My experiences this year and hopes for the next

Well, I thought I could contribute my successes and failures with self-publishing, as well. I've read some really useful threads here and I've had an interesting year.

This is gonna be a long one. . .just warning you!

I first started publishing short stories on Smashwords. There are very little markets for YA stories and I was intrigued by authors putting up their short stories for 99 cents. I put them a few up for free first, then I decided to put up a collection of seven stories for 99 cents.

Passages
Passages went up in February . . .and sat for six months doing pretty much nothing. I sold about 8 copies in those six months and gave some free ones away as part of promo weeks on Smashwords. I did pretty much no promotion, so I understand why I didn't sell any. The only people who knew about it were my facebook friends.

In August, I made the collection free. I'm not really sure why, looking back on it. I guess I just wanted it in the hands of readers. Probably not the best motivation, but it has been the best thing I've done for this collection.

In August and September, I saw nearly 5000 downloads. I got one 4 star review, but I also got a 3 star and a 2 star. . and then that 3 star became a 2 star. Yeah, that sucked. Reading those reviews, I realized I hadn't done enough editing and combed through it meticulously before putting up another edition. Totally learned my lesson. It's embarrassing to think that thousands of people have the copy where I accidentally used excepted instead of accepted. I'm trying to think of some kind of excuse, but it was really just carelessness. I wanted it up there and didn't do enough editing or send it to enough crit partners/beta readers.

Since I took it off from being free, I have not received another review, but I've sold more copies than I ever would have had it not gone free.

Sales
Amazon
October (free for half the month): 16 sales
November: 22
December: 23

Barnes and Noble (through Smashwords since the royalty is higher)
October: 20
November: 13
December: 34

Other retailers (Smashwords, Kobo)
Sept: 1
Oct: 3
Nov: 0
Dec: 0

Total paid sales for 2011 (before and after free): 141 at 99 cents

I contribute the December bump in sales in B&N to KDP Select. A lot of people pulled their books from B&N, giving less competition to those of us left behind. And also new Nooks for Christmas -- a third of those sales took place on Christmas Day or afterwards.

Passages is actually still free on iTunes because I've been a little too lazy to change it. (I've gone directly through iTunes Connect). I'll probably up it back up to 99 cents tomorrow.
Sept: 2
Oct: 16
Nov: 14
Dec: 5

Promotion I've done for Passages:
- Posted on http://shortstorysymposium.blogspot.com/ in November
- Occasionally posting updates on my Facebook and Twitter
- Having the cover thumbnail in my signature here and at Kindleboards
- Occasionally making blog posts: Sample Sunday, putting together a soundtrack, using the first and last sentences in a contest on my blog, etc.
- Started a thread on Kindleboards Book Bazaar, but I never update it.

I haven't tried to get reviews mainly because few blogs read YA short story collections. So, that's Passages. I have a feeling I'll keep seeing decent sales in the next few months. If they dip down, I'm not sure if I'll do something to put them up again, considering I have longer works that I want to worry about.

Finding Fiona
The end of September, I put up my YA scifi novella, Finding Fiona for $2.99. I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to self-publish. I explored the idea of finding an e-publisher, but I was, again, intrigued by self-publishing. I saw some people had had success with novellas, so I gave it a go.

I've done much more promotion for Finding Fiona and I have much higher reviews (18 on Amazon with a 4-star average, 4 on B&N with a 4.5-star average), but I haven't had as many sales. It baffles me, but I think the book just hasn't gotten far enough into the system yet. It's not on "Also Bought" lists and hasn't been picked up by the algorithms yet.

Sales:
Amazon:
September: 3
October: 4
November: 3
December: 5

B&N (through PubIt!)
September: 0
October: 7
November: 5
December: 4

Other retailers (iTunes, Sony, Smashwords)
September: 1
Oct: 1
Nov: 2
Dec: 0

Totals for 2011: 35 books sold, about 2/3 at $2.99 and the rest at $1.49

For December, I lowered the price from $2.99 to $1.49. As you can see, I don't think it made any difference. I'm going to go back up to $2.99 tomorrow.

Promotion I've done for Finding Fiona:
- Queried 21 book bloggers. Got responses from about 5 people. Two reviews posted, three forthcoming. One will be connected to an interview and giveaway next month on a blog that has a decent amount of traffic, so I'm excited for that.
- Librarything Giveaway (about a month after its release). Got 209 people who signed up, I got about a dozen reviews from it.
- Blog posts: Sample Sundays, blogs about the process of writing, fun blogs connected to the concept (Amnesia in Pop Culture), etc.
- Facebook and Twitter: occasional updates with quotes from reviews, price changes, etc.
- A thread on the Kindleboard Book Bazaar. I try to update it once a week (that's actually the limit, can't go back-to-back posts that aren't 7 days apart) with updates: announcements about the paperback, new reviews, etc.
- Goodreads Giveaway for a paperback. It just ended, and 889 people signed up. I don't know how many people had it on their to-read lists before, but now it's 221.
- Participated in book trailer and book covers contests: http://yougottareadvideos.blogspot.com/ (I don't think it did anything and the voting seemed to be more of a popularity contest) and http://yougottareadcovers.blogspot.com/ (I actually forgot to promote my entry on FB or Twitter, oops!)
- Submitted the book to:
http://addictedtoebooks.com/ (they post books under $5.99 that have a review from a book blogger)
http://indiebookslist.com/ (they post an excerpt, your cover, links, etc.)
http://indiesnippets.blogspot.com/ (they feature a small snippet from anywhere in your book)
http://www.99-cent-network.com/
http://www.book-junkies-library.com/
- Participated in a lot of holiday giveaways: one on another author's blog, a blog hop with 60+ authors, a Hanukkah giveaway with 7 other authors
- Submitted an ad to http://www.efictionmag.com/ for next month.

As you can see, I've done WAY more promotion for Finding Fiona and yet haven't seen even half the sales.

Beyond Home
I put up another short story collection at the beginning of the month. Three adult mainstream stories priced at 99 cents. It's about the same length as Passages (13K).

I'm still as a loss about how to promote a short story collection, so I've submitted it to the Short Story Symposium (linked above) and posted a bit about it on Facebook and Twitter. I'm not sure what else to do with it, tbh. I'm considering enrolling it in KDP Select, mostly for the option to make it free, which really boosted Passages. I'll keep you guys updated

The Protectors Series
What's next? A fantasy series!

I'll be releasing Promising Light in January, the first novel in the series. I'm organizing a blog tour that will run from January 30th-February 15th. I'll probably price it at $3.99. My husband designed the cover. The final draft is nearly finished, then I'll be able to send it to a proofreader. I was aiming for January 9th, but I'm going to be realistic. It will probably be mid to late January.

Promotion so far:
- Goodreads giveaway for paperback (2 copies, about 40 people have signed up and 30 have added it to their to-read list)
- Librarything giveaway for ebook copies (offering 350, wondering if that's too many)
- Thumbnail cover in my signature at Kindleboards
- Organizing the blog tour (interviews, guests posts, giveaways, etc.)

I'll also release three prequel novellas: Shifting Light, Fire and Light, and The End of Light. They range from 21K-26K, and I'll probably sell each for 99 cents or $1.99. I'm considering putting these into the KDP Select program, but considering Barnes and Noble has been half my sales so far, I'm extremely wary to do that. I don't want to cut off potential fans or sales. I think I'll see how Promising Light does on B&N before making that decision.

I also have a short story connected to The Protectors series (chronologically, it takes place between the last novella and PL) upcoming in a YA Anthology called Love, Me. The proceeds of the anthology are going to CASA, and six other self-published authors contributed a story. It's going to be released February 1st, and I'm hoping that people will read the short story, wonder about the characters, and find Promising Light as a result.

Promising Light will have one full-length sequel, maybe two. I don't outline that extensively, tbh. The sequel is halfway through the first draft, so I could probably have it out early summer at the earliest, but I don't want to rush it, either. It will depend on beta readers, revisions, etc.

The only thing I'm slightly worried about is the various genres I'm putting out. Mainstream short stories, YA scifi novellas, and now a fantasy series. But the next 4-6 books will be fantasy, so I am going to be consistent for a while. Style is similar, of course, and two of the novellas are YA. PL veers more towards YA than adult, but as the series goes on, it will be less YA, more adult.

Gah, but I'm also tempted to write some spiritual nonficton, and that would to throw another completely random genre into the mix, so I don't know. Maybe I'll go with a pen name if I explore any genres outside of what I already have.

I still have a couple novels I want to publish commercially. YA fantasy novels that I would love an agent for. I'm going to be polishing those up and querying agents this year. I know the books would benefit from wider distribution and marketing (well, every book would, but I believe these ones are very marketable). So, I'm going to be juggling that along with self-publishing.

Phew! That's quite a bit of stuff! I've had an exciting year, and I'm so excited to release my novel next month. Hopefully this helps anyone who is considering self-publishing or is even curious about it. I was considering posting something like this on my blog, but I'd feel a little weird talking about my sales and strategies and all that.

So yeah, that's what happened in 2011! Here's to another year and many more sales

Thanks, guys! Glad it could help

Anne, thank you! I've got a lot of nice comments about the cover. I personally love it.

I tried to up the price of Finding Fiona back to $2.99 on Amazon, but they marked it down to $1.49. I think because it's still $1.49 on Kobo and Diesel. I hope Smashwords changes those soon! Oh, well, at least I get 70% royalty on $1.49 instead of the 30% I was getting. Oh, and I finally have enough sales to have an "Also Bought" list instead of "Also Viewed"! But I only have one book showing up there lol

The release for my fantasy novel Promising Light is so close I can taste it. I've been e-mailing bloggers for the blog tour. Tedious, but I should have some nice stops when the time comes! I think what I may have failed to do with Finding Fiona is put the book in front of readers instead of authors. I know authors are readers (or should be), but not all readers are authors. What's funny is I knew that was a problem for self-published authors and tried to avoid it, but I somehow ended up doing it anyway lol

Finding Fiona is back to "Also Viewed"

Barnes and Noble continues to outsell Amazon for Finding Fiona and Passages. I had a small bump in sales at Amazon in the beginning of the month, but they've been stagnant for the past week or so. Fiona's sales aren't too steady at Barnes and Noble, but Passages is. I just have to wait for the reports to Smashwords to come in, and I hate waiting

I also released Promising Light! I haven't done too much promotion yet, just facebook, twitter, my blog. I'm saving up for my blog tour - January 30th-February 15th, and I finally have all the days filled up! I'll be announcing the full lineup today on my blog and start spreading the word about the giveaways I'll be doing (five-six ebooks, two paperbacks, and a gift card).

I've also heard of the author offering five entries to the big giveaway (in my case, the gift card) to people who buy the book during the blog tour and submit the receipt to me. I like the idea, but I almost feel like it's borderline shady. It makes sense because it could up your rankings within that short time frame (two weeks) but it kind of changes the giveaway itself because some have an advantage over others. I don't know, I'll have to consider it some more.

I've heard that blog tours in the past haven't brought on an uptick in sales for authors. I was hoping mine would, but I'm not going to pretend I'm a special case or something. I think the biggest advantage of this tour will be getting my books in front of people. Readers need to know my book exists to actually buy it! I've also had a lot of fun writing the guests posts and I've met a lot of great bloggers so far.

The YA anthology I'm in will be released February 1st, and I'm hoping my first prequel novella for Promising Light will also be released during the blog tour. Extra promotion!