Tuesday Links

Am slowly weeding through my inbox, so if you're waiting on something from me: Never Fear!

In the meantime, am passing on a couple of links of interest:

The first is "Low eBook Pricing: The Compensation Problem," and comes from Catherine Ryan Howard. It has to do with pricing your ebook, and focuses on "earning for the long haul."

Quote: "But the point is that the money you earn from your writing is not a question of how much you make from individual sales of your work. It’s about how much that work makes in the long run, over time. And this is what you should consider when you price your book."

The next is a post by Susan Kaye Quinn. I am so in awe of her, truly. ALL of her posts are fabulous. It's called "Building Your Production Capacity." If you're a writer or other creative individual, it basically gives you permission to watch TV and stare out the window as long as you're producing work (i.e. writing, editing, and marketing).

In her words: "I continue to create craft study programs and examine bestsellers, as well as invest in publishing production capacity like social media and marketing. But I skimped on the production capacity that directly fed my creativity (reading, free writing, daydreaming). And as I get further down the writing road, I realized that this, almost as much as the writing itself, is vitally important to my writing career in the long haul."

So, go meet your word quota for the day, then pop in a good DVD. :)

That is all!

~K~

Am listening to "Time to Say Goodbye" by Sarah Brightman

(No, there's no hidden meaning in that one. Apparently my Opera Pandora Station has decided I need to hear this song once every forty-five minutes. No complaints here, though.) :)

A Whole Lot of Random

I've been quiet all week, I know. Working on a super secret new project. (Not that it's super secret or amazing or anything, it's just that I tend not to discuss what I'm writing as I'm writing it. Sorry--just not a "post from the work in progress" kind of gal.)

It hasn't been all work work work, though. I spent yesterday afternoon mellowing at the pool, for instance. (And trying to catch up on my reading. I swear, my Kindle is overloaded.)

Seriously thought about posting a graph showing how much "work work" I've done this week, how much "writing work" I've done, and how much "other" work I've done (including pool time, procrastination, and watching of the Olympics), but I will SPARE YOU the graphs. ;)

 

Otherwise, I'm enjoying my new laptop--a MacBook Pro courtesy of Mr. Klein. I'm switching back and forth from PC (for work work) and the Mac (writing work), though, so I'm still getting used to all the Mac "frills." This is all v. alien for me.

 

I just finished reading (paperback) Stardust by Neil Gaiman. (Because I'm so pathetic I've never read anything by Neil Gaiman, and this feels wrong, somehow.) Totally remedied that.

 

I also finished Super Zero by Rhonda Stapleton on my Kindle. Super Fun and Super Sexy. *Love*

And finally (Nerd Alert!) I recently enjoyed watching this video on Creativity by John Cleese. Ignore the subtitles.

So many great ideas. . . . Now all I need is an hour and a half of uninterrupted "thinking" time in a house with a husband, kid, and two crazy dogs. 

Yeah. Not happening. :)

That is all.

Enjoy your weekend!

~K~

 Am listening to "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane

July Sales Numbers

So, if you missed the beautiful graph from my last post, it was meant to show that you CANNOT predict ebook sales from month to month—expect highs and lows (and everything in between).  

The point? There's no need to freak if you're on a downswing: it's not necessarily "over." There's no need to freak if you haven't seen much of an upswing: you have plenty of time.

(ebooks are forever, remember?)

What I really wanted to do, though, is show off my mad graphing skills (Yes. I finally learned how to insert graphs in MS Word. Am so behind on this technology stuff, I know.)

Anyway, I also promised to post July numbers, so. . . . 

The grand total is:

5,392

The Guardian

Amazon US: 278, Amazon UK: 7, Amazon DE: 2, Amazon FR: 1, BN: 175, iTunes: 13            

Total: 476          (15.3 sales per day)

Cross My Heart

Amazon US: 3,023, Amazon UK: 183, Amazon DE: 61, Amazon FR: 8, BN: 672, iTunes: 337

Total: 4,284       (138.1 sales per day)

Vendetta

Amazon US: 151, Amazon UK: 3, Amazon DE: 2, BN: 67, iTunes: 1                              

Total: 224          (7.2 sales per day)

               

Revelation

Amazon US: 275, Amazon UK: 2, Amazon DE: 1, BN: 69, iTunes: 4

Total: 351          (11.3 sales per day)

Trilogy

Amazon US: 18, Amazon UK: 2, Amazon DE: 1, BN: 20, iTunes: 16

Total: 57            (1.8 sales per day)

Oh, wait. You actually stopped by to see my mad graphing skills? You got it!

 

The following graphs are dedicated to Ana (@beingbold) at The Book Hookup  —fellow lover of pie charts. Go forth and follow her to discover new, amazing reads.

These are pretty self-explanatory, I think. Cross My Heart is my #1 seller, $3.99 is my best price point (so far), and Amazon is my number one platform.

Best sales month of my Indie career so far! (The next best month was June 2011.)

As for milestones?  

Cross My Heart slipped across the 30,000 ebooks sold threshold, and I'm just over 41,000 total ebooks sold since I began this journey! 

And now I blow dramatic kisses to all of you for purchasing, rating, reviewing, and telling your friends. CMH has always been a word of mouth book, and I can't thank you guys enough for taking a chance on me. Seriously.

And now I run off to pinch myself. (And make more graphs!!!)

Enjoy your weekend! :D

~KK~

A Few Words of Encouragement

I'm going to preface my monthly numbers post by offering a few words of encouragement. (If you've been playing the indie game long enough, this isn't anything you haven't heard before.)

First, ebooks are forever.

Second, you never know which ebook you publish will take off. 

Keep writing them. Lots of them.

Third, you never know when an ebook will 

come back around and surprise you.

I guess (in some ways) I'm still stuck in a traditional publishing mentality: publish a book, see a surge the 1-4 months after it releases, watch it fizzle. By last fall, I was bracing myself for a plateau—to hit that monthly "mark" I could maybe expect to coast at "from this point on." 

Data proves: that's not happening.

Because it DOESN'T happen—not when you have an ebook that's "forever."

Yes, there have been some great months, there have been some slower months, but the truth is: there's no way to predict what you will sell from month to month, or when you'll see a surge or a dip.

Proof in Figure A

See the highs? See the lows? Is there a trend? Meh. It's probably too soon to tell. If we're going by last year's data, I can maybe expect a lull during the fall, but I also didn't anticipate having the highest Cross My Heart sales month ever a year and four months AFTER the book released (July 2012).

If this was a traditional book (based on the traditional model) I would have had about three months after the release of Cross My Heart to make an impact. If it didn't resonate, the books would have been shipped back to the publisher, and I would've been written off. Bookstores have to make room for those new releases, right? They have to make a profit, too.

But what if that doesn't happen? What if a book hits stores before its "time"? What if a particular story doesn't hit that tipping point until 6-9 months (to a year) after it releases?

Thank goodness we have online booksellers, because I doubt the brick and mortar stores are willing to carry a book that's not selling well six months after the release—not with every major publisher pushing "The Next Twilight" or "The Next Hunger Games" onto the floor. 

Anyway, it makes me kind of sad for all of those novels with potential that were shipped back to the warehouse (or stripped) before they were able to find the right readers.

It takes time to build an audience, so if you've released a book and the "sales" aren't there yet (and I use that term loosely, since "sales success" means something different to each of us): hang in there. Don't give up. Write that second book. Because honestly? There's no way to know where you'll be a year and four months after your release. 

The numbers may surprise you.

Marathon, not a sprint.

Marathon, not a sprint.

That is all!

~Katie~

P.S. I'm posting July numbers on Friday.

By the way, does anyone still care for these numbers posts? I promised when I first started I would be as transparent as possible. At the time, a lot of indies were posting sales numbers. Are people still doing this? Are the numbers surprising? Enlightening? Inspiring? If it's getting old/annoying, let me know.

And always, if you have a numbers post, feel free to send me the link. I love to see how others are faring. :)

Movie Monday

I wouldn't say I'm a sucker for musical to movie adaptations--I've seen a few, haven't seen others. I'm pretty excited about this, though:

So . . . you won't be surprised that I've gone through spells of listening to this on repeat:

You also won't be surprised to know that I found inspiration for a certain character of mine in Gerard Butler. (sigh) Love me some Gerard Butler. I'm sorry, but that's one sexy phantom.

This is such a random Monday Post, I know, but thought I would share (for the eye candy, if nothing else). . . .

Some movies that I've seen lately and enjoyed (I'll just link the trailers so I don't clog the 'netz with all of these files.)

You 18 and below-ers, use discretion with these trailers/selections. Some of these are meant to appeal to an older *cough, cough* crowd. That's your friendly warning. :)

Jeff Who Lives at Home

21 Jump Street

Sherlock Holmes 2

Friends with Kids

The Adjustment Bureau 

Limitless

Being Flynn

And I know I'm late to the game, but I watched this last night. So Good. :)

That is all!

Friday Links!

Hi Guys!

I'm passing on a few links today. 

1. First is the link to Stephanie Laurens's Romance Writers of America 2012 Keynote Address, given yesterday (July 26) in California. I'm linking this because she discusses the different pathways one can take as an author, and how online publishing is changing the most important connection in the process (author to reader). 

Love this quote:

"Another point: what is the definition of success in our business? Recently I've heard some contend that success for an author is getting published. Really? Getting published is you handing your manuscript over for transmittal - how can that be success? No - we're entertainers, and as an entertainer's success is measured by their box office draw, our success is measured by the number of readers lining up to buy our next book. Not the book that just went out, but our next book. Our success is measured by the size of our already captured audience."

The rumor coming out of the conference (going on now) is that self-pubs will soon be eligible for membership to RWA if they've reached a certain point in earnings. The number I've heard thrown around is $5,000. 

2. Also, Konrath posted a great blog a few weeks ago, Zero Sum, where he discusses ebook pricing and how, even if the "bestsellers" start lowering their ebook prices, it means readers have more money to spend on (indie) books.

Quote: "If all ebook prices came down, more ebooks would be sold across the board."

3. Gossip coming out of the publishing industry these last few weeks: Penguin has acquired Author Solutions (the king of vanity presses?). Why this is bad. And why this is bad.  

Finally, authors can upload their books directly to Kobo, now (Kobo Writing Life). I'm not sure how big the Kobo market share is at this point, but I went in last weekend and uploaded my books, anyway. 

Let me just say: this is the easiest publishing interface I've used so far. The downside? I'm still waiting for Cross My Heart to publish (after one week). The others were up within a couple of hours. So . . . I may have to go in and re-publish this weekend. Still, it's a small sacrifice to reach potential readers. :)

That is all!

Enjoy your weekend!

~K~

Am listening to "We Are Young" by Fun

 

Monday Links

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to link to a fantabulous post on The Season Blog. It's called The Tale of Two Publishing Roads and was written by Beverley Kendall. In addition to discussing the reasons she chose the self-publishing path,  she also includes some marketing strategies (i.e. what worked and what didn't).  As a teaser: Facebook/Goodreads ads don't usually fly, blog tours help, and a big giveaway (such as a free Kindle) usually draws a decent crowd.

Also, from R.S. Guthrie: Are You Still Trying to Sell A Million EBooks?

To quote: "I still believe that on average, in the long run, talent and hard work WILL GET YOU THERE. But it won’t be fast. Not for the majority of us."

And finally, a fantastic post from Zoe Winters: "Evidence I Still Don’t Get the “Long Tail” of Indie Publishing"

Love this quote: 

"So while I would like a book to break out and I hope it does someday, it could be any book I haven’t written yet (or technically any book I have as well), there is more than one way to gain momentum. One of those ways I have control over and one of them I do not.

"I have no control over the momentum or sales velocity of a book. Yes, I can do some promotion. Yes I can drop a bunch of money on advertising, but at the end of the day if a book doesn’t catch fire, all the advertising in the world won’t change it because only the advertising will prop it up. When the advertising stops, if a book isn’t a “catch fire” book, it slows down and sells at the pace it would have sold without the ads."

The point?  

Keep Writing

That is all!

~Katie~

Am listening to Rachmaninov Piano Concerto #2