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Mark Coker, is that you? Draft2Digital is sooo much better than SW, it's not even funny. Plus you can do preorders with them.
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Oct 9, 2014 04:26
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psychopomp posted:"Being a huge unexpected break-out success" is a nice fantasy but a lovely business plan.
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Oct 13, 2014 18:22
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If you can manage a print-only deal, do it. Setting up the ebook to sell is something most small publishers don't do well.
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Oct 14, 2014 16:12
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DukeRustfield posted:If you love the poo poo out of sci-fi romance and your heart is aching to do it, I'd say it has at least as good a chance of being successful as a normal bodice-ripper that doesn't break any molds and your heart isn't completely in. I am in a unique position to judge this statement, having written both a sci-fi romance that I was super into and a normal new adult romance that I wrote specifically to cater to that genre. The scifi romance flopped hard because there is a tiny market for sci-fi romance. The new adult romance sold a shitton and landed me my NYT bestseller letters because NA romance was hot. Readers don't give a poo poo if your heart is in your book; they are not going to buy your book because you yearned and ached to write it. Stop making idiotic statements that pander to "artistes" who don't want to change their writing to adapt to readers' expectations. If you want to make money at this, you cannot be so obtuse as to think every market is equally easy to break into. You are wrong. How many novels have you written? How many have become bestsellers? How about you listen for two seconds to the people who are actually doing this for a living? You paint this as the dichotomy of a) writing what you want, which makes you HAPPY and b) writing to market, which makes you MISERABLE. That's idiotic, sour grapes at its best. In reality, I write to market and I write fun, smart, awesome characters that I like, and if the guy happens to be a kinky billionaire, I know I can make bank because I have an market for the book. It's not miserable, it's fun, and it makes me money while I'm in my pajamas. Miserable is spending ten years writing a "masterpiece" that nobody reads or cares about. quote:But you're going to have a better time making your own market.
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Oct 14, 2014 21:02
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Zratha posted:Thought it seemed like really bizarre customer service.
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Oct 17, 2014 16:32
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Erotica is having a bit of a resurgence with KU, but there are lots of other popular genres out there right now. Are you a writer? I have to say that if you procrastinate, you probably just... won't be able to write a novel. It's hard to get through at first. So maybe write a short erotica story and start there. I'm not sure what niches still work, you'd have to ask EngineerSean.
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Nov 4, 2014 00:36
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Man, read the OP. Like that giant image that says the blurb and cover matter as much as your book. But if you're writing erotica, just go join one of the erotica forums to talk about it since you can get away with poo poo like fiverr covers, I think http://dirtydiscourse.com/forum/ is the new offsite one.
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Nov 4, 2014 01:29
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Jesus loving christ, stop posting empty pretentious bullshit in this thread, you could have been done with your first story by now. In happier news, my first two weeks of being a full-time writer have been ridiculously awesome. Just gotta keep this up and I'll be a millionaire by next year. Sean, I will catch up to you yet! 
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Nov 5, 2014 02:23
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Ugh, can't believe that post was so short. Thankfully it was free, otherwise it would have been a waste. Two stars but only because I liked the cute baby goats.
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Nov 5, 2014 22:34
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Jalumibnkrayal posted:Assuming the KU borrows are reasonable, October was my first four figure month. Thanks to Sean, Moana, Sundae and the other regulars who help newbs like me. No joke: this is a life changing thread. 
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Nov 6, 2014 05:04
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I think it's less innate talent than we might think, and more "innate love of reading" which leads to talent. From teaching the SAT I really do think that most of the basic writing skills just comes from reading a lot. Kids who don't read can't write. And I love Duke's idea of daydreaming - I daydreamed stories up forever when I was a kid. There's a difference between being a good storyteller and a good writer. You certainly can be one without the other and you certainly can level up both abilities with hard work, but there's probably a small amount of innate talent that sets you on the ground running.
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Nov 8, 2014 17:01
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I think some people really want to get better and some people want to do their own thing forever, and godspeed to that second kind of people because if everybody was good at writing I'd have a harder time making a living at it. I taught a workshop on romance writing where I had everyone pitch their story in one sentence. One guy had this awful idea that everybody tried to talk him out of, but he wouldn't budge, not when he had two dozen women tell him his hero was unlikeable. And this is a guy who hadn't written a single page yet, completely stuck to his horrible idea about a lawyer guy who did home renovation and ended up fixing some girl's flat on the side of the road and she totally fell for him for no reason (I'm guessing he was butthurt because it was obviously self-insertion fantasies). It's much easier to pretend your awesome ideas are all perfect than it is to a) put them out there for criticism and b) listen to that criticism.
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Nov 8, 2014 17:23
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SaviourX posted:So with the mad holiday season approaching, what's everyone doing to prepare or promote their works?
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Nov 18, 2014 19:19
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EngineerSean posted:I wouldn't conceive of doing a free run on that first book. Also we get to see how rank stuff happens with preorders, I have about 800 preorders on the spinoff so I'm curious if it hurts more than it helps. I'd really love to be able to hit USAT in the first week if possible just to have letters on this pen name. And I'm hoping the preorders will drive reviews, basically like an ARC.
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Nov 18, 2014 21:49
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I've never had a book stick so high, okay?!?! GOSH, is this what success tastes like? Feels weird, man. I gotta plan for when the sky falls. Also yes* *but I'm trying to get letters for bookbub since they are dicks about everything edit: also I had a Hungarian publisher contact me about selling my foreign rights to them in Hungarian. uhhhh okay! Do you have a foreign rights agent I could use, Sean?
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Nov 18, 2014 22:31
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EngineerSean posted:I get a different turkish or indian company contacting me about foreign rights every time I hit the top 100 and i haven't fell for it yet.
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Nov 19, 2014 00:45
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I mean, I'm not going to make bank in Hungary, they say advances are the way you make any money in foreign rights and I believe it. And no, weirdly enough, it's for my new book. I don't care, it's not like I'm going to do a Hungarian translation myself since I can't imagine I'd make any money. It would just be a cool thing to say I had 
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Nov 19, 2014 06:25
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You have to take off your author hat and put on your publisher hat. When you price, you are trying to maximize profits for your business, not validate your author ego. $2.99 at ten thousand people buying a copy is much more awesome than $9.99 and only 5 people buy a copy. Looking long-term, 99c is a good price point if you're trying to build a fanbase. Free can be even better, as a loss leader of a series. What you need to realize is that your book isn't even visible at a high price point on amazon if you don't already have fans.
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Nov 20, 2014 22:31
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You get paid for borrows the same no matter what your price is. So you can get a higher rank at 99c which leads to more borrows, which pay out like $1-1.50 depending on how much Amazon wants to pay out that month.
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Nov 20, 2014 23:25
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PoshAlligator posted:Working on large writing projects with a full-time job is pretty tough you guys.
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Nov 21, 2014 00:31
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If you pick one price and stick with it forever, you're doing it wrong. One of the advantages we have over trad pubbers is that we can mix it up. Price pulse to keep your rank high. $2.99 is the best since it's the lowest price at 70% royalties, not because lower is "cheaper looking" to readers. I price anywhere from free to $4.99 for a novel, but I don't pick a price forever, that's old timey thinking. edit: to give a sense of strategy, I priced my new pen name's novel at 99c to start for the first week or so. Then when my rank peaked and started to drop, I switched to $2.99. I'm sticking there for a month to be able to do a countdown deal when the second in the series comes out (also at 99c) where I'll be pricing the countdown from 99c up to $3.99 or $4.99 (haven't decided yet, probably $3.99 since my genre seems to support that better), then I'll reevaluate as sales drop quickly or slowly, probably price pulsing down for 99c sales occasionally (I can't price pulse now since you have to stay steady for a month for a Countdown deal). Then at the end of the 90 day Select period I'd like to use up my freebie days for a Bookbub ad (crossing my fingers) when the third in the series comes out. Which means I need to go write the third in the series, like, now. moana fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Nov 21, 2014 |
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Nov 21, 2014 05:43
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What does the amazon bestseller list look like in that category? Make your cover look like those.
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Nov 21, 2014 19:14
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Oh god, I try so hard, so hard to make these hands write, but they won't stop playing this video game! To each according to his--gasp--ability! Don't compare your laziness to Sundae's legitimate medical issues. You're a lazy bum and you're finally seeing how hard it is to actually write instead of writing posts about how great your writing is. gently caress off until you have something finished, you're not anywhere close to self-publishing if you can't even write a smut short.
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Dec 3, 2014 19:58
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I'm drowning in a sea of bloviation help help
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Dec 3, 2014 21:46
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See Sean, this is why I need letters for all my pen names.
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Dec 3, 2014 22:34
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I take full blame for everything, including all of the wasted words. RIP words, you could have been so much more..
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Dec 4, 2014 00:48
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Yeah I just did preorders, and definitely meh. I don't think I'll do it again anytime soon.
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Dec 6, 2014 00:31
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psychopomp posted:Unless KU can give me a 300% increase I'm going to make more money diversifying. I've started to get some push from other marketplaces, too. Amazon KU is paying more than all my other non Amazon accounts combined, times like ten. So I wouldn't write it off. Especially for you, aren't you the one with platform fatigue?
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Dec 15, 2014 23:25
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Exclusivity sucks but no other retailer is worth it right now imo. I was able to launch a brand new pen name this year and hit the top 100 on Amazon, I don't think it would have happened without the visibility boost of KU. So yes, it kind of sucks. At the same time, I got a $2k KU allstars bonus last month which is more than I make at all the other retailers combined. If anybody would step up to the plate, I'd be all for it. So far, though, the other retailers are poo poo at merchandising and bringing in readers. The nice thing about huge changes in the publishing world that may or may not suck is that we can adapt to them quicker than the trad pubbers.
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Dec 18, 2014 22:21
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I used to track sales by books every day. Ahahahahha. Now I realized someone asked my my unit sales for 2014 and I have zero idea. Like, it could be 50k sales or 300k sales, poo poo, I don't know, all I look at is income.
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Jan 7, 2015 22:59
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Yeah you get a few different 1099s from Amazon depending on what storefronts you're on (Createspace is separate, etc).
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Jan 8, 2015 20:26
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ExtraNoise posted:As far as I can tell no links have come up in the thread, so perhaps its a rule that I didn't notice outlined in the OP.
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Jan 10, 2015 20:00
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What you want is a nice catalog of very similar books (same length, subgenre, writing style) so that when one of them breaks out big, fans can go back and buy all your poo poo. Or you can do what I do, which is switch subgenres until you strike a breakout hit and then write a sequel lightning fast to capitalize on it, and then get bored and wander away to another subgenre. God, I need to not do that.
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Jan 10, 2015 20:07
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That's what I'm doing right now, actually. Going to write three 20k novellas in a series and put them all out in KU at once. I'm thinking I'll price them all at 99c and do a free run on the first one at the outset. Any thoughts on this strategy are welcome! Now I just have to write them all before the FSOG movie comes out. If they flop hard then I'll put them together as a novel instead.
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Jan 10, 2015 20:35
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the brotherly phl posted:Do novellas do well? I have ~30k written right now, and there's a great breaking point at 20k which would lead nicely into the next section. Or should I just stick with a normal 50k novel, and go from there? I know there's no right answer, I'm just curious. chthonic bell posted:I have a question about Kindle Select: say that before offering the book on Amazon, I sold it through another retailer or via my own website in various formats (ePub, PDF and Mobi) and that once I put it on Amazon, I would stop selling through other means. Would that mean I can still make use of Kindle Select?
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Jan 10, 2015 22:48
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Blurb help please! (posting for someone who wants to remain anonymous) If You Want Me Fresh out of design school, Sandra Dane has landed a plum position at a prestigious Manhattan firm catering to the idle rich. She's dating an heir to one of New York's oldest, wealthiest families. Her life seems to be right on track, which is exactly how she likes it--until she meets the man who will send her off the rails. The main problem? He's her boyfriend's uncle. People say Charles Magister's name in whispers. After pulling his family back from ruin, the fabled financier makes the world tremble before him. But ever since the death of his beloved wife, Charles has let no one get close to him. Now, when an ambitious, beautiful young woman walks into in his life on his own nephew's arm, Charles must wrestle with his reputation, his conscience--and his desires. *** My changes: If You Want Me Sandra's life is right on track. Fresh out of design school, she lands a plum position at a prestigious Manhattan firm catering to the idle rich. Her boyfriend is an heir to one of New York's oldest, wealthiest families. Things are finally starting to go right for her. Then she meets a man who sends her perfect life completely off the rails. People say Charles Magister's name in whispers. After pulling his family back from ruin, the fabled financier makes the world tremble before him. Since the death of his beloved wife, Charles doesn't let anyone close to him. But when an ambitious, beautiful young woman walks into in his life on his nephew's arm, all that changes. Ruining your own reputation is one thing. Ruining a young woman is something else entirely. Can obsession lead to love, or will their fiery desires turn both of their perfect lives to ash?
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Jan 10, 2015 23:52
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LOL I wish you could sign up for deal of the day. You can only do free days if you enroll in amazon's KU program. Also what publisher do you work for? I am so curious. 
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Jan 13, 2015 05:50
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Malloreon posted:Also regardless of whether your story is written in first person I wouldn't write your blurb as such.
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Jan 14, 2015 18:12
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I second the nooooooooo, this looks like vampire romance and the hand looks like a stump. First cover with the more dramatic crop and you're fine.
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Jan 16, 2015 00:34
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Blue Scream posted:What are the reasons the industry considers it a joke? 
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Jan 17, 2015 19:30
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