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I dunno, I've started charging two thousand dollars a day as a consultant and it really has cut down on the number of bullshit "will you help me?" requests I get. Then my wife goes and spends three full days working on a poetry book that she's not getting paid a dime for and 
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Oct 22, 2015 22:26
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I'm just sad that no one here that helped rethink that cover for him is gonna get a royalty.
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Oct 22, 2015 22:40
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magnificent7 posted:Thanks for this, and I get it. But was your first book published in less than an hour, including coffee? I'm sure I'll get there. Do you also have set-up fees from Booktrope to cover before you start receiving royalties?
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Oct 22, 2015 23:17
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RedTonic posted:Do you also have set-up fees from Booktrope to cover before you start receiving royalties? He said no and I believe it but that doesn't provide much comfort.
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Oct 22, 2015 23:24
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EngineerSean posted:He said no and I believe it but that doesn't provide much comfort. I know Booktrope doesn't demand separate payments from the author, but my understanding is that they have a whole list of individual charges that have to be covered by a book's earnings before the author starts seeing royalty payments. That information was not available on their public-facing website last I checked, it seems to be provided strictly via e-mail.
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Oct 23, 2015 14:16
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EngineerSean posted:my wife goes and spends three full days working on a poetry book that she's not getting paid a dime for and She's not getting PAID FOR POETRY? Everyone knows there's a ton of money in poetry.
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Oct 23, 2015 14:28
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brotherly posted:She's not getting PAID FOR POETRY? Ugh, heptamater, and the iambs break down at the end. edit: wikipedia says the last three are an antibacchius. DirtyRobot fucked around with this message at 14:51 on Oct 23, 2015 |
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Oct 23, 2015 14:48
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DirtyRobot posted:Ugh, heptamater, and the iambs break down at the end. Get the hell out of here you dirty formalist. FREE VERSE 4LYFE.
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Oct 23, 2015 15:34
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brotherly posted:Everyone knows there's a ton of money in poetry.
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Oct 23, 2015 16:27
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Bobby Deluxe posted:Yeah, about £10 from my gran every christmas. See? I am learning from you guys.
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Oct 23, 2015 17:04
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magnificent7 posted:Have you thought about taking the poetry back, regrouping, and then sending it to her with a new title? So, uh, when you gonna end your relationship with Booktrope? Is there a contract holding you with them?
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Oct 23, 2015 19:44
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I'm not ending it.
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Oct 23, 2015 20:15
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You're a dumbbutt and I'm never helping you with a blurb again.
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Oct 23, 2015 20:17
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When you finish your next book, send me the cover image in .jpg format and give me all your promotional materials as well as your book and the rights to publish it. I'll give you $12 USD for all of it, which is more than you'll make with Booktrope. angel opportunity fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Oct 23, 2015 |
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Oct 23, 2015 20:23
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magnificent7 posted:I'm not ending it.  I really rarely post in this thread, but I read every post, and holy poo poo dude.
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Oct 23, 2015 20:28
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This makes me miss the old times when all we talked about were rape monsters and billionaire werewolves.
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Oct 23, 2015 20:39
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It's like when I'm trying to get through to my little brother.
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Oct 23, 2015 21:39
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It's okay. I get it. Just let it go. Go back to talking about KDP numbers loving with your price-per-page stuff. I'll lurk more, post less. magnificent7 fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Oct 23, 2015 |
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Oct 23, 2015 21:50
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The Fuzzy Hulk posted:This makes me miss the old times when all we talked about were rape monsters and billionaire werewolves. This isn't an empty quote, I swear :bigtran:
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Oct 23, 2015 22:05
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So, I know that some/most e-readers support images. Some better than others, obviously. Have any of you ever experimented with in-text images? Things like a small illustration at the start of a chapter? I've embedded images into ebooks before for personal projects, but nothing I've self-pubbed. I'm not looking for any specific advice or anything about it, mostly just "Have you tried it?" and "Did Amazon find a way to gently caress it up?"
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Oct 23, 2015 22:15
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magnificent7 posted:Go back to talking about KDP numbers loving with your price-per-page stuff. Yeah I guess you put this in perspective, I mean I could be getting paid nothing at all.
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Oct 23, 2015 22:47
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moana posted:You're a dumbbutt and I'm never helping you with a blurb again. This comment made my wife almost fall out of her chair laughing, thanks Moana.
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Oct 23, 2015 22:49
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magnificent7 posted:It's okay. I get it. Just let it go. Go back to talking about KDP numbers loving with your price-per-page stuff. you are a bad man
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Oct 23, 2015 22:55
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Let me tell you why I think you're a big whiny baby.
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Oct 23, 2015 23:08
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magnificent7 posted:Go back to talking about KDP numbers loving with your price-per-page stuff.
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Oct 23, 2015 23:33
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EngineerSean posted:Yeah I guess you put this in perspective, I mean I could be getting paid nothing at all. Feels like I'm gettin' paid nothing at all... nothing at all...  By the way, this whole ordeal has convinced me to take this thread's advice - I'm finally meeting with a tax guy in a week and a half to set up all my withholding and give me advice on the tax side of my self-pubbing. I've been making mid-four-figures a month for the last few months (hooray! twice as much as I make from my "real" job) and trying to figure out how much of that needs to go to Uncle Sam on my own is giving me anxiety.
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Oct 24, 2015 15:27
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stupid sexy amazon
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Oct 24, 2015 16:38
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magnificent7 posted:It's okay. I get it. Just let it go. Go back to talking about KDP numbers loving with your price-per-page stuff. Ball status: Taken and gone home. EngineerSean posted:I pretty much think this whole episode deserves to go in the OP. magnificent7 did 99% of the work (assuming that he didn't get editing or cover help from Booktrope) and gave up 70% of his royalties for someone to, not only do nothing, but do nothing in a way that is actively harming his sales. He has continued to defend them ("They have promotion strategies, and they have fantastic support") which I have to chalk up to the first stage of grief over the loss of his book. Completely agreed. I'll put it in I'm back in town tomorrow.
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Oct 24, 2015 17:35
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Sundae posted:Ball status: Taken and gone home.
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Oct 24, 2015 18:57
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magnificent7 posted:In all sincerity, it's good that my experience will help others. I'll continue to post updates as things get better or worse. It's not going to get better if you leave it in their hands.  This ranking is in "no income" territory. I have one book at a very similar rank to yours:  Mine came out on June 7th though, yours just came out. My book is dead. It came out months ago, and everyone who wanted to read it already read it. I've already promoed it and made money off of it, and it no longer does much of anything for me at this point. It makes me maybe $2/week at this point. Rank 700k is seriously like $2/week, and you're only getting a percentage of that. When my book first came out it made me more than $500, and it's 6,000 words that took me ~3 hours to write while in the airport. I'm not saying my book is better than yours--in fact it's nearly impossible my book is better than yours--but I marketed it properly and got to keep the whole cut of the profit rather than giving part of it to a "book manager." Your book, on release, is where my lovely erotica book I spent almost no time on is six months after release (and keep in mind erotica sinks faster than real fiction). You don't go from nearly 700k ranking to anything good, especially after the 30-day window. If you did a free promo or some kind of non Booktrope marketing strategy ASAP, you might make like $50 or less at this point, which would be better than what you've made now, which I'm estimating is less than $10. Here is your "also viewed" list. Notice that you don't have an "also bought" list, because no one has bought your book:  There are only two things on there, so no one is even VIEWING your book, let alone buying it. The two books on there lead me to believe that the people who have viewed your book are from the self-pub thread and from another SA thread you may have posted the book in. None of those views are from something your book manager did. It's all you.
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Oct 24, 2015 19:12
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Let's not confuse things. Thriller novels aren't erotica.
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Oct 24, 2015 19:15
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No, but the overall store ranking shows how much money a book makes more or less. He seems to think he may be making money somehow, or that he will in the future. With that ranking, it's simply not the case.
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Oct 24, 2015 20:03
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Oh, for sure.
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Oct 24, 2015 21:31
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ravenkult posted:Let's not confuse things. Thriller novels aren't erotica.
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Oct 25, 2015 03:30
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edit: double postin'
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Oct 25, 2015 04:39
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moana posted:I know an erotica author who wrote a thriller novel and hit the top 100 on Amazon, using all the same marketing techniques. It wasn't an unsellable book by any means if he had come here and asked what to do instead of paying someone 30% to take a dump on his book. What marketing techniques might these be? (besides good cover, blurb, and keywords?)
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Oct 25, 2015 04:55
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Tons of ARCs, review harvesting first week of launch, targeted ads and paid lists like bookbub, crosspromo with other authors doing FB posts or mailing list sendouts on review week to get your book in front of readers' eyes. Find where your audience hangs out and go to them.
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Oct 25, 2015 05:04
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Marketing erotica is a great way to practice marketing for real books. I'm halfway through my first draft of a full novel and am just supporting myself selling bundles of the smut I've been writing over the last year. While the specific promo sites will obviously be different, you do get experience and a little cash along the way. It's been a real learning experience, and while I agree with magnificent7's desire to just hand it off to someone else, it really doesn't take that long. About an hour a week, if that. The only person I pay is BKNights, and that's only a 1 off charge - i've tried not promoting with them and it made a massive difference. The only people you should be paying or who should be taking a cut are those who will take the link and put it in front of people who are interested in that genre. Don't pay for 'advice' because you'll get better advice here for free.
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Oct 25, 2015 12:35
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Bobby Deluxe posted:Don't pay for 'advice' because you'll get better advice here for free. It's pretty shocking how helpful this thread is. I mean, rags-to-riches helpful if you can hammer away at it for a while.
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Oct 25, 2015 18:35
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Jalumibnkrayal posted:It's pretty shocking how helpful this thread is. I mean, rags-to-riches helpful if you can hammer away at it for a while. I'm really glad to have played even a small part in that 
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