Trying to self-publish but I'm lazy

Fruitbat · Jul 28, 2014

Thanks AVS and Revan.

And now I'm ending day 7, and back to $2.99 rather than free. Sales= Zero.

RevanWright · Jul 28, 2014

Fruitbat said:
Thanks AVS and Revan.

And now I'm ending day 7, and back to $2.99 rather than free. Sales= Zero.

It's tough going for (almost) everyone starting out. You had a better first day of free than I just did, at least. Chin up! Keep working at it and you'll get there.

WriterBN · Jul 29, 2014

July has been my worst month ever for sales (even though borrows have been up, thanks to Kindle Unlimited). I think summer is slow for most people.

Fruitbat · Jul 30, 2014

After 400-some odd ebooks taken for free total on the five free days, and a day on either side of that with no sales at $2.99 (except a couple from friends), I decided to raise the price to $4.99 just to see if it made any difference. I've heard more than one person say that too cheap can give people a bad impression, but the paperback is coming out in a couple of days at about $11, so didn't want to make it too close to that... Anyway, yesterday at $4.99, I got 3 "sales" but they were all Kindle Unlimited, which I don't really understand. I think I get paid something if they read over 10% or something like that, and otherwise, I don't get paid.

Which all proves that people are very mean!

Fruitbat · Jul 30, 2014

Ooh, just checked and my paperback is up on Amazon now too.

Literateparakeet · Jul 30, 2014

Fruitbat said:
Which all proves that people are very mean!

I don't quite understand this last line. Were you joking or serious?

As I understand it, Kindle Unlimited is a new program. Readers pay a monthly fee to borrow an unlimited number of ebooks. I think they get to keep them in their ereader as long as they are part of the program. Writers do get paid but at a different rate than if their book was actually sold.

If I said any of that wrong, someone feel free to correct me.

The 10% thing you mentioned is a normal sample size. You want people to be able to read a sample to see if it is something they might be interested in. Sort of like when you go to a book store and you open a book and read the first couple of pages. I think amazon (and other sellers) are helping both readers and authors by having that 10% sample.

I hope that clarifies things a bit.

Fruitbat · Jul 31, 2014

I decided to change the end date on my Goodreads giveaway. I read a recommendation by them to give away at least 10 copies and let the drawing run for 30 days. So I signed up for that.

Now it's been running for about 10 days and is at 253 people signed up. But most of those signed up the first day or two. After that it gets buried in the middle of all the giveaway pages and only a couple more people sign up per day. I assume the number of people signing up will go way up again at the very end, where it's at the top of their list when people click on the "ending dates" rather than the "beginning dates."

So, I cut it short. It takes a day or so for Goodreads to approve the change, then it will end on August 4 rather than August 21.

From now on I think I'll do my Goodreads giveaways for a week rather than a month. More and shorter giveaways, because as I said, not much has happened during that long stretch in the middle.

RevanWright · Jul 31, 2014

Fruitbat said:
I decided to change the end date on my Goodreads giveaway. I read a recommendation by them to give away at least 10 copies and let the drawing run for 30 days. So I signed up for that.

Now it's been running for about 10 days and is at 253 people signed up. But most of those signed up the first day or two. After that it gets buried in the middle of all the giveaway pages and only a couple more people sign up per day. I assume the number of people signing up will go way up again at the very end, where it's at the top of their list when people click on the "ending dates" rather than the "beginning dates."

So, I cut it short. It takes a day or so for Goodreads to approve the change, then it will end on August 4 rather than August 21.

From now on I think I'll do my Goodreads giveaways for a week rather than a month. More and shorter giveaways, because as I said, not much has happened during that long stretch in the middle.

Good showing so far! I can't wait to do a giveaway when my damn hardback finally rolls out.
Congrats on the free period and following sales, too!

Literateparakeet · Jul 31, 2014

Fruitbat said:
From now on I think I'll do my Goodreads giveaways for a week rather than a month. More and shorter giveaways, because as I said, not much has happened during that long stretch in the middle.

That's an interesting strategy. I've noticed the same with my giveaways...i.e. people mostly sign up the first couple days or the last. I might have to try your strategy.

Have you tried librarything? I think the one week strategy could work there too.

Fruitbat · Aug 2, 2014

Goodreads took it down for a day or two to re-do it and now it's at 430 people signed up, as opposed to the 253 that were mostly in the first couple of days, so yes, the first and last couple of days are where most of the people have signed up. Less than two days until it ends.

I'll try librarything. Thanks.

Barbara R. · Aug 2, 2014

Have you considered a small, traditional publisher? By traditional I mean that you pay them nothing---they publish at their own expense and you received royalties. An advance would be nice, too, but many small publishers don't pay advances. That's why they accept submissions directly from writers; literary agents won't sell to such publishers. But they can be a great alternative route for those who haven't managed a big-five deal yet but don't want to go the self-publishing route, which is really hard. Forget about the technical difficulties of formatting, etc. It's the marketing (i.e. lack of marketing opportunities) that'll kill you.

I wrote this blog post about the "third way" after a student of mine signed with Entangled and met with great success. Have a read if you're interested.

WriterBN · Aug 2, 2014

Fruitbat said:
From now on I think I'll do my Goodreads giveaways for a week rather than a month. More and shorter giveaways, because as I said, not much has happened during that long stretch in the middle.

Shorter giveaways are definitely better. The first and last days are all that matter, anyway, unless you're promoting the giveaway very heavily on other sites.

Don't get your hopes up too high, though

Fruitbat · Aug 4, 2014

My giveaway ended at 961 people entering the drawing for 10 books. Now to see what that leads to, if anything.

Literateparakeet · Aug 4, 2014

Congratulations! That is awesome.

I'm going to try your "shorter" approach for my next giveaway.

plumone · Aug 4, 2014

I've had my site up for almost a month and have yet to make any sales. (Actual books, I don't sell e-books)

SunshineonMe · Aug 6, 2014

That's a huge turnout for goodreads! Congratulations Fruitbat!!

Fruitbat · Aug 28, 2014

Oh gosh, where did I leave off...

Okay, results so far:

Free- Somewhere around 500 Kindle downloads, over a five day giveaway on Amazon.

Paid Kindle downloads- 10, over 3 weeks. None in the past week. I tried prices of .99, $2.99, and $4.99 and sold a few at each price.

Another 6 Kindle downloads over 3 weeks on "Kindle Unlimited," where they can download 10 e-books at a time, I think, for $10 a month. I get paid something if they read more than 10% of my book. None in the past week.

No paperbacks sold. A dozen given out on Goodreads giveaways. Two showed up immediately online for resale so yup, what J. Tanner said below on those.
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3 reviews on Amazon. 6 ratings/4 reviews on Goodreads.
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Now I've contracted for someone to do the audiobook (through Amazon's program, acx.com), but it won't be ready for a couple of months. Flat fee will be $270. The lady I picked has a cool sultry voice and it's done with studio equipment so I can't wait to hear it.
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I know there's usually not much money in flash fiction but I enjoy it. I don't enjoy promoting. So, I've pretty much quit even my half-assed attempts. Except I might go through the places my flash stories are out at and shoot a link to my book to the ones that accept it. My future flash publications will be my promotion, whether in more mags and anthologies or self-published on Kindle. With flash fiction, I expected a trickle of sales over a long time so I'm happy with it.

J. Tanner · Aug 28, 2014

Fruitbat said:
Now I've contracted for someone to do the audiobook (through Amazon's program, acx.com), but it won't be ready for a couple of months. Flat fee will be $270. The lady I picked has a cool sultry voice and it's done with studio equipment so I can't wait to hear it.

Wow. That's really reasonable compared to what I've heard about ACX. That rate is about $50 per finished hour or so, and I'd heard it tends to be more like $150.

Fruitbat · Aug 28, 2014

J. Tanner said:
Wow. That's really reasonable compared to what I've heard about ACX. That rate is about $50 per finished hour or so, and I'd heard it tends to be more like $150.

Yep, $50 per finished hour. There were a lot of them who listed that they'd work for that, although of course plenty who wanted a lot more, too. Since I don't expect to make a ton of money from this deal myself, I didn't think it made sense to pay much more than that.

RevanWright · Aug 28, 2014

Fruitbat said:
Two showed up immediately online for resale so yup, what J. Tanner said below on those.

I never even considered that people would do that. That makes me angry.

Flat fee will be $270.

Wow, sounds like a good deal! I was expecting quite a bit more.

Congrats on the reviews and ratings, though. Sales may be slow, but you're off to a pretty good start.

Fruitbat · Aug 28, 2014

Thanks, Revan.

SunshineonMe · Aug 28, 2014

I think you are doing great! Everywhere I've seen authors are saying sales are way down for August. I just ran a sale and it wasn't great compared to past ones. Thankful for any sales though! It should pick up next month. Kindle Unlimited kind of through a kink in the whole thing. Hopefully that will work out soon.

Trying to self-publish but I'm lazy

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