My Self-Publishing Experience

oldhousejunkie · Aug 27, 2012

I thought I would start a thread detailing my self-pubbing experience thus far.

I originally published my novel on several venues (KDP, Smashwords, B&N, etc.) but pulled it after a week to make more revisions. I had a handful of sales, mostly friends, of course!

I put the novel back up for sale last Wednesday through KDP only, choosing the Select option. I ran a free promo this past Friday and Saturday was quite excited by the results. I had 1917 downloads during those two days. I peaked at #6 on the free e-books in historical fiction category, #14 in historical romance, and #141 on overall free e-books.

Since then I haven't had any sales. I'm trying not to let it get me down. I have submitted the book for review at several well-known blogs; I've got one 4-star review in hand, and I expect two more to be forthcoming. I've also consented to do an interview to be released along with one of these reviews. So I'm hoping that I might generate some sales through these channels. I may run another promo on the heels of these reviews, though I will probably drop the price to .99 cents instead of free next time around.

We'll see what happens!

Maryn · Aug 27, 2012

People who are weighing their options appreciate your candor here. Good luck to you!

Maryn, glad you're so frank

grizzletoad1 · Aug 27, 2012

You've got my interest, and hopes for future success. Was there any reason given for why the sales numbers dropped off so drastically after the free promo? Are you asking a price that may be viewed as too steep?

merrihiatt · Aug 27, 2012

oldhousejunkie said:
Since then I haven't had any sales. I'm trying not to let it get me down.

Freebie downloads aren't bringing in the after sales like they used to. Amazon KDP is having a slow reporting period right now, as well. I think the addition of India and the end of the month are causing the glitch. My sales always slow down the last 4-5 days of the month and then I get a sudden spurt the first week of the new month. As I said, I think it's a reporting glitch of some kind. Whenever Amazon KDP adds a new sales channel, reports slow down also.

Wishing you all good things.

oldhousejunkie · Aug 27, 2012

grizzletoad1 said:
You've got my interest, and hopes for future success. Was there any reason given for why the sales numbers dropped off so drastically after the free promo? Are you asking a price that may be viewed as too steep?

I don't think so. It's priced at $3.99 which seems to be fairly comparable to other novels. It is full-length or roughly 272 pages. I read an interesting article once about how pricing your work low is not always the best as it gives a potential buyer/reader the idea that your work may not be up to par. For whatever reason, that rang true for me.

Merrihiatt,
Thanks for the encouragement. Hopefully there is a glitch. But if not, I will wait until some of the blog reviews come out before running another promo. At the end of the day, making any money would be just icing. After submitting to several agents, getting requests, and then being told that I was "talented" and "would have a great career ahead of me" but the time period wasn't marketable, I decided that keeping the book on my flash drive wasn't doing anyone any good.

oldhousejunkie · Aug 28, 2012

I am pleased to report that Merri was right--there must have been a time delay because I checked my stats this morning and saw that seven copies have sold and one has been borrowed. I'm rolling in the dough now! :tongue

A small start, but positive nonetheless.

Purple Rose · Aug 28, 2012

Like Maryn, I am sure many of us interested in self-publishing are thankful for your honesty.

Your last post sounds promising. All the best!!

Go finish your next book

merrihiatt · Aug 28, 2012

oldhousejunkie said:
I am pleased to report that Merri was right--there must have been a time delay because I checked my stats this morning and saw that seven copies have sold and one has been borrowed. I'm rolling in the dough now!

A small start, but positive nonetheless.

Definitely positive!! Congratulations.

oldhousejunkie · Sep 5, 2012

I thought I would report in. I closed out the last week of August with 12 total sales and 2 borrows. For the first 5 days of September, I've sold 2 copies and have had 2 borrows.

Hmmm.... At the rate I was going I was thinking that I could average two sales a day, but it's definitely tapered off. Bummer.

I'm thinking about a price reduction from $3.99 to $2.99. While I consider my book historical fiction with strong romantic elements, it generally gets categorized as a historical romance. From what I have seen, most historical romances are set to $2.99 but a lot of them suffer from bad editing, weak storylines, etc. I don't want to out price myself but I also want the buyer to know that I put a lot of effort into releasing a quality book as well.

Thoughts?

bearilou · Sep 5, 2012

oldhousejunkie said:
I thought I would report in. I closed out the last week of August with 12 total sales and 2 borrows. For the first 5 days of September, I've sold 2 copies and have had 2 borrows.

Hmmm.... At the rate I was going I was thinking that I could average two sales a day, but it's definitely tapered off. Bummer.

I'm thinking about a price reduction from $3.99 to $2.99. While I consider my book historical fiction with strong romantic elements, it generally gets categorized as a historical romance. From what I have seen, most historical romances are set to $2.99 but a lot of them suffer from bad editing, weak storylines, etc. I don't want to out price myself but I also want the buyer to know that I put a lot of effort into releasing a quality book as well.

Thoughts?

Pricing is one of those things that will always give me hives.

I know at the moment, there is a movement within the (erotic) short story set that pricing 3k-5k stories at $2.99 is optimum.

Others who are more knowledgeable than I at this will hopefully weigh in but I have to wonder if pricing your work at the $2.99 level will have the same effect as $0.99. Meaning, priced so low for the length that it will be assumed (inaccurately) to be crap.

Just something to consider. Maybe someone else will chime in with more experience.

merrihiatt · Sep 5, 2012

I had less sales when i priced my titles at $3.99. Personally, after tax is added, it will come to almost five bucks and I won't pay that much for an unknown author. I'm cheap.

James D. Macdonald · Sep 5, 2012

IMHO you're a fool to price anything below $2.99 (say I who have priced bunch of my short stories at $0.99 because pricing them at $0.25 isn't possible, even though I think that would be a fair price).

Norman D Gutter · Sep 5, 2012

OHJ:

Good luck on your self-publishing journey. Do you intend to add paperback editions to the mix?

NDG

Calle Jay · Sep 5, 2012

I've found I do better with not going the IMO overdone pricing points of $.99 and $2.99.

I price novellas 15K-20K at around $1.49 and novel-lengths 55K-70K at $3.99 and anything over 80K at $4.99 on up.

I do think that readers are developing certain perceptions about SP works at the $.99 & $2.99 prices...

Just my personal observations...

OldHouseJunkie, what's your estimated word count? I'd suggest looking at books from trade publishers of approximately the same length as your work, then maybe undercut their prices by a dollar or so...

M.Macabre · Sep 5, 2012

Honestly I'd price at 2.99.

3.99 will look steep to new buyers, but at 2.99 you'll still get 70% royalty (assuming you're worried about the money). If you price at .99, sure, you'll probably garner more sales but at that rate you will haft to increase your sales by over a factor of six if you're going to make more money than if you had priced it at 2.99. So if you think you'll make 7 times the sales at 99 cents, say 14 sales a day instead of 2 sales a day, then it might be worth it.

Of course, if you're only concerned about getting your book into the world and moving more units instead of maximizing income, then price at .99 would be a better idea.

oldhousejunkie · Sep 6, 2012

NDG:

I do intend to add paperbacks into the mix. I've got it keyed up on CreateSpace, and I have been meaning to order the proof to do last minute checks. I was having some issues with centering and lost patience.

Callie:

The book is 85k words or roughly 282 pages. I do agree that $2.99 is overdone but I also can see how that price point might appeal to some. Especially if taxes take the $3.99 price point to nearly $5. Like Merrihiatt, I too am cheap. If I was a just a general reader, I think I would be obliged to go back and leave a review if I really liked it. But that's just me. I don't think I have gotten any reviews out of the 1900+ free copies that were downloaded. :-( But that may be a good thing; I've seen a few authors get burned by beligerent reviewers who said it wasn't even worth the free download. Ouch.

I definitely not doing .99--that's just ridiculous in my mind for a full length novel, even for someone who's an unknown author. So it's looking like $2.99. I'll monitor it for a while at least. Thanks to everyone for the comments and suggestions!

MmeGuillotine · Sep 6, 2012

Good luck!

(My books are all priced at $2.99 as I wanted to cling on to my precious 70% cut but also make them seem appealingly cheap but not TOO cheap - it seems to be working so far!)

bearilou · Sep 6, 2012

Calle Jay said:
I've found I do better with not going the IMO overdone pricing points of $.99 and $2.99.

I price novellas 15K-20K at around $1.49 and novel-lengths 55K-70K at $3.99 and anything over 80K at $4.99 on up.

I do think that readers are developing certain perceptions about SP works at the $.99 & $2.99 prices...

Just my personal observations...

Yeah, I'm getting into the game a little later myself and I was wondering if the old 'price points' were starting to suffer from perceptions like that. Always good to get another perspective on that.

MmeGuillotine · Sep 6, 2012

I keep meaning to experiment with upping the prices to $4.99 but it's a bit scary. Maybe I'll do it for Halloween.

firedrake · Sep 6, 2012

oldhousejunkie said:
I'm thinking about a price reduction from $3.99 to $2.99. While I consider my book historical fiction with strong romantic elements, it generally gets categorized as a historical romance. From what I have seen, most historical romances are set to $2.99 but a lot of them suffer from bad editing, weak storylines, etc. I don't want to out price myself but I also want the buyer to know that I put a lot of effort into releasing a quality book as well.

Thoughts?

My thought is that this is a bit of a generalisation.

JanDarby · Sep 6, 2012

Personally, I wouldn't bother playing around with any marketing elements (including price) until you've got a second, and probably a third or more books available. Most of the price adjustments that I've seen, and that have been reported to be successfull, are in the context of multiple books being available.

Reportedly (and I've seen some anecdotal evidence to support it), many readers won't take a chance on an author who's only got one book out, regardless of the price. Once you have at least three books, they're more willing to consider your books, and then price adjustments and all the other marketing can have an effect.

For now, your best bet is to get the next book done and published.

oldhousejunkie · Sep 6, 2012

firedrake said:
My thought is that this is a bit of a generalisation.

Not meant to offend, and it was probably a bit of an overstatement. Bad writing, lack of editing can happen at any price point and in any genre. I stick to historicals point blank so I'm not sure what goes on in other genres.

But the historical romance novels I have downloaded have in that price range have been littered with errors, either grammatical or historical. I was not impressed despite my best attempts to show solidarity for fellow authors hacking it through the e-publishing world. However I will concede that I studied history in college/university, so I catch things much quicker than a general reader.

Good luck!

Mmeguillotine said:
(My books are all priced at $2.99 as I wanted to cling on to my precious 70% cut but also make them seem appealingly cheap but not TOO cheap - it seems to be working so far!)

That makes me feel better! Your books are quality and you sell well from the sounds of it.

Rob Lopez · Sep 13, 2012

JanDarby said:
Personally, I wouldn't bother playing around with any marketing elements (including price) until you've got a second, and probably a third or more books available. Most of the price adjustments that I've seen, and that have been reported to be successfull, are in the context of multiple books being available.

For now, your best bet is to get the next book done and published.

This.

Multiple books will make all the difference, and give you some comparisons to work with. With only one book however you're just guessing, so it's best not to tamper with it too much. Your sales for one book ain't bad (better than mine). And your cover looks fantastic.

I'm finding free promo days a bit futile, again because it's only one book. Those who download a freebie might then purchase the next book, but if there's only one... then they just get a free book.

Good luck with Createspace.

oldhousejunkie · Oct 9, 2012

Time for an Update...

I thought I would check back in with my latest stats. It's been pretty busy 'round here so I haven't done anymore free promos. I did drop the price to $2.99 and I think I can say that I have seen more movement as result. Now I have had two reviews come in the past two weeks or so. They weren't glowing but they weren't "this is the worst book I have ever read." One did recommend the book, so that's cool. The other was 3 stars and I think it sufficiently outlines the positives and the negatives, thus it probably did stir a bit of interest. I haven't taken the time to submit to any more review sites, though I know should. I've been writing some lately and trying to concentrate on that. I'm still having a heck of a time getting people to leave reviews on Amazon though.

In any case, my sales for September were at 19 books bought, 4 books out for lending. So far for October, I'm at 9 books bought, 2 books out for lending. So I'm already at half of last month's total or roughly a book a day. Not crazy sales, but I'm content with that. A book a day was a goal (albeit small) for me, so I'm pleased. Heck, an extra $60/month in my budget is pretty awesome!

merrihiatt · Oct 9, 2012

A book a day was my goal, too. Steady as she goes.

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