Share Your Successes!

triceretops

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Thanks, Wesley. Much appreciated. Nice cover in the Avi, BTW.

Does anyone know how long it takes for sales rank to show up after a book has gone live on Amazon? I have one that hit yesterday and is showing nada. Are sales processed immediately, or is there a certain amount of lag time? It's a case of the nervous jitters, I guess. I'm kicking some serious fanny on BookStrand (if I'm reading it correctly), and wondered why I haven't gotten a spill-over onto the Amazon site.

Heck, could be no sales, doncha know!

Keep succeeding!

tri
 

Nick Russell

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Tri, a book's rank on Amazon depends on sales numbers, among other things. Have you had any Amazon sales?

Have have you checked to see what sales you have on the Amazon report? It is usually updated hourly, but sometimes there is a lag time.
 

Nick Russell

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Tri, here is the link to the reports page. You have to register with Amazon, which is free. However, I'm not sure if you can access the reports or only your publisher can.
 

Mark Moore

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A couple of weeks ago we were paddling your kayaks with the manatee in Crystal River, Florida.

OMG, that's the city directly to the north of me! Awesome! (Until recently, I worked at the Kmart in the dying mall there.)

Did you know Piers Anthony lives in nearby Inverness? That's what I've heard anyway.

As for my successes, I have 8 short stories on sale on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords (well, one of them has been "processing" for the past few days on B&N), and I sold two copies last month (one copy of Vampire Killer #1 on Amazon and one copy of Becoming a Hero #1 on Smashwords).

I also have a free essay/list on Smashwords (with ads at the end for my various series), and, coincidentally or not, I noticed the Becoming a Hero #1 sale soon after I published the list on Smashwords.
 

Mark Moore

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Mark, you're making progress and it can only get better (more fruitful). Good luck with those shorts--they sure can add up when there's enough of them. I'm working on more now.

Thanks, though I think they might sell better once they're collected. "Becoming a Hero" will be the first to be finished (mostly because I'm just cleaning up old, unpublished stories). I'll be curious to see how a collection sells versus a single short story.
 

Nick Russell

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Mark,
We hope to get back to Crystal River for a couple of weeks this winter.
 

EngineerTiger

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Do you ever have one of those days where you're just muddling along and something happens that makes your jaw drop?

One of my readers sent me an email with the tease, "You might want to look at this link." http://www.sonyreaderboards.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2813&p=22983

BLACK KNIGHTS OF THE HUDSON BOOK I: SHADOW OF THE FLAGS has been selected on the Sony eReader Reader Forums as the July Book of the Month!

I didn't even know Sony had reader forums. It was also interesting to scroll down the topics to see the discussion where the reader members selected it. This is why, even though the bulk of my sales and reviews are on Amazon, I stick with Smashwords and the broader distribution.

Anyway, a nice start to the weekend. I hope the rest of you have news as nice today.
 

Nick Russell

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Congratulations, Bev, and well deserved. I am almost through book four in the series now, and they still captivate me.
 

Jason Kaplan

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Nervous

I've read all the inputs and threads, and I should be greatly encouraged by all of your successes! Especially those of you whose avatars are your books, right there before our very eyes!

Yet, here I sit with three completed novels ready to go, and eBookIt waiting for me to give them my first one and I'm scared.

It's pathetic! I can't bring myself to pull the trigger. Scared, intimidated, overly excited -- all these emotions probably grown from the hundreds of rejection letters I received over the years. I know they have no bearing now in this great new eBook world, but I seem emotionally scarred from the battles.
 

EngineerTiger

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I understand entirely, Jason. I had to really take a few deep breaths before I worked up the courage to attempt it. It is a scary thing to undertake. Here, in this forum especially, you will find a lot of support so take our hands, mind the step, steady, you're doing fine.

Thanks as always, Nick. Between your kind words and reviews and a lengthy phone conversation with my narrator, I'm in danger of developing a very swelled head.

I don't worry about that very much, however. My fellah has a knack for pulling me firmly back to earth when I get too starry-eyed with the simple words, "Yeah, Honey, I'm proud of you and I may even get around to reading your books for myself one of these days."
 

Jason Kaplan

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Thank you, Tiger!

Thanks, Tiger. I seem to be losing confidence after having such a head of steam. My family's all for it and they're waiting for me.

I will use this weekend to relax and realize that I'm not going to let the ghost of Big Publishing lock me down. Ebooks are the future and Big Pub is a dinosaur.

Thanks for your encouragement.
 

merrihiatt

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Congratulations, Beverly. What fabulous news!!!

Jason, it's not pathetic at all. Self-publishing is an intimidating process at first. The learning curve is substantial. Imagine how you'll feel six months from now when you're looking back at your beginning. You'll be astonished at how much you've learned and grown. Good luck.
 

EngineerTiger

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Jason, just keep in mind you're not in a sprint. There is no prize for finishing sooner. It is better to take it slow and steady, a step at a time, so you don't overwhelm yourself.

Thanks, Merri.
 

Old Hack

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I will use this weekend to relax and realize that I'm not going to let the ghost of Big Publishing lock me down. Ebooks are the future and Big Pub is a dinosaur.

Jason, I have to take you to task for the statement I've bolded: it's really not true, and I hope that as you spend more time here you'll realise that. The reason I'm picking you up on this is that while I don't think for a minute that you meant to insult anyone, such sentiments are insulting for our many members who choose to work with trade publishing, and we really don't encourage an "us vs. them" attitude here at AW. I hope you understand.

Having said all of that, I'm really glad you're finding AW supportive and helpful. There are some great people here, and I love the place. If you're considering self publishing you might find it useful to put some of your work up for critique in Share Your Work (you'll need 50 posts before you can do that, but you'll soon get there), just to see if there's any further polishing that needs to be done. It's really useful.
 

Cyia

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Why do so many people think that "big publishing / old publishing / traditional publishing / whatever" excludes e-books? Every trade publisher I know of - especially the larger ones - put out e-books. Suzanne Collins didn't sell 1,000,000 digital copies of The Hunger Games by going behind her publisher's back - of course the big houses utilize e-books.

There's nothing wrong with self-e-publishing a book, if you know what you're doing, and know how to use the system to your best advantage, but don't go at it thinking that it's the only way you'll see your books on Kindle, nook, Kobo, etc. Digital rights are hugely important with publishers.
 

Jason Kaplan

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ENGOURAGED!

Thank you all for your posts. I do feel much better after reading them and considering their meanings.

As per Old Hack, let me say to everyone on WC that I meant no disrespect.

I was venting. I'm sure everyone here has done that. So I apologize if I have offended anyone. Right now my emotions are riding high at this whole new world, both positive and negative.

I'll not make the mistake again of pitting one method over another again. We all have experienced both methods, for good or not. I'm sorry if that's the way it sounded.

Thank you all again. I hope to pull that trigger very soon! I'll keep you posted!
 

Old Hack

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Cyia, you're right. But here, at least, we help people understand how things really are.

And Jason--thanks for that. I look forward to seeing more of you about the place.
 

Deleted member 42

Ebooks are the future and Big Pub is a dinosaur.

Thanks for your encouragement.

Dude, ebooks go back to the 1990s when people like me were producing ebooks for Time Warner, Avon, Random House, Farrar Strauss and Giroux, Bantam, and many other publishers.

1. Ebooks are old. They are not the future. They've been here.

2. The purchasing and development curves of ebooks matches technology placement; that is, as computers have evolved and gotten smaller and the digital network pipes have gotten larger, ebooks have paralleled those developments.

2. "Big six" publishers backed ebooks—all the way to having production staff attending Open Ebook meetings and helping to create ebook standards that resulted in ePUB.

Treat your self-published ebook with the same degree of rigor a publisher with a staff would. Edit. Proof. Design. Layout. Typesetting. Take advantage of those features and options ebooks offer that printed books lack.