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freebooter posted:Also what do you mean by barely butting up against that but staying on the other line...? Your first book was that short? 44k words. I don't have time for interpersonal drama or flowery descriptions, I gotta shoot a weirdo angel out of a cannon through this black oozy thing and no one's gonna get in my way. 
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Sep 4, 2016 05:25
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OK, cool, so 44K sold okay? People didn't think that was too short?
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Sep 4, 2016 05:36
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freebooter posted:Also I think I have a theory that I'm dithering about questions like this because I've spent so much time on this now and I'm nervous to take that extra step and publish and actually make it real. 
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Sep 4, 2016 05:47
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Just asking those questions will put you ahead of 95% of all selfpubs, so just ask. The worst answer you'll get will still be better than most other free advice, because these swarthy shits know their business.
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Sep 4, 2016 07:58
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I don't self-publish but I started reading this thread back when someone in a thread I post a lot in started writing. It's been great seeing him go from starter to success. Personally if you're worried about length and you follow a 12-month timescale, have you thought about publishing it by season? Like 'Book 1: The Unforgiving Winter' 'Book 2: The Rise of Spring' but, you know, with better titles?
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Sep 4, 2016 08:19
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noice
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Sep 4, 2016 08:23
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freebooter posted:OK, cool, so 44K sold okay? People didn't think that was too short? Well. It didn't sell okay—it's my very first novel—but I got it into about 800+ people's hands, got 8 glowing reviews, and I'm still seeing occasional spikes in the KU Pages Read. So apparently somebody out there likes it!  I will say, though, that "wow this is too short" came from a lot of people. I got away with calling it a novel because it moves at breakneck pace and gets more action out of 44k than people expect. But, I've been rejected from trad consideration and several review sites because 44,000 words is "too short." So, just know what you're going in there against. However, setting expectations as a novella might help a lot, since 20k is very firmly in that category.
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Sep 5, 2016 18:27
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Also I made a thing 
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Sep 5, 2016 18:28
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Chokes McGee posted:Also I made a thing Now you have to remember to update it semi-regularly!
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Sep 5, 2016 20:13
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RedTonic posted:Now you have to remember to update it semi-regularly! update what
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Sep 5, 2016 20:56
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If anyone is in need of proofreading, copyediting, or line editing before the year's end, I still have slots available, but they are going fast, and I'll also have a few times here and there (i.e., Thanksgiving weekend) when I'm unavailable. I don't have PM but send an email to booksidemanner@gmail.com for rates and availability.
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Sep 5, 2016 23:27
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Chokes McGee posted:update what  My sales are lower than usual today. Is this a normal Labor Day thing? e. Also in a bizarre heel-face turn, the glorious State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations sent me a reminder about filing my LLC's annual report well in advance of the November 1st filing deadline. POOL IS CLOSED fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Sep 5, 2016 |
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Sep 5, 2016 23:37
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So I wrote an 80k word novel (the first in a series, I'm well into book 2) about a small town museum curator confronting secret societies and monsters in the fictional state of Jefferson (a small state located between Oregon and California, established 1960). I've had two people read it (friends, but critical ones), they both thought it was readable and entertaining, I'm editing it the second time. I'm starting to go through this thread to self-publish online. Anyways I had a question. So there's some alternate history, but not a lot, it's touched on and forgotten quickly. There's some horror but nothing too gory and I make some attempts at humor. I like to describe it to people as X-files meets Northern Exposure. Genre-wise, it's like The Dresden Files/buffy the vampire slayer: contemporary time, solving mysteries in a world like our own except there are secret supernatural forces, some of them quite horrifying. The monsters are all strange, no traditional types (unless you count Lovecraftian as traditional now). I thought I was sure my genre was urban fantasy. Is it still urban fantasy if the whole thing happens in a small town and the woods surrounding it? Is there such a thing as rural fantasy? BBQ Dave fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Sep 7, 2016 |
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Sep 7, 2016 00:44
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Chokes McGee posted:Well. It didn't sell okay—it's my very first novel—but I got it into about 800+ people's hands, got 8 glowing reviews, and I'm still seeing occasional spikes in the KU Pages Read. So apparently somebody out there likes it! Hmmm right. Well, as the first part of a serial I'm hoping people consider it as such and don't expect a standalone book; on the other hand the success of the rest of the series depends on the first one selling and reviewing well. Maybe I should merge the first three months for 80K after all.
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Sep 7, 2016 13:02
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What are people's thoughts on the new "Kindle In Motion" cover and book designs? I really like the Secret Garden version, but the implementation on RVD's romance novels was atrocious. Seriously weird, creepy feel to that set. Also, it reminds me of review pages on Goodreads, only even worse.
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Sep 7, 2016 17:49
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I personally don't like them because I wouldn't have the tools needed to make one. I also think a lot of my readers use actual kindles to browse and buy (???) and they wouldn't even load on those. I'm pumping out two books per month, I don't want to have to do full motion video covers. Unless the thing EXPLODED, there wouldn't be enough stock images available for models, and most cover artists would have no idea how to make these anyway.
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Sep 7, 2016 17:52
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it's a gimmick
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Sep 7, 2016 17:59
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Sundae posted:What are people's thoughts on the new "Kindle In Motion" cover and book designs? Cool gimmick, doesn't matter to KDP serfs like yrs truly. More interested in what's going on with that "secret" $500 KU promotion.
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Sep 7, 2016 18:35
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BBQ Dave posted:So I wrote an 80k word novel (the first in a series, I'm well into book 2) about a small town museum curator confronting secret societies and monsters in the fictional state of Jefferson (a small state located between Oregon and California, established 1960). I've had two people read it (friends, but critical ones), they both thought it was readable and entertaining, I'm editing it the second time. I'm starting to go through this thread to self-publish online. Anyways I had a question. It's contemporary fantasy. Urban fantasy is specifically about cities where the city itself is considered important enough to be its own kind of character, like 'you could only tell this story in new orleans because of (xyz)'. Urban fantasy is a subgenre of contemporary fantasy, so if yours isn't urban, you just jump the one step up.
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Sep 7, 2016 19:42
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RedTonic posted:Cool gimmick, doesn't matter to KDP serfs like yrs truly. More interested in what's going on with that "secret" $500 KU promotion. SHHHH IT'S A SECRET I don't think it's anything more than trying to entice customers to come to KU and adding value to Amazon Prime, though.
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Sep 7, 2016 19:48
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EngineerSean posted:SHHHH IT'S A SECRET  be vewy vewy quiet, i'm hunting wabbitYeah, you're probably right. I'm still really curious to see how it plays out. Also still noticing bizarre charting results for works that probably shouldn't be ranked #1 in various subcats, so I might also be a little paranoid where the zon is concerned.
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Sep 7, 2016 19:58
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RedTonic posted:Cool gimmick, doesn't matter to KDP serfs like yrs truly. More interested in what's going on with that "secret" $500 KU promotion. I actually don't know what this is at all.
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Sep 7, 2016 21:02
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Sundae posted:I actually don't know what this is at all. They're offering select people (not me) a flat $500 for their book to be available on an unlimited basis to Amazon Prime subscribers for 90 days, outside of their one regular borrow a month. So a smaller library of all-you-can-eat titles for people who aren't paying for Kindle Unlimited now. You still get paid for sales but not borrows, no idea how sales rank is affected. It's obviously not worth it unless it's a book that you would consider a loss leader already, like Book 1 in a series.
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Sep 7, 2016 21:41
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EngineerSean posted:it's a gimmick we worked our books into a shoot
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Sep 8, 2016 22:53
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I sold my first book today. Suckers!!!! (That also caused me to shoot up 1 million spots in the ranking)
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Sep 10, 2016 03:28
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Is self-pubbing romantic on amazon still something that a motivated new person could get good at and turn into a million bucks over a few years or has Amazon finally killed that?
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Sep 11, 2016 06:31
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I met a guy in a bar last week, nice bloke, got talking. I mentioned I do copywriting and editing, turns out he's done some writing. He's sent me his book. It's mainly a thinly-veiled Mary Sue tirade at one of his ex-wives where the valiant single father uses Computer Haxx Skillz to derail the bitch's successful financial career and secure visitation rights to his kid that she's been unreasonably witholding. Pacing is wrong, structure is wrong, I hate the characters I'm supposed to like, and still even hate the characters I'm supposed to hate. Everyone speaks like a drat business communication seminar, even the psychotic criminal brother of Queen Bitch and his fellow ex-inmates. Stuff like "I shall take it by your silence that none of you hold any objections to the proposed plan. But I digress..." SPAG is all over the place, and I'm pretty sure that in the first chapter the pseudonym of the Evil Woman is put in as her real name (i.e. there is a Good Woman called Sonia and the Evil Lady is called Hanna, except on the following page and through the whole book, the evil lady is Sonia. I'll try to find out but I bet the real-life ex-wife is called Hanna). He wants my feedback. Of course, he's asked for me to be "real with him" and he doesn't just want to be told it's good. So, um, I guess I'm not about to make a friend. Shame though, he's a nice guy and can carry a good conversation.
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Sep 11, 2016 06:55
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fruit loop posted:Is self-pubbing romantic on amazon still something that a motivated new person could get good at and turn into a million bucks over a few years or has Amazon finally killed that? There has been a lot of changes from the original thread here about it. It is a lot harder and you need to much more focused, as well as advertise carefully. The volume of required content produced to maintain momentum is higher now too. The changes to KU caused a lot of scams that decreased the pot for everyone and while Amazon cracked down on them, it is still an issue. Because you are talking about romance, the discussion of the specifics of that genre are not allowed here. You would have to join another forum for specific information on that. It is a good rule that prevents drama about the bizarre content some people try to justify. There is still a lot of money to be make if you are really motivated and have the ability to create quality content that people want to buy, but the days of making your own covers in ms paint and not having and editor are pretty much over. At least, if you want to make "a million bucks." The old rule was that after you had 30 short stories out you would start seeing some decent income, but now it is all about pages read. 30 shorts are nothing, the money on Amazon for all categories is in pages. A 5,000 word short story is now worth considerably less than a 50,000 word novella, and that killed a lot of the people who were making bank on those shorts. You would want to put out at minimum two novellas a month, three would be better.
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Sep 11, 2016 07:06
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simplefish posted:I met a guy in a bar last week, nice bloke, got talking. I mentioned I do copywriting and editing, turns out he's done some writing. lol...that is really awkward, please keep us posted
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Sep 11, 2016 07:19
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fruit loop posted:Is self-pubbing romantic on amazon still something that a motivated new person could get good at and turn into a million bucks over a few years or has Amazon finally killed that? It's pretty comparable to any career now. The "gold rush" is over and you're not going to get $10,000/month from doing erotica shorts anymore. Even during the point where it was borderline free money, you could look on reddit and see the sheer and unbelievable volume of people managing to still gently caress it up and not make money from it. You used to also be able to take a stab at it with an investment of a 6,000 word sex scene and a cover that was basically "Good choice of stock image + some text that doesn't look awful." With a week or so of research and hard work you could have your first short story published, and you could immediately see the positive feedback of "This is real and it's working for me...I think I can do this." You could still do everything I just said as a viable way to test the waters, but the money in those erotica shorts is just not there anymore. A lot of the skills do transfer over to longer-form romance novels, but it's really hard to argue that erotica shorts are still an effective way to get into this. My brother was hating his job, and I wanted to give him the most automatic hand-hold boost into making money as fast as possible, and I didn't really at all consider suggesting to him to start with erotica shorts. I had him start with romance novellas, and he was making respectable but not amazing money after two months of hard work. Without someone totally holding your hand, you're going to likely gently caress up a lot more and it will probably take you longer to reach a point where it feels worth it. There's nothing "too good to be true" or "shortcut" about self-pubbing romance; it's simply hard work that requires you to sharpen several unrelated skills (writing, marketing, and networking being the main ones) all at once. If you have a 40-hour per week job, you need to dedicate around 15-20 hours per week to doing this. You have to treat it like a second job, and if you really work at it you can get income from it that can very potentially surpass your day job income. If you're really loving good at this you can hit amounts of income that would be considered "striking it rich." I grinded the 15-20 hours per week after my day job for around a year before I took the leap and just quit my day job. Now I spend roughly 20 hours per week of actual "sitting down in a chair writing words" per week, and then another 10-15 hours per week of networking, marketing stuff, cover design, etc. To get the most money out of this, you really do want to release a book twice per month, or once per month if you have a day job. Having books come out quickly together works the algorithms in your favor and keeps the "engine" of your income spinning. To make a Starcraft analogy, publishing twice per month is like macroing perfectly and constantly producing SCVs, while publishing every three months is like losing your entire worker line and rebuilding it back every time you publish. A really huge loving hit (rank 200 or better on the entire Amazon store) can hang out on the charts and make serious money for 2-3 months--that is the exception to the rule--if you can make a mega hit every time, then you are safe to publish slower. My best book so far hit just around 200 rank, but my "average" rank on a new release peaks around rank 300-500, and it falls quickly after that. A huge portion of my income is just coming from keeping my series fresh and always having a new book out that is visible on the charts, which funnels people to my back catalog of books from the same series priced at $2.99 vs. $0.99 for the new release. For me, the biggest appeal of this whole thing is that you can just learn, work hard at it, and make a real attempt at having this work for you in a fairly short amount of time. It's not easy, but unlike so many things in the modern economy and workforce, you can actually just DO IT. You do not have to pay a university $50,000 and spend three years of your time getting a piece of paper that tells Amazon you aren't retarded and can publish on their site. You don't have to have a friend of a friend who knows a guy and can maybe get you an interview. You just work at it and do it, and if you're good at it, you'll be rewarded. I'm sure there are plenty of other skills out there like this, and I'm sure many of them have good income ceilings. Probably learning to code is "smarter" still, because it can get you more stable jobs. But if you are already predisposed to writing and have any existing groundwork to try this, it can be a smart decision that will pay off. I see so many people treat this as some kind of get-rich-quick scheme, and those types of people usually give up when they realize that this is basically just a job.
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Sep 11, 2016 07:40
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no, ignore all that, and let me tell you the true path to success: free Kindle giveaways at the back of 50000 pages of public domain novel copy-pasting
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Sep 11, 2016 10:53
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Okay, sounds like it's not what I want, which is something I can spend all my free time on for like six months and then gradually put less and less time into until it's not something I maintain. I wrote a single 6k-word smut story on half a weekend back in 2013. It made me like $400 that year and is even still selling a single copy per month across Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon, so I was wondering if that meant I could write a greater amount of real novels and have a lasting trickle of meangingful money from them, but it seems not. Really, if I could just write enough to get a steady trickle of ~$2-3k/mo post-tax for a few years after I stop, that would be enough for me, but it seems like I would have to write the full-length novella equivalent of 200 of my original, lovely smut story and need them to each be roughly 100x as profitable: 10x as profitable because it's 10x the words require, and then a further 10x because merely keeping the same profit per page would leave me with around $200/mo in income. If I did want to write and already have some idea of how it works and have already read a few traditional books (Nora Roberts) as well as more recent popular self-pubbed stories (Aubrey Watts comes to mind), but am sure I'm making tons of stupid mistakes, it seems like writing something and paying a good editor to read it carefully would be the fastest way to find and fix the (writing) mistakes I make?
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Sep 11, 2016 19:20
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How do self publishing serials work? Judging from the penultimate internet serial, Worm, it looks like you publish for free, market your website, and maybe sell the story as an omnibus for with some bells and whistles when it's finished. Are there any other ways to monetize a serial?
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Sep 11, 2016 20:34
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HIJK posted:How do self publishing serials work? affiliate advertising on your site?
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Sep 11, 2016 21:13
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Naerasa posted:It's contemporary fantasy. Urban fantasy is specifically about cities where the city itself is considered important enough to be its own kind of character, like 'you could only tell this story in new orleans because of (xyz)'. Urban fantasy is a subgenre of contemporary fantasy, so if yours isn't urban, you just jump the one step up. The description jumped out at me as sounding like some of Sam Witt's Pitchfork County stuff, and he sticks that into Mystery, Thriller and Suspense. He then works the keywords (much better than I can) to get into some pretty easy to chart in subcats.
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Sep 11, 2016 22:52
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Nifty, Tainted is a finalist for a weekly award from an indy book review site mods please let me edit out if not appropriate, please don't ban me, no, what are you doing put down that hamm
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Sep 12, 2016 14:46
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It's completely appropriate in my opinion, congrats!
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Sep 12, 2016 15:54
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EngineerSean posted:It's completely appropriate in my opinion, congrats! Thanks! I have all of one vote and it's my own 
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Sep 12, 2016 16:47
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Chokes McGee posted:Thanks! I have all of one vote and it's my own It's okay, the others that had votes only had 1 vote too!  Anyone have deets on this Amazon also boughts situation?
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Sep 12, 2016 16:57
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RedTonic posted:Anyone have deets on this Amazon also boughts situation? Just how to make it work for you, or has something changed?
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Sep 12, 2016 17:30
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