Emperor’s Edge Extras: Interview with Sergeant Yara

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Lindsay

As some of you who chat with me on Twitter know, I’m planning to take a breather from Decrypted and work on a new Emperor’s Edge novella for November’s NaNoWriMo challenge. I haven’t worked out the entire plot yet, but it’ll feature Sergeant Yara as the POV character and will take place on a steamboat ride back up river, between the end of EE5 and the beginning of the forthcoming EE6. To get you all in the mood for some Sergeant Yara action, she’s here today to answer interview questions that were sent in by readers on Facebook and the EE forum.

Sgt Yara Interview

Sergeant Yara, thank you for taking the time to visit with us today.

Did I have a choice? *suspicious glower* Aren’t you the one responsible for sending Lokdon and that assassin to my family’s doorstep, starting a chain of events that resulted in my brother tattling on me, and my job being placed in jeopardy?

No, no, Amaranthe thought up that plan of her own accord. Besides, I might be able to get you your job back if you’re pleasant and answer these questions for your fans. Did you know you’ve gained a few fans by joining up with the EE team?

*only slightly less suspicious glower* There won’t be touching, will there?

No touching. Maldynado’s off somewhere, basking in the adulation his interview earned him.

Very well. Proceed.

Thank you for your enthusiastic agreement. Here we go with the first question. Maggie asks, “What were the best and worst things about growing up with so many males?  And how old is she?”

I’m 28. The best thing about having so many brothers? Let me think about that. I guess they made me tough and capable of taking care of myself. The worst thing? Do you want a list? How long do you have? There was the time they made me eat worms, the time they rolled me down a hill to see how many times I’d bounce before I hit the bottom, the time they dropped me in the well down the street, the time they convinced me I’d broken my “lady parts” and would never have kids, the time–

All right, thank you. That’ll do. Next question… Alex asks, “What’s her motivation for becoming an enforcer? Amaranthe wanted to go down in history as something – what about Yara? P.S. What is with that self-cut hairstyle? I get being self-sufficient but there are some areas you just don’t mess with. Maybe you and Sicarius could start a club?

I do not like to talk about this subject.

Why you became an enforcer? Or… the hair?

*glower*

Remember, cooperation could earn you good things in the next book…

I seek only a return to my old job and my old life.

Well, we’ll see about that. Do you want me to repeat the questions?

*glowers and grumbles* No.

Up until I was eighteen, I worked in the smith with my family. I hadn’t decided if I wanted to do something else with my life. My mother worked in the city, selling the family’s wares from the back of a wagon. I had no interest in business, so my little brother always accompanied her.

The city isn’t a kindly place, though, and one night they were jumped by thieves who wanted to steal the day’s earnings. My brother was only sixteen then, but he stood up to the criminals and refused to give in. Unfortunately, the confrontation escalated from there. Someone pulled out a gun and… my mother was shot. A pair of enforcers showed up and apprehended the criminals, but it was… too late for her.

After that, my brother and I eventually both found our ways to the enforcer academy. I wanted to make sure that such atrocities would be less likely to happen to other families.

*throat clearing* Is that enough?

Yes, sorry to bring up a sensitive subject. And, ah, the hair?

You’re not going to drop that, are you? It is not a “self-cut” hairstyle. Ms. Graytov on Elm Street cuts my hair. Yes, it’s short, but that’s practical for an enforcer. I used to wear my hair longer and back in a braid. Early in my career, I was chasing a bandit through some corn fields (yes, yes, it’s very rural out here, I know) and didn’t realize he had an ally. The miscreant jumped me from behind, grabbed the braid, yanked my head back, and almost slit my throat. With luck, I managed to get out of the situation and apprehend the pair of them, but it was a lesson not to leave hair dangling. I find it easy to care for as well when it’s short.

Liana asks, “Sespian chose you and one other female enforcer for promotion to Sergeant — why do you think you were chosen?”

I’d like to say it’s because I’m a hard worker and my record showed it. I have a feeling he was just trying to encourage women in the force and picked me because there weren’t many to choose from.

Maria asks, “How did you react when you found out about your promotion, and what was it like when you first met Sespian?”

I was excited, of course, and nervous to meet the emperor. The Imperial Barracks is bigger than my entire town, so I might have been intimidated too. Just a little. Don’t tell Maldynado I said that. He’d call me a bumpkin.

During my first time meeting the emperor, I was too nervous trying not to say something stupid to notice much about him, other than that he was young and nice. He didn’t make you feel like you were some peon who was beneath his station. I liked him and knew I wouldn’t have to pretend to respect him during his reign. Not like some of the superiors I’ve had as an enforcer.

On my second meeting with the emperor, I sensed the tension behind his eyes, that he wasn’t quite as in charge of things as I thought. I wished I could help him, but didn’t see what a simple enforcer sergeant could do against the powerful people surrounding and pressuring him.

Mana asks, “What is her current opinion of the EE team and how did or didn’t it change from before she came on the train heist?”

I’m still trying to decide what I think of these crazy people. I now believe they think they’re working for the good of the empire–at least Lokdon thinks that and has convinced the others to go along with her–but their methods are reckless.

More than that, their methods are illegal! As an enforcer, it is difficult for me to go along with these mad schemes. On the way back to the capital, I shall have to consider whether I can continue with them or if it would be wiser to return home and report everything to my superiors.

Racine asks, “Why is she so immune to Maydynado’s charms?”

He’s a dolt.

All right, maybe he’s not entirely a dolt, but his “charms” as you call them make me uncomfortable. He is obviously someone who gains female favor easily; I have no doubt he’s wooed many a girl only to leave her in tears when he grows weary of her and moves on to the next conquest. I refuse to develop an attachment to someone like that. He’s not as if he’d reciprocate the feeling.

I’m also quite perplexed as to why he insists on plying his “charms” on me. I suspect because there are a lack of other women around at the moment. I’m sure that will change once we return to Stumps.

K2N2 asks, “Of Mal’s hats, does she have a favorite?  Is there any sort of hat she’d like to see him in?”

His hats are idiotic. I don’t know why he wears them. Why cover up such gorgeous soft, wavy hair that invites one to touch it, and… *cough* Never mind that. The hats are idiotic. Why someone with an otherwise respectable fashion sense insists on adding such dubious flare is beyond me.

Kayla asks, “Now that you’ve seen Sicarius interact with Amaranthe and the others, do you still think he is totally a monster?”

I think he’s a viper that Lokdon has charmed, the same way she’s won over the rest of her men. As long as she’s playing the pipe, I’m not too worried about being around him, but I have no doubt that he deserves the bounty on his head, and I would not wish to be around him if something should happen to her. I was relieved when he left the team to find her on his own.


Part II of the interview is now available, which includes Yara’s views on Amaranthe, her dating experience, and her “real” thoughts on spelunking (yes, these are the things people want to know!)…

 

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | Tagged , , , , | 33 Comments

Are There Downsides to Giving Away Free Ebooks?

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Lindsay

If you’ve stopped by my blog before, you’ve doubtlessly heard me suggest that giving away a free ebook (whether a short story, a novella, or a complete Book 1) can be a great way to boost sales of your other books. I’ve been doing this almost since the beginning of my e-publishing adventure, first with a short story and then, for the last year, with my first Emperor’s Edge book. I’ve had countless people tell me they tried my first book for free, then went on to buy the rest of the series. And my sales numbers do back up that notion.

But are there any downsides to giving work away for free?

I don’t buy into most of the “downsides” I hear mentioned, i.e., that it’s devaluing your work or that people will assume something free is junk and ignore it — the numbers of downloads I see (and sales of subsequent works) don’t support that belief. (I’ve notice that authors are very good at assuming their own beliefs are those of the market in general; real-world testing is, of course, a more logical way to make pricing decisions.)

That said, there may certainly be some less-than-ideal consequences of offering an ebook for free, and it’s up to each of us to decide whether the upsides outweigh the downsides.

Here is one thing I’ve noticed of late:

Bookstores may choose to prioritize paid titles and display them more prominently

For the last few months, Amazon was displaying it’s Top 100 paid and free side-by-side for various categories. Recently, they’ve started adding an extra click (people now have to choose the “Top 100 free” link at the top of the category page to see the list), which makes those most-downloaded titles a little less visible. I’ve also heard from folks browsing via their kindles that they have a hard time finding the free ebooks at all. I’ve had fewer than average downloads so far in October (though not by a large margin) and wonder if this change is the reason.

Amazon changes things around often, and we can count on them to do what’s in their best interest, so it’ll be interesting to watch and see what happens. If free titles become harder to find, it may negate the perk of having a free ebook in the store. Of course, we can still use advertising and other forms of promotion to drive potential readers to our book pages there, but there might come a time at Amazon where one would be better served by having an inexpensive Book 1 that will appear in the normal paid-book lists rather than a free one. Or, something I’m contemplating, it might make sense to have a free ebook and then a special not-free edition with cut scenes, interviews, etc, so that you can have a title in the free and paid lists.

Here are a couple of other possible downsides that people have brought to my attention:

A free ebook may receive harsher reviews than one a person had to purchase

I’m not sure I necessarily believe this — I think it’s more that people are seeing something that’s common with books that become more popular: with most titles, you’ll see fewer rave 5-star reviews once reviewers have no connection, however loose, to you (i.e. friends of friends, readers of a blog where you were interviewed, acquaintances from Twitter, etc.).

At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that people still try books with 1-star reviews. As long as there are some good ones, too, it’s probably not a big deal. There are some extremely popular books out there (Shades of Gray, what?) with as many 1-star reviews as 5-star reviews.

Some people only “buy” free ebooks and won’t go on to try others

If this is true, then those folks weren’t going to be your customers anyway. You don’t lose anything by having them read your free titles (and you might even gain fans who will mention your books to friends, people who do buy books). Other people will use the freebies section, much as they would use a library, to try new authors without risking an $5 or $8 price tag. If they like the book, they’ll buy others in the series.

To snag those folks, though, you need to make sure your free offering is something good. I’ll see people “go free” with 3-page short stories that were rejected by 50 magazine editors. First off, this may not be a good example of the work you can do now, and second, such a short read isn’t going to be enough to turn someone into a fan. I’ve definitely gotten the most mileage out of having an entire novel free.

All right, that’s all that comes to my mind now (though I’m blogging from the road, so am a tad distracted as my dog lets me know that she’s tired of sitting on the porch at the coffee shop). Do you have any downsides to add? Or arguments you’d like to make? Please chime in below.

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , | 46 Comments

Long-Established SF Author AC Crispin Goes Indie with StarBridge Series

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Lindsay

When I was in sixth or seventh grade, before I found my way into fantasy, I picked up my first major geek cred by reading Star Trek books. A lot of Star Trek books. At one point, it was a source of pride that I’d read every single Trek book out there, even the hard-to-find short story collections from the 70s. I’d even read some of those upstart Next Generation books that was starting to proliferate on the SF shelves (I was well into adulthood before I developed an appreciation for Captain Picard). As I’ve confessed before, Mr. Spock was my favorite character, so it shouldn’t be surprising that a couple of Trek books that I re-read several times were A.C. Crispin’s Time For Yesterday and Yesterday’s Son. I later read Ann’s Star Wars novels too (more geek cred for the jar).

I drifted away from series tie-ins as I got older, but Ann’s name has come back on my radar again of late, due to the fact that she signed on with small press Ridan Publishing last winter to create ebook versions of her original-world StarBridge series. Ridan had a lot to do with Nathan Lowell’s e-publishing success and has turned Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War into a bestseller all over again. Ridan also launched Michael J. Sullivan‘s career, turning him from a small-time self-published author into someone who earned a lucrative publishing deal with Orbit books.

Apparently, things didn’t go well with Ridan this last year, though, with the owner going MIA for long periods of time, at least insofar as communicating with authors and readers went. Ridan didn’t do any marketing or promotion for Ann’s books, nor did it fulfill orders from Crispin fans who ordered the ebooks from the publisher’s site. For those who want more details, they’re up in their ugliness over at the Kindleboards. Last week, Ann announced on her Facebook page that she’s parting ways with Ridan. She’s since reached an agreement with the owner, and her Starbridge series is now up under her own name. In other words, she’s one of us now!

I’ve picked up the first book and will be giving the series a try. Ann has long maintained the Writer Beware blog, a helpful resource for up-and-coming authors, and I hope she does well with this first foray into independent publishing.

If you’re a fan of science fiction and are interested in checking out her work, here’s the blurb for the first book:


WE ARE NOT ALONE, AND WE’RE ABOUT TO MEET OUR NEIGHBORS.

After more than a hundred years of space travel, a stray radio signal indicates the possibility that alien life might exist. The crew of the Désirée has no training in interstellar diplomacy and a minor dispute turns to disaster that could escalate into a full scale war.

Can the bond formed between two very different friends be strong enough to bridge their differences and save their people? Come along in this first book in the StarBridge Series in an exciting journey across the stars in a desperate gamble to save both their worlds.

StarBridge at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.

http://www.accrispin.com/

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Posted in Fantasy / Science Fiction | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Can Posting Stories on Wattpad Help You Sell Books?

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Lindsay

As authors, we’re always looking for new ways to stand out and attract readers to our work. The online world presents numerous opportunities, some of them effective, some not so much. I’ve been aware of Wattpad for a while, but haven’t had a chance to tinker around there much yet. I learned that independent author CJ Archer has had some success there and asked her if she’d answer a few questions. If you’re looking for new ways to promote your work, you may find this short interview useful.

Using Wattpad for Book Promotion with CJ Archer

Thanks for stopping by, CJ! First off, could you give us an overview on what the Wattpad site is all about?

Wattpad is a place where writers connect with other writers as well as readers. They can get feedback on their “works”, interact, and build a community. For readers, it’s a place to read free stories and find new authors.

It sounds like you and quite a few other self-published authors have been using Wattpad as a promotional tool. What strategies are you using?

I initially put up a few chapters of one of my self-published books on Wattpad, but it gained very few readers. I decided to investigate the site further to see what works and what didn’t. I found that authors who had the most success were posting young adult books, posted the entire book, and they interacted quite a bit. So I put up the first book in my new YA trilogy, THE MEDIUM. I posted a new scene every few days until the entire story was up, which coincided with the release of the 2nd book.

Something to keep in mind is that Wattpad is geared towards teenage readers (mostly female) who want to read free books. When I started posting THE MEDIUM, I interacted in a few relevant communities to gained some initial exposure. Since THE MEDIUM is historical paranormal romance, I posted in “clubs” that focus on these three genres. I made sure to include the cover image in my posts. It’s a professionally designed cover with a striking model. I’ve since had people tell me they were attracted to the cover, then went on to read the blurb and first chapter.

If you do use Wattpad to post the first book in a series, expect some backlash from readers who want to read the subsequent books for free too. Make it obvious that the Wattpad book is part of a series, and that you will not be posting subsequent books. I think it’s important to keep the price of the remaining books low, so that readers on a tight budget won’t feel cheated. Most will be happy to pay you for your efforts if they enjoyed the first book and they don’t feel ripped off by an expensive 2nd book.

How much time do you spend over there? Do you have to comment on other people’s work to get folks to check out yours?

In the first week of posting THE MEDIUM I spent perhaps half an hour per day, mainly posting in the clubs and commenting on other people’s works as well as updating mine. After that, I tapered off my efforts and now I only reply to comments left on my story which takes only a few minutes. If another writer asks me to comment on their Wattpad story, I’ll usually take a look at the first chapter and offer some encouraging comments and some tips.

If someone started posting a novel at Wattpad today, how long do you think it might take for him/her to attract an audience and (we hope) see some sales?

This is not an easy one to answer. I think if you put in some early effort over a few weeks, you should see some reads quite quickly. BUT it all depends on whether readers like your story, connect with the characters etc, otherwise they’ll abandon the story without finishing it. A lot of Wattpadders won’t read anything until it’s complete, so it pays to post the entire book and mark it as “complete”.

Does it seem like certain genres do better than others over there?

Stories geared towards teenage female readers do better on Wattpad. Romance is very hot on the site, but also the most competitive category.

Do you have any comments or advice for authors who might be worried about putting their published work out there for free?

Personally, I’d only post entire books on Wattpad that I’m comfortable having free. For me, this means only the first book in a series, never the subsequent books. Since THE MEDIUM is also free at all the major ebookstores (currently waiting on Amazon to price match), I’m content to have it on Wattpad in its entirety. I’ve heard of other authors posting the entire book for a limited time, then scaling back to only a few chapters after they’ve gained some reads. I haven’t tried this, however, and I’m not sure if I will.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, CJ!

You can find CJ on her site, Facebook, and Twitter, and you can check out her books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Of course, you can read The Medium on Wattpad too.

What do you guys think? Have you tried Wattpad? I’ve had an account there for a while but haven’t done anything with it yet. I may try posting my free ebooks over there.

Posted in Book Marketing | Tagged , , , , | 25 Comments

My Self-Publishing Thoughts After 50,000+ Ebook Sales

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Lindsay

In September, I released Blood & Betrayal, the fifth novel in my Emperor’s Edge series. I sold about 2700 copies of it during the month (not including those who purchased through my eARC offering in August) and about 6,000 ebooks across all of my titles and all stores (over 5,000 came from Amazon U.S.). September has been my best sales month to date, with May (the first full month after the release of EE4) being the second best. It’s taken me into the realm of 50,000+ ebook sales total.

There are a lot of other independent authors who’ve hit that mark (with many selling more than 200,000 already), some with fewer total books out, but I feel like this is an encouraging start to my writing career. I published my first ebook less than two years ago, in December of 2010. I sold about 30 ebooks that month (most to people I knew). Fortunately, it got better from there.

Thanks to the high ebook royalty rates Amazon offers (70% for books between $2.99 and $9.99 and 35% for others), I’ve been doing this for my full-time job since December of 2011. I average about 2,500 to 3,000 sales most months with new release months obviously doing much better.

As I mentioned in an interview with Joanna Penn over at the Creative Penn, I haven’t experienced any major “lucky breaks” or spent any time at the tippy tops of the bestseller charts (lately, my debuts have been hanging out in the Top 20 of the Epic Fantasy category for a couple of weeks over at Amazon, but that’s about as close as I can get to claiming to be a “bestseller”). I’ve just been plugging away and doing my best to write every day, so I can put out at least two new novels (and some shorter works) a year.

I’ll share a few of the things I’ve learned in a moment, but for those who are curious about such things, here’s a breakdown of September sales from Amazon (US), which, as I mentioned, accounts for the majority of my income:

  • The Emperor’s Edge (a novel — free — I don’t count free downloads as “sales”): 9658
  • EE2-EE5 (novels — sold at $4.95) — 3,934
  • Encrypted (novel — sold at $3.95) — 329
  • Flash Gold (novella — free) — 807
  • Flash Gold 2 (novella — sold at $1.79) — 209
  • Flash Gold 3 (novella — sold at $2.99) — 184
  • Shadows over Innocence & The Assassin’s Curse (short stories — sold at $0.99) — 545
  • EE1-3 omnibus (I un-published this at Amazon early in the month — sold at $7.99) — 40
  • Goblin Brothers Adventures (middle grade short story collection — $0.99) — 36

Amazon US total (not including free downloads): 5,277

I also sold close to a thousand copies at Barnes & Noble this month and a couple of hundred at Smashwords, iTunes, and Amazon UK, with just shy of 100 at Kobo.

The numbers show that novels do best for me, which isn’t that surprising, with each one in my EE series outperforming the stand-alone, Encrypted. I don’t have a freebie associated with Encrypted (for now), or perhaps it might do better.

Overall, I certainly can’t complain. As I said, this is my best month to date, and I’m grateful that so many readers have been open to trying an independent author.

Random Thoughts and Advice for Other Up-and-Coming Authors

  • If you’re serious about having a writing career (i.e. you hope to make a living from your word crafting), I believe self-publishing is the best way to get started right now. It’s a lot of work, and is best suited for those who are fairly prolific and don’t mind learning how to market online, but I think you need to be both of those things to make it with a traditional publisher these days anyway. Also, just because you get started self-publishing doesn’t mean you have to stay with it. A lot of authors are choosing a hybrid model these days. Once you prove you can sell and that you have a fan-base built up, it doesn’t seem to be that hard to get a deal. I got my offer fairly early on but wasn’t ready to make the switch at that time.
  • A series can be a powerful tool. Though I haven’t sold as many books as some of my peers, I’ve definitely seen the cumulative effects of working on a series. With ebooks, your first book is always out there, on the “shelves,” so people can continue to find it and, if they enjoy it, go on to buy the rest of the books. With stand-alone novels, purchasing follow-ups is less of a no-brainer for readers, and it’ll probably depend on whether the blurb piques their interest. That said, a downside of a series is that people like to start with Book 1 and if your Book 1 isn’t that strong, and it’s not until further into the series that your writing improves, that can mean fewer readers give you a second try. You also get tired of promoting Book 1 all of the time!
  • In the ebook world, adult fiction sells far better than children’s fiction. Not much of a surprise there (how many kids have e-readers and credit cards to buy on Amazon?), but I actually published my Goblin Brothers’ stories first and was of a mind to create a series of novels with those characters. I have the rough draft of the first one on my computer. I’ve left it in draft stage, though, because I know I’ll earn more by working on my adult fantasy novels. For the middle grade (and younger) market, it may still be worth trying to find an agent and traditionally publishing. Every now and then I kick around the idea of trying that route for the series, but I have a bunch of projects on my plate (EE6, a sequel to Encrypted, and more Flash Gold novellas in the immediate future) at the moment.
  • The more books you have out the better you do. This is another one that seems obvious, but I see a lot of authors promoting the heck out of the one book they have out. Honestly, I did the same thing (though I published two novels to start with — EE1 and Encrypted). It’s what you’re supposed to do, right? The truth is, though, that it’s not really worth the time to spend a lot of hours on promotion when the most you can possibly earn is $2.05 or thereabouts (if you sell your first novel for $2.99) per customer. Now, if you have six books out in a series, and could earn closer to $20 per customer (assuming quite a few folks go on to buy all of the books), it starts to make more sense to spend a half an hour or an hour to “get a sale.” As we discussed last Spring, most of the independent authors I’ve come across who are making a living from their work have multiple books out, sometimes multiple books in multiple series. Not many people make a living wage on one book.
  • Being approachable and doing a little extra for your readers goes a long way. I’ve had quite a few readers tell me that they appreciate that I write up character interviews, post cut scenes, chat with people on Twitter and Facebook, and pop into the EE forum. They always sound… surprised, whereas I think, what author wouldn’t do these things? I can understand getting to a point where it’s hard to answer all of one’s emails, especially if you blog about self-publishing and get a lot related to that as well (I’m trying batch processing to improve my efficiency in the email area), but I can’t tell you how many people have said things like, “I’m really enjoying your books and have recommended them to X and Y friends.” I’d like to think I’m clever at online marketing, but I know I’ve been fortunate to get a lot of readers through word-of-mouth. It’s true that people will talk up a book they like regardless of whether they’ve ever interacted with the author, but I think folks are even more likely to want to see you succeed if they’ve come to know and like you through online interactions.
  • Your social media pages are for building a community, not for turning strangers into book buyers. Every day I see people promoting their books on Twitter and Facebook. I think you can stir up some interest on Twitter (though you’ll get a lot more mileage out of promoting a free ebook rather than a non-free one), but really these sites are about connecting with readers and creating a community. Or as Seth Godin calls it, a building a tribe. Nobody’s going to go to your Facebook page and then decide to buy your book. They’re not going to know you or your Facebook page exist until they’ve read your work, liked it, and been inspired to look you up (hint: put your social media links at the end of your books and encourage people to stop by). Facebook is a place to update existing fans, keep them interested in your world between books, and encourage interaction. By connecting people with common interests (your books), you have the opportunity to create something that’s larger than yourself. I believe the EE forum I mentioned originally grew out of a conversation people were having in the comments on my Facebook page. I do my best to plug it when I get a chance now, to encourage growth, as one of my characters would say.
  • Giving away freebies doesn’t devalue your work; it gives people a chance to try your stories at no risk. I can’t tell you how many people have written and said they first tried my books because EE1 was free, then went on to buy the rest of the books in the series. The result is that I sell more — and earn more — overall because I offer a couple of ebooks for free. I’ve heard authors argue that people who download free ebooks don’t read them or never buy others, but this simply isn’t true. Haven’t you ever found a new author by first checking out his/her work from the library? Or by borrowing a book from a friend? I know I have. Beyond getting people to try your work, I believe that offering free ebooks counts toward the “doing a little extra” for folks that I mentioned above. It starts your potential relationship with a new reader off on a good foot.
  • If you build a community of “ravenous fans,” you’ll never go hungry. Every other week some author is blogging about falling ebook prices (the “race to the bottom”), the sketchy marketing tactics others are employing (paid reviews being the most recent cause for hubbub), or perhaps just the ever-increasing amount of competition in the marketplace that’s making it harder and harder to stand out. Books aren’t a commodity, though, and what other authors are doing matters less than you think. If you can develop your writing to a point such that others truly derive enjoyment from it in a “I have to tell friends about this” way, your career is well on its way to being established. Step 2 is to make sure you have the contact information (AKA through a newsletter subscription) for those passionate readers so that you’re not relying on the whims of Amazon for your income. We’ve interviewed authors who have made close to $100,000 on a single Kickstarter campaign. If you have enough fans and a way to contact them, you’ll always be able to make a living telling stories, one way or another.

Thoughts? Please post them below!

Posted in Amazon Kindle Sales, E-publishing | 64 Comments

Leaving an Agent and Choosing to Self-Publish with Kendra Highley

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Lindsay

I met Kendra Highey, YA fantasy author (and one of my beta readers) through the SF&F Online Writing Workshop a few years ago. She critiqued chapters of the Emperor’s Edge, and I critiqued chapters of her first Matt Archer book. She was further along than I (or maybe just more prolific!) and went on the agent hunt first. I, after receiving a Kindle and finding out how easy it was to get one’s work into the Kindle Store, was distracted by self-publishing and never did get around to that agent hunt. Kendra had some success on that front, but ultimately things didn’t go according to plan. She recently decided to self-publish and has released her first book. I’ll let her fill you in on the details of how and why she came to choose that route.

 Interview with Kendra Highley on Agents, Traditional Publishing, and Self-Publishing

Hello, Kendra. Welcome! Let’s jump right in…

I’ve come across quite a few successful independent authors who were “very close” to getting published in the traditional manner (i.e. they got a couple of almosts from publishers, or their agent loved the story but editors just didn’t think it was right for the market, etc.). Can you tell us about what you went through with MA before deciding to self-publish?

Kendra Highley Matt ArcherI went through a pretty winding road before I self-published. After writing the first Matt Archer novel (Monster Hunter) in 2009, I started the query process in early 2010. I actually did pretty well, scoring several partial requests, four full requests and two offers of representation. Given that only about one-percent of writers seeking an agent were being signed at that time, I felt really good about it. I’d passed the first “gate” so to speak, and I just knew it was only a matter of time before an editor picked up the book.

Things don’t always work out the way you imagine.

The book got good feedback from editors, but it was never quite the “right fit.” In speaking to an editor at a conference, she told me that YA novels with male main characters were a hard sell unless you were an established author with a good sales record.  In addition, some editors liked the book, but wanted more of a Middle Grade take. I wasn’t comfortable with that (and neither was my agent…it’d change the story too much), so I chose not to rewrite it, even though I knew it was a risk.

I think a lot of writers feel that finding an agent is the end-all moment of triumph when it comes to the publishing journey. If they can just get an agent, their careers will be made… Do you have any thoughts about that? Or any idea how often it actually works out?

I don’t know what the stats are for agented-writers who sign traditional contracts for their first books, but it’s definitely not 100%. Heck, I’m not even sure it’s 50% right now. I will say this, though—getting an offer of representation from an agent was an amazing feeling. If nothing else, I had professional validation that the book was ready for “prime time.” On the flip side, being on submission was incredibly stressful. Any author who’s been through that process will tell you how nerve-wracking it is, especially when those first few rejections come in.  And even more so when those rejections say, “We liked it, but…”

At what point did you decide it was time to walk away from the agent and go off on your own?

Here’s the part where I say, “My friend Lindsay beat some sense into my head,” right? Seriously, though, seeing your success gave me the courage to pull the trigger, but the actual decision took me several months. If I was going to do it, I wanted to do it to a high standard (quality editing, great cover art, etc), and that took some planning. But after an epiphany, and a really frank chat with another self-published friend—the lovely Kait Nolan—at a conference in May, I knew it was time.  I hadn’t gotten a contract for Matt, my agent had passed on other work (which, ironically, another agent was interested in), and I was tired of feeling like my fate was in someone else’s hands. To me, it was time to try to succeed—or fail—on my own.

If you had to do it again, would you skip the agent hunt and go straight to self-publishing, or did you learn a lot in the process? I imagine it’s useful to have an agent go over your manuscript with you and offer ideas on improvements.

I learned a lot in the time I was pursuing a traditional contract, both about myself as a writer, and publishing as a business. If I had it all to do over again, I’d still query. There’s something to be said for experiencing rejection and obtaining the patience a submission process takes. It also gave me confidence: my work got past the first big gate-keeper.  Plus, having an agent peruse your manuscript gives it an additional level of scrutiny.  For me, querying was the right answer. In hindsight, though, I should’ve moved on to self-publishing sooner.

Still, I think everyone who wants to publish, whether DIY or traditional, needs to have their work torn to pieces by someone who really knows how to edit and isn’t afraid to hit where it hurts, whether by querying or joining a particularly tough critique group. After naively querying a book that wasn’t ready and getting dozens of rejections, I found the Online Writers’ Workshop for Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror—which is where I met the delightful Ms. Buroker J. It took every ounce of courage I had to post chapters of my first (truly dreadful) novel. The critique was brutal. Some of it made me cry. No kidding. But if I hadn’t done that, I’d still think my early work was brilliant. And it wasn’t. Putting myself out there to be reviewed by people like Lindsay, J.R., Jeanne, Elizabeth, Liz and Crash made me work harder and strive to learn as much as I could.  I know I still have a long way to go in perfecting my craft, but after going through multiple reviews, I felt ready to release Matt into the wild.

If you do well with self-publishing, do you think you’ll take a look at traditional publishers again?

I think it depends on the work. I have a contemporary YA resting on my hard drive that is pretty literary, and would make good library/school reading fodder. That book would benefit from traditional publishers who know those markets.  But if I do well with my more commercial work, I think I’ll stick with self-publishing…unless one of those two-million dollar Amanda Hocking deals comes around. I’d probably sign that kind of contract.

And finally, why don’t you tell us about your current release and what else is in the pipeline?

I released the first book in the Matt Archer Series (Matt Archer: Monster Hunter) in August. Here’s the short description (the longer version, and sample chapters, can be found on Amazon, B&N and Smashwords):

Fourteen-year-old Matt Archer thinks his life is pretty lame until he discovers something terrifying on a weekend camping trip at the local state park: monsters are real. After Matt is forced to kill a strange creature to save his uncle, he finds out that the weird knife he took from his uncle’s bag has a secret. The knife was designed to hunt monsters—and it’s chosen Matt as its wielder.

There will be four books in the Matt Archer series. I’m currently working on MA2 and MA3, along with what I’m calling MA1.5 – a short story to bridge the gap between the first and second books. The short story (Monster Summer) should come out sometime in October, and Matt Archer: Blade’s Edge (book 2) will be available in early 2013.

And because I’m not happy unless I’m so busy that my hair’s on fire, I’m also planning a serialized novel that will hopefully release in late 2013—it’s a dark YA14+ set in post-apocalyptic Texas. I’ll have to see how much time Matt demands before I commit to a release date, though.

Thanks for visiting with us, Kendra!

Please check out Kendra’s first book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords. You can also visit her cool monster-themed website, say hi to her on Twitter, or give her a thumb’s up on Facebook.

Posted in Interviews / Success Stories | 16 Comments

Emperor’s Edge Q&A Pt 2: Fan Fiction, Twitter, Prequels, and More

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Lindsay

I posted the first half of a series of reader Q&A questions last week and am finishing up here today with such important topics as prequels, “crazy obsessed fans,” and what it’s like to see my characters on Twitter.

Maria asks, “Regarding EE – Would you consider writing a few prequels once the series is “finished”?  Stories for Raumesys’ decision to use an assassin, and how he came up with the idea to breed one.  A series with Nurian protagonists, maybe even Stumps’ forced conversion to atheism?

I don’t have anything like this planned at this time (I’d be more likely to jump ahead in the timeline and write the next generation’s story), but one never knows what ideas might come up a few years down the road.

Regarding your authorhood – seconded on “How does it feel to have crazy obsessed fans?” and “What’s it like to see your characters on twitter?” 

I’m tickled that people care enough about the characters to speculate as to what goes on in their lives beyond what’s on the page, and to want to share their opinions with others.

I admit it was a little weird when characters started talking to me on Twitter (I had this notion that outside observers might think I’d made all of those accounts and was carrying on extensive conversations with myself…), but I’ve gotten used to it now. Though it was surprising when Forge made an account and started tweeting wanted posts for my heroes. :O

You’ve kind of answered this one, but unofficially – What are some of the biggest changes you’ve had to make to the series from your original inspiration?  Was it a difficult decision, or did a light bulb suddenly click on and show you the way to your story?”

The main way I’ve strayed is that I’d originally planned on having the EE series take place over years rather than the year or so it’s turning out to be for the first six books. (Of course, I didn’t even have the number six in mind when I got started — it was only when I decided to do different secondary POV characters for each book that I realized it would take six books to cycle through everyone.)

In the beginning, I’d also planned for all the books to be stand-alone adventures, but somehow these last three have turned into a trilogy with one big story arc. I have no idea how these things happen. Light bulbs? Difficult decisions? Not really. I just go with the flow. 😉

Tara32 asks, “Do you read the fanfiction we post? “

I read the first couple, but the forum folks have been very prolific! I try not to spend a lot of time dinking around online when I should be writing, so I don’t think I could keep up if I wanted to. It’s probably best for me to leave those stories alone though. I wouldn’t want to be swayed by someone else’s ideas. It’s bad enough y’all have got me wondering if I need to introduce a new love interest for Sespian in the end…

SaraM asks, “Have you ever thought about doing a series of vignettes to illustrate some of the characters’ histories? Kind of like Ice Cracker II, actually. That would be fun.”

I have an old story on my hard drive that shows how Books’s son was killed and gives us his first adventure with Sicarius (diehard fans will remember that those two had met prior to Amaranthe and the first EE book). At some point, I’d like to fix it up and put it out there.

As to the other characters, I’m not sure. They’re more fun for me to write as an ensemble cast rather than by themselves. Although Maldynado… well, he’s just always fun. Ahem.

Also, I have a short story with a 10-year-old Sicarius around somewhere too. It takes place through the eyes of one of his tutors. I might put that out there as a freebie at some point.

MsMcKnittington asks, “Is answering a two-part question with “yes” or “no” part of Turgonian military training? Because I’m starting to wonder if there’s a Purposely Irritating track. Like, the polite guys are tossed in Remedial Irritation and the smart alecs get retroactive credits or something.”

Yes.

🙂

Meera asks, “This is late but would you include the spirit/ifrit stuff Amaranthe and Sicarius encountered in The Frozen Water Trade in future stories?”

I hadn’t thought much about it, but it’s always a possibility. Someday, I might do a few stories in a different part of the EE world (Nuria or Kendor, maybe), and there’d be more magicky (yeah, let’s pretend that’s a word) types of things, just because that’s a bigger part of the other cultures.
Okay, thanks for reading all. If you have any questions, feel free to toss them out below.
Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Ebook Pricing Strategy for a Stand Alone Novel?

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Lindsay

Every now and then someone asks me what I think about such-and-such price for an ebook. I’ve talked a lot about how I like free or 99 cents for a Book 1 in a series, thus to let people try the first adventure at low (or no) risk and perhaps find themselves interested enough to purchase more. This has worked well for me with my Emperor’s Edge series.

But what if you’ve just published your first novel and don’t have any others out? Or what if you’re not doing a series, and all of your ebooks are unrelated? I had to consider this with my stand-alone fantasy adventure, Encrypted.

Long-time author Dean Wesley Smith suggests $6.99 to $7.99 for full-length novels, saying that this price range is a bargain when compared to most ebooks put out by traditional publishers. I haven’t come across too many self-published authors pricing their ebooks that highly yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try it. I’m certainly all for authors making a living wage from their work (though it’s important to be realistic and not expect to make a living wage from one book — as we’ve discussed before, most successful indies have multiple books and often multiple series out).

I started out selling Encrypted for $2.99 (to earn the 70% royalty) and later raised it to $3.95 when I increased the prices of my Emperor’s Edge novels to $4.95. Could I make more if I raised the price further? Perhaps, perhaps not.

One thing to remember is that your earnings aren’t a result of price alone. Units sold must be considered. X * Y = Z, right? Raise either X (price) or Y (units sold), and your earnings go up. But raising X might cause Y to drop to such a point that Z is lower.

A common mistake authors make when choosing price

A lot of authors get hung up on their own perceptions of the value of the novel. I put a year’s work into this, and I know it’s an awesome read, so it has to be worth at least $X.XX per book. But what if it turned out that you could make more money each month by selling the ebook at 99 cents instead of the $6.99 or whatever you thought it was worth?

There’s no guarantee that this would be the case (and we’ve seen evidence that Amazon is making it harder for the 99-cent titles to rank well on the popularity lists), but I believe, if increasing income is your main motivation, it’s best to experiment and not let your own beliefs dictate price. Why adamantly say that you sell all novels for $X.XX when it may turn out that X novel in one genre earns more when it’s selling for $4.95 whereas Y novel in a different genre pulls in a greater income at $2.99? Or even $9.99?

As authors and creators, it’s hard for us to be dispassionate about our work, but it’s best not to be married to any one particular number. Try one price, see how well the novel sells, then try other prices, higher and lower to find the sweet spot. (Keep in mind that if sales are dismal, price is only one factor — get an outside opinion on the cover art, blurb, and sample pages. Also having some reviews on the book’s sales page is crucial.)

In the end, of course, it’s up to you and what’s important to you as a writer. I honestly haven’t experimented with > $5 price tags because I’m making a nice income right where I’m at. I like that the reader gets a deal and that I make enough to pay the bills and cover my chocolate and latte addictions.

What do you guys think? Have you found a sweet spot for your stand alone novels? Did you try 99 cents, and did it do anything for you? Is anyone selling well at $6.99 or above?

 

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments