|
Okay that's fair. If you just want people to read the books and aren't super concerned about money, write slower. The $0.99 will help you achieve your goal though of getting a wider audience. Another thing I didn't mention is that a borrow on KU boosts rank just as much as a sale, however, you cannot see borrow data. You only see the number of pages read in KU, so you can only somewhat infer rough numbers of borrows. How many people borrow it and never read? You'll never know. You can sometimes guess though by watching your rank change. If you have 2 sales per day and hang at 50k rank, and then you do a new banner ad and suddenly you're at 20k rank but still 2 sales per day: probably you got borrows from the banner. In practice it's very difficult to track that though. You may want to look around for newsletter stuff like freebooksy and bargainbooksy. They have non-romance sections, and a freebooksy would get you a lot of readers on a free run. Bookbub probably is not going to take you. It's easy to apply and there's no harm in trying for it, but they are SUPER selective.
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2016 19:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 14:13 |
|
|
They're super selective in romance but it's basically a sliding scale with the price for you genre in every other genre.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2016 19:23
|
|
|
EngineerSean posted:They're super selective in romance but it's basically a sliding scale with the price for you genre in every other genre. And several hundred. A free giveaway is $200. My budget tends to hover around $100 max monthly.  That being said, I've already made $50 in four or five days!  But that's mostly from acquaintances and LP dooders buying my stuff, I assume that'll settle down to near zero in the next few days. My Amazon giveaway of 10 books also took literally 3 minutes to run out. I assume that's typical.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2016 19:37
|
|
|
Chokes McGee posted:And several hundred. A free giveaway is $200. My budget tends to hover around $100 max monthly. I can't guarantee anything, but on a free giveaway like that where you pay a few hundred, thousands usually download your book. A chunk of them will accidentally borrow on KU instead of dloading for free, and you'll get KENPC revenue from it. In romance I've always profited from doing this, so I think worst case you'd "lose" a fraction of what you spend. You will also usually see a sales surge and KENPC surge well after the free period ends.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2016 19:39
|
|
|
angel opportunity posted:I can't guarantee anything, but on a free giveaway like that where you pay a few hundred, thousands usually download your book. A chunk of them will accidentally borrow on KU instead of dloading for free, and you'll get KENPC revenue from it. In romance I've always profited from doing this, so I think worst case you'd "lose" a fraction of what you spend. You will also usually see a sales surge and KENPC surge well after the free period ends. Sounds like it's time to break out the Discover card if they approve it. (they won't  )
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2016 19:41
|
|
|
Alright. I've set up Facebook, Twitter, Mailchimp, and an ARC giveaway service. I've got a profile on Bookbub and GoodReads. Now... what the hell do I do next? I'm trolling for online reviews right now to drive traffic, but GoodReads doesn't have an eBook giveaway yet (and it sounds like it kind of sucks to start with), so I'm completely at a loss as to where I'm going next. Is there some sort of magic button I push to get people to look at my book?  e: stuff like this should be in the OP imo moana posted:Are you doing Select? If so, free at launch, hit up a ton of freebie promotion sites. Chokes McGee fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Aug 20, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 04:15
|
|
|
Chokes McGee posted:what the hell do I do next? Write another book. The answer is always write another book.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 06:02
|
|
|
Bardeh posted:Write another book. The answer is always write another book.  But... but the first one isn't--- WRITE. ANOTHER. BOOK.I actually have a plan now, and Moana's advice from page 8 or so is incredibly simple/helpful that I can't believe it's not in the OP HINT HINT. Also, check this poo poo out: http://www.tckpublishing.com/top-kindle-book-promotion-sites-for-paid-kindle-books-0-99-and-up/ I'm running down the list right now and sending promotional info to anyone who'll listen. Good stuff imo.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 06:29
|
|
|
Chokes McGee posted:
I mean, don't just leave this first book out in the cold and forget about it completely, but after a certain point the best promotional tool you have is releasing a new book. The more you have out there, the more potential eyeballs on your work, the more potential sales. Everyone who didn't see book 1 but sees book 2 and likes it can then potentially go and read the first one. You need consistent, timely releases. Promotion is very important, and as you go on you'll start to get a feel for when a book has peaked and when continued promo starts to have diminishing returns - but right now, you have one book in the millions of available books on Amazon. Sometimes you get lightning in a bottle and your first book explodes, but that's extremely rare and really more about luck than anything else. Steady, consistent releases will build your readership, and build your earnings. Do you have an idea/outline for what you want to write next? Bardeh fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Aug 20, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 06:45
|
|
|
You generally set your launch up ahead of time. So the book that I haven't even pressed the publish button on yet (that will go live Monday), over a week ago I booked promo for next Tuesday. I set up newsletter swaps with other authors in advance, and I make all my Facebook ads etc. in advance. As soon as the book is live I slam the promo for it and try to get it to a good peak. After roughly one week I know how well it will do, after two weeks I already know how well it did because in the majority of cases it's already peaked and now it's only a question of how slow it will fall. After two weeks is up I also already have my next book finished, and I'm starting the process for that one as soon as I send it to my editor. You don't have to do it like this, but you do definitely want to learn from this launch and plan launches ahead of time in the future. Asking us what you should do for promo after the book is already seven days old--meaning you probably won't have anything done or booked for a week or two--is already too late usually. The Amazon algorithms will start becoming weighted against your book after 30 days, meaning any money or effort you spend on promo past the 30-day cliff will be horribly inefficient (and you should have done it in the first 30 days, basically.) You changed to $0.99 pricing and your rank is 80k now. It looks like literally no one but friends and family are buying your book. Even though you didn't do your launch optimally, even the slightest amount of sales would push your rank up a lot, so if you can book some promo site and they will run you within the next 3 weeks it may still be worth doing.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 07:08
|
|
|
Bardeh posted:Do you have an idea/outline for what you want to write next? Yeah. Book 2 is underway in the sense that I wrote my first 1.2k words yesterday. I'm taking advice to heart and trying to speed the process up from my normal snail's pace, and the content is actually there in my head, so that's something. Should I just give up in the book after 30 days or something? Is the algorithm insurmountable? It kind of makes me wonder what the point of all this work is if it's near guaranteed no one's going to give a poo poo after the first two weeks. Hopefully that doesn't come across as being mad at you guys, you've all been incredible and this could've been such a disaster (well, more so) without your help. But I want this book to do well. It doesn't have to do gangbusters, and I expected that a single book wouldn't, but decent sales and some new readers would have been nice. It's really disheartening if self pub is that much of a meat grinder.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 09:28
|
|
|
Think about it from a readers point of view and what they do. For example when I look for a new book the first think I do is search my favorite authors to see if they have anything new out. I then scroll down genre lists for things (covers and blurbs) that catch my eye. When I pick one if I like the book I search out the authors other works. I don't think im atypical here so think how you fit into this. The more books you have the more likely I am to stumble on one and if I like it then your entire back catalogue gets a look in. The better you get a book ranking (which is admitedly playing the game) the more likely I am to find it. The cover/blurb/reviews all contribute as well to me picking your book out of the 8 triabillion books amazon shoves in my face.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 10:00
|
|
|
There's no definite point, like 30 days or whatever, where you should automatically decide a book is dead. However, you should be mentally prepared to let every book die at some point. I hate seeing a woman cry and almost nothing will do it like "There is nothing you can do to save this book."
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 10:22
|
|
|
EngineerSean posted:There's no definite point, like 30 days or whatever, where you should automatically decide a book is dead. However, you should be mentally prepared to let every book die at some point. I hate seeing a woman cry and almost nothing will do it like "There is nothing you can do to save this book." My poison pen is filling up book heaven
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 16:54
|
|
|
Chokes McGee posted:Yeah. Book 2 is underway in the sense that I wrote my first 1.2k words yesterday. I'm taking advice to heart and trying to speed the process up from my normal snail's pace, and the content is actually there in my head, so that's something. It's not POINTLESS to promo a book after 30 days or 60 days or whatever, it's just way less effective. The point is that IF you are going to do promotional stuff, plan it in advance so you do it when it's most effective. If you ran a Bookbub, for instance, 90 days after release, your rank would definitely jump up a lot and you'd get more readers. It would just jump up a lot less than it would have if the Bookbub had run a week after release. The main thing you don't want to do is release a book, and then spend like 4 months trying to promo it yourself on various forums and youtube and poo poo rather than just writing another book.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 18:20
|
|
|
Chokes McGee posted:I actually have a plan now, and Moana's advice from page 8 or so is incredibly simple/helpful that I can't believe it's not in the OP HINT HINT. moana posted:And then write the next one super fast to capitalize on the success of the first. moana posted:The next book I write will have more people buying it on day one, launching it higher. Then the next book will launch higher, etc, etc. If you're playing this game with one book, you're already losing. Plan for long-term success.  No but seriously, my first novel tanked and then I realized what I did wrong and my second novel did much much better. The twentieth book was even better. But you have to keep writing. A lot. There's only so much you can do with one book, and it's probably not your best book anyway.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 18:30
|
|
|
The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Self-Publishing Goons: My poison pen is filling up book heavenmoana posted:yeah, my advice is the best, especially this advice: tbf a lot of good stuff is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the first fifteen pages. The OP does kind of bury the lead, I feel. It's got all the info you need to get the book out there and not look like crap, then you suddenly find out WHOOPS LOL SHOULD'VE ALREADY BEEN PROMOTING. I mean I know this stuff is obvious to everyone else but I'm blue sky clueless over here how to go about things Is it the same with trad pub? Is it any easier if you can get past the gatekeepers? I'd assume they can at least the ARCs out for you. I swear this isn't sour grapes, since I can't imagine being one of a hundred titles hidden in a bookstore is any better than one epub in the gazillion available on Amazon. I just want the full info of what I'm dealing with while I've got professionals listening, because holy gods this is not going the way I expected.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 00:03
|
|
|
It's pretty sage to assume that trad pub will do nothing for you. Find a mid lister author in your genre who is really happy, chances are they are either very young and naive or very old and unable to learn a new paradigm.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 00:11
|
|
|
EngineerSean posted:It's pretty sage to assume that trad pub will do nothing for you. Find a mid lister author in your genre who is really happy, chances are they are either very young and naive or very old and unable to learn a new paradigm. Yeah. As early as 10 years ago, what I heard was "they'll get you cover art, ARCs into people's hands (maybe), presence in a B&M bookstore, and then you're on your loving own." Also laffo if you get an advance for $1000 and only sell 100 books because now they'll never do business with you again you horrible failure. Just what I've heard though  e: You didn't have a Trump gang tag before. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 00:22
|
|
|
You've pretty much heard right, and I've had this gang tag for months.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 00:59
|
|
|
Hi all, I recently decided to self-publish the last book I wrote. It's an urban fantasy novel and my queries weren't getting the responses I'd hoped for, so I thought I'd post here and ask for help/advice? I've been taking a few more passes at editing, but also wanted to get the cover finished since I know it's really important. What do you guys think? This only took about an hour or two, so if it's too generic or whatever I wouldn't mind changing it or starting over (better font suggestions would be great too). I kind of used Chabon's Summerland and the Magician series covers for inspiration.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 03:05
|
|
|
It ain't bad, city looks a tad generic, maybe needs some kind of filter to jazz it up a bit. Title font could be better.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 03:08
|
|
|
ravenkult posted:It ain't bad, city looks a tad generic, maybe needs some kind of filter to jazz it up a bit.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 03:26
|
|
|
The title and author name aren't clear in thumbnail. The cover doesn't evoke fantasy either. Have you checked out a sample of top UF sellers' covers?
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 03:33
|
|
|
RedTonic posted:The title and author name aren't clear in thumbnail. The cover doesn't evoke fantasy either. Have you checked out a sample of top UF sellers' covers? They're mainly shirtless dudes and posing vampires from what I've seen? And mine really isn't about that. I'll go back to the drawing board and post a second draft soon. Thanks for the feedback! I had a better idea that I'll work on. change my name fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Aug 21, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 03:35
|
|
|
Honestly just quit and write about vampires loving werewolves. Not vice versa tho.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 03:36
|
|
|
There are also no circles on the cover other than the "O"s. Add some flaming circles over the city maybe? Or have the birds be in a circle (oval circling around the title at 45 degrees?) The Fuzzy Hulk fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Aug 21, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 04:06
|
|
|
change my name posted:They're mainly shirtless dudes and posing vampires from what I've seen? And mine really isn't about that. I'll go back to the drawing board and post a second draft soon. Thanks for the feedback! I had a better idea that I'll work on. Those are the paranormal romance types, alas. Deffo avoid the shirtless bit unless there's romance.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 05:04
|
|
|
ravenkult posted:Honestly just quit and write about vampires loving werewolves. Not vice versa tho. Here's an idea: a torrid and secret love affair between a werewolf and his male vampire partner as they try to keep both their relationship and their supernatural status under wraps in Gorbachev's Russia. In Soviet Russia, werewolf fucks you  Also I just wrote 1200 words in one sitting for Altered. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 05:54
|
|
|
Better? If this isn't working I can scrap it and start something new, I was just gunning for recognizable/easily legible because I know about the small thumbnail thing (I'll fix the weird overlapping birds later, this was just quick and dirty).
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 06:08
|
|
|
change my name posted:Better? Personally I think this is pretty intriguing but I have horrible visual tastes so that may not be a good thing. Also a personal gripe: if you're making that a demonic reference, invert that pentagram into a pentagraph. Literally no one will care in the long run but pagans take enough poo poo from people as is 
Chokes McGee fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Aug 21, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 06:11
|
|
|
I've been reading these last few pages about promoting your book. I understand the importance of building your audience. If you decide to give away free copies of your book, while I understand it's always somewhat effective, when do you think it's most effective? The first week? The second? Or after the first month? Do you guys think that there's a pulse to this, in your experience?
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 07:23
|
|
|
Free KU giveaway starts tomorrow and runs through Friday. I've spent the entire weekend sending the goddamn thing to any promotional site that'll take it. Wish me luck, I may even go from 121,414 to 121,413!
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 20:51
|
|
|
Chokes McGee posted:Personally I think this is pretty intriguing but I have horrible visual tastes so that may not be a good thing. I'm going to stop making GBS threads this thread up and actually finish editing, but I think this is what I'm going to go with (maybe with some minor tweaks): 
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 21:02
|
|
|
change my name posted:I'm going to stop making GBS threads this thread up and actually finish editing, but I think this is what I'm going to go with (maybe with some minor tweaks): First one looked way tighter visually imo. I'd literally just flip the pentagram over BUT  listen to ravenkult, et al. and not me because I have no idea what sells
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 22:08
|
|
|
I've been reading large chunks of this thread and haven't seen it anywhere, any tips on formatting the actual book itself? I've heard Amazon will gently caress up your word doc if you just plug it in (and I have no clue about fonts or anything like that).
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2016 19:43
|
|
|
If you have a Mac, I'd use Vellum. I've used the alternatives and Vellum is seriously the best thing there is.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2016 19:47
|
|
|
I just use what D2D spits out.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2016 20:47
|
|
|
Draft 2 Digital is the easiest, Vellum is best for maximizing profit. Both create good-looking books.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2016 04:48
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 14:13 |
|
|
Made it to #44 on the free Dark Fantasy list!  Already back down to #49 and it's only the second day  Moved 50 free units and got four KU readthroughs, though! Considering where I was, I'm pretty excited. I expect that'll fade as the week goes on.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2016 05:04
|
|