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angel opportunity posted:This month is my first five-figure month Congratulations.  5-fig months feel loving great. I got hit by another banhammer wave and am back down to 3-figure months again, but I'll be back soon enough. 
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Aug 29, 2016 23:38
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My second month of being full-time
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Sundae posted:Congratulations. You're still doing erotica?
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Aug 30, 2016 00:14
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angel opportunity posted:You're still doing erotica? Not really - I just had a bunch of shorts still on the market making four-figure residuals. None left now, though; they all got banned.  A shame, really; my best shorts month was $21,000 including a single story pages bonus. I'm really not doing much of anything. Just enjoying California and occasionally writing a chapter or two of various projects. It does feel kind of neat to still make residual reads off of either haven't been published for 6+ months or were banned outright, though. People are still reading one of my boxed sets even though I unpublished it in February.
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Aug 30, 2016 04:34
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A blog approached me about announcing my latest release. First time that's ever happened to me.  Everyone who speculated that a sequel would increase sales of the previous book: yup. Everyone who advised that a non-standalone sequel was a bad idea: confirmed.
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Aug 30, 2016 17:19
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RedTonic posted:Everyone who speculated that a sequel would increase sales of the previous book: yup. Everyone who advised that a non-standalone sequel was a bad idea: confirmed. Oh my yes. I may be new at this, but I do know relying on book one to catch the reader up on what's going on is a terrible, terrible idea. In other news, one review away from 6. That's the magic number that opens a ton of $0.99 promotion sites to me. So... close 
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Aug 30, 2016 17:44
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I had a different editor go over book 2 in my series so he could tell me if a reader who hadn't read book 1 would be hopelessly lost or would have a good idea of what was going on.
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Aug 31, 2016 00:44
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Hijinks Ensue posted:I had a different editor go over book 2 in my series so he could tell me if a reader who hadn't read book 1 would be hopelessly lost or would have a good idea of what was going on. That's my plan going forward. Surprisingly, I've received decent critical feedback instead of rage about this book... Not sure if it'll earn out production costs though.
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Aug 31, 2016 03:27
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Well, after browsing Upwork for opportunities (I'm in grad school and I need the cash), I've decided to just write and self-pub my own romance novel. Is that still the most bankable genre? It sure seems that way. Fake edit: the number 3 spot on the paid kindle store is "Branding the Virgin", so I guess so??
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Aug 31, 2016 16:50
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change my name posted:Is that still the most bankable genre? It sure seems that way. It's either that or thrillers.
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Aug 31, 2016 17:01
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A little (enjoyable) homework for anyone writing: Read a book from your genre over the long weekend. I started reading "The Night Circus" this week and am enjoying the hell out of it. It's clearly a romance, but the attention to detail, degree of imagination in the writing, and the way magical realism was implemented in the story have made it a wonderful read. I highly recommend it.
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Aug 31, 2016 17:30
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Sundae posted:A little (enjoyable) homework for anyone writing: Read a book from your genre over the long weekend. never not read or write in fact write your next book while reading someone else's it's the only way e: but don't plagiarize it
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Aug 31, 2016 18:27
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oh boy, sending out ARCs is my favorite!  
Bardeh fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 02:00
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Bardeh posted:oh boy, sending out ARCs is my favorite! Here, make your life easier: https://bookfunnel.com/
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Sep 1, 2016 02:24
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Sundae posted:Here, make your life easier: Thanks for the link. I've been doing it manually because the one time I used InstaFreebie people couldn't work it out and I ended up getting poo poo-all for reviews, but this is taking up so much of my time now that I'll give it a shot. How the gently caress can people do tech support for a living? It's absolutely awful - I will never cease to be amazed at the depths of stupidity people can display.
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Sep 1, 2016 02:30
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Sundae posted:Here, make your life easier: I want a literal giant funnel to dump physical copies of my books into. Can you imagine how much fun that poo poo would be?
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Sep 1, 2016 05:14
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Hmm time to check KDP for the day, I wonder if I sold a couple of *KU reads rocket up into the air and burst through the roof* oh Does anyone know why this happens? It always seems to show up in a wave of out of nowhere and then recede after a day or two. Surely there's a way to get it on command, or at least steadily. ... Right?
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Sep 1, 2016 20:35
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Chokes McGee posted:Hmm time to check KDP for the day, I wonder if I sold a couple of Grats! Maybe someone with followers reviewed your book?
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Sep 1, 2016 20:52
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RedTonic posted:
Well, I mean it's not that impressive honestly, more like 240 which is two full read-throughs. So uh I might be exaggerating a little bit.  Still, weird spikes like this out of nowhere just make me wonder what the hell. Maybe a second wave from the free book promotion I did, and people are just now getting around to it?Also I picked up two four star reviews out of nowhere yesterday 
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Sep 1, 2016 21:10
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Don't check your sales daily
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Sep 1, 2016 23:12
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I'm ready to shank someone for 2 4-stars.EngineerSean posted:Don't check your sales daily Yeah! Check them hourly. 
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Sep 1, 2016 23:21
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RedTonic posted:I'm ready to shank someone for 2 4-stars. Or just have Book report running in a window on your browser at all times. Motivates you when hear the sweet sweet sound of "Chi-Chang"
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Sep 1, 2016 23:49
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Now I should start out by giving the disclaimer that I was/am under no delusions that this book was ever going to be much of a money spinner (and decided not to waste my time going to conventional publishers with it). That said, I wanted to run it past you guys as I've seen some absolutely amazing advice posted and I figure while not everything may help this one, the next can benefit. Here's the cover:  There are also illustrations for the beginning of each of the main 'acts' too. Depending on device these may or may not display as they were supposed to. And the link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...BTyL&ref=plSrch I'm now aware I've priced this entirely too high for a newcomer so as soon as I'm ready to give it a bit of a push I'll lower it drastically. Also I had no idea what genre to place it in so ended up picking 'psychological' and 'noir', having no better ideas. At a pinch I could maybe use 'Thriller' but I figured that crowd would be more thrown by the surreal direction it takes. I'm really uncertain about the blurb as a good chunk of it seems a bit generic to me. I don't want to put anything at all into advertising until I know a better direction to take it in. The problem is that (for a start) it has a bit of a dual narrative going on and I find it difficult knowing how to honestly sell either one without selling both but at the same time taking about both just comes off as messy. The most realistic hope that I have for this book is that I can get a little readership and critique I can use when going forward with other ideas. Bonus questions: If I need to pull and republish, what happens to existing buyers? If I want to advertise on the cheap, is that bknights a good shot? Any others I should look in on? I had some minor issues with the page layout (the dedication seems the most noticeable). I kept dicking around in word trying to fix it but nothing seemed to help. What should I be using? Is there a way to make a page of contents to jump to various sections? Does anyone know why it show up as not available for me when I check the .com instead of the .co.uk? I know I've gotten a few US sales. Posting this just before I go to sleep so if I don't reply to anything for a while it won't be because the feedback was too harsh.
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Sep 2, 2016 00:56
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LionArcher posted:Or just have Book report running in a window on your browser at all times. Motivates you when hear the sweet sweet sound of "Chi-Chang"  I'm already on those sweet, sweet ka-chings day and night.The cover looks janky in thumb, which is a shame. Genre-wise, it gives me a bit of a horror vibe. You probably shouldn't describe your own book as "decidedly-odd" in the blurb. The blurb is for giving readers information about the plot plus meta about content. Other people are way better at blurb crits than I; all I can say is "needs work." Did you do an ARC campaign or did you pub this without soliciting reviewers? Get your friends to leave you some reviews, dude. Your book's been out since July but its product page is naked and the rank is bad news bears. Bknights is cheap, so he won't hurt at any rate. Freebooksy or Bargainbooksy (if you run discounts) may be more useful. e. I should say that of my bad reviews, most of them came after running freebies. Don't be surprised if that happens to you. Tables of contents can be generated and edited in the Sigil ebook program, which is free and Windows-compatible. You can create internal links with it. There are probably better choices available if you're on a Mac. You can also do the same thing with Scrivener, Word, etc. How are you trying to access the book's .com page? At any rate, your book is live on .com, so that's fine.
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Sep 2, 2016 01:21
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It doesn't look live on .com because amazon detects your IP address is in the UK and wants you to buy from .co.uk instead.
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Sep 2, 2016 04:02
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EngineerSean posted:Don't check your sales daily RedTonic posted:I'm ready to shank someone for 2 4-stars. I just sit there and  all day at work, it's not like I'm doing anything elseWhen some reads two more pages I'll be right there watching
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Sep 2, 2016 05:13
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one person in the Netherlands bought my book just the one
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Sep 2, 2016 17:30
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RedTonic posted:
Thanks a lot for the advice! Now when you say the thumbnail is janky, what do you mean? I can't see any issue but I wonder if that might be down to the device it's viewed on. Is the cover fine otherwise if I can just fix the thumb view? A horror vibe is definitely appropriate to the direction the plot takes so I'm glad that that's something that comes through. Regarding the blurb, in particular I've struggled to see where the line is between giving a good impression of the plot and just summarising the whole thing. There's such a stark difference in tone from where the protagonist ends up compared to where he starts so I honestly have no idea how to sell it on where it goes in a way that doesn't just directly list the events. Unfortunately for me, my marketing knowledge/ability is tragic at best. I had no ARC campaign or reviewers in place and, frankly, it's been like pulling teeth to get folks I know to take a look at it. I do have the one review from the dude who'd been giving feedback throughout, at least. When I published it, I admittedly did it in a brief period I had free to 'finalise' the book (I have a six month old now so blocks of free time have been rare) and had no idea that the time between then and when I got around to marketing it properly would be poison to its image.
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Sep 2, 2016 20:07
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Sad lions posted:Thanks a lot for the advice! I don't really like to be brutal, but in thumb, the cover looks like a bloody mess of a job done in Paint. Full size, it looks nice, but the magazine clipping-style lettering and the bi-color cell shaded bust don't translate well to thumb. Fuchsia and phthalo green aren't frequently combined for reasons. It's a harsh visual whose more subtle textural qualities don't come across at smaller sizes/lower resolutions; sometimes a good piece of art doesn't make a good cover. Blurbing is hard. Try to find books that are similar to yours and books that have good blurbs. Think hard about what makes those good blurbs. You need to quickly convey information to your reader, and that means minimizing or eradicating puffery that does nothing to tell your prospective audience about the actual content: characters, setting, plot, tropes. My advice on the next bit is probably counter to what a lot of people will tell you: if you have any other means, don't rely on friends to review your work. You know what other word starts with f? Flake. When they don't follow through, you'll get frustrated and maybe resentful, and those aren't good feelings. Go into your next publishing adventure with a plan ready for before you submit. e: you don't have PMs, do you have a throwaway email addy or something?
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Sep 2, 2016 20:34
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RedTonic posted:I don't really like to be brutal, but in thumb, the cover looks like a bloody mess of a job done in Paint. Full size, it looks nice, but the magazine clipping-style lettering and the bi-color cell shaded bust don't translate well to thumb. Fuchsia and phthalo green aren't frequently combined for reasons. It's a harsh visual whose more subtle textural qualities don't come across at smaller sizes/lower resolutions; sometimes a good piece of art doesn't make a good cover. Thanks for the feedback. It is a shame about the cover as I love it but I'm not against ditching it as my main response is wondering where to go with it from here. Barring the colour issues that are easily avoided, I'm nervous about going with a painted one again as it may have the same issue with detail that ends up looking terrible when not at full size. One big problem when finding examples of similar content is that (and I know this is a cardinal sin here) I don't really write the same genre that I typically read. This is definitely something I'm going to correct in future as, while I'm still proud of finishing this book and I love the story, there were so many issues with its creation that came from being ridiculously inexperienced and a little arrogant. As for getting ARC reviewers, do you literally just cold call reviewers of similar work or what? ksnotes@hotmail.com is my least embarrassingly named throwaway.
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Sep 2, 2016 22:05
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Sent you a thing.  Check your spam if you don't see an email subject line rambling about SA nerds.
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Sep 3, 2016 00:12
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RedTonic posted:Sent you a thing. Got it! Thanks a lot for all the advice.
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Sep 3, 2016 01:01
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Sad lions posted:Thanks for the feedback. It is a shame about the cover as I love it but I'm not against ditching it as my main response is wondering where to go with it from here. Barring the colour issues that are easily avoided, I'm nervous about going with a painted one again as it may have the same issue with detail that ends up looking terrible when not at full size. Prepare your ego for a bruising, because from what I've seen, authors universally suck at cover art and design. I know I did. Hit the question mark next to my name in this thread for a good laugh. I suck at images, words are my medium. I ended up getting a ready made for 45 and applying my years of dumb LP joke Photoshop skills to rearrange it the way i wanted. There is a middle ground where something is both likable and marketable, but it's hell to get there. For most self pubs I've seen. Maybe.
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Sep 3, 2016 01:05
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Sad lions posted:Got it! Thanks a lot for all the advice.  Chokes McGee posted:Prepare your ego for a bruising, because from what I've seen, authors universally suck at cover art and design. I know I did. Hit the question mark next to my name in this thread for a good laugh. Yeah, design is a separate skillset. Learning to recognize what's good is an important skill to develop. Learning to recognize what's good for your genre (which also includes understanding your audience) takes research and exposure. I'm also a fan of referring to rules on visual composition for evaluating cover work. If you know the basic elements that make for a decent piece of art, that helps you recognize whether or not a cover is any good, too. Bad composition always results in bad covers. Anything that doesn't look good in thumb, where you can't make a quick judgment at the genre at a glance, and can't make out the title - bad! (So that series wasn't parallel, sue me.) Having a bad cover on your work is basically like rage caging the night before your marathon and then showing up the next morning dehydrated and hungover. Budget for a good cover!
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Sep 3, 2016 01:14
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I've been editing the very, very old post-apocalyptic zombie serial I wrote online yonks ago, so that I can self-pub it. It was written in journal format across a year, January to December, and the months seemed like pretty obvious book breaks for me. The problem is that it's lopsided - the original ran for about 600,000 words, but even post-editing, the first three months run for 20,000, 37,000 and 35,000 words respectively. (I got wordier as I went on, so some of the final months are like 60,00 words or whatever.) So I'm tossing up between making the January book free and pricing subsequent months at 99c, or merging them together and making it, say, a four-part series where each book spans three months. So these first three months, which are done, edited and ready to go, would be just shy of 90,000 words. (Or if I made it a six-part series of two months each, 57,000 words, and subsequent volumes would be much longer). I guess this would also have the bonus of saving money on commissioning cover art. I guess my questions are: 1. Do free books actually "sell" well? Or is it an indication that something is trash, and puts readers off? 2. Is 20,000 words enough for a book even if it's free, and clearly the first part of a longer sequel? Or will that make readers crabby and give bad reviews?
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Sep 3, 2016 02:19
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freebooter posted:1. Do free books actually "sell" well? Or is it an indication that something is trash, and puts readers off? Depends! If the cover is good and the blurb is good, people love freebies. (If you promote them and they know it exists.) If either of those are terrible, they'll go  and skim past it. Regardless of content, you can usually get a download—reviews/fully read is another story.quote:2. Is 20,000 words enough for a book even if it's free, and clearly the first part of a longer sequel? Or will that make readers crabby and give bad reviews? Oh um. This is a novella, which is only slightly harder to get in people's hands than short stories. I barely butted up against that but stayed on the other line. I'm of zero help with novellas and short stories.  I find bad reviews are better than no reviews as long as they're 2.5 stars or up. At least you know people are reading and can learn from what they don't want. 2 and down are generally THIS SUCKS and you don't really find out why. Chokes McGee fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Sep 3, 2016 |
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Sep 3, 2016 15:59
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freebooter posted:I guess my questions are: 1. For best results, you need to promote the freebie. Otherwise, as Chokes says, you'll have almost 0 visibility, so no one will even see your book to pass judgment upon you. Readers fuckin' love freebies though. It's actually perhaps a bad thing, as many expect free poo poo and a subset of those will never, ever buy from you. They're basically low quality free riders. The proliferation of freebies kind of devalues books, which effects the prices authors set for their work. I guess that's really a separate discussion. Even on a freebie, you need a good cover and a good blurb. 2. I don't think novellas are a good idea for genres outside of romance. If you put your work in the KU program, you'll almost certainly gain most of your revenue from number of pages read, anyway. Try to release the books as novel-length works at natural stopping points. Making each book of equal length is less important than making each somewhat self-contained. Keep in mind that a series can be a hard sell. I'm experiencing that myself right now. Other people will have more cogent insights on that than I do, but for best results, try to catch your readers up early in each book, so someone can pick them up after a long absence or as a fresh reader without being too goddamn lost.
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Sep 3, 2016 17:48
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Eighth review showed up today  Book's more or less done at this point, though. It's been pegged at zero sales/reads for a couple of days. That's okay, though, it outperformed even my wildest expectations. On to "Altered!"
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Sep 3, 2016 19:24
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Chokes McGee posted:Oh um. This is a novella, which is only slightly harder to get in people's hands than short stories. I barely butted up against that but stayed on the other line. I'm of zero help with novellas and short stories. Yeah, this what I was worried about, and as much as I don't like the idea I think I'm going to have to merge a bunch of them. 80-90,000 words is a short novel but still fine though, right? I would probably prefer to just put the first two months together, but that still just makes 50,000 which I think is still just novella territory. Also what do you mean by barely butting up against that but staying on the other line...? Your first book was that short? RedTonic posted:Keep in mind that a series can be a hard sell. I'm experiencing that myself right now. Other people will have more cogent insights on that than I do, but for best results, try to catch your readers up early in each book, so someone can pick them up after a long absence or as a fresh reader without being too goddamn lost. I should probably clarify that this is a serial which I already wrote and put online for free ages ago, and the idea behind self-pubbing now is, "Well, I did it and it's sitting there, may as well slap it on Amazon." Of course I wrote it when I was younger and a worse writer than I am (or think I am) now, and so my heavy editing turned into a complete re-write of the early parts, but I think I'll need to do less of that the further along I go. But basically it's already a series and there's not much I can do about that. I'd absolutely expect purchase numbers to tail off the deeper into the series I go, I think that's inevitable, but I'm hoping that it will sell well enough to still make it worth the effort I guess? Also re: having a good blurb, cover, promoting the hell out of a freebie - if there's anything I've learned from lurking this thread for months it's that those things are mandatory no matter whether your book is free or not, long or short, good or crap, etc. Another question - since it is a series, I assume it's a good idea to release both the first two at once? So if readers do like it, you can harness that initial enthusiasm so they buy the second one immediately after finishing the first?
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Sep 4, 2016 04:47
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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 04:48
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freebooter posted:Another question - since it is a series, I assume it's a good idea to release both the first two at once? So if readers do like it, you can harness that initial enthusiasm so they buy the second one immediately after finishing the first? If it isn't published it isn't earning any money. They wouldn't even have the chance to buy it if they liked the first one.
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Sep 4, 2016 04:59
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