Share Your Successes!

[ANicolai]

Originally Posted by Dani

That is so incredible! And inspirational. Dean Koontz is just about my all time favorite author. I might swoon if I was next to his name on a list HAHA.

Thanks Dani. I'm still kind of reeling about it myself. Congrats on your own success! Hitting #1 has got to feel fantastic. One of the things I've heard (and I feel is true) is that the e-publishing landscape seems to be really good for smaller or more niche genres. I don't know if gay/lesbian falls into that category, but if it does, your story certainly seems to bear it out. : )

[ANicolai]

Originally Posted by Elena Andrews

Actually I have another question that you all probably have a better understanding of than I do. Do ratings/likes have any effect on sales? The reviews of my book, while good so far, are pretty low compared to sales. I don't want to be a pest with the whole 'please review my book if you read it or hit 'like' but does having a new review or 'like' cause it to have a bigger profile for people casually surfing. Does the book get noticed more or is it more just a matter of 'hey 10 people rated this 5 stars' and a talking point?

Good luck this weekend Elena!

I think having a lot of strong reviews has done a couple things for me. First off when I sorted by customer review, I could watch my book climb the "chart" even though I wasn't selling all that much. It was really cool to see it get towards the top and finally break into the top 3 best-rated horror novels.

Second, being in the top 3 best-rated gets my book on the Bestseller page, even if it's not a best-seller. On the Horror best-seller page the top 3 are featured on the right side, and once Alex made it over there I saw a definite uptick.

Third, there is the undeniable satisfaction of just seeing good reviews come in. A lot of my readers (yes, ones I don't know) have posted that Alex made them give their kids more hugs and/or make more time for them. That is a great feeling, independent of how many sales I'm netting. : )

[merrihiatt]

Congratulations to everyone posting here. It's really inspiring to see all this forward motion!

[Dani]

Originally Posted by ANicolai

Thanks Dani. I'm still kind of reeling about it myself. Congrats on your own success! Hitting #1 has got to feel fantastic. One of the things I've heard (and I feel is true) is that the e-publishing landscape seems to be really good for smaller or more niche genres. I don't know if gay/lesbian falls into that category, but if it does, your story certainly seems to bear it out. : )

I'm not sure if it's niche or just passion for the genre. I know for my book, I couldn't write anything but GLTBQ stories. It's something I'm passionate about and it has a big audience. Bigger than even I realized. I came in at 670something in Kindle best sellers at one point and I've hovered at 700-1000 for a week. I can only hope that I contributed something worthwhile to the community.

The whole thing has really shocked me, so when you say you're reeling, I get it. I totally, completely and wholeheartedly get it. I've literally had moments when I was so overwhelmed by it all that I couldn't type because my hands were shaking. My mother commented on my voice being breathless when I called to tell her I was number 1.

Are you pressing refresh ANicolai? LOL

Sending good thoughts your way for number 1 spot!

PS: (interesting fact(smallish spoiler too): one of my characters in this novel is Nikolaj and he also has his own story coming up heh).

Originally Posted by ANicolai

Good luck this weekend Elena!

I think having a lot of strong reviews has done a couple things for me. First off when I sorted by customer review, I could watch my book climb the "chart" even though I wasn't selling all that much. It was really cool to see it get towards the top and finally break into the top 3 best-rated horror novels.

Second, being in the top 3 best-rated gets my book on the Bestseller page, even if it's not a best-seller. On the Horror best-seller page the top 3 are featured on the right side, and once Alex made it over there I saw a definite uptick.

Third, there is the undeniable satisfaction of just seeing good reviews come in. A lot of my readers (yes, ones I don't know) have posted that Alex made them give their kids more hugs and/or make more time for them. That is a great feeling, independent of how many sales I'm netting. : )

Just wanted to throw in there that I think the number of unique ip searches helps as well.

ANicolai, you have to pm me if your story has a happy ending. I'm so tempted to read it, but I can't without knowing that LOL. Yes, I'm a marshmallow! (also I can't until I'm done writing this one. I've made a pledge not to get distracted by books until I've written the second one!)

[Elena Andrews]

Originally Posted by ANicolai

Good luck this weekend Elena!

I think having a lot of strong reviews has done a couple things for me. First off when I sorted by customer review, I could watch my book climb the "chart" even though I wasn't selling all that much. It was really cool to see it get towards the top and finally break into the top 3 best-rated horror novels.

Second, being in the top 3 best-rated gets my book on the Bestseller page, even if it's not a best-seller. On the Horror best-seller page the top 3 are featured on the right side, and once Alex made it over there I saw a definite uptick.

Third, there is the undeniable satisfaction of just seeing good reviews come in. A lot of my readers (yes, ones I don't know) have posted that Alex made them give their kids more hugs and/or make more time for them. That is a great feeling, independent of how many sales I'm netting. : )

Okay, thanks. Yeah when the first reviews started coming in it was an incredible relief. You mean people outside my family like my book? Filled me with a sense of satisfaction that gave me a second win to start moving forward with other projects. I just wasn't sure if there were any benefits in terms of how books would be noticed or move up charts other than just realizing 'yeah people like my book'. Good insight, thanks.

[Elena Andrews]

Considering this was day one of my 48 hour Free experiment I don't know if the numbers are 'good' or not but darn if I didn't have a little smile on my face. Run Like Hell is ranked 250 in overall downloads, 35 in Mystery/Thriller and 12 in Contemporary Fiction. Oh how I would love for those numbers to be anywhere near the same on Saturday when we go back to 1.99.

[ANicolai]

Originally Posted by Elena Andrews

Considering this was day one of my 48 hour Free experiment I don't know if the numbers are 'good' or not but darn if I didn't have a little smile on my face. Run Like Hell is ranked 250 in overall downloads, 35 in Mystery/Thriller and 12 in Contemporary Fiction. Oh how I would love for those numbers to be anywhere near the same on Saturday when we go back to 1.99.

Nice! 35 in Mystery/Thriller is nothing to sneeze at; that genre is huge. I know what you mean about wishing the numbers would stay the same. Hopefully you do see an improvement overall at least, though.

[Elena Andrews]

Originally Posted by ANicolai

Nice! 35 in Mystery/Thriller is nothing to sneeze at; that genre is huge. I know what you mean about wishing the numbers would stay the same. Hopefully you do see an improvement overall at least, though.

Thanks! I woke up to see it at 12 for Contemp Fiction and 23 for Mystery/Thriller. Would love to crack top ten for both but we'll see what happens. The important thing is to see what happens next (tomorrow) when it goes back to regular price.

[Dani]

Originally Posted by Elena Andrews

Thanks! I woke up to see it at 12 for Contemp Fiction and 23 for Mystery/Thriller. Would love to crack top ten for both but we'll see what happens. The important thing is to see what happens next (tomorrow) when it goes back to regular price.

Third time I've checked my email to see what happened today when it went back to regular price LOL. I'm dying to know here, Elena!

[Tantrachick]

Hello all,

I just self-published my book: The Guy's Guide to Multiple Orgasms. I formatted it for Amazon and Kindle, then re-formatted it for Smashwords. I also created a "Quick Shopping Cart" page through Go Daddy and promoted it a little on my blog: Tantrachick

First few hours on Amazon, I sold 3 copies (all customers, no friends or family). Second day I sold 3 more and sold 5 on my own site. I have now sold about 50 copies between all three spaces (Amazon, Smashwords and my own site).

I only have one review on Amazon, but it is a 5 star! I created a forum for readers of the book to communicate and ask questions. I only have one member so far, but not bad, considering I just published 6 days ago (publishing date says Feb 14th, 2012, but Amazon let me choose a"publishing date" and I chose Valentine's Day).

I seem to be consistently selling one book a day on each of the three sites (just published on Smashwords last night though). My main forms of promotion are Facebook, Twitter and my blog. It's tricky because there are a few really good books on the subject, but I have a unique perspective and also have a small following of dedicated readers (my blog gets around 20,000 monthly page views and I have 200 subscribers).

I worked with a professional editor, but formatted the book myself. Indie publishing is hard work! That's the bottom line. However, I already feel like a success, so it's worth it!

I am willing to answer any questions: joy@thepleasureactivist.com and you can check out my book here: the Guy's Guide

From my heart to yours, Joy Nelson

[merrihiatt]

Joy, glad to hear you're already experiencing success. One suggestion, your book title was noted three times in the post above. It actually wasn't necessary to mention it even once. A link in your signature line would be sufficient. We are here to help and encourage one another, not promote our books.

[merrihiatt]

Originally Posted by Dani

Third time I've checked my email to see what happened today when it went back to regular price LOL. I'm dying to know here, Elena!

It won't go back to regular price until early Saturday morning (sometime after midnight, usually ends up switching over around 2:30am Pacific Time).

[MysteryRiter]

ANicolai, congrats on the success!

Elena, congrats to you as well! 23 in mysteries and thrillers is very good!

I've been selling next to nothing so far this month (I'm not upset; I'm new at this) but I've been doing pretty well on Goodreads as far as adds go. I ended up to do an author Q&A + giveaway (which ends tomorrow) and in the week that it has been ongoing, my GR adds shot up from 18 to 44. I think it's working. We'll see if that results in sales...

(As an aside, I also came up with an idea for a prequel novella to the short story. Maybe that'll help, too!)

[triceretops]

Got a sales spike of 12 copies in three days, which has never happened before. It has usually been one sale every day or two. I'm wondering if the arrival of monthly income checks has something to do with it, since the rise has been good from the 2nd of March on up until now. This is a mysterious business, she is!

Tri

[Old Hack]

Originally Posted by merrihiatt

Joy, glad to hear you're already experiencing success. One suggestion, your book title was noted three times in the post above. It actually wasn't necessary to mention it even once. A link in your signature line would be sufficient. We are here to help and encourage one another, not promote our books.

Yes, Merri, but the book is called The Guy's Guide To Multiple Orgasms...!

Sorry. It's a bad joke but someone had to make it, right?

Joy, welcome to AW. Merri has given you good advice there: you're welcome to link to your book and website in your signature, but please don't use AW as a tool for self-promotion. It won't work, and it will irritate your fellow board members. If you need help with the signature thing, I'm sure there's information about it in the FAQs room.

[Dani]

Originally Posted by MysteryRiter

ANicolai, congrats on the success!

Elena, congrats to you as well! 23 in mysteries and thrillers is very good!

I've been selling next to nothing so far this month (I'm not upset; I'm new at this) but I've been doing pretty well on Goodreads as far as adds go. I ended up to do an author Q&A + giveaway (which ends tomorrow) and in the week that it has been ongoing, my GR adds shot up from 18 to 44. I think it's working. We'll see if that results in sales...

(As an aside, I also came up with an idea for a prequel novella to the short story. Maybe that'll help, too!)

Adds are great, MR. What I love about GR is that it's like word of mouth praise. That's so much better than any other publicity imo. I hope it helps a lot.

The prequel couldn't hurt. According to most self-pubbers, the more you have out there, the better you do. Hope it all works out and you get loads of adds/reviews/readers.

Originally Posted by triceretops

Got a sales spike of 12 copies in three days, which has never happened before. It has usually been one sale every day or two. I'm wondering if the arrival of monthly income checks has something to do with it, since the rise has been good from the 2nd of March on up until now. This is a mysterious business, she is!

Tri

That's great, Tri! Let's hope it's not just "checks arriving" and is the word of mouth =D. It's a very mysterious business, indeed LOL.

[triceretops]

That's great, Tri! Let's hope it's not just "checks arriving" and is the word of mouth =D. It's a very mysterious business, indeed LOL.

Oh boy, I hope you're right. Now, according to my publisher, Amazon reduced the price from 2.99 to 1.99 about five days ago. I didn't know Amazon could do that, but maybe that's the case with a non-self pubbed client. What does Amazon know that we don't? Probably everything, as far as reader traffic goes.

Because we just landed (again) in the top 100 best-sellers for Science Fiction this morning. I've got to admit that the more you have up there, the better the chances for boosting rank and sales. I doubt any of this would have happened without the short tie-in. Who'd have thunk it?

Best of luck to all of you. Keep plugging and writing!

Tri

[MysteryRiter]

Tri!!

[merrihiatt]

Amazon reduced the price from 2.99 to 1.99 about five days ago. I didn't know Amazon could do that, but maybe that's the case with a non-self pubbed client.

Amazon can price the book however they choose for self-published e-books. They have that caveat in their Terms of Service. Most of the time, the price you set for your e-book is the price listed at Amazon; however, they reserve the right to change it at will.

[Nick Russell]

As of tonight, Big Lake has sold over 102,000 copies on Amazon since I uploaded it May 22, 2011. I never imagined it would go this far.
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Lake-ebook...1151688&sr=1-1

[merrihiatt]

Way to go, Nick! Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!

[Nick Russell]

Thank you Merri

[Elena Andrews]

Originally Posted by Dani

Third time I've checked my email to see what happened today when it went back to regular price LOL. I'm dying to know here, Elena!

Ha. Sorry. It's been a bit crazy around the house so I couldn't post as much or get on line. I think my husband is checking as much as I was.

So when we went off the Free listing Run Like Hell was immediately ranked at like 158,000 and by the day's end it was at 21,000. The nice thing is that I virtually did nothing. No tweets, FB postings or any marketing about the book so the sales were coming from I don't know...momentum haha.

We'll see what today brings. But I'll be marketing it a bit more as well

[Elena Andrews]

Originally Posted by Nick Russell

As of tonight, Big Lake has sold over 102,000 copies on Amazon since I uploaded it May 22, 2011. I never imagined it would go this far.
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Lake-ebook...1151688&sr=1-1

Amazing!!!

[EngineerTiger]

Congratulations, Nick! That's great news.