Guys: Kindle is the Ticket!
- Thread starter GobBluthJD
- Start date
Good to know we can change them whenever we want. Based on the keywords you choose, Amazon will select further sub-categories (if there are any) beyond the ones you can select. This started out fine, but randomly it got switched to the Literary Fiction category the other day (probably a glitch). The rank is under 300,000 now as a result. Would you recommend doing a free giveaway period in order to increase its free downloads rank (so as to make money off KU/KOLL rather than sales)? Since going live on Tuesday, the book has earned me two downloads and one sale. I know a big part of this is due to the glitch, but I'm also pretty sure it'll be a book not worth converting into a series. Do you do anything differently with books you decide not to make a series out of?
- Dec 26, 2013
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Basically I spend all my time creating for want of a better phrase, the pilot for a series. Some work, some don't.
The ones that do I then set up a team and pay them to continue creating each episode of the series, as I know it will sell based on the pilot. I then produce more pilots and outsource the successful ones and keep repeating the process. That approach enables me to scale very quickly across multiple series, by concentrating my time on finding the series where the money lies and leaving the continued production to others.
The ones that don't seem to work, unless something went wrong and I feel it should be doing better, I just leave them. My definition of success and yours may differ but I have found that normally a successful book sells from day 1 so in a couple of days if you haven't registered any sales it probably isn't going to work. The key is learn to fail fast and move on.
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I made the mistake of advertising it as part one of a series and even mentioned the title of the sequel plus wrote about half of it, so I'll finish this book. Would you recommend writing a short (~5K words) third part so that I have enough for a trilogy+bundle or would you just bundle the two and move on?
Thanks for all your advice, by the way.
- Dec 26, 2013
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I made the mistake of advertising it as part one of a series and even mentioned the title of the sequel plus wrote about half of it, so I'll finish this book. Would you recommend writing a short (~5K words) third part so that I have enough for a trilogy+bundle or would you just bundle the two and move on?
Thanks for all your advice, by the way.
I don't want to be mean, but if they are not selling why bother continuing, who is going to care if the trilogy isn't complete? I would stop, choose another pen name and move on.
Nothing mean about your answer. I appreciate the insight.
Why choose a different pen name, though? I'd agree if there wasn't a cap on author pages we could make, but it seems odd to me. Isn't it better to have more books overall (associated with the same name, I mean), even if some are weak?
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Always real sounding.
Morgadeshou
Newbie
- Apr 21, 2014
- 23
- 5
Are there any special marketing things you do to have your books sell from day 1? Or does it literally just take off once you post it?
I generally post the book, gather reviewers, do a free promo or something, and then the money starts rolling in about 3 weeks after I post the book when the promo finishes. I'm guessing that you have a lot of subscribers/people from your mailing list that will pick up your books right away, so that might be why you have more luck with day 1. It just seems like whenever I post new books without reviews or any marketing, the books just fall flat until I hype them up. Sometimes I get day 1 sales if I post new books in niches with way fewer competitors, but I've never really gotten high turn over from medium-larger niches (200 books+). Do you guys really just get a ton of day 1 sales from your super high quality descriptions/cover/previews? Any insight would be appreciated because I hate doing free promos, and it seems like most of you big guys are stopping them
- Dec 26, 2013
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- 5,395
Nothing mean about your answer. I appreciate the insight.
Why choose a different pen name, though? I'd agree if there wasn't a cap on author pages we could make, but it seems odd to me. Isn't it better to have more books overall (associated with the same name, I mean), even if some are weak?
Lets say you write 1 book that is about weight loss and another book that is a detective mystery story. It is unlikely the same author would be expert at both. Hence 2 different pen names. You should use a different pen name for each category.
- Dec 26, 2013
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As I said at the start I spend all my time creating "pilots" so there is no list, no existing readers or reviews. I don't even bother with a FREE giveaway.
All that can come later when I am expanding a successful Pilot into a series.
If you research your genre and upload to KDP properly, Amazon will take care of the rest.
Find attached my pilots I created between Jan 1 2015 and Jan 16 2015.
There are really 3 catagories of pilot you can see:
Ones that work, ones that don't and ones that have not been live long enough but have potential.
I usually give them about 1 week before I decide if they are hit or miss.
So don't get me wrong not every pilot is a hit. As you can see some work, some don't.
Hence why I learn to fail fast and move onto the next.
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I'm guessing your three categories are 0 sales = fail, 1 to 19 = potential, 20+ = success?
Also, I noticed you have very few downloads (from KU/KOLL) overall. Do you prefer to sell at 35% so as to be able to upload to competitors like Google, Barnes&Noble, Smashwords, etc? I'm seeing more and more authors doing that, some saying that GooglePlay and Apple (through Smashwords) make up almost 50% of their sales.
Also, I noticed you have very few downloads (from KU/KOLL) overall. Do you prefer to sell at 35% so as to be able to upload to competitors like Google, Barnes&Noble, Smashwords, etc? I'm seeing more and more authors doing that, some saying that GooglePlay and Apple (through Smashwords) make up almost 50% of their sales.
KDP will auto-renew every 90 days unless you set it otherwise. You can have 5 more free days for each of those periods.
With as much as KU brings in, I haven't pursued publishing anywhere else. Would love to know if I'm missing something though.
Thanks for the explanation on KDP.
I've been spending all day trying to figure out how much one can expect in sales from the other eBook stores. I've found some people who put it everywhere because they're idiots (these people argue that outside Amazon equals 20% of their sales, so why rely on 80% only. Uhh... because 80% + 20% = 100%, but 80% at double royalty = 160%).
HOWEVER, I've also found some who say they rank their sales as follows:
1) Amazon
2) Google
3) Apple (closely behind Google, apparently)
4) Nook+Kobo combined
5) Other combined
If the Net value of the non-Amazon sources ends up being equal to or greater than 50% of Amazon's revenues, then it's worth dropping out of. Annoyingly, none of the people who gave this info are sharing what percentage comes from what company.
- Dec 26, 2013
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Gosh you have a lot of questions spread across a few posts...
Get your books up on Amazon ASAP to see if they sell and then see how you can scale into a series / increase profit. Else you spend all your time procrastinating.
Don't bother about selling your books anywhere other than Amazon to start with.
Because a) Amazon is typically 66% of the words book sales so if it does not sell there it will not sell anywhere else. b) You have to sell it exclusively through Amazon to qualify for KOLL. You sign up for 90 days at a time. Analyse how many KOLL downloads you are making in that first 90 days and determine if it is worth removing yourself from it and branching out.
In my case I am not selling anywhere else, just Amazon and the vast majority of my books are $2.99 so I get 70%.
You slightly misunderstand how I measure success and failure. Success is financial profit, failure is financial loss.
In other words I am looking for series I can scale. That is books that are making regular sales everyday. Once I have that I then need to see how much it is going to cost me to scale into a series and determine if there is profit in it that is worth my time.
Lets say a book costs $300 to outsource and the pilot is making 3 sales per day at $2.99 my cut is a little over $2 or about $6 per day.
So it will take me 50 days of sales to get my money back, thereafter it is pure profit. I would be pretty happy with that as in a year I would make 4x my investment, so I scale that into a series.
I view this as a publisher not an author, so success is based on profit.
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GringoMonkey
But, if the pilot making 3 sales a day, why do you think it will take 50 days to get your money back?
In my case, first 10 days the sells are much better, and than it's go down and down.
It's not remain in the same level.
And how can you scale to a serials...do you mean that if the niche works - you create the plot in the same niche/sub niche?
For example, if i have a stand alone novel 25k words, i can't create a serials from it, as it's already have a "happy ending"
i just can scale and make the serials in the same niche, as i see it's works.
But, if the pilot making 3 sales a day, why do you think it will take 50 days to get your money back?
In my case, first 10 days the sells are much better, and than it's go down and down.
It's not remain in the same level.
And how can you scale to a serials...do you mean that if the niche works - you create the plot in the same niche/sub niche?
For example, if i have a stand alone novel 25k words, i can't create a serials from it, as it's already have a "happy ending"
i just can scale and make the serials in the same niche, as i see it's works.
- Dec 26, 2013
- 5,947
- 5,395
GringoMonkey
But, if the pilot making 3 sales a day, why do you think it will take 50 days to get your money back?
In my case, first 10 days the sells are much better, and than it's go down and down.
It's not remain in the same level.
And how can you scale to a serials...do you mean that if the niche works - you create the plot in the same niche/sub niche?
For example, if i have a stand alone novel 25k words, i can't create a serials from it, as it's already have a "happy ending"
i just can scale and make the serials in the same niche, as i see it's works.
In my experience sales go up not down after a couple of weeks and then level off.
It is all in how you design the book/series. In my opinion when you create a book you should design it from the outset so you can turn it into a series and maintain buyer interest.
I can't understand how it's possible in romance, or do you mean other genders?
It's just 2 options:
1) stand alone novel, and than it's end up with happy ending (they are married and happy)
2) cliffhanger that lead to second part of the series.
If you make anything else beside those options, readers will eat you alive
I guess we are talking about different genders here.
For option 1:I can't understand how it's possible in romance, or do you mean other genders?
It's just 2 options:
1) stand alone novel, and than it's end up with happy ending (they are married and happy)
2) cliffhanger that lead to second part of the series.
If you make anything else beside those options, readers will eat you alive
I guess we are talking about different genders here.
-First book: Typical romance story ending in happy marriage.
-Second book: Marriage enters its 'slump' phase at the same time that the main female character meets another guy who makes her feel the way her husband used to make her feel. This story is about her falling in love with the other guy, with the cliffhanger being when the husband finds out.
-Third book: Love triangle as the two men fight over her, ending with the husband winning.
-Fourth book (if you want a fourth book): MFC bumps into an ex-boyfriend. The reason they broke up is because one chose work/school over the relationship. Rest of story is done in flashback mode as she reminisces to the reader about how they met and what the relationship was like.
-Fifth book (if you want a fifth book): Spinoff. Typical romance story starring the best friend of the MFC (or other female character) who previously introduced in the series.
-Sixth book (if you want a sixth book): MFC of book 5 explains how the marriage fell apart. She meets someone else while taking a vacation to deal with the pain of being a devorcee and meets another amazing guy.
Rinse and repeat for a second series of books.
For option 2: Do the cliffhanger. If the book is popular, make another story. If not, abandon the story.