Share Your Successes!

Skyler West

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Thanks tri and merri. 14 sales now!

Just can't seem to get any traction in the US. UK is going well. I'm reaching out to book bloggers/reviewers but every one of them is backlogged for months. I've promoted it pretty much everywhere else, but it's certainly not easy.
 

randi.lee

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Very, very small thing, I know, but I finally sent my first submission for my current WIP to an agent! It's a personal success--a fear of rejection has kept me from doing it for a while now--but I finally did it! :)
 

triceretops

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Thanks tri and merri. 14 sales now!

Just can't seem to get any traction in the US. UK is going well. I'm reaching out to book bloggers/reviewers but every one of them is backlogged for months. I've promoted it pretty much everywhere else, but it's certainly not easy.

Oh, it's not easy at all. It can get downright tedious at times. But congrats on the sales!
 

Mark Moore

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Yesterday, just under 12 hours after the first sale, "Becoming a Hero: The Complete Collection" had another sale - again on Smashwords.

I've never had two sales in a day before, much less of the same thing.

Today, perhaps coincidentally, the sample downloads shot into the stratosphere (er, relatively speaking).

I'm cautiously optimistic.
 

Skyler West

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Yesterday, just under 12 hours after the first sale, "Becoming a Hero: The Complete Collection" had another sale - again on Smashwords.

I've never had two sales in a day before, much less of the same thing.

Today, perhaps coincidentally, the sample downloads shot into the stratosphere (er, relatively speaking).

I'm cautiously optimistic.

Fantastic, Mark! Let's hope it's the start of your ball rolling and picking up speed! :)
 

MartinD

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Very, very small thing, I know, but I finally sent my first submission for my current WIP to an agent! It's a personal success--a fear of rejection has kept me from doing it for a while now--but I finally did it! :)

Not a small thing at all, Randi.Lee. That's fantastic!
 

sandyn

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Woohoo! Had a sale of Out of Erebus on Amazon; also put a free novella on Smashwords and have had 70 downloads so far. Baby steps but have to start somewhere. A friend of mine read the free novella and said she loved it so much she read it twice!
 

Nick Russell

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Congratulations Mark!

Oh Bookmama, there are more and more mornings when I look in the mirror and wonder who the heck that old coot looking back at me is! :)
 

Nick Russell

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I have not been on much lately and this week we are holding our Eastern Gypsy Journal Rally for about 100 RVs, so I will be pulling 14 to 16 hour days. But I wanted to congratulate all of you one your recent achievements and wish you much continued success.
 

sandyn

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Another sale on Amazon! This time for Monique's Wish. It is so gratifying to see people buying your work even though you're not getting huge amounts of money.
 

triceretops

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Kind of a dumb question from a newbie, but I have been asked for a review copy of my book, so it can be recopied and sent to multiple review sites. Now how do I do that? Do I buy a copy, download it and then send it as an attachment? Or is there a way for Amazon to furnish me one? Or do I just take the original file and then send that? The file that was downloaded to Amazon, I mean, which would require that I send the cover art as a separate file, I presume.

Ack. There is also a "lending" option for me, and don't even know what that's about...

tri
 

merrihiatt

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The lending option is for someone who bought your e-book (they can lend it once for 14 days). During that time the original buyer does not have access to the book the person who it has been sent to. When the 14 days are up... swoosh, it's back on your Kindle/Kinde app.

Ask the reviewer what kind of format they want the title in. You can send them a Kindle compatible file, but they may want it in ePub format. Find out how they want it and send it to them in the format they want.

ETA: You can insert your cover image at the front of your book. I do this with all my e-books.
 
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Skyler West

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About 8 weeks ago I finished writing my 87.ooo word, Action and Adventure book: "Warrior" The next step was to have it proofread and copy edited, which took a further 2 weeks during which time I was faced with a huge dilemma.


Should I approach a Literary Agent, a daunting thought, or take the cowards way out and go by way of an EBook?
I sat for hours with the: Writers and Artists’ hand book 2012 staring me in the face and, even though I had selected and, book- marked all the likely Literary Agents who may or may not decide to take a look at two years hard work, and I felt convinced or rather; had been convinced by most of the negative material I had read on the subject; that as a new writer, I didn’t stand a chance in Hell, I couldn’t actually come to send off that first letter.


Recently, fellow authors and writers have told me that the reason was; I was suffering from a reasonably new syndrome, associated with writing and publishing known as; “Fear of Slush piles syndrome.” aka F.S.P


So E-Book it was and what an adventure, talk about stress! There was the manuscript to convert to an e-book friendly format, in this case a mobi file for Amazon Kindle and, the web has hundreds of people who will do it for you for around $50, but will it be done right? If it’s not put though all the correct stages of conversion; by someone who knows exactly what they are doing, the results will be disaster! Then there were e-book publishers and distributors to find and study, cover image designers, because contrary to the popular myth that, “one should never judge a book by its cover…” It’s a lie, they do!


In fact I have spent an enormous amount of time on the internet just learning the basics about self publishing and e-books, the do’s and don'ts, the, who to talk to and, who not to, believe me it’s taken a steady hand to navigate this sea of confusion but finally, on the 8th of August I was published!
The rush didn’t end there either, once you’re up and running you suddenly find out you have a zillion new questions to ask, and it all begins again, but eventually, slowly and quietly and, before you even realize the change in you demeanor; from one of, stressed out writer, to a happy and proud, published author, you wake up one morning and, going to your sales pages on Amazon Kindle only to find that you sold another book last night, and guess what. Your there!
Upon reflection. It’s now three weeks I’ve been on the Amazon book page and to be honest I haven’t sold many books yet; less than 10 in fact. And whilst my over active imagination starts to signal red lights, logic steps in and tells me. Its more than I would have sold had I taken the other option, the one that was causing my F.S.P, at least people know I’m out there now and, It’s me who decides where my book goes on sale,Amazon don't have exclusive rights on my work,and I decide the price to sell it. And best of all; I haven’t rushed to the front door every morning to see if there has been a reply from “Literary Never- land and sons”
My advice to those of you who may also be suffering from F.S.P, is .Do it and whilst you’re at it, get started on book two in case you find the e-publishing thing to not to your liking, although, I doubt it!


I have recently taken steps to place a new cover design on my book, “Warrior” by James S Bresco. Amazon Kindle, reassigned its location to Action and Adventure and changed the genre to Fantasy and, sales are picking up again.


A success story you ask?Only if I work at the advertising,keeping an eye on current market trends and so on.

You can see it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008UYOBTO/?tag=absowrit-21

Well done on publishing your book. However, I can tell you one thing right away that will see your sales pick up. Get an editor to review your work. You say you studied a lot before publishing your e-book, so I'm sure you've seen everyone mentioning the need for an editor. I can tell from your Amazon sample that an editor hasn't touched it. I HEARTILY recommend that you pay someone to go through it. You'll be amazed at the changes they make. There are a LOT of grammar and very basic punctuation errors in your work.

Please don't take that negatively. It's just friendly advice that will save you any negative reviews relating to poor editing farther down the line.

Good luck with everything!

Skyler
 

Old Hack

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About 8 weeks ago I finished writing my 87.ooo word, Action and Adventure book: "Warrior" The next step was to have it proofread and copy edited, which took a further 2 weeks during which time I was faced with a huge dilemma.

The next step was to revise it a few times, actually. But there you go.

Should I approach a Literary Agent, a daunting thought, or take the cowards way out and go by way of an EBook?

I think you mean "take the cowards [sic] way out and go by way of self publishing". Please note that by suggesting self publishers are cowards you're violating AW's one rule of "respect your fellow writer", and if I were feeling less generous I'd give you a time-out for that right now. Be more careful in future, and more accurate in what you write.

I sat for hours with the: Writers and Artists’ hand book 2012 staring me in the face and, even though I had selected and, book- marked all the likely Literary Agents who may or may not decide to take a look at two years hard work, and I felt convinced or rather; had been convinced by most of the negative material I had read on the subject; that as a new writer, I didn’t stand a chance in Hell, I couldn’t actually come to send off that first letter.

If your novel is as verbose, confusing, and poorly-structured as this comment of yours, it needs a lot of cutting.

And new writers get picked up by agents and big publishing houses every day.

If you want to promote your book here, James, start a thread in Announcements, and don't try to hijack existing threads to do it. Thanks.
 

Calle Jay

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Success!
(At least for me!)

After spending all weekend fighting with formatting for Createspace, (I'm still not sure what I was doing wrong as I've formatted many books for Createspace!) I managed to hit the approve proof button on my paranormal romance. It's now available (here) for purchase. Now I have to go back and figure out what I've done wrong in the large print version.

I'm glad I got the paperback out. I've got the first novella in the series price-matched at free on Amazon (finally) and am starting to notice a gradual climb in sales of the ebook version of this novel over the past month. The novel is the second in the series and I plan on getting the rest out in paperback this month as well!
 

Kitty27

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Go head,y'all!

Congrats on the sales and everything else!

I feel like I am taking tiny steps but I am still moving! That's what counts,right?

I narrowed my books down to six novels in two genres,horror and YA. I haven't quite figured out if I should use the same name for both or different ones. Or just focus on one genre at a time. Any advice from any of you wise folks would be appreciated.

On the editor front,I found THREE! Yippee! It seemed like every reputable editor was booked solid but I am making progress. One is quite expensive but highly recommended. The other two aren't well known but I received glowing reports about their work.

I've gotten drunk with power as I realize I can choose my covers,especially for my multicultural YA novels. I will be a ruthless publishing mogul,just wait!
 

sandyn

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Congrats to everyone and thanks to everyone for their kind comments. Had some sales on B&N--the first ones--even if they were to daughter! I've asked her to review the books so I can get some reviews out.