- Joined
- Apr 24, 2013
- Messages
- 23
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- France / Switzerland
- Website
- www.lesenfantsdelo.com
Hi!
Sorry if my question is a bit odd...
I'm French, I wrote a sci-fi family drama saga, which I published on the internet for ten years, and which has know gained enough readers so that I can think about self-publishing it (that's my choice for personal reasons, and not because nobody wanted the book. I recently refused to sign with a big publisher, who offered me a ridiculous contract).
I translated the book to English (I did it myself, so even though the French book was quite okay, I guess the English one is... less okay ^^), and now I'm facing a tough decision. When I put the book on my website in 2002 (website is http://www.lesenfantsdelo.com, if you want to have a look at it), it took a few years and a lot of hard work to gain enough notoriety so that it's be worth it. It's been downloaded about 20 000 times (real downloads, I wrote a script to exclude search engines) in 7 years (the first 4 years, it was an older version, then another book, so I'm not counting those, even though it helped in making the website well-known), which is quite good for a French sci-fi book.
Of course, it was free, so it's a bit like handing those annoying flyers in the street: everybody takes them (mostly because the people force them on you ^^), but that doesn't mean they'll all go to the event.
Anyway... Now I have to make a choice. The French book will be out at the end of this fall, and at first I was planning on launching the English book at the same time, but after spending a little time on Amazon, I understood it wouldn't be that easy.
In France, I know with a little work on my part, the book can quickly rise to the top 10 downloaded ebooks on amazon (mostly because you need to sell like 5 of them to be number 1... not even kidding... much ^^). But on amazon.com, I guess I'll be happy to be number 25 000.
So I was thinking... Do you think it could be worth doing the same thing I did with the French book? Making a website, putting the book on it? (maybe only the first three or four chapters) Or would it be useless?
When I did that in France, it was in 2002, nobody knew how to make a website, and I was then pretty active on some French forums (I was working in a publishing house as a proof-reader, so I spent quite some time on the publisher's forum, and then on some other small publishing houses forums).
I'm a bit discouraged right now. I had this huge project, I did the first part, and now I'm wondering if it really makes sense to go on
I hope I'm in the right place to post that!
Thanks for all advice!
Sorry if my question is a bit odd...
I'm French, I wrote a sci-fi family drama saga, which I published on the internet for ten years, and which has know gained enough readers so that I can think about self-publishing it (that's my choice for personal reasons, and not because nobody wanted the book. I recently refused to sign with a big publisher, who offered me a ridiculous contract).
I translated the book to English (I did it myself, so even though the French book was quite okay, I guess the English one is... less okay ^^), and now I'm facing a tough decision. When I put the book on my website in 2002 (website is http://www.lesenfantsdelo.com, if you want to have a look at it), it took a few years and a lot of hard work to gain enough notoriety so that it's be worth it. It's been downloaded about 20 000 times (real downloads, I wrote a script to exclude search engines) in 7 years (the first 4 years, it was an older version, then another book, so I'm not counting those, even though it helped in making the website well-known), which is quite good for a French sci-fi book.
Of course, it was free, so it's a bit like handing those annoying flyers in the street: everybody takes them (mostly because the people force them on you ^^), but that doesn't mean they'll all go to the event.
Anyway... Now I have to make a choice. The French book will be out at the end of this fall, and at first I was planning on launching the English book at the same time, but after spending a little time on Amazon, I understood it wouldn't be that easy.
In France, I know with a little work on my part, the book can quickly rise to the top 10 downloaded ebooks on amazon (mostly because you need to sell like 5 of them to be number 1... not even kidding... much ^^). But on amazon.com, I guess I'll be happy to be number 25 000.
So I was thinking... Do you think it could be worth doing the same thing I did with the French book? Making a website, putting the book on it? (maybe only the first three or four chapters) Or would it be useless?
When I did that in France, it was in 2002, nobody knew how to make a website, and I was then pretty active on some French forums (I was working in a publishing house as a proof-reader, so I spent quite some time on the publisher's forum, and then on some other small publishing houses forums).
I'm a bit discouraged right now. I had this huge project, I did the first part, and now I'm wondering if it really makes sense to go on
I hope I'm in the right place to post that!
Thanks for all advice!
