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EngineerSean posted:I dunno if this is a typo but Moana is a New York Times bestselling author. Oh I know, quotin' got me all confused.
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Dec 3, 2014 22:41
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moana posted:See Sean, this is why I need letters for all my pen names. I believe your letter dick is already bigger than mine.
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Dec 3, 2014 22:43
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All Else Failed posted:I've been nothing but friendly and honest about the kind of person I am. IF YOU SIT DOWN AND WRITE, THAT IS THE REWARD YOUR BRAIN WILL GET USED TO. If you can't get yourself to the point where you see writing as a good thing that you enjoy doing, your time will be so better served doing something else. You need to be having fun writing, otherwise it won't be fun to read. And the only way to do that is to put the controller down. I managed it after a bit of kick-up-the-arse feedback. I've only published three, have two in the edit stage and one crafting, and I have horrible motivation. If we can do it, so can you. Or don't. It's your choice.
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Dec 3, 2014 23:09
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Seriously I am a lazy piece of poo poo and I'm also in my final year of a PhD program and I've still managed to publish three novels this year. Just sit down and do it. (Hi self-publishing thread.)
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Dec 3, 2014 23:37
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This thread is an utter mess and I'm not quite sure which ethnic, religious, or social minority to blame. I don't think it is entirely All Else Failed's fault because at some point you just gotta learn not to respond to the weird homeless guy that yells at you next to the train station. There has gotta be some personal culpability there
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Dec 3, 2014 23:44
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I wish he'd go to the Writing thread tbh. They'll eat him alive.
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Dec 3, 2014 23:48
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The ultimate feedback is always play less video games. And it's always right.
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Dec 3, 2014 23:52
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:This thread is an utter mess and I'm not quite sure which ethnic, religious, or social minority to blame. I don't think it is entirely All Else Failed's fault because at some point you just gotta learn not to respond to the weird homeless guy that yells at you next to the train station. There has gotta be some personal culpability there why don't you just blame whitey
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Dec 4, 2014 00:42
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I take full blame for everything, including all of the wasted words. RIP words, you could have been so much more..
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Dec 4, 2014 00:48
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EngineerSean posted:why don't you just blame whitey I'd only consider it if it would be 100% ironic and I kind of feel like irl this guy outshines the moon Sulla Faex fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Dec 4, 2014 |
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Dec 4, 2014 00:48
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It's my fault. I should've just shut my face and not replied in the first place. It's like the guy with the dog avatar in the old thread all over again.  On a different note, I'm feeling pretty great tonight and got 3,300 words out after dinner. Hell yes. Taking a quick break, then maybe I can finish off another chapter tonight before my brain goes to poo poo.
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Dec 4, 2014 00:49
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I'm in Portugal this week meeting my girlfriend who is doing some conference so if I don't write 4000 words tomorrow stuck in this room on my own then I'm gonna spew and jump off a bridge
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Dec 4, 2014 00:53
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When you guys do your research, do you only consider books on the bestsellers lists, or do you include free books as well? I feel like free books might be a waste of time, at least strictly from a research perspective, but what do you guys think?
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Dec 4, 2014 00:56
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Shark Tower posted:When you guys do your research, do you only consider books on the bestsellers lists, or do you include free books as well? I feel like free books might be a waste of time, at least strictly from a research perspective, but what do you guys think? Please keep in mind I'm not a successful self-published author but when I'm looking just for research sake I don't look at free books, unless they're by an author I find through the bestsellers, but even then not so much.
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Dec 4, 2014 09:41
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Thirty new posts - came to see if All Else Failed had finally done a thing. Thank you, All Else Failed. I have finished four novels this year and your lazy rear end whining has inspired me to get off my rear end and spend December writing short fiction for quick $$$. You're the best horrible warning that CC has had since Benny the Snake started posting here. (Edit) Don't know if anyone has linked this already, but I came across this interesting post crunching the numbers on short fiction. If you're looking to make a living it's probably worth a read. http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/the-new-world-of-publishing-making-a-living-with-your-short-fiction/ Anais Nun fucked around with this message at 12:23 on Dec 4, 2014 |
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Dec 4, 2014 12:15
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Anais Nun posted:Don't know if anyone has linked this already, but I came across this interesting post crunching the numbers on short fiction. If you're looking to make a living it's probably worth a read. 5 sales per book per month is what DWS bases everything on, and it's why he and his company are nearly bankrupt. DWS did invent the WIBBOW test so he gets some props in my book.
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Dec 4, 2014 12:45
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EngineerSean posted:5 sales per book per month is what DWS bases everything on, and it's why he and his company are nearly bankrupt. Oops. Didn't realise he was such a bad example!
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Dec 4, 2014 15:32
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Anais Nun posted:Oops. Didn't realise he was such a bad example! He and his wife have 200 books out under WMG but they're ranked 400k before you even leave the first page of ten. 200 books x 5 sales per month x $2 = $2000 a month between the two of them.
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Dec 4, 2014 16:54
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Here's a podcast interview with DWS from a month ago. I think he addresses that, but I don't remember for sure. http://rockingselfpublishing.com/episode-70-writing-public-dean-wesley-smith/
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Dec 4, 2014 17:06
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EngineerSean posted:He and his wife have 200 books out under WMG but they're ranked 400k before you even leave the first page of ten. 200 books x 5 sales per month x $2 = $2000 a month between the two of them.   I think he needs to answer his own WIBBOW test. It might be the first I've seen where the answer has swung over into the "Nope" category. That cover is for a book listed in the Culinary, Crime Thriller, and Mystery categories.
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Dec 4, 2014 17:58
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I don't think my lowest selling is even at 5 a month and I'm just a chump with 7 stories out.
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Dec 4, 2014 18:15
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Bobby Deluxe posted:IF YOU SIT DOWN AND WRITE, THAT IS THE REWARD YOUR BRAIN WILL GET USED TO. I'm 100% certain this is true, but it's so hard for some of us to get there. I'll spit out thousands of words over a day or two, then write almost nothing for a week. Then "inspiration" will strike again. Repeat ad nauseum. My problem seems to be that my day job is writing blog posts and white papers about law practice, and then I'm also trying to write a book about the same stuff. I think I have about 1,000–1,500 words a day in me, on average (although like I said, this comes in fits and starts), and I don't know how to double that so I can actually get this book written. My current strategy is to wake up at 5:30am, go downstairs, and open my laptop to write until I need to wake the kids up. This works sometimes, but I'm so groggy at 6am that my mind is easily distracted. Then I'm back where I started, trying to find time to fit the book in during the day, which is full of distractions. Maybe I'm just making excuses. If I keep trying to build a writing habit, I know I'll get there eventually. It's the gap between here and there that's frustrating.
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Dec 4, 2014 18:28
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Some folks ran sales rank tests on Amazon.de http://www.selfpublisherbibel.de/test-how-amazons-algorithms-really-work-myth-and-reality/ They conclude that (for purposes of calculating rank), a sale loses half its potency each day. Kinda neat.
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Dec 4, 2014 20:57
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I can see how that would be a valid excuse, being so entirely burnt out from writing all day that you can't face it in your free time. Maybe try to set up writing time as a habit? Current research suggests that if you do something at the same time every day for 18 days in a row, it becomes habitual and a lot easier to get into.
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Dec 4, 2014 21:03
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Jalumibnkrayal posted:Some folks ran sales rank tests on Amazon.de This is like my holy grail of blog posts. Thanks!
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Dec 4, 2014 21:36
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So I'm having trouble with blurbs. Anyone have any good guides bookmarked? I'm not posting them for feedback because they're not thread appropriate, but any good guides to how to construct a good blurb would be appreciated. The few I managed to google were vague at best.
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Dec 5, 2014 13:28
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By The Horns posted:This is like my holy grail of blog posts. Thanks! NP. What I would have liked to see is whether or not free KDP promos "pause" your sales decay. So if I sell a book on Sunday, then run a free promo Mon-Fri, on Saturday is my sale from 6 days ago now worth ~0.0125 or 0.50 of a "rank point". It's really hard to test this now because with Kindle Unlimited, I get lots of people that borrow my free book instead of buying it for $0. God bless the person at Amazon who decided the "Read this for Free (with Kindle Unlimited)" button was positioned above the "Buy Now with 1 Click" button. Bobby Deluxe posted:So I'm having trouble with blurbs. Anyone have any good guides bookmarked? Feel free to PM me if you want me to take a look at it. I'm only mildly successful at this because folks in this thread helped me out with stuff like covers and blurbs.
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Dec 5, 2014 15:14
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Jalumibnkrayal posted:What I would have liked to see is whether or not free KDP promos "pause" your sales decay. They definitely do not, you'll lose a lot of paid rank during a free run.
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Dec 5, 2014 18:05
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EngineerSean posted:They definitely do not, you'll lose a lot of paid rank during a free run. So doing the free run in the first five days of initial publishing along with a marketing blitz of "hey free book get it now gogogo" wouldn't be a problem then?
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Dec 5, 2014 18:41
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Szmitten posted:So doing the free run in the first five days of initial publishing along with a marketing blitz of "hey free book get it now gogogo" wouldn't be a problem then? Would not be a problem and also could do wonders for the visibility of the book.
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Dec 5, 2014 19:16
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EngineerSean posted:Would not be a problem and also could do wonders for the visibility of the book. Ah good, that's one of the things from this thread I've committed to memory and I thought it was in peril.
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Dec 5, 2014 19:23
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I seem to recall that putting a book on pre-order causes a lot of harm, unless you're big enough to be getting steady sales every day. Am I remembering that correctly?
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Dec 5, 2014 20:11
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Ghostwoods posted:I seem to recall that putting a book on pre-order causes a lot of harm, unless you're big enough to be getting steady sales every day. Am I remembering that correctly? The jury's still out on this, but I still wouldn't use it.
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Dec 5, 2014 21:23
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I want to share this blog post from Russell Blake (my personal crush) with you, as I think it might help you get in the mindset. The other day I said that when I write erotica it's because my muse dictates it, but that if I were on the outside looking in that I would tell myself to just quit it. This post helped drive that home to me. http://russellblake.com/amazing/ quote:What do all of these authors have in common, though? All these indies who are making serious, and in some cases, insane, bank? First, they publish regularly. As in once every few months, and in some cases, once every month. Second, they work in genres that will support them. While most of the top earners are in romance or one of its offshoots, others are in science fiction, which voraciously consumes indie work; some are in my genre (action thrillers), some in mystery, some in fantasy. Third, they all work long hours and take this extremely seriously. Fourth, they operate their publishing businesses like businesses, not like hobbies. They have production schedules they stick to. They market and promote. They invest in professional help when necessary and grasp that you have to spend money to make it. Fifth, they write books readers enjoy reading, as opposed to books their muse dictates they write. That’s an important distinction, because what we as authors often want to write might not be all that marketable. So we compromise based on our understanding of the market. And sixth, they’re constantly adjusting their sails to best negotiate treacherous water and ever-shifting winds. They’re pragmatic. And most have great senses of humor, as well as a keen appreciation of irony. That goes with the gig, I suppose. As does pragmatism.
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Dec 5, 2014 21:53
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The whole thing was worth reading, thanks. I'm suffering from not having KU for research purposes. What's the requirement to sign up? I'll be in the UK in January, what's required to create an account and sign up for KU? Do you need a UK card for recurring payments, or are there any secrets or tricks to getting a UK KU account otherwise? Sulla Faex fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Dec 5, 2014 |
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Dec 5, 2014 22:26
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Nothing special, I think the cost is 7.99 pounds per month in the UK with the first month being free. As long as you have a card on file with Amazon you should be able to pay for it.
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Dec 5, 2014 22:28
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EngineerSean posted:Nothing special, I think the cost is 7.99 pounds per month in the UK with the first month being free. As long as you have a card on file with Amazon you should be able to pay for it. Does it need to be a UK card though? Because I'll only be in the UK for a week. We have friends who live there in case they need a legitimate mailing address etc, and a UK IP address is easy to sort out, but I'm not sure if they check for a UK-only card.
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Dec 5, 2014 22:30
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I do not know.
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Dec 5, 2014 22:33
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Why do you need UK KU, isn't it a global thing?
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Dec 5, 2014 22:35
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KU is only available for US and UK customers at the moment from what I can tell. I have friends in the UK and the US but I figure it'd be easier to get set up in the UK because I live in Italy and have a bank account that, while Italian, is a sub-branch of a UK bank (BNL which is a part of BNP). I don't know the logic is kind of shoddy there, I'm just desperate. I saw veiled references to getting access to KU for non-US/UK but Google turned up nothing.
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Dec 5, 2014 22:39
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