SFF stories, plus squid (self-publishing diary)

CathleenT

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Sunstruck (novel) and Rainbow Lights (collection) are down to zero sales most months. So it'll be very obvious if they see a sales boost from the new release.

Great job at finding the silver lining. :)

Comments were closed on your blog post, so I'll add my thought here: sometimes it's enough just to survive. Don't overlook the strength it took to remain functional in other areas of your life.

Love the t-shirt. Pity I can't write drabbles because that looks pretty neat. I have thought of going with Teespring for POD tees with my covers on, though.

I also loved the embroidered jay further up-thread. There's something inherently classy about embroidery as compared to, say, screen printing, not that there's anything wrong with the latter.

Good to hear that the werecockroach is almost ready to be released into the world.
 

Polenth

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Great job at finding the silver lining. :)

Comments were closed on your blog post, so I'll add my thought here: sometimes it's enough just to survive. Don't overlook the strength it took to remain functional in other areas of your life.

Love the t-shirt. Pity I can't write drabbles because that looks pretty neat. I have thought of going with Teespring for POD tees with my covers on, though.

I also loved the embroidered jay further up-thread. There's something inherently classy about embroidery as compared to, say, screen printing, not that there's anything wrong with the latter.

Good to hear that the werecockroach is almost ready to be released into the world.

Thank you! I did survive, which I think was the important thing from last year. This year has gone fairly well so far, though I obviously still have concerns for the future.

I did look at places like Teespring, but Zazzle still wins on coming with a ready-made customer base, having a great design tool, and a big product range. There's no reason why you can't try out several PODs though. I still have my Society6 as well, even if it hasn't really generated sales. Sometimes you don't know until you try.
 

Polenth

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I have some news, which is not related to the novella. Last year, I published a few short stories on Patreon. I don't have a regular rewards cycle, as I use it like a tip jar with surprise rewards. But I did have a few stories, in addition to the art cards at the end of the year. It's held at about $15 a month (with a few pledges up and down).

This year, I sold one of those stories as a reprint. More details will come later once contracts have been signed. It's an interesting change, as when I published my first collection, selling self-pub stuff as reprints was tricky. Everything was in the swampy area where it was seen as published, so first rights couldn't be sold, but not really published, so reprint rights were hard to sell. It's nice to see a shift to more places considering self-pub reprints (and to have actually sold one).
 

Polenth

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Werecockroach (novella) is now out. The book includes the novella, a bonus short story, and an about the author which links to my website. I released it on 1st April, because I thought that'd be funny. It did highlight a weirdness with Amazon, that Amazon lists the day before the book was published as the pub date (but in the backend, knows the book was submitted on 1st April). I'd have set a preorder, but I wasn't ready by the window to use that. I did Smashwords via preorder, so everything was sent to retailers and ready for the date I wanted.

My blog post about the release is here: https://blog.polenthblake.com/2018/04/werecockroach/

New this time is including a few more detailed thoughts on the story. Some people like story notes, so I gave them story notes. Anyone who doesn't like them can skip them. I also didn't do launch cupcakes this time. But have no fear: I'm intending to rework this idea as a post-launch idea. I'll make cupcakes, then do a post with instructions on how to decorate them.

The official book page is here: http://www.polenthblake.com/words/cockroach.html

That has links to everything, including the start of my merchandise. The artwork this time is drawn in wax crayon. It's meant as a joke on the idea that self-pub covers are drawn in crayon. Which honestly, the terrible ones are more likely to be bad photo edits, but the crayon thing always gets brought up anyway. Now I have a crayon cover.

My general plan with this novella is to have something that's not as quiet as my past work. Something to encourage people to talk about it. The concept, the cover, and it being ownvoices, are all things I'd hoped would get people talking. So far, I'm seeing more retweets and the like, but I'll have to wait and see if that equals more sales. The current price is $0.99, so it's a low price point for people wanting to sample my work.
 

Mclesh

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Polenth, I just ordered a copy of Were Cockroach. I look forward to reading it. I love the cover. You do such beautiful work! I took a look at your store, and I'm so impressed with your artistic talent.

I found myself in a similar boat last year writing-wise. The first half of 2017 found me at a real low point, and I had to go through a reboot process. I ended up writing about it as my own kind of therapy, so I really identified with what you wrote in your blog post. (And it seems like so many people I know felt/feel the same way.)

Anyway, I wanted to compliment you. Your covers are gorgeous, and I hope your sales go well.
 

Polenth

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Polenth, I just ordered a copy of Were Cockroach. I look forward to reading it. I love the cover. You do such beautiful work! I took a look at your store, and I'm so impressed with your artistic talent.

I found myself in a similar boat last year writing-wise. The first half of 2017 found me at a real low point, and I had to go through a reboot process. I ended up writing about it as my own kind of therapy, so I really identified with what you wrote in your blog post. (And it seems like so many people I know felt/feel the same way.)

Anyway, I wanted to compliment you. Your covers are gorgeous, and I hope your sales go well.

Thank you! I know a lot of people who struggled last year as well, though I feel like I'm getting back into things now.
 

Polenth

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It's update time. I'm not going to record sales each month, but I think the first month is a good one to know the exact sales. In the lead to this release, most of my books hadn't been selling. Though I did have a small burst of sales of Sunstruck in March, due to an indie reading challenge on Twitter (someone mentioned my book, copies sold). But it'd gone back down to nothing by the novella release in April.


First Month Sales: 16 (15 on Amazon and 1 on iBooks).

The initial burst of sales was about the same as previous books. I did see more people talking about the title compared to previous ones, so going for ownvoices and cockroaches did improve that a bit. It's possible this will pay off later, as the right person talking about it could boost sales. There was one sale of the collection in the month, so that may have been connected to the novella.

Overall, it wasn't really any better or worse. I didn't lose readers by having a delay and I didn't gain any.


Amazon Marketing Services (AMS): I've been experimenting with Amazon's advert system. I'm running both a sponsored advert and a product advert for Werecockroach. These were started after the initial sales burst. I'm planning to run these for a few months and then analyse what worked and didn't. Two of the sales from the month are due to the adverts.

I don't expect this to make a direct profit as the book price is low, but I wanted to try it before having a new novel. I'll have more to say when the adverts have finished, but so far, I see this as a potentially useful system when the novel comes out. I'm getting a click for about every 500 impressions and a sale for every 10 clicks, which is a good rate if it keeps up.
 

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I'm getting a click for about every 500 impressions and a sale for every 10 clicks, which is a good rate if it keeps up.

That's actually pretty decent for AMS. I'd also recommend trying Bookbub's PPC self-serve ads (but not their CPM ads).
 

Polenth

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That's actually pretty decent for AMS. I'd also recommend trying Bookbub's PPC self-serve ads (but not their CPM ads).

Thanks! I won't be doing any more paid adverts with this particular title, but I will look into it once I have a novel ready to go.
 

Polenth

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I have some news, which is not related to the novella. Last year, I published a few short stories on Patreon. I don't have a regular rewards cycle, as I use it like a tip jar with surprise rewards. But I did have a few stories, in addition to the art cards at the end of the year. It's held at about $15 a month (with a few pledges up and down).

This year, I sold one of those stories as a reprint. More details will come later once contracts have been signed. It's an interesting change, as when I published my first collection, selling self-pub stuff as reprints was tricky. Everything was in the swampy area where it was seen as published, so first rights couldn't be sold, but not really published, so reprint rights were hard to sell. It's nice to see a shift to more places considering self-pub reprints (and to have actually sold one).

The contracts are signed and the announcement made. "Hello, World!" is being reprinted in "Transcendent 3", which is edited by Bogi Takács and published by Lethe Press.
 

Polenth

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'Tis the season for updates. It's been a few months now since releasing Werecockroach. So far, sales have held up in a way that hasn't happened for previous titles. At first, due to some sales from the AMS adverts. And then because people started to recommend it. It's been recommended because it's ownvoices for the asexual aromantic main character. The other aspects of ownvoices haven't interested people.

The good side is it means it's selling. The bad is it's a little sad that the only way I can get people to notice my stuff is because aspects of my identity are trendy. But I'm not in a position to be picky. Sales are sales. They buy me new critters.

Drawing the cover in wax crayon did go down well. I'm not recommending this for every book, but it worked for this one and made the cover really stand out (especially for the adverts, as it's clear at thumbnail size). People found it funny rather than assuming I'm terrible at covers.

Next up is the sequel to Sunstruck. I didn't get anything done in the summer, as the heat was too much. The heat also hasn't stopped yet, so I'm still getting very little done. I'm hoping winter will stop being like summer soon. My aim is to release next year, but with Brexit, I might not have power, the internet, or food. I'm not setting an exact date.
 

CathleenT

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Yay for the werecockroach! And I hear you on the economy. Here in the states, the new tariffs have made crab fishing unprofitable to the point that we're considering not taking the boat out at all and just giving the crew a small bonus instead. It would be cheaper than all the wear and tear on equipment to end up earning minimum wage. And that's at a captain/owner's pay. Deckhands are really screwed.

Just hang in there. There's a got to be a way to get through. And in the meantime, there's still writing. :)
 
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Polenth

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First is a warning: my books disappeared from Amazon's search and my author page. The pages for the books are still there and active. I didn't notice immediately as Werecockroach was still selling (I assume people are being sent there from direct links or "also bought"). I've contacted Amazon and will let people know what happens, but in the meantime, you might want to check your listings.

Second is a different way to self-publish: I ran a story hunt in Second Life for Hallowe'en. It's now over, so here's a bit about it. I made a blog post about it to advertise it. I posted to the official Second Life forums (they have a section for events). The sim took part in a big hunt by MadPea, which meant a lot of people visited.

The story was "Letters to a Fungus", which was previously published. I split up each letter as an item to find and also made some gifts for the hunters. I recorded stats for how many times each hunt item was clicked. The item that was found the most was clicked 95 times. The one found the least was clicked 34 times. Overall, it was pretty successful, with a reasonable number of people taking part.
 

Polenth

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First is a warning: my books disappeared from Amazon's search and my author page. The pages for the books are still there and active. I didn't notice immediately as Werecockroach was still selling (I assume people are being sent there from direct links or "also bought"). I've contacted Amazon and will let people know what happens, but in the meantime, you might want to check your listings.

A little update on this, to add a link to a blog post by David Gaughran that explains this in more detail: https://davidgaughran.com/2018/11/12/amazon-kdp-books-unavailable-international-readers/
 

CathleenT

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Great source! For anyone else who's reading this, I highly recommend David Gaughran's blog and newsletter.
 

Polenth

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Great source! For anyone else who's reading this, I highly recommend David Gaughran's blog and newsletter.

I'm not sure if anyone else reads my thread, because I'd expect them to be a lot more panicky about books dropping out of search if they were. :p I got a reply from Amazon saying it was a technical fault affecting a lot of authors. Which I knew, but it's good that Amazon has acknowledged it's an issue and they're working on it.
 

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I read your thread!... I just don't SP (yet), so I don't have any specific comments--just gathering information.
 

Polenth

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It's new year time so I blogged about it. The important point for self-publishing is the novella is continuing to sell without me having to do anything else. I'm hoping to publish the next Bigfoot Mysteries book next year, but with Brexit I don't really know what's happening yet.

Sales of the novella do mean the odd sale of the novel and collection. It's not a big crossover, but it isn't non-existent either.

Not in the blog is that I've sold a short story to an anthology. This tends to give everything else a boost and means I get paid. It'll be the first piece of original fiction I've sold for some years (I haven't been submitting much, as I'm a lot more selective about projects these days).

My books did eventually reappear in Amazon search, though the last one took weeks.
 

Polenth

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It's just past a year since I published Werecockroach. It also happened to be when it finally got more ratings on Goodreads than my previous highest (which was the short story "Never the Same", as that got a boost from being published by Strange Horizons). I'm still selling copies, which is basically self-sustaining at this point. I'm not running adverts or anything at the moment.

I took part in an event called #ReviewPit on Twitter, where authors pitched their books to reviewers. I wasn't too fond of the system to "like" if someone wanted a review copy, as people tend to just like stuff because it sounds fun and it can make it hard to contact the actual reviewers. I had one reviewer who I was able to contact (there was an email on the review blog) and one who was on Goodreads and I couldn't figure out a contact method. But they both reviewed it anyway, so I had some success from the event, even if I think the system was a bit clunky.

Work on anything else has been delayed as a family member died unexpectedly. I do have the edits for the short story I sold, so that's progressing. Fantasy Faire in Second Life is coming up soon, so I'll be working on that for a bit. I don't do story stuff there usually (I sell mushrooms), but everything I sell has a notecard about me with a link to my website.
 
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CathleenT

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Life, and tragically, death, happens. I think expecting ourselves to continue to work as if we're robots or something is an unrealistic and unhealthy expectation. It's important to take the time to work through feelings and tasks related to all this stuff. I can't remember the source, but a famous writer once said that we should either be writing or living something worth writing about. Grieving definitely falls into the latter category.

Interesting feedback on #Reviewpit--thanks. : )
 

Polenth

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Rainbow Lights was one of the books Kobo didn't put back on sale in the UK after they disabled all self-published work. This either means they've deemed it to have inappropriate content for the UK market or someone forgot about it. Either way, it's no longer on sale in the UK, and I don't know if it'll impact them picking up my other books. I couldn't see a way to contact them or challenge their decision, so all I can really do is wait for them to notice it has no sex in it.

An update on this comment from 2013, it took them six years to notice the book shouldn't have been taken off sale, as it's now reappeared. UK readers can buy through Kobo again. As it turned out, it didn't stop them listing my other books when they came out, but the collection remained unavailable on Kobo for those years.
 

AgathaChristieFan

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I’m sorry about your loss. I’m late to the party, but I just wanted to let you know I just bought your book, Werecockroach, through Apple, and I’m looking forward to reading it. Congratulations on getting your short stories published :)

It’s good that Amazon apologized to you. It seems like the site keeps messing up more and more, screwing authors
 

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I just ordered Werecockroach - it sounds great! I bought it under my wrong Amazon account, returned it, and bought it again under the right account. So something might look weird in your sales...