lastlittlebird's belated self-publishing diary

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lastlittlebird

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So... I kept meaning to start one of these, seeing as I've used so many other diary-threads for inspiration, but it's taken me a while.

And now I'm not sure what to say. I guess, start at the beginning?

I was born in 1982 in...

I know, I'm hilarious.


Anyway. I'm an odd duck. I have a tiny fraction of a reputation as a poet (in New Zealand at least) and I've been published a few times (poems and short stories) in pro-paying markets and won/placed in a few competitions.
So I know I can write (either that or I am really good at catching editors when they're desperate).

But it wasn't enough for me. No, I wanted to rake in the big bucks. Possibly an income in the FIVE FIGURES. That's my dream.


So I wrote a rather amateurish young adult adventure/fantasy, slapped a homemade cover on it and got completely demoralized when it failed to sell more than a couple of copies in the first months. I took it down again and sulked for a while. That was two years ago.

Now I'm making another attempt, with some fantasy romance novellas. I decided unicorns were definitely going to be the next big thing so I went with that. Also I like to make jokes about writing "unicorn porn". (I think I might have overemphasized this, however, because my mother just finished reading the first one and told me it needed more sex.)

They have been very fun to write, although my unrealistic hopes of getting one out every month or so have been dashed. The first one, Tempting the Unicorn, was released in April (only on Amazon, because I wanted to take advantage of KDP Select) and so far it sells around 4-6 copies per month.

The second one was released in late September and so far has sold 2 copies, both of which I got quite excited about, because it means (hopefully) that two people liked the first one enough that they wanted to read the second one.
Either that or they were confused.

No reviews or stars as of yet. Hence the excitement over selling even a single copy of the second one. At the moment it feels like I'm singing into a void with no idea if anyone can hear me.
I'm thinking that it'll be easier to get review magic once I've written the third one and can bundle them into a paper copy.

Anyway, so far I've made enough for a steak dinner and I'm rather pathetically pleased with myself.
 

Mclesh

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lastlittlebird, maybe you'll be riding the crest of a new wave of unicorn porn. You never know. There seems to be a niche for everything. ;)

Good luck!
 

Mclesh

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Well, there was that brief moment where dinosaur erotica was all the rage...

My unicorns can (and always do) shape-shift into human-form though. Just wanted to make that clear.

Thanks for the good wishes Mclesh :)

Also sasquatch porn, if I'm not mistaken. (I really wouldn't know, though.) :D
 

grayworld

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Breaking News: Alien-on-T-Rex erotica sweeps nation!

Okay, maybe not. You're funny and you write well. You'll be fine, lastlittlebird. Keep up the excellent work.
 

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For what it's worth (and I realise you weren't asking for feedback, so please just ignore this totally if you want), when I looked at your covers I thought they were kids' books. Apparently not (unicorn porn!). I wonder whether just changing things like the font and the colourscheme would help to give them a more adult look and maybe help with a few more sales?
 

lastlittlebird

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Thank you for the sweet words everyone :)

For what it's worth (and I realise you weren't asking for feedback, so please just ignore this totally if you want), when I looked at your covers I thought they were kids' books. Apparently not (unicorn porn!). I wonder whether just changing things like the font and the colourscheme would help to give them a more adult look and maybe help with a few more sales?

I love feedback, so please anyone feel free to hit me with it.

I have wondered whether my covers were the right strategy... I'm a bit up in the air about my entire approach to be honest.
They aren't really "porn" so much as steamy romance for one thing, I just joke about them being porn.

The covers were supposed to be a bit of a joke, since they potentially look a bit phallic... but you are definitely right that they have very bright colors. I hadn't thought of the fact that they might look like kids books at a glance. So you think changing the font and color scheme would help? I'll have to fiddle with them again. Thanks for taking the time to let me know :)
 

grayworld

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Thank you for the sweet words everyone :)



I love feedback, so please anyone feel free to hit me with it.

I have wondered whether my covers were the right strategy... I'm a bit up in the air about my entire approach to be honest.
They aren't really "porn" so much as steamy romance for one thing, I just joke about them being porn.

The covers were supposed to be a bit of a joke, since they potentially look a bit phallic... but you are definitely right that they have very bright colors. I hadn't thought of the fact that they might look like kids books at a glance. So you think changing the font and color scheme would help? I'll have to fiddle with them again. Thanks for taking the time to let me know :)

At first glance, I thought your covers had an MG Fantasy feel. I'm sure a quick peek under the hood would let a reader (or, [ideally], parent of a reader) know what's in store. Personally, I'm fine with the covers. And now the phallic thing totally makes sense after you mentioned it :)
 

Celeste Carrara

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Now I'm making another attempt, with some fantasy romance novellas. I decided unicorns were definitely going to be the next big thing so I went with that. Also I like to make jokes about writing "unicorn porn". (I think I might have overemphasized this, however, because my mother just finished reading the first one and told me it needed more sex.)

I agree and think unicorns are the next big thing too. But even though I write erotic romance, I'm going in a totally different direction and writing a YA fantasy novel with a unicorn shifter. Let's hope both of our new ventures pan out!! I really wish you much success!! :)


I wanted to add that I read Tempting The Unicorn. It is not porn, not at all! ;)

As for your cover, I knew that the book was suppose to be erotic so I immediately got the phallic symbol. But, I do have to agree about the feel of the cover. The font and colors scream fantasy to me. But the phallic symbol could go missed by a lot of people. So maybe some tweaking on the cover could say both fantasy & erotic romance a little better?

I'm always curious how authors come up with their prices. If you don't mind me asking how did you come up with the pricing for your novellas?
 

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Thank you for the sweet words everyone :)



I love feedback, so please anyone feel free to hit me with it.

I have wondered whether my covers were the right strategy... I'm a bit up in the air about my entire approach to be honest.
They aren't really "porn" so much as steamy romance for one thing, I just joke about them being porn.

The covers were supposed to be a bit of a joke, since they potentially look a bit phallic... but you are definitely right that they have very bright colors. I hadn't thought of the fact that they might look like kids books at a glance. So you think changing the font and color scheme would help? I'll have to fiddle with them again. Thanks for taking the time to let me know :)

Sorry, I misunderstood the unicorn porn bit! But I don't really think these look like steamy romance either, and I'd say the same thing. I'd go for a cleaner, simpler font and a subtler colour scheme. The artwork is kind of funny, and I think it could work well, so long as you have enough other signals that mark it as adult romance.

Good luck!
 

girlyswot

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At first glance, I thought your covers had an MG Fantasy feel. I'm sure a quick peek under the hood would let a reader (or, [ideally], parent of a reader) know what's in store. Personally, I'm fine with the covers. And now the phallic thing totally makes sense after you mentioned it :)

I guess I was thinking more that potential readers of the book might skip over it because they thought the cover signalled a kids book, rather than kids picking it up by accident. Because you're right, there's plenty to make it clear in the blurb and sample that it isn't for them!
 

lastlittlebird

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I agree and think unicorns are the next big thing too. But even though I write erotic romance, I'm going in a totally different direction and writing a YA fantasy novel with a unicorn shifter. Let's hope both of our new ventures pan out!! I really wish you much success!! :)


I wanted to add that I read Tempting The Unicorn. It is not porn, not at all! ;)

As for your cover, I knew that the book was suppose to be erotic so I immediately got the phallic symbol. But, I do have to agree about the feel of the cover. The font and colors scream fantasy to me. But the phallic symbol could go missed by a lot of people. So maybe some tweaking on the cover could say both fantasy & erotic romance a little better?

I'm always curious how authors come up with their prices. If you don't mind me asking how did you come up with the pricing for your novellas?

Thank you! I wish you all the success in the world as well. We can get a movement going :)

As for pricing, basically I just went with the lowest price that allowed the 70% royalty. I have tried a couple of other, lower price points, but sales didn't pick up, so missing out on the 70% wasn't worth it.
I know that it works for a lot of people to put the first book at a lower price as a loss leader and I might try that again in the future once the third book is out. I don't really know if it will be worth it though, as I'm not sure how often people will want to read the rest of the series after reading the first one.


So... I changed the cover of the first one. Hopefully you can see it in my signature. I know this isn't the forum for cover critique but if it looks absolutely scary please let me know :)
 

lastlittlebird

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Hmmm... big jump in rank since the cover went live, but no new sales. I'm guessing it's from people stopping by to look? I didn't realize the rank algorithm was that affected by page views.
I'm cautiously optimistic. Also worried. But I'm always worried.
 

J. Tanner

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Hmmm... big jump in rank since the cover went live, but no new sales. I'm guessing it's from people stopping by to look? I didn't realize the rank algorithm was that affected by page views.

Bestseller rank is based purely on sales (and KDP Select borrows count as sales too). So it's probably a sale that didn't show up in real time, and you'll see it in a few hours. (In rare cases, it can be a day or two even.)

The popularity list can be impacted by other more nebulous things outside of sales. People can and do speculate whether things like page views help it, but no one knows for sure.
 

WriterBN

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There's a lag from orders (when someone purchases a book) to sales (when the payment is processed) to rankings. It used to be fairly quick, but seems to have lengthened lately.
 

Judy Koot

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Very curious about your journey, hope you'll do well so you can buy more steak dinners in the future and keep amusing us with your funny posts :lol:
 
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