So some things are working for me as an author, and some aren’t. Here they are:
- My short story – I have 334 downloads of The Silver Collar on Smashwords. A surprising number of people have bought it for kindle too, even though it is free on Smashwords and I put a link as a comment. I wonder when Amazon will get around to fixing that….
- https://www.facebook.com/weloveebooks – This one worked for me and got me 10 sales in one day. The problem is, that is all I got and I’m not sure if I can put more books on there or what.
- Lots of Connections – I made a serious push to put The Lustre out where as many people could see it as possible. Also, I put my free short story everywhere I could find to put it. That seems to have upped my visibility a little and I get a few sales here and there where The Disenchanted Pet has gotten none.
- Having more books out there – It seems that the more books I have available, the more people are reading.
- Time – Yes, the time I have been online and the time my books have been available has worked in my favor. This is another plug for starting your platform early. If I had 140 blog followers and 432 twitter followers before I first published, I think things would have been easier for me.
Things that didn’t work/aren’t working:
- Kickstarter – My campaign didn’t earn even a fraction of its amount. Maybe I tried too soon or asked too much. I noticed the ones with lots of support had some kind of perk outside of the book itself – a contribution to a charity or something.
- The 99 cent Network – My book was up initially, but now I can’t find my book on the site at all, even though I paid for four months. I emailed them about this and have heard zip-o in return. Boo! I also have no way of knowing if I got any sales through them.
- Selling my books at places other than the biggies – I found a lot of little side ebook sellers and posted there. I didn’t see any extra sales, though. No one has sent me big checks because my book is a bigger fish in a smaller pond. I don’t think I am hurt by it, but I don’t know if I will spend the time and effort to put future books out there if I get no return.
- Kindle Select – I had hoped that putting the zero-sales Disenchanted Pet up as a Kindle Select title would give me a little boost, but I’ve seen no new sales.
A little about book reviews and getting them: I sent out requests for review of The Lustre to 11 different bloggers in March and recieved 2 replies, one a yes and one a no. It isn’t easy to even get a reply, let alone a review. (Don’t feel bad if you email 3 and don’t get any response.)
As a book reviewer, I am getting lots and lots of requests, even though my list is so long. I’ve amended my review policy and have said “no” to some books I didn’t think I could enjoy enough to give a good review. I still have enough time to reply to everyone, but I can see where an established reviewer would have a hard time.
Kate Policani 