Tales from a hybrid author

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Mayfair

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Just to nitpick, because that's what I do, but self publishing is only the most profitable way for a writer to publish under a specific set of very limiting parameters. If I were to self publish now I would earn far less than I do by working with trade publishers.
Agreed. I write suspense fiction and it's done well self-published. But a friend who has written a very scholarly work on phobias is not meeting with the same success. A publisher would be the best way to go for this type of book. I'd say that cutting out the middle man can be profitable for most fiction, but I'm not so sure about non-fiction because I don't write in that category.

P.S. I just wanted to add here that from my experience, the shorter the story, the better it sells. I imagine that's because many people don't have the time to devote to a 100,000 word opus. They want something short, snappy and light. Another plus here is that the shorter stories are generally cheaper as well. I price many of mine at 99 cents.
 
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AnneGlynn

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girlyswot, I think you're doing wonderfully well. Congratulations on your success. Now you have me wondering if my covers are slowing my sales. Of maybe it's just the general strange sci fi - romance - zombie-ness combination of things like World War Zelda that's leaving the audience cold.

I just wanted to add here that from my experience, the shorter the story, the better it sells. I imagine that's because many people don't have the time to devote to a 100,000 word opus. They want something short, snappy and light. Another plus here is that the shorter stories are generally cheaper as well. I price many of mine at 99 cents.

Mayfair, are your stories roughly the same length as girlyswot's? A few of my scattered reviews have complained that they'd like my 15,000-20,000 word stories to be longer (even though they're priced at 99-cents).
 
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MandyHarbin

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I just wanted to add here that from my experience, the shorter the story, the better it sells.

My experience doesn't agree with this. I self pub (I'm a hybrid author) and for me, it's not so much the size as it is the price point. Usually size dictates price, but with self-pubbed books anything goes. I've seen 100k word novels and even box sets with several large novels priced at $0.99...and they sell like crazy. Yet, my $2.99 55k-65k word stories sell many more times that of my shorter, cheaper ones. I read this as readers want as much story as they can get for their dollar. If it came to spending $0.99 on a 60k word novel or spending it a novella half that size, they're going to grab the novel first.

BUT...the only time I price something at $0.99 is for limited sales or marketing endeavors. It's just not financially viable for me otherwise. Using Amazon's royalty rate, I have to sale almost 7x as many books when I price it at $0.99 vs. $2.99. It's much easier to make $100 by selling 48 books than it is by selling 334 books.
 

girlyswot

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Today's exciting news: the cover, blurb and title for the French translation of my Christmas story! You can see it all here, though it's not on sale until December 6th.

I've made some changes to pricing on my self-published books, though Amazon are being incredibly slow about reverting a free book to paid and vice versa. If there's one thing I really wish they would change, it would be to let me see the pricing on different Amazon sites. I'm still not sure whether the book I want to be free is free or not (it was last night, according to a friend, but it looks like it might have changed back this morning, according to the rankings on author central). Anyway, I've set all the novellas to $2.99, left the new short story at $0.99, and am making the Christmas short story free, hoping to make the most of the holiday season. It feels like sales have slowed dramatically in the last month or so and I'm not really sure why. I have another Entangled book due out next month and hopefully that will help.
 

girlyswot

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So, November has been a much better month for sales than October. About 160 paid sales of the self-pub books (compared to 95 last month). The new short story is on sale and is beginning to sell a few copies. The others are puttering along nicely.

I have done almost no writing because my PhD viva is coming up soon and all my spare time is going into preparation for that. But once it's over, I'm hoping to have a lot more time and energy and I have big plans for 2014!
 

girlyswot

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Happy new year, everyone! I've been doing my accounts, so I thought it was probably time for an update here.


The UK tax year starts in April, so that’s how my accounts are done. 2013/2014 is, therefore, only a provisional amount. I’ve given the actual amount so far plus my best estimate of what it will be in April. The figures given only include income from writing, not any of my other work. I have not actually been surviving on this income! Dollar approximations in brackets are not exact, since I keep my accounts in sterling.
2011/12: £50.16 ($80)
2012/13: £1776.56 ($2900)
2013/14: £5326.89 (actual); £5900 (estimated total), ($8750 (actual), $9700 (estimated)).

Here’s how that compares to books published:
2011/12: Reckless Runaway, Tycoon’s Convenient Wife, All I Want for Christmas
2012/13: Table for One, The Oil Tycoon
2013/14: Flirting with the Camera, Last Night of the Summer

My biggest seller in 2013/14 by far is The Tycoon’s Convenient Wife. All I Want For Christmas has also contributed a large chunk, mostly because of foreign rights sales.

Total from Entangled books: £2731.11 ($4500)
Total from self-pub books: £3265.71 ($5400)
However, my self-published titles did not really start selling until after the Entangled books came out. I think there is a fair chance that if I had only self-published I’d still be making something more like the 2011/12 figures.

So, that’s where I’m at. It’s all going in the right direction and I’m excited to see what will happen this year.
 
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Ann Joyce

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It's great to see you going strong, Ros! Congratulations and thanks for keeping us updated. I love reading everyone's stories.
 

girlyswot

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One of the problems about being a hybrid author is that I don't get to be in control of when everything happens. After a few frustratingly slow months, there's been a suddenly flurry of action with my next Entangled book which had been pushed back from last December to this April. I'm now waiting to do the final proofing on that and I'm excited how it's turned out. Hopefully the April release will work well to capitalise on the connection with the World Cup - it's about a French footballer and part of it is set in Rio. In the meantime, I'm about to self-publish another short story. I've been working with a new editor who has been brilliant and I'm really looking forward to working with her more in the future.

So, I'll have the short story out next week and the Entangled book a couple of weeks later. I'm hoping that these will give a boost to some of my other titles which have been languishing a bit lately.
 

girlyswot

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Island Fling is now on sale! And the publication date of An Unsuitable Husband is now set for April 21st. You can see the cover here - YUM.

Sales have been steady but unspectacular recently. I'm hoping that will change with the new books coming out. And also, Flirting With The Camera is going to be in a box set coming out in June, organised by Mandy Harbin (thanks, Mandy!) which I'm really hoping will boost visibility of that and, therefore, my other books too.

In the meantime, I'm finishing revisions to my new sheikh story which I think I am going to submit to Mills and Boon. And then I'm starting a draft of a new book which I'm on the fence about whether to send it to Entangled or self-publish it. I might wait and see how sales of An Unsuitable Husband go, and also see what effect the box set has. I'm excited to work with the editor I used for Island Fling again. She did such a great job and she's been really enthusiastic about working with me.

So there's lots going on! I have a big holiday planned in May and I can't wait for the break.
 

MandyHarbin

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(((girlyswot))) I'm excited about!

Congrats on the new release, I'll do some pimping for you and help spread the word.
 

juliatheswede

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Hi Girlyswot. Thanks for posting your journey! Fascinating. I'm also with Entangled and self-publishing as well... Checked out the cover. So hot! And the blurb is good too.
 

alexaherself

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Well done indeed. :cool:

The whole thread's very interesting: thank you for it. :)
 
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