I was fortunate enough recently to be offered the chance to guest post on book reviewer Jera's Jamboree blog, talking about the my experiences with both traditional and self-publishing. The link below will take you to the post.
http://jerasjamboree.com/2013/10/21/jeras-jamboree-guest-author-dean-crawford-published-vs-self-published/
In other news, Holo-Sapiens is nearing its beta-reader stage. Structural edits are almost complete and I'm now working on dialogue, character, prose and narrative, ironing out smaller errors and generally polishing the novel.
Eden remains high in Kindle's Paid rankings, despite the efforts of a "sock-puppet" reviewer in the USA ( a sock-puppet is a reviewer account operated by a rival author or somebody close to them ) who placed a negative review of Eden, false accusations and repeated links to said rival author's novels in an attempt to derail my sales and promote their own. I've reported their activity and evidence proving their link to the rival author to Amazon. In a quirk of fate and what I like to think of as justice, Eden shot up over a thousand places into the Top 700 after the review appeared, which just goes to show that crime doesn't pay.
I hadn't encountered this kind of behaviour before, and as the 'review' contained some quite offensive remarks I felt compelled to reply to it as well as report it. This led to the 'reviewer' hastily altering their comments and removing their links in an attempt to avoid any action by Amazon. If there's a next time, I'll know better.
( UPDATE: Amazon have removed the offending review as it was indeed in breach of their rules. )
Monday, October 21, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
HOLO SAPIENS publication date!
I've finally got a date set-in-stone for HOLO SAPIENS. It will be published direct to Kindle on Thursday November 28th, 2013. Pre-orders won't be available. I'm hard at work on my edits, and the novel is shaping up to be perhaps my favourite so far!
EDEN is still doing fabulously. It has sold close to 10,000 copies and is maintaining strong positions in the Kindle Paid charts on both sides of the Atlantic. I'm hugely excited to see what happens when HOLO SAPIENS hits the digital shelves, and how it affects EDEN's position.
I'm also guest-posting on the Fiction Addiction blog soon, writing about my experiences with digital publishing and traditional publishing and how the market place has changed so much over the past two years. I'll place links here when the post goes live..
EDEN is still doing fabulously. It has sold close to 10,000 copies and is maintaining strong positions in the Kindle Paid charts on both sides of the Atlantic. I'm hugely excited to see what happens when HOLO SAPIENS hits the digital shelves, and how it affects EDEN's position.
I'm also guest-posting on the Fiction Addiction blog soon, writing about my experiences with digital publishing and traditional publishing and how the market place has changed so much over the past two years. I'll place links here when the post goes live..
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
New novel due for e-publication, November 2013: HOLO SAPIENS!
It's here! The artwork is finally done, the edits are well on their way and I can confirm that my latest novel, HOLO SAPIENS, will be published in November 2013! The exact date it will appear is to be confirmed and I'll share it here and in the usual places as soon as I can!
Thursday, September 26, 2013
New First Draft completed!!
I've been hard at work for the past couple of weeks, writing to a self-imposed regime of about 4,000 words per day in order to complete the first draft of my next novel. This is an entirely new work, based upon a high-concept idea I came up with during the summer that I really felt strongly about. Sometimes, as an author, I get really excited about a new plot and start tearing along for days as ideas and storylines rush out almost as fast as I can write them down. This burst of creativity is then followed by a few weeks of developing the plot details and adding depth to the story before actually sitting down and writing it.
With the Ethan Warner series, I used to plot almost every single possible detail before writing, but I changed that approach with EDEN in order to let the characters develop more. The new approach worked well, and with the new WIP I've done something in-between, plotting about 50% of the story using key points and scenes that I knew I wanted to see, and then letting the characters kind of build themselves as the story went along.
This approach has produced some great characters who have come alive as I've written the draft, but they have changed over the course of the story in their motives etc as their characters have developed, so now I've got to go through the first structural edit and make sure that those characters become a little more consistent in their story journey, along with all the other essential plot lines being ironed out and polished. In general I'm really very happy with my new method, as it allows new ideas to pop up throughout the story, often changing it ways I hadn't imagined before writing it.
In other news, EDEN remains high in the UK Amazon Kindle chart ( in the 300s ) and in the USA chart ( 1,100 ish ), and is selling anything between 130 and 200 copies per day. I did some minor further advertising in the USA, but all in all the book seems to be selling itself without any further input from me. Given its high star-rating, especially in the UK, I'm assuming that the good sales are based on the book's merits alone - gaining sales traction as its reputation gets better as a "good read". I'm keeping an eye on it and also plotting the sequel, EDEN: REDEMPTION, which I'll publish sometime early in 2014, as for now I'm focusing on my two current WIPs.
More news as it comes in, and I'll post cover-art for the new high-concept novel soon if it becomes a self-published work instead of traditionally published.
With the Ethan Warner series, I used to plot almost every single possible detail before writing, but I changed that approach with EDEN in order to let the characters develop more. The new approach worked well, and with the new WIP I've done something in-between, plotting about 50% of the story using key points and scenes that I knew I wanted to see, and then letting the characters kind of build themselves as the story went along.
This approach has produced some great characters who have come alive as I've written the draft, but they have changed over the course of the story in their motives etc as their characters have developed, so now I've got to go through the first structural edit and make sure that those characters become a little more consistent in their story journey, along with all the other essential plot lines being ironed out and polished. In general I'm really very happy with my new method, as it allows new ideas to pop up throughout the story, often changing it ways I hadn't imagined before writing it.
In other news, EDEN remains high in the UK Amazon Kindle chart ( in the 300s ) and in the USA chart ( 1,100 ish ), and is selling anything between 130 and 200 copies per day. I did some minor further advertising in the USA, but all in all the book seems to be selling itself without any further input from me. Given its high star-rating, especially in the UK, I'm assuming that the good sales are based on the book's merits alone - gaining sales traction as its reputation gets better as a "good read". I'm keeping an eye on it and also plotting the sequel, EDEN: REDEMPTION, which I'll publish sometime early in 2014, as for now I'm focusing on my two current WIPs.
More news as it comes in, and I'll post cover-art for the new high-concept novel soon if it becomes a self-published work instead of traditionally published.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Increasing workload and general publishing news.
I'm finally back into my routine after a week and a half spent reading the final proofs for two of my traditionally published novels. APOCALYPSE is now ready for printing in the USA, although I have not yet seen any cover artwork, while here in the UK the next Ethan Warner novel, now titled THE ETERNITY PROJECT, is also ready for printing and I've been sent the wonderful cover art, which is below:
The completion of these two proof read-throughs means that I'm now back at my desk and writing to a strict self-imposed regime. I aim to write no less than 4,000 words per day, and am working on three different projects. The first is an epic sci-fi novel that I've been plotting and writing now for over a month, the story built around a central idea that is entirely unique and immensely compelling. The novel could be a real hit if I can get it right, so it's my priority right now ( before somebody else comes up with the idea! ). The second project is a crime novel for my agent, Luigi Bonomi, which we're hoping will go to traditional publishers later this year. The third project is the sequel to EDEN, which is doing so incredibly well right now across Amazon's various sites. I'm in the basic plotting stage at the moment, but as EDEN was always planned to be the first in a trilogy of stories the basic elements are in place. It's more an issue of how to tell the story in a satisfying way for the reader that's my focus at the moment, as I don't want the sequel to be just a repeat of the debut.
EDEN remains high in the UK chart, and seems to climb by about a hundred places each passing week. Next week marks two months since the novel was launched exclusively to Amazon, during which I've sold more than 4,000 copies. The title has slipped slightly over in the USA, but this is largely due to the big leap in sales when I bought advertising there, the tail-off in sales afterward accounting for the decrease. A new price and some more advertising is in the pipeline so hopefully I'll be able to continue the book's upward climb soon.
Between now and next Spring it's my aim to have at least three self-published titles available exclusively through Amazon at low prices. This longer-term goal, and the combined sales and brand-awareness, is part of a plan to achieve wider success within the self-published world to keep me writing for a living between traditional contracts with publishing houses. With things going ever more digital in publishing, I want to make my mark there and establish a permanent presence sooner rather than later. The more people who become aware that they can buy my books at truly excellent prices in digital form, the better off I'll be when the paperback market begins to follow the already collapsing hardback market.
I'll report in next week with EDEN's two-month figures, and hopefully some good news on USA advertising...
The completion of these two proof read-throughs means that I'm now back at my desk and writing to a strict self-imposed regime. I aim to write no less than 4,000 words per day, and am working on three different projects. The first is an epic sci-fi novel that I've been plotting and writing now for over a month, the story built around a central idea that is entirely unique and immensely compelling. The novel could be a real hit if I can get it right, so it's my priority right now ( before somebody else comes up with the idea! ). The second project is a crime novel for my agent, Luigi Bonomi, which we're hoping will go to traditional publishers later this year. The third project is the sequel to EDEN, which is doing so incredibly well right now across Amazon's various sites. I'm in the basic plotting stage at the moment, but as EDEN was always planned to be the first in a trilogy of stories the basic elements are in place. It's more an issue of how to tell the story in a satisfying way for the reader that's my focus at the moment, as I don't want the sequel to be just a repeat of the debut.
EDEN remains high in the UK chart, and seems to climb by about a hundred places each passing week. Next week marks two months since the novel was launched exclusively to Amazon, during which I've sold more than 4,000 copies. The title has slipped slightly over in the USA, but this is largely due to the big leap in sales when I bought advertising there, the tail-off in sales afterward accounting for the decrease. A new price and some more advertising is in the pipeline so hopefully I'll be able to continue the book's upward climb soon.
Between now and next Spring it's my aim to have at least three self-published titles available exclusively through Amazon at low prices. This longer-term goal, and the combined sales and brand-awareness, is part of a plan to achieve wider success within the self-published world to keep me writing for a living between traditional contracts with publishing houses. With things going ever more digital in publishing, I want to make my mark there and establish a permanent presence sooner rather than later. The more people who become aware that they can buy my books at truly excellent prices in digital form, the better off I'll be when the paperback market begins to follow the already collapsing hardback market.
I'll report in next week with EDEN's two-month figures, and hopefully some good news on USA advertising...
Monday, September 09, 2013
Self publishing and self promotion.
Those of you who are following my experiment in self-publishing here on my blog will know that in my last post I revealed that I would be buying some digital promotion over in the USA. Some research revealed that doing so had worked well for other authors writing in a similar genre to me, so I thought it was worth a shot as although Eden was already doing very well I wanted to give it a boost if I could.
For the frankly meagre sum of $99 I bought a one day Kindle Fire advert in a digital publication across the pond and crossed my fingers. The result was hugely impressive - I awoke the next morning to find that Eden had leaped in the Amazon.com overall chart from the 1,051 position to the 585 position, an immense leap in sales! Eden has since slipped back a little but the experiment effectively paid for itself several times over in the next few days.
Would I do it again? Yes, definitely, but only at launch day, to get the title high into the charts as quickly as possible in conjunction with other promotional efforts. The exposure definitely works well and has a bit of a "tail", in that when the promotion ends sales don't plummet back but decrease only slowly. The new exposure not only means more sales but also hopefully more reviews - if they're positive it increases the confidence of other potential readers that your book is worth a go, keeping the title's momentum going.
In the UK, things are holding steady with the book selling around 60 copies per day ( and around 130 per day in the USA ). The important thing to remember is that these sales happen seven days per week, so Eden is selling well over 1,000 copies each week, a very respectable figure at this early stage just seven weeks after publication. I'm hoping that this will gradually grow over time now as there is clearly an appetite for this kind of novel. However, all of the advice I've received tells me that there is one thing I can do that will definitely increase sales of Eden, one thing that is more effective than any amount of advertising, blogging, Tweeting etc and that's to write the sequel! Doing so is now a priority for me, to bolster the first book's sales and to build a series of full-length novels that are instantly available to readers 24/7 at reasonable prices. It's a business model that has very few flaws, and I'm eager to build upon that now that my first attempt has been so successful.
Onward and upward!
For the frankly meagre sum of $99 I bought a one day Kindle Fire advert in a digital publication across the pond and crossed my fingers. The result was hugely impressive - I awoke the next morning to find that Eden had leaped in the Amazon.com overall chart from the 1,051 position to the 585 position, an immense leap in sales! Eden has since slipped back a little but the experiment effectively paid for itself several times over in the next few days.
Would I do it again? Yes, definitely, but only at launch day, to get the title high into the charts as quickly as possible in conjunction with other promotional efforts. The exposure definitely works well and has a bit of a "tail", in that when the promotion ends sales don't plummet back but decrease only slowly. The new exposure not only means more sales but also hopefully more reviews - if they're positive it increases the confidence of other potential readers that your book is worth a go, keeping the title's momentum going.
In the UK, things are holding steady with the book selling around 60 copies per day ( and around 130 per day in the USA ). The important thing to remember is that these sales happen seven days per week, so Eden is selling well over 1,000 copies each week, a very respectable figure at this early stage just seven weeks after publication. I'm hoping that this will gradually grow over time now as there is clearly an appetite for this kind of novel. However, all of the advice I've received tells me that there is one thing I can do that will definitely increase sales of Eden, one thing that is more effective than any amount of advertising, blogging, Tweeting etc and that's to write the sequel! Doing so is now a priority for me, to bolster the first book's sales and to build a series of full-length novels that are instantly available to readers 24/7 at reasonable prices. It's a business model that has very few flaws, and I'm eager to build upon that now that my first attempt has been so successful.
Onward and upward!
Tuesday, September 03, 2013
Self publishing news and revelations!
It's been another hugely exciting week for me since my last post here, with much progress in Eden's climb of the Amazon charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Firstly, the new chart positions;
In the UK Eden is now in the 600s, moving about a bit but holding steady. In the USA it's in the 1,500s and doing much the same. These new chart positions represent a huge leap on last weeks' and show continued growth in sales that is much greater than expected: i.e, sales have actually doubled again due to the continued rise with almost 2,000 copies sold and no sign of a dip ( so far ).
I have also appeared in Amazon.com's brand new Top #100 Authors list, which is based on all copies of all books sold by authors, and updated hourly.
This is immensely exciting as the Amazon site in the USA is absolutely vast, with some 2,000,000 Kindle titles available. To appear in this new chart is a huge milestone for me and I can't believe that it's happened. I'm rubbing shoulders with HUGE names from both sides of the Atlantic, and really hope that this author list is taken up by Amazon UK and becomes a permanent feature as the exposure to new audiences is potentially immense.
Further news involves my decision, based on Eden's success in the USA without any publicity, to purchase some advertising. I recently realised that due to the furore over authors buying or creating fake reviews for their books ( so-called sock puppets ) I had neglected to consider buying genuine advertising space on major websites for my books. Far from being hideously expensive as I had feared, and following in the footsteps of other self-publishing authors more experienced than myself, buying advertising space in on-line publications in the USA has proved both easy and relatively affordable. The adverts have not yet been published, but I'm eagerly awaiting the effect on Eden's chart positions on Amazon.com to see what, if any, impact they have on sales. If things go as well as they have for other authors, I may consider purchasing more, perhaps here in the UK too. I'll update here on the blog as soon as I have anything to report.
I've been working hard on a brand new project, along with a crime novel for my agent and plotting the sequel to Eden, but have contracted a cold from nowhere despite the sunshine we've been enjoying in the UK so have been slowed down a bit ( yesterday I wrote 3,000 words, a quarter down on my usual output ). Hopefully I'll get better soon, but due to still feeling rough this is the end of my blog post for this week. Hopefully I'll have more exciting self-publishing news to add soon!
In the UK Eden is now in the 600s, moving about a bit but holding steady. In the USA it's in the 1,500s and doing much the same. These new chart positions represent a huge leap on last weeks' and show continued growth in sales that is much greater than expected: i.e, sales have actually doubled again due to the continued rise with almost 2,000 copies sold and no sign of a dip ( so far ).
I have also appeared in Amazon.com's brand new Top #100 Authors list, which is based on all copies of all books sold by authors, and updated hourly.
This is immensely exciting as the Amazon site in the USA is absolutely vast, with some 2,000,000 Kindle titles available. To appear in this new chart is a huge milestone for me and I can't believe that it's happened. I'm rubbing shoulders with HUGE names from both sides of the Atlantic, and really hope that this author list is taken up by Amazon UK and becomes a permanent feature as the exposure to new audiences is potentially immense.
Further news involves my decision, based on Eden's success in the USA without any publicity, to purchase some advertising. I recently realised that due to the furore over authors buying or creating fake reviews for their books ( so-called sock puppets ) I had neglected to consider buying genuine advertising space on major websites for my books. Far from being hideously expensive as I had feared, and following in the footsteps of other self-publishing authors more experienced than myself, buying advertising space in on-line publications in the USA has proved both easy and relatively affordable. The adverts have not yet been published, but I'm eagerly awaiting the effect on Eden's chart positions on Amazon.com to see what, if any, impact they have on sales. If things go as well as they have for other authors, I may consider purchasing more, perhaps here in the UK too. I'll update here on the blog as soon as I have anything to report.
I've been working hard on a brand new project, along with a crime novel for my agent and plotting the sequel to Eden, but have contracted a cold from nowhere despite the sunshine we've been enjoying in the UK so have been slowed down a bit ( yesterday I wrote 3,000 words, a quarter down on my usual output ). Hopefully I'll get better soon, but due to still feeling rough this is the end of my blog post for this week. Hopefully I'll have more exciting self-publishing news to add soon!
Monday, August 26, 2013
The BIG numbers - EDEN's first full month.
It's been just over one month since I self-published Eden to Kindle on Amazon, and to be entirely honest I did not think that I would be sharing such amazing sales figures as I am about to. The vast majority of my research, reading the experiences of other self-published authors, suggested to me that it would be a long haul over many months to gain sufficient recognition to achieve successful chart positions. In fact, for various reasons, in my case the reverse has been true. This is almost certainly due to my already having a reader-base through traditional publication by Simon & Schuster. However, Eden has also shot up in the charts on Amazon.com and my presence there is far smaller than in the UK. In addition I have done absolutely no publicity for the title in the USA, which suggests something else is at work.
First though, the figures. These are the sales I've achieved for Eden in its first month:
UK: 904 copies sold.
USA: 312 copies sold.
Other territories: 14 copies sold.
My highest ranking to date on Amazon UK in the paid Kindle chart so far has been #715.
My highest ranking to date on Amazon.com's paid Kindle chart is ( currently ) #2,823.
To put these chart positions into some kind of context, there are estimated to be around 750,000 Kindle books in the UK chart and some 2,000,000 in the USA.
A look back across my posts charting my self-publishing experiment reveals a series of jolts as the book climbed the charts here in the UK, and a similar picture in the USA ( although slower to start there ). Chief among the things that I have learned so far is that when a book is published to Kindle it must be featured in relevant categories that also give the book a chance to stand out, and that reaching a chart position within those categories guarantees an increase in sales as the title's visibility and exposure to new readers increases. Being seen is everything in this business, whether you're traditionally published or doing it for yourself. Eden jumped 2,000 places virtually overnight when it entered the Top 100 in the post-apocalyptic category, both here and in the USA. That got the ball rolling in each case, with sales doubling week on week.
But what has driven sales in the USA? My traditionally published books are not as well known there, I have approached no bloggers or performed any other publicity, digital or otherwise, and yet in a chart of over two million books Eden is now ranking in the top 0.1% of all titles. I've spent much of the weekend pondering this, and the only solution I can think of is that a combination of low price, professional cover design, compelling subject matter and ( so far ) very positive reviews are helping Eden stand out from an already overcrowded self-publishing market. I read again and again reviews of SP books lamenting the poor editing, the weak plotting, the rushed narrative etc etc. Only a small number of authors are patient and determined enough to produce an industry-quality book for self-publishing and those authors do seem to get noticed more quickly by readers eager to discover a new author. The lesson here is that it's worth having books professionally edited, having covers designed and really thinking about how to present your self-published novel to the public, because the only thing holding back everybody else is the fact that they didn't do those things and that's never going to change. You can't just whack out 50,000 words and expect it to sell well, but that's what the majority do. Your book's got to be good, then it's got to be made better, and better again, and then it's got to be edited, publicised and sold. I'm not going to compare Eden to self-published books that have sold hundreds of thousands, but it's on the right track so far.
While I don't think that Eden has charted so high solely because of my efforts to produce a top-quality book, in the absence of any other factors I do think that those efforts are largely responsible for the book's rise. What I'm hoping now is that the rise continues, and that charting in specific categories leads to a "snowball effect" on sales, a phenomenon noted by many other self-published authors before me. Only time will tell, but right now I think that I've achieved another major milestone in publishing, and that means that Eden's sequel is now a priority. I'd decided only to write a sequel if Eden sold well and received predominantly positive reviews, and that's definitely happened. More to the point, if any book I write is deemed unsuitable for the current publishing market in the future, it will then be self-published instead. There really is no good reason now not to.
I'll update again next week, but also include other observations about digital and self-publishing rather than sustain a blow-by-blow account of the book's position in the charts.
First though, the figures. These are the sales I've achieved for Eden in its first month:
UK: 904 copies sold.
USA: 312 copies sold.
Other territories: 14 copies sold.
My highest ranking to date on Amazon UK in the paid Kindle chart so far has been #715.
My highest ranking to date on Amazon.com's paid Kindle chart is ( currently ) #2,823.
To put these chart positions into some kind of context, there are estimated to be around 750,000 Kindle books in the UK chart and some 2,000,000 in the USA.
A look back across my posts charting my self-publishing experiment reveals a series of jolts as the book climbed the charts here in the UK, and a similar picture in the USA ( although slower to start there ). Chief among the things that I have learned so far is that when a book is published to Kindle it must be featured in relevant categories that also give the book a chance to stand out, and that reaching a chart position within those categories guarantees an increase in sales as the title's visibility and exposure to new readers increases. Being seen is everything in this business, whether you're traditionally published or doing it for yourself. Eden jumped 2,000 places virtually overnight when it entered the Top 100 in the post-apocalyptic category, both here and in the USA. That got the ball rolling in each case, with sales doubling week on week.
But what has driven sales in the USA? My traditionally published books are not as well known there, I have approached no bloggers or performed any other publicity, digital or otherwise, and yet in a chart of over two million books Eden is now ranking in the top 0.1% of all titles. I've spent much of the weekend pondering this, and the only solution I can think of is that a combination of low price, professional cover design, compelling subject matter and ( so far ) very positive reviews are helping Eden stand out from an already overcrowded self-publishing market. I read again and again reviews of SP books lamenting the poor editing, the weak plotting, the rushed narrative etc etc. Only a small number of authors are patient and determined enough to produce an industry-quality book for self-publishing and those authors do seem to get noticed more quickly by readers eager to discover a new author. The lesson here is that it's worth having books professionally edited, having covers designed and really thinking about how to present your self-published novel to the public, because the only thing holding back everybody else is the fact that they didn't do those things and that's never going to change. You can't just whack out 50,000 words and expect it to sell well, but that's what the majority do. Your book's got to be good, then it's got to be made better, and better again, and then it's got to be edited, publicised and sold. I'm not going to compare Eden to self-published books that have sold hundreds of thousands, but it's on the right track so far.
While I don't think that Eden has charted so high solely because of my efforts to produce a top-quality book, in the absence of any other factors I do think that those efforts are largely responsible for the book's rise. What I'm hoping now is that the rise continues, and that charting in specific categories leads to a "snowball effect" on sales, a phenomenon noted by many other self-published authors before me. Only time will tell, but right now I think that I've achieved another major milestone in publishing, and that means that Eden's sequel is now a priority. I'd decided only to write a sequel if Eden sold well and received predominantly positive reviews, and that's definitely happened. More to the point, if any book I write is deemed unsuitable for the current publishing market in the future, it will then be self-published instead. There really is no good reason now not to.
I'll update again next week, but also include other observations about digital and self-publishing rather than sustain a blow-by-blow account of the book's position in the charts.
Monday, August 19, 2013
EDEN: week four of self-publication!
It's been a hell of a week, to say the least.
Since my last post I've learned even more about how Amazon's Kindle rankings work, and also seen Eden climb ever further up the charts. This morning it reached #796 in the overall chart, although it has slipped a little way since and at the time of writing is at #824. More amazing though is that the book is now charting on Amazon.com's Post-Apocalyptic category at #80 and is at #12,855 overall.
I know that I've already mentioned that there has been very little publicity surrounding the novel, but it seems important because so many self-published authors struggle to obtain blog reviews and such like. I have only received one industry blog-review so far, the rest being ordinary reader's reviews, but it hasn't stopped the book's rapid rise up the charts. However, there are things that I did get wrong.
Upon reflection, I think that I should have done more to create a "buzz" around the launch of the book. Many self-published authors ( and traditional publishers too ) make much fuss about the importance of this and I'm beginning to understand why: sell a hundred books on your first day and you'll shoot straight into the Kindle UK chart at the 500 mark, reach a high position in your respective categories and get seen earlier by more people, potentially hastening a book's rise. At least when I'm ready to publish Eden's sequel I'll have this knowledge at hand.
Anyway, I have no complaints about Eden's success so far. I have also learned that Kindle UK sales seem to slump at weekends. Eden dropped to the 1,100 position over the weekend, but maintained its position in the category charts. This seems to be because all other books experienced a similar slump, with the likely exception of the biggest names, and upon Monday morning all books leaped up again. Has anybody else noticed this, or have an explanation for it?
I'll update soon with my total number of copies sold in my first month ( probably next Monday ) but already it's far higher than I expected and rising week on week. Keeping my fingers crossed that this trend continues apace...
Since my last post I've learned even more about how Amazon's Kindle rankings work, and also seen Eden climb ever further up the charts. This morning it reached #796 in the overall chart, although it has slipped a little way since and at the time of writing is at #824. More amazing though is that the book is now charting on Amazon.com's Post-Apocalyptic category at #80 and is at #12,855 overall.
I know that I've already mentioned that there has been very little publicity surrounding the novel, but it seems important because so many self-published authors struggle to obtain blog reviews and such like. I have only received one industry blog-review so far, the rest being ordinary reader's reviews, but it hasn't stopped the book's rapid rise up the charts. However, there are things that I did get wrong.
Upon reflection, I think that I should have done more to create a "buzz" around the launch of the book. Many self-published authors ( and traditional publishers too ) make much fuss about the importance of this and I'm beginning to understand why: sell a hundred books on your first day and you'll shoot straight into the Kindle UK chart at the 500 mark, reach a high position in your respective categories and get seen earlier by more people, potentially hastening a book's rise. At least when I'm ready to publish Eden's sequel I'll have this knowledge at hand.
Anyway, I have no complaints about Eden's success so far. I have also learned that Kindle UK sales seem to slump at weekends. Eden dropped to the 1,100 position over the weekend, but maintained its position in the category charts. This seems to be because all other books experienced a similar slump, with the likely exception of the biggest names, and upon Monday morning all books leaped up again. Has anybody else noticed this, or have an explanation for it?
I'll update soon with my total number of copies sold in my first month ( probably next Monday ) but already it's far higher than I expected and rising week on week. Keeping my fingers crossed that this trend continues apace...
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
"EDEN": could it actually happen?
Several readers have recently asked me if the natural apocalypse that occurs in my novel Eden is a real phenomenon and whether it could literally bring about the downfall of civilisation in the way described?
The answer is very much "yes", but don't take my word for it;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10103492/Solar-storm-could-leave-Britain-without-power-for-months.html
NASA have been warning the US Government for the last five years that our sun is long overdue a solar super-storm, and if we're in the firing line then it is quite literally the end of everything, for we would be utterly unable to rebuild our infrastructure quickly enough to prevent our technological downfall. Eden is not just a work of fiction, but an account of what our world might be like in the aftermath of such a terrific and widespread collapse.
You have been warned....
http://www.amazon.co.uk/EDEN-ebook/dp/B00E5MRF66/ref=la_B004UO651U_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1376419316&sr=1-5
The answer is very much "yes", but don't take my word for it;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10103492/Solar-storm-could-leave-Britain-without-power-for-months.html
NASA have been warning the US Government for the last five years that our sun is long overdue a solar super-storm, and if we're in the firing line then it is quite literally the end of everything, for we would be utterly unable to rebuild our infrastructure quickly enough to prevent our technological downfall. Eden is not just a work of fiction, but an account of what our world might be like in the aftermath of such a terrific and widespread collapse.
You have been warned....
http://www.amazon.co.uk/EDEN-ebook/dp/B00E5MRF66/ref=la_B004UO651U_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1376419316&sr=1-5
Monday, August 12, 2013
EDEN: Week 3!
So, huge news since last week's update on my self-publishing experiment!
I decided to alter the categories in which Eden appears on Amazon's Kindle page. Since its launch, the novel had been under the Crime, Thriller & Mystery section in Action & Adventure and Suspense categories ( Amazon only lets you pick two categories these days ). Being in these two categories meant that the novel was effectively competing with every other thriller novel in the world, reducing its chances of getting noticed. Even so, the book had reached the 2,500 spot in the rankings and was continuing to climb. I didn't want to risk upsetting this trend but felt it was worth a try to position the book in categories that would help it to stand out more. Furthermore, a couple of the book's reviews mentioned a few typos, so I wanted to hunt them out, correct them and re-upload the perfected novel anyway, so it seemed like the right time to do it.
In the end, based on the placement of other novels of a similar type, I switched Eden across to the Science Fiction category - Post-Apocalyptic and Dystopian respectively. I then went to bed with my fingers crossed for good news.
I awoke to the news that Eden had shot up into the 1,400 position!! I couldn't believe it, but overnight the book had risen much higher in the charts, and also hit the Science Fiction Top 100! At the time of writing this post, Eden is holding steady at 1,270 in Kindle Paid and is #3 in the Post-Apocalyptic category and #7 in the Dystopian category.
I knew that choosing an accurate category was important, but this has led to a re-doubling of sales, with Eden now selling around 70 copies per day. Fingers crossed now that a few of the blog reviews I've been waiting for will appear. Eden's currently got five reviews, all 5-star, so hoping to build upon that over the coming week
In other news, I'm half way through a first draft of a futuristic thriller which I'm keeping under wraps at the moment, and about to start a first draft of a new crime novel for my literary agent Luigi Bonomi. Keeping busy, but finding myself unable to refrain from checking how Eden's doing at least once an hour!!
I decided to alter the categories in which Eden appears on Amazon's Kindle page. Since its launch, the novel had been under the Crime, Thriller & Mystery section in Action & Adventure and Suspense categories ( Amazon only lets you pick two categories these days ). Being in these two categories meant that the novel was effectively competing with every other thriller novel in the world, reducing its chances of getting noticed. Even so, the book had reached the 2,500 spot in the rankings and was continuing to climb. I didn't want to risk upsetting this trend but felt it was worth a try to position the book in categories that would help it to stand out more. Furthermore, a couple of the book's reviews mentioned a few typos, so I wanted to hunt them out, correct them and re-upload the perfected novel anyway, so it seemed like the right time to do it.
In the end, based on the placement of other novels of a similar type, I switched Eden across to the Science Fiction category - Post-Apocalyptic and Dystopian respectively. I then went to bed with my fingers crossed for good news.
I awoke to the news that Eden had shot up into the 1,400 position!! I couldn't believe it, but overnight the book had risen much higher in the charts, and also hit the Science Fiction Top 100! At the time of writing this post, Eden is holding steady at 1,270 in Kindle Paid and is #3 in the Post-Apocalyptic category and #7 in the Dystopian category.
I knew that choosing an accurate category was important, but this has led to a re-doubling of sales, with Eden now selling around 70 copies per day. Fingers crossed now that a few of the blog reviews I've been waiting for will appear. Eden's currently got five reviews, all 5-star, so hoping to build upon that over the coming week
In other news, I'm half way through a first draft of a futuristic thriller which I'm keeping under wraps at the moment, and about to start a first draft of a new crime novel for my literary agent Luigi Bonomi. Keeping busy, but finding myself unable to refrain from checking how Eden's doing at least once an hour!!
Tuesday, August 06, 2013
EDEN: Week 2!
Well, I didn't expect this to happen!
Just two weeks after being published to Amazon, "Eden" has rocketed up the charts and at the time of writing is in position 2,600 in the Kindle UK chart ( paid ) which means the book is currently selling about 40 copies per day. It has garnered three reviews, all five stars, and I've had considerable feedback via my Facebook Fan Page and e-mail telling me that it is the best book I've written so far!
Of course, this does not mean that the book will automatically continue to climb the charts on its own, but its success so far is more than I'd dared hope for, especially since my efforts to gain promotional support in the form of blogger reviews and interviews has yet to take-off.
To date six very friendly bloggers have agreed to review Eden, doing so over the next couple of months depending on their very busy schedules. Some that I approached have not replied, but as it's holiday season this is to be expected. Many do say on their websites that due to the volume of requests they do not have time to reply individually. Again, par for the course and understandable.
So what's causing the rapid climb? I'd love to say that my carefully crafted plan is behind it all, but I suspect that it's a mixture of things, some that I dreamed up and others that I borrowed from other successful self-published authors. The price, for one thing, I think is "right". In these tough economic times, people need to be able to afford to take a chance on an author they maybe haven't heard of. If I'm polishing my own ego then I think my cover design is attention grabbing and says "big book" to browsers on the Internet. I think also that timing the launch alongside the fourth Ethan Warner novel may have drawn attention to Eden ( I'm thinking that people see The Chimera Secret while browsing in bookshops, wander home and find my author page to buy the book for their Kindle, and then spot Eden and decide to give that a go too, or even in place of The Chimera Secret, because of the lower price ).
But I think that there may be something else too: the fact that more and more people are switching over to digital books. We're behind the USA on this in Europe, but it's becoming more and more obvious that with hardback sales already in free fall, paperback sales are only going to go the same way. This is one reason why I've taken to digital publishing alongside traditional contracts: once you've seen the writing on the wall, it's not wise to hang around. If I'd published Eden to Kindle two years ago, I'm not sure that I would have seen the same sales.
There's still a long way to go, but so far Eden really is moving in the right direction and my cunning plan for digital domination appears, for the time being, to be working. More updates soon...
Just two weeks after being published to Amazon, "Eden" has rocketed up the charts and at the time of writing is in position 2,600 in the Kindle UK chart ( paid ) which means the book is currently selling about 40 copies per day. It has garnered three reviews, all five stars, and I've had considerable feedback via my Facebook Fan Page and e-mail telling me that it is the best book I've written so far!
Of course, this does not mean that the book will automatically continue to climb the charts on its own, but its success so far is more than I'd dared hope for, especially since my efforts to gain promotional support in the form of blogger reviews and interviews has yet to take-off.
To date six very friendly bloggers have agreed to review Eden, doing so over the next couple of months depending on their very busy schedules. Some that I approached have not replied, but as it's holiday season this is to be expected. Many do say on their websites that due to the volume of requests they do not have time to reply individually. Again, par for the course and understandable.
So what's causing the rapid climb? I'd love to say that my carefully crafted plan is behind it all, but I suspect that it's a mixture of things, some that I dreamed up and others that I borrowed from other successful self-published authors. The price, for one thing, I think is "right". In these tough economic times, people need to be able to afford to take a chance on an author they maybe haven't heard of. If I'm polishing my own ego then I think my cover design is attention grabbing and says "big book" to browsers on the Internet. I think also that timing the launch alongside the fourth Ethan Warner novel may have drawn attention to Eden ( I'm thinking that people see The Chimera Secret while browsing in bookshops, wander home and find my author page to buy the book for their Kindle, and then spot Eden and decide to give that a go too, or even in place of The Chimera Secret, because of the lower price ).
But I think that there may be something else too: the fact that more and more people are switching over to digital books. We're behind the USA on this in Europe, but it's becoming more and more obvious that with hardback sales already in free fall, paperback sales are only going to go the same way. This is one reason why I've taken to digital publishing alongside traditional contracts: once you've seen the writing on the wall, it's not wise to hang around. If I'd published Eden to Kindle two years ago, I'm not sure that I would have seen the same sales.
There's still a long way to go, but so far Eden really is moving in the right direction and my cunning plan for digital domination appears, for the time being, to be working. More updates soon...
Saturday, August 03, 2013
Self-publishing versus traditional publishing.
While browsing Twitter recently I discovered a link to an article with American self-published author Hugh Howey. For those of you who haven't heard of him, Hugh's ninth novel, "Wool", went viral and became a huge best-seller. James Cameron bought the film rights, and Hugh's now a full-time author. The link below will take you to the article, written in April 2013:
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/04/hugh_howey_self_publishing_is_the_future_and_great_for_writers/
I found this all incredibly interesting, as it details in some length the fact that many authors are now making a tidy living from self-publishing. They're not names you'd likely have heard of, but their books occupy what is sometimes called the "fat" end of the tail. This refers to a graph of all book sales, whether digital or traditional. A small number of authors occupy the top, high-earning part of the graph, while the vast majority occupy the long "tail" of the graph along the bottom. But there is a small chunk, buried deep in the bottom left corner of that graph, where a sizeable number of authors earn enough to make a difference in their lives without ever getting famous. Figures vary, but as the above article describes, they can be earning anything from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month.
This sweet-spot is where I think many authors aspire to be; nobody expects to be the next J.K. Rowling or Dan Brown, but all who work hard at writing good material aim to earn a living from it, and the number of people achieving this is on the rise on both sides of the Atlantic.
It led me to think about how best to get there. The fact is that right now I rely on traditional publishing contracts to earn a living, and right now that's where I want to remain as no author can achieve the brand awareness that a major publishing house can provide. But, and it's a big but, right now I can produce up to three novels per year writing full time. Every time one of those novels isn't quite right for editors in the big publishing houses, it will be self-published. There's simply no longer any good reason not to. Why rely on one book to be in the sweet spot in the charts? Why not two, or four, or ten?
Eden is still climbing the charts, reaching the mid-3000 spot this morning and selling about 30 copies per day. That's further on than it was last week, and it now has 3 five-star reviews. My fourth Ethan Warner book, The Chimera Secret, is vying for position with it in the charts. Chimera has an international publisher behind it. Eden has nothing but me. See what I mean...?
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/04/hugh_howey_self_publishing_is_the_future_and_great_for_writers/
I found this all incredibly interesting, as it details in some length the fact that many authors are now making a tidy living from self-publishing. They're not names you'd likely have heard of, but their books occupy what is sometimes called the "fat" end of the tail. This refers to a graph of all book sales, whether digital or traditional. A small number of authors occupy the top, high-earning part of the graph, while the vast majority occupy the long "tail" of the graph along the bottom. But there is a small chunk, buried deep in the bottom left corner of that graph, where a sizeable number of authors earn enough to make a difference in their lives without ever getting famous. Figures vary, but as the above article describes, they can be earning anything from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month.
This sweet-spot is where I think many authors aspire to be; nobody expects to be the next J.K. Rowling or Dan Brown, but all who work hard at writing good material aim to earn a living from it, and the number of people achieving this is on the rise on both sides of the Atlantic.
It led me to think about how best to get there. The fact is that right now I rely on traditional publishing contracts to earn a living, and right now that's where I want to remain as no author can achieve the brand awareness that a major publishing house can provide. But, and it's a big but, right now I can produce up to three novels per year writing full time. Every time one of those novels isn't quite right for editors in the big publishing houses, it will be self-published. There's simply no longer any good reason not to. Why rely on one book to be in the sweet spot in the charts? Why not two, or four, or ten?
Eden is still climbing the charts, reaching the mid-3000 spot this morning and selling about 30 copies per day. That's further on than it was last week, and it now has 3 five-star reviews. My fourth Ethan Warner book, The Chimera Secret, is vying for position with it in the charts. Chimera has an international publisher behind it. Eden has nothing but me. See what I mean...?
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
EDEN: the first week!
It's been seven days since I uploaded my treasured self-published novel Eden onto Amazon's Kindle service. At this time it has sold 71 copies so far and is settling in nicely at around 10 copies per day, which places it around the 6,000 mark in the rankings on Amazon's UK chart. This is all very interesting to me as it gives some kind of perspective on what the rankings really mean to an author watching a particular book.
Remarkably, after just two days, Eden received an unsolicited review from a Top 1000 Amazon reviewer in the USA, who gave a glowing testimony and a 4-star rating.
So far, so good. There has been absolutely no publicity for this title except for me to post here, on my Facebook Fan Page and on Twitter, so many of the initial sales are likely to have been made by fans of the Ethan Warner series. But behind the scenes I've been hard at work sending out review requests to book bloggers on both sides of the Atlantic. So far, I've had three confirm that they will be reviewing Eden ( one had already bought it! ) so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good reviews, which help to move new titles up the ranking as prospective buyers gain their confidence in a title by the reviews of others.
I think it's fair to assume that my traditional publishing success has given me a better launch-pad than an author starting out from scratch with a self-published title. What I have to do now is build upon that initial success and try to generate momentum around the title - the more positive reviews the book gets, the higher it will climb in the charts, provided I keep working at the publicity side of things.
I think also that the success of The Chimera Secret, which is selling fast at the moment and at the time of writing has eight reviews, all 5-stars, may be helping people to spot my bargain priced thriller on my Amazon Author Page. Speaking of price, it's still at £1.02 - I want it at £0.99, so will tinker again with the pricing structure tonight to get it right.
I'll be keeping that price for the foreseeable future, and watching the ratings with interest to see if the arrival of reviews affects the book's position. I suspect that reaching the top ( if the book can and does ) will be a long-haul rather than a meteoric rise, but it will be worth it for me to have broke through in both the traditional and the digital publishing world...
Remarkably, after just two days, Eden received an unsolicited review from a Top 1000 Amazon reviewer in the USA, who gave a glowing testimony and a 4-star rating.
So far, so good. There has been absolutely no publicity for this title except for me to post here, on my Facebook Fan Page and on Twitter, so many of the initial sales are likely to have been made by fans of the Ethan Warner series. But behind the scenes I've been hard at work sending out review requests to book bloggers on both sides of the Atlantic. So far, I've had three confirm that they will be reviewing Eden ( one had already bought it! ) so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good reviews, which help to move new titles up the ranking as prospective buyers gain their confidence in a title by the reviews of others.
I think it's fair to assume that my traditional publishing success has given me a better launch-pad than an author starting out from scratch with a self-published title. What I have to do now is build upon that initial success and try to generate momentum around the title - the more positive reviews the book gets, the higher it will climb in the charts, provided I keep working at the publicity side of things.
I think also that the success of The Chimera Secret, which is selling fast at the moment and at the time of writing has eight reviews, all 5-stars, may be helping people to spot my bargain priced thriller on my Amazon Author Page. Speaking of price, it's still at £1.02 - I want it at £0.99, so will tinker again with the pricing structure tonight to get it right.
I'll be keeping that price for the foreseeable future, and watching the ratings with interest to see if the arrival of reviews affects the book's position. I suspect that reaching the top ( if the book can and does ) will be a long-haul rather than a meteoric rise, but it will be worth it for me to have broke through in both the traditional and the digital publishing world...
Friday, July 26, 2013
EDEN is here!
Eden is now available! I've launched the book and it's up on Amazon worldwide. For fans of my books or regular visitors here, it's at a special launch price of £1.02 in the UK and $1.56 in the USA and Canada. Grab it at this fab price and enjoy!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/EDEN-ebook/dp/B00E5MRF66/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374863660&sr=1-1&keywords=dean+crawford+eden
http://www.amazon.co.uk/EDEN-ebook/dp/B00E5MRF66/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374863660&sr=1-1&keywords=dean+crawford+eden
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Self publishing : Kindle sales rankings.
I've been having an interesting few weeks watching the sales rankings on Amazon, keeping an eye on the success of both The Chimera Secret ( Ethan Warner's fourth outing ) and Soul Seekers ( my first self-published title ). I've never been a fan of staring at rankings - I've always felt that I should be busy writing instead and with Simon & Schuster's immense marketing campaigns for the Ethan Warner series, getting noticed has not been an issue so far in my career. Now, though, with my valiant new venture into self publishing underway, rankings have taken on a new importance.
Chimera was on offer at £0.99 for a month before the release of the paperback on July 18th, and it peaked in the 1,380 position at this price. Since heading back to full price it's slid down the charts a bit, but remains high enough to be attracting attention ( 3,000 or so at the time of writing ).
Soul Seekers peaked at around 1,000 in the Kindle chart before slipping back down to about 10,000. This is quite amazing as I have not yet performed any publicity for the book. I have approached a small number of Young Adult book bloggers for reviews, but haven't heard back yet and am not chasing for now. I suspect a few fans of Ethan Warner bought copies speculatively, and I know one of them reviewed it favourably on Amazon after reading it.
These figures might not mean much to some, but as a rule of thumb if a book hits the Kindle ( paid )1,000 position it's selling about 100 copies per day. Get to the 100 position and you're selling 1,000 or so per day.
After thinking about all of this for a day or two, I think that Chimera probably would have broken into the top 100 if it had stayed at the same low price - it was climbing ever-faster before the promotion ended and without a huge investment in marketing from either myself or the publisher. Even now, it's selling well at four times it's original price. Soul Seekers ( self published through my literary agent ) is priced a little too high for my liking and is also in a different genre to my traditionally published books, so to have reached so high and still be selling ( albeit in lower numbers for the time being ) is a great start.
The BIG test, for me, will be the launch of EDEN. This is my first completely self-published title, and like the Ethan Warner books is a combination of thriller and adventure. I'm doing some last minute research on pricing, categories and marketing methods as I await my editorials, and then it'll be the last application of polish on the manuscript and the various descriptions for Amazon before the launch. Fingers crossed, the genre placement, the price and the high ratings of all of my books will be enough to push this new title up where I want to see it: the top 100.
I should have a launch date set within a week or so, and will continue to update on how my other books are doing soon ( eight reviews at the time of writing for Chimera, two for Soul Seekers, all of them five stars!! )
Chimera was on offer at £0.99 for a month before the release of the paperback on July 18th, and it peaked in the 1,380 position at this price. Since heading back to full price it's slid down the charts a bit, but remains high enough to be attracting attention ( 3,000 or so at the time of writing ).
Soul Seekers peaked at around 1,000 in the Kindle chart before slipping back down to about 10,000. This is quite amazing as I have not yet performed any publicity for the book. I have approached a small number of Young Adult book bloggers for reviews, but haven't heard back yet and am not chasing for now. I suspect a few fans of Ethan Warner bought copies speculatively, and I know one of them reviewed it favourably on Amazon after reading it.
These figures might not mean much to some, but as a rule of thumb if a book hits the Kindle ( paid )1,000 position it's selling about 100 copies per day. Get to the 100 position and you're selling 1,000 or so per day.
After thinking about all of this for a day or two, I think that Chimera probably would have broken into the top 100 if it had stayed at the same low price - it was climbing ever-faster before the promotion ended and without a huge investment in marketing from either myself or the publisher. Even now, it's selling well at four times it's original price. Soul Seekers ( self published through my literary agent ) is priced a little too high for my liking and is also in a different genre to my traditionally published books, so to have reached so high and still be selling ( albeit in lower numbers for the time being ) is a great start.
The BIG test, for me, will be the launch of EDEN. This is my first completely self-published title, and like the Ethan Warner books is a combination of thriller and adventure. I'm doing some last minute research on pricing, categories and marketing methods as I await my editorials, and then it'll be the last application of polish on the manuscript and the various descriptions for Amazon before the launch. Fingers crossed, the genre placement, the price and the high ratings of all of my books will be enough to push this new title up where I want to see it: the top 100.
I should have a launch date set within a week or so, and will continue to update on how my other books are doing soon ( eight reviews at the time of writing for Chimera, two for Soul Seekers, all of them five stars!! )
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
"EDEN" - my new thriller!
I'm very excited to share my brand new thriller's jacket art! Do let me know what you think of it!
"EDEN" is a post-apocalyptic thriller and will be available on all e-readers. The publication date and price are to be released very soon, but feel free to ask anything you like about the forthcoming title.
"EDEN" is a post-apocalyptic thriller and will be available on all e-readers. The publication date and price are to be released very soon, but feel free to ask anything you like about the forthcoming title.
Friday, July 12, 2013
Self publishing professionalism: formatting your novel.
It's an oft-reported fact that a huge portion of all self published novels available out there on the Internet are poorly formatted, badly edited ( if at all ) and generally presented in a manner that guarantees that anybody purchasing a book from that author won't be coming back for more.
As a traditionally published author, my e-books have had the benefit of editorial teams ensuring that they appear as perfect and professional as possible to my readers. Now that I'm self publishing a few titles, I have to live up to that standard or risk alienating existing fans and driving away potential new ones, and with more and more titles clogging up the system it's getting harder to get noticed by the day. To really stand out, my novel ( and yours ) absolutely has to be presented perfectly if it's not to be lost among the quagmire of poorly written and formatted novels swamping digital servers around the globe.
The bottom line is that getting a novel written well is only the first step in self publishing. A title must be professionally edited, a cover must be professionally designed and content must be perfectly formatted to appear correctly on all e-readers. For the author determined to achieve success, this means hiring an editor, a designer and somebody with HTML skills necessary to convert their beloved tome correctly ( or paying Amazon to do it all for you ).
Or does it?
I'm quite lucky in that my former profession was graphic-design and I'm also fairly computer literate, so this means that two out of three tasks I can perform myself, to a degree. However I'm intending to recruit an editor to check my next self published title out before releasing it to the world. The cover is already designed, by myself, and opinions so far are that it looks great. So that leaves the HTML side of things...
Most people don't like computer coding, and nor do I really. But all HTML represents is a language that all computerised devices view in the same way. During my research I came across a blogger who, for the benefit of millions of aspiring authors, has put online a detailed step-by-step review of how to convert your book all by yourself. The link is here;
http://guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-pride-in-your-ebook-formatting/
I've just used this process on my forthcoming self published thriller, and it has produced awesome results. I really couldn't be happier, so if you're struggling with your own formatting procedure then head over to the site and have a good read. You won't regret it!
I'm just waiting for my editors ( my mum and fiancé! ) to get back to me regarding the novel, which will hopefully be in a week or two. Once the edits are done, I'll start the process of sharing the cover, picking a launch date and hopefully whipping up some interest in the title on-line...
As a traditionally published author, my e-books have had the benefit of editorial teams ensuring that they appear as perfect and professional as possible to my readers. Now that I'm self publishing a few titles, I have to live up to that standard or risk alienating existing fans and driving away potential new ones, and with more and more titles clogging up the system it's getting harder to get noticed by the day. To really stand out, my novel ( and yours ) absolutely has to be presented perfectly if it's not to be lost among the quagmire of poorly written and formatted novels swamping digital servers around the globe.
The bottom line is that getting a novel written well is only the first step in self publishing. A title must be professionally edited, a cover must be professionally designed and content must be perfectly formatted to appear correctly on all e-readers. For the author determined to achieve success, this means hiring an editor, a designer and somebody with HTML skills necessary to convert their beloved tome correctly ( or paying Amazon to do it all for you ).
Or does it?
I'm quite lucky in that my former profession was graphic-design and I'm also fairly computer literate, so this means that two out of three tasks I can perform myself, to a degree. However I'm intending to recruit an editor to check my next self published title out before releasing it to the world. The cover is already designed, by myself, and opinions so far are that it looks great. So that leaves the HTML side of things...
Most people don't like computer coding, and nor do I really. But all HTML represents is a language that all computerised devices view in the same way. During my research I came across a blogger who, for the benefit of millions of aspiring authors, has put online a detailed step-by-step review of how to convert your book all by yourself. The link is here;
http://guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-pride-in-your-ebook-formatting/
I've just used this process on my forthcoming self published thriller, and it has produced awesome results. I really couldn't be happier, so if you're struggling with your own formatting procedure then head over to the site and have a good read. You won't regret it!
I'm just waiting for my editors ( my mum and fiancé! ) to get back to me regarding the novel, which will hopefully be in a week or two. Once the edits are done, I'll start the process of sharing the cover, picking a launch date and hopefully whipping up some interest in the title on-line...
Tuesday, July 09, 2013
Some of my new articles recently published!
I've been fortunate enough to have had two articles published on-line, both concerning the Ethan Warner series of books and how I go about researching them. You can find the articles by clicking the links below:
The first is for my publisher, Simon & Schuster, on their Dark Pages website:
http://www.thedarkpages.co.uk/case-studies
The second is for Books Monthly's features section:
http://www.booksmonthly.co.uk/dean.html
Full of facts and stories taken directly from some of my novels. Enjoy!
The first is for my publisher, Simon & Schuster, on their Dark Pages website:
http://www.thedarkpages.co.uk/case-studies
The second is for Books Monthly's features section:
http://www.booksmonthly.co.uk/dean.html
Full of facts and stories taken directly from some of my novels. Enjoy!
Thursday, July 04, 2013
Promoting a self-published novel.
So, the experiment begins...
My self-published novel "Soul Seekers" is now available on Kindle for the princely sum of £2.01 in the UK and $3.10 in the USA. However, lost among a million other digital titles it's not going to get very far on its own.
When the title appeared on Kindle, I made my first steps in self-promotion by releasing details of the novel here, on my Facebook Fan Page and on Twitter. I also entered the title details on Goodreads in case fans of my Ethan Warner series wanted to take a look.
This resulted in a flurry of early sales, pushing the title up into the 3,000 position ( approx. ) for a couple of days. Then, as the early buyers dropped away, as expected the title has gradually slid far down the chart. This is normal as my reach through Twitter, Facebook etc probably only amounts to a few hundred people, of whom only a small fraction will buy the book.
What begins now is the proper promotion of the title. Things change fast in self-publishing, and I've noticed in my research that methods that once were considered useful no longer work and that there are far more people using things like forums and so on to promote their work. A more crowded market means it becomes harder to get noticed, and brand awareness is the key to higher sales.
My first steps have been to approach avid book bloggers and request reviews. This is usually done via e-mail, and I have prepared a document that presents my work in as professional a manner as possible. Being a successfully published author already may ( or may not ) give me a slight advantage over somebody starting from scratch, but a professional approach gives a blogger some confidence that the novel itself will also be professional, and that applies to all authors.
Here's an image of my document, drawn up to give potential blog reviewers a simple at-a-glance look at my novel.
My self-published novel "Soul Seekers" is now available on Kindle for the princely sum of £2.01 in the UK and $3.10 in the USA. However, lost among a million other digital titles it's not going to get very far on its own.
When the title appeared on Kindle, I made my first steps in self-promotion by releasing details of the novel here, on my Facebook Fan Page and on Twitter. I also entered the title details on Goodreads in case fans of my Ethan Warner series wanted to take a look.
This resulted in a flurry of early sales, pushing the title up into the 3,000 position ( approx. ) for a couple of days. Then, as the early buyers dropped away, as expected the title has gradually slid far down the chart. This is normal as my reach through Twitter, Facebook etc probably only amounts to a few hundred people, of whom only a small fraction will buy the book.
What begins now is the proper promotion of the title. Things change fast in self-publishing, and I've noticed in my research that methods that once were considered useful no longer work and that there are far more people using things like forums and so on to promote their work. A more crowded market means it becomes harder to get noticed, and brand awareness is the key to higher sales.
My first steps have been to approach avid book bloggers and request reviews. This is usually done via e-mail, and I have prepared a document that presents my work in as professional a manner as possible. Being a successfully published author already may ( or may not ) give me a slight advantage over somebody starting from scratch, but a professional approach gives a blogger some confidence that the novel itself will also be professional, and that applies to all authors.
Here's an image of my document, drawn up to give potential blog reviewers a simple at-a-glance look at my novel.
I'm currently awaiting replies, and also a few reviews from fans of the Ethan Warner books who have purchased Soul Seekers.
I also managed to get an idea of just how many books you need to sell via Kindle to make it up into the top 100 and the top 10. You need to sell around 200+ copies per day to break into the top 100, and the top 10 titles can be selling as many as 3,000 per day. The general opinion is that it's very hard to break through unless you're already a well-known name or your book is available for £0.99 or less. That said, popularity does grow as books gain positive reviews and word-of-mouth, still the best advertising tool, spreads awareness of an author's work.
I'll report back here should anything interesting occur over the next few days...
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