Self-publishing success

I'm an author who has self-pubbed and traditionally pubbed with only modest success. For five years, I've been bugging my daughter to allow me to publish her novel to Kindle. She wrote it while a member of my writers' group (since disbanded) and it's a high school girl-girl romance coming-of-age story.

I put it on Kindle on June 12, Thursday evening, figuring to begin promotion on the weekend. To my surprise, it took off, selling 12 copies that evening and 27 on Friday. I decided to just let things run their course. Well, it's been a month and the novel has been on the (lesbian) best seller list for the entire time and sells an average of about 70 copies per day.

My conclusion is that, with a target audience, a well-written book will do well if it catches the attention of an active group and causes a buzz. My novels (written for my own enjoyment and not targeted) had no audience to cater to.

By the way, her novel is "She's My Ride Home" and I've published exclusively on kindle (for now.)

JohnB

plumone said:

That's a great story regarding your daughter's work.

I'm interested to hear more about your own novels. You didn't write with a particular demographic in mind, sure. But you wrote them because you like them. And you are a part of a demographic (Ex- Sci fi lovers, War buffs, Retired at 40). I'm wondering if maybe you can look at what makes your novels unique and try to re-market them to those folks.

Click to expand...

I began writing in the 90's because I came up with an idea that intrigued me. Since I didn't know how to write fiction, I joined a writers group that stimulated me to more diverse novels. I consider it a hobby and don't worry too much about sales. I have tried promotion though, with few results. For instance:
For my tribute novel "Necessary Evil," which is set in the Mariana Islands of WW2, I sent several copies to most of the libraries on the various islands. No response. I then sent emails to the local newspaper, asking to buy ads, THREE times. No Response. I mentioned the novel on several history forums. No Response.
I'm hoping to retire next year and will devote more time to making my writing, free-lance editing and publishing more profitable. I'm experimenting with genres and target audiences in my current writings, which will be published later in the year. Also, I'm thinking about writing under a pen-name, since my own name now has certain connotations as to what the reader might expect.
Thanks everyone for your kind comments.

The book is going on promotion this weekend. Thu & Fri @ .99 - Sat & Sun @ 1.99 - Then back to 2.99 on Mon. I'm doing this because the book has been on the best seller list for 6 weeks but has never actually hit #1. This should increase sales so we can market it as a #1 Amazon bestseller (It's currently at #2) I'll post what happens.

I didn't put a link to the book page because I don't want to break any forum rules about advertising. But I guess you can't see the rankings without going to the page, so here it is.


http://www.amazon.com/Shes-Ride-Home-Jackie-Bushore-ebook/dp/B00KY8S49W/ref=zg_bs_7588789011_3


I ran the promotion last weekend, with the book (
normally priced 2.99) at $.99 Thurs & Fri and $1.99 Sat & Sun. and it boosted sales to put the novel at #1 on the best-seller list and it's still there.
Back to normal price now, and sales are still steady.