half the price of the hardback. I know I could knock the sequel out in three months. This is one of the toughest decisions of my life right now. If something pops with my agent, who has four of my books, three out on the sub trail, I'll be totally buried.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Gawd, I hate-love this...

Tri

[EngineerTiger]

Hang in there, Tri. I'm struggling with a few things too right now while trying to get book six in shape. I just got the first chapter in the audiobook from the narrator/producer (which took a huge chunk of time from me last evening while I reviewed it). I can't even begin to describe the sensation of listening to someone read my story over my IPhone and the little speakers I got for it. It's all very exciting and terrifying too. But, the adventure is enjoyable, if aggravating at times, is it not?

[Nick Russell]

Oh that we should all have your problems, Tri

I'm sorry Tami, I missed your earlier comment. Welcome aboard!

[triceretops]

Originally Posted by EngineerTiger

Hang in there, Tri. I'm struggling with a few things too right now while trying to get book six in shape. I just got the first chapter in the audiobook from the narrator/producer (which took a huge chunk of time from me last evening while I reviewed it). I can't even begin to describe the sensation of listening to someone read my story over my IPhone and the little speakers I got for it. It's all very exciting and terrifying too. But, the adventure is enjoyable, if aggravating at times, is it not?

Engineer, that sounds pretty exciting and something I haven't experienced yet. I keep hearing about audio versions, but don't quite know how they're produced and sold. My publisher mentioned it at one time, but didn't get back to me on the subject.

[EngineerTiger]

When you get a moment to breath, Tri, you and your publisher may want to take a look at ACX.com. It's designed to match up the different talents/specialists who create audiobooks. In a nutshell, the rights' holder connects with a narrator/producer. This is the link to the "How it Works" page that might help you and your publisher see if it is worth pursuing.

I didn't expect to get anywhere with it myself. I listed the first title, sent out some invitations to some narrators and was stunned at the response; given that I'm so recently self-published I honestly didn't expect to hear back from any of them. Out of four queried, I had three send me auditions. The difficult decision was selecting the narrator out of the three who seemed to best represent the kind of narration I wanted. I know some authors are doing their own narration/production but that process was just too steep a learning curve for me to tackle right now; especially with trying to get Book 6 out of the gate. I've paired up with an outstanding narrator who has done some other audiobooks so I've been very fortunate.

The cool thing is that you can select the vocal type that you want to audition for you. The narrators all have samples up plus they indicate if they are fee-based (where you pay them upfront for production), royalty share (where they handle the cost of the audiobook but get a 50/50 split of the royalties) or both. They seem to run the gamut of amateur to professional; actors to radio personalities; students to retired hobbyists.

The benefit of going through ACX is that the audiobooks are distributed through Amazon, Audible (now an Amazon subsidiary), and ITunes.

[triceretops]

ET, that information was most helpful. I'm sending the facts and contact info to my publisher right now. Since I'm his debut author, he's gone to extremes to get the buzz going on this book--way over what any publisher could or would do for any author. So this might look pretty good to him, and beneficial to both of us.

Tri

[Calle Jay]

Originally Posted by Calle Jay

I finally did it. I published the romantic suspense I have been working on (off and on) since 2009. It's 93K in length, and is my longest published piece.

It's also the first of my romantic suspense series.

My other four pieces include 2 novels and 2 novellas that are all for a paranormal series. I published the first in Oct. 2011 and have had 17,000 paid sales of the paranormals (more than 10,000 were also downloaded as freebies, in addition to the 17,000 sold). I've made enough that I have been able to cut down my freelancing (graphic design and nonfiction writing) to almost nothing, and dedicate my time to full-time writing, and part-time content editing (for Astraea Press). Which is way better than I expected when I first published back in Oct! (I was wanting to make enough extra money to upgrade my internet service!)

But the romantic suspense series (12 books planned) is where my heart truly is. I have worked so hard on this series, and I am so nervous! I was nowhere near this nervous when I pubbed the paranormals.

Does this feeling ever go away????

Here's my latest at Amazon, if you're interested!

http://www.amazon.com/WATCHING-PAVAD...4607678&sr=8-5

I figured I'd let you all know how things are going!

I did a few freebie days, and had about 1200 downloads (with absolutely no marketing, I hate marketing!). Then my sales ratings dropped (of course). I lowered the price from $4.99 to $3.99. Sales are now really picking up! I'm averaging about one sale every 3-5 hours for Watching. I was a bit aggravated at having to lower the price because the book is over 90K while my other novels at $3.99 are 60K, but since this is the first in a series in another genre I am consoling myself with the knowledge that the next eleven books in the PAVAD series will be priced at $4.99-$5.99. I may then drop Watching's price to $2.99 or less for a few weeks.

But the reviews are starting to trickle in and both have been positive, unsolicited, and five star!

They're here: http://www.amazon.com/WATCHING-PAVAD...owViewpoints=1

And I am chuggin' away on the second in the series, plus trying to get out another novella in the other series (this paranormal series is doing very well for me now) by next week!

[Nick Russell]

Congratulations Calle, well done!

[triceretops]

Excellent, Calle! What a wonderful start for you. I hope you're blessed with even more sales.

And you know what? I was also hoping that my book and stories would at least pay for the internet. I think I'm there, but could use a few more. Ha!

tri

[Isabella Amaris]

That's brilliant, Calle! Well done!

[Isabella Amaris]

Beverly, I think the audiobooks are a really good idea... Must look into that sometime in the future. ACX sounds like an attractive option...

[EngineerTiger]

That's wonderful, Calle, hope things keep rolling for you.

Isabella, I have no idea how the audiobook thing will work but, by using ACX, it made it worth while to experiment a bit. It's not quite as easy as eBooks or CreateSpace but it's still manageable. Being a curious creature, I was almost sucked into the "Hey, I can do this myself" but, after reading up on the process, I realized that this is one area where it is a good idea to let another person with the right technical background and equipment take over. Even so, there is plenty of information on the site to help you get started if you want to venture into the production yourself. I'm just too limited in time as it is right now to undertake another new technique so I was very happy to work out a deal with a narrator/producer instead. I suspect there is a rather steep learning curve and I opted to get the book produced sooner than tackle it myself which would have caused a delay in its release.

Just be sure to read all the FAQs and how tos as these provide a lot of information that can help you ascertain if this is for you. Also, take a look at audible.com. You can listen to samples which will give you an idea of the different styles of narration for the different genres. Many of the ACX narrators have multiple samples for different styles of story (spooky, story-teller, authorative, warm, etc.).

Tri, I'm glad your publisher is looking into it as it could give you another niche market for your books.

[triceretops]

Tri, I'm glad your publisher is looking into it as it could give you another niche market for your books.

Thanks, ET. My publisher will know exactly what to do and how to approach it. Saves me the tech hassle. Any open slot for potential sales is welcome, and we're digging into every venue we can.

tri

[Nick Russell]

I was delighted when a friend sent me this link showing me as #43 on the Kindle Review Top 100 Indie Authors list. http://ireaderreview.com/2012/05/03/...hors-to-watch/

[EngineerTiger]

Yay Nick!

[MissWrite]

Awesome Nick!