Now that Daniel Pitts and I are on the revision stage of our new book, “The Redemption of Mr. Sturlubok” I made a flow-chart showing all the decisions in the story. I did this before for “The Adventures of Whatley Tupper,” but it was by hand and is now long gone. This time I made it using a tablet and it took only a couple of hours. So, what does a choose your own adventure book look like?
Like this:
For those of you with some strange interest in the detailed diagram, click here: sturls map
Today this banner is up on KindleBoards.
I always knew that I didn’t enjoy self-promotion. I’ve always enjoyed writing, and now that I know I can release things on my own terms, it’s given me increased motivation to write, but I can’t seem to find the energy self-promote myself very much. I don’t really think this blog so much counts as self-promotion, not most of it. I’m detailing some sales and moaning about the weather in Winnipeg and blabbing about how I don’t like self-promotion. But now something else is becoming clear to me. I suck at self-promotion.
2 sales today for “The Adventures of Whatley Tupper,” and I guess I can attribute those to the Kindleboards ad, although that’s hardly certain. I’ve read others at KindleBoards got 5-6 sales. But, even if I got 10 sales… then, I would have still lost money and spent a lot of time making a banner. The more I try this self-promotion thing, the more that I realize that I’m not very good at it, and I should just focus on the writing. I can definitely appreciate the appeal of being backed by a publisher–they deal with the promotion, they pay people to do the things that I suck at. The only self-promotion tool that never lets me down is the Kindle Nation Daily sponsorship. It costs twice as much as the banner ads, and has far more impact.
Do I think the $40 price tag for the banner ad is too high? No. People are purchasing the banner ads months in advance now (I have another one scheduled on the 30th of April for The Redemption of Mr. Sturlubok), so it must be a fair price. I just don’t think I’ll bother with them for a while. When it gets closer to the release of The Redemption of Mr. Sturlubok, I’ll promote through offering advance copies and submitting for reviews.
The best thing I can do it write, and hopefully write something good that other people will like. The only way to build a fan base is to write something fans want to read. I just have to keep writing. Which is good, because that’s what I enjoy doing.
Another update: I received an email from KindleBoards a day after my banner ad ran with some numbers regarding my daily advertisement. My banner ad had 47 clicks, which was roughly half of what people this week have been given. So, it’s pretty obvious that my banner ad wasn’t visually enticing. Lesson to be learned here: don’t use Microsoft Paint! I’ll get someone else to do my next one…
So, I tried making my first book trailer for “The Redemption of Mr. Sturlubok” because it was kinda fun to do, although it ended up taking some seven hours of my time this weekend and I don’t know what difference it could ever make for sales. But it was a pleasant diversion for a while, and here it is…
I’m back in Vancouver, a city with the following adjectives for rain in typical weather forecasts: mist, drizzle, light rain, showers, rain with snow at higher elevations, thunder showers, periods of rain, and heavy rain.
So, it’s the last day of 2010, and here are all my sales for “The Adventures of Whatley Tupper” at Amazon.com:
Take this for what it is: one person’s sales for a first book, without any previous publishing credits, contacts or experience. I’ve learned a fair number of things over these last four months (crap, it’s only been 4 months! It feels so much longer since I discovered Amazon’s DTP) but I most certainly have a hell of a lot more to learn.
Some points of interest labeled on the graph…
A: This was my first 99 cent sale, which lasted an entire week (in general, the standard price has been $2.99 otherwise)
B: This was my KND daily sponsorship on October 8th. One look at this graph explains why I am such a fervent supporter of this.
C: My feature on DailyCheapReads.com, followed by a customer discussion at Amazon.com where a reader, who discovered the book at DailyCheapReads liked the book and started a thread which had postings for several days.
D: My second 99 cent sale, which only lasted 3 days in mid-November.
E: The days after Christmas, in which I’ve noticed a slight uptick in the rate if sales, from just under an average of 1 a day to more than 1 a day. Although, it’s only been a week, so it’s far too early to tell if this will last.
Notice, unfortunately, that I had a KindleBoards book of the day, between C and D, which doesn’t really show on the graph.
So, take what you will from this data. If you’re in the same situation that I was back in the summer (an unpublished author, completely ignorant to the world of epublishing), then perhaps you can make your own judgments about what worked and what didn’t.
And have a happy new year. I have several promotions for “The Adventures of Whatley Tupper” set up for January, and I’ll detail them throughout the month.
I’m currently in Winnipeg, a city where people tell you it’s balmy when it’s -15 degrees Celsius.
I’m thinking about 2011, my sophomore year. My two previous books were both written before I knew about ebook publishing, and both were books that I tried, unsuccessfully, to get publishing through traditional presses. In 2011, I’m not even trying to do that. I won’t send out a single query letter. I won’t write up a single synopsis. I won’t wait expectantly for the mail every day, for month, awaiting the eventual rejection letter. I won’t mail out a single manuscript or excerpt. As expensive as KindleNationDaily daily sponsorship may seem, $80 is what it costs to mail out just a few complete manuscripts. Those are things I will not miss.
I hope to release two books next year, the first being a new choose your own adventure book, co-written by Daniel Pitts. We’ll be done the draft in a couple of weeks, and the release date is already set for April 30th, 2011. I have both KND sponsorship and KindleBoards Banner Ad scheduled for that day, and the plan is to have them promote the grand release of the new book. Considering I want to have the month of April to send out advance copies, that gives us two and a half months to thoroughly edit. It should be enough time, and the deadline has definitely motivated us both not to slack. It’s all self-imposed, of course, but it keeps us working, and I think when self-publishing, these self-imposes deadlines ares important. I’m very excited about this, the prospect of building up some hype, creating a proper release for a book.
I also hope to release another solo-work next year, but I’m working on it more slowly and right now am focused on “The Redemption of Mr. Sturlubok.” I hope to release it, tentatively titled, “A Dream Apart,” in the summer.
In the late winter I’ll detail my plans for releasing “The Redemption…” and I will be offering free copies to people. So, if you liked Whatley Tupper, and you’re actually reading this blog, well, keep checking this site… all four of you.
So, I’m in the city of Calgary, Alberta, for a little stint, visiting family. A city as clean and with as much character as a show home.
I’ll update my sales graph when I return to Vancouver, but things have been slow but steady with The Adventures of Whatley Tupper. And I’m pleased with where things are, over 250 sales and new ones coming in every day or so. I’m not putting any work into promotion for it these days, so this seems the be its natural rate of sales. Nothing much, but more than I thought when I started back in August. I thought, being an unknown author releasing a book among thousands of other unknown authors, that I’d be lucky to get a sale a week. The fact that, somehow, customers find my books amazes me. I wish I knew how much was word of mouth, how much was random searches, how much was dumb luck, how much was seeing an old review on a blog.
It’s easy to get hung up on comparisons, however, and it’s easy to find blogs or forum posts with successful authors detailing their many, many sales. Like I’ve written before, I set up this blog because I wanted to detail the nitty-gritty details of my experiences knowing that I most likely would be average. I think I’ve shown how an average unknown author does. But it’s hard, when reading how author _______ just sold 1000 books in the last couple weeks and only started this summer, to think, “What am I doing wrong?” I live a comfortable life a teacher in Canada (probably one of the best places in the world to be a teacher, as a side note) and I don’t need the money and I write because I love writing and now I publish because I love knowing that other people can read my work if they want to (or if they can find it). But, lately, I find boards like KindleBoards have too many threads where people are declaring/boasting about sales and I don’t think it’s healthy. I dare you to click on that link and not find a thread on the first page about someone’s new milestone. I understand the pride one feels when these sales numbers are reached, but there seems to be too much focus on this of late. It feels tacky. I feel that writers are artists and we shouldn’t be talking about sales so much.
And I realize the irony here. This is why I’m writing this post. This blog began as a detail of my sales history. But I’m growing bored with that, and you can definitely see from my posts that I’m not bragging. I’ve received $111.13 so far in four months. I’d make that much at McDonald’s in a couple of shifts.
Or maybe I’m just a complete hypocrite. This is entirely possible. Just because I don’t think I’m a hypocrite means nothing. Nobody thinks they are a hypocrite. Interesting.
Anyhow, let’s wrap this up, high-school essay style, and reiterate my thesis statement (if there was one): In conclusion, the online indie-author community seems be getting increasingly focused on sales and money, and perhaps I’m part of the problem.
So, two days ago, The Year We Finally Solved Everything was the KND sponsor, and my goal was to sell 40 copies. I sold… 35, which is roughly half of how things when with Whatley Tupper after this amount of time. Not surprising, and while I’m a little short of my goal, it still pretty much pays for itself. And this doesn’t take into account anyone who downloaded the sample only to purchase it a week or so later. As well, if this leads to one or two reviews, it definitely makes it worthwhile.
Overall, even though this KND sponsorship wasn’t as successful as with “The Adventures of Whatley Tupper,” it’s still by far the best paid promotional tool I’m aware of. Nothing else has come even close to directly paying for itself (and I’m aware that advertising isn’t meant to immediately pay for itself).
I already have two more KND sponsorships in waiting. One is for Whatley Tupper again (in mid-January, hoping a lot of people got Kindles for Christmas), and one for my upcoming choose your own adventure, “The Redemption of Mr. Sturlubok” on April 30th. I’ll write more about my plans for the release of that book later. Right now, Daniel and I are on track for finishing the draft in January sometime. Should be good…
Today, “The Year We Finally Solved Everything” is the Kindle Nation Daily sponsor. When I last had a KND sponsor for “Whatley Tupper,” I was extremely impressed with the results. However, I’ve always felt that a choose your own adventure for adults is a much easier sell than a dramatic piece, and looking at how the sales of each compare, this seems to be true. Generally, “Whatley” seems to outsell “The Year…” by a ratio of 3 to 1.
So, my goal is that I sell 40 copies today of “The Year…” and perhaps notice a little bump of Whatley as well. 40 would pay for the sponsorship, which seems like a good goal. But, we’ll see. I’ll post an update tomorrow.
So, I got my first royalty cheque in the mail today, and it was a cool feeling. I hoped I would get one before Christmas, and now it seems they will be mailed monthly. Some points of interest:
Not much else to say. I’m tempted to not cash it, but, dammit, Amazon doesn’t need my money. I’ve always remained adamant that as in independent author, I can’t get hung up on how much I’m getting paid. I’ve always written because it’s something I love doing. But, at the same time, it’s the first time I’ve ever been paid for something I’ve written, which is quite gratifying. I guess I’m a professional author now.
Ha!
Since I’m not updating my sales into Excel on a daily basis anymore, I can’t give a valid graph showing new sales anymore. But, here’s my total sales on “The Adventures of Whatley Tupper” after a little more than three months:
Just a few shy of 250. It’s actually over 250 if you include Amazon UK and Smashwords, but I’ll probably never actually get paid from either of those (especially Amazon UK–one has to break $100 USD to get a cheque mailed, separate from the Amazon US account, so that will probably take a few years). The last boost in sales was my 4 day 99 cent sale that garnered a little bit of attention at the Amazon Community Discussions. Since then, quite slow. I still can’t seem to get past the just-under-one-a-day-average. It’s been selling at that pace since the beginning of September, but that said, I’m also putting much less effort into promoting it. The sales I’m getting are pretty much finding themselves.
So, what’s that? 250 sales in 3 months. At this rate, I’ll break 1000 in the summer. That sounds pretty cool, actually. When I started this all in late August, I never thought that might be a possibility. Of course, when I look that that awfully flat end of the graph, it makes me think that I’ll have to wait a lot more than a year.
By the way, I have “The Year We Finally Solved Everything” KND sponsorship coming up on December 7th. Have I mentioned that before? I could go back into my posts. But I’m not going to. I’ll just blather on and repeat myself like an old man.
The Most Boring Blog Ever Written 
