Finding My Way - Dallionz's Self-Publishing Thread

Dallionz

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I wish I'd started this thread in the beginning, but I know that I have a long ways to go on this journey still. It's always better to start later than never, so here we go!

Background:
I've wanted to write and publish my work for as long as I can remember. Seriously. When I was very young, I wrote short Chip N Dale Rescue Ranger episodes, using images from coloring books to illustrate them. Later, I started writing my own short stories. I wrote a couple of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine episodes, sending the scripts in. They were returned, of course, but it was cool at the time to know that someone there had held them in their hands. lol

I continued writing, submitting short stories to a few magazines here and there. I did have one short story published in a tiny little magazine where likely five people read it. But it was encouraging (and yes, I still have a copy of it somewhere). I turned to writing a science fiction novel as a teen and finished it before I graduated high school. I wrote it in a series of notebooks using pencil. I recently typed it all into the computer and it was over 70,000 words. That book is the first of a trilogy and one day I intend to give it the attention it deserves (not to mention the vast amount of editing).

Once I entered college, creating writing fell to the background for the most part. I picked it up again for a few months after graduation before I started working full time. Again, writing took a back seat. I would write in spurts of a week or so, then wouldn't touch it for months. I had a lot of partial stories and ideas jotted down all over the place.

My husband has always encouraged me to write and it wasn't until January 2014 that I decided I was going to take one of my partial books and finish it. It was during that time that I turned my sights on self-publishing. I spoke with a friend who had been doing just that for several years. I found a fantastic group of people online who were all working on self-publishing as well, and I did a great deal of research.

Book #1: Calming the Storm (A Christian Romance Novel) - Self-published August 6, 2014
This story was one that had been on my heart for years before I finally finished it. As a hobby photographer, I was determined to create my own cover. I struggled with it for weeks. I finally finished it, compiling two separate images into one. My paperback version of this book still has the sunflower cover I designed. A few months later, a friend of mine who also designs covers suggested it might sell better if the cover fit the story a little better. She designed the cover you see on the Kindle version. I do agree with her, though I sell so few paperbacks, I haven't bothered to change that cover to match.

For this first book, I didn't have money for an editor. My husband read it as did my mom and several friends. Everyone gave me advice and suggestions, found typos and errors, and then I read through it two more times before finally submitting it to Amazon. Creating the Kindle version of the book was super easy. It was going from that to the CreateSpace template that was a nightmare. I learned then to type my book into the template because it was much easier to go from that to a simple version for Kindle than the other way around!

I got my book up on Amazon and then realized I had absolutely NO idea what I was supposed to do to promote the thing. Which led into a whole different kind of research.

I ran some ads with several places over the last ten months or so. The most effective were ENT and Book Basset.

To date (July 7th, 2015), I have sold 1060 Kindle copies of this first book.


Book #2: Finding Peace (Love's Compass: Book 1) - Self-Published January 3, 2015
I took what I learned from my first book and applied it to this one. I hired the same friend who made the other cover to make this one right off so I didn't have to worry about designing it myself. I put the book up for pre-sale on Amazon and made the introductory price $0.99. I ended up with 8 pre-sales before it's release. I also scheduled an ENT ad upon its release so I had some good advertising right out of the gate.

Writing the book within the CreateSpace template made the process of producing a paperback a whole lot easier and I was glad I went that route. I was able to easily convert it to a document for Kindle from there. I also chose to go with a matte cover instead of a glossy and preferred that look as well.

I didn't hire an editor (still not making enough money for that) but I had a much stronger beta reading team in place for this one. Including a wonderful person who walked me through some lessons of showing rather than telling as well as some other points that improved my writing tremendously. I felt a lot more confident about putting this book out there than I did the first one.

The combination of it being a new book with the ENT ad seemed to hit things just right and it did really well on Amazon for the entire month of January before sales dropped off.

To date (July 7, 2015), I've sold 1794 Kindle copies of the book.


Book #3: Finding Hope (Love's Compass: Book 2) - Published July 1, 2015
By now, I'd heard many people tell me that the more books I put out a year, the better my sales would be and I could drum up more interest in my books. Which is all well and good, except that I wasn't about to sacrifice quality. I might not be able to hire an editor still, but I wanted what I put out there to be something I could be proud of. I had intended to start writing this book right after Finding Peace was published, but I didn't really get to work on it solidly until March. Still, I feel six months between the two was still very good.

This book was a little easier to write, too, because I had already created the town and many of the characters in the previous book. I went back to my cover designer and she produced this one - my favorite of the three by far.

A new editor who is building her portfolio edited my book for free and helped a lot with some of the character and content development. I also went through my usual beta readers who were fantastic as usual. Again, I put this book up for pre-sale and had 25 purchases through that. I opted to keep the book at the usual $2.99 this time around to see what happened. I did not get any ads in for the release.

So far, I've sold only 32 Kindle copies total. I'm sure a lot of that is due to the fact that it's the second book in a series. I also didn't have an ad running for it. After the success of the first book in the series during it's launch month, I'll probably re-think how I release my next book.

Okay, that gets me caught up. I will just jump into where I'm at now from here. :)
 

Dallionz

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I've got my first book, Calming the Storm, on Kindle Countdown this week. I started the sale yesterday and it will run through Sunday the 12th.

I bought a $5 ad from Book Goodies yesterday and had 2 sales of the book (plus 2 sales of Finding Peace and 1 sale of Finding Hope). So I don't know that the sales correlated with the ad at all.

Today, I have an ad in Faithful Reads. I had an ad for Finding Peace with them last month and was very happy with the results. So I'll report back and let you know how that goes.

Meanwhile, hopefully all of the sales of Finding Peace last month (I managed to snag a free Midlist ad that resulted in over 200 sales June 2nd) will eventually lead readers to the second book in the series.

There's no doubt about it, the promotional aspects of self-publishing are definitely the most difficult for me!
 

Kitty27

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Congratulations! Please keep us informed. I love reading these threads. They are inspiring and I take notes,lol.
 

Dallionz

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Thanks, Kitty27! I enjoy reading these threads as well. I always learn a lot!

So far, I've sold 27 copies of Calming the Storm with my ad on Faithful Reads. I need to sell 36-40 to break even on the ad so that's look good!
 

Mclesh

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Congrats on your sales, Melanie! Your book covers look good and professional--that's so important. I wish you continued success!
 

Interfaced

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Always love reading these diaries, thank you for sharing, and as I'm now in the process of releasing my first novel within the next month I'm in the same boat in regards to learning all about good publicity!

What kind of sales figures did you see from ENT advertising? The price point for my book (likely to be $3.99 or possibly $4.25 if I'm feeling like being a bit different) will put me into the higher bracket for their ads ($150) so I'm keen to know whether it will be worth it.
 

Dallionz

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I ended up with 54 sales yesterday of my book that I had priced at $0.99 for the sale advertised in Faithful Reads. I'm happy with those numbers! I also sold three copies of other books. I'm hoping some of the sales and interest will carry over to today. This morning my book is ranking:

#3,661 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)


 

Dallionz

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Hi Interfaced,

Very exciting that you're releasing your first novel in the next month. Congratulations! It's very exciting to be so close, isn't it? :-D

I don't know if it'll be worth it for you to do ENT at that high price. So far, I've discovered (both through my own advertising as well as the other people I know) that most of those places are most effective at sale prices of $0.99 or free. I have yet to have a free book because I have some issues with that. Genre also makes a HUGE difference as well.

With my last ENT ad, I lowered my book to a sale price of $0.99 and it was during release week. It was a Christian romance novel. I sold 235 books the day of the ad and 68 books the day after. I then had a consistent week and a half where sales were between 12 and 22 per day before dwindling down to single digits.

I don't know what you would be looking at sale-wise if you kept your book at full price and went with their $150 ads. I know that advertising always makes me nervous lol

I want to try BookBub but most people get accepted with free and I'm just not sure I want to offer my book for free. I'll try the $0.99 some day but of course it's more expensive.



Always love reading these diaries, thank you for sharing, and as I'm now in the process of releasing my first novel within the next month I'm in the same boat in regards to learning all about good publicity!

What kind of sales figures did you see from ENT advertising? The price point for my book (likely to be $3.99 or possibly $4.25 if I'm feeling like being a bit different) will put me into the higher bracket for their ads ($150) so I'm keen to know whether it will be worth it.
 

Dallionz

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I tell you what, today is one of those days where I'm completely confused and wished I knew where my book was being shown! Calming the Storm is on sale through the 12th for $0.99. I advertised with Book Goodies on Monday and then Faithful Reads on Tuesday. I have had no ads scheduled since then. But my book has sold 78 times today which is a LOT for no ad. Which means it got picked up somewhere - but where? I wish I knew! lol

If you guys happen to run into an ad for it, will you drop by and let me know. I'd like to send them a thank you or something.
 

Dallionz

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Thank you for the suggestion! I did this right after the book came out and I rarely get e-mails. When I do, it's almost always related to football. LOL

I probably should set it up for my other books as well.

I never did figure out where my book might have been promoted, but I ended up selling 158 of them yesterday. Obviously no complaints and go figure on that one! lol


You can try using Google alerts to find where your book title is being mentioned on the web, but it's a bit hit and miss: https://www.google.com/alerts
 

Dallionz

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Promotional Update:

I put my novel, Calming the Storm, on Kindle Countdown for $0.99 July 6-12
Previous to this, I had sold 13 copies of the book at the normal price of $2.99 since the middle of April.
I spent $5 in advertising with Book Goodies and another $25 with Faithful Reads
I had a lot of retweets about the sale with a Twitter group I'm in
My book got picked up by something else later in the sale, though I never could find out where. Or maybe it was just word of mouth? I don't know

Result:
I sold 292 copies and made over $200.00 from that
$200 - $30 = $170.00 money made

I also sold 1-4 copies of each of my other two books each day of the sale as well. And then there were pages read, which who knows how much we'll really get from those until the end of the month.

I may not have gotten rich by any means, but I made a lot more with that sale than I was making at full price on its own.

Because of the results, I've decided I'm going to do a Kindle Countdown a month (rotating books) and spend up to $50.00 a month on advertising and see what happens.
 

Dallionz

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Okay, let me share why I think my last release didn't do as well as the previous two. Maybe this will help someone. I know I'll handle my next release be completely differently.

1st Book: I put this book out at $0.99 as an introductory price for a week. I had no idea what I was doing and had no idea how long it would take Amazon to make the book available so I didn't know what to say about a release date. Getting the paperback version out took another two weeks later. The release times were a bit of a mess but sales were decent when it released. I wish I had kept closer track of all that (and I know I can go on Amazon and find the info with the KDP files). But I had no idea what I was doing.

2nd Book (First in a series): I did a pre-order for this one and ran the pre-order 2 weeks before. I also set it for $0.99 for the first week after it's release. In addition to that, I got it in ENT for an ad the day after it's release and I think one or two more places for that week. While I only had 8 pre-sales, the sales that first week were fantastic. I had 235 sales the day the ENT ad ran and I had 12 sales or more per day or more for the week since the release. It was very successful.

3rd Book (Second in a series): I did a pre-order again, though this one was for almost a month before the release. I did sell 24 pre-orders, but I think most of those were loyal readers on my FB page who couldn't wait to read the second in the series. I decided to keep the book at the full price and because of that, I couldn't afford any ads for it. I had five or six guest blogs set up for that week of release but my sales were really quite terrible with a total of 19 sales (not counting the pre-sales) since it's release on the 1st of July. I feel like I really shot myself in the foot not having it release at $0.99 and not doing an ad and I"m definitely regretting that.

For my next book (October 1st, 2015) I'm going to not do a pre-sale but will reduce it to $0.99 and I plan on running an ad in ENT as well as two or three other places. Then, one month later, I'll do my first free promotion for the first in the series and advertise the heck out of it before the release of the fourth (and likely last) book in the series set for December 1st.

We'll see how that works. Meanwhile, I want to cry every time I see my poor new release just sitting there like it is :-( I don't really feel like I can drop it to $0.99 until it's been out at least a month. And advertising is going to be hard since it doesn't have enough reviews (thanks to few sales). So it may have to just kind of hang in there until the third book in the series comes out and hopefully that'll drive the sales up on this one.

Thankfully, while they do all tie into each other through characters, each of the books are stand alone.
 
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Dallionz

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I submitted Finding Hope to ENT and waiting to hear back from them. I hope to run an ad with them in August.

Then, August 1st, I'll submit Finding Peace to BookBub as a free book. I've not gone with BookBub before because of the cost but so many people rave about them. So I'm going to take a deep breath and give it a try. Eek - can you tell I'm nervous? LOL
 

Interfaced

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I'm sure it will do great! Thanks for keeping us updated, I've found it very interesting and it's gotten me thinking a bit closer about post-release publicity drives like Kindle Countdown. Not to mention, I'm in the same boat about having different versions coming out at different times...and at the moment I'm just pushing to get the eBook version out before thinking about paperback and hardcover (which I want to do mainly for myself/family/friends).
 

Dallionz

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Thanks, Interfaced! I think that coordinating everything for a release is hard to do! I'm with you on the paperback/hardcover versions - mine are mostly for myself, family, and friends.

Finding Hope was accepted by ENT for August 8th. I also scheduled an ad with Faithful Reads for the 11th and then contacted Inspired Reads about the sale but they decide what they include in their e-mails and I'll have no idea whether it was picked up or not until it shows up.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Book Bub on Finding Peace. I hear they let people know pretty quickly so I anticipate hearing back from them the first half of this week. Keeping fingers crossed!
 

Dallionz

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Finding Hope is on ENT today (EreaderNewsToday) and we'll see how it goes! It's on sale for $0.99. The last time I used ENT was January and I've heard they aren't as effective as they used to be. I just want to break even on the ad if possible.

It also got picked up for a feature on Great Books Great Deals this morning for $5 so I did try that out. I had six sales before ENT came out and I'm up to 19 at the moment.

I'll definitely report back after the day is over!
 

grayworld

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Best of luck to you, Dallionz. Releasing your book is always a harrowing ordeal. It looks like you've done your research, though. I think you'll do okay :)
 

Dallionz

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I thought I came back and updated about my ENT ad. Here we go:

I have three books published so far, and they are Christian romance. For the three weeks before my sale and ads, I had a total of 27 books bought (9 Calming the Storm, 10 Finding Peace, 8 Finding Hope).
I placed Finding Hope (Book 2 in a series where Finding Peace is the first book in that series) on a Kindle Countdown sale August 6-13 for $0.99
On the day of my ENT ad (August 7 - Christian Fiction), I had 151 sales. Of those, 134 were for Finding Hope, 14 for Finding Peace, and 3 for Calming the Storm
The day after my ENT ad, I sold 24 copies of Finding Hope, 4 of Finding Peace, and 1 of Calming.
I had a total of 6 books sold on the 10th.
On the 11th, I ran an ad with Faithful Reads. I sold 26 copies of Finding Hope and 6 copies of Finding Peace.
I have the rest of today to go on my sale, but yesterday fell back to my normal selling amount so I suspect today will as well.
This week, I spent $75.00 in ads. I've made right at $200.00 in sales and I've had 14,747 pages read.
I've gained 1 review for Finding Hope (3 stars of course lol) so far.
So it's been more than worth it - and it's been good to get some copies of Finding Hope out there since I didn't do a very good job with it's release. With only 4 reviews, I'm really hoping more will trickle in.
 

Dallionz

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I'm running a free promotion for Finding Peace August 22-24 with a BookBub ad on the 23rd. I'm excited and also very nervous!
 

Dallionz

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I revealed the cover and synopsis for my new book coming out October 1st. I'm going through the editing process currently.

I'm also starting the fourth - and likely last - book of the series, Finding Faith. Hoping to release it December 1st.