Launching a new fiction series on Amazon Kindle

Yack

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Because I have so much going on right now, I probably will only be able to come back once a week. This is definitely a long-game journey-style post and not a tutorial. There's 1,000 different ways to publish books on Amazon and a 1,000 different wonderful free resources online already who can give you much better advice right now than I can. Just posting to track my progress and to help myself stay excited ... indepth edits are KICKING MY TUCKUS.

I'm starting a new thriller series on Amazon. Planning for a 5-7 book series following a serial killer who keeps trying to turn his life around (and keeps failing). It's a fun story so far. I'm 1 1/2 books in and have a short story I'm using as a reader magnet. I'm starting this post today because things are starting to take a serious turn toward sales.

Warning, I'm tired and have had about enough editing for one day, so this post might be riddled with typos. Don't judge me. :p

Last week, I wrote the short story as a distraction and hired an editor to give it a professional once over. I already hired someone to create conforming covers. They look like the top sellers in the categories I'm targeting and enough like one another to know they're related. Yesterday, I finally got my domain, Facebook page/group and Insta, got a PO box, signed up with SendFox, and wrote my onboarding email sequences. (SUPER easy in SendFox.)

I spent all day (ALL DAMN DAY) formatting the book to upload to StoryOrigin (where readers can get it for free when they sub to my newsletter) and Amazon (where they can buy it for 99 cents). It's not enrolled in Kindle Select because I want to be able to give it away elsewhere, but the series will be Select. Tonight I started my Goodreads account (can't claim the book yet) and my Author Central page at Amazon.

Through StoryOrigin, you can also participate in Newsletter Swaps (where you exchange newsletter ads with other authors) and Group Promos (where you're all listed on the same page for people who want freebies or deals). I applied and was approved (!!) for a newsletter swap this week. I don't have any subs yet, so I'll reciprocate in three weeks.

Okay, so now I really have to finish those indepth edits and get my first book released. I had a few people encourage me to wait until they were all written, polished and ready to release before I did anything, but I feel like the timing is right. Keep your fingers crossed! See you next week...
 
Food poisoning and Facebook Ad account issues resulted in a bad week.

Subscribers: 6
New subs from Newsletter Swap: 5
Free downloads: 5
Sales: 0

Words written: 1200 words for Book 2

Edit of Book 1 is almost finished.

Money earned: $0
 
I'm running a KingSumo giveaway of a short thriller series similar to my own stories. They're written a popular author in the genre, but you'd have to be into thrillers to really know about her. So far, I'm happy with the results. I should end up with around 300 new subs and followers on FB, goodreads, etc. Will update when it's over. Editing is still moving forward. I've accepted that it's going to be slower than I'd hoped.
 
Hey, that’s something I like to read - is this your first book series? Good luck!
 
is this your first book series? Good luck!

I'm sorry. I missed this question earlier. I have a selection of non-fiction titles that sold pretty well in the past. This is my first foray into self-publishing novels.

Interesting note, remember this...

I spent all day ... formatting the book to upload to StoryOrigin (where readers can get it for free when they sub to my newsletter) and Amazon (where they can buy it for 99 cents).

I've sold one copy. There really are people who would rather buy something than give up their email address to get it free-of-charge.

KingSumo results:

Subscribers - 193
Instagram - 5 followers "lol"
FB - 61 followers/49 likes
goodreads - 43 followers

My first newsletter goes out in a few days. I'm kind of dreading the open rate. I have an onboarding sequence for my mailing list that went from 60% to 80% to 100%, so I feel confident as far as content, but I know a lot of people use junk mail addresses to sign up for giveaways.

Right now I'm focused on finishing edits for my first book (still) and finishing my second. A friend and mentor told me to wait until I have two books really ready to go before pulling the trigger, so I might be pushing back the publication date even further. :( I need to be careful that I'm not just procrastinating though. I kinda have that problem! lol Anyway, until next week...
 
Good luck.

If you can get real fans who subscribe to your fiction series you can make good money.

I used to make about $30,000 a month through kindle with about 3000 subscribers. In my case it lasted about 3 years before the series ran out of steam :)
 
My first newsletter goes out in a few days. I'm kind of dreading the open rate. I have an onboarding sequence for my mailing list that went from 60% to 80% to 100%, so I feel confident as far as content, but I know a lot of people use junk mail addresses to sign up for giveaways.

Somewhat disappointing. Looks like it's capping out at 27%. :(
 
Finished edits and covers for books 2 and 3. Now to format and send out ARCs.
 
Figured out how to correctly format with Scrivener. :D Instead of all day, it takes about 30 seconds.
 
Set up the pre-order for my first book on Amazon, Goodreads, and StoryOrigin. Updated my onboarding emails for my newsletter.
Two newsletter swaps - one forgot to include my link! :confused: So, only 23 new subscribers for the month.
Re-drew for the giveaway, still no takers.
Going back through the manuscript again to find filler words ("She heard him walk into the room" vs "He walked into the room" type stuff.)
Finished October's newsletter. It goes out in a few days.
Set up cover reveal for book 2.
Cover for book 3 is done except for a reader quote at the top.
Started writing November's newsletter and applied for two more newsletter swaps.
On track to release book 1 the week after Christmas, book 2 three weeks later and book 3 three weeks after that to make the most of the Amazon algorithm. I decided to push it way back because of the election (in the US). From what other writers have said, it's going to create a dip in sales at the start of the month and Thanksgiving will create another dip through the end of the holidays, as people focus on buying things for others vs. books for themselves. This also gives me a chance to have all three books written, polished, and ready to go.

This week I need to...
Finish book 2
Finish final edits of book 1
Create Instagram/Facebook/Goodreads/Bookbub posting schedules
 
Looking good so far. How many words is each book and how long does one book take to finish.
 
Looking good so far. How many words is each book and how long does one book take to finish.

Thanks. :) Most thrillers seem to be around 70k - 80k, so my books are right in the middle. I'm not sure how long I'd say it takes to finish, since editing the first one has taken a few months, but we had a lot of family/health issues crop up that interrupted the process. Writing takes about a month. I think I might be able to get edits done within a month if there weren't any hangups.
 
Thanks. :) Most thrillers seem to be around 70k - 80k, so my books are right in the middle. I'm not sure how long I'd say it takes to finish, since editing the first one has taken a few months, but we had a lot of family/health issues crop up that interrupted the process. Writing takes about a month. I think I might be able to get edits done within a month if there weren't any hangups.
So you’re able to write 70k in a month ? Also I would be glad to check out the book when it’s released :D
 
Bookmarked to follow, good luck on your journey, will you share it here on bhw ? Will be interested to read.
 
I still have a Jr. account, so I don't think I can post the actual book here at this time. I really appreciate the support though, thanks!

After the newsletter and cover reveal, I only have one preorder. My cover real newsletter only had a 12% open rate, 1% click rate. Running a giveaway to get subscribers really screwed me over. :weep: I've started to remove people from the giveaway list who have never opened an email.

Finished my posting schedule, but I haven't found a free way to automate everything.
Got two swaps for the next newsletter.
Did not finish book 2 OR book 1 final edits.

One of my affiliate sites just got a flood of orders-then-returns, so I've been focused on turning that around.

This week, I'm going to try my best to:

Finish edits for book 1.
Finish writing book 2.
Switch to a 2x a month newsletter format.
Cull all the subs who haven't opened their emails.
Redraw for the giveaway since there are STILL no takers.
 
If your going to publish the series on kindle why don’t you do amazing ads to boost your sales at the start
 
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