Hear Me Talk About Self-Publishing, Marketing, Blogging, & Social Media

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Lindsay

If you’re tired of reading my words and would like something to listen to while you’re walking the dog, commuting to work, or performing that 382nd rep at the gym, I’m the interviewee on the Rocking Self Publishing Podcast today.

Episode # 09 – Developing an Online Presence with Lindsay Buroker

Even if you’re not into podcasts, Simon did a nice job typing up some notes to go with the show, so check it out!

Also, in case you missed it last year, I’ve been on Joanna Penn’s The Creative Penn talking about marketing and self-publishing too: Build A Fulltime Writing Career Slowly With Lindsay Buroker.

 

Posted in Videos & Podcasts | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Cut Amaranthe/Sicarius Dialogue from EE5 Blood and Betrayal

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Lindsay

It’s been a couple of months since the final novel in the Emperor’s Edge series came out, and I’ve mentioned that it’ll be a while (2014) before I jump back into that world, but I was hunting for something today and stumbled across some snipped bits of dialogue from EE5, Blood and Betrayal. This piece was silly and did nothing to advance the plot, but those who enjoy Amaranthe and Sicarius moments might have fun with it. (It’s from their trip out to Marblecrest Island.)

Cut Dialogue from Blood and Betrayal

“Have I mentioned how endearing your taciturnity is?” Amaranthe asked.

“No.”

“Good.”

Figuring she should be dedicated to her duty as well, Amaranthe studied the island again, searching for movement or any sign of recent activity. No smoke rose from the multiple chimneys on the roof of the log dwelling, nor were there any watercraft tied up to the dock. Overgrown weeds half hid that dock and grew up the walls of a boathouse.

“Back in the capital,” Amaranthe said, thinking of a way she might draw Sicarius into a conversation, “at Curi’s Bakery, there’s a chalkboard where you can leave comments or rate the pastries and service on a scale of one to five.”

As usual, Sicarius’s expression did not change at her rambling comment, but he had to be wondering about this new topic.

“If I were to rate your service in the aftermath of my unpleasant ordeal, I would give you fives in almost every area.” Amaranthe gazed out over the lake, ostensibly done with the conversation, though she watched him out of the corners of her eyes.

Several moments passed. Sicarius glanced back to check their progress. Birds chirped in the trees, and a splash sounded as some critter left its perch to dive beneath the placid waters. The cool morning air smelled of wood smoke, and she spotted a dark cloud rising from the chimney of a neighboring island.

At the point where Amaranthe had given up on drawing Sicarius into any conversation that morning, he said,

“Almost.”

“Hm?” Amaranthe asked, pretending not to know to what he referred.

“In what area would you suggest improvements?”

“Oh. I don’t mean to be critical, but I did get a touch cold at nights. While I appreciate your dedication to standing a watch–and given that you didn’t ask me to share it with you, I am wondering how you’re able to keep going with so little sleep–I wouldn’t have minded a little snuggling, especially on nights where you deemed a campfire unwise.”

The oars dipped and rose several times, with the rocky outline of Marblecrest Island looming larger ahead of the rowboat, before Amaranthe realized her comment wouldn’t receive a response.

“It’s not your fault, I suppose,” she said, resolving to stop with the frivolous comments after this last one. “I imagine none of your childhood tutors instructed you in the art of snuggling?”

~

For anyone stumbling across this new, you can check out the first Emperor’s Edge ebook for free at any store. Thanks for reading!

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

New Author Series: Novellas vs. Novels, How to Finish Your First Novel, and Pricing

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Lindsay

I’ve had a handful of emails related to writing in this last week or two, and I thought I’d answer a couple of them here as well as in email for others who might be interested. I figure if one person is wondering, others might be too! If something helps and you’d like me to do more Q&A posts, please let me know. Comments of any kind are always welcome.

Wilson asks, “I’m putting some final touches on my first longer length work, a fantasy novella, first of a planned series. Any input or suggestions on the length? It runs around 150-160 pages right now, and I’m curious if I should forge ahead and turn it into a full-length novel, or if a series of shorter novellas will work as my first releases. Any thoughts?”

With ebooks, there aren’t any rules on length, and we’re seeing a resurgence in the long-shunned novella (it wasn’t economical to publish them before — they were too long for magazines and too short for mass market paperbacks). From an author’s point of view, the novellas are appealing since they can be written and edited more quickly than novels, and it’s also a way to keep your name out there and publish more regularly.

Personally, I’ve found that readers tend to like novels best (at least that’s what mine have told me), but I’m seeing more and more novellas in the Kindle Store (and some of them are selling very well too — Hugh Howey’s uber-seller, Wool, is a collection of novellas). If readers enjoy your work, they’re often happy to get your stories in whatever format you’re willing to write, so long as they’re priced appropriately (i.e. you might do something like 99 cents for a short story, 2.99 for a novella, and 4.99 for a novel).

I have short stories, novels, and a series of novellas out there. I think a series has power in any format. It allows you to play around with low or free pricing on the first one (wait until you have more out to worry about this), in the hopes that folks will be drawn in and want to read the others. Also, once readers become attached to a theme or set of characters, they’re more likely to buy the next one than if you write something totally different.

As for which would be better for you to write, my advice would be to tell the story you want to tell and not worry about word count. When it’s done and you’re satisfied, you can check the word count and see whether it falls into the novella (about 17,500 to 40,000 words) or novel length and then market and price accordingly. What you want to avoid is adding filler or padding the story to increase the word count. Your first instincts are often best when it comes to pacing, and readers will call you out if you’ve got extra scenes that don’t move the story forward or aren’t critical to the plot!

Claire and a couple of other folks have asked (I’m paraphrasing)… I have trouble sticking with a novel long enough to finish. How do you get past that? What happens if you’re half way through and realize your story isn’t good enough? Or you think of a new idea that’s more promising? Do you plan everything out ahead of time or do you wing it?

I always had trouble finishing stories when I got started too. I used to write 1/3rd or 1/2 of a novel, then stop working on it for a while, and somehow I never made my way back to it. Two things that helped me were to make sure I was writing about characters that were fun for me (as you can probably guess, I enjoy doing the dialogue and having the guys crack jokes), and also to force myself to keep going, even if I thought the story had started to suck. A lot of times when I went back and read what I’d written later on, I’d realized it had turned out better than I thought. And of course there’s always editing to fix the clunky stuff. If you make yourself finish projects, you eventually get into the habit of completing things, and it gets to be a lot easier.

A writing quote from Elmore Leonard that helped me was, “I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” I realized you don’t have to write the boring travel scenes or sections designed to get the characters from Point A to Point B. If you write in scenes, you can simply put in a scene break and start up again when the next important (and interesting) thing happens in the story.

As for planning, I used to just wing it, and I think that’s one of the reasons I didn’t finish things. I’d get to a certain point and not know what should happen next, so I’d wander off until I “got inspired.” (Usually that meant I started something new and forgot about the first story.) Now I do an outline before I get started, usually a basic run down of the major plot points. I often end up deviating when I’m actually writing, but I find I’m much less likely to get stuck if I know how the story is going to end before I start writing.

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , | 21 Comments

How Do You Stay Excited About Marketing and Book Promotions as the Years Pass?

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Lindsay

This Christmas will mark my three-year anniversary in the e-publishing arena. I put out my first novel, The Emperor’s Edge, in December of 2010. I did book blog tours, submitted to review sites, started this blog, started a newsletter, built a Facebook author page, and became more active on Twitter. I tried all sorts of advertising, I guest blogged on other people’s sites, and I participated in forums. I tinkered with blurbs and keywords and book covers, relentlessly trying everything other authors were talking about in order to get my book into the hands of readers who might enjoy it.

And it worked. Nothing worked spectacularly (with the possible exception of making some of my work free to stir up interest in the rest), but it all added up and little by little contributed to book sales. A year later, with four novels out and some shorter works as well, I was able to quit the day job and write full time.

Now, two years and nine months later, I have nine novels out along with additional short stories and novellas. I launched the last book in my Emperor’s Edge series in July and am working on the first book in a new contemporary fantasy series now. I’m still excited about writing — in fact I’m spending much more time on writing and editing this year than I did in the first year or two — but my blog posts on self-publishing have become sparse because putting out Books 5, 6, 7, etc. was exactly like putting out all the rest, and I’m not doing much with the marketing and promotions side of things right now.

Part of this is because I have a readership now (though we’ll see how many follow me from secondary world high fantasy to a contemporary fantasy set in Arizona!), and I can sell books by sending out a notice to my newsletter subscribers and by posting on Facebook and Twitter. That’s all I did for the release of my last book. On the one hand, it’s great to have reached this point, but on the other hand, I’m aware of how competitive things are out there and how many hungry authors are coming up, working extremely hard to promote their books. I’ve certainly seen that if I don’t do any advertising at all for a while, the downloads of the free book drop off, as well as sales of the others. Any time sales take a dip, I mull over what I could be doing besides simply writing.

So this is less of a “how to stay motivated” post and a question for you all out there. How do you stay motivated? Or do you believe that writing and publishing new work should always be the focus? (I admit that’s been my experience thus far and it’s why I’m not sure I’m doing anything wrong here, though it admittedly doesn’t give me as much new fodder for my blog!).

For me, I think the launch of a new series will be a good chance to get back into things and experiment a little to see what’s working now, in 2013. For those of you that are writers, what are you doing to stay excited about the marketing side of being an author?

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , , | 24 Comments

How To Win Followers and Influence Readers on Wattpad

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Lindsay

I’ve had a few folks write guests posts about Wattpad in the last year and I keep running across news stories on Wattpad authors getting picked up by publishers, so it must be the place to be right now. At the least, it’s a place where you can offer samples (or full books) of your work for free and build an audience.

I’ll say from my own experience (I have the complete Emperor’s Edge Book 1 up over there and part of Book 2) that it’s working to sell books (I’ve had Wattpad readers send me notes saying they picked up the rest of the series). As with a lot of ebook marketing strategies out there right now, it seems to favor those with series — hook them with the first book and hope they’ll go on to buy the rest when those ones aren’t available for free. I might go more into my own experiences there at some point, but I’ve got a meaty guest post for you today from an author who’s been on there longer and has a lot more page views than I have on my stories. I chat with David Alastair Hayden on Twitter, and I’ve started to think of him as the Wattpad pro! So, without further blathering, here’s his advice:

How To Win Followers and Influence Readers on Wattpad

Storm-Dragon-Kindle-EmbedBy now most people here know that Wattpad is an online community for reading and sharing stories. It has a highly active base of readers/writers and allows them to build reading lists, vote for and comment on individual chapters, “follow” their favorite authors, and interact with other reader/writers via both public and private messages. For me, Wattpad has been a wickedly fantastic way to connect with readers, sell books, and build toward that holy grail of 1,000 true fans.

Currently, I have a healthy 1.1 million reads on Wattpad for The Storm Dragon’s Heart and over 900 followers. That doesn’t make me the biggest name on Wattpad, but it certainly ain’t too shabby either. For a fantasy adventure book aimed at the lower end of the YA market, I’d say my numbers are excellent. But I didn’t earn readers and convert them to buyers by accident, or by simply spinning a good yarn.

I used a system.

My Wattpad Technique

Step 1) Post Regularly

I post one chapter each week, every week. Choose a day, let everyone know (see author notes below), and stick to it. The reason for this is two fold.

Once readers find and become fans of your work they will know when to come looking for more. They will descend in mass on your newest chapter and the burst of reads, votes, and comments will shoot your book up the hotlist for your genre. This will give you increased visibility similar to that of appearing on a bestseller list on Amazon. As I released the later chapters of The Storm Dragon’s Heart, the first book in my Storm Phase series, each one would rocket me into the Fantasy Top 5 and the Teen Top 50.

Also, Wattpaders are avid readers and they will consume your latest literary offering far faster than you would imagine possible. Because they want it now, all of it. So, if they know when to expect your newest post, it will dampen the urge to make impatient comments.

A Note on Timing: While posting The Storm Dragon’s Heart, I experimented with different times and days. I found that the best time to post chapters for maximum impact on visibility was on Friday or Saturday.

Step 2: Post Lots

On Wattpad, “reads” is the number of times any particular post has been viewed. So if your book has 10 chapters and each chapter has been read 10 times then your book has 100 reads. Readers can also vote on posts. Votes work and are tallied similarly, except where reads are passively gained as people open up a chapter, votes must be intentionally activated.

Obviously, the more chapters your book has the more opportunities you have to gather reads and votes. The more reads and votes you have the more visible your book will be on the site and the more new readers are likely to discover it. If you don’t write short chapters already, then I strongly advise that you break the book up by scenes. In fact, the wriggling of hooked readers on Wattpad affirmed my belief in short chapters for building tension and keeping the virtual pages flipping.

The Storm Dragon’s Heart has 54 chapters out of 85k words. That’s a huge plus because one hooked reader will give me 54 reads by the end. This is a distinct advantage. Make the chapters worth it and be prepared for the pestering of readers desperate for more story.

Short chapters is also a great way to turn impatient readers into book buyers. Book 2: Lair of the Deadly Twelve has 70 chapters and I am posting one each week. But both it and Book 3: The Forbidden Library are already available for purchase on Amazon and the other booksellers. Readers who just can’t wait will go ahead and buy the book.

Step 3) Link to Your Book

When you post or edit a chapter, there is a spot to add tags and such, like keywords on KDP. If you click on the “Advanced” tab in that section it will let you add pictures and videos and and external link. This external link is where you can enter the link to your book on Amazon. It is very simple to do but not obvious. It doesn’t have to be an Amazon link. It could go to B&N or your book’s page on your website. If you do link to Amazon, the link will say “Amazon.”

That link is insufficient. It’s a tiny link. No one will see it. No one will click it. Trust me on this. Despite having that link from the beginning, I had readers message me over and over telling me my book was wonderful and that I really should get it published. I got tired of answering this and had a little stroke of genius. (See Step 4.)

You can and should post active links to all your sales pages in your Wattpad profile. But you cannot put links in the chapters you post. Wattpad will automatically strip them. You can put a direct link as a comment though. So when readers ask you where they can get your book or suggest that you get it published (and they will, no matter how clear you make it that the book is available for purchase) feel free to respond with a link.

Step 4) Add Author’s Notes

At the start of each chapter I put the following note:

You can buy this book and the rest of the STORM PHASE series at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iBooks, and Smashwords.

And at the end of each chapter I put this note for a finished book:

You can buy this book and the rest of the STORM PHASE series at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iBooks, and Smashwords. You can sign up for my newsletter, follow me on Twitter, or like my Facebook page. For more information, see dahayden.com. Your support is appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Or I will put this end note for an ongoing book:

I will post one chapter each week, but there are 70 chapters, so this may take a while. If you just can’t wait, you can buy the complete book and the rest of the STORM PHASE series at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iBooks, and Smashwords.

You can sign up for my newsletter, follow me on Twitter, or like my Facebook page. For more information, see my website dahayden.com. Your support is appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Once I added the notes and started peaking into the Top 10 on Fantasy, I started getting steady sales. And it was pretty obvious that Wattpad was the cause. As I would release each new chapter and the book popped onto those popularity lists, I got an immediate bump in sales on Amazon and other booksellers.

Of course, once the book was nearly finished, this boost trickled off. Readers could see the end in sight and were more patient. I’d estimate that before Book 2: Lair of the Deadly Twelve debuted, I generated about 200 sales off of Wattpad for The Storm Dragon’s Heart which was priced then at $5.99. (At the time my sales were in a huge slump. Not having a sequel to the first book in a series can do that.) Now, I’m getting steady follow-through sales on Book 2: Lair of the Deadly Twelve and Book 3: The Forbidden Library as well from impatient readers who don’t want to wait two years to get the rest of the story. It has become impossible to judge how many, but I’d say quite a few. Storm Phase Book 2 actually outsells Book 1 on Kobo and iBooks.

Step 5) Be Sociable

Wattpad offers loads of opportunities to interact with people and promote yourself. Some people have had success with the forums, sometimes called clubs, and such. I wouldn’t know. There is, however, one thing you definitely should do on Wattpad. It doesn’t even take much time or energy.

Reply to all the comments on your chapters. Be friendly. It only takes a few minutes each week. If someone posts a rude comment to one of your chapters, you can delete the comment. I had one over-eager young fan who sometimes got too aggressive and needed moderating. Eventually my fans started reporting his comments and I didn’t have to do anything anymore.

At the bottom of your profile page is your message board. Readers can post messages just like they were posting comments on a chapter. And you can respond in kind. Or, if you click the checkbox that says “broadcast to followers” under the message box, that message will be sent to all of your followers. Depending on how they have their notifications set up, you message will appear on their Wattpad newsfeed and be sent directly to their email. This is a great way to announce new projects just like you would with a newsletter. Beside that checkbox is a button that lets you post the message to Facebook as well.

Step 6) Get Featured

The only promotion I have done on Wattpad is participating in their  Writer Partnership Program which allows select authors to “feature” their completed book on the site. Being “featured” brings in a mass of readers through the advertising exposure by the powers-that-be on Wattpad. Your book will appear on the “Featured” page in the discovery section of the site and on the rather ubiquitous “Books You Might Enjoy” banner. They also allow you to write a guest post for their blog.

There are two ways to get “featured” on Wattpad. You can simply post your entire book and then ask to be. This is the path I most often see indie authors take. If I had known it existed when I first started on Wattpad, this is probably what I would have done, too. I’m glad I didn’t. That’s not to say that you can’t or won’t get results with this method, you will.

But by posting a chapter a week, I slowly built up a list of followers before the Writer Partnership Program contacted me. It allowed me to cleverly time up my “featured” promotion with the release of Book 2: Lair of the Deadly Twelve. My numbers exploded. Waiting to tap that Wattpad promotion helped me reach a much broader fan base than I would have if I had used it earlier. I saw the same huge spike in readers others see after being “featured” but that was on top of my original followers.

And that’s it!

Ok, I lied. Wattpad is a big, complicated social network. So as you wade in, there are a couple of other things you should note and or consider.

Sequels

Most published authors put up sample chapters to the sequel as an excerpt and leave it there. If you do this, I strongly advise marking it as an excerpt in the title so no one will be mistaken.

I’ve chosen, however, to serialize Book 2: Lair of the Deadly Twelve as well. It won’t all be posted on Wattpad until early 2014. Barring the unforeseen, Book 4 and possibly Book 5 will be out by then and dedicated readers will have to soldier on or dive into their lunch/latte/iTunes money. Will I post Book 3 on Wattpad? I have no idea. I’ll figure that out when I get there.

I also have a complete posting of my adult fantasy novel Wrath of the White Tigress on Wattpad, and I’m serializing Chains of a Dark Goddess which is in the same series. I don’t think Wattpad has boosted or harmed the sales of those two books because …

Rated R Books

If your book is Rated R it will not appear on the charts and will, apparently, be difficult to find by searching. It also won’t be eligible to become featured. This cripples the promotion of such books and is why Wrath of White Tigress has far, far fewer reads than The Storm Dragon’s Heart. It’s not just because YA is a stronger category. You will, of course, find books with Rated R material that are not marked as such, but I do things the right way because … Well, you can’t be evil all the time, can you? I think Captain America taught me that. Well, he probably said something along the lines of “do the right thing” and “be a good person,” but I have my own interpretations.

Peer-to-Peer Critique

There is a lot of fan fiction on Wattpad. A whole lot. If you don’t know who One Direction is already, you will find out. (A boy band. I’d give you analogies, but doing so would reveal my true age.) Teens writing fiction for other teens, especially fanfic, can succeed (get TONS of votes, reads, and fans) with subpar writing because they’re writing things their peers will like and enthusiastically support. Peers support their peers, and they critique them. The interactions between peers are very different than those on publishable writing. You cannot and should not compare your numbers to the numbers for books like this. You might, however, want to check out these books to see what teens are into if you write YA.

The Real Reason to Use Wattpad

But here’s the one thing you must accept: Most Wattpad readers are not going to buy your books. It’s just not going to happen for myriad reasons. I’ve had readers with low incomes thank me for posting quality fiction for free (for this I’ve been blessed by the names of strange gods). I have many young readers, too, who maybe don’t have the money or allowance, or live in nations where wealth isn’t so plentiful. I had one reader tell me that he was planning to buy my books after he finished saving up for a guitar. The hope is that they will share their love of my work with friends who do have money to spend on books with boy wizards, Asian settings, fetches that turn into diaries, and cat-girl ninjas.

Many Wattpadders who buy my books message me to let me know they’re supporting me, which is touching, and I always thank them profusely. I have a few fans who’ve bought my books yet still drop by to vote on new chapters and leave me comments on what they liked in the chapter. You really cannot get that kind of feedback anywhere else. I have had dark days brightened by my Wattpad fans and their enthusiasm. The comments on the chapters they love, the begging for more chapters when they know I’m only giving one each week, pestering me because I forgot to post … these are things I cherish.

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged , , , , | 71 Comments

A Full-time Indie Author Answers Your Questions: Part 1

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Lindsay

I’ve gotten a lot of nice email since Forged in Blood II came out, but I’m woefully behind in my responses. A lot of them are related to my books, but because of this blog, I often get questions related to self-publishing and book promotion too. I thought I’d try to whack two birds with one stone (if you’d seen me throw, you’d be snickering at this notion) and share some of my answers here. Then the next time someone emails with one of these questions, I can point them to this post. (If you have any questions of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments below.)

Lindsay, I found your old post on earnings (here: March 2011 or here: “What Does It Take to Become a Full-Time Author?”) and was wondering how you’re doing now. It’s been a while since you posted sales numbers. Are you able to make a living writing now?

The short answer is yes. Because I’m writing quite a bit and publishing frequently (three novels and a novella this year), my earnings have continued to grow. My sales per individual books aren’t necessarily any better than they were a year or even two years ago, but I’ve managed to keep them fairly steady (about 400 sales per novel per month at Amazon, with another 100+ from other stores). Naturally the sales on a new release are higher and will be so for a few months, but it’s the steady sales of one’s back list that keep the income up between releases. For that, I credit my perma-free Book 1, the occasional advertising stint, and word-of-mouth recommendations from my awesome readers. For more details, check out my post on “How Do You Keep Your Book Sales Momentum Going Over the Months and Years?“.

As I often point out, I’m a mid-list author who writes books that appeal to a specific audience (those who enjoy female protagonists and an action-heavy mix of swords & sorcery and steampunk). You don’t have to chase the hottest genre or write for mass appeal to make a living as an indie author; you do have to write well enough to appeal to the people who enjoy your niche, and you do have to publish regularly to keep your name out there, especially when you’re first building up your fan base.

I don’t think I’ll be sharing exact sales/earnings numbers anymore, because my readers would probably stop sending me chocolates if they knew, but I’m making more now as an author than I used to in my day job. I’m sure sales would drop off a lot if I slowed down with the writing and publishing, but I enjoy telling stories, and I feel like quite the slacker on days where I don’t knock out any words.

I appreciate the time people like you and JA Konrath take to update your blog and offer advice to new authors, but you guys already have a fan base. I don’t know how helpful your advice is to those who are starting out new today.

I got a kick out of this comment, because the person mentioned me and JA Konrath in the same sentence. He was a big author earning six figures a month when I got started, and I’m not in his league, but I get the gist of the comment. And here’s my response:

Bull.

🙂

Trust me, I get it. When I published my first book in December of 2010, Amanda Hocking had made her bazillions, JA Konrath was raking it in, and Michael J. Sullivan was about to make a big deal with Orbit. Even though I’d just gotten my first Kindle, I realized I was coming into the game late. The 99-cent price point wasn’t working the magic it apparently had six months earlier, and there was more competition in the Kindle Store than when Hocking and the others first uploaded their ebooks. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but the whole idea of self-publishing appealed to me so much more than playing Agent Hunt and Wait, so I got started anyway. I sold about 30 ebooks that first month, most to people I’d begged or bribed to pick up a copy. A year later, I had four novels out, along with some short stories and novellas, and I’d hit my first goal (1,000 ebook sales in a month). I was starting to think I could make this my full-time job.

For those of you starting now, the tricks that worked six months ago don’t work now, and there’s a ton of competition in the Kindle Store. Sound familiar? That’s because it is. But I promise you that the same core things I did to gradually build a fan base still work. I never used KDP Select or any tricks to get ahead (it’s not because I’m above that sort of thing — it’s just that I wasn’t willing to go exclusive with Amazon, and none of the iffy gimmicks seemed wise to pursue to one who wants to make a career out of this).

My core marketing philosophy has been to give away stuff for free (on Podiobooks, on Wattpad, on Smashwords, on Amazon, and anywhere else I could), to make sure the free stuff is an obvious lead-in to my other books (AKA a Book 1 in a series), and to promote the freebies through advertising, guest blog posts/interviews, and social media. If you’re trying this and it’s not working, get some outside advice on your cover art, blurb, and novels. And keep writing. I published Book 3 in my series before I really started gaining some traction.

If you need more inspiration (and marketing ideas), check out the interviews I’ve done with folks who published for the first time this year (2013) and sold tons of books right out of the starting gates:

It can happen. Not everyone is going to hit it big with their first book (most won’t), but I know that a lot of the people who are starting this year will be making a full-time income by 2015 or 2016. You can be one of those people, or you can take a defeatist attitude that it’s too late now to jump in.

How many ebooks do you have to sell a month to make a living?

How much you need to “make a living” is a different number for everybody. If you’re single without any debt and live in an inexpensive part of the country, it’s not going to be a very big number. If you’re married with children and want to support a spouse while you live in a coastal metropolis, it’s a different story.

You can do the numbers for yourself pretty easily though. For ebooks at 2.99 and above, you earn about 70% at Amazon (it’s less at Barnes & Noble and more at Smashwords). So 1,000 ebooks a month at 2.05 gets you a little over $2,000. Sell your books for $4.95 and you’ll make more than $3,000. Get up to 3,000 ebook sales a month, and now you’re talking.

That can seem like a ton of ebooks when you’re getting started, and it is if you only have one title out. It’s less daunting when you start thinking in terms of having 10 or 20 ebooks out, and if you want to make a career out of this, that’s probably where you’ll be eventually.

But as far as feeling like you’ve “made it” and you’re ready to quit your day job, it’s more important to cultivate your 1,000 true fans than have a good sales month here or there (as many who’ve been there can tell you, success can be fleeting if it came as a fluke and you didn’t take advantage of it by turning casual readers into true fans). When you have a certain number of people who will buy anything you publish, that’s when you can start to feel secure in your continued ability to write for a living. Publishing tends to be a cyclical business, but when you start to know that a book release is good for X sales, then you can predict what your income will look like for the next and beyond.

That’s enough for this post. Any comments or questions you’d like to see addressed in the future? Please chime in below!

Posted in New Author Series | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Tips for Getting a Movie Deal as an Independent Author (with Lisa Grace)

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Lindsay

It seems that most authors love the idea of seeing their books on the big screen — and the extra income from selling book rights to a movie producer doesn’t hurt either. But is a possibility as an independent author? Sure, you say, sell enough books and they’ll come knocking on your door, but do you have to sell zillions and become as famous as Amanda Hocking or Hugh Howey before someone approaches you?

Well, it happened to indie author Lisa Grace. She not only sold the rights to her books, but the first one is in production now. She’s here today to give some tips for those authors who’re hoping to see their characters being played by their favorite actors.

Getting a Movie Deal as an Independent Author with Lisa Grace

Can you tell us about what made you decide to self-publish and the events that led up to the movie deal?

DIGITAL CAMERAThanks Lindsay for having me as a guest on your blog. I decided I would self publish on May 23rd, 2011 as an ebook after getting some interest from an agent who said he would shop around my book. Seven months later he tells me he was too busy with other clients and never got around to approaching anyone, but he thought it was good and he didn’t want me taking it to someone else. Luckily, I’d been writing book 2 in the meantime. So I self published them as ebooks only seven weeks apart. I made it to #1 on the Amazon sub genre lists for teen horror in the Kindle store, which is where two movie producers saw. it. It was bumped to #2 by the 1983 book , A Woman in Black which was being made into a movie starring Daniel Radcliffe, AKA Harry Potter.

Movie producers do look at the best seller genre lists to find books that interest them. I went with the one I felt offered the best chance of getting the movie made. Motion Picture Pro Studios.

A few months later they sent me the contract, I hired an entertainment lawyer, and a few months after that, I had signed an option agreement for the first two books in my series. Angel in the Shadows, Book 1 is currently free at all major ebook retailers if your readers want to check it out. Motion Picture Pro Studios “exercised” the option, and the project is currently in development.

angel-in-the-shadows

I think people assume you have to be a mega-seller to attract these guys. Do you mind sharing how many books you were selling at the time? Or perhaps how visible your books were (Top XX at Amazon?)?

Being at the top in your genre is important. They have to feel passionate about the project, and feel it will translate well to film. I’m very much a mid lister. I’ve made it to #13 in the free ranks back in the days when you could move 12,000 a day outside the romance genre. I’m not sure that’s as easy to do now. I slid in fairly high to the paid ranks coming off of free, but never stayed on op top of all Kindle books for very long. At that time, the only place my ebooks were available was on Amazon. I only opened distribution this year in December 2012, to more book stores.

Do producers always find your book on their own and come to you, or are you aware of any ways a moderately successful indie author can get in contact with them and suggest their title?

Producers are like book agents. They get pitched to all the time. They want to find projects on their own, and do. After all, it has to be something they feel passionate about. Shoot. I wish I could get them to be interested in all my books! I’d love to have everything I write optioned for a movie, but that isn’t likely to happen.

Every deal I know about, it’s been either a book agent pitching it to a director (who will read it first) or the producer reading the book and loving it.

You seem to have gained quite a bit of insight into how and why books get picked up. What genres or types of stories are more likely to attract producers?

It depends on what the producers like. Some skip around different genres, some stick with one. They’re just people who know what they like and what they can do with a project. Your best bet is to write a good book that makes it to the top of its genre so those who might be interested find it and read it. Also, some authors do have producers coming back to them again and again, because they’re writing books that will translate well to film.

In your guest post, you suggested writing, “A Simple Story in Seventy to One Hundred Scenes.” Can you talk a little about that for my audience here?

There are certain authors who get their books optioned all the time, because they write books that will translate well to film. By the way, you won’t be hearing from them, because they’ve got a wonderful second income coming in from optioning their stuff, and they don’t want you moving in on their market. I’ve heard from many of them privately.

One idea that helps is the “man in the box” type of writing, where scenes are set in one location. It makes a movie cheaper to shoot. Most movies are not huge blockbusters, and costs are a consideration.

Write a novel that can be broken down into seventy to one hundred scenes. Most movies are only going to be between an hour and half to two hours. There is a market for selling movies to TV and cable, after commercial release, and if your story takes longer to tell, your chances of getting a deal decrease. These suggestions come directly from producers (the money people with all the power, they sign the checks) that I’ve had discussions with.

You’ll get authors and scriptwriters who aren’t selling their stuff who disagree (I know because I’ve heard from them too), but I think I’ll listen to the ones signing the checks and so do the authors who are getting one book after the other optioned.

If there’s any parting advice you’d like to share, please feel free to do so.

Write the best book you can. Then write the next one. “See” your books as a movie in your head. Do think about costs when planning out settings. For instance, setting a book on a sinking cruise ship is a lot more expensive than setting it in a forest.

Watch movies in your genre (not block busters, but those with budgets of 2mil to 25mil) and take them apart scene by scene, so you get an idea of what a novel would need to include to translate well. I’d also suggest praying as it can’t hurt. Enjoy the journey because even if your book is optioned, it may never make it into development, and if it makes it into development, it may not make into pre-production. Movie making is a loooong process, so once you sign your option, kiss your baby goodbye, and start working on the next one.

~

Visit Lisa and check out all of her work on her website, or say hi on Twitter and Facebook. You can also hop over to Amazon or Smashwords to grab copies.

Posted in Interviews / Success Stories, Tips and Tricks | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Forged in Blood II (The Final Emperor’s Edge Book) Is Available

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Lindsay

The last novel in The Emperor’s Edge story line is ready to go. I’ve posted the first couple of chapters and the cover art here, in case you’d like a preview, but if you want to pick it up right now, it’s available at Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and Kobo (Apple coming soon).

Thank you all for coming with me on this journey. I hope you’ll enjoy the last part of the team’s adventures and will find the ending satisfying. That said, there’s a link to a poll at the end of the book. Please let me know if you want to see more from these characters in the future.

Posted in My Ebooks | Tagged , , , , | 30 Comments