Short story strategy: a self-publishing diary
- Thread starter Parametric
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Thanks, Spell! I'm feeling pretty good about breaking the big 1000. Looks like I might even escape the death zone this month.
I'm getting an unusual amount of attention from Smashwords lately, which makes me happy because they're paying me upward of 80% on list price. Just sold another $9.99 bundle. Dear Smashwords, I love you too.
In a fit of insanity, this week I contacted a cover artist for my urban fantasy series. This is the series that would be released under my own name (or a known alias, at least) and thus may be curiously browsed by people I know.
From a business perspective, it makes financial sense. Let's say I give this series the same six months to break even that I gave my short stories. I can publish the first two books in ebook for the princely sum of $150 total. At a cover price of $4.99, that suggests a break-even point of 43 sales total across both books. I think it's quite reasonable to expect to sell 43 copies over six months. (Famous last words, I know.) The reason I'm freaking out is that people I know may read it! And then everyone will realise that I'm stupid and they'll laugh about how stupid my books are. And then I will be very sad.
Please promise that you won't laugh at my book.
I'm getting an unusual amount of attention from Smashwords lately, which makes me happy because they're paying me upward of 80% on list price. Just sold another $9.99 bundle. Dear Smashwords, I love you too.
In a fit of insanity, this week I contacted a cover artist for my urban fantasy series. This is the series that would be released under my own name (or a known alias, at least) and thus may be curiously browsed by people I know.
From a business perspective, it makes financial sense. Let's say I give this series the same six months to break even that I gave my short stories. I can publish the first two books in ebook for the princely sum of $150 total. At a cover price of $4.99, that suggests a break-even point of 43 sales total across both books. I think it's quite reasonable to expect to sell 43 copies over six months. (Famous last words, I know.) The reason I'm freaking out is that people I know may read it! And then everyone will realise that I'm stupid and they'll laugh about how stupid my books are. And then I will be very sad.
Please promise that you won't laugh at my book.
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Congrats!
I've signed the no-laughing pledge.
Seriously, you're doing fine. People like or don't like books based on many factors -- it isn't so personal, although I well understand that it seems personal. Happy for you for the sales & the cute fan mail.
I've signed the no-laughing pledge.
Seriously, you're doing fine. People like or don't like books based on many factors -- it isn't so personal, although I well understand that it seems personal. Happy for you for the sales & the cute fan mail.
Thank you, this is an interesting and informative thread. Congratulations on your 1k sales! And good luck with the UF series. I do love the inner writer monologue - that made me laugh out loud. Now get out of my head
Cheers,
M.
Cheers,
M.
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In a fit of insanity, this week I contacted a cover artist for my urban fantasy series. This is the series that would be released under my own name (or a known alias, at least) and thus may be curiously browsed by people I know.
From a business perspective, it makes financial sense. Let's say I give this series the same six months to break even that I gave my short stories. I can publish the first two books in ebook for the princely sum of $150 total. At a cover price of $4.99, that suggests a break-even point of 43 sales total across both books. I think it's quite reasonable to expect to sell 43 copies over six months. (Famous last words, I know.) The reason I'm freaking out is that people I know may read it! And then everyone will realise that I'm stupid and they'll laugh about how stupid my books are. And then I will be very sad.
Never! I promise.
A question for those in this thread who've published individual short stories: Have you received any 1-star reviews from readers expecting longer work? I've seen some rumblings about this on the KDP boards, even though the authors put word counts right in their descriptions.
I'm still trying to decide whether to go this route with my next set of stories. It took me almost two years to get the first collection done, and a change of strategy seems in order...
I'm still trying to decide whether to go this route with my next set of stories. It took me almost two years to get the first collection done, and a change of strategy seems in order...
Thank you! I'm glad nobody is laughing. Unfortunately I am a big scaredy cat and I'm too afraid to seize the opportunities in front of me. I've been intentionally sabotaging my self-publishing career (such as it is) by only publishing work that I'm not emotionally invested in so that I won't be so sad when it fails. This is my first venture into publishing a novel that I put a lot of effort into. I really love this urban fantasy and I'm scared that everyone will hate it.
I don't read reviews, particularly one-star reviews, but I've heard a few negative comments to that effect (even though the exact wordcount of each story is given in the description). I'd be more concerned about serial returners buying each story, reading it, then promptly returning it for a full refund. You can rapidly clock up an alarming number of returns if readers are going through whole series that way. My Amazon sales are relatively low - usually 40 to 50 copies per month across the whole catalogue - and I've experienced months with up to 40% returns.
I don't read reviews, particularly one-star reviews, but I've heard a few negative comments to that effect (even though the exact wordcount of each story is given in the description). I'd be more concerned about serial returners buying each story, reading it, then promptly returning it for a full refund. You can rapidly clock up an alarming number of returns if readers are going through whole series that way. My Amazon sales are relatively low - usually 40 to 50 copies per month across the whole catalogue - and I've experienced months with up to 40% returns.
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I haven't had this problem. I usually have the words short story on the book cover and state at the end of my book description how many words are in the book. Mine are around the 12-15,000 word mark and I set the price at $.99. That may be why I haven't had negative comments or many returns. Actually, overall, I don't have a lot of returns. Maybe one every couple months.
Thanks, Merri and Parametric. Amazon's return policy has always annoyed me, but I haven't had many to date. For some reason, they seem to correlate with Goodreads ads.
Boom! I've finally escaped the death zone. 300 sales and almost $900 for January. Here's a quick glimpse of my spreadsheet (now snipped) - adjusted figures are pro-rataed to compare partial months (namely June) against full months.
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That's great! January started out slow (actually, dead) for me, but it seems to be picking up now.
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I'm running a little experiment to figure out how many copies you need to sell to stop feeling like a useless moron who can't even write a shopping list.
I can report that 1000 was not that number. Nor was 1100. Or 1200. Or 1300. I should hit 1400 sales this weekend and I suspect that won't be the number either.
I can report that 1000 was not that number. Nor was 1100. Or 1200. Or 1300. I should hit 1400 sales this weekend and I suspect that won't be the number either.
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I set up a free mailing list via TinyLetter, which gives you (a) a subscribe link that you can put in the back of your ebooks that people can click on to sign up, and (b) an embed code, a little box on your website so people can enter their email address to sign up. Job done.
Closing out this month on 229 sales and about $745 in royalties, so it didn't tank as badly as I expected. That should cover the rent.
Wow Parametric! That's awesome! You're doing fantastic! Great job!
And as for laughing at you...never!! I know that fear well, and I still get it when someone I know personally says they are going to pick up one of my books. I break out in a cold sweat! So far, though, no one has come back and laughed at me. Well, no one except my oldest sister, but that's what family does!
And as for laughing at you...never!! I know that fear well, and I still get it when someone I know personally says they are going to pick up one of my books. I break out in a cold sweat! So far, though, no one has come back and laughed at me. Well, no one except my oldest sister, but that's what family does!
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