Indie Book Collective discussion

Thank you. I do have an author page and you should be able to find EMBATTLED on GR.

Darlene wrote: "You commented that "if you have no brand, you have no value." I'm not sure "brand" is the same as value of a book. It's all relative, as you say. An author may be a "big name," but that doesn't mea..."

One could also ask, "What is fair value?" It's still subjective. One person may believe fair value for a particular book is $10 while another could believe fair value for that same book is only $1. So, what is fair value? It really is all subjective.

You also say the question is really how to get people to give your book a try. And that's exactly right. As I said in my first post, is it ok for an author to spend hundreds of dollars on advertising? That's the reason that you do that, simply to convince people to give your work a try. That's it. Well, while building your brand in their mind.

You're also right, not everyone will like your book or my book, or any one author's book. Not everyone likes Stephen King. So, how does it help to build his readership or brand or value if a person gets all of his books used and lets them sit on their bookshelves? Every copy that is bought used, Stephen King gets absolutely nothing for. He only gets paid once for each copy sold. How does that help him? It doesn't pay him a single cent. But it does ultimately help him build his brand even more.

Amazon isn't going to get rich off of just selling Kindles. They have to actually have books moving, otherwise the actual Kindles are useless. The Kindle is only the vehicle. Amazon is rich from authors selling books. Look at Amanda Hocking, John Locke, Konrath, etc. Yes, those authors are making a fortune, but so is Amazon because of the authors. The Kindles are merely the vehicle to enable those authors.

Also, no one ever said any author is required to give away every book they write ;) The whole idea is to, as you said, get people to give an author a try. From there, you pay for more. If you like them. Not so bad after all, right?

I think we're in the "we can't see the forest for the trees" stage of the whole paradigm shift from traditional to indie publishing and marketing. Only time will tell how successful any of the strategies are. Meanwhile, we have big decisions to make for our marketing - paid advertizing, Select program ...

Darlene wrote: "Thank you. I do have an author page and you should be able to find EMBATTLED on GR."

Yes, I found it, but when you click on the book on your author page there's no book description and no listing of a kindle edition. Sure I found the kindle edition on amazon and it's on my TR list, but you want to make it as easy as possible for GR members to find these things. It's easy to add both on GR. I'm just trying to help you out a little with marketing.

Thank you. I'll check that.

Personally, I think readers not knowing an author is out there devalues there work, but that's just my opinion.

Yes, the GR pages, listing the books. I need to work on that myself. I haven't spent enough time on this site to learn that yet.

L.a. wrote: "Personally, I think readers not knowing an author is out there devalues there work, but that's just my opinion.

Yes, the GR pages, listing the books. I need to work on that myself. I haven't spent..."

Could you elaborate on your first sentence a little? I didn't really follow what you're saying.

Stephen King is considered to be a very valuable author. Why? Because he's such a huge brand. Everyone knows about him, whether they like him or not. Each of his titles can command a high cover price because he's popular/in demand.

John Doe no one knows about. A reader has no idea if his material is good or bad. It could be the best thing ever, but no one currently knows that.

So, if you're given a choice of paying $30 for a hardback of Stephen King or $30 for a hardback of John Doe, 9 times out of 10, the reader will drop $30 for King.

Therefore, readers not knowing an author devalues that author's work. Value is, unfortunately, all in the perception of the individual reader.

Does anyone have any thoughts/opinions about making a second book in a series free? I've heard negative things about this, as it could be construed as a marketing ploy to get readers to buy the first book. I had my first book free a few weeks ago, and my sales on the second and third have increased from the exposure. I have the second book enrolled in select, but don't know whether to use any of the free days for it. I would appreciate any thoughts about this?
My books can definitely be read as stand-alones, but they are part of a series.

So what if it was marketing ploy? Self-published authors are business people as well as writers.

I don't see any problem with making your second book free, especially as it works as a stand -alone. Go for it.

I think as long as it's clearly stated that it's the second book in the series, why not? If the reader decides to buy book 1 he or she gets a 2 for 1, essentially. I'm with Rosen (and Rocky): Go for it.

You have the marketing wrong, Peggy. Make the FIRST book free or very inexpensive. Then people are hooked into your characters and book, and they'll buy the subsequent books for a higher price. That's what I've done with an author I'm publishing, and it works well. We're selling 2000 copies this month. (Check out the Falling Angels Saga by E. Van Lowe.)

Peggy has made her first book free already and has presumably used up her free days. I think what she wants to know, is should she use the free days she can have for the second book. In my opinion, they shouldn't go to waste.

Rosen wrote: "Peggy has made her first book free already and has presumably used up her free days. I think what she wants to know, is should she use the free days she can have for the second book. In my opinion,..."

Yes, I did make the first book free, and it helped tremendously with sales on it plus the next two books in the series. I still have free days left on it, which I plan to use when I publish the fourth book next month.
You are right, Rosen, in that my question was primarily whether I should use some of the free days for book2 at all.
I'm still mulling it over....thanks for everyone's input so far.

It certainly won't hurt.

I know I'm kind of late in this discussion but I did just enroll in the KDP. My sales won't suffer and I'm hoping a promotion will help at some point. Anyway, what I really want to know is why it's just us Indie authors that get nailed with the exclusivity clause. I notice that others like The Hunger Games can continue to sell digitally anywhere they want! You know what is just chapped!

Is The Hunger Games in the Select programme?

If you're a prime member you can borrow it. Isn't that what we're doing?

Yes. It is. I did not know that traditionally published authors were treated differently. I suppose I did wonder. Seems very unfair, but what can you do?

It seems just typical of the publishing world.

I know, it just really aggravates me because it's a legal contract we're forced to agree to. It just seems that Amazon shouldn't be able to get around it. Because you know the big publishers wouldn't agree to exclusivity with Amazon with their books. *sigh*

Well, I suppose big publishers just have more clout. I'm noticing more and more books by big publishers going free for longer periods of times. Meanwhile we only have the 5 days a quarter.

I have 2 days left this quarter. I'm wondering, should I use both days together, or have two separate 1 day deals a month apart?

That's a tough one. How have your other days gone?

Two days together are usually better than two separate days, because sales tend to rise exponentially as you climb that charts.

Good to know. I was just going to do tomorrow but I'll try for 2 days instead then. Thanks!

If I were you, I'd set up the days separately, as two consecutive one day promotions. That way you can check that it's rising up the chart - it should do, but sometimes strange things happen.

It's been 26 days since my last free promo and after spending a couple of weeks in the 2000-3000 rankings, I took a nosedive this last week to the 9000-12000 range, so I figured it might be time for another gooseup

Thanks. How do you check to see if it's rising up the chart? Is it just your ranking?

yes, the ranking. That is shown for everyone to see.

okay, will do 2 days. I think you're right. The first day sets up for the 2nd day.

Good on you! Mine's at about 41 on fantasy. I hope they like it! :)