Ann: Last May I wrote a guest blog here about my decision to stop writing for my publisher (Harlequin) and self-publish my new thriller instead of submitting it to traditional publishers. In the piece, I shared terms of my publishing contracts and showed how those terms translated into money, using one of my books as an example. I did this not as a complaint, but to give other authors--some who might be thinking of writing for Harlequin--a look at how the numbers stack up.
Plenty of people weighed in on this blog and others, both in
support of my decision and criticizing it (some of whom didn't even bother to
read the post).
So the question is, after nine months, do I regret my
decision?
Let me share some numbers:
Last May 8 through 12 using KDP Select, I gave away 75,420
copies of Pushed Too Far.
In May and June, I sold 11,564 copies, netting me $22,316.30.
I also had 874 borrows during this time for another $1902.30.
So in a bit over six weeks, Pushed Too Far earned $24,218.60
and was downloaded onto 87,858 e-readers. My highest earning Harlequin Intrigue earned me $21,942.16 in the last
twelve years.
Verdict: In less than two months, Pushed Too Far became my
highest earning book. EVER.
As Joe has said many times, sales ebb and flow, and PTF has
been no different. But for May through December of 2012, this one book (Pushed
Too Far) has had a grand total of 15,257 (paid) sales and borrows, netting me
around $31,179.03.
Of course there's no guarantee. I've known authors who have
done better. I've known authors who've done worse. But the question is, do I
regret my decision to self-publish?
Are you kidding?
I regret I didn't do it sooner.
Another friend of mine, Melinda DuChamp, has one of her Alice ebooks for free the next few days. and I also have a few titles available. So piggybacking on Ann's guest blog, I'm going to talk a bit about promo and numbers, and also link to these titles I'm discussing.
I used eBook Booster to announce these titles to 50+ free websites. I did it at the last minute, and eBook Booster suggested I put off the free period for a week, because some freebie sites need lead time. I appreciate the concern, but ebookbooster.com only charges $25 to list the ebooks everywhere, and that seems like the deal of the century. If we're excluded from these sites because we're too late, I'm okay with that. Next time I'll do it in advance. But for $25 I couldn't pass it up.
Free on Kindle 2/22
Free on Kindle 2/22
Free on Kindle 2/21 - 2/25
A few days ago, when I had three freebies, I was selling 1000 ebooks a day. Since coming off the freebie period, sales have slowed to 600 a day. I find that interesting, considering I'm now selling three more titles.
The "free downloads spurs paid sales" axiom seems to be in effect here. Which makes me even more curious to try making a title permafree in order to improve sales.
I'm also trying another experiment. I just lowered the price of my first Jack Daniels thriller, Whiskey Sour, to 99 cents.
It is currently ranked at #814 and I've sold 1334 copies this month at $3.99.
Some may be saying (me included), "Joe, why would you discount a book that is selling well?"
I'd love to drop in rank and hit the Top 100 paid list. It makes more sense to strike when the iron is hot--when the rank is under 1000--then to wait for Whiskey Sour to go back to #2000 or #3000 and then lower the price. I want to make it an automatic impulse purchase, and I'm hoping enough people will buy it to goose it up onto the Top 100.
I have ZERO hope this will work. But what's the point of having all these titles to play with if I don't experiment with lowering prices?
Whiskey Sour was earning me $300 a day, and I may be pissing that away. But I won't know until I try. Coming off freebie promos for Dirty Martini and Bloody Mary, and having seven titles in the Kindle Top 100 Police Procedural category, I might as well give it a go.
My sci-fi action novel Timecaster, which was free last week (I gave away 18,000 copies), is now enjoying its best ranking ever on Amazon, at #6400. In order to promote the series, I dropped the price of the sequel to 99 cents for a limited time.
BTW, for those keeping tallies, I've sold over 12,000 ebooks this month, the majority at $3.99, had 2200 borrows, and have given away over 120,000, all on Kindle.
I also asked my buddy Melinda DuChamp for a sales update, and she emailed me.
Melinda: "Happy to share, dearie. The two ebooks have made me over $65k in seven months. I'm working on a third, then I'm going to follow your lead and make a trilogy boxed set and a paper version via Createspace. Considering how quickly I wrote these books, this is the highest paid I've ever been as a writer per hour, even with traditional paper sales in the millions under my other names."
Joe sez: I want to stress that Your Mileage May Vary. I don't think there's any magic bullet, secret to success, or guarantees. All we can do is write good books, get good covers, and experiment until we get noticed. The more books you have, and the more you change the variables, the better chance you have at making some money.
If you regularly follow this blog, you know I'm never content. I'm always trying new things, investigating new possibilities, playing with platforms and prices.
If you're new to this blog, looking for the secret to success, here's my tried and true formula:
1. Write a good book.
2. Get a professional cover.
3. Write a terrific product description.
4. Price it right.
5. Keep writing and experimenting with self-publishing until you get lucky.
You may not be successful yet. But yet is the term you need to focus on.
Ebooks are forever. That gives you a lot of time to build a backlist, find an audience, and get lucky. The longer you try, the more your odds improve. And trust me--success is worth decades of discouragement.
45 comments:
I've just read the "look inside" of Bloody Mary. I disagree that, in your case, talent has very little to do with success. I think it has rather a lot. That's good writing, there.
Very encouraging blog. I think the last line was the best. 'success is worth decades of discouragement.'
Indie authors have a tough row to hoe. I'm glad to get other's take on how it's going. Thanks.
In my experience with multiple titles, rotating them into the Select Free program and using the monthly Bookbub for a $0.99 offering has increased my overall sales by 20% in the past few months.
Select is no cost to me, and the Bub is $400 for a mystery/thriller title selling for $0.99.
Everytime I go free or utilize Bookbub with the first in a series, the other $3.99 titles jump noticeably.
Amazon currently lets us pick 2 categories for our books, but when you can make a few hundred sales per day with a new release, they often pick another category for you - increasing your visibility to a new type of audience, for me that was the 'female sleuth' category.
Interestingly enough; 25 months into my self publishing journey, my oldest books still move 10 copies a day on average (at $2.99ea), and have done so for quite some time.
That's $600 per month in profit for each backlist title, and that's one hell of a long tail! Try finding that kind of royalty in the world of the Big 6 for your 'forgotten' work.
I needed that last line, too: "success is worth decades of discouragement." I'm going to print it out and put it above my writing desk.
I'm so glad you're back (even if it's only temporary).
Good morning, Joe.
Thanks for another great blog post. I appreciate it!
TK Kenyon
@Jude Hardin-
How can you read this, and Ann's earlier post, and continue to ask us if you should self-publish your next release?
She had 3 million Big 6 books in print and still couldn't afford to buy her son's braces, for crying out loud!
I put my son through NYU the past 2 years with my ebook earnings while not accumulating a shred of debt.
I hope to be reading your indie sales report here in a few months Jude. Just do it, my man!
Love your blog, and it is incredibly useful. I'm with a Big 6 -- or isn't it now Big 4? -- publisher, but I think I'm going to try my luck myself with the next books. Thanks!
How can you read this, and Ann's earlier post, and continue to ask us if you should self-publish your next release?
Without going into any of the details of my contract, T&M gets first look at my next book and then has a certain amount of time to make an offer. If we can't come to terms, the book is then mine to do with as I wish. It's the beginning of a new series, but Nicholas Colt is still one of the main characters, and this new book follows the time line of the Colt series. So it will have to be released sometime after the last book in my T&M contract, which will be sometime in 2014. So, if I don't sign it with T&M, I might as well shop it around and see what happens.
In the meantime, though, I probably will self-publish something. Either a standalone thriller, or a prequel to the first book in the Colt series. I've been considering that, thinking I could do the free promos and all to maybe generate better sales for the rest of the series.
What do you think Joe? Ann? Anyone? Standalone, or prequel? Of course I can do both, but I'll have to choose which to do first, and I would like to go with whatever has the best chance of success.
I love these marketing posts you're doing lately. I think they're really interesting. I'm still not too sold on KDP Select, but I think your ideas behind it are neat, too.
I'm also not currently in a good place to use paid marketing, but the links and experiences with places like BookBub are awesome to hear about. I'm hoping to use them eventually for some stuff, but doing research about them and hearing experiences is definitely useful to know beforehand.
I'm glad you're back to posting more, too! Your insights are always a ton different than others who are in a similar place as you, so it's neat to see two sides of self-publishing.
Do both, Jude. :)
Does T&M have an option on a Colt prequel? If so, you'll have a wait on that one, too. But series are nice because they do build off each other. Of course you could also do well with a standalone.
The amazing thing is that we now have a choice about what to write and how to publish it. Choices make things more difficult sometimes, but having choices is one of the best things about self-publishing.
Which do you think would be the most fun? That's one of the biggest lessons I've learned from Joe. Remember that writing is fun. If you let the business stress overshadow that, you'll be headed for burnout land.
I love hearing these kinds of experiences and hard numbers from other authors, especially as I plan to self-publish in the future, even though my books are selling very well with my publisher. All the insight you give into the process and the links to your editors, book cover designers, etc. are priceless.
Thanks for taking the time to help other authors.
Does T&M have an option on a Colt prequel?
No, just on my next book. I recently turned in my last book for the contract, and they have an option on the next one after that, which is almost finished.
I'm leaning toward doing the prequel next, and making that my first self-published novel. I know the Nicholas Colt character well, and I could probably write it pretty fast.
Joe,
Did you see the coming changes to the Amazon Affiliate operating agreement that were sent out today?
I'm guessing you are not an Amazon affiliate, but the changes look like they will have a MAJOR impact on the listing of FREE ebook titles ... and make it harder for authors to utilize KDP Select to their advantage as well.
Fewer sites listing the free ebooks means less downloads which equals less secondary sales for the authors.
There is a thread over at Kindleboards (which is a HUGE affiliate site) that is discussing the ramifications.
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,143143.0.html
This is going to be a big problem for my WTRAFSOG site as well as the free ebooks listed not only support and promote the authors, but generate real income.
Summer
I have been cleaning up this week on your freebies. I go to your site all the time for advice and real information. This week, I've been fascinated by your detailed posts. I grabbed Dirty Martini earlier and am LOVING IT. So much that I bought Whiskey Sour just because I could. Didn't read the "jacket" and I didn't check the reviews.
I devoted fan and student. Ellen Lynn, author of Strong Enough
mymotherstuttered.blogspot.com
For what it's worth, here's my support:
http://mymotherstuttered.blogspot.com/2013/02/free-books-alert-and-author-tips.html
Loved the last line "success is worth decades of discouragement" so much that I have typed it and and am going to hang it over my desk! Always love reading your feed, the inspiration keeps me going when I think I might just give up.
Thanks for the help!
A little background first, and I'll share my stats as I go along. I have six titles out, and I started publishing six months ago. I've sold $100 worth of books with five titles over at Smashwords.
I put them up, promoted only on Twitter, and I'm certain not one follower bought a book. No reviews as of yet. My guess, random buyers found me, there could be some word-of-mouth going on, but I'm not doing cartwheels. I would love for the iPad users to find me.
I went the full five days with my only KSP title last week, Lonely Hero Thing, not wanting all of my eggs in one basket, and only announced that free week in one place. That was here. If anyone here picked up a copy, thanks for the push. I mean that.
What I did give away was 170 units in those five day, and reached #43 in occult. I don't expect to see any measurable bump in sales on 170 units.
My Amazon sales for the last six months on all six titles has yet to break $50. I again trumpeted on Twitter, and may have sold a unit or two. I'll never know. No reviews as of yet.
I needed to reach readers, and now I can reach readers. I can't wait to reach real readers!
To compare my earnings between Amazon and Smashwords, I offer 50% of each novel as a sample at Smashwords, and Amazon provides enough of a sample in their Look Inside feature that I can't complain.
As an experiment of my own I'll leave LHT in the KSP program, and next period I'll use the full five days, same book, using the sites I found here to reach real readers.
It is my firm belief that sampling is the only real marketing tool we unknowns have that actually works. That's why I think Smashwords has worked better than Amazon in my first six months.
Joe and Ann, congrats to both of you on your success! For those of us who are just getting starting, it's always encouraging to hear insights and success stories from those who have already blazed the trail.
I also can't overstate how much I believe in Heinlein's Rules and how they will help contribute to success in the long run. Write the best book that you can, then go ahead and publish it and get it out there, and then start writing the next book. Keep learning, keep writing, and keep having fun. That's my plan, anyway!
I'm the only one who looks at Joe's covers with all those drinks and feels an urge to imbibe?
Wonderful success stories. But as for me, I've decided against Select Free because 1) I'm uncomfortable with exclusivity, and b) I don't really have a series. If I *did* have a series I'd go the permafree route for the first book.
As a minority author with ethnic characters on many (not all) of my books, I'm also reluctant to buy expensive ads (I purchased some less expensive ones as a test and did not see any results). But I'm happy for those who found success with that. While I could always be doing better, I'm pleased with how I *am* doing, particularly completing a 65K novel in 90 days and my plan to have 4 titles (2 backlist, 2 new) available for the first four months of this year (I'm already halfway there!) May re-visit Select when I have 15 titles available (I'm up to 8 now).
.
Do consider carefully price changes on titles doing well. The Amazon algorithm appears to match books by price. So changing the price puts it in another bucket of books that might not sell so well or even perform as well on its next free giveaway. Now if your book is actually creating the hopping baskets for the other books to fall into then YMMV.
.
.
It seems that free books can be a very effective way to help a limited number of authors, but overall most books don't "sell" that well even when free, and overall the free system seriously cuts into the paid sales.
@KDP Select free
@ Ripley King
For some months I saw very little activity on sales but then again I was doing virtually nothing to market the fiction I have out at present - eight episodes and a full compilation of The Eyewitness Protocols, by PJ Reynolds.
So it was interesting to run with KDP Select, having all eight available to release at once - unlike when first released, when written, last year. I did all five days, and the run ended earlier this week. Again, zero marketing: I wanted to see what would happen. Well...
...almost all of them jumped well into 200+ copies taken in .com, almost a third as much in .co.uk, and activity reaching the teens in .ca and .de. Late in the free run I found the other territories waking up, but only a little. All together, a couple of thousand copies were taken, but only because of the episodic nature of the books (and they are a decent length - circa 20k words, or 90-ish pages each).
The first episode also gained the first review of the story by anyone (and unknown to me):
"I downloaded all eight of these books because they were free, but I actually wound up enjoying this first one quite thoroughly. It's well written, interesting, deep, and suspenseful. The plot leaves you wanting more. I can't wait to read the rest!"
Unexpectedly, there were some sales of the entire book during the free period for the episodes.
So, an interesting exercise in wearing the business-publisher hat. Thanks to Joe and everyone for the discussion on further ways to slice n' dice marketing possibilities - for when I go active.
Most of all, however, new stories - new IPs! - are needed, as with anyone, and recommended by everyone. Good luck to all.
Pat
THE EYEWITNESS PROTOCOLS, by PJ Reynolds
THE EYEWITNESS PROTOCOLS, Episode 1
etc
You people are sooo inspiring!
I went for a job interview today....
I don't want it. I want to write.
Seeing numbers like this make me feel I can do it. I don't need a million dollars. I need just enough to stay home and write another book.
@ Patrick R.
That just wanting to see what would happen thing is over for me, too. I love the idea of actively reaching readers, as opposed to getting chained to a wall in writer hell.
Our results are typical for basically zero marketing to real readers. I personally couldn't figure out how to reach them.
I did what I could with the writers out there, got ignored in my efforts to book a blog tour, or have them promote themselves with me even when asked as part of a trade, and the Kindle Boards tend to delete almost every attempt at self-promotion.
I don't want to buy reviews. You can tell they were purchased.
The pillow over my face was what every social network smothers us with, a glut of writers, screaming "buy my books."
I don't have the time to spend on social networking, and damn near killed myself working on a platform that showed zero results after six months. And between you and me, platform, as such, is overrated.
I just started, I'm working hard to pad my luck by producing quality reads, and I'll give as many books away as I can, as long as I'm actually reaching real readers. People who want to try a new voice. People who want to find new ideas in the form of fiction.
Check this out. Just got it in the e-mail from Amazon
March 1, 2013 version
The following is added at the end of the sub-section:
“In addition, notwithstanding the advertising fee rates described on this page or anything to the contrary contained in this Operating Agreement, if we determine you are primarily promoting free Kindle eBooks (i.e., eBooks for which the customer purchase price is $0.00), YOU WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO EARN ANY ADVERTISING FEES DURING ANY MONTH IN WHICH YOU MEET THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:
(a) 20,000 or more free Kindle eBooks are ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links; and
(b) At least 80% of all Kindle eBooks ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links are free Kindle eBooks.”
Amazon might have popped our big green balloon.
Back here to comment on my free experiment on KDP. My time travel romance "Treasure So Rare", Book 3 in the time travel trilogy was published for the first time on KDP last week. It stayed in the top 2-5 free in its category for 4 days. I had about 4000 downloads for the 5 days and it's spilled over to my other 8 romances. It ended last night. It really bumped up the ranks for almost all my books but especially the books in the series, Once Upon a Remembrance Book 1 and Soulmates Through Time Book 2 in the trilogy have sold nicely compared to very slow sales before. I've been putting ebooks out since May 2012 and it's been steady but very slow.
So my next idea is I'm putting my contemporary romance series, Book 2 and then a week or so later Book 3on KDP free 5 days each and see if it bumps up the other two books in the series.
Joe, thanks for the free downloads. Looking forward to reading them. My novel Trip Wire is free for three days starting today.
J Randall
Thanks for this update. I snagged a copy of all the free book offerings. I liked your suggestion to continue and not give up. I only have one 99 cent short story collection right now, but it makes enough per month to cover my cell phone bill. :)
Have a debut novel coming out in April and will try all these techniques. Hope to become another Chicago success story.
Good post, folks.
As someone who has ghost written several books, I always wonder about the name recognition factor when reading about authors who switch to indie publishing.
When I read Ann’s post, my first reaction was, “That‘s great. But she had a following when she went indie. It wouldn‘t apply to me.”
Then Melinda Duchamp pretty much shot that out of the water, since -- as I understand it -- that was a new pseudonym for her.
I know you’ve addressed the name-recognition issue a few times. But, like John McClane, old excuses and rationalizations die hard.
Amazon just announced changes to affiliate program which can impact the KDP Select users. It states that people who promote only freebies or mostly freebies won't be getting paid for it, which means book bloggers will be moving away from freebies and do discounted books instead. Here is the Amazon message:
March 1, 2013 version
The following is added at the end of the sub-section:
“In addition, notwithstanding the advertising fee rates described on this page or anything to the contrary contained in this Operating Agreement, if we determine you are primarily promoting free Kindle eBooks (i.e., eBooks for which the customer purchase price is $0.00), YOU WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO EARN ANY ADVERTISING FEES DURING ANY MONTH IN WHICH YOU MEET THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:
(a) 20,000 or more free Kindle eBooks are ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links; and
(b) At least 80% of all Kindle eBooks ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links are free Kindle eBooks.” "
So decision to price book at 99 cents seems to be brilliant tactic going forward! If bloggers promote less Free books, KDP Select loses even more value.
@Adrijus G : yes, this is an important news.
Another thing that may be the subject of the next entry on Joe's blog : the "bestseller campaigns".
http://www.leapfrogging.com/2013/02/18/debunking-the-bestseller-book-sales-spike/
A very gray area of life and business indeed. Strangely reminds me the argument about paid reviews.
It's the last day on my giveaway for the book that Lee Child calls "A terrific thriller" and Ken Bruen calls "Harlan Coben on Speed" So far, SWITCH has been downloaded over 1,300 times, so I'm hoping this will lead to new readers for my other four titles: No Cry For Help, K.A.R.M.A., Port of Sorrow and Angel With A Bullet. SWITCH if free today at: http://www.amazon.com/Switch-ebook/dp/B008BUYQ9M
Cheers,
Grant
I should mention, at the same time as this giveaway is going on for Switch, my newest thriller Port of Sorrow is seeing its best sales numbers of all my previous books, so readers are beginning to take notice :)
It's too bad that Amazon is jacking the price up for many of these ebooks in Europe. Instead of 99 cents I'm seeing $3.62. Instead of $2.99 I see $6.04. There are more examples. It's across the board and it's annoying as hell.
@Alan Spade - Great link on the scam that is 'bestseller campaigns'. Seems to be more prevalent in non-fiction, but don't think for a second that it doesn't happen in the fiction world.
I hate to get political, but in reading Ann Voss Peterson's account of how Harlequin created a new company to screw her out of foreign rights - and generally colluded with the Big 6 to keep authors earnings so low....does this strike anyone else as extremely hypocritical?
I mean, the publishing world is what 90% liberal, railing against capitalism and touting the 'fair share' narrative, yet behind closed doors in their business lives they practice what can only be described as ultra-capitalism: using their money and influence to f*** over the content creators/'little guys'.
I can just imagine the Facebook-like tax returns of these publishing houses - publicly signing on to tax the hell out of top earners while paying little to no corporate taxes themselves. I hope every one of them goes bankrupt in the most public manner possible.
Just a pre-coffee Sunday morning rant, feel free to delete Joe.
@Anon 7:08 : it's definitely a gray area, as an author with deep pockets can use Resultsource as well as a publishing company.
That's why it seems important to me to develop a consciousness, because there are some cases in life where it's only about you and your consciousness.
I've blogged about it (and some other practices of big publishing). Sorry, in french.
75,000 copies! Wow! Is that unprecedented or what? Nice job Ann!
Seems to me most of the success stories on Amazon Kindle these days are people writing very graphically violent thrillers or porn. Lots and lots of porn. Another thing that strikes me is that writers with a background in publishing seem to do considerably better than newbies. Just two observations.
Hey Joe, just wondering about the switch from Joe Kimball to JA Konrath on the new Timecaster covers. Any plans for Kimball in the future? I hope those books find a bigger audience soon...they deserve it.
And what are your future plans for Kilborn?
Ann and Joe,
informative posts. Thank you both!
I've recently (after 41 years of writing and being published with many traditional legacy publishers since 198) I just started self-publishing eBooks and am astonished at the money I'm getting! Thank you Joe!!!
A big question for you both: WOULD IT BE WORTH IT FOR ME TO DO THE PRINT VERSIONS OF MY EBOOKS AT CREATESPACE??? You both would know. Should I or shouldn't I? Warmly, a fan, author Kathryn Meyer Griffith rdgriff@htc.net
To SashaGirl: I would definitely go through the steps with Createspace, IF you can format your own book, and you can get a cheap back cover. (I assume you already have the cover.) Unlike all-in-one self-pub houses, Createspace won't charge you a dime. I spent about $6 to get a finished copy of the book so I could see EXACTLY how it looked. Other than that, you are under no obligation. And then the book is listed in paperback on Amazon and in the Createspace store.
Honestly I'm impressed with the success you have had thus far! Dont give up!
Nice job, Joe. BookBooster is charging $45 now instead of $25. You made them popular and they got smart and raised their prices. Now I'm not so sure it's worth the cost.
Hi I am going into the selfpublishing business. Came here on Merrick's introduction, he says there's plenty of tips. Is it really true that if u give away free copies on Kindle pple will buy more? Why would that be?
I have couple of short stories and i decided to make public, one on my website. there's some risk like some pple i know, they'd rather download for free only eg for some salvatore's ebooks than buy them
Is it adviaable to set a low price? Hope someone experienced can answer me? thank you!
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