Jumping into a very large pond (and trying not to drown).

rwm4768

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What's your timetable for all that? Two years to accomplish all that (complete guess on my end based on how fast you are releasing your current crop)?

I try to give myself tentative schedules, but I can't always stick to them because life has a habit of getting in the way. Ideally, I'd like to release a book every three months. At this time, it's doable because I've already written every book in both series, but I don't know if I can keep that up with the pressure to produce new work at the same time.

Ideally, I'd like to have both series released in their entirety by the end of the year. But that's dependent on a lot of factors. Thankfully, I'm a fast writer. I don't write every day, but I can really get a lot done on the days I do write.

Self-publishing these days can be quite demanding. You're pretty much expected to get out at least three or four books a year. It's not impossible, but it requires some hard work, and I'm still feeling my way through this whole thing. I don't want to rush any of my publication dates and publish crap.

If I had to venture a guess, I'd say it'll be somewhere between my one-year ideal and your two-year estimate.


Right now, I'm aiming to finish drafting the third book of my next trilogy by March. That's when I'll be getting cover art done for the entire series. I will also get into some heavy revision/editing on the third book of World in Chains.

Thanks for your interest.
 

rwm4768

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Your covers continue to be amazing. Don't know your artist, but I'm impressed by the quality and consistency across the series.

I get my covers done through Deranged Doctor Design. They're affordable, and they do quality work, but you have to book your projects up to six months before you're looking to publish.
 

rwm4768

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January numbers:

Empire of Chains: 3 sales, 5760 pages read

The Shadowed Land: 0 sales, 2700 pages read

Sunweaver: 5 sales, 2357 pages read
 

rwm4768

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I don't know whether this is just me. But has anyone else found that KU readers rarely leave reviews? My page read numbers are telling me that people are reading my books, but I haven't had a new review in ages.

It's difficult to judge on sales because you only know that they bought it. You have no idea if they've gotten around to reading it.
 

April Swanson

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I don't know whether this is just me. But has anyone else found that KU readers rarely leave reviews? My page read numbers are telling me that people are reading my books, but I haven't had a new review in ages.

It's difficult to judge on sales because you only know that they bought it. You have no idea if they've gotten around to reading it.

Hi Ryan - first off, congrats on your success so far. Also, your covers are amazing :)

I haven't noticed a difference between KU and non-KU, but I've found it takes around 100 sales/downloads to get one review. So...yeah. Reviews are hard to come by!
 

rwm4768

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I was surprised by how quickly spfbo filled up. I barely made it in before the 300 entry cut off.

I was worried myself, and I think it might have worked against me. I submitted a little earlier than I would have liked. The book I finally published had a couple more editing passes.

This year, I'm planning on submitting Sunweaver.
 

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As far as reviews go--it could just be that they didn't read it yet. If I see a book that I like that's free or reduced, I'll go ahead and download it, but it might take me a few months to read it. Especially longer fiction works. I like to binge read fiction vs reading a little every day like I do with non-fiction. I want to start reading when I know I won't be interrupted.
 

CathleenT

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Hey Ryan, I do know a sure-fire way to increase reviews--join a goodreads review group. Amazon's cool with it, so it's not dodgy. If you don't already know about them, I wrote a post about it here: https://cathleentownsend.com/2017/11/22/goodreads-reading-rounds/.

One note of caution, though. The policy is to leave all reviews--even 1 star. No abstaining to be nice. So be very confident with anything you submit.
 

rwm4768

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Well, when I went onto my Australian Amazon page, among 'Recommended Reads/Related to Items You Viewed' was Sunweaver by you. Now, I look at fantasy/sci fi books all the time, so obviously the filters are in place there for Amazon to only recommend books relevant to me. However, just thought I'd let you know that your book is getting a presence, so that's a good thing. Good luck on the sales, and those covers are awesome and will attract attention. KB
 

rwm4768

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Well, when I went onto my Australian Amazon page, among 'Recommended Reads/Related to Items You Viewed' was Sunweaver by you. Now, I look at fantasy/sci fi books all the time, so obviously the filters are in place there for Amazon to only recommend books relevant to me. However, just thought I'd let you know that your book is getting a presence, so that's a good thing. Good luck on the sales, and those covers are awesome and will attract attention. KB

Thanks!

I'm not too worried about things at this point. Right now, writing is something I do because I love it. Publishing is something I do so that other people get a chance to read it. I'd love to make more money at it, but it's not a big issue at the moment.

In a little over a year, I'll be done with engineering school, and I should have a good, stable job. Between school and my currently inconsistent work schedule (retail), it can be very difficult to carve out that time I need to focus on my writing.

I do have the next two days off, so maybe I can get some writing and editing done. I'd like to have all of World in Chains out by the early summer. So far, my editing process on the third book has been pretty slow. It's not that it needs a crazy amount of work compared to the others. I'm just busy with life at the moment.
 

rwm4768

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February numbers:

I did not sell a single book in February. (Ouch.)

My KU page reads were also way down:

Empire of Chains: 658 KENP
The Shadowed Land: 684 KENP
Sunweaver: 1455 KENP

I'm considering dropping prices on my books. I'm thinking $0.99 for Empire of Chains and $2.99 for The Shadowed Land and Sunweaver. I don't want to drop Sunweaver to $0.99 until I have the next book out, which is months down the road.
 

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*rummages around, sends Ryan a virtual gift basket loaded with cookies, Dove chocolate, carrot cake, and a very nice bottle of wine*

There. Hopefully, there's something in there to console you. Sometimes, you just have to pamper yourself. :)
 

rwm4768

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It probably doesn't help that I've been very busy with school lately, so I've done pretty much zero in the way of promotion. I'll probably step up things on that end once I release the third and fourth books of World in Chains.

At that point, I'm planning on doing a box set that will be discounted compared to buying all the books separately.

I went ahead and lowered the price of Empire of Chains to $0.99. I mean, if I'm making no sales at all, it doesn't really help me being at a higher royalty rate. Might as well get a few more readers even if I don't make as much. I also dropped Sunweaver from $3.99 to $2.99. Once I release the second book, I'll probably drop it to $0.99.

I'm also close to getting cover art for a third series, so I'm excited about that. The publishing date of that series is probably pretty far off at this point. I'd like to have World in Chains and Sunweaver complete and published before starting the publishing process with the third series.
 

rwm4768

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Looks wicked

Thanks. It was not at all what I pictured for the cover, but that's the great thing about having good cover artists. They can give you the cover you didn't even know you wanted.
 

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Thanks. It was not at all what I pictured for the cover, but that's the great thing about having good cover artists. They can give you the cover you didn't even know you wanted.


What did you picture?
 

rwm4768

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March numbers:

Empire of Chains: 3 e-books sold, 859 KENP

The Shadowed Land: 660 KENP

Sunweaver: 1089 KENP

So pretty similar to February. I'm not surprised, though. I've been putting very little time into promotion. Mostly, I have some AMS ads going, and that's it. I occasionally do a promotional tweet, but most of the time, I'm tweeting about other things.
 

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So I'm trying some sales this week.

Sunweaver is $0.99 for the next few days.

Then I'm going to have Empire of Chains free from tomorrow through Wednesday and a concurrent $0.99 price for The Shadowed Land.

Not sure if it'll help, but I've got these free periods and Kindle Countdown deals. I might as well use them and see if I can get a few more readers.
 

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Just wanted to pop in and say your covers are lovely!

I read upthread: as far as reviews, it seems like they are harder to come by now. I'm not sure why that is. Sometimes I think the market is so saturated with books; people have collected so many freebies, they have too many in their Kindles just waiting to be read. My KU page reads have always been on the low side, so I haven't really paid attention to the page reads and whether they result in reviews. I did a giveaway once with 8K downloads which netted me 20 Amazon reviews. So one review for every 400 books. And that was a few years ago.

I have used LibraryThing twice. Each time, I gave away 50 ebooks. The first time, I ended up with two reviews. The second time, I ended up with one review. All were thoughtful and favorable--and I was very happy to receive them--but low rate of return. I've also offered e-ARCs in exchange for reviews on Goodreads. I've gotten a few that way, but GR is a very busy place. Unless you're prepared to post in a bunch of different groups and spend a lot of time promoting (and I'm not), it's a little hard to get noticed. You know what they say, though: self-publishing is a marathon, not a sprint. ;)
 

rwm4768

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Just wanted to pop in and say your covers are lovely!

I read upthread: as far as reviews, it seems like they are harder to come by now. I'm not sure why that is. Sometimes I think the market is so saturated with books; people have collected so many freebies, they have too many in their Kindles just waiting to be read. My KU page reads have always been on the low side, so I haven't really paid attention to the page reads and whether they result in reviews. I did a giveaway once with 8K downloads which netted me 20 Amazon reviews. So one review for every 400 books. And that was a few years ago.

I have used LibraryThing twice. Each time, I gave away 50 ebooks. The first time, I ended up with two reviews. The second time, I ended up with one review. All were thoughtful and favorable--and I was very happy to receive them--but low rate of return. I've also offered e-ARCs in exchange for reviews on Goodreads. I've gotten a few that way, but GR is a very busy place. Unless you're prepared to post in a bunch of different groups and spend a lot of time promoting (and I'm not), it's a little hard to get noticed. You know what they say, though: self-publishing is a marathon, not a sprint. ;)

Thanks. I try not to get too worried about reviews. It helps that I'm not looking at this to support me financially at this point. If and when that day comes, things might change.
 

rwm4768

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April numbers time!

Spoiler Alert: It was another slow month for me.

Empire of Chains: 2 e-book sales, 647 KENP, 42 free downloads.

The Shadowed Land: 4 e-book sales, 378 KENP

Sunweaver: 1 e-book sale.

At the end of the month, I tweaked my AMS ads. So far, I have more KU page reads in May than I had all of April.