posted
By way of slash dot: John Locke is at the top the Amazon Kindle Top 100, mostly by selling 350,000 99-cent e-books. His sales bloomed 20X when he dropped his price from $2.99. Here is an interview of John Locke.
[This message has been edited by WouldBe (edited March 09, 2011).]
posted
LOL the more I research this self-publishing business, the more angst I feel (usually, the more research I do, the better I feel, so this is kind of a new feeling for me!). At first I was totally against it. I had read some self-published books and honestly, I did not want to join their ranks. I did not want people to think MY stuff was as bad as all of that.... (yes, I can be a bit like that at times...). But then when certain self-pubbed writers just started taking off like this, holy smokes! I started looking into it more, especially reading Konrath's blog and others, and it really started to make me feel torn. I like the idea of owning my stuff. I like the idea that if the publisher goes under, my writing won't be caught in limbo, etc. I actually kind of like the idea of just doing it myself. Those $$$$ that people keep saying you can make are also tempting... And they do say that the real junk just doesn't get readers, but I'm not sure I agree with that.
Then I start thinking about things like the organizations I wouldn't be able to join, the awards that I might not be eligible for, the authors whom I respect that... well, would they respect me? I have no idea. Honestly, I have no idea what to think! I guess when the time comes to make that decision, it is going to be time to really just think about WHY writing is important to me. Also, WHY I want to either be traditionally published or self-published.
I don't think either one is right or wrong, I just want to make sure my reasoning is right for me... And right now, in the publishing world, things are so crazy anyway that it makes a decision a lot harder!
posted
I think what we're seeing now are the pioneers into this new area. There will be a scramble, then a saturation, then a drop off.
(Like the dot.com scramble a few years back.)
I could be totally wrong of course, and I hope I am as this is certainly a viable way to get our work out there. It seems these folks really hit the computer. Blogs, promotions, Facebook, and novel after novel.
It's a lot of work if you have your book at $.99 and sell fifty copies. How do you get your name out there... how do you begin the upward spiral into name recognition and confidence in your work?
Then again, selling 50 copies and keeping like $30 is more than my books are making sitting on my shelf...
posted
I've never gone this route; haven't done any self-publishing at all. I've toyed with the iPhone app market and noticed that many app developers use this strategy, too. They can offer an app for 99-cents, or a free one with a 99-cent upgrade to a more feature-rich app. Writers can do something similar. I suggested this on the original slash dot article--offer the book for free, less the ending chapter(s), with the option to buy the complete story if the reader is hooked...and/or offer alternate endings or other enhancements for the paid one. (I don't know if this plays nicely with Amazon's rules.)
The app philosophy is that 99-cents is below the threshold of pain; people will download totally lame apps, if they're less than a buck. I doubt readers will have as low of a threshold; it takes a bit more work to decide to chuck a book before finishing it...unless you're a hardcore first-13 type.
[This message has been edited by WouldBe (edited March 09, 2011).]
As for myself... I've got a whole series of short novels (more than novella length, but shorter than typical dead-tree books, and all part of the same long story arc), but they'd only be a max of 3 books in hardcopy, and possibly a tough sell. So now I'm thinkin'... make the first one free as a teaser and spread it as far and wide as possible (filesharing networks, usenet, websites, whatever), and price the rest at 99 cents each.
[My experience has been that either my readers don't like the first book at all and wouldn't like the rest any better, or they love the first book and charge frothing and slavering into the rest of the series. So seems to me a teaser freebie is fair to the first group and a hook for the second.]
Scramble vs dropoff: this is more like iTunes than the dot-bomb domain rush. It actually sells something people use today, not speculation for tomorrow.
[This message has been edited by Reziac (edited March 09, 2011).]
posted
Look guys, I'm a self-publisher. I'm an "indie" writer, and what goes on at Konrath's blog is only one side of the argument.
I strongly, strongly, STRONGLY urge anyone who wants to do this to go and read Dean Wesley Smith's blog. Go back about a year when he first starts talking about it. Read the comments. You'll being to get a sense of what's going one.
What's great about Dean is that he's not only a writer, but he's also been an editor and ran a publishing house. So he has a much broader view of things than some of these flash, quick out of the gate wonders.
Some basic ideas:
* Publishing is a long-term game, and the 99-cent novel isn't good in the long-term. What difference does it make if I sell 100,000 copies in two months in at 99-cents or over five years 4.99 (which is what I plan to sell my novels at)? It's the difference between $35,000 and $350,000 dollars. Thus, Dean is all about going slowly and letting a book build an audience.
And so what if you don't sell 100,000 over five years, but only 50,000. You've still made $175,000.
And if you sell only 25,000 over five years, it's $87,000.
And if you sell only 10,000 over five year, you've made $35,000.
Now, let's say you get disciplined and write three novels a year, do that for two years, and each sells only 2,000 copies a year (10,000 over five years), after those two years of work you have 6 novels selling 2,000 copies each at 4.99 and you're making $42,000 a year. Add in another year of novel writing, and each novel is averaging only 2000 sales a year, and you're now making $63,000 a year.
Of course, the argument is that you might not sell anything at 4.99. Yeah, you might not. But you don't know. And if you price your novel at 4.99 and it sells squat for one year, then lower it to 3.99 and see what happens.
Besides, if a reader wants to read your book, he/she will pay $5.00 to read it, no questions asked. They're not going to go seek out a 99 cent book to read. Dean pretty much convinced me that the 99-cent novel isn't smart long-term business.
* If you go into indie writing thinking your going to make a lot of money off one or two books, you're thinking about it all wrong. You have to be willing to write your butt off, putting up a lot of stories on a regular basis, putting them into collections, writing novels -- and with each one comes book covers and blurbs. Lots and lots of fun if you enjoy doing it (I do!) but a lot of work, too. You can't bank on being that one-hit wonder. Sorry, just can't.
* There's no reason why you CAN'T do both -- indie publish and traditional publish. I know of indie writers who do both, and in 2012 I plan on doing both.
* Forget promotion. Just forget it. Think long-term, and spend all your time and energy on writing new stories. The best promotion is your next story, your next collection, your next book. I've done almost NO promotion, but my sales jumped 6x in one month just by making a disciplined effort to get more titles up. Write, write, write. Forget almost everything else.
* To do this, you must learn to TRUST -- absolutely, unconditionally TRUST -- the storyteller within you. You can't second guess what you're writing. Just can't. You can't second guess what readers will think. The fact is, you don't KNOW what they'll think. Just write. Find a good friend (or maybe your spouse) to do a close proofread, publish it, forget it, then move on to the next story.
These are basically Dean's points that I've come to see as the most important -- for me.
But don't go into self-publishing unless you read Dean. I read Dean and Konrath and Scott Nicholson and a host of others because I need to.
posted
I'm writing a light-hearted detective story using a very fast-paced style, and I planned on throwing that on Kindle using a pen name. I see no reason why writers can't do both. I'll save the novels I pour my heart and soul into for traditional routes. But the "fun stuff", the stuff I do for creative purposes or just to "scratch an itch", that I'll clean up and throw on Kindle.
Just be sure you don't mind losing a story for good if you throw it up on an e-book site.
quote:Just be sure you don't mind losing a story for good if you throw it up on an e-book site.
This reminds me of a question I've been meaning to ask. We all know that books occasionally get turned into a movie or TV show. But, what do we know about such an opportunity happening for someone who self-publishes a novel or shorter work via Smashwords or similar site? I'm wondering if a producer, etc., would even seek out potential new ideas from the indie e-publishing world...? The optimist in me says that, if they don't do so now, they might change their minds once the mad rush to see one's name in digital print dies down and the reading public itself begins to weed out the hacks from the true professional writers.
I haven't read Dean Wesley Smith, but I can see that I'm going to need to.
As I said in another thread, I'm seriously considering putting some of my short stories out there. Now, a short story for 99 cents makes sense to me. It's roughly the equivalent of a music download and that feels about right.
A 99 cent novel feels underpriced. Not that there haven't been some recent spectacular successes with low-priced novels, but I figure if I'm going to have to do all the work, I ought to be getting more per copy than I would in royalties through a traditional publisher. 99 cents wouldn't do that for a novel.
Don't know that I have enough (good) material for a short story collection.
$0.99 is a brilliant price point to get to the top of the chart, then raise the rate. I've seen a lot of people offer books for free and then raise prices as well.
I remember the newbie guide to publishing explained how $2.99 is the ideal pricepoint (jul 8 2010 post and others).
Everyone has an opinion, but my guess is most people aren't making enough to pay for lunch for the day. Just because a few people found success a certain way doesn't mean it will work for everyone.
posted
Jeff already said most of what I would have said. But to emphasize... NO reason you can't do both.
I have novels out on query to NY publishers. I have a novel up online for sale now. I have almost 30 short stories making the rounds at various magazines AND I have a few short stories up for sale in a collection as well as a novelette.
Why limit yourself to just one avenue for success?
I've sold 65 copies or there abouts of my stuff online so far since July/August (I only had 2 literary short stories up until January though...). I've made around 50 bucks I think (40+ of that in the last two months).
From what I've seen, novels do tend to sell better, so we'll see if releasing novels helps my sales. I don't really do any promotion beyond tweeting about it once as they come available and pointing to it on my blog. For my fantasy novel, I've contacted a few review blogs and a couple book blogs, so we'll see if anything comes of that.
Of course, I'm not selling novels at 99 cents, either. I sell short stories at that price
But for short stories, I probably won't ever put one up directly after writing it. I like to give them the chance to sell to the pro magazines. The rights don't get tied up for that long (I'm about to get my story rights back for my first DSF sale) and the money is super nice. No reason not to maximize the earning potential of a story. I can always (and will!) put them up online after they sell and the rights have reverted to me.
Yes, read Dean. He has a VERY different take on the whole e-pubbing scene -- especially his most recent post on thinking like a publisher and what kind of publishers there are.
posted
One more numbers post -- and this one will REALLY blow your mind.
Suppose you get serious and write and self-publish a short story a week, and that you bank that each story will fail and only bounce along the bottom selling between five and ten times a month. This is average; some stories will sell more, and others less. So average wise, each sells 5 to 10 a month. Let's say, for now, it's just 7 times.
So you write and publish a story a week, and you do this for four years, getting 200 stories up, priced each at 99 cents, and each sells only 7 times a month.
That means at the end of the year these 200 short stories would've sold 16,800 copies and made you, at 40% royalties, $6,720.
Buy that's not it. Those 200 stories can be grouped together in 5-story and 10-story collections.
200 stories gives you 40 five-story collections priced at 2.99. Each title sells seven times a month and you get 3,360 a year, and at 70% royalties, you make $7,056.
200 stories = 20 ten-packs at $4.99 = 1,660 sales a year = @70% royalties = $5,880.
So just writing a short story a week for four years with each selling an average of 7 times a month will make you close to $20,000 a year.
The point of this is to show you that in this new world of publishing, if you're willing to work hard you can make good money WITHOUT EVER being a "best-seller."
And selling an average of 7 a month isn't an outrageous hope, either. In fact, with 200 stories up, it might be on the low side.
For example ...
I started 2011 with two titles, worked my butt off in January and had 10 titles up by February 1. I sold six copies in January, and in February -- with almost no serious marketing other than a few Twitter announcements -- my sales increased 600% ... THAT I KNOW OF. Neither Apple nor Kobo have reported Feb sales yet. It wouldn't surprise me if when all the numbers are my sales increased 700%.
So you see, it takes titles and NOT only looking at the Kindle.
posted
I went to uber-agent Nathan Bransford's blog looking for something else (what editors want) and found three posts, beginning with today's, relevant to this thread.
Nathan is a big-time agent in the traditional book publishing industry. He buys hardcover books, but also loves reading ebooks on his iPad. He commented on this in today's post and referred back to his two previous posts about another stellar Kindle-market author.
Jeff, I made this post because I'm interested in the topic while being suspicious of the whole idea. Nevertheless, many may find that ebook self-publishing is one tile in their mosaic of publishing. My main suspicion from the get-go was that markets like the Kindle market would be so inundated with amateurish schlock that buyers would throw up their hands out of frustration, trying to find quality works. However, at least some authors seemed to have broken through that issue. While still slogging down the traditional path, I'm glad to see other paths opening up...just on the off chance that Nathan Bransford sends me a not-right-for-me-at-this-time letter. Good luck.
posted
Nathan Bransford blog is ALSO a must-read. So is Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog.
Going indie means you CANNOT be ignorant of the business.
And I agree, it's great to have another avenue open. Personally, I decided 2011 would be My Indie Year and 2012 I would return to submitting short fiction to traditional markets.
In terms of separating the wheat from the chaff -- with sampling, you never have to buy a story or novel you don't want to read. Just start reading the sample, and if it doesn't work for you -- for whatever reason -- delete it and move on to something else. So on that point, I think the good stuff will rise and the dreck will sink.
Of course, one man's dreck is another man's treasure.
posted
I've been doing more reading that writing since the first of the year. The thing I've noticed is that guys with short-book series can price the first book for, like, 2.99 and gradually raise the prices of future books. I've read two series like that and for one five-book series plunked down $25 buck on Amazon for five little books that were smaller all together than the new Rothfuss book at 14.99.
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Of course, the argument is that you might not sell anything at 4.99. Yeah, you might not. But you don't know. And if you price your novel at 4.99 and it sells squat for one year, then lower it to 3.99 and see what happens...............
* There's no reason why you CAN'T do both -- indie publish and traditional publish. I know of indie writers who do both, and in 2012 I plan on doing both.
First: I think more than likely you will sell some. It's how many that is the question. A 99 cent E-book is very close to being the same as 99 cent paper book. Would you sell a paper book for that? Of course you make more money with E-books per book but I think the basic concept is the same. It's too cheap even to get your name out there.
Second: I know of pros who are doing both. Of course Dean and his wife are both selling their older books electronically, as are some other long time pros. But Two of my favorite new writers are selling both. C.E. Murphy ( cemurphy.net ) has one maybe two books of short stories set in her Walker universe. And I think one e-book that takes place between two of her paper novels in the same universe. (which is one reason I want an ereader)
Seanan MCguire has some online stories. As well as an excellent paper series.
quote:My main suspicion from the get-go was that markets like the Kindle market would be so inundated with amateurish schlock that buyers would throw up their hands out of frustration, trying to find quality works.
Very important point: Amazon is hardly in the business of selling books anymore. They are a giant, massive, enormous, behemoth *review engine*. I wouldn't be surprised if in Amazon's internal accounting, they put a number with a B next to the valuation of the database of customer reviews on items, books, whatever. I just bought a gumball machine from Amazon, a set of Harry Potter pop-up books, a wall mount for a flat screen TV, some ceiling-mount speakers. I bought these all from Amazon even though I could have bought them locally (though probably not cheaper.) I bought them from Amazon because at Amazon I can read literally hundreds of reviews on the items I'm considering and compare them side by side.
The concern that the ease of epublishing (really people, it's easy. I learned in an evening.) is going to flood the book market with a bunch of junk is...not particularly relevant for two reasons: 1) There's a bunch of junk already published in print today. Junk to me = your favorite genre, or gift books, or stuff that was rushed to market, or stuff that just wasn't that good to begin with but filled a niche, or the latest installment in a series that just won't die, or whatever. 2) Amazon (and other sites, but theirs is the most mature) will continue to offer review content that people will use to make buying decisions.
I have a number of apple devices and spend a lot of time in the app store. They have the *exact* same idea - tons of reviews, tons of ratings, that is how you find the nifty stuff (that plus staff picks and other "top" lists.)
I'm hopping on the epublishing train. It appeals to me, and I believe it's where book consumption is headed. My short stories are 99c, my novels will be 3.99 or 4.99. Exciting times, folks. Exciting times.
posted
I think I'm very likely to hop in with a short story or two in the next couple of months.
At that price, I'm going to have to come up with my own cover, which is not something I'm very good at and will probably take me a while.
Right now, I'm concentrating on writing through to THE END on my latest novel, SEVEN STARS. After that, I'll take a look at what I can do about a cover.
ETA: Not a cover for SEVEN STARS, which I realize is how that sounded. SS will need revisions, readers, etc. And will almost certainly make the traditional rounds (at least first). I meant a cover or covers for the short stories.
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited March 10, 2011).]
With e-book covers, keep in mind a few principles.
* They have to look good at the size of a postage stamp.
* Make sure the title and your name are very readable.
* For a professional look, add a short little blurb.
* Best way to learn how to make an e-book cover: Go to Dean Wesley Smith's site (or mine, for that matter ) and see if you can duplicate a cover you like using PowerPoint (which is what I use). Then do it again with a different cover. Of course, use your own name and titles. But its a great way to get a feel for what you're trying to do.
That's how you make them. Both MorgueFile and Stock.Xchng offer royalty-free photos for free. Dreamstime is very good, but you have to buy them for a buck or two -- well worth it, if you can't find something you like for free.
posted
Nathan Bransford continues posting interesting tidbits that happen to be related to this original post. Here, he's explaining how book selling quickly evolved--through the recent publisher/Amazon wars--to the point where major publishers' ebooks can cost the same or more than hardcover books. In short, the war resulted in pricing oddities resulting from different selling models for HC and ebooks: the wholesale model for hardcover pricing and the agency model for ebook pricing.
posted
I'm with Meredith on the size/value of a 99c story. I'm too close to the end of a major work that I want to do the traditional publishing route on, but I'm seriously considering trying to do serial fiction at the 99c level just to see how it goes.
A 10-15K word "episode" feels about right for the price, and I have a few more ideas that I don't want to flesh out into fully fledged books before then. As far as my main WIP (what I'm talking about when I say my book), there's no way that's going anywhere close to epublishing until I've exhausted every traditional avenue. If, two years from now, it's sitting on my virtual shelf unsold, I'll try it out myself. But not until then.
posted
axe- I was told by KD that ANY self-publishing doesn't count because it will never meet SFWA guidelines (Novels have to be from an advance-paying publisher who pays at least 2,000 I believe). So really, you could be Amanda Hocking and still technically qualify for WotF by what KD has said. However, if you do start selling thousands of copies of something, I'd err on the side of asking Joni about it just in case Posts: 96 | Registered: Nov 2010
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