Falling Upstairs Towards A Door Of Prosperity: JAlex's Self-Publishing Thread

I'll start off by saying I have no freaking idea what I'm doing.

With that out of the way I'd figure I'd make this thread to follow my self publishing journey of the first books I've ever written.

First off my novella Yes, Even The Stars went live today. http://www.amzn.com/B00VLD0XE8
I'm labeling it as book 0.5 of my series In A Universe Without Stars. It's an excerpt from my main book Skyeater, but it's a complete and full story in itself which is why I decided to have it as a teaser into my writing. It's with Kindle select so I'm going to offer it for free in two instances, next week and when Skyeater is released. I have Skyeater on pre-order for a May 12th release date(Just got editing notes).
www.amzn.com/B00VL8MEZE

During those free periods I'm going to run promos I've found online(and Kboards) and hope that will increase my exposure as a writer.
I made my website earlier this week www.jalexmccarthy.com (made it myself and I've never done something like that before). Which is included as a link at the end of the excerpt and one for the amazon link for Skyeater.

I hear that a mailing list is what makes and breaks a writer so there are various sign up boxes on my website. Also if anybody have any critics about my website be sure to tell me as I've never made an website before.

I'm hoping with this strategy I can get enough sales to at least make up what I put in. (So 1000 books in 60 days)

My next goal is to write an about me for my website and amazon, but I'm procrastinating because I don't like writing about myself as I don't think I'm that interesting.

Treehouseman said:

Good luck! That's a fantastic cover, by the way..,.

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Thanks!

A little update with the promos.
I Have three promos for Yes, Even The Stars for the 7th and 8th.
Bknights and awesomebooks for the 7th
and Freebooksy for the 8th.
I'm hoping the 1000s of free downloads I should get will give me at least a 100 to 1 buy ratio for my full novel and exposure for my mailing list and website. Even if I don't get any sales the exposure would be great.

I got my manuscript back from the editor earlier than I thought. So I updated Yes, Even the Stars and added the first few pages of my full novel at the end of it to hopefully entice people to preorder.
Instead of working on my website i'm going to work on the notes I got so I can start the createspace process.

Just finished making a facebook page which means I should have all of the social media outlets covered.
https://www.facebook.com/jalexmccarthy
I'm going to use my personal instagram and twitter as my author page.
Now i'm just anxiously waiting til Tuesday and Wednesday for the promo and free days. I'm hoping it greatly builds up my mailing list.
I'll post the results here.

J. Tanner said:

The cover for Skyeater is really great.

(The other one is significantly less compelling to me, and it looks to be mislabeled "novella" when it's more like short story or novelette length.)

I think you may have your hopes a bit high for the number of downloads, list signups, and followup purchases. This isn't anything specific to your book, just sort of my sense from anecdotal reports about how effective these things are lately.

I'm guessing you didn't have your editor look at your product description. It's got some odd usage, like exercise-fanatic, massacre, and something about that colon bugs me. Getting it razor-sharp can help conversion (even though the average buyer may not realize the description is being written by the author.)

Good luck on your promos. Keep us posted on how it goes.

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The shorter title is novelette length, my mistake, it's too long to be a short story but about 4k words from being an novella.
I hope I can change it in time on the cover(Which I made myself) before the promos go out.

From my research I should expect at least 2000 downloads by the end of Wednesday with the promos I used. If I get less then it would be under average of what the promos usually get and that would suck.

I posted a thread about my blurb and the general consensus liked it
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304341
guess I can't please everyone

J. Tanner said:

The page count and length of the Look Inside lead me to estimate it's about 10K to 11K words. If you're actually double that you can probably get away with "novella". Technically, "novelette" is the likely the correct term but it's such a nebulous term for most readers they'll glom onto the "novel" part and have an unrealistic expectation of length. And that can only hurt you with "too short" kind of reviews. You can, of course, be clearer but you'll never stop it 100%--some people just don't read descriptions carefully and don't like shorts. Such is life...

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It's around 13-14k words so about 3k from novella status :/, I'm hoping with the book 0.5 name people won't get the wrong idea. I'll go ahead and change it once the promos are done.

Are your promo estimates based on other non-serial content of similar length? That seems high to me based on anecdotes, but the thing about anecdotes is they aren't entirely reliable. I write shorts exclusively so my preference would be for you to be right, and me to be wrong.

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Good point about the anecdotes, it varied a lot, most of the evidence was from full novels but I think specifically today I will get alot of downloads based on the promo I used. Yesterday I only had 300 but today I'm already past that point so i'm still aiming high. One thing I would change though would to make it permafree instead of using Kindle select because I really don't care about a profit for the novellette just about exposure.

I wasn't really criticizing the base quality of the description. I'm not sure about what people said in the other thread. Maybe they like the overall description concept, and glossed over the very specific items I mentioned. I'm talking about removing a hyphen, replacing a colon with a comma, and replacing "massacre" with a word that actually means what you think massacre means (rampage? killing spree?). Pretty minor stuff whether you choose to take that advice or ignore it.

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Ah okay got it, I still might make some changes since I have a while before it's released. Now i'm just working on getting reviews for my full novel.

Updates!
So with Tuesday and Wednesday combined I sold about 1300 free copies. Wednesday was the best day so far and I already have 7 sells today at the regular price.
If more reviews come in then I expect to sell a constant amount everyday hopefully.
With this I believe the next promo round I do during the Skyeater release will be a lot more effective.

I probably won't update as often until the week before the main release but I'll continue to post my sells(Even though i'm not really expecting to make money of my novelette just exposure)

On that note is anybody adequate with word? I'm having the hardest time numbering my pages for createspace. I want to start numbering at the prologue but every time I do, after page one the other pages keep changing to the same number, not matter if I click on don't link to previous

J. Tanner said:

Hm. There's a lot that could be going on with your page numbering and you haven't provided much detail, but my guess is you're changing the variable that inserts the next sequential number with the explicit "1" and so that "1" appears in the header/footer on every page.

Here's the basic idea of setting up page numbering in a Word DOC:

https://support.office.com/en-in/ar...document-c73e3d55-d722-4bd0-886e-0b0bd0eb3f02

Hope that helps...

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Thanks for the link, I still can't get it to work Is it extremely taboo to start a paperback numbering at the very first page.

Norman D Gutter said:

Hi J.M.:

Best of luck on your self-publishing adventure. I'll be watching your thread.

NDG

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Thanks!
Some updates, so far I've had 21 sales for my novelette. It started at 14 sales after the promo and then 5 the next, then 2 then 1 then 0. But I have an also bought history for it and my full book, Skyeater is on Netgallery. I believe once a few more reviews come in then the sales of the excerpt will become more steady.
I'm glad I released the novelette first because of the exposure, a few people have already marked Skyeater as want to read on goodreads(which I have two reviews for the novelette )
And yes I know peoples to read list are in the thousands but I think it helps.

The cover artist is taking forever for the paperback version of the cover(has old blurb on the back) so I can't do a goodreads giveaway yet which I think will help fuel my novelette sales and to-reads.

Next major thing is setting up a list of promos to do when Skyeater is released. Hopefully with Netgallery and a few fellows who asked for ARC copies of my book that i'll have at least 10 reviews by the time it's released.
Fingers crossed

I started a giveaway on Librarythings for Skyeater, and will have a giveaway on goodreads in a few days. Also got my first review from netgallery from an educator. She gave it five stars(!) but didn't post the review anywhere. Which is fine by me as it helps me build my confidence in my work.
I have four reviews for Yes, Even The Stars but sales have slowed to a halt. All I need is one more preferably good review to do a promo I want for it.

Also have my proofs coming in from createspace soon. I'm excited.

The giveaway on goodreads has started. I already have over 200 request and finally got my first visible review in (5 stars!). Of course it's just a rating again without a description of why they liked/hated the book. But it's a start, it looks like my Netgallery co-op might pay off.
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/136002-skyeater

My sales of "Yes, Even The Stars' has slowed to a halt, don't know how to spark it back to life, it's going to go free for three days during the release of my full novel but after that it's going back to 99 cents.

Also got some proofs for my paperback yesterday, had some issues with them cutting off the cover at the top and blowing everything else up(Don't know how's that possible) and had to much blank at the tops of the pages. I think I fixed the cover issue(Createspace really didn't say what was wrong with it, just that it was wrong) and deleted some space at the top of the pages, now I'm waiting on approval from createspace so I can next day air some proofs to myself.

I also had a problem with my website going in and out but it seems to have revolved itself.

Netgallery suckage

Here's an update post with only one week to go before my release and i'm going to say what I did wrong in my pre-release and my biggest regret.

So at the beginning of April I uploaded my book through an Netgallery coop and apparently I uploaded an earlier version of my book, which kind of squandered my first month. It was filled with errors but out of that I got 5 ratings, two of which was posted on goodreads. But I also got a 3 star and a 2 star rating on netgallery, which I'm thankful they didn't publicly post the rating. In their reviews they said it was because of the multiple small grammar issues that was causing the problems, but they liked the story.

I'm sure I would've had alot more reviews coming in if it was for that.

I still have a month left in Netgallery but I'm sure the rush of downloads will slow down after the first month. I looked through my final version of the book and found a few more errors as well. But I corrected most if not all of them and uploaded the fixed version on netgallery. Feels like I learned a 95 dollar mistake. I got cocky just because I got an respected editor and rushed myself because of my self imposed deadline. It was more of a personal deadline than anything else, just a step I needed to take in my life.

I don't regret putting the deadline down for the release of my book for may 12th, but I learned a new lesson. On a positive note, there was no negative remarks about the story, so with the fixed book out there, I expect a lot better reception. Hopefully. But I gravely regret not having as many reviews as I wanted for release and it's kind of bringing me down.

But that could be a grace in disguise as a notoriously hard reviewer on goodreads is currently reading my book. I had to send him a message because he got the old version off of Netgallery and I sent him the updated copy. If he rates it one star then my rating on goodreads will go down to 3.66, if he gives me 2 stars then i'm at a four which i'm somewhat fine with, if he gives me a three and above, it'll be gravy.

The cover is getting me looks though, which is great, along with the blurb. I got in the proofs for my paperback and it looks amazing, alot better than it looks on screen.
https://twitter.com/J_AlexMc/status/593820388125118464

As the release is nearing, I've thought up of another project or two I want to write before the direct sequel of Skyeater.
It's going to be another novella/novel(maybe 120-150 pages), book 1.5 as you will, that will help build up the world and the universe of the 'In A Universe Without Stars'. Because after the ending of Skyeater, the world the story is set in will become daunting. I'm going to call it "The Chaos In Our Starless Nights" Working title. It's not going to be an excerpt like my other novella, and i'm going to try and write in Past tense for it, to give a try.
My next series of releases are as follows.
"The Chaos In Our Starless Nights - six months after Skyeater releases.
"Of Dreams, Beauty, and Rage" - A one-off YA urban(?) fantasy
"Starkiller" The sequel of Skyeater and with a release date of June of next year.
So I'm going to release a book in six, nine, and twelve months. I'm hoping to make enough to take a few months off, as my monthly spending usually don't go over 1-1.5k.

Also for next week, my novella 'Yes, Even The Stars' is going free for three days for the release of Skyeater. After the whole netgallery shamble I'm going to go through it one last time before it goes free.
I have the following promos lined up
Freebooksy - May 11th
Booksends - May 12th
OFHB - May 13th

And for my website I noticed I'm getting a lot more hits from google, so my exposure is up.

So the lesson of this post is when you think you're ready, you're not ready.

LBlankenship said:

I bought a slot on Netgalley through Patchwork Press and only got one review, so don't complain too much.

Booksends will get you sales for sure. How much is hard to say, but you'll get sales.

Good lesson. You're never ready, but keep on keeping on.

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Thanks for the encouragement! Wow only one? I'll zip my lips then.
With less than a week to go, i'm starting to sweat in my sleep. The main reason is I want to sell enough to at least get back what I put in.

J. Tanner said:

It's hard not to get excited for "firsts" whatever they may be, but you should keep your expectations tempered. Remember that most first books from self-publishers sell VERY few copies, and many of those sales are just friends and family.

You're a bit ahead of the curve with a really solid cover and some early reviews in a popular niche but discovery is still the key and that can be a huge hurdle for any single book without a pre-built audience.

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Yeah, I know. That's why I said hope instead of need. Thanks for the tempering though. I already have a plan for if I sell none at all, alot, or a buttload. The cover and blurb is helping alot, which I'm glad for.

Skyeater is now out!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VL8MEZE/?tag=absowrit-20

Now, I should have a few reviews coming in this week, but otherwise, i'm going to try and only look at the ranking and not my sales until the end of the week. Because even with my excerpt I found myself looking every 30 mins.

Mclesh said:

Jalex, echoing the others--great-looking cover! Best of luck with your sales. Keep us posted!

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Thanks! My next goal is enough reviews for Bookbub.

Update: 15 on my first day! Not sure who was friends or family or not, and a few paperback sales, I wish the paperback sales would factor in on my book ranking.
My book ranking didn't move until today.
I'm trying out Facebook targeted ads which from testimonials I've seen are really effective to building mailing list and then using that list for even better targeting sales. But it's going to cost, so I have to market my ads right. I already spent 30$ on horribly misplaced targeting but out of the 5 dollars I spent targeting the right group, I have 5 sign ups. I plan on putting aside $200 for it(maybe more if I work enough). I much rather do that then using the freebie promos.
Now to find the best audience to target, that's not too big or small. I wish I knew how to write the best ad.

M. H. Lee said:

Nice start! (Are you sure your PB sales don't move your ranking? I want to say that one of my NF books that only sells in paperback these days does affect my ranking on Amazon when it sells through Amazon.)

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Thanks! So far I sold around 20 books. I'm now totally sure there isn't any correlation with paperback and ebook ranking. I had one paperback sale today and two ebooks, the paperback moved from 500k to 49k and the ebook moved from 250k to 98k.

An update on the facebook ads. It really does work surprisingly. I have 23 subscribers on my mailing list, it does cost money for these ads and so far I spent 67 dollars. Most of which I spent because I naively boosted my post before I knew what I was doing and putting too much money in, it's easy to over spend with the ads. But now knowing what I know thanks to http://www.selfpublishingformula.com/ I'm excited to see what they're going to bring. I average .44 cents a sign up after I got everything signed up right.
I think I got my ad just how I like it, I'm still experimenting with targeting and wordings but some time this week i'm going to go big and put up 150$ for them and hopefully, I should gain 200-300 mailing list signs up from that. My goal is 500 and then I will move to targeting for sales(hoping to have at least ten reviews by that time.)
With only 5 dollars a day I can expect 7-10 sign ups.