Connecting Readers and Writers discussion

I just hit 40 books sold in seven days. I released my book 12/31/12. About 1/2 of those were paid for, the other half were free.

I have three book bloggers writing up reviews for me on their sites.

Am i off to a good start? Not much info out there on the average indie author ebook sales.

I guess, I don't really know what to expect or should be aiming for?

Advice?

Sounds like you are off to a good start. Sounds like not much promotion. I think Indie Publishing is the wave of the future. I'd like to know what people think about services like Bookbaby and Xilbris?

I agree that Indie Publishing is the wave of the future. Normal publishing avenues are just too limiting.

Still, promotion of Indie books is time-consuming and costly.

Regardless, I've managed. For a compelling interview on making my stunning Indie psy thriller OF GOOD AND EVIL a movie, click http://www.fountaibluepublishing.com/...

It may be helpful to other Indie authors.

i will look up bookbaby and the other site as well. i hear bookdaily is good as well.

I haven't tried Bookbaby... but just looking at their pricing page and that Basic Package for distribution only seems ridiculous. $100 first time + $19/year after that? And you still have to supply the ePub. You can easily publish to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc yourself, and for free!

They provide some other services too, so in the end, it depends on your budget and how much you're willing to do yourself or how much you want to outsource. I had a tiny budget, so I pretty much did it all by myself, with the exception of an editor.

And getting 3 book bloggers right away is great! Good luck :)

I use smash-words, which in my opinion is by far the best distributor for ebooks out there, and its 100% free. They handle everything under one roof, every digital format possible can be chosen.

I am up to 4 book bloggers and an author interview!55 sold, 70 downloaded, and two reviews here on goodbooks in a little less than 12 days. I am proud of this =)

Next question:

I am a bit flabbergasted. Here is a promotion i am running: A 30 dollar amazon giftcard to be raffled off to anyone who submits a review on any review site. Only catch is, by 1-31-13 i want a total of 40 reviews.

I'm letting them cut and paste the same review on multiple sites, and get their name in for everyone. It just has to be honest, and enough for me to tell they actually read it.

What gets me is, hell... there could easily only be 40 reviews, so if you did 6 of those, a six in 40 chance to win a free 30 dollar amazon gift card? Thats some awesome odds right? Hell, i have been giving away the title for free in exchange for reviews as well.

I really thought this would create some excitement and buzz around the reviews. It has not.

Any ideas?

I'm not a fan of Smashwords but mostly just because they forbid the publication of serials which is what I am currently in the process of writing. According to their TOS your work must have a Beginning, Middle and a definitive End to be published there, which is the kind of micromanaging that I'm not a fan of.

It all rubs me wrong so I prefer not to use them.

I'd say you're off to a great start. Promotion is a tricky thing - like the tide, it rolls in and rolls out. Keep that momentum up as long as you can. I've done many interviews and features. Actually I love doing them.

My question on promotion: I've heard that writing and posting articles and short stories can also help to promote your books. This is something I'd like to get into this year. I updated my EzineArticles profile for the articles, but I'm not sure where to go to sell the short stories. Any ideas?

Joe wrote: "I just hit 40 books sold in seven days. I released my book 12/31/12. About 1/2 of those were paid for, the other half were free.

I have three book bloggers writing up reviews for me on their site..."

I would agree, not a bad start at all! It takes a lot of time for a book to get noticed.

Rob, Jukepop encourages publishing serials, and pays a little bit for it, plus more if you can get fans to vote you up. :-)

Mary wrote: "Rob, Jukepop encourages publishing serials, and pays a little bit for it, plus more if you can get fans to vote you up. :-)"

I'll have to look into that then, unless they have an exclusivity deal. I like having my work on my website as well as I'm mostly writing for the traffic and the fun, but I'll take a little money on the side if can get it.

JL, great start.

i released on the 12th of Dec and have sold a few, not as much, though i suspect a lot of that is down to my pricing,which i have deliberately left on high.

love your book cover. who did it?

Thanks for all the help guys, appreciated, thank you for the kind feedback.

I used: http://www.facebook.com/depottey for my artwork.

His name is sean depottey, and he was a great partner, after I had several terrible people who could not keep up with deadlines. He met his over the christmas week, and was all around awesome.

Some people would have charged hundreds for the design he did. We agreed with 75, with a week turnover for the design.

If you ever need a design contact him, and let him know I sent you.

Im up to 7 blogs (to be doe by march, as many are backlisted) and 3 interviews! Exciting!

Rob wrote: "Mary wrote: "Rob, Jukepop encourages publishing serials, and pays a little bit for it, plus more if you can get fans to vote you up. :-)"

I'll have to look into that then, unless they have an excl..."

Ruh-roh. I didn't know Smashwords didn't allow serials. That might explain why the first four issues of my serial have been sitting in limbo and haven't been reviewed or submitted for distribution. I guess I'll be unpublishing them.

J.L. wrote: "I use smash-words, which in my opinion is by far the best distributor for ebooks out there, and its 100% free. They handle everything under one roof, every digital format possible can be chosen.

I..."

It's been my experience that in order for any sort of raffle or giveaway to do well, you have to have a large platform already in place.

I would suggest doing a giveaway that will in turn help you build a platform—like a giveaway here on Goodreads. I'm planning on running one as soon as my book is ready for print (right not it's ebook only, and will be available in print April 2nd). Goodreads explicitly states that you won't receive email addresses of entries, but I'm going to be running a sort of pseudo giveaway, saying that anyone who signs up for my email newsletter will be entered for another chance to win.

I have posted all over my book site, that anyone willing to give an honest review will be offered a free digital copy. Not much help so far. Then again i have to get people to find my books page first, lol, thats the trick.

You're correct, you need a platform already. Even with about 70 copies floating around, i only have six people eligible for the prize.

So far, the best thing for me, was pushing extremely hard on face book, and sending it to as many book bloggers as possible.

I am slowly starting to see my bloggers reviews pop up and my interviews drop. This has already gained me some follow up on facebook with questions and comments.

I am hoping that will help bring in a new audience.

Any tips on how to use goodreads to promote? I know its in bad form to just go on a link spree, plus i hate when people do it, and I know its more disrespectful then any amount of potential gain I may receive.

I have just been trying to slowly build some bridges here. Adding peoples who reviews i have enjoyed reading, etc.

Have you actually done a book giveaway on Goodreads? Lots of readers will join the contest and if you ask them to, many will add your book to their to-read shelf. At least it will make hundreds of readers aware of your book that might not have seen it otherwise.

where do i set this up? i guess thats my real question?

From the home page, click the down menu on Explore and then click giveaways. Over on the right it should say list a giveaway. Add the info for your book, including the link to buy it. The site will have to approve it first, so start the giveaway at least a couple of days after the date you submit it for approval, otherwise, the start date will have passed when it is listed, and there will be lots of books in front of yours on the list. The site staff are very helpful if you have questions.

JL,

happy to review your book, and post it on the usual sites as well as on my blog.

would love a reciprocal review.

and by the way my boat is not too different to yours. gaining traction is hard.

my contact details below.

Ty


Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @typatterson67

Blog: http://www.facebook.com/typatterson67

Facebook: http://pattersonty.wordpress.com

You might consider joining Kindle Select too. You can do 5 days of free promotional downloads every 90 days. Sales really pick up after a free promotion. At first you might not feel good about giving away thousands of free downloads, but it is worth it in the end.

Question:

I was under the impression Kindle select are only open to ebooks exclusive to kindle? Correct?

Yes, correct.

I set up my book through smashwords, which sends it out to all platforms. So that would have to be a no, go. I mean, i guess I could unpublish it for a week or so, if kindle select is that great.... the issue I have is when i unpublish the book on smashwords, it can take weeks for them to approve the book back to their premium status.

Thank you for the offer Ty. However, i don't feel offering reviews for exchange for another review is a smart move. For one, it forces the honesty of a review towards a bit of a biased position. I truly appreciate the offer, and I thank you for the time and consideration to post on the topic.

I think its is important as an artist and an indie author, to keep any and all reviews completely honest. I can see this creating issues down the line depending on the good nature of the person you partner with. I would never devalue your work just in case you honestly did not like mine, however, I can see others going out of their way to hinder your success if you potentially did not care for theirs.

So again, thank you kindly. I would be more than willing to share a link to your book on my facebook however in hopes to drive some traffic your way!

Lena wrote: "I haven't tried Bookbaby... but just looking at their pricing page and that Basic Package for distribution only seems ridiculous. $100 first time + $19/year after that? And you still have to supply..."

I agree with your rating of Smashwords. They get 5 stars in my book for indie author support.

Getting reviews is tough. No one enjoys writing them, well, except for a few mean people who just like to rain on the parade.

My advice is not to get too stressed out about the lack of sales, lack of reviews, etc. Having fun and a few entertained readers is what's most important for a writer who is driven to write.

This is an interesting thread but new authors, please don't believe things you read here; there is so much misleading information in this thread I could write a nonfiction book on that alone. Some of the "facts" stated in this thread belong in a fiction novel called "Writers Leading Other Writers to Hell."

Instead of arguing the points, my advice is to go to the sites and READ all the fine print. Take your time and read it all. If you do I guarantee you will discover the errors contained in 90% of the comments above regarding the best place to get your indie book published.

I also want to recommend reading these books (I didn't write them and they are all free):


Smashwords Book Marketing Guide


Smashwords Style Guide

I sold 104 copies in my first month. Three author interviews, four book blogs, and a bakers dozen lined up late feb early march.

I have been told this is pretty good. I feel so helpless though! Honestly, breaking through the proverbial "wall" and breaking into a larger audience seems so impossible, like i'm fantasizing over some crazy pipe dream lol.

I have been told by a few successful writers, to get as much out there for people to read.

So I have decided to start a small kickstarter project to release an amazing novella I wrote back in college.

http://kck.st/TBIMrA

I wrote Wergild in college as my final project in my advanced creative writing classes. It received rave reviews from my peers. Its funny, we were told that if you wrote anything short of literary fiction, you wrote garbage, and to write anything meaningful outside of this genre was a waste of time and money of the classroom.

Well, I write fantasy, and I also consider myself an above average creative mind. Challenge accepted! Thus, Wergild was born, an avent-garde inspired literary fantasy novella.

This may be my most coveted work of art I have ever written. I love this narrative!

Synopsis:

Adrian is a small framed scholarly teen, born and raised in a world where warriors and brute strength define one's worth. Living under the large shadow of his father, Pherick, the village's beloved guildsmen and head trainer, Adrian finds himself labeled as an outcast from society, finding solace and the only thing he's good at, writing.

The Novella tackles some heavy topics such as, religion, reality within the theory of simulacra, that steadily delves deeply into a meta-fictional narrative that honors the relationship between gods, authors, and their fictional creations.

For those not caught up on the multiple layers one can pull from the narrative, the story arc itself is filled with adversity! A lovable and flawed protagonist must unravel the conniving plot of a fast talking and forked tongue Uncle, who looks to be plotting some sort of plan to tear apart his family.

Here is a few snippets:

"Yet there in the corner of the psyche, he could feel the constant prick of curiosity. Above all else he questioned “God” or as he preferred to call it the “creator”. Adrian was not fond of religion or dogma; he found them both to be fickle and even unsettling when listening to his fellow villagers use it as excuses to their daily lives. He had his own concepts of what the creator actually was. Often times, as he sat down writing his own stories, he felt like that of a God, and he couldn’t help but to wonder if he too was nothing more than a tale being written by someone not much too different than himself. "-Wergild

"“Are these all your works?” Camille began fingering through a large collection of parchment on his desk.

“There’s so much.” “I have been writing that story for three years now.”

“What is it about?” Adrian could not help but smile. No one had ever asked that question to him before.

“To be honest I am not sure, it’s a work in progress, and I never know what will happen until it actually does.”

“Tell me about it? Perhaps it will soothe my mind and help me sleep.”

“Well I have created this fantasy world centered on a small village where a young boy is raised as their future savior. He is supposed to grow up and save them from the Empire’s stronghold and set their homeland free. But he realizes it’s not the Empire that creates the stronghold but rather the creator or God who wills it. Thus as the author, I am this God and creator. So this central character I created must find a way to ultimately kill me, the God and creator, in order to save his village.” Adrian saw Camille’s brows frown in confusion.

“Sounds interesting… but complicated. How can characters in a story you write, kill you?”

“Well, that’s the great mystery of the book. My character figures out that the only way he can change the past or future of his people is to find a new hand of God to create it, or alter his world. He also realized, that if he does kill me, he ultimately chances erasing their whole existence, which would happen if no one else picks up my pen where I left off after I die. What he really wants is to find a way to kill me, and have someone take over my works and alter their reality in his favor.”

“So this story you’re writing is about a character who is trying to kill you because you are his creator?”

“Exactly.” “As a reader, wouldn’t I know the end already; a fictional character cannot kill his creator.”

“It’s not impossible. How can one kill a God?” Adrian asked. “I cannot kill God. No one can, he is God.”

“Our land is filled with dead Gods. The Amirthans before us, they had multiple Gods, all who they believed created their existence, and were in control of their world around them. Then a thousand years ago our religion was born, and we killed their Gods through bloody crusades, murdering those unwilling to bend to our new and just God.”

“Okay…” Camille looked intrigued. “I understand you are just a person, and therefore you can die. But, not by the means of a fictional character you create, right? He is not alive; he does not breathe our air.”

“I guess that depends on what you believe makes someone, or something alive. Our God does not breathe our air, he is not alive and walking, and yet whenever something bad happens to us, we fall onto our knees and pray for help, forgiveness, or whatever it is we desperately seek. When the plague hits, it was our God who deemed it so. When the world shakes, it was our God who punished us. When our crops fail, it’s our God’s just cause. So if this God, who in all terms by your definition is a fictional character, and yet can manipulate our world, why can’t this fictional character reach out from my book and take my life?”

“Wow, I don’t know,” Camille smiled. “You are a very interesting person, Adrian. You have a beautiful mind.” “Well, I tend to over analyze this world we call home…” Adrian realized he may have overdone his explanation, and albeit felt a bit embarrassed. “I apologize…” -Wergild

You can check out my other works here:

www.secretseekerssociety.com

So why do I need the money???

Pledges will go to the following:

-Book Design and Cover Art

-Ebook formatting

-Editing Services

Debra wrote: "From the home page, click the down menu on Explore and then click giveaways. Over on the right it should say list a giveaway. Add the info for your book, including the link to buy it. The site wil..."
I see, you need a physical copy. I am only in the digital format as of now.

Great Idea i will be looking into.

thank you!

Rob wrote: "I'm not a fan of Smashwords but mostly just because they forbid the publication of serials which is what I am currently in the process of writing. According to their TOS your work must have a Begi..."
Here is a clarification on Rob's notion that Smashwords micromanages authors and does not allow publication of serials. I was curious about his allegation so I reviewed their TOS and the part where he got this idea from reads as follows:

9d. You further warrant the book represents a complete work:
• this is not a work-in-progress;
• the uploaded file is not a partial sample or sample chapter, or is not a collection of sample chapters, or not simply a catalog advertising other books
• the uploaded book represents a complete story with a beginning, middle and end; not a short serial

I am writing a series called The Fair and Fey and the first two books were labeled Book 1 of the Fair and Fey and Book 2 of the Fair and Fey. No problem publishing them with Smashwords even though neither have what you would call a final ending. Smashwords does not micromanage authors, their mission as an organization is to help indie authors in every way possible. They just don't want us clogging up their pipeline with drafts; it would cost them money unnecessarily and annoy their users. Nuff said?

- Jini

My books have shown up in email recommendations and I only have 5 or at the most 6 on any of them.

Amazon has been completely free for me.

As for your other question, I would like to answer it, and pose another question to the group.

No I am not currently in the KDP program.

Personally, i opted to go with smashwords to distribute my digital copies. As stated above, they do all the work and send out the digital copies to multiple sites (amazon, barnes and noble, ibookstore, etc). However, they are currently having some sort of issue with amazon. My book has been out for over a month, and smashwords still says "Ship date TBD. Smashwords and Amazon are working to complete technical integration."

So, instead of waiting, I just created my own through amazon.

Here is my question, though. The Kindle Select program, that offers amazon exclusive ebooks free for 90 days, I hear is an amazing way to promote and get the book into peoples hands.

My problem.... My book is not exclusive. Its on every digital bookstore I know of.

Would it benefit me more to stay the course? Or should I unpublish my book on smashwords for three months and take advantage of the kindle select option???

I'm in KDP and happy enough. About any benefits to KDP - who knows, I think it depends on the person.

I read around and find folks that have an awful time getting their books pulled from every venue it is placed. It'll have to have a lot of follow through. I've heard that Smashwords has a hard time pulling it from everywhere they placed it. Other's will chime in with better experience that mine.

Think about leaving that book where it is and getting your next one on KDP.

Noted, thanks steven!

Most advice I hear is get your book into as many book bloggers as possible, and hope they accept to read it.

I have had some good success with this, but still find 90% of my sales are me chatting with folks in my own social network.

Its sort of a catch 22 though. I am finding the blogs with the big followings are backed up, and very picky (as well they should be) about choosing new books, and many don't do indie authors all together. Hell, they get hundreds of us a week peddling our book to them lol, its must be a fun problem for them to have!

The smaller ones have a much better shot at giving you a chance. Which is still great, in fact, I have created some pretty good relationships with some smaller bloggers.

Point being, they have the opportunity to become one of those big blogs.

Everyone keeps telling me patience is key, and I am SO impatient lol.

Also, I very much appreciate everyone's comments on this thread. I feel its been a very warm and welcoming place.

J.L. wrote: "Most advice I hear is get your book into as many book bloggers as possible, and hope they accept to read it.

I have had some good success with this, but still find 90% of my sales are me chatting ..."

J.L., The Smashwords/Amazon negotiations have been going on forever. In the meantime I do what you did, only I do it on the same day. First I publish to Smashwords. Then after my book makes it through their review process (actually lots more thorough than Amazon's), I publish it to Amazon. I get sales reports from both. As you say, Smashwords has distributed my book to all the other retailers. My Smashword sales report for my first book has ten times the copies sold as my Amazon sales reports. As for the free book promotions on KDP, you can do that yourself with Smashwords coupons and put the word out all over the web yourself, which Amazon will not do for you, even with KDP. Stick with Smashwords is my advice. Others will say they are doing okay with Amazon and I believe them but I think they would do even better if they followed the above approach.

- Jini

You basically described my current strategy to a tee. Good to know that the smashwords coupon is working out.

Just curious, how much time do you put in on a weekly basis promoting?

My gosh, I find myself doing more promoting then writing at the moment.

I will continue to do so, until I start seeing a plateau happening, then I will get to the second book. At some point I will max out my own self promoting potential, and will need a new book to start afresh.

What about others? How much does the self promotion aspect do you put in?

J.L. Too much time.. I need to focus on writing again. Ugh!

I understand completely! I just know its just as important as the writing itself.

I got great advice from H.D. Gordon, she said its waaaay too much work for one person to do. Basically, spend the time promoting and gaining attention/connecting with people/finding fans, so that they begin to to the promoting for you, even if its just a weekly facebook blurb about you.

So, that's what i am trying to do lol. Gain a small audience, and hope for the fire to catch!

I agree, I try to hit all the FB, Twitter, etc. links. For the most part, I think I'm hitting more than are hitting me. I've just done some interviews and hope this will pay off. I've done book giveaways. Although I haven't tried GR book giveaway yet. I'd be interested to know if this worked for people.

I don't have any physical copies, purely digital, so i can not partake, at least not yet.

Money from my first quarter sales is going to go to formatting a physical copy of the book. Then i can!

I honestly don't have a lot of time to do promotion. I don't spend much time on it either. I do twitter and fb, but I also use those in other ways as well. I do gr and I have a blog. That's about it. I have a small audience from a bunch of shorts and fanfic but that took well over a year to build with little promotion. Building an audience takes time, and I'd rather spend my time writing.

I write for me. Not for my readers. But I'm also not looking to solely be an author, so my perspective is probably vastly different.

Adrian wrote: "I honestly don't have a lot of time to do promotion. I don't spend much time on it either. I do twitter and fb, but I also use those in other ways as well. I do gr and I have a blog. That's about ..."

I'm with you Adrian. I don't do nearly enough marketing, probably it's less than 10% of the time I spend on my career as a writer. The reason: I'm in the midst of a series that I am living day and night. I dream it in lucid dreams. When I wake at 6:00 AM, I sit down to my computer and capture my dreams. I am driven to write and can't stop to market.

As for marketing venues, I find Goodreads to be the most fruitful. I do Facebook, Twitter and a few other social media but don't get results there. The social media airwaves are already clogged with promotions from well known authors. Several Goodreads groups are friendly toward new indie authors.

Jill: I did a giveaway promotion for a "Holiday Party" in one group on here and it had very good payoff in terms of new sales activity following the party giveaways.

J.L.: You don't need to have physical copies for giveaways in GR groups if you have Smashwords. You can simply give interested group members a Smashwords coupon code for a free copy in a PM to them. A word of caution though. Some mods will not like it if you solicit members in PMs so it's better if you let group members ask you for a free copy. Just let the mods know you want to do that.

- Jini

Thanks Jini, that's great advice!

Thanks Jini,

I noticed an "un-friendly" group already. I tagged my book links after my name when I chatted, and they booted me with rude comments. Good riddance group. Oh, & I stopped tagging my name.


J. wrote: "Adrian wrote: "I honestly don't have a lot of time to do promotion. I don't spend much time on it either. I do twitter and fb, but I also use those in other ways as well. I do gr and I have a blog..."

I think I spend less than 10% of my time promoting...

It can be a tricky game, self promoting.

You don't want to offend anyone, but at the same time, you need to get your book out there.

Indie authors seemed to be loved or hated, and new indie authors, seem to fall more towards the hate.

I get it, spam is spam. No one wants to go onto their board about harry potter to see me begging for reviews lol.

Sometimes though, even when it seems appropriate, you still get rude comments.

I don't understand the rude aspect, just explain no spamming, and delete said post. If i chose to ignore the request and continue to post, then i'm the rude one, and I suppose i deserve the rudeness that will ensue.

I do say though, there are some indie folks out there that spam the begeezies out of everything, and they tend to make a bad name for us.

Its not easy, plain and simple.

I envy your stance, writing for yourself.

I want to follow my dream, retire from my retail job, and spend the rest of my life writing stories for people to fall in love with.

So, for me, this is do or die.

At least until I get an agent, right?

ha.

Well I also fell into having a publisher, which is somewhat an advantage though not really. There's still like no marketing done for me.

I have a career (or will once I graduate school). That career is not something I can really not do. Since God won't let me--I say bigger off to God a lot but it doesn't work! Lol. But writing is still a passion of mine. Something that I could never live without, but ill never be good enough to live off my royalties. Though I will always work on improving.

Agreed. I don't consider myself a spam-er. But, I did like having a tag line under my name. I since stopped, so I don't piss anyone else off. :) Side note: She was also an indie author in the same genera as my books. coincident??? hmmmm


J.L. wrote: "It can be a tricky game, self promoting.

You don't want to offend anyone, but at the same time, you need to get your book out there.

Indie authors seemed to be loved or hated, and new indie aut..."

The person who got mad at you was an indie author in the same genre? Well that was nice of her<--- sarcasm