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Sulla Faex
May 14, 2010

No man ever did me so much good, or enemy so much harm, but I repaid him with ENDLESS SHITPOSTING

Trustworthy posted:

Uhhh but then how would I know whether or not I am worth a drat at any given moment?!

Just do what I do and post dick pics on GoonsGoneWild

Anyway I'm leaving the KDP page alone, I'm going to treat it like a quick time event in a video game, the lovely kind where you have to mash the spacebar a whole bunch of times to get the water valves open enough for the room to flood. Except instead of mashing the spacebar you have to mash the 'publish title' button with a new story every few days. And the pipes are full of 5 cent coins, just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them

can you tell I've been playing video games instead of writing

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Mr. Belding
May 19, 2006
^
|
<- IS LAME-O PHOBE ->
|
V

Jalumibnkrayal posted:

Congrats. It's easy to post about writing, it's something else entirely to do actually publish. Try not to be neurotic about refreshing your KDP chart. Just set a certain time of day and check it at that time.

The first thing I did was write some stories. The second thing I did was write a script that would scrape my sales from KDP three times a day and let me know what I'm on pace to hit for the month.

EngineerSean
Feb 9, 2004

by zen death robot

Mr. Belding posted:

The first thing I did was write some stories. The second thing I did was write a script that would scrape my sales from KDP three times a day and let me know what I'm on pace to hit for the month.

Progress. You could probably sell that on KBoards at $30 a copy too.

Trustworthy
Dec 28, 2004

with catte-like thread
upon our prey we steal

Mr. Belding posted:

The first thing I did was write some stories. The second thing I did was write a script that would scrape my sales from KDP three times a day and let me know what I'm on pace to hit for the month.

I wish I had a wall mounted display that showed this number in realtime. I'd get pretty loving motivated when my number started plummeting after a few random slump days.

Sulla Faex
May 14, 2010

No man ever did me so much good, or enemy so much harm, but I repaid him with ENDLESS SHITPOSTING
I have a question, why would a book sold at $USD 2.99 on the 'Amazon.com' marketplace only return a royalty of $USD 1.05? Why is the American store sometimes 35 and sometimes 70?

Grizzled Patriarch
Mar 27, 2014

These dentures won't stop me from tearing out jugulars in Thunderdome.



Sulla-Marius 88 posted:

I have a question, why would a book sold at $USD 2.99 on the 'Amazon.com' marketplace only return a royalty of $USD 1.05? Why is the American store sometimes 35 and sometimes 70?

That just means someone from a country outside of the 70% royalty zone bought it on the US site. Certain countries are always 35% unless you are enrolled in the KDP Select program.

edit: v- whoops, yeah, left out a word.

Grizzled Patriarch fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Nov 30, 2014

Fate Accomplice
Nov 30, 2006




Grizzled Patriarch posted:

That just means someone from a country outside of the 70% royalty zone bought it on the US site. Certain countries are always 35% unless you are enrolled in the KDP program.

you mean KDP select. "KDP program" is the entire self publishing platform.

EngineerSean
Feb 9, 2004

by zen death robot
Many countries are still 35% even if you're enrolled in KDP Select, basically every country that's not in North America, Western Europe, and Oceania.

Grizzled Patriarch
Mar 27, 2014

These dentures won't stop me from tearing out jugulars in Thunderdome.



Thought Brazil, India, Japan, and Mexico all went to 70% in KDP Select?

edit: Not that those are likely to be big markets for English self-pubbed books.

EngineerSean
Feb 9, 2004

by zen death robot
Yeah you've named three exceptions (Mexico is in North America) but they've in total made me less than a hundred dollars this year. Still get 35% from Estonia though.

Grizzled Patriarch
Mar 27, 2014

These dentures won't stop me from tearing out jugulars in Thunderdome.



Yeah, I was just wondering if any countries aside from the ones I listed went to 70% on KDP Select. I thought those were the only ones. I don't doubt at all that it's pointless to worry about them, especially for someone just starting out, just trying to explain why a sale might fall under 35% royalty despite being purchased through the English Amazon site.

Wasn't 35% the de facto royalty rate for everyone a good while back? Was it just increased competition that drove royalties up, or what? Seems like a large jump considering Amazon seems to have kind of a strangehold on the self-pub market still, but I don't know much about the history there. I just remember some writing friends freaking out about getting 70% cuts.

Moridin920
Nov 15, 2007

by FactsAreUseless
Is it worth selling short stories (5k-20k word range) in a non romance/erotica genre or not really? Mostly wondering if it is even worth the effort to do all the legwork behind self-publishing as I'm not going to get a full length novel together anytime soon; I just write for the fun of it now that I'm not in school anymore.

Moridin920 fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Nov 30, 2014

EngineerSean
Feb 9, 2004

by zen death robot

Grizzled Patriarch posted:

Wasn't 35% the de facto royalty rate for everyone a good while back? Was it just increased competition that drove royalties up, or what? Seems like a large jump considering Amazon seems to have kind of a strangehold on the self-pub market still, but I don't know much about the history there. I just remember some writing friends freaking out about getting 70% cuts.

Yes, 35% was the standard, and when Apple entered the market and offered 70%, Amazon felt like they had to get on their level.

Sulla Faex
May 14, 2010

No man ever did me so much good, or enemy so much harm, but I repaid him with ENDLESS SHITPOSTING
Ah, thank you. The 35/70 makes sense now. It's a shame that they don't tell you specifically the source country for the sale within the Amazon.com marketplace, it would be interesting to track to see if there are any patterns.

Bobby Deluxe
May 9, 2004

Moridin920 posted:

Is it worth selling short stories (5k-20k word range) in a non romance/erotica genre or not really? Mostly wondering if it is even worth the effort to do all the legwork behind self-publishing as I'm not going to get a full length novel together anytime soon; I just write for the fun of it now that I'm not in school anymore.
The universally cited truth is no, unless you're already famous for other stuff. If you have a lot of short stories in the same genre, you might be better off trying to edit / link them into one 50k narrative and market that instead.

Jalumibnkrayal
Apr 16, 2008

Ramrod XTreme

Bobby Deluxe posted:

The universally cited truth is no, unless you're already famous for other stuff. If you have a lot of short stories in the same genre, you might be better off trying to edit / link them into one 50k narrative and market that instead.

Let me play devil's advocate and say that if you've already written the content, self-publishing it is like another hour worth of work, if that. Why would you not put something out there and see if it catches fire? Kindle Unlimited is opening doors for new authors, because there's no longer any risk for the reader. If you get tons of 1 star reviews and death threats, you'll have to go through the grueling one minute procedure of coming up with a new pen name and writing it down in front of your keyboard.

Enrico Furby
Jun 28, 2003

by Hand Knit

Jalumibnkrayal posted:

Let me play devil's advocate and say that if you've already written the content, self-publishing it is like another hour worth of work, if that. Why would you not put something out there and see if it catches fire? Kindle Unlimited is opening doors for new authors, because there's no longer any risk for the reader. If you get tons of 1 star reviews and death threats, you'll have to go through the grueling one minute procedure of coming up with a new pen name and writing it down in front of your keyboard.

And let's be honest, if you're going the non-sexy route and you don't already have a bunch of content from writing for fun/school/your sweater-loving workshop, chances are no one is going to read whatever you first write for the occasion. Doesn't mean don't try, though. :)

ravenkult
Feb 3, 2011


If you have stories and they ain't poo poo, submit to paying magazines. You'll make a lot more that way for sure, plus you can selfpub them afterwards anyway.

EngineerSean
Feb 9, 2004

by zen death robot

All Else Failed posted:

And let's be honest, if you're going the non-sexy route and you don't already have a bunch of content from writing for fun/school/your sweater-loving workshop, chances are no one is going to read whatever you first write for the occasion. Doesn't mean don't try, though. :)

have you published yet?

Sulla Faex
May 14, 2010

No man ever did me so much good, or enemy so much harm, but I repaid him with ENDLESS SHITPOSTING
Is there a limit to how often you can update book details and re-publish, or does it affect ranking etc? I just updated my keywords and threw a few more in (still a far far cry from the 399 characters that most people put in but I'm still learning) and it should hopefully be done within 12 hours or so. But I'm wondering if there's any downside to doing that, seeing as it's still available while under review.

Jalumibnkrayal
Apr 16, 2008

Ramrod XTreme

Sulla-Marius 88 posted:

Is there a limit to how often you can update book details and re-publish, or does it affect ranking etc? I just updated my keywords and threw a few more in (still a far far cry from the 399 characters that most people put in but I'm still learning) and it should hopefully be done within 12 hours or so. But I'm wondering if there's any downside to doing that, seeing as it's still available while under review.

There's no limits on updating your book. It will not affect ranking if you're just updating and republishing (IE keeping the same ASN). Each time you republish it has to be approved. Depending on your genre, this could be a dice roll on getting an Amazon employee who thinks your chupacabra gangbang epic should be adult filtered.

It's also worth noting that you can update the blurb of your book through AuthorCentral. This has the advantage of happening pretty much instantly and not going through republish or review. This will overwrite changes you make through KDP later, however. So once you change a blurb via AC, you need to continue updating it through AC.

Enrico Furby
Jun 28, 2003

by Hand Knit

EngineerSean posted:

have you published yet?

No, I've stalled at about 1800 words over this holiday weekend between family, working on my music, and gaming too much. I do have a friend set up to do my covers now which is nice. I plan on finishing this week and getting it up. Slow going at first but I think it will get easier the more I do it.

The Fuzzy Hulk
Nov 22, 2007

ASK ME ABOUT CROSSING THE STREAMS


Jalumibnkrayal posted:

There's no limits on updating your book. It will not affect ranking if you're just updating and republishing (IE keeping the same ASN). Each time you republish it has to be approved. Depending on your genre, this could be a dice roll on getting an Amazon employee who thinks your chupacabra gangbang epic should be adult filtered.

It's also worth noting that you can update the blurb of your book through AuthorCentral. This has the advantage of happening pretty much instantly and not going through republish or review. This will overwrite changes you make through KDP later, however. So once you change a blurb via AC, you need to continue updating it through AC.

I am really interested in this, how exactly do you update a blurb on author central? I hate waiting days for a simple "If you like this book check out this new release" to show up.

Jalumibnkrayal
Apr 16, 2008

Ramrod XTreme

The Fuzzy Hulk posted:

I am really interested in this, how exactly do you update a blurb on author central? I hate waiting days for a simple "If you like this book check out this new release" to show up.

Just click on a book in your list of books. Then you should see a button to edit the product description. Take not that you cannot use all the HTML tags that you can in the KDP system. And it can add in extra line breaks sometimes. So just check your book's page after you make the change.

Edit: Looks like the first batch of Kindle Scout books have been selected.

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/selected

8 books, no Romance. I'm surprised by that.

Jalumibnkrayal fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Dec 2, 2014

Sundae
Dec 1, 2005

Jalumibnkrayal posted:

8 books, no Romance. I'm surprised by that.

10 books now, and romance just hit the list. Surprised at how few there are, too.

quote:

No, I've stalled at about 1800 words over this holiday weekend between family, working on my music, and gaming too much. I do have a friend set up to do my covers now which is nice. I plan on finishing this week and getting it up. Slow going at first but I think it will get easier the more I do it.

I've published three shorts in the time since you popped into the thread, and I literally throw up if I look at a computer screen for more than ~45-90 minutes in a sitting. Consider me the Mendoza Line of self-pub: if you're publishing slower than a guy with computer-induced vertigo, you're spending too much time in League of Legends.


edit: VVVV

quote:

They all look terrible, at first glance (I hope none of them belong to any of you).

Nope, thank goodness. Though I love that someone wrote Pitbulls vs Aliens.

Sundae fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Dec 3, 2014

ravenkult
Feb 3, 2011


They all look terrible, at first glance (I hope none of them belong to any of you).

EngineerSean
Feb 9, 2004

by zen death robot
I'd probably read L.A. Sniper, kind of a bizarre choice for them though. I know as a brand new publisher I wouldn't touch a project like that.

Enrico Furby
Jun 28, 2003

by Hand Knit

Sundae posted:

I've published three shorts in the time since you popped into the thread, and I literally throw up if I look at a computer screen for more than ~45-90 minutes in a sitting. Consider me the Mendoza Line of self-pub: if you're publishing slower than a guy with computer-induced vertigo, you're spending too much time in League of Legends.

To each his own, according to his ability. I'm at an impasse at 2000 words as to where to take it, because everything I've read has said to include more than one encounter and I can't figure out where the logical setting to up the ante is without it feeling arbitrary and it's causing me to avoid it. Which obviously isn't good, but I've at least spent a lot of time on my music project and put up my first new song in ~8 months so at least I'm being kind of productive. You might puke looking at your computer screen which is its own challenge. My challenge is being productive at all and starting new things, so at least there is progress.

You're right though, I should be doing more and playing less LoL. I haven't been addicted to a game this hard in a looooong time.

Enrico Furby fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Dec 3, 2014

moana
Jun 18, 2005

one of the more intellectual satire communities on the web
Oh god, I try so hard, so hard to make these hands write, but they won't stop playing this video game! To each according to his--gasp--ability!

Don't compare your laziness to Sundae's legitimate medical issues. You're a lazy bum and you're finally seeing how hard it is to actually write instead of writing posts about how great your writing is. gently caress off until you have something finished, you're not anywhere close to self-publishing if you can't even write a smut short.

Enrico Furby
Jun 28, 2003

by Hand Knit

moana posted:

Oh god, I try so hard, so hard to make these hands write, but they won't stop playing this video game! To each according to his--gasp--ability!

Don't compare your laziness to Sundae's legitimate medical issues. You're a lazy bum and you're finally seeing how hard it is to actually write instead of writing posts about how great your writing is. gently caress off until you have something finished, you're not anywhere close to self-publishing if you can't even write a smut short.

You're assumptive, judgmental, negative, full of yourself, and have continually been a grouchy shithead the entirety of posts I've read from you throughout the entirety of the threads on this subject. Go gently caress yourself. :)

EngineerSean
Feb 9, 2004

by zen death robot

All Else Failed posted:

You're assumptive, judgmental, negative, full of yourself, and have continually been a grouchy shithead the entirety of posts I've read from you throughout the entirety of the threads on this subject. Go gently caress yourself. :)

She's also rich as hell.

Enrico Furby
Jun 28, 2003

by Hand Knit

EngineerSean posted:

She's also rich as hell.

So is Donald Trump. :shrug:

ravenkult
Feb 3, 2011


Quit trying to take the man down, he's a precious author flower, he just needs room to grow. Right after poopsocking his way through LoL.

Enrico Furby
Jun 28, 2003

by Hand Knit

ravenkult posted:

Quit trying to take the man down, he's a precious author flower, he just needs room to grow. Right after poopsocking his way through LoL.

Listen, someone asked me a question and I responded. Someone else replied to me and I replied back. People need to chill. I've been nothing but friendly and honest about the kind of person I am and understanding of people reading way too much into my comments and plugging me into whatever archtype they see fit, as we all are wont to do. I've brushed off tons of straight-up mean things said to/about me since I first re-found this thread. I know it's fun to hate anonymous people on the internet, but I haven't done anything to deserve it. I thought this thread would be more like the old one which was super chill, but I can see I was wrong there. I'd prefer every post not become about what a piece of poo poo I am, but since people can't seem to refrain I'll go back to perma-lurking. Happy publishing, and good luck to everyone undertaking this endeavor. :)

moana
Jun 18, 2005

one of the more intellectual satire communities on the web
I'm drowning in a sea of bloviation

help



help

The Fuzzy Hulk
Nov 22, 2007

ASK ME ABOUT CROSSING THE STREAMS


Jalumibnkrayal posted:

Just click on a book in your list of books. Then you should see a button to edit the product description. Take not that you cannot use all the HTML tags that you can in the KDP system. And it can add in extra line breaks sometimes. So just check your book's page after you make the change.

Edit: Looks like the first batch of Kindle Scout books have been selected.

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/selected

8 books, no Romance. I'm surprised by that.

Awesome thank you!

PoshAlligator
Jan 9, 2012

When SEO just isn't enough.

moana posted:

Oh god, I try so hard, so hard to make these hands write, but they won't stop playing this video game! To each according to his--gasp--ability!

Don't compare your laziness to Sundae's legitimate medical issues. You're a lazy bum and you're finally seeing how hard it is to actually write instead of writing posts about how great your writing is. gently caress off until you have something finished, you're not anywhere close to self-publishing if you can't even write a smut short.

A smut short is, what? 10k?

If this is your first moana my friendly advice would be to commit to doing 1k a day to get a story done in 10 days, use one of those softwares with the little metre thingies so you can feel that sweet, sweet gamified progress. Then take a couple of days, edit it with fresh eyes, and you've got it done in like two weeks tops.

Then work on the next one, and once you're done with that one go back to the first one and give it a final go-over before hitting it out.

EngineerSean
Feb 9, 2004

by zen death robot

PoshAlligator posted:

If this is your first moana

I dunno if this is a typo but Moana is a New York Times bestselling author.

moana
Jun 18, 2005

one of the more intellectual satire communities on the web
See Sean, this is why I need letters for all my pen names.

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PoshAlligator
Jan 9, 2012

When SEO just isn't enough.

PoshAlligator posted:

A smut short is, what? 10k?

If this is your first All Else Failed my friendly advice would be to commit to doing 1k a day to get a story done in 10 days, use one of those softwares with the little metre thingies so you can feel that sweet, sweet gamified progress. Then take a couple of days, edit it with fresh eyes, and you've got it done in like two weeks tops.

Then work on the next one, and once you're done with that one go back to the first one and give it a final go-over before hitting it out.

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