I've joined the self-published ranks

Status
Not open for further replies.

Jazen

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
289
Reaction score
10
Location
Georgia
So a little under a month ago I released my first book out to the world.

I've read other journeys on this thread and decided to wait to see if I would even have anything to report on before starting my own.

Luckily, although the sales are low, I do have some, so that makes me happy. :)

I have been trying to follow the advice found in the how to promote without looking like a dweeb thread and joined Twitter (although I'm tweeting challenged LOL), and I'm working on getting an actual website set up. I'm good with blogging and Facebook. I also joined Goodreads.

I did reach out to a few book review blogs, I think I contacted maybe 10 or so and have gotten responses back from 2. I don't know if the others don't like the blurb, if they are swamped, or if my request is lost in cyber space. :/ Since I'm not sure on the etiquette for following up on review requests, I moved on to look for other options.

One of them just did a feature on me, even though she declined to read my book since it's not a HEA which is something she likes to have. I thought it was very nice of her to do that. :)

Right now I don't know which is harder, writing the book, or trying to market it. LOL It's all a learning process, so I keep plugging away. I have set a goal (hopefully a reasonable one) of wanting to sell 50 books.

I am currently considering taking it down off Smashwords and B&N to go with Amazon's select program since it's currently yielding me the most sales.

My sales so far: (Release date, April 28th)
Amazon: 13
B&N: 3
Smashwords: 1

Anyway that's my experience so far. Hopefully next month I'll have good things to report.
 

Polenth

Mushroom
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 27, 2007
Messages
5,017
Reaction score
735
Location
England
Website
www.polenthblake.com
I think it's pretty normal not to get a lot of replies from review blogs. They do get swamped, so a number only reply if interested.
 

Jazen

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
289
Reaction score
10
Location
Georgia
I think it's pretty normal not to get a lot of replies from review blogs. They do get swamped, so a number only reply if interested.

Makes sense. Large number of books on the market, everyone trying to get noticed.
 

Ann Joyce

It's all about grace
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Messages
636
Reaction score
37
Location
Minnesota
Congrats on the sales, Jazen. I think that's a pretty good beginning!
 

SunshineonMe

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 24, 2013
Messages
2,108
Reaction score
444
Location
Washington
Congratulations!! Your cover and book look very interesting.
 

Jazen

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
289
Reaction score
10
Location
Georgia
Thanks CW and Sunshine! So far it's been an interesting experience and I still get giddy seeing my book up for sale at places. :)
 

SunshineonMe

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 24, 2013
Messages
2,108
Reaction score
444
Location
Washington
Those are some nice sales right out of the gate. Are you writing more?
 

profen4

Banned
Spammer
Joined
Apr 25, 2009
Messages
1,694
Reaction score
186
Location
The Great White North
Way to go, Jazen. And congrats on having 16 sales in one month--first month no less! Way to go. What's your game-plan? Are you writing a series? Stand-alones? Sticking to one market/genre or diversifying? Very curious. I hope you'll keep us posted.

Wishing you much success.
 

Jazen

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
289
Reaction score
10
Location
Georgia
Thanks everyone!!!

Those are some nice sales right out of the gate. Are you writing more?

:) Yay!! I wasn't sure what decent numbers looked like so glad to hear mine are ok. I am writing more. I have started plotting a follow up novel to Fiendish which I hope to have out sometime next year.

Way to go, Jazen. And congrats on having 16 sales in one month--first month no less! Way to go. What's your game-plan? Are you writing a series? Stand-alones? Sticking to one market/genre or diversifying? Very curious. I hope you'll keep us posted.

Wishing you much success.

Thanks! It's been scary and exciting all at the same time. When I wrote Fiendish I hadn't planned on making a series. Once it was done, I decided that my FMC had more story to tell so I've started a follow up book. After that I want to try and write more books with the same twisted fairytale theme like my first one. I will most likely stick to romance, but I don't think the others will be a dark romance like this one. But who knows what will happen when I start writing. I hadn't planned on Fiendish taking the turns it did either. LOL.

One of the running pieces of advice I see often here is to be successful write more books, so that's what I'm going to attempt to do. :)

Congratulations! It takes a lot of work to write a book, and it takes a lot of courage to self-publish!

Thanks! It does take a lot more work than I really understood when I started this process. I have learned a lot, and gained a much greater respect for the art of writing! I have 2 very good friends that helped me with all my grammar issues. Commas were not my friend. LOL Because of the content of my book, I thought self-publishing would be the better option for me. What feels more terrifying to me is the idea of sending out those query letters to agents/publishers.
 

BC11

Possibly related to R2-D2
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 5, 2011
Messages
721
Reaction score
103
Location
Sweden
Keep going Jazen. Liked your blurb on Amazon and look forward to your next update.
 

AgathaChristieFan

proud writer
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 20, 2011
Messages
390
Reaction score
34
Location
Martinsburg, WV
Hey Jazen, congratulations on your sales! You're starting off strong :) Did you ever decide if you were going to switch to KDP select?

It was nice of that blogger to give you a feature. If you have paperbacks, you may want to consider doing some Goodreads giveaways. I noticed after I do those, I get some reviews (but a lot more ratings). Some readers even post the review on Amazon instead of just staying on Goodreads.

Good luck with your publishing journey!
 

Jazen

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
289
Reaction score
10
Location
Georgia
Keep going Jazen. Liked your blurb on Amazon and look forward to your next update.

Thanks. :) And I love your tag line under your name LOL.

Hey Jazen, congratulations on your sales! You're starting off strong :) Did you ever decide if you were going to switch to KDP select?

It was nice of that blogger to give you a feature. If you have paperbacks, you may want to consider doing some Goodreads giveaways. I noticed after I do those, I get some reviews (but a lot more ratings). Some readers even post the review on Amazon instead of just staying on Goodreads.

Good luck with your publishing journey!

Thanks. I am going to switch to select soon. I was waiting for the giveaway to be up that the blogger did for me since I'm not sure what format will be needed. I really appreciate her doing that for me!

My paperback actually just went live yesterday. I had the hardest time with the formatting and a friend and fellow author took pity on me and worked magic on it. Now that it's ready, I am going to do a giveaway on Goodreads. :)

Thanks for all the encouragement. I'm so glad I stumbled upon AW!
 

etherme

Making my own luck
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 28, 2014
Messages
183
Reaction score
12
Location
Iowa City
Website
www.eriktherme.com
Let us know how KDP goes . . . I didn't use KDP for my current novel, but I think I definitely will for the next book. I've only sold a handful using iBooks and B&N.com.
 

Jazen

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
289
Reaction score
10
Location
Georgia
Let us know how KDP goes . . . I didn't use KDP for my current novel, but I think I definitely will for the next book. I've only sold a handful using iBooks and B&N.com.

I will. My giveaway just ended so I'm going to do a .99 sale across all channels this weekend and then go select at the first of June.

Since I am a Nook owner, I wanted to be able and have my own book on my device, but after a month, the sales from B&N are much lower.
 

Judy Koot

WordDreamer
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 3, 2013
Messages
432
Reaction score
15
Location
The Netherlands
Looking forward to following your journey.
Good luck with the sales!
 

Literateparakeet

Nerdy Budgie
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 31, 2011
Messages
1,386
Reaction score
226
Location
Seattle
Website
lesliesillusions.blogspot.com
Welcome to the dark side, we're glad to have you!

I think your response from book bloggers is perfectly normal. I'm not an expert, but I think your cover and blurb are good. No problems there.

I second the suggestion for a Goodreads giveaway. I also recommend a librarything giveaway. I also got reviews from a couple free days on Kindle Select.

Keep us posted on your journey! :)
 

Literateparakeet

Nerdy Budgie
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 31, 2011
Messages
1,386
Reaction score
226
Location
Seattle
Website
lesliesillusions.blogspot.com
Let us know how KDP goes . . . I didn't use KDP for my current novel, but I think I definitely will for the next book. I've only sold a handful using iBooks and B&N.com.

You know it's not too late to do Kindle Select. With my first book, I started on Smashwords. After a few months I decided to give Kindle Select a try. So I unpublished from Smashwords, and waited a week or so until my book was no longer available on Kobo, then put it on Kindle Select. I did the free days which did help me get reviews and a slight but noticeable boost in sales (temporarily), then when the mandatory time was up on Kindle Select, I put it back on Smashwords. I will probably leave it on Smashwords now.

Just saying, you still have options. :)
 

HistorySleuth

Researching History's Mysteries
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 1, 2008
Messages
3,791
Reaction score
855
Location
Western New York State
Website
www.gahwny.org
It's always a tough call which sales route to take. Sometimes you just have to play around with the different channels to see what works. Congrats on your release!
 

Jazen

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
289
Reaction score
10
Location
Georgia
Looking forward to following your journey.
Good luck with the sales!

Thanks! Hopefully next (well later this month) I'll have something to report, even if it's minor.

Welcome to the dark side, we're glad to have you!

I think your response from book bloggers is perfectly normal. I'm not an expert, but I think your cover and blurb are good. No problems there.

I second the suggestion for a Goodreads giveaway. I also recommend a librarything giveaway. I also got reviews from a couple free days on Kindle Select.

Keep us posted on your journey! :)

Thanks for the warm welcome! I'm happy to be here!

I am just sort of going with the flow when it comes to the book bloggers. There are tons of books out there, and the ones that I follow are very busy always updating/reviewing. They offer a great free service to authors giving them exposure and they can't read everything. :)

Thanks, I was very happy with how the cover turned out. The creator did a great job capturing the feel of the story and good to know the blurb doesn't come across as too wordy. I had to weed it down a lot.

I am currently doing a giveaway on Goodreads that runs through July 15. So far I've seen a small spike in it being added to the TBR list, hopefully that will turn into sales. I've not looked into librarything, will need to do that and I'm toying with the idea of doing a blog tour.

I haven't gone select still yet. I need to just pull the trigger on that, but I feel like I'm leaving behind potential readers, even though the numbers don't really support my thinking.

It's always a tough call which sales route to take. Sometimes you just have to play around with the different channels to see what works. Congrats on your release!

Thanks! It's been an exciting time. I am still trying to find the right combo of things that work. The other journeys help to see how others do it. What's good, and what to avoid.
 

Jazen

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
289
Reaction score
10
Location
Georgia
So I'm happy to report I actually have something to report. I've been trying to build my social media presence and while I am getting more Facebook likes and Twitter followers, I'm not sure how that's translating into sales. Either way, I'll keep plugging along.

I haven't gone select on Amazon because I did have a few sales. Not many, but even losing out on one, is one too many to me. In not so happy news, when I pulled my reports to do this update I saw I had a return on Amazon. :( I think that hurt worse than that eventual one star review I know is coming. I've told myself my story isn't for everyone, trying to help thicken that skin, but man it kinda sucks to know some disliked my book enough to return it. I mean I guess there could be other reasons for the return, I don't know how all that works, but dislike is the first thing that came to mind.

Moving on to brighter news, I'm still reviewing my options on blog tour sites. I want to make sure I spend my money wisely.

Based on one of the reviews I got, I'm doing a test run on changing my category. Using Amazon as the guinea pig for this little experiment since they still yield the most sales for me. I still have it listed under romance, but I also put it under the thriller options. I changed up my keywords a bit as well so that it will hopefully pop in both areas. Fingers crossed it gets Fiendish noticed a bit more.

Now for the numbers. May 21-June 20th
Amazon: 8 (returned one subtracted already)
B&N: 2
iTunes: 3
Scrib: 10 views --I don't know how this works. I have royalties listed under my dashboard at Smashwords, but it's not for a whole book sold. Does Scrib pay based on views? If someone can explain that to me, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Total sales to date:
Amazon: 21
B&N: 5
Smashwords: 1
iTunes: 3
 
Last edited:

WriterBN

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 5, 2012
Messages
1,323
Reaction score
87
Location
Delaware
Website
www.k-doyle.com
Congrats on your sales, especially on non-Amazon platforms. I tried them for about 6 months and then went back to KDP Select, because one month of borrows on Select was more than 6 months' combined sales on all other platforms for me.

I haven't bothered with Scribd as yet, but I think they pay when someone reads more than a threshold level (30%?) of the book.
 

Jazen

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
289
Reaction score
10
Location
Georgia
Congrats on your sales, especially on non-Amazon platforms. I tried them for about 6 months and then went back to KDP Select, because one month of borrows on Select was more than 6 months' combined sales on all other platforms for me.

I haven't bothered with Scribd as yet, but I think they pay when someone reads more than a threshold level (30%?) of the book.

Thanks! :)

Can you explain the borrow thing for Select to me?

As for Scribd, being on Smashwords my book is available there. I do have something paid, but it's low...like super low, less than $1 low. I may have to contact Scrib or Smashwords customer service to get an explanation on this.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.