Math, Guns, and Snark: SLHuang's Self-Publishing Thread

LAgrunion

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The two need to settle it civilly by punching it out.

I have my hay on ramshackle.
 

buz

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The two need to settle it civilly by punching it out.

I have my hay on ramshackle.

I'm...I'm sorry?

I don't think I read that correctly...

*sharpens tusks *
 
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slhuang

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CAGE MATCH IN MAH THREAD!!!!!!! :D :D :D

But punching would help us differentiate the two, so we can derive the winner.

:ROFL::roll: :ROFL: :roll:

Anyway, there's an easy way to settle this: who's in the timezone that will hit midnight on release day soonest? :evil
 

buz

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*trembles* Tusks... so many tusks... :cry:

Oh wait. Not so many. Huh.

Did you see how many badass prickles I'm packing? I'm like 99.9% pointy bits.

:evil

Do you want to see my pointy bits?

*sharpens nipples *

CAGE MATCH IN MAH THREAD!!!!!!! :D :D :D



:ROFL::roll: :ROFL: :roll:

Anyway, there's an easy way to settle this: who's in the timezone that will hit midnight on release day soonest? :evil

GOD DAMMIT

I WILL PUNCH THE TIME ZONES IN THE HEAD
 
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Ramshackle

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Anyway, there's an easy way to settle this: who's in the timezone that will hit midnight on release day soonest? :evil

If I'm not, I'm willing to travel. :e2bike2:

Do you want to see my pointy bits?

*sharpens nipples *

:eek:

*mesmerised*

If you have more nipples than I have prickles, then perhaps you deserve to win.
 

usuallycountingbats

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So remember my friend who loved the first one enough that your book made her list on FB? Yeah, within approximately 0.01 second of me posting on her wall to tell her the sequel was out, she had it on pre-order. Her teenage sons are fans too apparently. And then another friend chimed in to say she'd been wondering when the sequel was out too.

My work here is done. Please remember me when you are famous.
 

slhuang

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You guys are all amazing.

And:

IT'S OUT IT'S OUT IT'S OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazon
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Apple
Page Foundry
Scribd

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I have mailing list'ed! I have blogged! I am about to tweet! It is RELEASE DAY!!!

Notes:

  • I uploaded B&N yesterday and it was actually live by Christmas along with everyone else! YAY!
  • On Amazon, I had the date listed as Dec. 25, and it went live at 4pm Pacific Time on December 24, which I guess makes sense if they're using UTC.
  • I realized I messed up my fancy Barnes & Noble redirect link because instead of giving people the Smart URL I set up I gave them the temporary page I had redirected to on my website -- in other words, the thing that was supposed to be REPLACED by the B&N link. Sigh. BUT! I found a Wordpress plugin that let me set up a redirect, so I redirected that page to Barnes & Noble. Saved!
Also, "Rio Adopts a Puppy" is TOTALLY A THING. I have already linked my mailing list subscribers to it with a password to read it for free, and I'm hoping it'll drive more signups, because Rio is everyone's favorite character and the combination of Rio and a puppy is kind of win. :D (the blame for the idea totally goes to Ramshackle, by the way) The story will also be available for $.99 from retailers -- it's already up for preorder on Amazon -- and I'll be releasing it a month after Half Life.

Release day release day release daaaaaaaaaaay!!!! *noms all the Christmas cookies in celebration*
 

Putputt

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THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVERER EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT I DON’T HAVE A HARD COPY OF ZSG BUT WHATEVERBALLS IT IS STILL THE AMAZINGEST!!!
 

buz

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*wets self *

WHY IS MY KINDLE ALWAYS DEAD

CHARGE FASTER KINDLE SO I CAN HAVE EYE ORGASMS

GAWD
 

slhuang

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Aw you guys . . . :kiss:

So, interesting datum:

A few weeks ago when I got a word of mouth push for Zero Sum Game, it popped it back up below a rank of 20k on Amazon and into two top 100 lists.

Today, I've already had more sales than that on Half Life (new sales, not preorders), and my rank is nowhere NEAR that good. It's been going 50k-70k ish.

The obvious answer here is that a lot more people are buying ebooks today, so even though I'm doing well, a lot of other people are too, meaning that my rank won't climb. A bit disappointing given how Amazon rank can reinforce itself, but ah well. The real question is whether snagging people on a big book-buying day like Christmas makes up in sales for the more difficult climb in the rankings.
 

Layla Lawlor

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eeeeee, congratulations on the release! :D :D :D

That's a really interesting data point on sales ranking, though. I've thought about this before, though not quite in that context -- releasing things on big sales days makes it easier to sell but also makes it harder to avoid being lost in the crowd. I'm delighted it's doing comparatively well in terms of actual sales, though!
 

slhuang

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Thank you! And ya, it's interesting! :D I'm only up to about 30k now -- which is still MUCH worse* in rank than ZSG upon release, even though I've sold more books (not drastically more, but more . . . if I recall right, anyway).

BUT! I did just check and I've made it to #89 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Superheroes! I didn't hit a top 100 list for ZSG until my rank was in the teens. So clearly a lot of people are buying books on Christmas, but maybe not so many genre readers? I DON'T KNOW. :D

Conclusion: We clearly can't overanalyze Amazon rank or it will make us crazy. ;)

* Do I call a worse rank "lower" or "higher"? UNSURE. :ROFL:

eta: And now I'm

which begs the question -- how is this possible??? Aren't Kindle eBooks a subset of books? How can I be higher on a general list than I am on a more specific list?? THE AMAZON ALGORITHMS, THEY ARE UNKNOWABLE. :roll:
 
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slhuang

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Hmm, well, my four-day-in update:

I'm not sure I made the right decision with a Christmas release. Seemed like it was both harder to climb in the rankings and harder to get my promo noticed -- it probably IS true that Christmas is a big book-buying day, but perhaps more for the better-known titles, and that may have worked against me. I don't know for sure, and I have no metric of comparison, but I confess to being a little disappointed with the release so far -- there was a nice spike on day 1, but it nosedived FAST, and I've sold exactly as many copies of book 2 in the first four days as I sold of book 1 in the first four days (34). I'd hoped the sales number would grow with the release of each book as I amassed more readers -- but that either isn't happening or hasn't happened yet.

But we'll see what January brings . . . pretty much all the reviewers who read ZSG were excited about getting a copy of book 2, so most of all that is still to come. :) I shall keep you all updated!
 

Polenth

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Christmas is a mixed thing. If your book is one of those that takes off, it can be huge. But everyone else is trying to be that book. You've got a good start with the first book though, so likely all you need is to wait a few months and do a shiny promotion, and people will suddenly realise the sequel is out.
 

slhuang

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Things that have happened:

* After it looking like sales for HL had nosedived, they (seem to have) fishhooked back up after a few days, which is very odd but I blame Christmas. :D Still not amazing sales, but cause for me to be optimistic!

* I got rejected from Booklife, and from Bookbub, again. Ah well.

* Reviewer Stefan Raets listed Zero Sum Game as tying for his second favorite science fiction novel of the year, behind Ancillary Sword. I'LL TAKE THAT, FOLKS. :D

* I've had the "Rio Adopts a Puppy" short up for preorder on Amazon since the release of Half Life -- I'm still finishing the formatting, at which point I'll put it up for preorder everywhere -- and Amazon actually sent out an unasked promo email for it (presumably to people who'd bought my stuff, though I don't know what their mailing list was exactly -- thanks to the friend who forwarded it! :D) that said "New from SL Huang" and advertised the short. Why they did this for a short instead of for BOOK 2 I have no idea, and it's a bit maddening, but still, it's nice to get unasked-for promo! I'm wondering if this is because I have a month-long preorder period for this, or because the sales for HL have been concentrated enough to trip some algorithm. Anyway, it might be worth experimenting more with long preorder periods that overlap with the high sales numbers of a new release. :D
 
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Old Hack

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He was wrong about Ancillary Sword.

Congratulations!
 

slhuang

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Aaaaaand my first promo post for Half Life is live, in which I talk on Mary Robinette Kowal's blog about how I don't actually kill people: http://maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/favorite-bit-sl-huang-talks-half-life/

Once again, I took a risk by picking New Year's (I could have gone with today or later in January). Last time I was on her blog about a month in and got a nice boost from it; this time my numbers stayed in line with the past two days (aka decent). I'm not really sure if there's any conclusion to draw from that. ;) (Also, I suspect some people will be checking their feeds at work tomorrow.)

I honestly think the only thing I can safely say about a holiday release is that it throws a whole other bundle of variables into the mix, which may work in one's favor or may not! I'm REALLY not sure what conclusions to draw from my sales curve. :)

OH! Other exciting thing! As of the end of the year, I have now officially earned back the expenses for book 1 -- by, like, ONE DOLLAR (ebook only, prorated, excluding startup costs). Took almost exactly 9 months and a second title out, which of course I have spent more monies on, so, yanno. ;) Hmm, a good goal for 2015 would probably be to have my revenue outpace my costs . . . in other words, STEP FIVE: PROFIT. :D
 
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