SFF stories, plus squid (self-publishing diary)

'Tis launch day for the steampunk novelette. The book went live on Amazon on 11th August, but only so I could sort the free launch promotion. I set up the free days for 28th August to 1st September. Then I told a bunch of sites about it. The only place I linked to the buy pages was the official page on my website (where I told readers it would be free and what dates).

A site I hadn't submitted to noticed the book before the promo date. It was listed on their free and 99 cents list (as it's 99 cents usually). This seems to have resulted in some hits, as a "Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed" appeared. I had one sale before the official launch hit.

I blogged about the launch (with cupcakes) and also tweeted. My main categories are steampunk (I'm at #10 free last I checked) and post-apocalyptic (#46). I'm at #5778 in the overall free. Which I'd take to mean the two sub-categories aren't that full. I thought post-apocalyptic would have more, I admit. But I'm not complaining.

Sites listing the book (after being contacted):

BigAl's Books and Pals
http://booksandpals.blogspot.co.uk/
(Thursday only)

BookGoodies
http://bookgoodies.com/

eBookLister
http://www.ebooklister.net/

Frugal Freebies
http://www.frugal-freebies.com/

Indie Book of the Day
http://indiebookoftheday.com/

Indie Book Promo (Database)
http://indiebookpromo.com/

Kindle Book Promos
http://kindlebookpromos.luckycinda.com/


Sites listing the book (without being contacted):

http://flurriesofwords.blogspot.co.uk/p/amazoncom-free-and-99-book-listing.html - This is the place that listed it once it went live, rather than after the promo started.



I'll edit this post if any more sites add me. It seemed more useful to list the ones that accepted my book, as it'll give a better feel for which are open to short speculative fiction.

sarahdalton said:

Good luck, Polenth! Number 10 in the Steampunk category is really awesome. I think I might pick this one up while it's free.

ETA: You're number #3 right now!

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It hit steampunk #2 and stuck there for a bit. Almost there.

(In strange irony, after writing a story about a post-plague world, I woke up sick. It's all coming true!)

thothguard51 said:

Polenth, I downloaded and will be reading sometime next week. I look forward to the Steam Punk. Thank you...

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Hope you enjoy it.

PJanes said:

Good luck, Polenth.

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merrihiatt said:

Good luck!

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Thanks!

I'm sticking at #2 in steampunk, but post-apocalyptic is still rising (currently at #16). So it's doing well in the niches. BigAl's blog included it in the Thursday free books post.

August Paid Sales:

Rainbow Lights - Amazon UK: 1
By Means of Clockwork Selection - Amazon US: 1



Free Promo Sales (By Means of Clockwork Selection)

Also includes September stats, as it crossed the month divide by a day.

Amazon US: 194
Amazon UK: 50
Amazon Spain: 10
Amazon Germany: 7
Amazon Canada: 4
Amazon Japan: 2
Amazon Italy: 1

Total: 268

My highest ranking was #2 for steampunk in the US and #1 for steampunk in the UK. It's a pretty niche category, so it doesn't take a lot of downloads. Post-apocalyptic got to about #16ish in the US, but I'm not sure exactly.



Ramblings on the promotion

The audience downloading my book on the sites varied. For the UK and Spanish sites, the 'also bought' books are science fiction and fantasy. The UK also had a sale of the collection after the promotion started (as I didn't sell any copies last month, this likely isn't coincidence) and a four-star review on the free novelette. So though the downloads were fewer, the audience was closely targeted.

In the US, the 'also bought' titles are linked by having lesbian characters. Most were realistic contemporary romance/erotica books. One on the first page was a cosy mystery. This isn't my main audience, so it's not really a surprise that I've not seen any additional movement on the US site.

Overall, I think it was worthwhile, as it did get more publicity for the book launch and raise awareness that I'm self-publishing things now. It's not something I'd want to do for every book, but I might pick titles to try it on here and there.



Other stuff

I got a review on LibraryThing and Goodreads from someone who won the LibraryThing giveaway for Rainbow Lights (when I sent the books out, I included links to both LibraryThing and Goodreads, just in case they had accounts on both). They gave it four stars. Four appears to be my lucky star number at the moment.



Future plans

Next up is an urban fantasy novel (and I've removed 'short' from the thread title, as they're no longer all short). I'm aiming for about December. I know some people have been waiting for me to release a novel, as they're not interested in short fiction, so I hope that translates into sales.

I think it was good to start with the shorter stuff, as it gave me some space to get my system down and figure out what I needed to do. But I doubt they'll ever sell that well.

sarahdalton said:

I picked up your short story collections and am looking forward to reading them I've been wanting to get back into writing short stories so needed some inspiration!

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Yay! Writing shorts is fun. One thing I like is there's more room for experimentation. An unusual form or character choice can be hard to sustain for a novel, but works perfectly in a shorter format.

Norman D Gutter said:

Building an audience is slow. A couple of sales now might mean several readers later.

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I wasn't trying to sound like I was disappointed or expected more sales, as I didn't. What I'm saying is the audience for shorts is much smaller than the audience for novels. The shorts that sell the best come from people who also have novels, as the novels encourage people to read the shorts.

So though I enjoy writing and publishing the shorts, from a business perspective, it makes sense to release a novel.

'Tis time for September sales.

By Means of Clockwork Selection (steampunk novelette):
US: 5
UK: 3

Rainbow Lights (SFF collection):
None.


Clockwork Selection had the free days last month, so this is the first proper month of being for sale for real money. It's possible the sales came via the promotion from the free month, but there wasn't any sign of movement early in September. It changed when a discussion started up on Twitter in the #DiversityInSFF tag. I took part in that, and produced a list of 100 diverse authors, which got a lot of hits. And suddenly sales.

I also did an interview with AW member SL Huang, which helped keep the ball rolling.

A relevant discussion starting up wasn't something I could predict and I didn't comment with the intent that it'd lead to sales. So if anyone needs a data point for why it's a good idea just to be around and be part of things, without spamming, there's one.

It's end-of-year update time. I've not posted sales in the last few months as I've been working on other things, so there's not been much to say. This December I did some stuff. I got the steampunk novelette on Smashwords and I ran a short free run for Rainbow Lights.



Sales

In updates of previous months, Rainbow Lights also sold one copy on Kobo in August (reported in October).

October - No sales.

November

Clockwork Selection (steampunk novelette):
AZN US: 1

December

Rainbow Lights (SFF collection):
AZN US: 1 (a paid sale)
Free on Website (Mobi): 10
Free on Website (Epub): 20
Smashwords Free Downloads: 4

Clockwork Selection:
AZN US: 3
Smashwords: 1



Kobo
Rainbow Lights was one of the books Kobo didn't put back on sale in the UK after they disabled all self-published work. This either means they've deemed it to have inappropriate content for the UK market or someone forgot about it. Either way, it's no longer on sale in the UK, and I don't know if it'll impact them picking up my other books. I couldn't see a way to contact them or challenge their decision, so all I can really do is wait for them to notice it has no sex in it.



Free Stuff
I ran the free promotion using a Smashwords coupon and by having direct file downloads on my website. It was low key, so I posted to a few places, but didn't inform eleventy billion blogs about it. The results were fewer downloads than something like a Kindle free promotion, but I sold three copies of the steampunk novelette during the promotion time. I doubt that was coincidence, as many of the people seeing the announcements know who I am and that I write. Sometimes just reminding people you exist gets sales. (The Smashwords sale for the novelette was after it was first made available, so I imagine a random sale from seeing it on the front page.)



Art
I have some basic work done on the cover of the urban fantasy, so that's getting along. I also joined deviantART. I've not done a whole lot of promotion of the art side of things, but it makes sense to do so. The cover reveal for Rainbow Lights got more hits than the launch post, and I get more comments about the covers than the writing. Which may mean I'm going into the wrong profession. But anyway, if people are interested in that side, I'll roll with it.

Plus, they have a category where I can put my cupcakes, so I'm happy.

merrihiatt said:

Thanks for the update. Wishing you a fabulous new year!

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Thanks!

LBlankenship said:

I'd be interested in hearing about what impact promotions on DeviantArt have... good to hear from you again!

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I'll be watching carefully during the next book launch. As a starting point though, people do seem to find the profile through the site itself (rather than me sending them there). I'll be uploading new things here and there to keep up the momentum. And giving people llamas, because that's the thing apparently.

It's not really much extra work for me, as I'm making the art and sorting it for my main website. So there's nothing lost.

The January sales are in...

By Means of Clockwork Selection (steampunk novelette):
AMZ UK: 1 (Returns: 1)
Smashwords: 1

Rainbow Lights (SFF collection):
None.

This marks my first return, which isn't bad going as it's been a few months. I have a week of no college work, so I'll be finishing off the main edits for the urban fantasy novel this week. I'm guessing the end of February is a likely release date.

The final stages of publishing the urban fantasy novel have begun. I've set the provisional release date to 13th March. That's my birthday (yay!). Here's the cover:



I looked at a lot of mystery covers when it came to this one, as it's at the mystery end of the genre. The closer to central placement of the title and the faded look is more mystery. As is the illustrated feel (for a certain type of mystery anyway).

This time, I'm doing a soft cover reveal. I've mentioned it on Twitter and uploaded it to Goodreads, but I'm not going to blog about it. Instead, I'll do a 'making of' post after release. Then upload it to DeviantArt and link back to that post. This is part of my thoughts on using doing my own covers to get some attention for the books.

In other promotion, more review blogs take urban fantasy novels than short stories. It's also getting more casual interest from people. Only time will tell if that translates into sales. I expect to sell more of the novel than the shorts... but the real question will be to what extent.

And most importantly, I'll be making Bigfoot cupcakes.



Google's Auto-Enhance

I ran into this issue this time... my cover turned really purple when I uploaded it to Blogger. Turns out Google have decided to be 'helpful' by auto-enhancing all uploads. Where enhance means messing them up. This can be turned off (in the settings of your Google+ account) and can be reverted for individual pictures:

https://support.google.com/plus/answer/3338435?p=photos_auto_enhance&hl=en&authuser=0&rd=1