Self-pubbing a gritty fantasy romance

LBlankenship

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July sales, meh, not worth the effort of typing them up.

To report on my $45 NetGalley listing with Patchwork Press: I seem to have netted two reviews. Whee. Chalk that up to a learning experience.

I sent Disciple, Part V to Jon at Editing For Authors in the first half of June, he said he'd get it back to me in a month, and let it be noted that it is now early August... ok, shit happens in real life, I get it, but this is twice now that he's done this to me.

It's discouraging. I shelved my WIP over a week ago in anticipation of getting these edits, and the momentum I had going on that is gone now. I've been having trouble just writing a blog post every other week.

I hope everyone else is doing better. Just can't wade through a month's worth of posts here and see the proof, right now.

At least I have the cover art for Part V...
 

LBlankenship

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OK, let's try this again without the pansy-ass whining.

July sales
Part II: 1
Part III: 1
Part IV: 2

August sales
Part IV: 2
Part V: 3 (hit the shelves on the 29th)
Half-Omnibus: 2

* Patchwork Press sent a little report on my NetGalley listing. 13 review copies went out, 3 reviews posted thus far. Color me underwhelmed, though.
* Jon at Editing for Authors got the manuscript for PART V back to me a solid month late. PART IV was late, too. Since I don't want to be shopping for a new editor this late in a series, I will use him for PART VI and I'm thinking I'm done after that.
* I'm stoked by how wonderful the cover of PART V came out. If you're in the market, I'll recommend Faiz in a heartbeat.
* Time to get back on the writing horse.
 

slhuang

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* Jon at Editing for Authors got the manuscript for PART V back to me a solid month late. PART IV was late, too.

That's unacceptable. :( I'm so sorry.

Do you have a contract with him? My contract with my editor explicitly spelled out when I would send the ms to her by, when she would return the completed edit to me by, and when deposit and full payment were expected. (If you're interested, here's a sample editing contract from Rose Fox's website: http://copymancer.com/contract.html that includes a clause specifying what happens if the editor is late. (Rose wasn't my editor, but they were on my shortlist and I was very impressed with the professionalism of our correspondence.))

If it's okay to post about author services in the Bewares forum it may be helpful to others to post a thread about your experience there? (If you want to!) Anyway, thanks for warning the rest of us, and good luck with your next installment -- I've been following your journey with interest. :)
 

LBlankenship

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Modifying my warning about Editing for Authors: I was given a discount on the editing for both Part V and the upcoming Part VI, which helps. And Jon did have a good reason for being late on delivery... just not a month late, IMO. When you're a self-employed professional, you've got to stay on top of this stuff.
 

LBlankenship

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Ok, yes, I am still alive. It's been a complicated couple of months.

Sales for September
Parts I, II and III: one each (3)
Part IV: 4
Part V: 7

Sales for October: nothing (crash and burn sound effects)

I've been busy working with my editor at Dreamspinner to prepare Hawks & Rams for publication in December. I don't have a release date for that yet.

I posted a new update to my "Real World Sales Numbers" series at my blog.

At the end of September, I took a two-week, once-in-a-lifetime trip to Bhutan... and I have to make sure that won't be a once in a lifetime thing. I've been to beautiful places before -- Bhutan is magical. There are some photos on my blog, below the sales post.

2014 has been a bad year for writing, for me. There are a lot of reasons why. Since returning from my trip, I've been fighting to get my discipline back and working on a new project. I've also been feeling like I have less than nothing helpful to say about writing or self-publishing lately, so better to remain silent.

I hope I can turn things around.
 

Judy Koot

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Thanks for the update, L. Just keep up the good work!
Hope things will be looking up for you.
 

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Hey, just had a look through your cover art and your blog. It looks like you've done a lot of really cool stuff to promote your book... I will have a search for it when I get my Kindle fired up. I'm a total newbie to the self-pub world and don't know much about promoting my book, so your post has given me some great pointers :)
 

LBlankenship

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Thanks Raula, and good luck! Keep us updated on how self-pubbing goes for you!

November sales:
Disciple, Part V: 3

I wrote a blog post about the first half of my publishing experience at Dreamspinner. Overall, it's been "self-publishing minus some of the worries and all of the overhead." The editing process actually left me a bit *more* uncertain about my story than doing it myself would.

Hawks & Rams drops on December 31st and preorder listings are starting to crop up (AllRomance, so far, and Dreamspinner's site).

I'll have my first release party on their FB page January 1st -- guess I can't get *too* crazy on New Year's Eve. The promotions for H&R will be interesting, since DSP can get me into a completely different circle of readers.

Meanwhile, my urban fantasy medical drama thriller thing got onto the front burner and is simmering along. My writing discipline has been slowly returning. After what I've been through this year, I can say with even more authority that a habit of writing daily -- or as often as possible -- is your most valuable skill, hands down. Plus it just feels good. :)

Happy Holidays, everybody. Keep writing!
 

LBlankenship

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Thanks, Andrea. Even my daily tweets of the day's output + a sentence about it have been drawing attention. Getting retweeted, of all things. It's... bizarre, given the silence I'm used to.

I'll be the first to say "write what you want to! screw the marketplace!" but... damn, it can leave you starved for attention.
 

LBlankenship

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Sales numbers for December:

Part II: 1
Part III: 1
Part IV: 1
Part V: 1

Total for 2014: 127

Hawks & Rams went on sale December 31st and I won't have any sales numbers until April... but watching my author ranking on Amazon has been amusing. I used to be down around a half-million, but when H&R went live I shot up to 56k.

Break out the champagne! woohoo, lol

On the more discouraging side, I kept in touch with Jon at Editing For Authors -- he's had the manuscript for Part VI since mid-September -- and he admitted first that he didn't have many edits for me, then later that his schedule was out of control and he'd give me a refund. Which he did, but that wasn't really what I wanted.

So at the beginning of February I'll do a revision pass of my own and publish it. I've got my cover artist started on the artwork.

But I'm still chugging away at my urban fantasy medical thriller and enjoying it. At midnight on NYE I was downing a shot of Jack at an insanely crowded club and then I hit the dance floor. Hope you all had a good New Year too!
 

LBlankenship

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OK, I skipped a month because it's been a roller coaster ride.

January
Part III: 1
Part IV: 3
Part V: 4

February
Part I: 1 (readers still have to pay outside the US, grr)
Part II: 2
Part VI: 2 (announced it early on my mailing list)

I also got a statement and a royalty check for my Hawks & Rams sales on its drop date, December 31st. 15 copies in one day! That blows all my daily and weekly sales records out of the water, lol.

Yes, I did eventually get feedback from Jon at Editing for Authors, I did revise Part VI and get the cover art in time for the March 1st drop date. Next I'm going to assemble an Omnibus of all six parts to drop on the 15th. And I'll offer the Prologue on my blog for a limited time. I'm thinking a month.

I got to a good stopping point with my urban fantasy medical drama before all of this and now I'm working at getting back on that horse. I'm happy to say that it needs a good chunk more writing and it's already at about 70k. I'm the sort of writer who has to fight for length, so it's nice that this is turning into a real novel.

Haven't been around here because I've been suffering a general Lack Of Things To Say, which happens to me in cycles. Hope you all have been writing and publishing and surviving this ridiculous winter.
 

LBlankenship

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March! Released the final volume of my Disciple series! Put together the monstrous Disciple Omnibus of all six parts!

Part I: 2 (it's free but I still get a sale or two via Amazon's European sites. I'm starting to ask ppl to email me if they can't get it for free.)
Part II: 4
Part III: 3
Part IV: 3
Part V: 3
Part VI: 7
Omnibus: 3

for a total of 25, which is an awesome month for me! It will be interesting to see how having a finished series impacts my sales numbers.

File under making lemons from lemonade: my Omnibus is all six parts and those retail for about $19 separately. I wanted to sell it for $12 but Amazon's top price for an ebook is $9.99. So I'm promoting the Omnibus as "try Part I for free, then save big!"

I also ordered a paperback copy of the Omnibus just to have a doorstop with my name on it. The thing is a brick! Now if I just write 12 more I'll be on par with Robert Jordan... :)

In other news, finalized my divorce at last, went to Puerto Rico for an EDM festival, and I'm still (still!) working on my urban fantasy medical drama. It's been over five months, it's broken 90k, and I haven't written anything this huge in at least 10 years. It's making sequel noises in my head, too. Yikes.
 

LBlankenship

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L's new self-pubbing thread

We're coming up on three years since I started self-publishing. My old thread is here if anyone wants to tackle reading it.

But honestly, it's gotten fairly huge so I'm starting a new one. Here's the tl;dr -- I've published seven books on my own (eight if you count the limited-availability novella) and one with Dreamspinner, a small epublisher. There have been lots of ups and downs with cover artists, editors, and my own writing. I started from scratch with zero audience and no online presence.

It's been tough. I'm not "making a living" yet, even when you factor in my freelance design and epublishing services. My readers don't post reviews and buying promotions feels a lot like throwing money down a hole.

But on the up side, the encouragement I've gotten here and from readers has been wonderful. My sales have been increasing, overall, since I began.

To continue the tradition, here are my April sales numbers:

Disciple
Part I: 1 (769 freebies given away, it's permafree)
Part II: 4
Part III: 2
Part IV: 1
Part V: 2
Part VI: 3
Omnibus: 1

Hawks & Rams: 69 for first quarter 2015

On the writing side of things, I finally finished by urban fantasy medical thriller thingy. I can't look at it without seeing a steaming train wreck, so off to the betas it has gone. Now, once again, the question is: what next?

Wishing you all warm weather and a creative spring :)
 

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Don't worry, your original diary thread is nowhere near too big yet. I'll merge this into it.
 

Niniva

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Not too long!

*chuckle* Old Hack's absolutely right! I managed to get caught up on your saga, which I found interesting enough that I'm posting this so I get updates.

Also, I've found that if you politely state in an afterward note from the author that you'd love reviews--good, bad, or otherwise--I personally remember to go back and add a review, provided I finish the book, of course.
 
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LBlankenship

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Don't worry, your original diary thread is nowhere near too big yet. I'll merge this into it.

Ok, on second thought this thread is nothing compared to, say, Uncle Jim's writing threads...

I do feel like I've passed some kind of point of no return, though, and I'm looking for some way to mark it. I'm heavily invested in self-publishing but it's not paying dividends yet. Or is it? Is this the middle of the story? The dark night of the soul? Or are we still in the first chapter? :)
 

LBlankenship

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Sales numbers for May! Still coming down off the March high when I finished my series:

Part I freebies: 38
Part II: 2
Parts III - V: 1 each
Part VI: 3
Omnibus: 2

for a total of ten sales.

It always makes me smile when I see a sale of Part II and then a few days later the rest of the series follows. Freebies work!

Through the end of May, I've given away 941 copies of Disciple, Part I. In that period I've sold 12 copies of Part II. That means about 1.3% of freebie grabbers both read the freebie and enjoyed it enough to continue reading. I've also sold 7 copies of Part III -- assuming all of those are readers who picked up Part I this year, that's a 58.3% return rate.

Lag time is hard to gauge of course. I've sold 8 Part IV's this year and even more V's and VI's... but those are much newer titles. I know there are a few readers who were waiting for them.
 

LBlankenship

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2 years later...

walks out of a wall of smoke

Hey, everyone. I'm still alive. It was a little touch & go, writing-wise, but here's the story.

So when we left off, I had finished publishing my six part Disciple series, Hawks & Rams was about to drop, and I was talking about an urban fantasy medical drama. Disciple has been selling okay. A few promotions with BookGrow gave me some bumps, but that seems to be self-limiting. Hawks & Rams also sold a bit despite having gotten no promotion that I know of.

I went on to publish a three part science fiction series that had been patiently waiting for attention. Edited by Debra Doyle. Art by a French guy I found on DeviantArt, I'm happy with the covers. Did a BookGrow promotion. The market returned its verdict: we don't care.

C'est la guerre.

Meanwhile, that urban fantasy medical drama turned into a huge fucking train wreck. I wrote a first draft. My betas pointed out that the story wasn't finished. I tried to write a second volume. That crashed and burned. I had to shelve it for a while. Tried to work on other things, but apparently I'm monogamous when it comes to writing. Airborne (that's its name) turned into a spiritual vampire. Note: there are zero vampires in Airborne.

I went to Boskone this year and got a nudge in the non-linear storytelling workshop. Could that work? Should I risk tackling it again? Could I survive another disaster?

Well, two-plus years later, I finally have a single volume, complete Airborne. 130k. Urban fantasy medical spy thriller. And the main character can fuck right off, I never want to talk to him again. Thank goodness the urban fantasy market is so hot right now. /s

Mentally, I'm still in a state of exhaustion though I did knock out two small stories in the immediate aftermath.

In 2016, while Airborne was a merrily blazing dumpster fire, I accidentally became a blogger-journalist in my local underground electronic music scene. It kept me sane and earned me some free drinks, some guest list considerations, and a bit of local notoriety. It's been interesting learning to speak with those whose primary language is music and wires.

Self-pub-wise, my sales have died down quite a bit. Disciple paid for my science fiction, and now I'm working with limited resources. I've barely talked to other writers, even my fellow VP grads, for two years. Feels a lot like I'm starting from scratch, since I'm sure the world has continued to change while I was gone.

Greetings :hi: