NemoTheOne
Power Member
- May 18, 2009
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Is fair to say that short content does not do well in this genre?
Guys: Kindle is the Ticket!
- Thread starter GobBluthJD
- Start date
Is fair to say that short content does not do well in this genre?
For SHORT content is when it starts to depend on the niche and story quality in those genres. For example, I know someone who earns $3,000 to $5,000/month with having 80 shorter stories. We've also seen that author a few pages back who does the same word counts with over 200 books and only earns $400 to $2,000.
rainy_leela
Newbie
- Aug 29, 2012
- 24
- 12
It depends what you consider short content. Series do very well... so if you have a story of 50k words, break it up into smaller portions and then sell the parts as a series... but also be sure to sell the full story as the full series for a higher price. What you'll have there is several listings from just one story.
NemoTheOne
Power Member
- May 18, 2009
- 735
- 248
It depends what you consider short content. Series do very well... so if you have a story of 50k words, break it up into smaller portions and then sell the parts as a series... but also be sure to sell the full story as the full series for a higher price. What you'll have there is several listings from just one story.
I was not clear.
By "Short", I would consider a peice of 5k, 10k words.
It seems older posts, people started off doing 5k and 10k series parts - but now it seems that 'short' is about 15k/20k in fiction.
As alot of those 'older posts' were in mid 2013 and early to mid 2014 -with mid 2014 approaching on almost being 'a year ago'
10k seems to small to tell a story, even if it is part of a series, yes?
rainy_leela
Newbie
- Aug 29, 2012
- 24
- 12
To keep up with the genre, I often read new selections. One of the most recent stories I read was a tad under 10k words... but people were chomping at the bit to get the next one. So... to me, it just depends on your description and what you put into those 10k words. Oh, and be sure to have a email capture at the end of the book so that people can subscribe!
C C Z
Registered Member
- Dec 18, 2013
- 58
- 7
To keep up with the genre, I often read new selections. One of the most recent stories I read was a tad under 10k words... but people were chomping at the bit to get the next one. So... to me, it just depends on your description and what you put into those 10k words. Oh, and be sure to have a email capture at the end of the book so that people can subscribe!
Hey Rainy,
By New Adult, you mean the category "Teen and Young Adult" correct?
Hopefully you do, because I browsed over to "New Adult and College Romance" and the best sellers all had covers of half naked men, and were definitely geared towards women, and I would rather not write books like that, I wouldn't enjoy it very much, haha.
Carepolice
Power Member
- Mar 25, 2009
- 575
- 629
Quick update: My first book FINALLY went live less than an hour ago. It's already got two downloads in KU/KOLL. Talk about motivating!
Congratulations! Now work towards another book that caters to this audience so you can be blown away when customers start purchasing everything you publish.
Advice for anyone publishing:
Please make sure your book descriptions and (at the very least) preview portion of your book is written well. There's a huge difference in sales figures between books with half-assed descriptions and books with content made to "sell" the book.
Think about it for a moment, if you're in the market for a book that teaches you all about hand creams and your choices are:
Book A:
In this book I promise to accompany you through a series of helpful informations regarding Hand Creams so that you may become knowledgeable in this subject.
or...
Book B:
Does your skin crack frequently? Are handshakes painful?
As a dermatologist I'm often asked for advice about hand cream selection and in this book I'll help you pick the best match for your skin type. You'll be amazed by how effective the right hand cream can be so let's get you started on the road to recovery with this easy-to-follow guide!
Which one would you buy?
Outsourcing a book can be expensive, I get that. Sometimes it's in your best interest to hire someone that speaks English as their second language but please do yourselves a huge favor and have someone else check your description and first few pages for possible improvements. There's no reason to leave money on the table, guys!
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- Dec 26, 2013
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I can only echo what Carepolice says.
But you may as well go the whole hog and make the entire work high quality not just the preview else you will get a lot of negative reviews/refunds.
If your outsourcing pay talented people to do the work and when people are presented with a high quality alternative for the same price they tend to buy that or if you can do it yourself to start with great!
If you have no talent and no money your a bit f***ed on KDP! Just like life!
Something else I have also noticed about sales. If you are already a successful author - by which I mean have high ranking books that make Amazon money - they promote you a lot more. So by definition you sell more and find it easier to launch new books that are successful in your genre.
So once your a bit successful it is a lot easier to scale that success. Think about it as that is how it works in real life to. "Famous" people sell more than those who are not.
So your first goal in dominating a niche is to get "famous" in that niche then you will find it a lot easier.
Amazon will also "make you more famous" if you produce good quality books that sell.
But you may as well go the whole hog and make the entire work high quality not just the preview else you will get a lot of negative reviews/refunds.
If your outsourcing pay talented people to do the work and when people are presented with a high quality alternative for the same price they tend to buy that or if you can do it yourself to start with great!
If you have no talent and no money your a bit f***ed on KDP! Just like life!
Something else I have also noticed about sales. If you are already a successful author - by which I mean have high ranking books that make Amazon money - they promote you a lot more. So by definition you sell more and find it easier to launch new books that are successful in your genre.
So once your a bit successful it is a lot easier to scale that success. Think about it as that is how it works in real life to. "Famous" people sell more than those who are not.
So your first goal in dominating a niche is to get "famous" in that niche then you will find it a lot easier.
Amazon will also "make you more famous" if you produce good quality books that sell.
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Quick question here: my book is nearly done. Now I'm thinking about publishing it myself or creating a new author name. Since I have already a personal website, it would be easy to link that together. However, I don't have any references and this book is about "making money" duh. I know the content is good, but I could create a new persona, who got famous doing this.
What do you think?
What do you think?
- Dec 26, 2013
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In my opinion the best thing to do particularly in respect of the genre you are talking about, is "prove it makes money".
1st follow whatever it is you describe yourself and document the results.
Assuming it works...
Then giveaway a few free copies, perhaps to people on BHW in return for reviews.
Then provide a free book/website that includes all your proof and use that to up sell to the actual book.
That will start to build your credibility.
Sorry for the slow reply... I have been busy writing every day. I don't only publish fiction. I publish fiction and non-fiction across various categories.
My first major bump was when stopped trying to keyword research and trying to write books that were similar to best sellers. I just stopped all the nonsense and wrote what I already had knowledge about and stuff that I thought I, as a reader, would like to read. That is when I saw my readership take off.
It didn't take long before I got bored of the categories I was writing in. My second major boost was when I looked at categories that were filled with outsourced books by poor writers and scamlet type books that were only like 3-5k in length. When I wrote robust, sensible, material that was triple the length of those books I immediately dominated the category. I didn't have any particular strategy for this... I just clicked around until I saw absurdly short books with good rank and clicked "Look Inside" to see how bad the writing was. Then I would buy the book... after I confirmed that it was a cheapo outsourced book I went to work on a good book and within a day or two I was outranking the poorer book.
I've got 3 pen names that always launch books into the sub 10k range if I release something under those pens, and while I have a mailing list I have yet to use it. I also do not run any promotions or promo days anymore although I did need to when I first started. I guess because I only release quality books people have favorited my pen name. Not sure, but this was not the case before. I also have 3 books that are the #1 best seller in their category and have been there for a while now.
Since I waste no money on outsourcers, editors, cover designers, or the like I know that ever word I type is money in my pocket. Some of the advice that I have read here and other forums makes me roll my eyes. Like when people say that it doesn't matter what you write as long as you have a good cover, blurb, and first few pages. This is a good way to get a bad review, a high refund rate, and not have readers go back to your pen name and buy again. Shit advice.
You can profit in any category with a good book. I guarantee it.
The quality of your entire book is far more important than your blurb, title, and cover.... All of those little things can be optimized, but having a quality book is the difference between a reader buying 1 book or yours and moving on or a person buying your book, signing up for your mailing list, coming back and buying 2 more books, leaving a glowing review, and favoriting your pen name. Following the other advice is a good way to get good sales while your book is a new release and then sitting back watching while the ranking slowly dribble down in the abyss.
But what works for me may not work for others, so pick whatever strategy works. I'm deep in 5 figure per month territory with my no-nonsense approach so far, and I was far on the other side of the fence when I first started. Also while my strategy is more profitable it requires you to be able to write good material and actually put in the work. It's not really "passive" income until the work has been done the book. So while outsourcing doesn't profit as much it's probably better if you want to be lazy. I like writing, so it's not so bad for me.
NemoTheOne
Power Member
- May 18, 2009
- 735
- 248
dsavior - how many books do you have out now?
C C Z
Registered Member
- Dec 18, 2013
- 58
- 7
Thank you very much for replying. I bolded the text in your post that inspired me to finally take action.
Well I am deciding to try it out your way, specifically because I really do like writing, as you do, and seeing you succeed in this way with a more simple strategy is motivating for me personally.
I decided to write a book in a non fiction niche about a topic I am personally interested in and know a quite a bit about, and would enjoy researching the topic also, as I will have to for this sort of book anyway.
I do remember one of the guys here, who I believe was having success, said that it was a mistake for him to write about things he enjoyed himself and he did a lot of keyword research and outsource instead and was successful with it.
It can work both ways then, like you say. If you want to not do a lot of writing yourself and outsource, it obviously does work that way but you can also do it your way, by simply writing great books yourself.
Granted you need to be able to type fast enough and be creative enough, and to enjoy writing enough, to release high quality books in a consistent way like you do, but you showed us that it is definitely possible and very profitable if done right.
So I will put time and effort into this book and make it the best I can make it to be, and we'll see what happens. I am not underestimating the time and effort I will need to put in to make sure it succeeds.
Whatever happens, I will try to update this thread with how it's going or how it went.
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dsavior:
thats very interesting!
7k words per day is crazy.
I maybe get to about 2k or 3k.
You said that you have 3 pen names - what is the upside of using a pen name? Because that is one of the things, which is giving me headaches atm.
Yes, you're right that the content is extremely important, but I think that the cover is at least as much important. When I'm buying books, I mostly look for the covers - not even consciously.
thats very interesting!
7k words per day is crazy.
I maybe get to about 2k or 3k.
You said that you have 3 pen names - what is the upside of using a pen name? Because that is one of the things, which is giving me headaches atm.
Yes, you're right that the content is extremely important, but I think that the cover is at least as much important. When I'm buying books, I mostly look for the covers - not even consciously.
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I try to space my writing out throughout the day... I write 1k, then go off and do something, then write another 1k, go off and do something. It makes it a lot easier than trying to bang out 7k words at once. I also write maybe 3 or 4 books at once so I am not always working on the same thing and getting bored.
I have more than 3 pen names, but only 3 of them are at a med-high level right now. The benefit of a pen name is to segment out your works, so that you're selling similar books under a pen name. If you have a non-fiction pen name and 3 books about fitness on that pen it wouldn't make sense to people who have signed up for your mailing list or favorited you if you suddenly released a mystery novel under that pen name.
Don't get me wrong, the cover, blurb etc are very important, but the content and quality of your book is more so. Once your book is done it's pretty much done, but you can change everything else later if your book is failing, but you probably aren't going to re-write the book.
The cover and blurb is your bait, but the book is what will determine if you can snowball your sales. Think of it like a burger chain... You can make your restaurant nice and shiny with a picture of a juicy burger that says "The best burgers in town!" ... People will show up and try you once. The kindle store is huge, so lots of people will try you once and you'll make money on first tries alone. But if you're burgers are dry, bland, and overpriced they will never come back to your burger joint again. If you really do have the best burgers in town they'll come back for seconds or thirds, or when you release a new chicken sandwich and claim it's the best chicken in town they'll be the first to bite. Haha
I have more than 3 pen names, but only 3 of them are at a med-high level right now. The benefit of a pen name is to segment out your works, so that you're selling similar books under a pen name. If you have a non-fiction pen name and 3 books about fitness on that pen it wouldn't make sense to people who have signed up for your mailing list or favorited you if you suddenly released a mystery novel under that pen name.
Don't get me wrong, the cover, blurb etc are very important, but the content and quality of your book is more so. Once your book is done it's pretty much done, but you can change everything else later if your book is failing, but you probably aren't going to re-write the book.
The cover and blurb is your bait, but the book is what will determine if you can snowball your sales. Think of it like a burger chain... You can make your restaurant nice and shiny with a picture of a juicy burger that says "The best burgers in town!" ... People will show up and try you once. The kindle store is huge, so lots of people will try you once and you'll make money on first tries alone. But if you're burgers are dry, bland, and overpriced they will never come back to your burger joint again. If you really do have the best burgers in town they'll come back for seconds or thirds, or when you release a new chicken sandwich and claim it's the best chicken in town they'll be the first to bite. Haha
Anybody have advice for when Amazon changes the categories that you're listed in? I understand they do it to improve the odds of sales, but last night they swapped me over to a category that's beyond over-saturated and doesn't quite fit my book. To give you an idea, my sales rank dropped below 215,000.
- Dec 26, 2013
- 5,947
- 5,395
Anybody have advice for when Amazon changes the categories that you're listed in? I understand they do it to improve the odds of sales, but last night they swapped me over to a category that's beyond over-saturated and doesn't quite fit my book. To give you an idea, my sales rank dropped below 215,000.
Not 100% sure what you mean, but from your bookshelf you can edit a book you have already published and change the category yourself.