Self-Publishing Goons: Yep, people buy it!

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Self-Publishing Goons: Yep, people buy it!

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Eyeneedle posted:

Trawling through Reddit right now. Still trying to figure out how to get those first few reviews. Am a UK Goon and Amazon is running a UK only KDP contest to hunt for new UK authors. I think I'm in with a shot, but have no idea how I'm going to get UK reviews for a book that will only be available on the Amazon UK website. All the usual promo options are out.

You should check out a co-op for NetGalley. The one I used was Patchwork Press, but I'm sure there are others out there. iirc, it cost me like $50 usd in 2015.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 20:31

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 00:44

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

SquirrelFace posted:

Yeah, I guess it would overestimate "sales" since it's not estimating any KU page reads which I would absolutely be utilizing.

Is there a rule of thumb any of you guys use when deciding if a niche is worth it? Is there an overall rank limit you look for in the genre or is it just a write and pray approach?

I work in data analytics right now so I want the numbers, but I know Amazon is not very forthcoming...

I would look for a subcat that has around a half dozen books in the 1000s, and also with its 100th rank book in the 30-40k range.

It's hard to give more than a general range as there are a lot of factors that can play into, but that has proven a decent rule of thumb for me thus far.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 20:54

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Ccs posted:

Does anybody here self-publish fantasy? Does it do well as a genre?

I'm asking because I recently uploaded some chapters of a fantasy book to critique sites and got this review back from one of the readers, whose profile lists him as a published author:

"To be brutally honest, this genre was already done to death twenty years ago. No agent will take it on, no publisher will take a punt on it because the market has changed and no-one reads this kind of thing anymore; in short, there's no money in it.
I wish you well, but this is not the one that's going to break you out."

Now I assume that a published author would know more about the industry than I do, but I wasn't aware fantasy was in such a slump.

I know of a few self-pubbed fantasy authors making four figures a month. That guy sounds like a complete twat. People definitely still buy fantasy novels.

Bardeh posted:

Take a look at the top 100 fantasy on Kindle here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/158576011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_digital-text_2_4

I see a whole bunch of YA, a whole bunch of big established names, and a few romance novels. There are also a couple of Lit-RPG novels which seem to be getting more and more popular recently, but I don't see much self-published 'traditional' fantasy. Of course, as ever, that isn't to say that you can't make money publishing it, just that the signs point to the market being smaller and the potential profits not as large as if you wrote in a more popular genre.

I went through and looked at all the books I would consider just plain old fantasy - swords and sorcery sort of stuff (and not published by a huge name like Sanderson or Martin etc) It's not a huge number of books, but they've all got decent overall rankings and are making good money for their authors.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EOSI8JE

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078881QQG

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078JTSTVD

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077V1NRRF

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9E6MMM

The top 100 of any huge cat (ie, MST, Fantasy, Romance, Science Fiction) is always going to look like what you've described because the only books in the Top 100 of huge cats are absolutely killing it. The books you linked are all doing fantastically well. I would die if I had a book stay in the 500 ranks two months after releasing it. Then again, this author could be pouring money into marketing to keep his/her book up that high.

As a self-pubbed author, you (and I mean "you" in the general sense) should be more concerned with good ranks in hotter sub-categories on Amazon and getting on the right books' also-boughts. That's what'll make a book stick, and what'll bring in the best money.

KrunkMcGrunk fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Jan 17, 2018

# ¿ Jan 17, 2018 17:35

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Actually, Bardeh illustrated my first point already. He linked book by Lindsay Buroker, and I'm positive she's well into the four-figure, if not five-figure, a month gross income.

Incidentally, Lindsay runs a great podcast about fantasy and scifi marketing.

e: ha, yep. KindleSpy estimates Lindsay's gross income at well above $40,000 a month.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2018 17:51

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Jalumibnkrayal posted:

I managed to get my first Bookbub after doing this for 3.5 years. My whole catalog is now wide and they approved a $2.99 BB for a standalone title that is normally $4.99.

I'm excited and grateful but I've got mixed expectations. I've arranged another half million subscribers via newsletter swaps around it, so this should make a pretty big splash. I think I will put in two chapters of the first in my 9 book series at the end of this book, and I might make that first in series permafree too.

Congrats!

I had a mystery get a Bookbub in November, and I'm just coming off the sales wave this month.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2018 21:14

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

freebooter posted:

Any thoughts on Book Report's price hike? I'm almost certainly going to be making less than 1k a month by the time my subscription's up, and I can't really see myself shelling out $190 a year when my monthly income's down to the low hundreds.

I'm exclusive with Amazon, and I like how it gives me a nice, easy to read graph of my daily revenue all the way back to the beginning of my career. I'm cool with $15 a month.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2018 18:24

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Also I got a free Bookbub listing in March!

This'll be my second Bookbub--the previous listing was last November for my first in series, and the listing in March will be for my second in series. I'm very intrigued to see what the differences will be. I've got the fifth book in this series coming out a few days before the listing, so I imagine it'll get a nice boost.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2018 18:26

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

freebooter posted:

How did the November one go?

I'm starting to despair of ever getting a Bookbub for the first in my series, probably because it's priced at 99c ordinarily and they want big discounts. I've heard people have good results with box sets, though, so I'll try that after I wrap up the series.

Really, really well. The Nov BB was a free feature on the first book in a 4 book series. Probably took in $13k because of the BB ad over the following three months.

The entire series is in KU, too, so there was a nice bump in page reads, which probably accounted for somewhere around 70% of revenue.

BB definitely favors wide box sets right now. It's harder to get in with a single book in KU, but it's possible. You just have to apply every chance you get. Having a multi-book series helps. BB likes long series, and if one book in the series is rejected, you can turn around and apply with the next book. In my case, that means I get 7 chances at a BB every 1-3 months.

KrunkMcGrunk fucked around with this message at 17:11 on Feb 27, 2018

# ¿ Feb 27, 2018 17:07

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

freebooter posted:

My series, alas, is not the kind where people can jump in down the track - you basically have to start at book 1. But I've read elsewhere that a lot of people do just keeping making rolling applications, so maybe I'll have to do that.

Do it!

And you may consider applying with your other books, then making the earlier books in the series free during the BB promo. If you decide to do that, be sure to tell BB when you apply--they'll want to know.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2018 20:07

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

divabot posted:

New dimensions in self-publishing: Using CreateSpace for money laundering

You know, I always wondered why random sellers on Amazon would list new copies of my paperbacks for 200% markup, but I think now I think I know.

e: hmmm, actually after reading this article, I'm not sure this is the case. I certainly don't have revenue from 3rd party sellers showing up on my 1099.

KrunkMcGrunk fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Mar 6, 2018

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 17:58

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Chokes McGee posted:

hello friendos

I just bought a cover from GoOnWrite, and I've done a little photoshoppery as a proof of concept for what it'll look like after I'm done tinkering with it:

Lookin' swanky imo but interested in feedback since nothing's locked in yet.

Looks cool to me. Is it a horror story?

# ¿ Mar 21, 2018 17:04

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

freebooter posted:

I've had the first book in my series at the hook price of 99c for a while and I'm thinking of pushing it up to $2.99 like the rest in the series - I've got enough out there now that it looks professional, it's in Select anyway, etc. But I'm also going to start rolling submissions to Bookbub from the end of March and I vaguely recall hearing they don't like it if they think you've just put the price up to put it back down... can't find that written down anywhere though, is that true?

By "put the price up" do you mean popping it up to $2.99 for a week while your Bookbub submission is being considered? If so, I can't imagine they'd like that. But, if like you said, you're permanently changing the price from 99 cents to 2.99, I think that's fine.

Then again, why not put that 99 cent novel in as a free submission?

I had a free Bookbub recently that pushed my mystery into #1 in the free store, and netted me about $400 in single-day sell-through to the rest of my series. If you have a series, free Bookbubs are fantastic.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2018 17:09

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

I use createspace for mystery (fiction, natch) and I'd guess my paperback sales are less than 5% of my total gross.

I still offer paperbacks because my designer and my cover artist offer paperback services for ridiculously cheap, so why not?

# ¿ Mar 22, 2018 16:52

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

I don't write romance/erotica, but a lot of the mystery subcats I'm in have been invaded by erom authors (the churn is terrible). I can't help but think that Amazon's rank strip is only going to make things worse as erom books struggle to gain visibility in a very competitive genre.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2018 19:04

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Here's the kboards thread, if you're keen:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,261904.0.html

# ¿ Mar 23, 2018 19:04

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

I haven't run any ads on Twitter, but some colleagues have, and I don't remember anyone saying Twitter ads are worth it.

We all write fiction, so it's entirely possible non-fiction would advertise better.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2018 16:51

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Sorry man, I don't really want to doxx myself here. But I found my people through the Writers' Cafe on Kboards.com. There are a lot of good designers, editors and such there. Take a look at their portfolios and go with somebody you think represents the kind of story you're writing!

# ¿ Apr 3, 2018 20:18

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

https://www.law360.com/internationalarbitration/articles/1029670/amazon-unit-seeks-ok-of-award-against-uk-book-cos-

:woop:

Amazon filed a suit against a UK company that stuffs their KU books!

# ¿ Apr 5, 2018 19:27

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Seems like Amazon is making a serious crack down on bot accounts, which is taking some page reads away from some authors.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 19:37

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

The current theory is people who haven't used promo services still did newsletter swaps with authors who have used services that are less than above board.

I dunno man. This is all grasping at straws because Amazon isn't telling people who've been warned what they actually did to get themselves in trouble.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 15:23

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

ha, well that's Amazon!

I haven't been warned myself, nor do I personally know anyone who has been warned. Everything I'm hearing is from a "friend of a friend" or people in private FB groups trying to figure out why they've been warned.

Amazon has done things like this in the past, but usually the noise dies down after a couple days and everything goes back to normal. Seems like this wave of bans/suspensions/warnings was much larger.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 15:33

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Then there's the whole book stuff lawsuit thing too. I'm guessing these bans are related in some way, because it seems that Amazon is loving with KU numbers, which is what stuffers use to make money.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 16:05

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Oops, looks like I found a book stuffer!

Republishing your old books in the back of your new release, then doing the same thing for every release ever is at least unethical, and also against the KU TOS -- you aren't allowed to republish books already in KU. They can only appear in one place on Amazon.

Gaughran is right and cool. "Bonus Content" is bullshit. Stop stuffing your books to inflate your KU numbers.

e: since I know you're going to ask me where in Amazon's ToS (and lawsuit, as it happens) book stuffing is mentioned, here you go:

Lawsuit:

Amazon KDP ToS posted:

Disappointing content
We do not allow content that disappoints our customers, including but not limited to:
...
Content that is a non-differentiated version of another book available in the Kindle Store

KrunkMcGrunk fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Apr 10, 2018

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 16:56

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Bardeh posted:

I haven't published anything new in a long time, and when I did I didn't 'stuff'. I do, however, think that people who follow the ToS and provide bonus content shouldn't get hounded by people like Gaughran.

You don't get a full read any more if someone clicks to the back of the book - only for the pages that are actually read. If there's extra content and readers like it enough to, you know, read it, what's the issue?

Do you have a link to where it says in the ToS that bonus content like this is disallowed?

E: just caught your edit. My reading of that is that people were just republishing the same stuff over and over, shuffled around in different orders. The so-called Bad Boy Stuffers that Gaughran hates so much are publishing new content, and using their old content as bonus material. I don't consider that the same at all. These books are never out of the top 100 - if Amazon had an issue with what they're doing, do you not think we would have seen some action from them? The authors and publishers aren't trying to hide it.

Amazon clearly has a problem with them, because we are seeing action now.

I'm not going to defend Amazon's moderation practices because, frankly, they suck. They're uneven, and they're poorly timed, and when things are enforced there's little to no rationale, and hardly ever an explanation. But, it's in their TOS that you can't republish books in KU, and now Amazon is taking legal action to stop book stuffers, so I think that pretty clearly spells out how Amazon feels about what people are doing.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 17:15

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Amazon has said that content can't be republished. It says as much in the images from the lawsuit I linked.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 18:09

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Yeah, re-examining my thoughts on this, ever since Amazon cracked down on all the ToC shenanigans, books stuffing isn't nearly as toxic as it used to be. I still find it annoying and counter to creating a good user experience, but whatever. At least it isn't as easy to scam page reads from Amazon anymore.

Botters can suck a nut though.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2018 19:36

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

divabot posted:

fwiw, my good friend Andrew Hickey just swore off Kindle Unlimited after his novel The Basilisk Murders made a grand total of four dollars in six months. No more exclusivity!

https://twitter.com/HickeyWriter/status/986312532158832641

I feel for your friend, but what has been said about his cover and blurb are 100% right. Also he's six months out from releasing what appears to be the first book in a series, and has yet to produce a sequel. Of course his KU numbers will be really bad.

And, honestly, I don't think going wide will help him. The problems here aren't with KU.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2018 16:26

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

divabot posted:

He insists the cover is right for the genre - I didn't believe it either, but looking at others in "cosy mystery" I can almost believe it - and it did sell actual copies on Kindle - just KU was terrible. The sequel also came out and did reasonably well. Basically he puts out something every two or three months and has a long back catalogue.

Oh, okay. I see his sequel now. Well, he certainly did right by getting it out 3 months after the first book. Honestly, I think if he gets better covers and re-writes his blurbs, he'd do okay.

Not to hit your friend too hard, but, to my eyes, neither cover looks at all like a cozy mystery cover. Is he looking at the UK Amazon store or something? Most cozy mysteries have covers like this...

KrunkMcGrunk fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Apr 19, 2018

# ¿ Apr 19, 2018 17:08

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

So, uh, who else has been following Cockygate? Did anyone see Faleena Hopkins' drunk facebook video she made addressing her "cyber bullies".

It's worthy of GBS.

# ¿ May 8, 2018 17:18

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

I do not personally have audiobooks, but I know many people who do pretty well selling audio book fiction! Seems to vary by genre though (or maybe it's just the small sample size I have). You can do a royalty split with a narrator through Audidble, or pay them up front. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe there's a place you can put up information on your story on Audible's site, which will let you hold auditions for a narrator.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2018 16:39

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

I released three books in a spy thriller within 2 weeks of each other late last fall (prequel magnet, book 1, and book 2). I had mixed results, but I don't think releasing like that hurt me. I'm leaning more toward books on a steady, quick schedule. Of course quick can mean a lot of different things, depending on genre. Right now I'm shooting for one espionage thriller a month. Seems to work for this genre, but we'll see!

Also, in lieu of running ads pointing to freebie NL magnets, I would urge people here to give BookFunnel cross promos a shot. They are super easy to set up, and have netted me about 1.5k reasonably-engaged newsletter signups over 2ish months.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2019 23:04

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

gerg_861 posted:

Well...I accidentally posted this to the whole creative convention forum and not this thread last night...doh. Anyhow, now posting in the right place.

I've just put my third novel up for pre-order on Amazon. I've used bargain booksy (good), BKknights (meh) previously to market my first two books. A lot of sites require quite a few positive reviews before you can advertise, but I really want this launch to make a splash. I'm willing to pay something extra to potentiahttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QWFJQT2ks together. A lot of the advice on advertising is from a couple of years ago, and I'm wondering if there is anything that would work well for a third book? Or am I better off just pumping ads on book 1 on the day of book 3's launch?

You may give AMS Sponsored Product ads on your newest release a shot. I haven't tested this enough, but I believe the algo for placement is heavily weighted toward books less than 30 days old.

Just make sure you have it clearly marked as part of a series, so interested buyers can find book 1 as easily as possible.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2019 15:52

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Daric posted:

Where can I find a cover design template that's trustworthy? I'm working on a book, know that I want to self-pub eventually, and my girlfriend is an artist that will do the cover for me. I just need to find a template for her to work within.

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/cover-templates

# ¿ May 20, 2019 15:58

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

freebooter posted:

Just snagged a Bookbub (international-only) for July 7 for my 3000-word box set which last Bookbubbed on Christmas to great effect. I was going to launch Vampire this week before going on a trip to Europe but now I'm wondering if I'd be better off waiting...? I have no clue how the algorithms work and whether I'd be better off launching before, same day as, or just after.

How's the BB going?

I wish I would've checked this thread a couple days ago. I've had 2 BBs in the past, and launched books (in the same series) on the same day as the BB with great results. I would say definitely launch the new Vampire book this week. You should get a pretty decent bump.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2019 16:19

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Okay, so I started dipping my toe into BB ads this week. A friend of mine is helping mentor me so I don't blow through my daily budget in like 15 minutes (like the last two times I've tried running BB ads). They seem to convert really well? Like, better than AMS? But also it seems like I have to check on them every hour or so, or risk losing my shirt.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2019 16:20

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

Danger Slut posted:

I'm nearing the completion of my first book which is a travel guide, I've already had it edited and now I just need to format it for epub/print. As a first time author is this easy enough to do ? Is caliber a good tool for formatting?

I'm also at the point where I need to start the cover design process, are the recommendations in the OP still the best options? Moreover if I have a specific image i'd like to have on the cover is it something I should attempt to design on my own as someone with 0 photoshop experience? or should I just spend the money to get a great cover?

Calibre is a good tool for touching up formatting, ime. I use it to add/change backmatter and tables of content. I haven't tried to format a book, whole-cloth, in Calibre, so it could possibly be fine for that.

Another option for quick/cheap ebook formatting is running your manuscript through the set-up process at Draft2Digital. It's free, and you don't have to actually *publish* the book on their platform, but you can still download a formatted ebook copy of your manuscript during the process, which you can then upload to Amazon/Kobo/whatever. This is what I do, and it works fantastically if you're okay with not having a completely custom interior.

e: using D2D will also let you format your book into a paperback.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2019 17:58

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

freebooter posted:

I was on a four-week family holiday in Europe and the Bookbub launched during that first week, so I was only keeping half an eye on it, but: not good. At least not as good as the US + International one I had on Christmas Eve. This one was International only. For the benefit of communal knowledge:

Book in question: 3,200 page box set normally priced at $9.99, dropping to 99c
US & international price: $356
US only price: $270
International only price: $86

Average daily income before Christmas Bookbub: $5
Average daily income through January: $150 (plus the $500 odd bucks I made on the Bookbub day itself)

Average daily income before July 7 international-only Bookbub: $20
Average daily income after July 7 international-only Bookbub: $45 (and only $100 on Bookbub day itself)

So I think the conclusion to draw is that US Bookbub is way more effective than International Bookbub (because that's where the Kindle users mostly are) but also that the prices fairly reflect that. I mean, I made back my $86, it just wasn't remotely the windfall Christmas was, and we are talking about the exact same book here.

On another note, my vampire book has sunk like a stone - out for a month and it's sold 4 copies and had maybe 2 KU borrows, for a grand total of $9.83, which includes after notifying my 100+ mailing list. Now that I'm back home and can get organised I think I'll do three free days next week to try to round up some reviews, and just spam it out to every free book newsletter under the sun. Annoyingly it just scrapes short of qualifying for a Bookbub, which wants a 150 page minimum while this one is 135.

Ah, yeah, international only can be a bust.

Have you tried using BookFunnel or Storyorigin to grow that mailing list? Getting some more people onboard and keeping them engaged should be a great help in future launches.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2019 16:13

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

freebooter posted:

Bookfunnel is for sending out ARCs right? What's storyorigin?

Bookfunnel can be used for sending out ARCs, yeah. But they also have user-hosted promos you can sign up to participate in. Here's an example of one:

https://books.bookfunnel.com/summer-read/sam2wsy6iu

if you click that link, you'll be taken to a page with a bunch of books on it. From there, you can elect to download copies of those books by signing up for that particular author's newsletter. As an author, it's a great way to grow your mailing list and introduce yourself to new readers. I usually get 100-200 new signups with every promo, and about 50% of those turn out to be solid newsletter readers, who, I'm guessing, go on to buy the 99-cent first-in-series after reading the prequel novella I giveaway.

Storyorigin is basically the same thing as Bookfunnel, just a diff platform. I think both sites offer nearly identical features and services.

Anyway, after setting up a decent onboarding sequence, I've found both sites to be an extremely effective, low-cost, low-effort way to get people to sign up to my newsletter. I'm at ~2k subscribers now, with 45% - 60% open rate. So, the signups from these services are fairly engaged too, which is even better.

e: actually, now that I think about it there is one major diff between BookFunnel and Story Origin: you need an email platform integration to participate in cross-promos for either site. Integrations are free on Storyorigin, but IIRC you have to sign up for the $10/mo plan on BookFunnel do to integrations.

KrunkMcGrunk fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Aug 3, 2019

# ¿ Aug 3, 2019 18:53

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

freebooter posted:

Got a USA-only Bookbub for my big box set (normally $10.00) next month - but this time it's for free, not 99c. I'm wondering if I should just make it free for that one day only, or trail it a few days after as well and try to surf the algorithm? Obviously with it being free I'm counting on KU flow-through, which is how I made most of my money from the 99c Bookbub too. But I'm wondering if when it's free, heaps of people who might have otherwise just read it through KU will actually take the free download... I don't know. Quite confident I'll make a good amount of money, just a question of how to maximise it.

First, congrats!

Second, it's generally good to have it free a couple days before the BB hits. Amazon's algo doesn't like big spikes out of nowhere. So, scheduling ads with other emailer services like FreeBooksy or ENT or w/e is a good idea.

Third, people in KU will borrow through KU. Unless something has changed recently, I think borrowing through KU is their only option if a book is set to free. In any case, when I had a couple free runs with BB last year, there was a huge spike in page reads (and also sell-through for later books).

Congrats, man! Enjoy the ride!

# ¿ Aug 21, 2019 21:30

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 00:44

KrunkMcGrunk: Jul 2, 2007; Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

freebooter posted:

Thanks - reckon I'll make it free for a day beforehand and advertise with some small fries, then have the Bookbub, then keep it free for a day after, then wait and see how long the KU bump keeps up.

It would be helpful if I actually had more backlist for it to flow through to, but that box set is like 95% of what I have on the market, the only other thing is the vampire book. On the plus side I made that free for a bit last month (with small fries, it's too short to qualify for a BB) and garnered some very nice reviews. It'll probably take a year or more to earn back what I splashed out on the cover and editing, but my hope is that at least some of the readers who like it will move on to my backlist/box set.

Make sure you have a good CTA to join your mailing list after each entry in the boxset, and I bet you'll nab some good email addresses to use for your future releases

# ¿ Aug 24, 2019 20:32

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Self-Publishing Goons: Yep, people buy it!

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