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Jalumibnkrayal
Apr 16, 2008

Ramrod XTreme

The Fuzzy Hulk posted:

Did anybody have any problems with the KDP dashboard today? All my page reads disappeared for a minute and then came back... I had a book blocked a couple days ago so now I'm freaking out.

I guess I should add the pages are still showing on KDP, just book report is showing them missing, and it is doing it off and on again. Sometimes they are there, sometimes they are gone.

I read on Kboards that KDP renamed some file on their server and it's causing BR to freak out. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.

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gerg_861
Jan 2, 2009
So, you might recall that I came here for advice last year before launching my first book, an Urban Fantasy novel called Dream Job. I've now recently released my second novel, The Nightmare Maker. Neither has sold astonishingly well, but I have learned quite a bit that I thought might be worth sharing. As background, both books are enrolled on KU, and have physical copies from Createspace.

In particular, I thought I'd share what I've done with my KU promotional days. When I launched Dream Job, I got about 35 sales at full price between Kindle and Createspace in the first month. I was an idiot, and didn't advertise, so this actually isn't as bad as it seems.

I used my first KU enrollment period to make my book free for a while to get some reviews. Results: 250 downloads - I think these turned into 2 reviews. Got maybe 2000 KENP. :(

I then used my second KU period enrollment to do a countdown deal at .99 (insert currency here). This time I did advertise, buying a $35 promo on Bargainbooksy. Results 60 sales - made a couple dollars of profit, and a few more sales trickled in over the next few weeks to get me over 100 total.

Third KU period enrollment I went for another free period. Given how good Bargain Booksy was, I tried its sister site Freebooksy. This was something like $80. Results: Wow. ~3750 downloads. This generated 5 reviews, and 10 ratings (on Goodreads). Even better, it generated over 20000 KENP and around half a dozen full price sales following the free days. Was even in the top 100 Free list worldwide for a couple days.

Fourth KU period, I was launching my second book, so I wanted to do another .99 cent promo on Dream Job to stack with a Bargain Booksy on The Nightmare Maker. I used EReaderNewsToday at $35. Results - About 20 sale of Dream Job. Not great.

So, I would strongly recommend Bargain/Freebooksy. Was unimpressed with EReaderNewsToday.

Other advertising results: I did do a Goodreads giveaway. Gave away 5 physical books. Got 1 review. Gently caress that. Facebook ads - $15 of ads got me 1000 impressions, 15 clicks, and 0 sales even targeted to my precise audience.

divabot
Jun 17, 2015

A polite little mouse!
yeah. It's promo push time for me, because the initial burst of sales has dropped right off. OTOH there's at least a few ebook buyers who also want a nice paperback, so I'm enormously glad of spending ActualMoney on a cover artist. Nicest thing anyone's ever said to us: "it doesn't look self published." :dance: (that cover)

I'm doing my promo entirely on the cheap, and best result seems to be from me offering to write something about bitcoins/blockchains for them or offering to go on a podcast. I do recommend the latter, btw, if you're at all a good BSer and can be charming and witty even with prepared phrases to drop, because it does (a) attract attention (b) pump up your press clippings file. And podcasters are perennially desperate for subjects and guests, as is anyone who has to do some creative thing on a regular timely basis. Minus points: lots of time and/or work. OTOH, it's better promo than money. I'm very pleased that my target audience seems to love the book ... if they ever find out about it.

I think I'm gonna turn my book site into a blog on the subject and try attracting attention for pontification. Hard part: coming up with substance that is even slightly of booklike quality, given it basically took 53 drafts to be as good as it is.

edit: this is my artist/graphic designer, Alli Kirkham. She is pretty awesome actually, and put up with me being the Client from Heck and going through 24 revisions of the ebook front cover. If you need art, see how she is for time and inspiration.

divabot fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Aug 13, 2017

Burkion
May 10, 2012

by Fluffdaddy
crosspost question

Burkion posted:

So, I'm working on my first prose novel. I've written a few graphic novel scripts, and loads of comic scripts at this point, but this is my first full on novel, novel.

It's been going extremely smoothly I'm fairly happy to say. I started on it from scratch a little over two weeks ago- the Thursday after last, and I'd wager I'm about half way done, some 51,000 words or so.

I'm hopeful that I'll get this done maybe a little bit after the end of the month and then the editing can start.

What I'm curious about is, what are the benefits or issues with using CreateSpace to self publish? https://www.createspace.com/

It seems like a really good deal to go with, but I'm not sure if there's some hidden fees. I'm also curious if you can include illustrations within the pages of the book using it.

Worst comes to worst, I can always just use Kindle directly, and I was planning on doing both from the get go. Have the physical copy from Createspace be about 13 dollars, while the Kindle version is 6, for those that really want a physical copy.

divabot
Jun 17, 2015

A polite little mouse!

Burkion posted:

What I'm curious about is, what are the benefits or issues with using CreateSpace to self publish? https://www.createspace.com/

It seems like a really good deal to go with, but I'm not sure if there's some hidden fees. I'm also curious if you can include illustrations within the pages of the book using it.

Worst comes to worst, I can always just use Kindle directly, and I was planning on doing both from the get go. Have the physical copy from Createspace be about 13 dollars, while the Kindle version is 6, for those that really want a physical copy.

This all sounds like you have the right ideas. CreateSpace books themselves are gorgeous and fully production quality; my only qualm is they're expensive, compared to mass-production. I treated my paperback as an indulgence for the few that would like it, then I was surprised how many people who already had the ebook really wanted an actual paperback; so take the time to typeset it beautifully.

I did my ebook on Kindle and then did the ePub for Smashwords/Draft2Digital and the paperback through CreateSpace. (Under 5% Smashwords/Draft2Digital sales, but a sale is a sale.)

I recommend you prepare an absolutely beautifully laid out PDF that perfectly fits the CreateSpace formatting guidelines - see the templates for interior and cover.

You can include literally anything that will print inside the book. I used it for some black-and-white line art I didn't put in the Kindle version to avoid byte charges. If you're printing black-and-white, use 1bpp non transparent PNGs, or the previewer shits itself.

I made my Kindle copy £5/$7 and my CreateSpace book £13/$17. I also make sure to link the CreateSpace paperback page first because I get paid about $10 a copy and only $7 through Amazon itself.

DO NOT EVER use the Kindle Print options. They're CreateSpace with a concussion. And they don't offer author proof copies! You MUST get a proof copy. You will spot problems that are only apparent in the physical item. (I spotted a massive cover typo.)

Don't bother linking your Kindle and CreateSpace->Amazon copies - the system will do it itself within a day or two.

NOTE: all the above is generalising from a single data point - first time non-fiction author who is surprised how well his book is doing. There is almost certainly stuff above I am wrong about in the general case, and I welcome being corrected.

n8r
Jul 3, 2003

I helped Lowtax become a cyborg and all I got was this lousy avatar
My small family owned publishing co is starting to use createspace very extensively in our business. We put up near finished versions of the book, have a proof printed, then check for errors. There is still nothing (IMHO) that is better for final error checking than reading a physical copy. It also saves us from making $10/page $100/cover corrections with our offset printers. Createspace's B&W printing costs are very good. If you can't justify the space / cost of doing a 1000+ copy run with an offset printer, createspace is the way to go IMHO.

There are still some gaps that createspace doesn't cover particularly well - supplying to B&T/Ingram through their wholesale program doesn't work very well. You can use ingramspark/lightning source for that, but that's another platform to deal with delivering / proofing. Because we still have a physical warehouse / shipping dept, we choose to simply supply createspace books to ingram/b&t.

The math on this stuff works really well for stuff that isn't terribly long that you can charge $14.95+ for. Cheaper / shorter works isn't quite so great.

Bizarro Kanyon
Jan 3, 2007

Something Awful, so easy even a spaceman can do it!


If you publish an ebook through Kindle and do the KU exclusive set up, are you able to go through Createspace or can you only go through KDP?

divabot
Jun 17, 2015

A polite little mouse!

Bizarro Kanyon posted:

If you publish an ebook through Kindle and do the KU exclusive set up, are you able to go through Createspace or can you only go through KDP?

The FAQ seems to say you can CreateSpace it, they're only concerned about digital:

quote:

When you enroll a book in KDP Select, you're committing to making the digital format of that book available exclusively through KDP while it's enrolled in the program.

Though if you're worried I'd suggest a support query for clarification.

edit: and what I hear from fiction author friends is that Kindle Unlimited is totally worth it. Those guys are the rabid readers. And some buy the book afterwards! I only chose not to KU because I'd published too much elsewhere before (lots of promotional excerpts, and my final editing process was, literally, post the whole book in chunks to my Facebook and get my friends to be querulous nerds about it).

divabot fucked around with this message at 12:59 on Aug 15, 2017

Keromaru5
Dec 28, 2012

Pictured: The Wolf Of Gubbio (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

Keromaru5 posted:

Right now I'm waiting to hear back from a local bookstore about getting it carried there
And they'll take it! My book goes on the shelf starting tomorrow!

Jalumibnkrayal
Apr 16, 2008

Ramrod XTreme

Keromaru5 posted:

And they'll take it! My book goes on the shelf starting tomorrow!

That's awesome! Congrats! :)

In less fun news, the KU page rate for July is $0.00403. Just makes the decision to go wide easier.

The Fuzzy Hulk
Nov 22, 2007

ASK ME ABOUT CROSSING THE STREAMS


Jalumibnkrayal posted:

In less fun news, the KU page rate for July is $0.00403. Just makes the decision to go wide easier.

Once again I don't have to pay for BookReport.

Bizarro Kanyon
Jan 3, 2007

Something Awful, so easy even a spaceman can do it!


Jalumibnkrayal posted:

That's awesome! Congrats! :)

In less fun news, the KU page rate for July is $0.00403. Just makes the decision to go wide easier.

So this means that if someone reads my $5 book all the way through, I will make $1.21 for that person reading it, right?

But then I would also pay .10 for delivery charge, so I would only make $1.11. Do they still take 30% as well?

The Fuzzy Hulk
Nov 22, 2007

ASK ME ABOUT CROSSING THE STREAMS


Bizarro Kanyon posted:

So this means that if someone reads my $5 book all the way through, I will make $1.21 for that person reading it, right?

But then I would also pay .10 for delivery charge, so I would only make $1.11. Do they still take 30% as well?

It would be $1.20 if your KENPC is 300.

Jalumibnkrayal
Apr 16, 2008

Ramrod XTreme
Unless they read it all using Pageflip in which case you would earn $0.00403 for your whole book. Or at least that's a popular theory of why page reads have tanked for lots of people in the past year.

Bizarro Kanyon
Jan 3, 2007

Something Awful, so easy even a spaceman can do it!


The Fuzzy Hulk posted:

It would be $1.20 if your KENPC is 300.

Yeah, it would be around 300 pages.

That seems like a pretty big drop off from the $3.40 I would make if someone bought it.

If I do the book without KU, I would make $1.65 for each book purchase.

divabot
Jun 17, 2015

A polite little mouse!

Bizarro Kanyon posted:

Yeah, it would be around 300 pages.

That seems like a pretty big drop off from the $3.40 I would make if someone bought it.

If I do the book without KU, I would make $1.65 for each book purchase.

You get rereaders too. YMMV. I would try it and see. I think the usage pattern is different - KU users think of it as borrowing, not purchasing - a fee-paying library.

(I might ask around again.)

Bardeh
Dec 2, 2004

Fun Shoe
You don't get paid for rereads though, only the first time.

Jalumibnkrayal
Apr 16, 2008

Ramrod XTreme
Whether or not you should enroll in KU really depends on your goals. If this is your first book, and you're not really sure if you'll do another anytime soon, it probably doesn't matter. Your obstacle is more about getting someone to want to read the book more than how much you'll make off it. KU helps with exposure on Amazon at the cost of exclusivity (in 90 day renewable terms). KU is probably still great for new authors, because there's no risk to the reader besides their time.

For those of us who have been in KU for the past two years, things have only gotten worse on a few different fronts. Reduced payout per page is the obvious culprit, but Amazon can tweak those numbers to stem refugees leaving (this will happen next month). The less noticeable issues are when books are credited with far fewer pages read than seems reasonable. As authors we tend to internalize that problem and shrug it off. I the recent KENPC 3.0 change is designed to reduce page credits across the board, which will mean we all earn less but we're going to be celebrating a higher page rate come Sept 15.

The rate of pages being read is explosive. The money used to track this growth, back in KU1. Since KU2, the rate of pages being read has gone three times higher than the rate of the money pool growth. We should all be earning like 1.3 pennies per page read if the same system philosophy held true since KU1. But instead we're earning less than a third of that. Readers are reading more, but the click farms are loving everywhere now.

The only logical response for KU authors is to produce more. It used to be that if you published a novel every 6-8 weeks, you were a superstar. That's 8-10 novels a year. One of the niche newsletter folks shared that if you're not publishing 150-200k words per month (3-4 novels), you are going to struggle to make middle class income in that romance niche.

gently caress that. I'd rather spend the next year earning McDonald's wages and build a long term foundation of fans who will pay $3.99-$4.99 per book. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't. I don't like the notion of betting my future on companies being able to compete with Amazon on anything, but this is the world we live in.

Bardeh
Dec 2, 2004

Fun Shoe
It still pains me that nobody has stepped up to the plate. I still get emails from Google Play every couple of months asking me to put my books up on their store. I reply and tell them that once they can offer an incentive that beats out KU, I happily will. The rep always just tells me that they'll let me know if they ever decide to. Realistically, any challenge to the Amazon hegemony is gonna have to come from Google or Apple, but the longer they leave it, the more customers become embedded in the Amazon ecosystem, and the harder it is to attract the readers.

Bizarro Kanyon
Jan 3, 2007

Something Awful, so easy even a spaceman can do it!


I am at the end of creating my book. It is all written and proofread. I uploaded it onto KDP last night and went through it for formatting issues which is found several. I am waiting on my book cover to be finished but I had a couple of questions:

1) I had created a table of contents with clickable links for all of my chapters. When I uploaded it, it was not there. Will that not appear even though I uploaded it?

2) More important question I looked through the proc by options and I decided to do Kindle Select with the 70% royalty. It told me that a book my size (70,000 words) should be priced at $2.99. My original idea was $4.99 but now I am beginning to question it. Am I asking too much and Amazon has a better understanding of pricing than I do? (Probably) Or am I overthinking it and people will buy the book even if it is $2 more than what Amazon thinks it should be?

Jalumibnkrayal
Apr 16, 2008

Ramrod XTreme

Bizarro Kanyon posted:

I am at the end of creating my book. It is all written and proofread. I uploaded it onto KDP last night and went through it for formatting issues which is found several. I am waiting on my book cover to be finished but I had a couple of questions:

Congrats!

quote:

1) I had created a table of contents with clickable links for all of my chapters. When I uploaded it, it was not there. Will that not appear even though I uploaded it?

In what format did you upload your file? Also, I assume you're using the online previewer, in which case did you scroll backwards from the page it starts you at? Sometimes it starts at the first page of your story, not the first page of your document. But to answer your question directly, if you uploaded it, it should appear in the previewer so something is amiss.

quote:

2) More important question I looked through the proc by options and I decided to do Kindle Select with the 70% royalty. It told me that a book my size (70,000 words) should be priced at $2.99. My original idea was $4.99 but now I am beginning to question it. Am I asking too much and Amazon has a better understanding of pricing than I do? (Probably) Or am I overthinking it and people will buy the book even if it is $2 more than what Amazon thinks it should be?

It really depends on what your goals are and what others in your niche are doing. If this is your first book and you plan on doing several more, then you should focus on building your brand and getting your name out there. Maybe you can do that at $4.99, but it will be easier at $2.99 and even easier at $0.99. What is the price spread for the top 100 books in your genre, household names excluded?

Bizarro Kanyon
Jan 3, 2007

Something Awful, so easy even a spaceman can do it!


Jalumibnkrayal posted:


In what format did you upload your file? Also, I assume you're using the online previewer, in which case did you scroll backwards from the page it starts you at? Sometimes it starts at the first page of your story, not the first page of your document. But to answer your question directly, if you uploaded it, it should appear in the previewer so something is amiss.

I uploaded it in EPub format. I had it created in a Google Document and EPub was what looked like the best option. My first page is my title page (which it shows as well as my thank you page). The table of contents was page 3 but it is not there.

Jalumibnkrayal posted:

It really depends on what your goals are and what others in your niche are doing. If this is your first book and you plan on doing several more, then you should focus on building your brand and getting your name out there. Maybe you can do that at $4.99, but it will be easier at $2.99 and even easier at $0.99. What is the price spread for the top 100 books in your genre, household names excluded?

I would really like a book that people read but I would also like to make money! (The life of a high school teacher only pays so much!) It is the first book in a three book series so I know that I could have a lower price here and raise it for subsequent books (if it is popular). I think that doing Kindle Unlimited will help reach a wider audience as well as build a brand. Unfortunately, I now fear $4.99 being too high. The books that make up my categories are ranging from $2.99 (the most common) to $7.99 (some even unknown authors were charging 10.99 but most hit between $3 - $8). I think I will go to the middle ground off original idea and amazon's recommendation and go 3.99.

freebooter
Jul 7, 2009

Don't overthink the price of your book - you can always tweak it later. Mine was the first in a series so I started it out at 99c, and had the subsequent ones also at 99c - but then jacked those later ones up to $2.99 while keeping the first one as a hook at 99c, and I haven't noticed a negative impact on sales.

If you're on the fence I'd suggest starting out low-priced while you're still a new release, and if it does well you can ratchet the price up later when you have some reviews under your belt. (Or if you start high and it doesn't shift you can ratchet the price down, but you'd rather do things the other way round, obviously.)

Also worth saying that even after I increased the price on my later books, more than 60% of my income still comes from Kindle Unlimited, so book price plays a far smaller part than I thought it would before I actually published. I honestly don't think about it much.

The Fuzzy Hulk
Nov 22, 2007

ASK ME ABOUT CROSSING THE STREAMS


Is anybody else seeing old books showing up on the top of their KDP bookshelf for no reason? I know they rise to the top when KU renews but I am seeing books that are not due for KU renewal for a month somehow showing up as "Last Modified". A new one from the bottom flips to the top every few hours.

Bizarro Kanyon
Jan 3, 2007

Something Awful, so easy even a spaceman can do it!


I decided to go with $2.99 with the idea that I can raise it if it seems to be selling well. Here goes nothing!


Exodus: A Refugee Story

Bizarro Kanyon fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Sep 1, 2017

Bardeh
Dec 2, 2004

Fun Shoe

The Fuzzy Hulk posted:

Is anybody else seeing old books showing up on the top of their KDP bookshelf for no reason? I know they rise to the top when KU renews but I am seeing books that are not due for KU renewal for a month somehow showing up as "Last Modified". A new one from the bottom flips to the top every few hours.

Yeah, it's been happening for me for a long time. Still not sure what it's all about.

E: Bizarro Kanyon, congrats on the book - I've borrowed it with KU. Can't promise that I'll have the time to read it, but at least you'll get a little rankings boost. My only concern would be that your cover is a very bland, and doesn't stand out at all, even when I'm just on the product page. It's just gonna blend into the background for someone browsing through search results. The cover is probably the most important part of your book, so maybe look into investing a little more into a more striking one.

Bardeh fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Sep 2, 2017

divabot
Jun 17, 2015

A polite little mouse!
yeah, I highly recommend people pay an artist who's also a graphic designer money to do a cover that looks professional, and scales from 160px to 3000px. It's super-important. I will never regret having done so. (Also my artist is way cool and I recommend her. I used to think I was okay at graphic design, the evidence is I am Just Wrong.)



If anyone's curious, here's my precise sales figures up to 14:32 UTC, Sunday 3 Sep 2017. I've topped 1000, which is flabbergasting for a first self-published book, but I accidentally caught a wave (Bitcoin hype). I was seriously expecting maybe 100-200 when I started it (Oct 2016).

Amazon Kindle: 889
Smashwords: 25 (ePub)
Draft2Digital: 21 (ePub)
CreateSpace (paperback): 148

I would have considered making it Amazon-exclusive so I could get it onto Kindle Unlimited, but I posted >10% publicly. But that pleased the techy end of my audience who want ePubs. Sooooo I'd say do an ePub and put it in those places too. A sale is a sale.

Eventually I'll actually get paid for all of these ... I got a small payment from Smashwords, and my first Amazon (July) and CreateSpace (August) money is end of this month.

I spent months hyping it up in venues that would appreciate it, and got about 200 Kindle preorders, which gave it a nice kickstart and got it on the first page of the relevant Kindle subsubcategories.

I've now turned the book site into a blog where I try to enhance my reputation as a pundit (note the very trustworthy and boring photo!), and I'm participating in Bitcoin Twitter which is frankly full of nutcases. But that keeps the sales ticking along at about 10-20 a day.



I tried promoting it to journalists and pretty much failed. I clearly have no idea how to do that one. I'd have thought it was vastly topical, but evidently not ... So! Anyone got tips on promotion? I asked the fans to write Amazon reviews and they wrote lots, so that's good. But how to promote it in the wider world?

Jalumibnkrayal
Apr 16, 2008

Ramrod XTreme

divabot posted:

I tried promoting it to journalists and pretty much failed. I clearly have no idea how to do that one. I'd have thought it was vastly topical, but evidently not ... So! Anyone got tips on promotion? I asked the fans to write Amazon reviews and they wrote lots, so that's good. But how to promote it in the wider world?

Paid newsletter promos are going to be your next best ROI. Places like Bookbub (hard to get one), Bargainbooksy, etc. I'm not familiar with non-fiction newsletter promos but they surely exist. They might vastly lean towards people who buy diet books, self help books and cookbooks though.

Bizarro Kanyon
Jan 3, 2007

Something Awful, so easy even a spaceman can do it!


Book is published on Kindle and it just became available on CreateSpace.

What do I have to do to link it up with my Kindle book so they are available on the same page?

divabot
Jun 17, 2015

A polite little mouse!

Bizarro Kanyon posted:

Book is published on Kindle and it just became available on CreateSpace.

What do I have to do to link it up with my Kindle book so they are available on the same page?

Wait two days, in my experience - it tries to match on author and title. If it doesn't match after that, contact Amazon I'd suggest.

Bizarro Kanyon
Jan 3, 2007

Something Awful, so easy even a spaceman can do it!


Thanks.

Canadian Surf Club
Feb 15, 2008

Word.
I have an entry in this year's Inkshares 2017 Horror contest. Made a post with more detail in the solicitation station if you want to check it out.

I more wanted to know if people had any experience with inkshares, not only in building pre-orders but their whole back-end publishing and distribution. I know of one other writer who's had some success with it, but not sure how strict or controlling they are once things move ahead. Any insight welcome.

If you want to rib some of my work the link is here:
https://www.inkshares.com/books/stellar-drift

Bardeh
Dec 2, 2004

Fun Shoe

Canadian Surf Club posted:

I have an entry in this year's Inkshares 2017 Horror contest. Made a post with more detail in the solicitation station if you want to check it out.

I more wanted to know if people had any experience with inkshares, not only in building pre-orders but their whole back-end publishing and distribution. I know of one other writer who's had some success with it, but not sure how strict or controlling they are once things move ahead. Any insight welcome.

If you want to rib some of my work the link is here:
https://www.inkshares.com/books/stellar-drift

The book sounds very cool, the cover is terrible. You have put all this time and effort into writing the book, and then you have completely ruined any chance of it ever doing well with that awful cover.

Just because, time and time again we see it in this thread: If your cover is bad, your book will not sell. The cover is the most important marketing tool you have, so invest a bit of time and/or money and make it good. Go onto Amazon and look at the best-selling books in your genre. Try to commission something in that style. Don't slap some vector art on a colored background and call it good.

I don't know anything about Inkshares, but it appears to be some sort of crowdfunding website to get you preorders on your book. So, you haven't written it yet, but you want people to invest money into it. Why should they, when you haven't invested any time or effort into your cover?

I made this in two minutes. Literally two minutes. I went to Depositphotos.com and searched for 'Spaceship'. The image has all the rights you need to sell the book, and it costs a few dollars. Then I went into Photoshop and slapped on the first vaguely sci-fi font I found.



If you were browsing Amazon, looking for some Sci-Fi horror, which one would you be more likely to click on? The cover above, or this:



You might say that when you finish the book, you'll get a proper cover made then, but you want people to invest money in your book now. They'll be far more likely to do so if you have a nice cover.

Yooper
Apr 30, 2012


Bardeh posted:


If your cover is bad, your book will not sell. The cover is the most important marketing tool you have, so invest a bit of time and/or money and make it good. Go onto Amazon and look at the best-selling books in your genre. Try to commission something in that style. Don't slap some vector art on a colored background and call it good.


This could literally be the op. That and have a newsletter.

divabot
Jun 17, 2015

A polite little mouse!
oh hell yes. Here is my placeholder cover:



Here is the final cover, ebook and paperback:



(the colours are different because CMYK printing is evil lies. the physical paperback is way greener.)

I got an artist friend and gave her actual money (not bitcoins) to draw the nice robot and guy pics, and the tulips on the back, and also she did the graphic design ... SPEND A BIT OF MONEY.

I used to think I was okay at graphic design. I was clearly wrong.

Canadian Surf Club
Feb 15, 2008

Word.

Bardeh posted:

The book sounds very cool, the cover is terrible. You have put all this time and effort into writing the book, and then you have completely ruined any chance of it ever doing well with that awful cover.

Just because, time and time again we see it in this thread: If your cover is bad, your book will not sell. The cover is the most important marketing tool you have, so invest a bit of time and/or money and make it good. Go onto Amazon and look at the best-selling books in your genre. Try to commission something in that style. Don't slap some vector art on a colored background and call it good.

I don't know anything about Inkshares, but it appears to be some sort of crowdfunding website to get you preorders on your book. So, you haven't written it yet, but you want people to invest money into it. Why should they, when you haven't invested any time or effort into your cover?

I made this in two minutes. Literally two minutes. I went to Depositphotos.com and searched for 'Spaceship'. The image has all the rights you need to sell the book, and it costs a few dollars. Then I went into Photoshop and slapped on the first vaguely sci-fi font I found.



If you were browsing Amazon, looking for some Sci-Fi horror, which one would you be more likely to click on? The cover above, or this:



You might say that when you finish the book, you'll get a proper cover made then, but you want people to invest money in your book now. They'll be far more likely to do so if you have a nice cover.

thanks for the thorough post. I definitely see where you're coming from, and I do see a lot of what you're presenting on Amazon lists. My intent was go more symbolic, as the 3d model thing wasn't my jam, and use the solid red-white colors to stick out within the scrolling lists of covers. I understand my taste isn't necessarily what everyone is looking for.

The book is written, still requires some editing passes but it will get there by the end of the year.

That sets some things straight though, honestly the cover wasn't even in my consideration. I'll take some time to go through and whip up something better.

Canadian Surf Club fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Sep 8, 2017

The Fuzzy Hulk
Nov 22, 2007

ASK ME ABOUT CROSSING THE STREAMS




5 minute covers are fun.

Ccs
Feb 25, 2011


If the book is a witty take on the sci-fi genre I could see the red and black graphic cover working. I actually like that cover better than heavily rendered sci-fi illustrations.

But if you went with a professional cover designer you might get a better result on your original brief, or your designer might have a better sense of what kind of cover leads to more sales. There's no accounting for taste, but you can count sale numbers.

Jalumibnkrayal
Apr 16, 2008

Ramrod XTreme

Canadian Surf Club posted:

thanks for the thorough post. I definitely see where you're coming from, and I do see a lot of what you're presenting on Amazon lists. My intent was go more symbolic, as the 3d model thing wasn't my jam, and use the solid red-white colors to stick out within the scrolling lists of covers. I understand my taste isn't necessarily what everyone is looking for.

The book is written, still requires some editing passes but it will get there by the end of the year.

That sets some things straight though, honestly the cover wasn't even in my consideration. I'll take some time to go through and whip up something better.

Your cover conveys retro sci-fi comedy (the bulbous rocket doesn't communicate dread or seriousness). The cover that pops into my head from what little I know about your story is something like a space suit helmet with a skull in it, maybe half hidden in shadow.

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Faded Mars
Jul 1, 2004

It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga.
Hey guys, long time no post.

I’m still doing the whole self-pub thing, five years later.

My wife would like to offer her services as a freelance editor for anyone looking for some professional editing. She holds a PhD in English lit, has edited books for a major Canadian university press, has a bunch of articles published and forthcoming, and has a book manuscript under consideration with Palgrave Macmillan.

Seeing as she wants to establish a client base, she’s offering discounted editing services for now. She can copy edit and line edit as well as offer manuscript appraisals (for certain genres).

As usual with editors, there’s a free sample edit of up to 2,000 words of material. If you’d like to engage her services after that, we can work out the details.

For anyone interested I can provide bonafides (LinkedIn, etc.).

If you’d like to get your sample checked please PM me, or if you know anyone who may be interested in getting some editing done please send them my way.

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