3 Selling Tactics Authors Can Borrow from the Internet Marketing Gurus

Between the new wave of self-published authors and the traditional authors who are e-publishing their backlists, we have a whole slew of folks selling ebooks on their own now. More than ever, you have to think like a business person if you want to compete and have a chance at earning a living.

Since most of our promotion is done online, it makes sense to look to the guys who make millions that way, the internet marketer extraordinaires who create and sell information products. You’ve probably crossed some of them, as they’re everywhere, pushing everything from real estate investing advice to diet tips. Whether you’re into their schticks or not, it can be useful to watch what they’re doing, because they’re masters at marketing online.

As authors, we’re essentially trying to do the same thing as they are, even if we’re selling $5 science-fiction ebooks instead of $399 how-to-beat-the-stock-market-and-make-millions courses.

Three tactics these e-entrepreneurs use are the free gift, the mailing list, and the product launch. Let’s take a closer look at each (and talk about how authors can employ them):

The Free Gift and the “Sales Funnel”

Some authors, indie and traditionally published, loathe the idea of giving away work for free. Writing is a job, and you’re supposed to get paid, dagnabit!

But, by giving away something for free, you can often make more overall than if you insist on charging for everything, and, with digital products, freebies are quite viable. Once you cover the initial expenses (i.e. editing and cover art), it costs nothing to have that ebook out there, being downloaded over and over.

The “free gift” is a tried-and-true technique too. (By the way, I recommend Robert B. Cialdini’s Influence if you haven’t read it — a great introduction to  human nature and marketing).

Successful internet marketers use free ebooks, courses, videos, etc. to get people to sign up for their mailing lists. You have to sign up for the list or “newsletter” to get the freebie. Once they’ve got you on the list, the marketer can send future messages (AKA sales pitches) straight to your inbox. They’ll often hook you with that first product, draw you into their world, and then sell you more expensive products (this is the “sales funnel”).

Now, I don’t particularly like the idea of forcing someone to sign up for my mailing list — fiction is a different beast than non-fiction or “info-products” as people really need to try it before they decide if they’re fans or not. But here’s how I use my freebie:

  1. Give away the first ebook in a series — Here’s where the “sales funnel” comes in. You start with a free book, then charge for subsequent books in the series. If there’s not an obvious next book for the reader to go on to purchase, this technique tends to be far less effective.
  2. Mention my website, social media links, and newsletter at the end of the book — as I said, I won’t trick anyone into signing up for my list, but I’m going to make sure people know about it! By the by, there are all sorts of studies out there showing that using a “call to action” (such as asking people to come to your site and sign up for your newsletter) is more effective than simply informing people that something exists.

The Mailing List

We’ve touched on this already, and I’ve written several posts on the why and how of starting a mailing list before (links below), so I’ll keep this short, but you won’t find a successful internet entrepreneur without a list. They say, “The money is in the list,” and for those guys it’s very true.

As an author, you’ll get a lot of your sales from people who simply see your books at Amazon, B&N, and the like (especially once you’ve gotten over the hump of the first thousand or so that you have to hand sell), but a newsletter is still a must. This is a way to keep in touch with your fans and let them know when you have a new book out.

For indie authors, in particular, you can’t count on bookstores or publishers to do any marketing of your new titles; it’s up to you to let fans know when they can go purchase the next one.

You can’t assume people will be so enamored of your work that they’ll remember to check Amazon every few months to see if you have something new out. It’s more likely that they’ll forget about you! This is especially true if you’ve only written a couple of books, and your characters haven’t taken up long-term residence in their minds yet. But, if you can get readers to sign up for your mailing list, it only takes a quick note once in a while to remind them of your existence (and your latest books).

The Product Launch

Publishers know all about launching a product. Weeks before the book comes out, they’re sending out ARCs to review sites and trying to build excitement. They want to make sure readers are aware of the up coming release, and ideally they’ll pre-sell loads of the books before they’re even available (you’ve no doubt seen that, on Amazon and other sites, you can buy books a month or two before they’re released).

For independent authors, it can be tough to do things in the same manner. For one thing, Amazon isn’t going to pre-list our books. Book #7 in your paranormal vampire romance series won’t appear on their site until you’ve e-published it through the KDP (or POD-published it through CreateSpace, Lightning Source, etc.). So that means no pre-sales for us.

Sending out review copies before publishing is a possibility if you have the patience to hold back on releasing your book once you have it back from your editor and ready to go. But, it’s still a struggle to find popular review sites that accept self-published titles.

So, how can indie authors do a product launch?

You can probably think of lots of ideas, but here are a few things I do (keep in mind, I’m not the sales-woman type and hate to really push my stuff, so I’m definitely on the light end of things when it comes to marketing — you can do more if you’re comfortable doing so):

  • Talk about the book on Facebook, Twitter, etc. in the last month or two before it’s ready to publish. Lots of my readers follow me on those sites, so it’s fun to give them little tidbits (I’m editing then, anyway, so it’s easy to throw a snippet of dialogue out there). As I write this post, I’m about two weeks from releasing my fourth Emperor’s Edge book, and you can check out my Facebook Author Page to see what I’ve been up to.
  • Let my newsletter subscribers know in advance when the book is coming out. Last month, I wrote to my subscribers, letting them know about the release of the second EE audiobook, and I also mentioned that Book 4 would be out soon. I don’t like to bug people more than once a month (though I’ve known authors who work the list and really market hard in the weeks leading to a new release), but that was a little advanced warning, and then I’ll write again when the book is out.
  • Post updates, excerpts, cover art, etc. on my blog. Yesterday, I posted the cover art for the new book and a 3,000-word excerpt from early in the adventure. About a week before that, I posted an update and FAQ on the book. When it’s time to launch, I’ll post the news with all the purchase links and the first chapter or two of the novel.

I admit part of this is just to keep folks updated on my progress (with a series, you’ll find that lots of people do write to ask when the next one is coming out!), but I definitely have that “product launch” concept in mind, too, and I also hope my efforts are building anticipation so that readers will want to grab the book right away when it comes out.

There we go, the free gift/sales funnel, the mailing list, and the product launch covered! If you authors out there are using any of these marketing tactics, let us know how it’s going. If you’re not… well, you’ve got homework, right?

Posted in Book Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Conspiracy (EE4) Excerpt and Cover Art

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook know that I just sent EE4 off to my editor for proofreading and any final tweaks she may find. She said she’d be able to start working on it in a couple of days, and I’m hoping for a May 1 release date.

Here’s an excerpt for those who like little teasers. As usual, Amaranthe has talked Sicarius into exploring something fishy…

Excerpt

Amaranthe withdrew a tin of matches and a compact, nearly indestructible lantern. She lit the wick, and a soft bubble of light came to life, throwing Books’s shadow against the canvas covered cargo bed of the closest lorry. Sicarius had already disappeared into a rough square hole that descended… Amaranthe frowned and lowered the light. She couldn’t see him or the bottom.

“How far down is it?” she whispered into the hole.

“No more than fifteen feet,” came Sicarius’s voice in return, echoing softly in the narrow space.

“Ah, not so bad then.”

“So long as there aren’t booby traps, monsters, and nefarious men with guns down below,” Books said, a curl to his lip as he regarded the drop.

“Why don’t you stay here and stand guard?” Amaranthe suggested.

“Excellent idea.”

“Better not light the other lantern,” Amaranthe said as she swung onto the ladder. They didn’t need anyone noticing a flame in the carriage house and investigating.

“Understood,” Books said.

As Amaranthe descended, the dark, narrow hole imparted a feeling of claustrophobia. If she hadn’t left her rucksack up top, she might have gotten stuck in the tight passage. If this was indeed an underground manufacturing facility, the owners must have another, larger exit they used for toting out the big weapons.

Before her boots hit the ground, Amaranthe bumped into an obstruction. She reached out and found a head of short soft hair that was, as usual, sticking out in myriad directions.

“Problem?” Amaranthe asked.

“I haven’t been able to determine how to open the door,” Sicarius said without commenting on her groping hand.

“What? With me and Books up there blathering for so long, I thought you’d have picked the lock and vanquished whatever guard might lie within.”

“There is no lock.” Sicarius responded in his usual monotone, with no hint that he appreciated her teasing or knew it for what it was.

Business, right. Amaranthe squeezed past Sicarius to find the bottom. They could stand shoulder-to-shoulder, looking at the door opposite of the ladder, but not without pressing against the walls and each other.

“Not quite as cozy as the Imperial Gardens, eh?” Amaranthe murmured, not wanting Books to hear.

Sicarius ignored her and probed around the door with his fingers.

Under the light of the lantern, Amaranthe decided “door” might be an optimistic term for the flat cement wall before them. Vertical cracks at the corners were the only indication that the gray slab might be movable. It seemed to be designed to slide to the side somehow, but there was no lock, knob, or latch to be seen.

She put a hand on the cool cement and tried to push it. Not only did it not move, but Sicarius gave her a flat look.

“You already tried that, eh?” Amaranthe shrugged and shuffled in a circle to face the ladder. She tried twisting the rungs—they were the only ornamentation in the confining space—but nothing budged.

After a pat-down of everything around the door and on the floor, Sicarius reached over her head and climbed up the ladder.

“That man never wants to linger in dark nooks with me,” Amaranthe muttered. “Or explain where he’s going when he rushes off. It’s enough to damage a girl’s self-esteem. And cause her to start talking to herself.”

Up top, Books asked a soft question, but Sicarius didn’t explain anything to him either.

Left alone, Amaranthe reapplied herself to the task of finding a latch or trigger. She would love to locate one when Sicarius had failed to, but she wouldn’t hold her breath waiting for that to happen.

Amaranthe laid an ear against the cement, thinking she might hear some machinery ticking inside. The Imperial Barracks had doors controlled by steam engines that opened automatically when someone approached. One didn’t expect such sophistication from the basement of a farm’s carriage house, but maybe—

The door rumbled to the side.

Amaranthe skittered backward, clunking her shoulders on the ladder. Her first silly thought was that her ear had somehow triggered the door to open, but Sicarius soon reappeared.

“There’s a hoe on the wall that opens it,” he said, climbing down.

“Ah, how’d you find it so quickly?” Amaranthe told herself it wasn’t important that he’d located the trigger first. “There must be fifty farm tools hanging on the walls.”

“Closer to a hundred, but only one had all the sawdust worn away beneath it.”

“You saw which one he pulled, Books?” Amaranthe called up as Sicarius slipped past her, stepping onto a dark threshold.

“Yes,” Books said.

Sicarius removed his rucksack and withdrew a lantern of his own.

“If the door closes behind us,” Amaranthe said, “and we’re not out in fifteen minutes, open it again, please.”

“Yes, of course. Understood.”

Amaranthe followed Sicarius inside. He had only gone a couple of steps. His lit lantern rested on the floor while he crouched beside it, eying the room’s contents thoroughly before moving forward. When Amaranthe looked around herself, she decided “room” was a weak word to describe what stretched before them.

The small flame illuminated only their corner of the space, but it revealed rows of racks filled with rifles, shotguns, and other firearms Amaranthe couldn’t name. The underground chamber’s boundaries stretched well beyond the walls of the carriage house above. Beyond the rows of racks, at the far end of the rectangular space, dark blocky shapes—machinery?—loomed. Bland gray cement comprised the walls, floor, and a high ceiling, and Amaranthe decided no woman had been involved with designing the facility. It would take someone like Sicarius to choose such a monochromatic palate. He probably thought it was practical.

The door rasped behind them, cement rubbing against cement as it slid closed. Amaranthe stifled a surge of panic over the idea of being trapped inside. There ought to be a switch on a nearby wall—surely the workers had to be able to leave to pee whenever they wished—and, even if there wasn’t, Books waited up top.

“Shall we explore?” Amaranthe asked.

Sicarius rose from his crouch, but when she started to step forward, he stopped her with a hand. He pointed to the wall a couple of feet ahead of them. At first, Amaranthe saw nothing, but when he lifted the lantern, she spotted a tiny hole in the cement. It didn’t appear unnatural in the porous wall, until she realized there were five such holes, all in a vertical line. The first was at calf level while the top was over her head.

“Interesting,” Amaranthe said. “Booby trap?”

She drew a knife and waved it before one of the holes, figuring anything that popped out would be deflected by her blade.

A click sounded and shapes buzzed through Amaranthe’s field of vision. Before she could figure out what they were, Sicarius pulled her back and pressed her against the door behind him. Several items clinked off the walls and floors, but with her view smothered by Sicarius’s shoulder, it was hard to tell what they were. She did, with the projectiles bouncing off everything and skidding everywhere, belatedly realize that triggering the trap hadn’t been a good idea.

Sicarius stepped away before Amaranthe’s curiosity prompted her to try and wriggle past him. He gave her a head-to-foot check before kneeling to pick something up. A tiny bolt. Others lay scattered where they had landed after caroming off the walls. Something viscous gleamed on the tips. Poison?

Amaranthe swallowed. “Booby trap number one?”

“Yes. That was a foolish way to trigger it.” Sicarius slanted her a hard look.

“I know.” She thought of the conversation she had had a few months earlier with Books, the one where she had resolved to pursue prudence in dealing with enemies. She would need to adopt a policy of prudence for all deadly situations, enemies present or not. “Sorry, that was thoughtless.” Especially since one could have hit him.

Sicarius dropped the bolt, and Amaranthe patted his shoulder. “I do appreciate your willingness to throw yourself in front of ricocheting darts to protect me.”

Sicarius ignored her pat and turned his attention back to the chamber.

“And your ability to ignore the human need to socialize in order to remain focused on the mission,” Amaranthe added.

“This is not the time for burbling.”

A retort rose to Amaranthe’s lips, but she stopped herself. He was right.

After another inspection of the booby trap, Sicarius moved past it. He led the way down the first aisle, heading for a work table full of sketches. As he walked, his gaze roved about, probing every inch of wall, floor, and ceiling for signs of more traps. Though Amaranthe wanted to investigate the racks of weapons, she followed close on his heels. If he triggered a booby trap, he could probably avoid the consequences with those reflexes of his. She would likely trip and fall into the path of the poisoned dart.

When they reached the work station, Sicarius picked up a rifle with four barrels and examined it. Amaranthe’s fingers strayed toward the sketches scattered on the table, but she caught herself before her hands could rearrange the clutter into neat piles. As the men were quick to tell her, spies weren’t supposed to clean while they snooped.

Sicarius set the rife aside and pulled a crate off one of the racks. He slid his black dagger under a lid that was nailed shut. Using it as a crowbar was not likely to damage that blade. Amaranthe was still waiting for the story of where it had come from and what the indestructible material comprising it was.

Sicarius popped the lid off the crate. It was filled with rectangular brown boxes that read Brakhork D-1 Rifle Ammunition.

“Brakhork?” Amaranthe fished a notebook out of her pocket and wrote the name down. “That’s interesting. You wouldn’t expect someone to put the family name on something that’s going to be used for inimical purposes. Of course, it could simply be a made-up name.”

When Sicarius glanced at her, Amaranthe said, “I’m not burbling. I’m musing constructively.”

“I see.”

She tried to decide if he sounded amused while he opened one of the boxes and pulled out a long slender cartridge wrapped in a coppery casing. It had a pointed tip and three concentric rings circling the bottom.

Sicarius thumbed the rings.  “I’ve not seen a design like this before.”

“How many designs have you seen?”

“Many. Everything the army’s been working on for the last ten years,” Sicarius said. “They’ve had the technology to make repeating firearms, and there have been experimental trials, but they haven’t rushed to get production online.”

“Why not, I wonder? Surely, these repeating firearms offer significant advantages over flintlock and percussion-cap weapons.” Amaranthe found a rifle labeled D-1 and pulled it off the rack. She opened the lid on the side and peered into an empty chamber, guessing there would be room to load six or eight cartridges.

“With most of our enemies still using bows and crossbows, our existing black powder weapons already provide an advantage.”

“So, they’ve been waiting to upgrade until there’s a need?” Amaranthe asked.

“There’s also the warrior-caste mentality to deal with.”

“Ah, yes. Turgonian honor dictates it’s preferable to challenge the enemy to a sword fight rather than shooting him from afar.” She slipped a finger into the chamber, trying to figure out what roll those grooves at the base of the bullet might serve. “Want to disassemble a rifle?”

She checked the desk for tools, but it seemed to be the designer’s spot, and only sketches and drawing implements occupied the drawers. Sicarius took the weapon from her and simply used his knife to unfasten a couple of screws. He proceeded to remove the stock from the barrel and disassemble the loading mechanism, as if he’d done it hundreds of times.

“How are you familiar with all of the army’s weapons developments from the last ten years?” Amaranthe asked. “Didn’t you part ways with the throne when Raumesys died? And then worked as an independent without any ties to the emperor? In fact, Sespian put that bounty on your head before he even came into legal power, right?”

Sicarius laid the pieces of the rifle out on the desk as he continued to break it down.

“For the record, I’m still not burbling. I’m just…”

“Interrogating?” Sicarius suggested.

“Maybe so, but I’m not using hot irons or other torture devices, so it shouldn’t be objectionable.” Amaranthe wriggled her eyebrows at him, though he was focused on the rifle disasembly. “If nothing else, you could tell me why you chose to assassinate a satrap governor and other important lords and diplomats when you were out there working for the highest bidder. You must have known that would give Sespian more reason to hate and distrust you.”

Sicarius laid the last pieces of the rifle on the table. “This isn’t the place for this discussion.”

“No, I suppose not, but if I’m to help argue your case when we meet Sespian—which, if things go according to plan, will be soon— I need more of the facts at some point. Or at least, your version of the truth.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. Maybe that hadn’t been the most tactful word choice. Before she could fumble an apology, Sicarius said, “They were plotting against Sespian.”

“What? Who?”

“Satrap Governor Lumous, Lord Admiral Antavak, the city officials, diplomats, and two warrior-caste officers. Lumous and Antavak headed a scheme to have Sespian assassinated the year after Raumesys died, before he’d even reached his majority and come into power. I killed them first.” Sicarius picked up the bolt and firing pin assembly to study. “It’s what I was trained to do. In reflection, perhaps I should have gathered evidence, so there’d be some record. Something to show to Sespian.”

Amaranthe stared at him with wide eyes. “All along you were acting on his behalf? Trying to protect him?”

“The fact that he has no heirs has always made him a target. You know that.”

“Yes, but I thought… I guess everyone thought you were just a rogue assassin available to hire by the highest bidder.”

Sicarius gave her one of his flat looks.

“I mean, I knew it wasn’t money that drew you,” Amaranthe said. He’d had little money when she met him—just enough to hire that shaman to heal her—and he certainly didn’t seem to have any vices that would require substantial funds. He didn’t even own more than three sets of clothing, all identical. “I thought perhaps you might be motivated by the challenge factor.”

“Rarely.”

“Sicarius, this changes everything. Your methods trample all over the idea of justice and having a fair say in front of the magistrate, but all this time you were working to help Sespian? For the good of the empire? You’re practically a hero.” She grinned at him, and, blessed ancestors, she was tempted to hug him.

Sicarius snorted. “The empire is nothing to me. If Sespian were some deviant crime lord, I’d still kill those who meant him harm.”

His words failed to steal Amaranthe’s grin. “It’s all right. I won’t tell the world you’re not quite the malevolent butcher everyone thinks.”

He looked like he might glare or otherwise object to this softening of his image, but he caught himself. Instead, he said, “Just tell one person.”

“I will.” Amaranthe took the rifle’s bolt from him and studied the interior. By the poor light of the lantern, it was hard to see inside, but she thought she detected raised bumps to fit the groves in the cartridge. It seemed like an odd addition from a functionality standpoint. Why not simply keep the bullet smooth? Wouldn’t it have better aerodynamics that way? Then something clicked in her brain. “It’s a proprietary design, isn’t it?”

“What?”

Amaranthe waved to the racks of weapons and crates of ammunition. “If they made all the rifles the same way as this one, then only these particular cartridges will work in them. No smith could simply reproduce these. It’d take a sophisticated facility like this one to duplicate the design. So, the buyers of these weapons will have to continue to order ammunition from the sellers for life.” She picked up one of the bullets and rubbed it between her fingers. “Maybe this is a Forge plot after all. That seems like the sort of quasi-shady business practice one of their people might try.”

Three thumps came from behind and above them.

“Books,” Amaranthe said. “Someone must be coming.”

Sicarius started toward the door, but Amaranthe caught his arm. “Wait, you have to put the rifle back together. We don’t want anyone to know we were here. Especially not if there’s a link to Forge.”

“I opened a crate,” Sicarius said, but he returned to the table and started assembling.

“Maybe they won’t notice that right away.”

While he worked on the weapon, Amaranthe slipped a handful of the cartridges into her pocket. Being able to show someone the unique bullets later might prove useful. She tucked the ammo box back into the crate, trying to hide the fact that it had been opened, and affixed the lid. She manhandled the crate back onto the rack.

Ker-thunk!

“Uhm.” Amaranthe lifted her eyes toward the ceiling. That had been much louder than the earlier thumps, and if she had to guess where the sound had originated, she’d say above them and outside of the carriage house. “I don’t think that was Books.”

Sicarius finished reassembling the rifle and returned it to the rack. He jogged toward the door, pausing briefly to test the booby trap and make sure it had not reset.

Amaranthe waved to the cement slab. “Can we open it from in here?”

Sicarius patted about the walls, but he didn’t find a lever.

“Maybe the hoe is the only way in.” Amaranthe thought about knocking on the door, but if Books hadn’t caused that second noise, she didn’t want to alert whoever had to their presence.

A long scrape grated at the rear of the chamber, in the dark back half they had not yet explored. Tendrils of unease curled through Amaranthe’s belly. That noise hadn’t come from above. Something was down there with them.

Maybe someone already knew about their presence.

Soft whirs and clanks emanated from the darkness. A grinding followed, and Amaranthe thought it sounded like wheels or treads rolling over the cement floor.

“Oh, good, it’s been a while since I’ve been chased by a machine. It ought to be good training, right?” Amaranthe smiled.

Sicarius did not.

 

Posted in My Ebooks | Tagged , , , , , , | 20 Comments

How to Streamline Daily Tasks to Make More Time for Writing by ReGi McClain

I’m busy putting the last touches on Conspiracy before sending it off to my editor, but we have a guest poster here today to give you something to read. Alaska native and professional organizer ReGi mcClain and has some tips on how to find more time to write. As we’ve discussed before, one of the self-publishing secrets to success is being prolific, so these ideas might come in handy!

How to Streamline Daily Tasks to Make More Time for Writing

By ReGi McClain

Use routines to keep up with tasks that tend to pile up. Routines are so effective that nearly every time management expert out there will tell you to develop them. Your primary routines will be your waking-up and before-bed routines.  Include a handful of tasks that need to be done frequently, like washing dishes, putting away clean laundry, etc. A very popular, free resource for developing routines is http://www.flylady.net. You can also email me directly if you want some help working out a routine that will work for you. (Psst! You can add writing/editing to your AM &/or PM routine).

Use unexpected free time to do simple tasks. Keep a written list of jobs that need little planning. When a chunk of time becomes available, do one of the jobs. You might include tasks such as sweeping a floor, dusting some knickknacks, filing some papers, cleaning off your desk, sorting socks, updating your social media promos, etc. Don’t worry about running out of time, just do as much as you can. Incidentally, you can use these times for writing as much as for anything else, but only if you have the self-control and mental recall to be able to stop mid-sentence without losing your place or patience.

Remember the Extra-30-Seconds Rule: If you take 30 seconds now, you’ll save someone 30 minutes later. Let’s illustrate this with the example of a pizza delivery driver.
·    Scenario one: The driver sees a stack of pizzas with his name on it. He grabs and goes, eager to get to you quickly so you’ll tip him big. Unfortunately, when he gets to your place, not one pizza is a pizza you ordered. (In this case, we’ll assume you have a finely tuned sense of smell that picked up on those extra onions from three blocks away so you never even had to open the boxes to know they were the wrong pizzas.) You send that driver right back to the pizzeria in question, unpaid and untipped. The pizzeria loses money on wasted time and ingredients, the driver loses one tip for sure and possibly several others since he now has to drive back to your place with the correct pizzas, using up time he might have spent delivering other pizzas and collecting other tips. You are irritated at best. At worst, you’re fighting off a hoard of hungry party guests who want to know why you’re starving them and are beginning to murmur among themselves about eating you instead. All this because the driver neglected the Extra-30-Seconds Rule.

·    Scenario two: The driver sees a stack of pizzas with his name on it. He takes 30 seconds to peek in each box to check that the pizzas inside do in fact match the pizzas described on the labels. It’s as bad as can be! Every pizza is wrong. The driver quickly sorts it out with the bakers and the right pizzas are baked. The driver is now 15 minutes late with the your pizza. You don’t tip him, but you do pay for the pizzas. The pizzeria lost considerably less money and the driver increased his chances of getting a tip from someone else tonight. Your guests do not develop cannibalistic tendencies. Instead, they consider you to be the poor victim of slovenly pizza delivery drivers, deserving of sainthood, a hero for all time. Maybe you should have tipped that courteous driver with the wisdom to employ the Extra-30-Seconds Rule after all.

The same principle applies in just about every business and home. If you keep your eyes open, you’ll discover a gaggle of opportunities to apply the Extra-30-Seconds Rule.

Employ constructive daydreaming. Work through scenes in your imagination while doing tasks that require little concentration but take a bit of time, such as doing dishes, folding laundry, etc. Mull the scenes over and rework them until they fit and form your plot the way you like it. Then, when you do sit down to write, you will be able to put the scene into print more quickly. A warning, though: keep away from scenes requiring heavy negative emotion unless you’re sure no one is going to be anywhere near you for a while. (Trust me on this. Spending half an hour refining your villain’s maniacal blood bath scene whilst doing dishes and then turning to your Beloved, who’s expecting all things mushy and sweet, without taking at least another half hour to defuse all that negativity does not end well.)

Bio:

ReGi McClain is an aspiring author whose alter-ego just happens to be a professional organizer. ReGi posts short stories every fortnight or so at http://regimcclain.wordpress.com.
Email: McClainRG AT aol.com
Twitter: @regimcclain

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Facebook or Twitter, Which Is Better for Book Promotion?

There are a lot of social media sites out there, but Facebook remains the big kahuna (estimates say it’ll hit 1 billion users by August), and Twitter is no slouch with 140 million users at the last tally. Twitter seems to be particularly popular with writers, and you can find a lot of publishers and literary agents tweeting throughout the day there.

But if you’re an up-and-coming author with limited time in the day, and you can only manage one social media site, where should you be? Well, as I pointed out in last week’s post on self-published authors making a living e-publishing, blogging and social media may be less important than simply getting a lot of books out there, but let’s assume you’ve got some work published, and you’re struggling to get sales. Maybe you want to get involved in the social media sites; you’re just not sure how to do it effectively and what sort of results you can expect. I’m going to talk about my own experience with Twitter and Facebook today, so maybe that’ll help!

Twitter — My Experiences

I’ve never been terribly social online (unless slaying dragons was involved — ex-Everquest/WoW addict here, yes), so I didn’t flock to the social media sites when they first started getting popular.

About six months before I decided to self-publish (when I was getting close to finishing my second novel, Encrypted, and was thinking that I’d query agents with it), I decided to hop on Twitter, with the vague notion that I could build up some followers that way. That’d be sure to look impressive to an agent, right? Ultimately, I picked Twitter first because I didn’t think I could waste much time on a site that forced one to leave such short posts (hah?).

Well, I mostly chatted with people from my writing workshop. It wasn’t until I’d decided to self-publish and do it all on my own that I got serious about marketing via Twitter. I perused lists of writers and fantasy fans to stalk, er, follow, and I started this blog at the same time. I had a hunch that Twitter wouldn’t work well for selling books, but that it could be effective for driving people to my blog (this has turned out to be true, and many people who’ve visited my blog over the last year have ended up checking out my books).

I now have 4,000-odd followers (after the first 500, I stopped seeking them out, and just adopted a policy of following writers/readers back) and am active on Twitter every day, mostly because I can tweet from the dog park or when I’m stuck in line at the grocery store — sit-down computer time is for writing the next novel and blogging, thank you very much.

How effective has Twitter been for selling books?

Enh. I do know that people have tried my books (especially my freebies) after seeing my tweets (or tweets others have “retweeted”). Several readers have told me so. But as far as it being worth all the time I put into it, I’d say that Twitter is more for networking with other people in the business.

Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve had a number of guest posts appear on popular writing/publishing blogs because I first “met” the authors via Twitter, and some influential bloggers have mentioned my posts of late. That’s definitely sold some books for me, if in a roundabout way (increasing readership and links to my blog, so that my site shows up when people search for things like fantasy author or steampunk books).

An observant reader will note that Twitter seems to be intrinsically linked to my blog, and that I credit my blog with more book sales. I see Twitter as a tool to get people to visit my site. Would Twitter be as effective for me if I didn’t have a blog? I don’t think so.

A regularly updated blog gives me something new to plug every day on Twitter. Your followers might get tired of it if all you do is promote your book links, and, as I mentioned, I haven’t found the hard sell to be particularly effective on Twitter. In fact, as a reader myself, I ignore the tweeps who do little besides try to push their books. As I’ve observed before, I think most of the successful authors you see doing constant book-promotion tweets are selling well despite it rather than because of it (the successful ones who come to my mind also have large bodies of work out there).

To sum up my thoughts on Twitter, I’d say do it if you enjoy it and can be a regular fixture there (tweets fall off the radar quickly, within minutes, so you’ll find it tough to get much traction if you’re only posting once a day — or less), and especially do it if you have a blog that you want to grow. As for simply selling books, I don’t think you’ll get your biggest bang for your buck here.

Facebook — My Experiences

I was dragged kicking and screaming onto Facebook. I only made a personal account because some buddies I took a trip with held our group pictures hostage (they put them on Facebook and made it so only “friends” could see them). The punks. I made an account, but wasn’t on there much, and it wasn’t until last August that I made an official author Facebook fan page.

At first, I harassed my Twitter followers to get them to run over and “like” it, and I received my first 100 “fans” that way, but it’s grown organically since then, and I’m closing on 1,000 fans (though, being a fan on Facebook only means someone gave you a thumb’s up).

Where’d these folks come from? It’s hard to know for sure, but I mention my blog and social media links at the end of my ebooks. Also, my Facebook page appears right after my home page on a Google search for my name. Either way it’s my readers who are stopping by (I actually see very little point in asking fellow authors to “like” your page, though you might, like me, want to get a few likes in the beginning that way for social-proof purposes).

The first week after I put up the fan page, one lady popped in and said something like, “Yay, you’re finally here!” and that was a reminder to me just how much Facebook is a part of some people’s lives. Some folks who won’t seek out blogs will spend hours there, so it’s worth having a presence on Facebook, even if you’re not sure how much time you’ll ultimately spend there (do yourself a favor and create a separate author page so you don’t have to debate whether to “friend” people back and your fans don’t have to read your personal friends-and-family updates).

How effective has Facebook been for selling books?

Facebook has surprised me. I don’t honestly know how many books I’ve sold through there (I do have a fan page “tab” that lists my freebies, but I was lazy and didn’t set up bit.ly links or anything I could monitor), but I’d say it’s my most active community that’s entirely fan-focused. My blog gets a lot of readers, but many are authors/e-publishers and not necessarily readers of my books. My Goodreads discussion board is fan-focused, but doesn’t see a lot of activity in between book releases. My Twitter followers are a mix of writers, publishers, and fans, and the fans often get lost in the mix there. I have a list for “readers,” but it can be a little hard to keep track of who’s who with all the conversations floating around.

When people come to my Facebook fan page, they’re there because they liked my books and they want to talk about them and hear updates about them. It’s turned into the place where I post snippets of dialogue and teasers from works-in-progress, because that’s where I get a reaction for those things. People “like” or comment. On Twitter, those types of tweets disappear so quickly that people who aren’t on that hour will probably miss them. On Facebook, new readers can find my page and surf through all the old posts.

So, does any of that sell books? I think so, because it’s a way to stay in people’s minds. If your recent Facebook posts appear in their timeline, they’re going to remember you. In a way, posting teasers becomes part of a “product launch” formula, where you’re getting people excited for the next book, so they’ll want to go out and buy it as soon as it comes out.

Also, and I may try this for a week or two when I release Conspiracy (EE4) in a few weeks, you can advertise just to the people who have liked your fan page. This lets you target those who are fans of your work but who might not check in every week.

In summary, I’ve found Facebook to be an extremely effective way of consolidating a fan base. I do think it’s ideal for pulling in existing fans, though, and making sure they don’t forget about you. I’m less certain about how many new readers I get through Facebook (though, there is the viral potential; the posts your fans make on your page are visible in their timeline so their friends might see them).

Can Facebook/Twitter do anything else for you?

If you’ve read this far, you may have the idea that both social media sites have been useful tools for me, but that I don’t attribute either with tons of book sales. You’d be right. I think, in the end, getting a lot of work out there and maybe having a freebie or two in Amazon, B&N, iTunes, etc. is going to do the most for you when it comes to selling books, but I don’t regret the time I’ve spent on these sites. And, as I started this post talking about agents, there’s one more thing worth mentioning:

From what I’ve seen (and I’ve been approached by several of these folks now), publishers and agents get weak in the knees at the prospect of an author who’s already built a platform. While book sales are a bit of a guessing game for outsiders, your popularity — or lack of popularity — on Facebook/Twitter is clearly visible to others. If you’re an indie and want to be courted by a publisher, or you’re thinking of querying an agent, this stuff can only help you there.

 

Posted in Social Media, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 29 Comments

Self-Publishing and Paperbacks — Is Print Still Worth It?

The main reason so many independent are doing well right now is the coming of the ebook. Well, the ebook has been around for a while, but with iPads, Kindles, Nooks, etc., we finally have a convenient way to read them. Because it doesn’t take resources to make copies of ebooks, we can put them out there at reasonable prices, often undercutting the traditional publishers who must still pay the costs associated with maintaining offices and having employees.

But what about those paperbacks? Not everybody has an ebook reader, so does it make sense to publish physical copies of your books?

Though I don’t talk about them much, my first three Emperor’s Edge novels are available as paperbacks at Amazon (and they should be at B&N too–I have a customer support ticket out at CreateSpace to see why they’ve disappeared over there). That said, I wasn’t terribly speedy in getting the paperbacks out there. The economics are such that you make more on a $3.99 ebook than you do on an $11.99 paperback, at least when you’re using print-on-demand technology (the way most self-publishers go these days).

And, as you might guess, it’s easier to sell a $3.99 ebook. With POD publishing, you can’t get paperback prices down to the point where they’re competitive with mass market paperbacks selling at $8 or so. In going through CreateSpace, $11.99 was as inexpensive as I could price my books without losing money (and I’ve heard it’s a similar scenario with other POD publishing companies).

There also tend to be additional costs associated with making hard copies. Unless you’re handy and can do everything yourself, you’ll need to pay for formatting (a different way of formatting than for ebooks) and additional cover art (you probably only commissioned a front cover for your ebook, but you’ll need a spine and a back for a paperback version). Then there are a few fees associated with CreateSpace. It’s free to upload your files, but you’ll have to pay $25 (it used to be closer to $40) for a plan that gets your book into more stores than Amazon. You’ll need to order a proof to look over before okaying the book for sale, too, though that’s not a huge cost (perhaps $10 including shipping).

Overall, it might cost $250 or so for each paperback book you put together (again, I’ve seen people who learn to do everything themselves, which brings the costs down to closer to $30).

So, is it worth making print copies? Will you sell enough copies to break even?

As you might guess, it’s going to depend on a few things. I make about $50 a month from paperback sales (about twice that over Christmas this past year), and that’s not much compared to what I make from my ebook sales ($X,XXX/mo). But I also don’t do anything to promote my paperbacks.

I’ve met other people who buy copies en mass and hand-sell them at conventions, renaissance fairs, and the like. You can typically purchase author copies for around $5, so there’s money to be made if you turn around and sell them for $12 or more. When I visited fellow indie Gretchen Rix in Lockhart, Texas, she had talked a number of small businesses in town into selling her book, and I believe she also has copies at Book People (a large indie bookstore) in Austin. If you don’t mind dealing with shipping hassles, you can sell your books directly from your own website too.

Even at my $50 a month, I’ve earned back the “start-up costs” of creating paperbacks of my books. Most of those costs are one-time, so you have the life of the book to make your money back.

That said, if you’re struggling to sell three ebooks a month at $2.99, you may not yet have the fan base built up to make paperbacks worth it. I waited until I had people asking me about physical books before I made the jump. In the end, it was more about making sure my books were available in all formats for the convenience of the readers than about adding a revenue stream.

What do you think? If you’re an author, have you found it “worth it” to create paperback versions? If you’re a reader, have you purchased paperback versions from indie authors, despite the extra cost?

Posted in Writing | 33 Comments

Emperor’s Edge 4 (Conspiracy) Update and FAQ

I’ve had quite a few people asking when EE4 (Conspiracy) will be out, so I thought I’d do a quick post to answer that and other common questions (and, by the way, thank you for caring enough to email and ask!).

First off, I just finished the core editing of the manuscript and sent the last third off to beta readers. Once I get their comments back and have tweaked the story to my satisfaction, I’ll send the file off to my editor for proofreading (I’ll also be sending copies out to the folks who donated to my Kickstarter campaign at this time). I’m guessing that’ll be in the third or fourth week of April. My goal is to have Conspiracy live on Amazon, B&N, etc. in the first week of May.

Here are answers to other questions I’ve been getting:

Who will be the secondary POV character in EE4?

Akstyr. The plan is do to Maldynado in the fifth book and Sicarius in the sixth.

How many books total will there be?

I plan to wrap up the current storyline by the end of the sixth book. After that, we’ll see. I have another project I want to move onto, and I’d like to do a sequel to Encrypted eventually, but if people want more books with Amaranthe, Sicarius, and the gang (if they all survive, muahaha!), I might be open to doing further adventures at some point. I enjoy writing these guys. 😉

You’ve been working on Book 4 FOREVER — how long is it?

Okay, nobody said forever (hey, I just published Book 3 in November), but it does feel like I’ve been working on 4 for a while. As I said on Twitter, it’s not a Robert-Jordan-length chihuahua killer, but it’s a good 10,000 words longer than the earlier books, or 125,000 total (though I might snip a few more words in the last editing pass).

When are Books 5 and 6 coming out?

Yes, some eager beaver asked. I’m not sure, but I will start in on Book 5 as soon as I’m done editing 4, and I probably won’t take breaks in between to work on anything else (unless I start going crazy and need a change). The last three EE books are going to be a trilogy of sorts, all part of one bigger story arc, so I want to get them out in a timely manner (so nobody comes after me with torches and pitchforks!).

That’s it for now. I’ll post the cover art soon. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask below. Thanks!

Posted in My Ebooks | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

Serial Books Selling Like Hotcakes for Indie Author Brondt Kamffer

Early on in my e-publishing career (ya know, last year), I realized there was no reason to limit oneself to full-length novels when it comes to ebooks. In the print world, the economics of book binding might dictate that stories need to be at least 60,000 words long to make sense, but in the digital world… they can be any length at all. Because of that, I e-published some of my short stories and started a series of novellas, but one thing I haven’t experimented with (yet) is serialization. That may change one day, as quite a few authors are giving it a try, and it’s working well.

A couple of months ago, indie fantasy author Gregory J. Downs gave us a guest post on Finding Success with Serialized Ebooks. Today, we have a great interview with W. Brondt Kamffer, another fantasy author who’s hitting the best-seller lists with his serialized story. I’ve known Brondt through Twitter and his blog for about a year, and I’ve watched him try to find the magic bullet of book promotion that would increase his sales. It didn’t seem to be happening with his first series, but I checked the fantasy Top 100 at Amazon the other day and noticed his new ebooks were all over it! Here’s the story of how he’s made that happen…

Interview with W. Brondt Kamffer

You’ve been e-publishing for a year or two now, I believe, and have a few books out there, but it’s your new series that’s really taken off. Do you want to tell us about your books and what you’re doing differently this time around?

Thanks for the public forum, Lindsay, to share my journey. I’ve just passed my first anniversary as an indie author. 2011 was a very rocky road for me, very discouraging on the whole. I released three full-length novels between April and July and did all the required promoting that came with choosing to self-pub, but I never saw more than a dozen to a score sales in a month. I had an active blog, a podcast targeted to a fantasy audience, an active Twitter account, ads on Goodreads, a free novella on Amazon. None of it was doing a thing to shift books; not even the freebie!

In September I began writing the book that would eventually become The Scion of Abacus with the intent to publish the story in two parts, split evenly down the middle, at about 105,000 words a piece. And then I read about the success that Gregory Downs was having, as well as Sean Platt and David Wright. The thing these writers had in common was that they had chosen to publish their novels as serials. This got me thinking.

I was very busy teaching in the Fall of 2011, and so I made slow progress on my own novel, slow enough that I had plenty of time to think about splitting the story from a duology into a six-part serial. I figured that since nothing else I’d tried had worked thus far, I would give the serial format a shot, hoping that the regular release schedule offered by shorter volumes might generate some interest.

I was tired of and burnt out on Twitter. I’d slowed down on my blog and podcast. I’d long since given up any form of paid advertizing. All I had were plans for a serial and a feeling that I’d simply go ahead and see what would happen.

As expected, month one, with only one volume out, was slow, with maybe ten copies selling. Month two saw some increase in sales with two volumes and some KDP free days, up to about 300 copies sold. But the real kick off came at the release of volume three. My previous novels had seldom delved below the 50,000 rank on Amazon. With the release of volume three of The Scion of Abacus, the serial began to live in the sub-30,000 zone. And then sub-20,000. And then sub-10,000. When volume one hit 5,000, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

And then I released part four. The series’ sales had accumulated in some sort of snowball effect, all without a single ounce of marketing. No Twitter announcements. No ads. No posts on Kindleboards. I signed up for KDP Select, and I think that helped a little, but downloads on free days never totaled more than about 200 a day. Now, I’m selling many more books than that in a day. It was a gamble born out of frustration, and like many before, I seem to have gotten lucky at last.

What made you decide to serialize your latest book? Do you want to talk a bit about length and how you’re breaking things up? Are you leaving people hanging with cliffhangers?

As mentioned, I’d read about the success a couple of authors were having with the format. I was frustrated at seeing no success with my previous books, and so I decided to try something radically different.

The structure of my story lent itself nicely to a six-part division. I had in mind a single novel in two volumes with a standard three-part structure for each part. Interestingly, the moment I decided to go with six volumes, the divisions presented themselves immediately. There are cliff-hangers, but in many ways each volume stands alone at the same time as being intricately connected to the previous and following ones. This is, after all, really still a single long novel. This allows me to control revelations in a timely manner, giving the reader enough information to want to read the next volume while at the same time providing a complete mini story arc per volume.

As soon as I decided where the divisions would go, I realized that each volume would be close in length. It took a little bit of rewriting to get volumes to near-identical lengths, a commitment I made to myself and future, hypothetical readers as I did not wish any volume to seem lighter than the rest—ironically, all bad reviews either on Amazon or by email have complained about volumes getting shorter, when in reality they have been getting longer. The story must getting better the deeper things get!

So each volume turns in at about 35,000 words, which, depending on your Word font, is 100 to 140 pages, a nice and hefty chunk of story every month. Oh yeah, the other thing folks complain about—and was anticipated—is having to wait four weeks for the next installment, but I take that as a good complaint to receive!

Would you like to talk about your pricing strategy? It looks like you’ve made the first part of the series free at Amazon and others are 99 cents and 1.99.

I thought about this one for a long time. I decided on 99c initially because I thought that was all I should charge for what was essentially an incomplete portion of a whole. An early reader emailed me, when only volume one was out, to say he’d be willing to pay more per volume. This was encouraging, but I was hardly ready to change things up. I made the final decision to charge more for volumes four through six only after part one had cracked rank 5,000 on Amazon. I figured that folks might be willing to pay more to see the end of the story.

Some folks have not reacted well to the decision, but as soon as I’ve explained that the length (well over 200,000 words) is roughly that of two novels and that $4.50 is not so unreasonable for a novel [(99×3)+(1.99×3)=8.94/2=$4.47], those complaints have generally melted away. I have enrolled the individual volumes in KDP Select to make books free on occasion, but I’ve used the program sparingly after the first two months, as I was not getting much in the way of downloads.

I remain slightly unsettled about my pricing strategy, knowing that I am inviting criticism, but it seems not to have affected sales at all, as part four sells equally as well as parts two and three, which are a little bit behind the first volume overall.

You have simple but striking cover art for The Scion of Abacus series (and I notice you’ve redone your old covers too). Do you think that’s played a role in your success?

It is possible. I changed the covers of the old books to coincide with the release of The Scion of Abacus, opting for a more stylized cover art. I design my own covers, so I had to really think long and hard, playing around with various effects, looking at popular novels, etc. I have never entirely bought the argument that a good cover is essential, though, as I have seen some pretty horrendous covers on best-selling indie novels. That being said, I certainly don’t think the covers have hurt. Perhaps they are part of the overall formula that found success.

Are you planning to release an omnibus edition of the series once all the smaller pieces are published? Any thoughts on how you’ll price that?

I do plan to release an omnibus, and I am even contemplating using Createspace to make hard copies available too, though I’m undecided at this point. Regarding price, I am still mulling this one over, as I’d like to come up with a price incentive to buy the omnibus over the individual volumes. Your author audience with understand the financial concerns here, as I need to balance price for the consumer with royalties earned. The good thing about the state of indie publishing is the ease with which an author can change the price of his or her books. If whatever I decide to charge initially fails to shift volumes, I can always experiment with lower price points.

Lastly, would you like to talk about future projects or is there anything else you’d like to share with readers?

Given the success I’ve met with the serial format, I am planning on my next project to be in a similar vein, though not identical. I have plotted out what I’m calling a trilogy of trilogies. Essentially, I plan three long novels each about the size of The Scion of Abacus, each of which I will write in three distinct and smaller parts, bringing the final count to a total of nine shorter volumes. Volumes will necessarily be longer than the current 35,000 but a great deal shorter than the standard 100,000.

But, at the end of the day, it all comes down to two things, as I see it: Regular releases keep your name in the readers’ minds, and publishing really is a total crap shoot.

To the first I would say that I feel the serial model offers an interesting opportunity for success by creating regular releases for the audience. Your name never gets old and always shows up in the new releases section in the Kindle store. That being said, this is still no remedy for a poor story, and it does take some amount of planning and a lot of foresight to make it work. But regular seems to be a real key.

Regarding the second point, as I’ve said, I do no promotion anymore whatsoever. In fact, the moment I stopped promoting, I started selling better, and I’m pretty sure I was not one of those obnoxious self-pubbed types we all hear horror stories about. But the real point is this: If your books are not selling for whatever reason, don’t be afraid to throw the baby out with the bathwater (yes, you read that right!) and opt for a completely different approach.

Thanks, Brondt! Best wishes for your continued success!

If you want to learn more about Brondt, or try his books, you can pick them at Amazon, or stop by his website for more information.

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Are More Authors Than You Think Making a Living Self-Publishing?

About this time last year, I wrote up a blog post detailing how I was doing, financially speaking, on my new e-publishing endeavor (I got my start in December of 2010). When it came to ebook earnings, my grand total for March of 2011 was $724. At the time, I had two novels out, a couple of 99-cent short story collections, and the first Flash Gold novella (it, and my first Emperor’s Edge novel, are free in case you haven’t checked out my work yet and are dying to do so).

I didn’t think that $700 was too shabby considering I hadn’t been at the e-publishing thing for long. But when you look at how much time I was spending on promotion and writing, it wasn’t exactly a huge income either.

A year later, though, things have continued to pick up steam. I have two more novels out, two more novellas, and a new stand-alone short story. In March of 2012, I sold more than 4,000 ebooks, not including downloads of the freebies, and will earn over $5,000 (my ebooks range from 99 cents to $4.95).

Those are estimates, since the month just ended, and Smashwords can’t offer real-time reports from their partner sites (I’ve been selling decently at iTunes, in particular, since I made my first novel free over there), but I’m tickled with the growth in sales (and readers!) over the last year. I decided to officially make this “the day job” in December, though I’d been neglecting the old day job and writing and promoting nearly full-time long before.

I’m sure my earnings will continue to go up and down (as you’d expect, one tends to do best in the months that new releases come out), but I’m happy that, thanks to the current e-publishing paradigm, making a living as a self-published author (and not a best-selling one at that) is viable.

Who else is making a living self-publishing?

As I mentioned, I’m not a huge seller compared to some (for most of March, my non-free novels weren’t even in the Top 100 of their sub-categories at Amazon), so I know there are a lot of indie authors making good money right now. Of course, we’ve all heard of JA Konrath and John Locke, but I promise you many others are earning $X,XXX to $XX,XXX a month.

If you browse the indie authors in your favorite Amazon Top 100 category and find some with multiple ebooks in there, especially multiple ebooks priced at $2.99 or above, you can bet they’re doing well.

What impresses me is just how many indie authors are in there, going neck-a-neck with well-established Big 6 authors. That we’re able to sell our books less expensively certainly doesn’t hurt, but the big boys don’t have as many advantages in online stores as they do in brick-and-mortar establishments. Publishers can’t buy table space or display stands at the front of the store, and Amazon’s algorithms will help anyone who’s selling well, regardless of publisher (the more books you sell, the more often Amazon automatically recommends those books to readers who enjoy your genre).

Here are a few authors in my genre (fantasy) that are doing well now and have been for a while (links go to their author pages at Amazon, so you check out their books):

Secrets to self-publishing success?

Now that you’ve taken a peek at some of those successful indie authors, let’s see what common things they’re all doing. The web is full of advice from book-promotion gurus, but, in the end, it probably makes most sense to simply see what successful people in your niche/genre are doing and emulate them. The folks I listed up above are all selling better than I am, and I’d guess most of them are in the midst of six-figure years.

So, what are the common threads?

  • Lots of books out — Careers aren’t made on one or two books. Being prolific counts for a lot. At the risk of stating the obvious, the more books you have, the more books people can buy. If you’re working your buns off on promotion, and you only have one book out, you’re only going to be able to make 35 cents to a couple of dollars (depending on your book’s price) from each customer. But, if you have an eight-book series, and that same customer you worked so hard to get enjoys your work enough to go on to buy all of them, the earnings potential is much higher. Also, more books means more ways for people to stumble across your work. (Note: Don’t get bogged down thinking in terms of full-length novels — some people are having success serializing long books and others are doing novellas or shorter-than-average novels. With ebooks, there are no rules as to length.)
  • Professional cover art — There aren’t too many best sellers out there with hokey cover art. It’s odd that it matters so much with books — digital books at that — but cover art is what catches someone’s eye in the Amazon listings and first gets them to click on a book to read the blurb.
  • Series, series, series — Most of these authors not only have a series, but they have multiple series going. You’ll see that some of their series do a lot better than others — the more work you have out, the more likely it is that you’ll have a book or series that takes off. And the advantage with writing in series format is that there are a lot of readers who enjoy following the same heroes for multiple books, to that extent that they’ll automatically buy sequels, regardless of the premise (I’m one of those types of readers, so I definitely get that).
  • Free or 99-cent first books — These guys are all kicking off their series with inexpensive lead-ins. Speaking for myself, my overall sales went up significantly when I dropped my first Emperor’s Edge book to free, at Apple and Barnes & Noble as well as Amazon. I thought it would be a temporary boost (I did this around Thanksgiving), but I’ve continued to do well with the second and third novels in that series.
  • Not big names in the blogosphere — Some of these guys don’t blog at all and are practically non-existent on social media sites. I think a blog can help, and it’s something I enjoy doing, but having a popular blog on writing or publishing won’t necessarily make you a fiction best-seller. Getting more books out is probably more important than blogging regularly in the grand scheme of things.
  • Publish regularly — I’m sure some of these authors started out with a “trunk” novel or two, but if you look at their publication dates, you can see that they’ve all been putting new work out on a regular basis for the last couple of years. I’ve seen some authors work the system and get to the tops of the Top 100 lists only to gradually fade away into obscurity after a few months. The simple matter is that it’s easier to stay on people’s radars if you’re putting out new stories every quarter or so (I can’t write novels that fast, so this is one of the reasons I’m trying to work in novellas and short stories between bigger projects — that and because I like having multiple projects to work on at any given time!).

Does all this mean that there’s no hope to make good money self-publishing if you can’t put out a lot of books on a regular basis? No, I’ve come across people who are doing phenomenally with one book (this tends to happen more often in broad-appeal genres such as thrillers and romances rather than things like epic fantasy and science fiction), but I have found those folks to be the exception rather than the norm.

In the end, you have to find what works best for you, but I think it’s important for one’s sanity to make sure sales and financial goals make sense relative to the amount of work we’re able to get out there. Expecting to knock it out of the park with one or two books is asking a lot. If it happens, great, but if it doesn’t then that’s okay too. You haven’t set yourself up for disappointment by having unrealistic goals.

In the meantime, keep writing!

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