|
angel opportunity posted:I made a long post but I guess I failed to press "submit reply" before I closed the window, so now it's gone... rewrite
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 16:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 06:22 |
|
|
angel opportunity posted:I made a long post but I guess I failed to press "submit reply" before I closed the window, so now it's gone... Are you using a browser that has 'undo / reopen closed tab?' Sometimes it caches text fields, but not always.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 16:55
|
|
|
quote:Hello, Bolding mine. I guess if it's one big pie, reducing payouts for EU/UK/Aus pages read should increase the payments for US pages read?
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 17:24
|
|
|
Jalumibnkrayal posted:Bolding mine. I guess if it's one big pie, reducing payouts for EU/UK/Aus pages read should increase the payments for US pages read? Oh good, more uncertainty!
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 17:28
|
|
|
I think they really are just talking about India there, and I'm delisting my work from India now. I wish I was in ravenkults shoes so I didnt have to worry about KDP deciding to drastically change their terms with two day notice. The reason they are charging so little in India for this is so they can get a foothold to sell billions more in products, but they're not willing to pay the author for that foothold. If you're in KDP Select you should expect to get stepped on like this more and more, especially if yku don't resist in any way.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 17:33
|
|
|
I think that if I buckled down on erotica and treated it as like a 20ish hour per week job (in addition to my full-time job) that I could likely reach a point where I double my income. As an erotica mid-lister, one 6k short made me like $200-$300 on initial release, and then within a bundle, another ~$300. If you release every single week you keep momentum going, and your back catalog keeps doing stuff. If you stop writing erotica--which I have--NOTHING sells at all, ever. In the current climate, getting $10k/month from erotica would be rather difficult and a huge loving grind. My ten-book bundle made around $2,000 in a month, and when it was around 500 ranking in the paid store, other shorts I released sold really really well. Imagine if you have no job and just crank out a 6-7k-word erotica short every single day and take weekends off. That's 20 shorts per month, and you could do two ten-book bundles per month. This would MAYBE get you close to $10k/month for writing 120k words and doing 20 covers (on your own) in a month. Maybe if you're better at this than me you'd make more, or maybe if you stuck with it long enough you would turn into one of the best-selling erotica authors on Amazon, and then maybe your stuff would all be worth more. Seeing how many people who were kings/queens of erotica gave up on it, I doubt this is the case though. It seems like romance is better, even if you are just starting out and have no experience. It's more brutal for a romance novel to totally bomb, and I suspect many aspiring self-pubbers try once, think they wasted their time, and give up. Brotherly could have given up after three or four novels and think he gave it a fair shot, but like he said, he started getting big money only after five novels. Erotica seems like a good compromise where--once you get the hang of it--you can finish plotless sex stories in a few hours with one proof-reading pass and not bothering with ARCs and poo poo. That was the case, and in the current KU climate, it still is the case, but the real question is what the next major KU change will do to erotica, and whether you want to bother spending a lot of time ramping up an erotica pen name when you could be doing a safer romance pen name instead. I did all the legwork of my erotica pen name in the last month of KU 1.0, so it may even be harder to ramp up now, I don't really know. I've switched to romance, but I'm kind of paralyzed with indecision about marketing and ARCs etc. My first shifter novella is done, but I can't tell if it's good or not. I'm going to buy Sundae's ARC service, and I have like 20ish people from my erotica mailing list who want an ARC as well. I'm really worried it's going to get like a 2-3 star average rating because it really just might not be very good. I really can't tell! I'm hoping to send the ARCs out this weekend, and once those are sent out, I'll just start writing another...then I'll publish the first one after I think I can get enough ARC people to post their reviews right as I release.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 17:45
|
|
|
I write in the forbidden genre, having started a new pen name in June, and I'm currently making anywhere from 4-6k per month (after a couple months at sub-1k). It's a LOT of work, though - writing 3-5 stories per week, bundling everything up, doing lots of research on anyone doing better than me in a similar genre, etc. I wouldn't say it's impossible to make a lot of money at it, but its certainly more of an uphill climb than it was a couple years ago. Bundles help. Also, its extremely variable - having a triple-digit sales day followed by a day where I struggle to crack ~25 sales isn't uncommon. As a full-time profession, I wouldn't recommend it. As a way to make money on the side to get yourself out of the awful credit card debt/student loans you've had for close to a decade, buy nice things for your wife and help pay for a vacation, it's a pretty fun way to make dough. side note: I also pulled completely out of KU after the per-page change. Nothing I write is on KU anymore. In some sub-genres I'm literally the only thing in the Top 20 that ISN'T KU and it makes me chuckle.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 18:26
|
|
|
angel opportunity posted:I've switched to romance, but I'm kind of paralyzed with indecision about marketing and ARCs etc. My first shifter novella is done, but I can't tell if it's good or not. I'm going to buy Sundae's ARC service, and I have like 20ish people from my erotica mailing list who want an ARC as well. I'm really worried it's going to get like a 2-3 star average rating because it really just might not be very good. I really can't tell! I'm hoping to send the ARCs out this weekend, and once those are sent out, I'll just start writing another...then I'll publish the first one after I think I can get enough ARC people to post their reviews right as I release. Come back to IRC! Complain with the rest of us! Also, if you want another set of eyes on it, feel free to PM me.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 19:09
|
|
|
Just wanted to point out that there's nothing like a typo or a misplaced modifier to ruin the mood of a super-romance story and that my editing services include that genre. Drop me a line at booksidemanner at gmail dot com for more information.
Hijinks Ensue fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Oct 30, 2015 |
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 19:14
|
|
|
brotherly posted:Come back to IRC! Complain with the rest of us! Also, if you want another set of eyes on it, feel free to PM me. Okay, I might do some of these. I'm actually worried at this point that even if it's bad I need to just release it and write another to get my momentum going.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 19:16
|
|
|
Sundae posted:I'm trying to double it up and do both novels and services, which is why I have that ARC service I run now (by the way, if anyone's sitting on the fence on that service, we're worth it). What's the name/URL of the service?
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 20:39
|
|
|
http://www.hotnewbooks.com We're romance only right now, and minimum 20K+ word counts (novella-length). Free until our new web overhaul goes through next month. We're also having a huge promo drive next month which will probably seriously increase our (already decent) efficacy.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 21:11
|
|
|
Sundae posted:http://www.hotnewbooks.com What about 50 shorts turned into a 211,000 word bundle?
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 21:17
|
|
|
I'll be interested a lot if you expand into other genres.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 21:21
|
|
|
ravenkult posted:I'll be interested a lot if you expand into other genres. Same here!
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 21:35
|
|
|
General E posted:Same here! It's planned. Just, not yet. Check back in 2017.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2015 00:15
|
|
|
So did anybody else get an e-mail from KDP telling them there was a "technical error that caused your October US royalty payment to be delayed"? Apparently I'm getting it on November 2nd. Wondering if its just something that's hit me or if its a larger KDP error.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2015 00:16
|
|
|
Popular Human posted:So did anybody else get an e-mail from KDP telling them there was a "technical error that caused your October US royalty payment to be delayed"? Apparently I'm getting it on November 2nd. Wondering if its just something that's hit me or if its a larger KDP error. Yeah I got it. Lots of people on another forum I go to for writers got it too.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2015 00:51
|
|
|
Popular Human posted:I write in the forbidden genre, having started a new pen name in June, and I'm currently making anywhere from 4-6k per month (after a couple months at sub-1k). It's a LOT of work, though - writing 3-5 stories per week, bundling everything up, doing lots of research on anyone doing better than me in a similar genre, etc. I wouldn't say it's impossible to make a lot of money at it, but its certainly more of an uphill climb than it was a couple years ago. Bundles help. Also, its extremely variable - having a triple-digit sales day followed by a day where I struggle to crack ~25 sales isn't uncommon. It's awesome to read about success outside the swirling drain that is KU.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2015 22:07
|
|
|
Questions: 1. Where else can I promote my cover giveaway (and my cover services in general, in the future)? I've done most social media (including some groups and communities on G+), Kboards and the relevant subreddit. What am I missing? 2. Blurb question: How significant is length? Does a too-long blurb hurt you?
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2015 05:16
|
|
|
ravenkult posted:Questions: 1. There are quite a few private boards around - PM me and I can point you to the one I use, at least. 2. Too long is bad, for sure. The perfect blurb is relatively short and punchy, sets up the conflict and drama within the story, and I usually like mine to ask some sort of question or leave something explicitly unsaid, to draw the reader in. If you post what you've got here, I'm sure people would be happy to help you out with it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2015 13:04
|
|
|
Blurb Length: On Amazon's book pages you currently have, like, two lines visible before the prospective reader has to click to read more. Those two lines are what you have to capture interest with and encourage them to read more.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2015 15:20
|
|
|
Bardeh posted:1. There are quite a few private boards around - PM me and I can point you to the one I use, at least. We' talking genre fiction? I mostly do covers for that kind of thing. psychopomp posted:Blurb Length: Oh yeah, for sure. I still wonder about the rest though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2015 15:24
|
|
|
Just submitted my PNR ARC to Sundae's service. I'm hyped to be publishing romance now!
|
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2015 03:39
|
|
|
I can't wait to finish off my reworked novel/serial and actually get to dive into the nitty gritty of all this publishing, with your KUs and ARCs and whatever the hell else all that stuff is. Not being sarcastic at all. Writing is hard in a very specific way and I could do with a different sort of difficulty.
|
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2015 09:58
|
|
|
For most autistic people, publishing will be the more rewarding job. beep boop
|
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2015 16:45
|
|
|
If handling the publishing is the most rewarding part of the job, find some True Artist type to
|
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2015 19:00
|
|
|
I kind of want to teach my wife to handle to marketing part, but I don't want to be deficient in that skillset...
|
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2015 19:29
|
|
|
psychopomp posted:If handling the publishing is the most rewarding part of the job, find some True Artist type to I have a friend who I've convinced to get into this gig that I do something like this for, although the terms are much sweeter on her end (since its more of a friendship thing than a business arrangement). It's got me thinking that if I could just get a dozen or so writers under me producing content, and me handling the covers/blurbs/marketing, I could be making the same money on ~five hours work a week. Something to think about once I'm (eventually) out of debt maybe. On a happier note, my wife just booked our first vacation together in two years, and its 100% funded by self-pubbing. That feels pretty loving awesome, I've got to say.
|
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2015 20:23
|
|
|
Don't know about the rest of you, but I just smile when I get a sale here or there in some far-flung market. Just had a sale in Amazon Germany and my first-ever sale in the Netherlands.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2015 02:10
|
|
|
Hijinks Ensue posted:Don't know about the rest of you, but I just smile when I get a sale here or there in some far-flung market. Just had a sale in Amazon Germany and my first-ever sale in the Netherlands. Not gonna lie, I got top 50 in genre in Australia and I'm now referring to myself as a bestselling sci-fi author (it sold like 3 copies)
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2015 12:23
|
|
|
Hijinks Ensue posted:Don't know about the rest of you, but I just smile when I get a sale here or there in some far-flung market. Just had a sale in Amazon Germany and my first-ever sale in the Netherlands. That was one of the few good things about Kobo. It was fun to look at their world map and see sales off in the middle of nowhere.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2015 14:39
|
|
|
Sundae posted:That was one of the few good things about Kobo. It was fun to look at their world map and see sales off in the middle of nowhere. But if you ever need to pull your books off of the sub-distributors that Kobo pushes your book to, it can be like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OwpGUI-TAI
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2015 15:26
|
|
|
Yeah, I love Draft2Digital, but I miss looking at the Smashwords data and saying, "Ireland! I sold a book in Ireland!" or figuring out which province in Canada liked me best.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2015 15:37
|
|
|
Update on the ranking of Mag7's book which he chose to leave in the hands of an inept book manager instead of fighting for the rights and running actual promos:
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2015 22:29
|
|
|
spooky
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2015 00:04
|
|
|
its probably a post-halloween slump in the horror genre
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2015 00:05
|
|
|
Starting to use Scrivener
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2015 03:29
|
|
|
...
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2015 03:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 06:22 |
|
|
same I actually don't use character profiles. Do you find them useful as you're writing a story, or is this just a way to gather your thoughts before you start?
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2015 03:35
|
|
