What It Means to Be an Independent Author

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Lindsay

Author/Publishing HumorShould you go indie? Should you pursue the traditional publishing route?

I thought I’d go over some of the pros and cons today for those on the fence. I’m obviously biased since I chose to e-publish, but I’ll try to “keep it real.” Please chime in below if you want to disagree (or agree!).

What It Means to Be an Indie Author:

More money…maybe

As things stand today, thanks to the economics of e-publishing and the royalty rates the big booksellers offer, you’ll make a lot more money on each book sold. I mentioned this blog post last week, and I’m sure I’ll reference it often because it’s definitely worth a look: Robin Sullivan at Write2Publish does the numbers, comparing the earnings of two mid-list fantasy authors, one self-pubbed and one traditionally pubbed, with a similar number of books out. We’re talking in the neighborhood of $2,000 a month vs $10,000 a month.

That said, you are completely and utterly on your own for selling your books. Especially in the beginning, you’ll feel like you’re putting way more effort into promotion than you’re getting back in sales. It’ll seem like you have to personally sell each and every copy because nobody’s finding your work on Amazon on their own. Certainly, nobody’s going to chance across your book on a shelf in a local bookstore.

As I’m learning, you don’t have to master every marketing avenue, but you do need to find some tactics you don’t mind pursuing and…pursue them. Relentlessly. And hope that some day you reach a tipping point where your books are high enough on sales charts that readers find them on their own. Not everybody gets to that point.

The freedom to write whatever you want at whatever length you want…maybe

As an indie author, you don’t have to make sure your paranormal romance falls between 70,000 and 90,000 words because that’s what agents want, thank you very much. If you’re publishing ebooks, you don’t even have to stick to novels. My 18,000-word fantasy story, Flash Gold, is about a quarter of the length of a novel, so I’ve priced it at 99 cents (as an e-publisher you can choose whatever sales price you wish) and many folks are checking it out (thank you). Other indie ebook authors are publishing even shorter stories.

When it comes to content, you needn’t stick to formulas or write to a potential agent’s wishlist either. There’s a big world out there, and just because your book might not have bestseller written all over it, that doesn’t mean you won’t find a readership.

That said, if you want to sell books and continue to sell books, you do have to please your readers. Unfortunately, I can’t give you the secret formula on how to do that. You’ll know, when you start getting reviews from people you don’t know, if you’re hitting the mark.

Total control over your destiny…maybe

Because you are on your own for the story and the marketing, much of whether you succeed or fail lies in your own hands. This is comforting for some (those with the entrepreneurial spirit) and terrifying for others.

But even the entrepreneurs must realize that luck is going to play a role at some point. Sure, you can help things along by working hard at promotion and writing great stories, but there will be times that luck helps (or hinders) you: an influential reviewer writing up your book, an A-list blogger linking to your site, a bargain books site mentioning your 99-cent ebook, etc.

The more you put your work out there and make people aware of it, the more likely it is good luck will find you, but some people can do everything right and never “get lucky” (though, thanks to those higher royalties I mentioned, even modest sales can lead to a nice part-time income).

Being taken advantage of…maybe

When you’re struggling to get your book noticed, you’ll see a lot of opportunities that sound great but that might end up costing you far more money than they’re worth in sales.

There are lots of new companies cropping up that are jumping at the chance to help you get your ebooks published and out to the world. And there are tons of forums, book sites, and blogs that offer advertising options. None of these guys are out to scam anyone, but there’s doubtlessly a lot of truth to that old saying that the most money made during the Gold Rush was by the folks selling picks and shovels to the prospectors.

If you’re choosing to be an indie, you’re choosing to be in business for yourself, and (successful) businesses track their spending carefully. To stay afloat, they must ensure earnings outweigh expenses.

A beating on your ego…probably

  • You’re going to get bad reviews. (Hopefully you get plenty of good ones to balance things out, but it’s still hard to read criticism, especially when you sense there’s truth to it).
  • You’re going to see other indies who started at the same time or after you making it big while you’re still struggling to make sales. (Maybe you feel you’re doing well when you measure month-to-month progress, but it’s hard not to get down when you see others doing so much better.)
  • Somebody’s going to say bad things about you somewhere online. (This is especially true if you have a blog and state your opinions on it — chances are you’re going to rub someone the wrong way sooner or later.)

Of course, those points about ego are relative to traditionally published authors too. For good or ill, when you choose to put yourself out there, you put yourself at risk. But, hey, we all know it’s the people who take risks who reap the rewards.

Whichever publishing path you take, good luck!

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

3 Indie Fantasy Authors Making Thousands a Month E-publishing

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Lindsay

indie fantasy author BV Larson's first ebookQuite a few folks find this blog searching for information on how much money indie authors are making e-publishing. Is it possible to make a living? Which genres sell best?

I’ve addressed some of these questions in previous posts, so today’s post is all about inspiration. You can make money as an indie, and you can even make a lot.

Today we’re looking at indie fantasy authors Brian S. Pratt, BV Larson, and David Dalglish. I don’t know any of these fellows personally, but from their sales rankings and their various blog posts and interviews, it’s clear they’re earning enough to make a living from their e-publishing careers (sometimes a very good living!). And the fact that they write high fantasy and science fiction shows that you don’t have to stick to popular genres.

Brian S. Pratt

Mr. Pratt is the author of almost 20 high fantasy novels, with his most popular series being The Morcyth Saga. The first ebook in the series is free, but then he bucks the how-low-can-we-go $0.99-$2.99 trend by charging $5.95 for subsequent novels.

Check out his interview at Smashwords for an inspiring read. Mr. Pratt admits that he faced a lot of rejections from agents before going it on his own. He probably doesn’t mind those rejections now:

Pratt began publishing with Smashwords in early 2009. His first quarterly royalty payment was $7.82. While most authors would find that number discouraging, Pratt was encouraged. It was a start.

In the quarters since, Pratt’s earnings have grown, and in recent quarters he’s become a veritable breakout success. Last quarter, he earned over $18,000 from sales across the Smashwords retail distribution network. This quarter, with three weeks to go, he’s on track to break $25,000. He’s on track to earn over $100,000 in 2011 at Smashwords, and up to $200,000 total when he includes his projected Amazon sales.

BV Larson

I first learned of BV Larson through a guest post he did on JA Konrath’s popular publishing blog.

He writes science fiction and fantasy novels, and in less than a year he’s gone from a brand new ebook author to a popular one making thousands of dollars a month.

I’d been successful in non-fiction (have a textbook series), but I’d never managed more than a few pro short story sales in fiction. I’ve actually had three agents and many “rewrite this” and “almosts” with editors.

When I started ebooking I’d never laid eyes on a Kindle, but by the end of May I had two books up and 7 big sales. Things grew rapidly from there, and over the last six months I’ve had over 100,000 PAID ebook sales, including 26,000 in December and 38,000 in January. Most of these sales were for $2.99.

I did it all without a fan-base or a web-presence. I had nothing going for me other than determination, a pile of unsold manuscripts and a willingness to adapt.

If you want to take a look at his fantasy, his first ebook is only 99 cents: Amber Magic (Book #1 of the Haven Series). His first science fiction ebook, Mech (Imperium Series), hovers around 1,000 sales rank in the Kindle Store.

David Dalglish

Mr. Dalglish is a frequent poster on the Kindle Boards and has an interesting interview up at the Fantasy Book Critic. He writes high fantasy that reminds me of the Forgotten Realms and DragonLance books I devoured as a kid (the sort of things agents turn their noses up at today).

Mr. Dalglish has slowly built up a number of ebooks and his earnings have grown tremendously in the last eight months or so. According to a fascinating article comparing earnings of self-published vs. traditionally published mid-list authors, he was making $800 in August of 2010, and it’s stepped up every month until he made just shy of $12,000 in February 2011.

His first ebook is 99 cents if you want to give it a try: The Weight of Blood (The Half-Orcs, Book 1).

There you have it: three fantasy/science fiction authors not only succeeding but making it big!

In case you’re wondering what all these authors have in common, they all have a lot of ebooks out, so those of us aspiring to riches (or maybe just a reasonable income) better get writing!

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

3 Reasons to Interview Other Authors on Your Blog

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Lindsay

Interview Questions HumorYou’ve published your first ebook (or you’re planning to), and you’ve decided to start a blog to help build awareness of yourself and your work. Great!

If you’re like a lot of writers, you’re blogging about…yourself. If you’re fascinating that might be okay, but let’s assume that tactic hasn’t won you a huge readership thus far (no idea why). You might try writing about other authors, maybe even interviewing them.

What’s the point in that, you ask? I’m feeling garrulous, so I’ll give you three:

1. The people you interview will help you promote your blog.

No, I don’t have a Magic Eight Ball that predicts all, but this happens a lot. You interview someone, and that person posts the link to FaceBook, Twitter, a personal blog, etc. The reason authors agree to do interviews in the first place is to help get the word out about their books, so naturally they want to help make people aware of your post. This is good for them and good for you, since you might acquire a couple of new readers of your own — especially if the people you interview write in the same genre as you do!

2. You may get extra search engine traffic down the road.

Months later, people are finding my blog via the search engines because they’re looking for information on Jason Letts, Nathan Lowell, and other indie authors I’ve interviewed. (And, to the lady who posted the comment last week, sorry but I don’t know when Book 3 in Jason’s series is coming out.)

While none of these folks were originally interested in me (depressing, yes), some might stick around and check out more pages of my site if they’re interested in the topic. (This is why it’s a good idea to have a quick “about” or “tagline” prominently on every page of your blog.) Who knows? Maybe some will even check out my books.

3. Interviews are free and easy content for you.

If you’ve set yourself a goal of doing a certain number of posts a week (it’s three for me), and you’ve been blogging a while, you might get to the point where you’re struggling to find time to maintain your blog and/or running out of ideas for posts.

With a simple email interview, you can send a few questions along, and let the guest author do all the writing for you! Unlike with a guest post, you have full control and can guide the interview to ensure the content is something you think your readers will appreciate. (If you browse through my interviews category, you’ll notice I don’t use generic questions for everyone–I pick something the author has success and/or experience with and make that the theme of the post.)

Note: Start out interviewing your peers; Stephen King doesn’t want to appear on your Blogspot blog for your three followers.

Okay, I’m done with my three reasons. Have I sold you yet? Or would you like to add another reason? Have your say below!

Posted in Blogging | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Turning Your Novel into a Podiobook with Collin Earl

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Lindsay

Podiobook your Ebook!If you’ve read some of the past interviews here, you know several now-successful ebook authors started out podcasting their stories. Through Podiobooks and iTunes, these authors were able to build a readership (er, make that a “listenership”) before they released their first ebooks.

This is something I’m going to try with The Emperor’s Edge, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. If this is a route you’re considering, then you’ll want to read today’s interview. We’re talking to Collin Earl, an indie fantasy author and part of the Darkfire Productions team (they’re doing the grunt work for my podiobook).

All right, here’s Collin….

As you know, I’ve interviewed Nathan Lowell here before, and he built up a large fan base by podcasting his novels long before he did ebooks or print books (which are now selling very well!). What do you think about podiobooks as a means of building a fan base? Can it work well today, or is the market too crowded?

I think the podcasted or serialized novel, like anything can be an arrow in your quiver. If it’s used right, it can be highly effective. As for market crowding, at Podiobooks.com, there are around 500 titles and they are the biggest distribution network I know of for serialized novels. If you consider that distribution centers like Barnes & Noble has over a million ebook titles and Audible has over 75,000 traditional audiobook titles, a place like Podiobooks becomes a drop in the bucket. Podiobooks is however, gaining momentum. They are adding books faster than ever before, but I think there is room for anyone who is willing to do it properly. But that is the key- the willingness to do it properly.

Do you see any genres or types of podiobooks being more popular than others? Or does it just take a good story of any genre?

I think there is less non-fiction on Podiobooks.com and that non-fiction is less popular than fiction. But that just might be a creature of the unique cutting-edge authors of Podiobooks.com rather than the audience. The fact that there are less non-fiction titles is not a function of the site either. Evo Terra, the master for all things Podiobooks, has made it clear that almost anything is welcome on Podiobooks (he’s turned down like 3 titles in the last 6 years). So I think you see the books of people who are willing to take the jump and people who take the jump earlier, let’s face it, have a head start.

I think good writing is important. However, and this is a BIG however, “good” is a relative statement. I read the first book in the Twilight series and didn’t care for it. But many, many people did. Good is relative. What I like and what you like is going to vary. So don’t waste your time trying to please everyone. It’s not possible.  When it comes to a good story, I think you need to make your story the best it can be within its respective elements. And I don’t mean listening to every single person with an opinion, but getting the story properly taken care of like proper copy and story editing, cover art, etc.

Podcasting is the same way. I think much more than a “good story,” you need proper production, voicing acting, and mastering. You need to make sure you are doing it right because the people of the podcasting community will tell you if you aren’t. It doesn’t matter if the product is free. If it’s crap, it’s crap and they will let you know that. You don’t want your podcast to be crap. Some good production value can go a long way to getting people immersed in your world and that is always a good thing.

How should an author looking to turn his or her novel into a podiobook get started?

You need to decide how you want it done first. Do you want to do it yourself or have someone else do it for you? There are pros and cons for each. I would recommend at least TRYING to do it yourself. It can help with branding but more importantly it will save you some money and everyone knows how poor most authors are. We at DarkFire Productions are doing Lindsay’s book, Emperor’s Edge, but only after she understood what went into the creation of the podiobook. I am all for authors DYI-ing it so I want you to at least look into doing it yourself. I think if you can pull it off, you’ll thank me later.

If you want to do it yourself, the Podiobooks.com community page is great resource. Some of the old timers there are very helpful. You can also always look at Podiobooks.com for the specs that you need. Also there are many podcasting books out there, Evo Terra’s Podcasting For Dummies included, that can be helpful.

The very first thing you need to look into is software. You shouldn’t be spending any money on this. Audacity, which is a free download and GarageBand, which comes with a Mac, are more than enough for your podcasting needs. Next you need a decent microphone and wind screen.

If you want to do it the other way, and have someone do it for you. Just email me at DarkFire, look at Voices.com, Voices123 or another production company like ours. There are options.

Where can you host your podiobook, and what’s involved with getting it uploaded to iTunes and Podiobooks?

You can host your Podiobook anywhere you want- your website, your blog, other distribution points, and more. Podiobooks.com don’t take any rights at all when it comes to your product. You do with it what you please. You upload to Podiobooks and they automatically get you into iTunes, which will eventually filter out, to about 20 different places. You don’t have to do a thing.

How can you promote your podiobook once the first chapters are up?

So many ways…I like to use pass along cards. They are promotion cards that are bigger than a business card but smaller than a post card.  They have your cover art on one side and a “pitch” of the book and where it can be found on the back. I passed those out to everyone and their brother and they worked well. Trading “promos” with other podcast novelists is a great way to spread the word as well. Some will do it and some won’t, but you can always ask and you’d be surprised at how helpful our little community can be.

Many of the podiobook marketing strategies are similar to ebook strategies that people are already implementing like tagging the project properly, reviews from bloggers, email campaigns, etc. The great thing about the podcast novel however, especially while it’s being serialized, is that it’s different. There are only 500 hundred titles on Podiobooks.com compared to thousands upon thousands of traditional audiobooks and millions of ebooks. The audience of the podcasting community is growing every single day. It’s a different experience than the ebook or trade paperback. You can be a part of that community, which is growing faster than ever before.

If your goal as an author, is to get this out in front of as many people as possible, which mind you that should be your goal, this is a great way to do it.  Another great thing about the podiobook is you can hook them with something free and then hopefully keep them for life. Free is a powerful force. As the lowest barrier to entry into a particular community, it takes away the cost benefit analysis that all of us go through when we do something. People simply say “Something is ‘free’ so why not.” It’s your job to keep them there once you get them hooked. This means at least two things–Content and Consistency. I am going to say it again because people are ADD- Content and Consistency. If you do those two things, people will come to you.

You’re part of a company that helps authors put together podiobooks if they don’t have the time or inclination to do it themselves. Do you want to talk about what you guys do?

Not really. The last thing I want to give your readers is a pitch. I will say this: DarkFire Productions, which includes myself and two other podcasters, helps authors with digital production of their literary works, converting ebooks, creating audiobooks and podcasts etc. If you don’t want to do it yourself, we can help and you can learn from our mistakes or if you simply have questions, we’re always willing to answer them.

That is all the pitch I’m willing to give. If you want to know more, I am all over the bleeding Internet just contact me and we can talk.

Would you like to finish up by telling us about your own work and where we can listen to–or read–it?

LOL, I thought you’d never ask. Sure let me give you some information. I can be reached www.collinearl.com

To check out my books and to maybe figure out what this podcasting stuff is, you can go to Podiobooks.com or iTunes and look up my titles- The House of Grey and Harmonics: Rise of the Magician. Harmonics is available as an ebook, http://amzn.to/ffVZ4M, and a trade paper back http://amzn.to/i2XGhm

Collin Earl's Podiobook Harmonics

Thanks for all the great information, Collin!

Thanks all.

Collin Earl is the CLO of DarkFire Productions

Posted in Interviews / Success Stories, Videos & Podcasts | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

How to Use Smashwords Coupons to Promote Your Ebook

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Lindsay

Make ebook coupons at SmashwordsA few days ago, I argued that it was worth publishing your ebook through Smashwords, even if you’re using PubIt (Barnes & Noble) and Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon) to handle distribution to those stores on your own. One of the benefits of listing ebooks on Smashwords is that you can generate coupons for your titles.

Sure, you can change your ebook’s price in the Kindle or B&N store any time, but with a coupon the buyer is aware they’re being offered a deal. This can be a helpful promotional tool.

As you probably know from your own grocery shopping experiences, a coupon can entice you to try something you might not buy at full price. Too, coupons with expiration dates or “limited time offers” encourage us check things out sooner rather than later (or never).

How I’ve Used Coupons for My Ebooks

I noticed the Smashwords coupon generator right away and started using coupons to give away review copies of my ebooks. While not everyone has a Smashwords account, many of the bloggers who run review sites that accept indie ebooks do.

I’ve also used 100%-off coupons to offer people free books as prizes in contests or giveaways (if you do blog book tours, you’ll have lots of opportunities to do this on other people’s sites). Unlike with an email, where you send the epub or mobi file, you can track whether or not the coupon is actually redeemed.

When I released Flash Gold earlier this month, I didn’t do a lot of promotion since it was just a side project (and, okay, I’m lazy at times). I did decide to create a 100%-off coupon that first weekend in hopes that a couple of folks might read it and leave reviews at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords (there are reviews in all of those places so thank you readers!). I headed over to the MobileRead forum and posted the blurb, cover art, and coupon code in the “Author Self-Promotion.” I also made it clear the coupon was only good through Sunday.

Several folks there downloaded the ebook, and then, Sunday morning, I received an unexpected bonus. A hundred-odd downloads had showed up on my Smashwords dashboard since the night before. After scratching my head and hunting around the internet, I discovered the reason. Thanks to the MobileRead post, Flash Gold had been mentioned on a popular blog that lists ebook bargains. By the end of the day, the coupon had been “cashed in” more than 300 times.

Sales of my other ebooks have been good thus far in April, and I believe some of those buyers might be people who first found my work because of that blog post and that coupon.

Generating a Coupon for Your Ebook

Smashwords-coupon-menu

At Smashwords, you can type in any “percentage off” for your coupon. I’m a fan of free, but you can do anything you want. If you’re selling your ebook for $5, then a “half off” coupon might be perceived as a good deal.

To generate a coupon, head over to your book’s page on Smashwords, and click “Manage this book’s coupon” on the right-hand menu. On the next page, you’ll choose a percentage and an expiration date, and that’s all there is to it. Once you’ve created the coupon, you can also access the information from your dashboard (under “operations”).

Promoting Your Coupon

A coupon is no good if people don’t know it exists, so now it’s time to get the word out. The minimum you need to give people is the link to the book’s Smashwords page and the coupon code itself, but you may get more takers if you also include the cover art and blurb with your announcement. Even when an ebook is free, time is still money, so you have to convince people your ebook is worth checking out.

As far as places to promote go, I already mentioned the MobileRead forum, but you can doubtlessly think of lots of other venues. Try forums full of ebook-reading people (Kindleboards, Nookboards, etc.), Facebook, Twitter, your blog, etc. One of the perks with Smashwords is that they list your ebook in all formats, so anyone will be able to use the coupon, no matter which e-reader they prefer.

If you have questions or suggestions for people (maybe you’re already a coupon-using pro!), feel free to comment below. Thanks!

Posted in Book Marketing | Tagged , , , , | 21 Comments

Why E-publish? 5 Reasons to Ebook It up!

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Lindsay

benefits epublishing ebooksQuite a few new folks have found this blog lately (thanks for visiting!), many of whom are starting to contemplate e-publishing, so I thought I’d do a basic post covering some of benefits of becoming an indie ebook author.

I don’t have anything to sell you, and I’m not against traditional publishing, but there are some perks I wasn’t aware of when I got started, and maybe sharing these will help you decide if this route makes sense for you.

Without further introduction…

Five Benefits of E-publishing

1. Higher Profit Margins as an Indie

As an independent ebook author, you keep 60-85% of the earnings for ebooks priced $2.99 to $9.99 (it’s usually 35-40% for lower or higher priced ones). Compare this to a traditionally published paperback where an author might get 15% or less. Even with ebooks published through presses, the earnings aren’t that good, since there are more people that have to get their cut.

The high royalty rate is one of the reasons you see so many inexpensively priced ebooks out there now. You can price a novel at $2.99 and still make a respectable $2 on each sale.

2. Real-time Sales Statistics

This may very well be my favorite part of e-publishing.

While not every ebook seller is this high speed yet, Barnes & Noble and Amazon update your book sales hourly. This is tremendously helpful when it comes to marketing, as it makes it easy to see which tactics are resulting in sales (and which aren’t!).

If you buy a daily advertisement on a site, and it doesn’t result in any more sales than usual, then it may not be worth paying for again. If a book review at a certain blog brings in a couple dozen extra sales that week, then you might buy that blogger a beer and see if he/she will review more of your work!

3. Ability to Give Away Free Ebooks for Marketing Purposes

Not every seller lets you list ebooks for free (Amazon and Barnes & Noble require indies price their work at a minimum of 99 cents), but Smashwords and some of their distribution partners do (if you go through Smashwords, you actually can get a free ebook listed at B&N). This can be a helpful marketing tool.

If you’ve published a brilliant new novel that nobody knows about, you can generate interest by giving away a free story, perhaps set in the same world or with the same characters. (If you haven’t seen it, read about my results giving away a free ebook short story.) Include an excerpt of your novel at the end of the story, and your freebie just might generate some sales.

4. Nothing Is Set in Stone

With e-publishing, it’s easy to change the price of your ebook, change the blurb, change the cover, or upload a new version of the text (always helpful if you find a couple of typos down the line).

In particular, a lot of indie authors will change prices from month to month, trying to find that sweet spot.

5. No Delays in Getting Books out There

With traditionally published books, it can take years to find an agent, a publisher, and get to the point where your work is available at Amazon. Lots of books don’t make it at all.

With e-publishing, it takes a day or two (at the most) between the time you upload your book to the time it’s available for purchase. Sure, you might add on a couple of weeks for having it professionally editing and getting an ebook cover created, but this is still a small amount of time when compared to traditional publishing. We’re not all going to get rich from our e-publishing passion, but the sooner your work is out there, the sooner you can start making money from it!

Can you think of other benefits of e-publishing? (Or maybe you’d like to disagree with me?) Chime in below!

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Podcasting and Blogging for Book Promotion with Joanna Penn

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Lindsay

Joanna Penn holding PentecostWe’ve got an interview with Joanna Penn, an experienced blogger, podcaster, non-fiction writer, and thriller author for you today. Read on to learn about her, her work, and to get some tips on promoting your books online.

~*~

Joanna Penn is the author of four books including Pentecost, an action-adventure thriller novel. Her blog, The Creative Penn is one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers.

You’re a blogger, a non-fiction writer, and now a thriller author! Do you want to tell us about your path, and where you’re heading in the future?

I always wanted to be a fiction author but I spent many years crippled by the thought that I needed to write prize-winning literary fiction. That daunting block stopped me writing anything until I found myself hating my IT job and not knowing what to do with my life at 33. So my first book was “How to Enjoy Your Job…or Find A New One” and that helped me to get past my own blocks. I started the blog, shared what I had learned about publishing and finally in 2009, I started writing Pentecost and now you can’t stop me!

I’m a thriller author and happy to be one, as well as a dedicated blogger and also a speaker on the new world of digital publishing and author platform building. It’s been an incredible time and I would ever have guessed a few years ago that I would be in the Top 100 action-adventure novels on the Kindle store. In the next few years, I’ll be writing more in my series of thrillers, expanding the blog and also developing my speaking further. I do define myself as being an author/blogger/speaker so eventually my day job will drop away and I’ll be able to do it full-time (yes, I’m still in IT but I enjoy it a lot more these days!)

I’m sure my readers, many of whom are e-publishing their novels, would be interested in what you have to say in From Book to Market: Internet Marketing, Sales and Promotion. . .For Your Book. Can you talk a bit about that book and give a couple teaser tips for us?

The book has its origins when I first self-published and sat in my living room with a pile of printed books and no sales. I had made the classic mistake of thinking that books = customers. Not true! I had no way to reach people so no one could buy the books. I then tried traditional marketing and made it onto Australian national TV, radio and into the papers but I still sold very few books. So I started to investigate internet marketing and blogging and soon discovered this was the way forward. It takes time but no money (or very little) so I started learning about all the ways to market online. I then found that many authors have no clue about this so I wanted to share as much as possible, hence the book (which is only a few dollars on Kindle and my website). You can also get my most up to date marketing information for free here http://www.TheCreativePenn.com/marketing/

My most highly recommended marketing strategies are (1) blogging  (2) Twitter or Facebook (3) multimedia e.g. video or audio. Start with something and stick to it for at least three months. Blogging takes around six months before you get any real benefits. None of this is instant success or get rich quick but writers are experts at the long game, so we’re used to it!

Do you find it easier to market and sell your non-fiction or your fiction? Any thoughts on indie authors being able to make a living from their e-novels?

I have found it much easier to sell my fiction on the Kindle store and there are a number of reasons for that. Kindle readers buy a lot more books and they devour a good novel in no time so there is always demand. I wrote a mainstream, fast paced action-adventure thriller and targeted a particular market (it’s also what I like to read so I know those people!). I used pro editors, cover design and book design and I did a huge launch to get the sales rolling (read all the details of the launch here).

It’s also designed as a series and people are already signing up for it now so I have it all planned out.

I definitely see authors making a full-time income from ebooks particularly if they write genre fiction for a market that is always wanting more. One of my online friends Zoe Winters is doing that  right now, and Ruth Ann Nordin and LJ Sellers are also doing a great job (interviews with these authors and more here).

These are “normal” authors, not A-listers with huge names (although they will be soon!) We also hear of others like Amanda Hocking and Joe Konrath making huge sales but also check out John Locke who is rocking the Kindle store with 99 cent thrillers. My own sales of the last nine weeks have convinced me that with a few more books I will be in the same position.

It’s a matter of writing a great story, having a cover and a price that catch people’s interest and then getting great reviews and word of mouth marketing. It’s possible for all of us to sell direct to customers now, you just need to know which customers and what they want.

In addition to blogging, you have a podcast that covers many writing-related topics. What led you to start a podcast, and what role has it played in expanding your blog audience and selling your books?

I started a podcast because:

(a) I wanted to stand out amongst all the text only blogs and offer outstanding value to people who subscribe. You can also do this with video now and I try to blend video and audio interviews.

(b)  People need to know, like and trust you in order to buy your book. If people listen to your voice for 30 minutes per week, hear your laugh and a bit about your life, they are far more likely to buy your book.

(c)  I wanted to network with other authors and marketers and I can take contacts from Twitter, have a 30 minute conversation and have a far better bond by chatting than you can do by email. It’s also a form of favor bartering i.e. people will have you back on their blog if you promote them on yours.

(d)  I wanted to learn and asking questions seemed a great way to do it. I always try to interview people I personally want to learn from.

(e)  I wanted incoming links and people always link to their own interviews – this builds page rank critical for search engine optimization

(f)   I also wanted to support other authors and so it gives people a platform to promote by offering something of value to listeners e.g. Zoe Winters and I discussing our respective launches, me for my thriller and her for paranormal romance, offers great value to listeners with ideas for their book launch but also promotes our books.

Given all these amazing benefits of podcasting, I’m surprised that so few are actually doing it!

Okay, I know you’re excited to sell some copies of your thriller, so why don’t you finish up by telling us about it?

I believe you should write what you love to read and I am obsessed with religion and psychology, especially when the two collide. I also love to travel and read fast-paced thrillers set in exotic places. I blended all this into Pentecost, the first in a series featuring ex-Israeli Defence Force psychologist Morgan Sierra, now based at Oxford University. The back story to the book is that when Jesus rose from the dead, the apostles took stones from his tomb and wore them as pendants, a symbol of their Brotherhood. These stones were empowered at Pentecost by the fire of God, enabled the Apostles to perform miracles and then were handed down to Keepers across the millennia. Now, in the present day, the Keepers are being murdered and the stones stolen by those who would use them for evil. Morgan is an unwitting Keeper of a stone and when her sister is kidnapped, she is drawn into the hunt for the other stones across the ancient Christian world – from Iran to Tunisia, Rome and Venice to Santiago de Compostela in Spain and across the ocean to America in the footsteps of Carl Jung. She is helped by the mysterious ARKANE, a secret British agency specializing in the paranormal and religious artifacts but they have other plans for the stones. It’s aimed at fans of Dan Brown, Preston & Child as well as adventure heroes Indiana Jones and Lara Croft.

For a 1 minute overview, check out the book trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfybPq-ERoY Pentecost is available as a print book or ebook at all online bookstores. Heres the Amazon.com link.

Great, thanks for visiting with us, Joanna!

Thanks for having me on your blog!

Posted in Interviews / Success Stories | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

E-publishing Expenses: Are You Spending More Than You Make?

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Lindsay

e-publishing expensesA couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post on Common E-publishing Questions, and one of them was “How much does it cost to publish an ebook?” I talked about how you’d probably want to spend some money on editing, cover art, and formatting, but I also mentioned something I feel it’s important to keep in mind: you can e-publish your book for free.

Some of the people doing very well right now started out having a friend or critique buddy edit their work, and they did their cover art themselves. And I’ve seen more than one ebook selling decently (going by the sales rank) with no cover at all.

I’m not recommending that, mind you, but I want to bring awareness to the fact that up-front expenses are optional. You can technically format your ebook yourself and upload it to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords (an outfit that can get you into the other ebook stores) for free.

As e-publishing becomes more and more popular, there are lots of industries cropping up to sell things to indie authors. Most, if not all, of these businesses are perfectly legitimate, selling things such as ebook formatting, distribution, cover art, advertising, etc., but their ultimate goal is, of course, to make money from your new endeavor.

As an up-and-coming author, it’s worth keeping track of expenses, because, for most of us, writing fiction is never going to be a hugely profitable adventure. While I think there’s potential to make a full-time income from e-publishing, this is going to be nothing more than a hobby for the majority of the people who get into it. That’s just the nature of the beast.

Paying Up-front for Distribution?

Because most people won’t sell a ton of ebooks, I’m leery about recommending formatting and distribution services that charge substantial up-front fees and/or tack on an annual fee for each title you publish through them (and why I recommended Smashwords the other day–they’re not perfect, but their business model means they only make money if you make money, since they take a cut of your earnings rather than charging you up-front fees). If you’re selling a lot of ebooks, then these fees won’t matter much, and that distribution set-up might make sense for you, but if you’re selling a book a day or less, it’s worth whipping out the calculator and doing some math.

Is your e-publishing hobby costing you money every month?

Advertising, usually a losing proposition

I’ve paid for several advertising opportunities over the last few months, and the best I can say for any of them is that I came close to breaking even. In most cases, it wasn’t even close.

Most of your advertising opportunities come via message boards and blogs, and are pricey (in a you’re-unlikely-to-earn-back-what-you-spend kind of way).

Message boards are almost always a losing gig, since people come to socialize rather than to buy. It’s easy to get suckered into the idea that you’re “branding yourself” by appearing lots of places. Eh. Maybe. I’ve seen some folks branding themselves one month (ads all over the place) and languishing in the one-ebook-sale-a-week club the next.

Blogs could, in theory, be a good place to advertise, but most of them cater to general ebook audiences, rather than a specific genre (so odds are against visitors actually being readers of cozy mysteries or science fiction or whatever your niche is), and most of them don’t get that much traffic, probably not enough to justify the expense of the ad (though sellers will charge whatever the market will bear, so we can’t blame them if the costs are high).

Speaking as someone who makes a living selling advertising, I’m a little floored that bloggers are charging fees of $25-$30 for daily ads on blogs that, quite frankly, don’t have many visitors per day.

For a little perspective, I charge $100 for a sponsored post and $50 a month for a text link in the side bar on my home-and-garden blog, which gets over 100,000 visitors a month in a very specific niche. Granted that’s ancillary income (most comes from Adsense, which only charges an advertiser if the ad is actually clicked), but those are pretty typical figures for the industry. Also, in the home-and-garden niche, a merchant stands to make a heck of a lot more from a sale than we authors do from the sale of a $2.99 ebook.

With the exception of sponsored blog posts (which live on perpetually and should include keyword-based links to the advertiser’s site because people largely buy these for search-engine-optimization purposes), I’d never seen anyone charge for daily ads until I started surfing around blogs catering to indie authors.

I don’t begrudge those bloggers anything–hey, I’ve got the entrepreneurial spirit too!–and I’ve even purchased ads to support them since many of them are indie authors themselves, but, again, it’s worth being aware of the cash you put out versus the cash you take in. Paying $25 for a daily sponsorship when your ebook is 99 cents (thus making you 35-40 cents per sale) on a blog that gets 100 visitors a day, most of whom probably don’t buy books in your genre… is unlikely to make you enough money to cover the expense of the ad.

If you do want to advertise, I’ve had some luck with Goodreads. I’d also advertise in a heartbeat on a popular genre-based blog.

At the end of the day, I think you can do as much for yourself, however, by giving away review copies, getting involved in social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and getting to know other bloggers and offering to guest post for them (I’ve written on Guest Blogging Your Way out of Obscurity), as authors and readers are often open to helping each other out this way.

I know I’ve rambled a bit here, so I’ll close with my reminder that you technically can publish your ebook for free, and all expenses are optional. While I believe you should have cover art, a professionally edited manuscript, and decent formatting, most further expenses are something to be weighed. If you can afford to throw away money, then, hey, try everything (I’ve certainly tried a lot myself!), but we’re probably all better off approaching this like a business and watching what we spend carefully to make sure the earnings at the end of the month justify those expenses.

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments