Bell: Your books did spectacularly back in March. What do you attribute the success to? I know they had to be well written, so that's a given.
As you point out in your ebook, you can't just throw anything online and expect it to be successful. I hadn't had a book contract, but I'd come close on more than one occasion. I'd had agents, gone through multiple rounds of revisions, etc. Editors had a hard time getting my books past the ed board because of the unusual subject matter, but I knew I wasn't deluding myself. In addition, I had a few smaller, but still prestigious sales, including a sale to F&SF and another to The Atlantic. This told me I had developed some level of talent that made the whole endeavor plausible.
It didn't come easily, though. I wrote a dozen novels and over a hundred short stories before I decided to self publish the books.
As you point out in your ebook, you can't just throw anything online and expect it to be successful. I hadn't had a book contract, but I'd come close on more than one occasion. I'd had agents, gone through multiple rounds of revisions, etc. Editors had a hard time getting my books past the ed board because of the unusual subject matter, but I knew I wasn't deluding myself. In addition, I had a few smaller, but still prestigious sales, including a sale to F&SF and another to The Atlantic. This told me I had developed some level of talent that made the whole endeavor plausible.
It didn't come easily, though. I wrote a dozen novels and over a hundred short stories before I decided to self publish the books.
Bell:. How many books did you have up there then? (I've checked your Amazon page). What was the price point? The John Locke 99¢ strategy seems apt.
I started with State of Siege, The Devil's Deep, The Righteous, and Mighty and Strong (the sequel to The Righteous). All but State of Siege did respectably well, but The Righteous sold about forty thousand copies between March and June, which is when sales started to trail off. I priced it at .99 during its run. Mighty and Strong and Devil's Deep each sold about 5,000 copies at 2.99 during that time period, largely drafting off the success of The Righteous. I also put up a children's fantasy (which is a good book, IMO, but hasn't done anything), and a WWII thriller. I published book #3 of The Righteous series in June and a sequel to The Devil's Deep in August. Those last three books plus State of Siege have combined for several thousand sales, plus I've had several thousand sales of the other books in July, August, and September, although overall sales have declined from a high of 20,000 in April and May to about 1,500 a month now. It's no longer what it was, but it's still a couple thousand bucks a month. I'll be interested to see if these other books catch a second wind when Thomas & Mercer releases their versions of The Righteous series in February.
One other thing to note is that I've had no difference in sales when I've bumped a few of the books to $3.99. 99 cents is a great strategy for introducing readers to a series, but if you've done your job, they're not going to balk at an extra buck or two, in my opinion. Long term, I might even try $4.99, which seems to be a sweet spot between value for the reader and income for the writer. Note that if you can sell 2,000 copies a month at $4.99, you'll make $7,000, which isn't a bad living for a writer. If you sell 2,000 copies a month with SMP or Harpers, they'll decline to pick up your option.
I started with State of Siege, The Devil's Deep, The Righteous, and Mighty and Strong (the sequel to The Righteous). All but State of Siege did respectably well, but The Righteous sold about forty thousand copies between March and June, which is when sales started to trail off. I priced it at .99 during its run. Mighty and Strong and Devil's Deep each sold about 5,000 copies at 2.99 during that time period, largely drafting off the success of The Righteous. I also put up a children's fantasy (which is a good book, IMO, but hasn't done anything), and a WWII thriller. I published book #3 of The Righteous series in June and a sequel to The Devil's Deep in August. Those last three books plus State of Siege have combined for several thousand sales, plus I've had several thousand sales of the other books in July, August, and September, although overall sales have declined from a high of 20,000 in April and May to about 1,500 a month now. It's no longer what it was, but it's still a couple thousand bucks a month. I'll be interested to see if these other books catch a second wind when Thomas & Mercer releases their versions of The Righteous series in February.
One other thing to note is that I've had no difference in sales when I've bumped a few of the books to $3.99. 99 cents is a great strategy for introducing readers to a series, but if you've done your job, they're not going to balk at an extra buck or two, in my opinion. Long term, I might even try $4.99, which seems to be a sweet spot between value for the reader and income for the writer. Note that if you can sell 2,000 copies a month at $4.99, you'll make $7,000, which isn't a bad living for a writer. If you sell 2,000 copies a month with SMP or Harpers, they'll decline to pick up your option.
Bell: What did you do to market them?
Not much. I gifted some copies on the Amazon forums before they stopped allowing that. Most of those early reviews of The Devil's Deep and The Righteous came from those gift copies, but when I tried the same thing with The Red Rooster, the tactic had already spent itself thanks to a glut of free books. Beyond that, I've done some limited advertising with Pixel of Ink, Ereader Review, and some Goodreads advertising.
Not much. I gifted some copies on the Amazon forums before they stopped allowing that. Most of those early reviews of The Devil's Deep and The Righteous came from those gift copies, but when I tried the same thing with The Red Rooster, the tactic had already spent itself thanks to a glut of free books. Beyond that, I've done some limited advertising with Pixel of Ink, Ereader Review, and some Goodreads advertising.
Bell: We're getting to a point of overwhelming content available. Do you think someone can replicate what you did now?
But yes on duplicating my success with the craft. I just kept writing and submitting and improving my writing. It was an unconventional path to success, but I rarely lost faith in myself. I would read other thrillers or suspense novels and know that I was a better writer than some of these people. When I read someone who was better than I was, however, I tried to study their work instead of growing discouraged.
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