Learning as I go: lizo27's self-publishing thread

lizo27

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Hi all! I decided to go the route of self-publishing my first novel The Rowanwood Curse.
I'm intending on making it a series of fantasy-mystery novels.

Yesterday marked one week since release. I've priced the book at $2.99, which seems okay for a full-length novel. The first two days I had 8 sales, almost certainly entirely to friends and family because I posted about it on Facebook. On Wednesday, I started a five-day free promotion (I'm doing KDP select) and had 130 "sales." So far, no reviews.

Today the free promo ended, so it's back at $2.99. I guess I'll have to see if anyone will actually pay for it! :tongue
 
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Tavia

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Congrats!

I love the genre mix, that sounds fun. And it's definitely a premise that lends itself well to sequels.
 

ASeiple

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Ooooh, fantastic mystery? My friend's doing one of those.

I wish you luck, that's a genre that could use more love.
 

lizo27

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Reviews can take a week or three to trickle in. People grab freebies but don't necessarily read them right away.

Ah, thanks for the insight! I hadn't thought about how long it would take to read it. :e2smack:
 

lizo27

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As expected, sales have slowed to a trickle now that the free promotion is over. I'm thinking of lowering the price to 99 cents. Has anybody tried that? How did it work out for you?
 

ASeiple

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I don't think that's a good idea. Give it time, keep working on the sequel. After the sequel's out, then maybe lower the price a bit.

Breaking into the business and getting your name out there takes time. There's a lot of competition, and it'll probably take a few books to start getting regular attention.

Do you think you can have the sequel out in a few months? That seems to be one of the keys to gaining momentum.
 

lizo27

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The goal is to have the next book out by August. I don't think I can realistically do it any sooner. I'm just a bit bummed--I expected sales to go down. I didn't expect them to practically disappear.
 

Tavia

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As expected, sales have slowed to a trickle now that the free promotion is over. I'm thinking of lowering the price to 99 cents. Has anybody tried that? How did it work out for you?

I was thinking about that earlier this week, when I had what looked like it was going to be two days without sales (and then I think someone bought it around 11 pm on the second day, ha). I decided to wait until my sequel was up instead (I'm doing shorts instead of novels, though, so it's a lot shorter of a wait for me).

But two weeks is just not enough time to tell you how it's really doing at this price point. Let it do its thing for a while longer.

And congrats on that five star review! That's really awesome :)
 

WriterBN

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The goal is to have the next book out by August. I don't think I can realistically do it any sooner. I'm just a bit bummed--I expected sales to go down. I didn't expect them to practically disappear.

I think you're confusing the two options: sales and free downloads. What you're experiencing now are just normal, "baseline" sales. During a free promotion, you will definitely get a spike in downloads, but that won't have any impact on sales of the same book after the promotion is over.

Free downloads can help sales of other books, especially in a series, but even that effect has diminished over the last couple of years.
 

ASeiple

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The goal is to have the next book out by August. I don't think I can realistically do it any sooner. I'm just a bit bummed--I expected sales to go down. I didn't expect them to practically disappear.

Eh, a wiser person than I once said that self-publishing is a marathon, not a sprint. The hardest part of this business to me was realizing that you had to have patience, and take the long view.

I know it was awesome when those first downloads and sales were coming in, but that's passed. Keep working, keep writing, and celebrate the sales when they come, but don't expect them.

And watch what happens when book 2 comes out. I think you'll be happy with the results. :D
 

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To be honest, I'm not convinced that offering a book for free is effective promotion without other books available. Normally you'd hope readers who pick up the first book for free would go on to buy the other books at full price - but if there are no other books, it can't create sales. Otherwise, all you can get from it is reviews, and a free price point risks bringing in low-star reviews from readers who don't even read fantasy and only picked it up because it's free. I'm hoping the OP proves me totally wrong, of course. :)
 

lizo27

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To be honest, I'm not convinced that offering a book for free is effective promotion without other books available. Normally you'd hope readers who pick up the first book for free would go on to buy the other books at full price - but if there are no other books, it can't create sales. Otherwise, all you can get from it is reviews, and a free price point risks bringing in low-star reviews from readers who don't even read fantasy and only picked it up because it's free. I'm hoping the OP proves me totally wrong, of course. :)


Well, I was hoping for reviews. So far only one, but it's a very nice one. I'm just getting started, so I'm learning as I go.
 

M. H. Lee

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To be honest, I'm not convinced that offering a book for free is effective promotion without other books available. Normally you'd hope readers who pick up the first book for free would go on to buy the other books at full price - but if there are no other books, it can't create sales. Otherwise, all you can get from it is reviews, and a free price point risks bringing in low-star reviews from readers who don't even read fantasy and only picked it up because it's free. I'm hoping the OP proves me totally wrong, of course. :)

You can also make money on a free promo if you're in Select and get enough borrows. I did that last month with a title.

For the OP, trust me, I've been where you are. I had a non-fiction book I ran free early on in the hopes of more sales or reviews or something...What I ended up doing was giving away a couple hundred copies of that book and getting nothing in return. So now if I run a book free I do so with a strategy like driving people to buy the rest of the series or getting people to borrow it through Select and get the ranking boost when it comes off free.

I know it's frustrating when you first start out, but I can also say that messing with price doesn't usually do a whole lot either unless you back it up with promo or something. It's nice to think there are hundreds of people out there who'd buy your book if it were just 99 cents instead of $2.99, but the fact is most people aren't seeing your book and that's the big hurdle we all have to overcome. If you want to try something to boost your book, find ways to get it visible. Run a few ads, get people to talk it up, etc.
 

Parametric

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You can also make money on a free promo if you're in Select and get enough borrows. I did that last month with a title.

Just to clarify since I was particularly thinking about authors with only one book, readers will borrow the same book that is available free? I'm not totally familiar with Kindle borrowing - that wasn't available when I was experimenting with self-publishing my short fiction. Is there a benefit to readers in borrowing a book temporarily rather than downloading it free?
 

lizo27

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Just to clarify since I was particularly thinking about authors with only one book, readers will borrow the same book that is available free? I'm not totally familiar with Kindle borrowing - that wasn't available when I was experimenting with self-publishing my short fiction. Is there a benefit to readers in borrowing a book temporarily rather than downloading it free?

I confess I don't see how that would work either, Parametric. Especially as I'm in KDP Select, and haven't seen much of an increase in borrows after the free promo.
 

M. H. Lee

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Just to clarify since I was particularly thinking about authors with only one book, readers will borrow the same book that is available free? I'm not totally familiar with Kindle borrowing - that wasn't available when I was experimenting with self-publishing my short fiction. Is there a benefit to readers in borrowing a book temporarily rather than downloading it free?

Yes, that's exactly what they do. The theory is it's because people don't want to crowd their Kindle with books, so they see them in the ad and then borrow instead of buy. That way when they're done, they can just delete it.

I ran a free promo of a romance novel last month and had 41,806 page reads in the two weeks after the ad. (As opposed to 527 for the two weeks before). I had to give away 5,151 books to get those numbers, but it can happen. I had good results in August with a short that had followthrough titles, but did see borrows of that original title, too. In that case I had 4,000 freebies that resulted in 3,600 pages read of that title.

I haven't tried it yet with a spec fic title. It's possible it only works in genres with voracious readers who've overloaded their Kindles.
 

lizo27

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Oh man. Seeing those numbers just makes mine seem even more pathetic. :cry:
 

M. H. Lee

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If it makes you feel any better the book in my signature, Erelia, released at the beginning of last month with no promo and has only had three sales and 25 pages read.

It cost me $105 to get those free downloads on the romance novel. I doubt if I used those same promo sites that I'd get 1,000 free downloads of Erelia. (It'd be interesting to try, but it's not a standalone and I'm not going to push it until I've written the rest of the series which won't be until I finish up my other fantasy series and turn that standalone romance novel into part of a series.)

That's why the advice you're going to get is don't pin your hopes on just one title. And don't give up on a title just because it doesn't take off like gangbusters right away. Keep writing and keep publishing and keep experimenting.

My first year of self-publishing I put out short stories and some non-fiction and made less than a $100. Partly because I didn't advertise, partly because I stopped after three months and didn't publish again for another eight months. Just keep going and have faith in your ability to write a story that people will want to read.
 

lizo27

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Well, the one I've got up is meant to be the first in a series. I'm working on book two now. Maybe things will pick up when I put the next one up.
 

lizo27

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So, the book's been up for 2 weeks now, with a total of 17 sales and 540 KENP read, and 130 downloads from the free promo. One (very nice) review. I'm now going on 3 days with zero sales.

I feel like I'm failing at this and I'm not sure what else to do. I've paid for some ads on Amazon, which netted 5 of the 17 sales, but it's not really a good return on investment. It's kinda killing my motivation for book two, as well, because it's hard to write the second when no one wants to read the first. :Shrug:
 

Parametric

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Let's start with a hug: :Hug2:

Self-publishing is a long game. You can't judge success after only two weeks. It's realistic to expect low sales for a first book by an unknown author, especially as readers are wary of unfinished series and a lot of promotional tactics aren't available to you right now. Hopefully sales build over time with further releases. If not, it may take more series, or a different kind of book, or some other fresh approach. I have a very popular USA Today and NYT-bestselling client who didn't hit the big time until she switched genres.

Do you have a specific target for this? For example, you'd consider it a success if you hit a certain threshold of sales by a particular date? If I can give my unsolicited and possibly unhelpful advice, it's hard enough to feel satisfied in self-publishing even if you do have (and hit) your own metrics of success. Without them, your sales will never be good enough. Conversely, you may feel more in control if you have an exit strategy - a way to know that your business venture hasn't worked (by your own definition) and a plan for how to wrap it up.

I hate to see writers blaming themselves when low initial sales are completely normal and expected. :(
 

Cyia

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Don't let book one sour you on book two. From what I've seen here and elsewhere, each subsequent book offers a bump to those already published. Make that your motivation. You finish the next book not only because it's the next book, but also because it can help book one, which will in turn get new readers for book two. It's a self-charging engine.
 

ASeiple

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You've got this. I know, it's scary, and you really really want more sales, but they will come. It will just take time and patience.Now, what you CAN do, is start investigating. Look for bloggers and reviewers in your genres, look for the ones who do free reviews. They're out there, though they're hard to find sometimes. Contact them, and ask if they'd like to review your book.Some will, some won't, and each one that does is another brick toward the foundation you're building. A friend of mine over at Kboards recommended one hour of marketing for every three spent writing, so give that a whirl. And hey, look at it this way! 100% of your reviews are five stars! Seriously, that'll draw more folks in given time and migration from the also-boughts.You'll get there if you stick with it. You don't lose until you give up. Don't give up! Believe in the us who believe in you! :)