The Beauty of the .99 cent Price Point

Welcome to another Tuesday edition of the Writing Secrets of 7 Scribes. PJ Sharon here with today’s unlocked secret. I’d like to talk about e-book prices. Specifically, ways to use the .99 cent price point strategy to boost sales, gain exposure, and get your books listed on the hottest advertising sites around.

First off, if you are traditionally published, changing the price of your e-books is likely beyond your control. Additionally, publisher prices of e-books in most cases will set you and your books outside the realm of “discounted” or “cheap” reads since all of those folks in the middle (agents, editors, etc.) need to take a piece of your pie. The average traditionally published e-book is priced anywhere from $7.99-$15.99–not exactly an impulse buy kind of price. Being that there are no print costs, storage rates, or delivery fees to pay, I’m not sure what these prices reflect– other than the publishers trying to make up for a declining print book industry. These prices may not discourage rabid fans of Stephen King, Nora Roberts, or James Patterson, but if you are a new author trying to gain a readership, your publisher may be pricing you out of the market. There is simply too much free and reduced price product available to readers. As such, higher priced e-books are likely going to to have difficulty finding an audience as time goes on. Then again, I could be wrong. The benefits of having a publisher with access to a publicist who is willing to help you get exposure through pre-orders and reviews might just balance out the playing field. (I’d love to hear some comments from trad pubbed authors about this topic.)

If however, you have self-published titles that aren’t selling well, or you have a series that you would like to promote, the ability to give your readers a deep discount can open some new doors. For one thing, there are several advertising sites that focus mainly on selling discounted e-books. Kindle Nation Daily, Book Bub and Kindle Fire Department just to name a few. All of these sites can give your discounted e-books the excellent exposure they need to get them into the hands of lots of new readers. The caveat is that because there are so many authors trying to get their books in front of the world, advertisers have the advantage of picking and choosing which books they will feature. Requirements are becoming more stringent. Some expect as many as 18+ reviews with an average 4.5 star rating. To further narrow the field, the books may not be accepted if they have been offered for free within the past few months, causing some issues for authors who have participated in the KDP Select program with Amazon.

Lest you feel you are “giving away the shop” with this .99 cent price point, think of how large retail stores encourage consumers to try a new product. They will often give away samples or significantly reduced price items in order to introduce customers to a new product or product line. It’s known in the industry as a loss leader. Even if you normally price your e-books at the $2.99-$4.99 sweet spot for impulse buyers, a drop to .99 cents can expose you to a whole new readership who ONLY buys .99 cent books or downloads freebies. You might take a cut in royalties (from 70% down to 35%) but if it leads readers to other books in a series or gains you a new following, the increased volume of sales and the boost to your rankings can be a sacrifice well worth making.

Now, there are a few tricks you can try to employ to keep 70% of your dollar. By changing the price of your e-book on Smashwords and BN, for instance, and then waiting for Amazon to price match. If they choose to change the price, they won’t change your royalty rates, but as the TOS (terms of service) agreement states, authors are not supposed to offer the book at a lower price on any other distribution channels,so it may ruffle their feathers. It could also take several days or even weeks before Amazon catches up with the new price (a process that can sometimes be sped up by having friends “report” the lower price), and there is always the risk that they could call you out on the contract breach. So far, Amazon has been amenable to price matching strategies that self-published authors are using. One of the silly benefits of allowing Amazon to match the lower price of their own volition is the neat little slash they put through the old price so that customers know they are getting a deal.(See here for example)

If you decide to try a .99 cent sale on one or more of your books, it can help to boost your exposure if you join with other authors who are doing the same thing. Readers will often look for these “group sales” so that they can stock up on “cheap” reads all at once for their summer reading. Indie Romance Ink, a yahoo group for independently published authors has just such a sale coming up this week from May 1-3, called the Book Lovers Buffet, Bouquet of Books, offering over 150 e-book titles across multiple genres, all priced at a very affordable .99 cents each! There are books for every reader available all in the same place and we have a staggering number of authors promoting the sale. We’ve lined up dozens of book bloggers, FB pages, and advertisers all promoting with us. Hopefully we’ll have a good turn out. Check out our landing page by clicking the icon below, but wait until tomorrow if you want to enter to win great prizes. If you stop by today, you can browse through the books, but the prize page won’t be active until tomorrow and there are no price guarantees until the sale starts. Be sure to spread the word to family and friends. Hope you find exactly what you’re looking for!

As for me, both WANING MOON and HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES will be available for .99 cents during the sale. I’ll also be giving away a $25 Amazon Gift card at my http://www.pjsharonyawriter.blogspot.com site to one lucky vistor who drops by and leaves a comment with a valid e-mail address (not to be used for any other promotions).

Contest ends at midnight on May 3rd. Winners to be announced Sunday, May 5th. Thanks to everyone who organized the sale (Clover Autrey…you know who you are), and a big thanks to everyone for passing along the word on FB, twitter, and Goodreads.

What do you all think about e-book prices and the .99 cent price point strategy?

Does Good Writing Matter? by Katy Lee

I recently came across a survey titled, Does Good Writing Matter? The following are a few of the questions I answered. Would love to compare your answers with mine. Feel free to leave some, or all, in the comments below.

1)      Do you judge other people based on their writing?

Now before you throw your pencils at me, or your mouse as the case may be, I will say the word “judge” may be too harsh. Do I judge? No. Do I feel a writer loses credibility if they can’t express themselves well in writing? Yes. A person’s inexperience comes through in their writing and if they want to be taken seriously, whether in fiction or in nonfiction, accurate writing is a must. But like I said, I would not call it judging. I think a better term would be “to question.” Do I question a person’s validity based on their writing? Definitely.

2)      What writing mistakes bother you most?

The answers to choose from were: “Grammar/punctuation,” “word use,” “long, difficult sentences,” “vague purpose,” “poor logic.”

And my answer? Poor logic and vague purpose. A writer may lose credibility with inaccuracies in their writing, but I don’t let those bother me. I’ll most likely continue to read on, correcting mistakes as I go, but a lack of purpose and poor logic has me closing the book/article all together. For example, a few months back I had to judge a writing contest of published works. One book in particular was nearly painful for me to read because it lacked purpose. I squirmed in my comfy chair. I fidgeted and kept looking at how many pages I had left. My husband watched me from the couch. He said, “You’re not enjoying that book.” I was not surprised he could tell. Every sentence, every piece of dialogue, every scene needs to push the story along and show the purpose to the reader, and it needs to be logical, or they will close it up.

3)      Do you apply the same writing standards to social media?

This one was a tough one for me. With the 140 character limitations in Twitter, I think I have to be more understanding to errors in social media. Although, I have seen some great Tweets and Facebook statuses that are short, but full of impact without compromising intelligence. Then there are those posts that confuse “there, they’re and their.” (See question #1 for my response to those.)

I thought this was a great question given our social media world these days. It used to be that a person had to be credible in their field in order to write. These days, everyone has a soap box (or media outlet). Some might think that’s scary, but I still believe your intelligence, or lack there of, shines through even in 140 characters.

Either way, I’m interested in hearing your take on this one.

4)      What is your personal pet peeve in writing?

This is a question we ask many of our guests here at the Scribes, and I have learned so much from their responses. I had no idea some of my word choices bothered people. Now I do, and I don’t do them anymore. So, I am hoping if you don’t answer any of the other questions, you will at least answer this one. I know there is still so much for me to learn, so please share.

Now as for my personal pet peeve word. I would have to say the word “got.” It just jolts the flow of my reading. Also, “lightening vs. lightning.” One is to lighten your load. The other is a natural electric discharge in the atmosphere. The misuse of that word also gives me a jolt. <grin>

The Unlocked Secret: Today’s secret isn’t really a secret, but here it is anyway: Everyone’s a critic. Make every effort to put your best work out there. That means take the time to learn through classes and workshops, reading various works, and keeping your handy-dandy grammar book by your side at all times. And if you’re still unsure? That’s what editors are for.

So, have at it, Scriblings! Answer away, and remember as I said in question #1, I don’t judge.

And as always, thanks for your Tweets and Shares!

Things Bestselling Authors Do…

In my search to find out what makes a bestselling an author and how to become one I’ve been reading articles, cruising Goodreads, liking Facebook fan pages and generally just being a writer stalker. And in my search I’ve learned a few things about successful authors. They all seem to have a few things in common.

1. They write great books. I’ve read 14 of Elizabeth Hoyt’s books before I had ever even thought about checking out her Facebook page. Why? The strength of her words not her presence in social media kept me coming back. My take away- always make sure the writing comes first. ALWAYS.

2. They tend to write in series, keeping characters connected even in a loose way seems to keep readers coming back. Jill Shalvis has her Lucky Harbor. Julia Quinn has her Bridgertons. Susan Mallery scores with Fool’s Gold. Robyn Carr has been sailing down Virgin River for as long as I remember. And then there are writers like Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Mary Balogh that hardly have any books at all that aren’t connected in someway. I know this because I have read EVERYTHING they have in print.

3. They keep connected with their fans. Julia Quinn has over 78,000 fans on her Facebook page which she updates daily. That’s the most of any romance writer I could find. I love to follow Jill Shalvis and Kristan Higgins. Separately they both post charming updates about their families, their day to day lives, their lack of social graces. But they also interact with each other. Twitter chats and mans wars. Fans like to see their friendship. They seem like real people to us and I think that’s why people keep coming back to them.

4. They don’t spam.  (They keep things interesting.) Out of all the bestselling authors I’ve studied I couldn’t find a single one with the BUY MY BOOK, BUY MY BOOK message. Facebook doesn’t sell books. Twitter doesn’t sell books. Building a relationship with your readers and fostering loyalty does.

5. They keep politics out of it. (Mostly) A few romance writers break these rules and some of them pay for it in readers. There is one writer whose politics I so greatly disagree with I stopped liking their fan page and now I think twice before I pick up one of her books. But most bestselling authors keep their politics to themselves. Think of  your author life like a cocktail party. No talk of religion or politics.  Are you a hard core conservative? Great! Keep it to yourself. A liberal? Fantastic! But nobody cares. Romance readers want one thing from their romance writers and that’s romance. So bring on the pictures of sexy men. Talk up a storm about the Bachelor. Post pics of that stupid grumpy cat, but keep your personal beliefs to yourself.

6. They know their market and they stick to it. Best selling author don’t write to trend. They write what they know best. 50 Shades was a hit but don’t plan on seeing Nora Roberts breaking out the kinky bondage stuff anytime soon.

7. They keep writing. They’ve got a book coming out every six- nine months for the most part. Whether it’s a novella or full length. They don’t let you forget about them.

So now it’s time I give myself a little check up. You can all do this too. Published or aspiring it’s important to see where you are.

Am I writing great books? Gee, I sure hope so. Series? Check. The girls of the Perfect Fit series are coming your way at the end of August. Keeping connected? I’m trying. And you can help me out by liking my Facebook page. It’s only got 45 very sad likes. http://www.facebook.com/sugarjamisonbooks I promise I’ll be engaging. Heck, I’ll even give stuff away from time to time.Spam? Nope. Not from me. Not ever. Politics? Just call me Switzerland. Know my market? Hmm… I think I do. Women who love sexy men and like to laugh. Writing? Always.Even when publication was a far off dream I kept writing.

So how did you do? Do you have the traits of a bestselling author?

Reblog: Becoming a Bestselling Fiction Author by Jennifer Ashley

Hello Scribe fans,

I originally had a different post planned but I came across this post bestselling author Jennifer Ashley on how to become a bestselling author and I thought that was a lot more valuable than me rambling about the stupid snow storm.

How to Become a Bestselling Fiction Author
By Jennifer Ashley

Workshop, Glendale Chocolate Affair, Feb 2013

 

Tips to increasing the odds of sales, exposure, and bestsellerdom, regardless of whether you’re trad pubbed or self-pubbed

 

What this worshop is NOT about:

Marketing campaigns

Being a one-time blockbuster / flavor of the month
Social networking yourself until everyone hates you, including your pets

Writing “what sells”Instead: How to build a successful career–writing books for a living

 

1. What do I mean by Bestseller?

 

National Lists:

NY Times

USA Today (approx 10,000 sales in a week makes this list)

Amazon Top 100

            # 90-100 = about 300 books a day (of one title)

            #50 = about 700-800 books a day

            #40 and down, thousands of books per day

 

Not small lists:

Fiction>Mystery>Ebooks>Mysteries & Thrillers>Historical>Regency>1812>Left-handed Spinsters>  “Ooh, I’m number one!”

(These lists can get your book exposure, but the actual sales are small)

 

National bestsellers happen with a burst of sales at one time

 

A book can sell just as well over time and never hit a bestseller list

 

Bestsellerdom Isn’t the Whole Story!

 

Five Steps to becoming a Print Bestseller

Great book

Package (cover, blurb)

Print Run  / Placement in Stores

Pre-orders and Re-orders

Word of Mouth

 

Five steps to self-pub E-Bestseller

Great Book

Package (cover, blurb, price)

Availability (top e-vendors)

Alerting the masses (newsletters; FB)

Word of Mouth

 

What Does the Author have the most control over? 

Great Book

 

2. Write the Very Best Book You Can

 

A. What Makes a Great Book?

(Regardless of Format; Packaging; Marketing)

 

Memorable Characters 

           Examples: Sherlock Holmes; Scarlett O’Hara; Jackal in Day of the Jackal

            People who stick in our minds

            We want to know all about them

            Don’t necessarily like them

            If unlikable character is focus, need sympathetic one to connect to reader (Dr. Watson, Melanie and others, French policeman in Day of the Jackal)

 

Intensity

 

            Don’t pull back from emotional encounters

 

            Be in the moment—immediacy more interesting than the big picture

            Example: Battle of Waterloo from POV of an infantry captain of a square, not the bird’s eye view of every battle movement

            Never let down the intensity. Rest, but not for long

            (example: Action TV shows like Burn Notice—few lines of personal / emotional plot thread; pause a beat or two; someone breaks in with action plot)            Keeping it intense:
                 When revising, cut deadwood. If the back of your mind is saying “Blah, blah, blah,” the paragraph / page / scene needs to be cut!

 

Put the good stuff up front

            Bourne Identity—Jason Bourne drowning

            Marie Force romance—Man steps off curb, woman runs into him on bicycle, she’s hurt and might lose her job, has kid to take care of (we know all that right away)

            Outlander—“People disappear every day”

            Entire first scene / chapter should be the hook

 

Dialog

            No throwaway lines!

            Every piece of dialog moves the story forward or deepens characterization (ideally, both)

            Find tightly written books and TV shows / movies and study their technique

            (Example: Buffy the Vampire Slayer–pick an episode and listen carefully to every line of dialog)

             

 

 

Satisfying elements for your target audience:

            Thrillers: Edge of seat, gripping scenes, constantly asking “what’s going to happen?”

            Romance: H/h together, tension between them never stopping until end (whether it’s between them personally or outside problems)

            Erotic romance: Same as romance, but sexual tension includes more erotic details. Must be believable

            Mystery: Who did it? Why? How? (Nero Wolfe and Agatha Christie good at “how did that person drop dead in front of everyone?”) “How” less fashionable these days: Who and Why are more prevalent

            Horror: Fear—but believable. Play to a basic fear we all have (what’s in the dark, dying in dreams, monster under the bed, helplessness). Stephen King popular for a reason

            Historical novel: Historical detail in POV of a character or characters who takes us through those details

 

B. Increasing your odds of bestsellerdom, or at least great sales

 

Hedge your bets:

            Some time periods, settings, style of writing, and topics are vastly more popular than others

            Realize that setting in a place and time that there is little interest in will lead to smaller sales.

 

Caveat: Write what you are passionate about instead of trying to fit it into a box. A writer can have a lucrative career writing wonderful books without ever hitting a bestseller list

 

“What Sells?” 

Trends / vs. Universal Themes

            Look beyond the outer trappings of popular novels to find the theme that speaks to the readers

 

 

            50 Shades and similar books: Outward Perception: “Erotica (esp bondage) Sells!”

           Theme: Woman Coming of Age: Woman who is inhibited emotionally for whatever reason finds man who awakens her sexually and emotionally, using sex and emotional challenges to do so.

 

            Twilight: Perception: “Vampire books sell (esp to teens)!” 

            Theme: Surrendering completely to someone who takes care of you (boyfriend, husband, God), is the way to true serenity and happiness (some of that in 50 Shades as well)

 

            The DaVinci Code: Perception: “Treasure hunt books sell!”

            Theme: People will go to any lengths to preserve the status quo of their religious beliefs (any beliefs for that matter).

 

           Gone With the Wind: Perception: “Civil War books sell!”

           Theme: Woman will do anything she must to save her symbol of stability and happiness (her home)

 

           Day of the Jackal: “Catch the assassin books sell!”

           Theme: Little guy is put in charge and saves the day (Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings/ the Hobbit, similar theme)

 

            Ben-Hur: “Action / adventure stories set in Biblical times (with chariot races) sell!”

            Theme; Revenge versus Forgiveness (Ben-Hur starts out driven by revenge on his ex-best friend; his encounters with Jesus teach him that revenge isn’t enough—forgiveness and love is necessary for a full life)

 

            Outlander: “Time-travel and Scottish books sell!” 

            Theme: Woman torn between two worlds—where she thinks she belongs (the “right thing to do”) vs. following her heart

 

Trends die swiftly —> Themes endure

 

3. Consistency: Schedule; Packaging; Content

 

In our society, consistency is our best friend

            

Consistent Quality (don’t put huge effort into one book and blow off the others)

            Releases out at a consistent pace (1 per month; 1 every 6 months; 1 per year)

Series vs standalone books (series are more popular, but standalones w/ related style can work)

            Deliver series consistently—stick to what series is about

            Consistent Packaging  (find one cover look for a series and stick to it–same fonts at the very least!)

           
Give value for money–”cheap” should not mean a throwaway story or book. 

Give your very best book, regardless of the book’s price or how much money you think you should make.

 

Make it about the book, not the money!

        

 

Consistency builds

Readership

Income

Career

Is it really all about the numbers?

PJ Sharon here, coming to you from the hills, and enjoying country life. As many of you spent Superbowl Sunday watching football, laughing at commercials, and being entertained by Beyonce, I was out ringing in the spring. For me, the beginning of February marks a turn toward warmer weather and longer days. I know there will likely be plenty more cold and wintery weeks ahead, but I figure there are less ahead then there are behind. It’s also my birthday month—time to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going.

Whether we’re talking about football scores, rising temperatures, or adding another year to my age, life seems to be all about the numbers these days. It certainly is when it comes to the book promoting business. Sales figures, rankings, budget—all very important to pay attention to when seeing what’s working and designing any future marketing plans. One of the benefits (or curses) about Indie publishing is that you have immediate access to your numbers. You can follow your rankings and sales to determine if your current promotion is working or if you need to change tactics the next time around.

I’ve done a few FREE promotions through Amazon’s KDP Select Program so I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at them. Whether they are as effective as they once were, or if all of these FREE books are killing the publishing industry are topics for another day. For today, I’m happy to share the all-important numbers of an Indie-published author trying to make a dent in this tough book economy. Last week, I had my second Contemporary YA novel, ON THIN ICE, available for FREE for three days. I thought you’d be interested in seeing how one of these FREE runs is done, and decide for yourself if it’s worth the work and expense.

Pre-FREE
January 1-25th 20 copies sold (2 borrows) (I won’t include all the foreign sales, but this title does tend to sell well in the UK)
Amazon Ranking: #75,623 in Kindle Store

FREE Run January 26-28th
Saturday, Jan 26th
7,984 downloads
Amazon Ranking: #64 in Kindle Free Store
#2 in Kindle store>Kindle e-books>Teens>Romance

Sunday, Jan. 27th
4,171 additional downloads
#19 in Kindle Free Store (highest ranking achieved in Free Store)
#2 Kindle store>Kindle e-books>teen>romance

Monday, Jan. 28th
3,791 additional downloads
#1 in the Teen Romance category…woohoo! Not bad for a book that has been on the “shelf” for a year.

Also notable were the foreign downloads. It’s always so cool to imagine people overseas reading my books!
UK=143; de (Germany)=24; France=5; Spain=2; Italy=1 (crazy Italians!); Japan=3; and Canada=15

Now, realize that when the book went back on sale in the paid store, no one had actually purchased it in three days so the ranking dropped to about 245,250th in the Amazon Paid store (yikes!), but once post-promotion sales started, the rankings jumped back up and hovered between 11,000th to 15,000th all week. I got a slight bump from pre-promo sales of 1-3 books a day to about 10 a day. That’s already beginning to fall back down to about 5 a day with total sales since coming off the FREE promo adding up to 50 copies of that one title sold in the past week. That’s more than double what I sold in the first three weeks of January. I’ve seen a slight boost in sales of my other titles as well. There have also been 24 borrows (as good as sales at $1.81 per borrow), and I’ve gotten a few positive reviews for ON THIN ICE.
Not the results I’d hoped for, but worth the effort? Sure. So here’s how I advertised the sale.

I gave myself a $100 budget figuring I would make up the cost with a post-promo sales bump of about 50 books. I’ve broken even on the promo after one week. Running the promotion on a Sat.-Mon. made it easier for me to be there to monitor results and landed at the end of the US Figure Skating Championships, which I wanted to honor by giving the book for FREE that week and getting it into skater’s hands.

I contacted the following sites several weeks (a month ahead of time in most cases):

Book Bub-It cost me $30 to advertise my FREE run but they are the current “premier” advertising site. It costs more for other genres, but most people are saying it’s worth the ad cost, especially if you’re offering a discounted book.( .99-2.99)
Story Finds-$20
Authors on the Cheap-$25
Book Goodies-$15 for 3 day ad.
Bargain e-book Hunter-$5
Orangeberry Book Tours-$10

The following sites were free to advertise with:
(ENT)E-reader News Today (they book up months in advance and sometimes aren’t open for scheduling), Indie Book of the Day, Pixel of Ink, Awesome Gang, E-reader Café, Free Book Dude, Ask David, Books on the Knob, Free Booksy, The Kindle Book Review, E-books Habit, YA Promo Central, Book Blast (Kindle Fire Department), and I did a post on the Readers Guide to E-Publishing (RG2E) on Saturday.
You’ll find many of these sites and their links listed on Kindle Book Promos at Kindle Book Promos and Media Bistro/Galley Cat.

The day of the sale, I also posted to Snicklist, Addicted to e-books, Free Kindle Fiction, Good Reads (Free Romance Books group), Google+, World Literary Café (WLC), and as many FaceBook pages as possible that had to do with Figure Skating and the US Championships—(Stop back next week when I’ll be talking about niche markets).

Some of the sites have restrictions (many won’t publicize erotica-not that I’m writing that, but some of you are), and some have some gate-keeping systems in place. Digital Book Today requires 18 reviews with an average 4.0 star rating before you can advertise with them. It took some time to weed through all of these sites, but now that I have my list and links, it only takes me a few hours to set up a really comprehensive and relatively inexpensive promotional blitz. Of course I also schedule my tweets to go out three to four times a day, ask my network peeps to spread the word, and spend some time promoting on Face Book throughout the three days.

I know it sounds like a lot of work. That’s because it is. I haven’t found an easy way to reach this many new readers so quickly, or give my sales a boost in any other way that doesn’t require an equal amount of effort or money. I try to do one big promotional event per month. February’s event will be a three day FREE run with HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES right after Valentine’s Day, hoping to hit those new Kindle owners whose thoughtful men bought them an e-reader. After that, these two titles come off of the Select program and will be available once again on BN and Smashwords. I also plan to upload them to I-Tunes and Kobo this go around so that they are available on as many distribution channels as possible. Then I’ll leave the kids alone to see how they fend for themselves while I focus my efforts on gearing up for the release of book two in The Chronicles of Lily Carmichael, WESTERN DESERT, due out in June. It’s going to be a busy spring!

As far as other promotions, there are always the .99 cent sales, blog hops, blog tours, Good Reads giveaways, and contests. Each requires effort and planning and will yield different results depending upon the genre you write in, whether it’s your first or fifth book, and how the wind is blowing on any given day. All we can do is keep writing, add quality material to our cyber shelves, and hope our sails (and our sales) catch the wind when it blows our way.

Today’s Unlocked Secret: Don’t get too hung up on the numbers. Like age, the number doesn’t define us. How we navigate the rough seas tells us who we are. Happy sales!

Any questions?

Blessings,

PJ

#Writerproblems

I love hashtags. What’s a hashtag, you ask? Well those of you not fluent in twitter lingo there are actually two purpose for these things #.

One definition is that a hashtag is a simple way for people to search for tweets in a topic that interests them. For example if you search for #homeland, you’ll find all the other people on Twitter who are talking about the television show HOMELAND. It’s a cool way to get some conversations going.

Another popular use of the # is to add a thought to the end  a sentence to give it more clarity. This is my favorite use of the hashtag. It often turns a mundane thought into something kind of funny. For example a couple of weeks ago, I wrote this,

I’m the only one of my siblings who accepted my mom’s  friend request on Facebook. #gooddaughter #favoritechild #nothingtohide 

Or something like this. Jeans were so tight, button popped off, flew across the room and broke my lamp.  #toomuchbootyinthepants #fatgirlproblems

Get the idea? So today I bring you #writerproblems. You know what writer problems are, right? They are problems we all face when we write that other non writers just don’t understand. And since I’ve got Twitter on the brain I’m bringing them to you Tweet style.

1. Been sitting in this chair so long I think my ass is now fused to the seat. #writerproblems

2. My characters are acting all kinds of crazy right now. Time to beat them into submission. #writerproblems

3. My book is 80,000 words. Only 40,000 of them are any good. #writerproblems

4. Everything I wrote today SUCKS. #writerproblems

5. I’m two rejections away from being able to wall paper my bedroom. #writerproblems.

6. Wrote myself into a corner. Don’t know how to end this scene. #writerproblems

7. How far should I go with this love scene? #writerproblems

8. Got a one star review of my book just because reviewer didn’t like my hero’s name #writerproblems.

Your turn! You got writer problems? Sugar wants to hear all about them. Remember to use a #. We’re all going to be fluent in Twitter by the end of 2013!

Results of FREE Promo

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas, Scribe fans. It’s been an amazing year. Four YA novels and a short story published, and I’ve learned tons about the business. A huge thanks to all those who have read and helped spread the word about my books this past year. There is no way I could have done all of this without you. I’m truly grateful and humbled by the generosity of my writing community. You guys rock!

I just came off a two day Free promo for Heaven is for Heroes and On Thin Ice. Sales for both books had trickled to a slow drip over the last six months and I thought a run in the KDP Select program might breathe new life into my visibility through the holidays. As with all of my promotional efforts, it’s pretty much of an experiment each and every time since what works one day in publishing may not work the next.

In hind site, my biggest mistake was that I didn’t plan far enough ahead to garner a spot in any of the paid advertising sites like Pixel of Ink, E-reader News Today, Kindle Nation Daily, or one of the newer sites Book Bub, a site that I’ve heard is getting some impressive attention. Some of these sites take one to six months to get an ad, and some cost as much as $200 for a one day advertisement. Pricey, but usually worth it to reach the 10,000+ mark for downloads in a two day period. The consensus seems to be that two days is the charm, as downloads usually drop by day three and if you haven’t hit the top 100 list on Amazon, you’re not likely to beyond day three. The idea is that if you can get enough volume of downloads, it will affect your rankings and set you up for a nice bump in sales once the book goes back into the paid store. At least that’s how it used to work.

Amazon appears to be fond of changing the rules on us Indies as soon as we figure out how to make the system work for us. I’m sure you’ve heard or read about incidents of things like reviews disappearing arbitrarily, algorithms changing to favor traditionally published and higher priced books, and the shifty way they manipulate the rankings after a free promo. In other words, it’s beginning to feel like the cards are stacked against us.

For example, in March I did a two day FREE promo for Savage Cinderella. Granted, I was part of a group of 19 authors giving our books away and cross-promoting the event, clearly able to reach many more readers than going solo, but I had 28,000 downloads, made it into the Amazon top 100, and had an uptick in sales for about three weeks after the promotion, selling about 800 books that month. This week’s promotion didn’t do nearly as well, but I didn’t expect it to given I hadn’t advertised ahead of time and didn’t have the cross-promotion benefits. I did get several new twitter followers and a few new FB “likes” out of the deal and my books are in the hands of a few thousand new readers—always a good thing! Hopefully, it will translate to some postiive reviews.

Here are my results:

Heaven is for Heroes:

2,868 US downloads, 96 (UK), 25 (de), 3(Fr.), 1 (es.), 4 (It.), 1 (Jap), and 7 (Ca.)

Amazon Bestseller Rankings:

#130 Free Kindle store

#8 Kindle store>e-books>teens

#32 kindle store>e-books>fiction>genre fiction>romance contemporary

On Thin Ice:

825 US Downloads, 114 (UK), 22 (de), 2 (Ca.)

#453 in Kindle store

#14 Kindle store>Kindle books>teen>romance

OBSERVATIONS:

Not bad numbers overall, considering there were no paid ads and I basically depended on Twitter and Facebook for advertising. I listed the books on half a dozen Facebook pages that allowed for promotion of free books, focusing on YA sites. I belong to several writers loops and had lots of help spreading the word (THANK YOU Wana Minions, CTRWA buddies, Authors Network and the WG2E Street team folks.)

I had low expectations of this promotion since it was a last minute decision and I scrambled to pull it together. I’ll see over the next week whether sales are given a boost, but I’m not anticipating that since the rankings dropped back to the pre-promo numbers as soon as I came off of FREE. It used to take a few days for this to happen, but Amazon’s new practices seem to expedite this process, making it that much harder for authors to take advantage of short term boosts in rankings. I was hoping I’d stay in the visible top 100 to catch those new Kindle owners after Christmas, but I’m thinking that’s not going to happen either. They’ll likely be loading up on the FREE books going up next week, the zillion .99 cent books that will be available over the next month, and the lucky ducks sitting on the Top 100 list that most people find as soon as they fire up their Kindles.

One interesting note is the number of downloads of Heaven is for Heroes verses On Thin Ice. On Thin Ice has been my best seller for several months, selling twice as many in the UK as here in the US, and outselling my other titles three to one. Since the only thing I did to change the game was to change my cover for Heaven is for Heroes, I’m wondering if that might be what gave the book a boost.

My favorite takeaway from this promotion is seeing downloads in Italy, Japan, and Canada, new markets previously untapped for me. Very exciting!

I hope Santa was good to you all and that whatever you’re doing today, you’ll find some downtime to escape into a good book. Merry Christmas everyone!

Any questions? Thoughts? Ideas?

Marketing Makeover

As the end of 2012 looms on the horizon, I’ve been working on my first quarter marketing plan for 2013. Being a relative newbie to indie-publishing with much more to learn, I’ve been studying the results of my first year efforts, and in retrospect, I can say I’ve definitively learned one thing. Well, I’ve learned a LOT actually, but one thing in particular stands out for me. I’ve learned that there are no constants in this business. What worked for one book didn’t work for others. What worked yesterday might not work today, and no matter how hard I work, there is an element of luck and timing that I have no control over. PJ Sharon here, welcoming you to the Writing Secrets of Seven Scribes. Today, I’ll be sharing what I think is a more focused approach than my previous “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” marketing plan.

Not that I haven’t had some moderate success with this approach, but like any business, the only way I can survive is if I trim the fat so to speak, and look for areas where I am wasting my time, effort, and resources. To that end, here is what I plan to do differently in 2013.

1) KDP Select-The exclusive 90 day enrollment that I did last spring with Amazon for Savage Cinderella was by far the most successful (at least in the short term) promotional tool I found. With 39,000 downloads, a temporary spot on the top 100 list, and a significant uptick in sales for several weeks after my FREE days, I felt like I was seeing some real progress forward. However, shortly after coming off the Select program, my sales declined in June, and the numbers tumbled every month after that for my first three books. I heard from industry veterans that the best way to rebound was to publish another book, which I did in September. Despite a month long blog tour and several group promotions, I have not seen much improvement in sales since then.

I resisted continuing with the KDP Select program because I didn’t like the idea of exclusivity, and I was hearing that results for the Select program had reportedly not been as good as they were last spring. That being said, I’ve decided to take the plunge again—for several reasons. I would be foolish not to tap into the Amazon pot that is set aside monthly to be divided amongst Select participants, paid out for “borrows” from the Kindle Lending Library. With 1.5 million dollars available for December (twice the norm), “borrows” should offer authors a nice Christmas bonus. Being able to offer my books for FREE for five days during that 90 day period without jumping through all the hoops of playing the “price matching” game is a simple and effective marketing tool. It also helps me to increase my reader base and my visibility, which are probably the greatest challenges that an author must focus on.

So I’ve revamped my cover for Heaven is for Heroes and enrolled both it, and On Thin Ice, into the program for the next 90 days. That means Only Savage Cinderella and Waning Moon are available on all platforms. If all goes well, when my 90 days are up, HIFH and OTI will go back onto all distribution channels and I’ll put Waning Moon into the Select program for a few months prior to the release of Western Desert, book two in the trilogy. I hate feeding the Amazon “monster,” but until I see real sales on B&N et al. I can’t pass up the opportunity. I literally have made an average of $15 a month from B&N—and less through Smashwords–hardly worth giving up potentially hundreds of sales through Amazon.

This is where I was supposed to mention earlier that both Heaven is for Heroes and On Thin Ice will be available for FREE on Amazon this Friday and Saturday, December 22-23. If you haven’t read them, I’d love it if you would download them or tell anyone you know who might enjoy some YA romance drama. The more downloads I have, the closer I’ll get to that top 100 list so all those new Kindle owners can find me after Christmas. I appreciate it!

2) I’ll keep exploring available social media platforms-I now have almost 500 FB likes and nearly 1000 Twitter followers, which is where I have put my focus over the past year. I’m not sure how that translates directly to sales, but it sure helps me connect with some great authors, bloggers, readers, reviewers, industry professionals, and some all-around awesome people. Since word of mouth is still the best advertising, it’s clear that social media is here to stay and is a useful medium to help get the word out. I would like to try to focus on finding what works for me and best helps me connect with my target audience. That will include more time on sites like Good reads, Pinterest, Tumbler, Wattpad, and Kindle Boards.

3) Budget funds for paid advertisements and production costs. Short cuts are not the way to go in this business. It’s a very competitive industry and becoming more so every day. Hiring a cover artist, quality editors, and paying for advertising that has proven to be effective are worth budgeting funds for. My husband and I doing everything ourselves at first seemed like a way to save money and maintain control of my product, but in the long run, I can see I didn’t give my books their due.

The nice thing about Indie publishing is that I can make changes whenever I want. The books won’t be taken off the market if they don’t sell in a month or two. My backlist can become my front list if I want to start a new advertising campaign and change up the cover, try a new venue, or target specific groups of potential readers. The sky is the limit, but it all costs money, so I’ve realized that I have to budget money to give the books their best chance to succeed.

4) More than anything, though, I’d like to become more organized about my time management-This is a business. But without writing good books in a timely manner, I will have no business. That means that the writing has to come first. I’m not kidding myself into thinking I’ll be able to keep it all under perfect control, but I will budget my time differently, allowing for 50-60% of my time to go towards production of new material, with only 40% of my time spent on administrative details.

There have been times over the past year where I haven’t written a word on a WIP for weeks because of getting caught up in all the crazy business chores and responsibilities. I’m finally beginning to let go of all that, and bring my focus back to the writing. If it means less time building my network or promoting the books, then so be it. And if I only get one quality book out this year, then that’s okay with me, too–though I’m planning for two and possibly another short story.

Most importantly, staying healhy, sane, and having some fun along the way is much more important to me than sales figures these days. When I start stressing about all the “to-do’s,” I remind myself to relax and enjoy the ride. You never know what’s going to come over that next big hill.

What will you do differently this year?

Goodreads Giveaway by Katy Lee

I have to be honest. Since I joined Goodreads this past year, I had my doubts if it was worth my time. I just didn’t see the benefits of investing the little extra time I had in it. I wondered if people really hung out there enough to read updates and reviews from their friends, or if those updates scrolled down the page, never to be heard or seen again.

But before I made my final judgement call on this social media, I decided to hold a one-week giveaway of Real Virtue. (Click here to enter if you would like.) And so far, I have to say, my opinion is being swayed toward the positive.

First of all, readers are adding my book to their libraries constantly. (So people are hanging out there) Whether they will buy it is another study, but more people are seeing the ad and having to respond in some way to it versus other (PAYING) ads where they glance over it and move onto the next thing. And notice I said PAYING ads. The Giveaway is free, minus the book, of course.

And second? It was easy. I like easy. Plus, once I sign up, Goodreads takes the campaign from there and gives me the tools to get the word out on my end…as I’m sure all my Facebook and Twitter friends can attest to. But honestly, I would LOVE it if one of my followers won the free copy.

When you are reading this on 12/16/12, I will still have another two days left of the giveaway, and won’t be able to give concrete numbers, but at the rate I have seen action, I’m pretty positive it’s not going to let up. I’m thinking as it crunches down to the final seconds, more and more people will see it and make the decision to enter and add it to their lists.

The Unlocked Secret: In the end, it’s not about numbers of sales for me, but rather the chance to bless someone with the message of Real Virtue. But if no one knows about the book, that will be hard to do. I know God gave me a story to tell, and He’s not going to leave it on the shelf. It’s nice to know there are sites like Goodreads that want to help me get it out there.

Question: Have you done a book giveaway? How did it help you spread the word? Or did it?

AND DON’T FORGET TO ENTER!

Gearing up for NaNo

I’ve heard about NaNo-WriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for a few years and have never officially participated for one reason or another. But this year, I’m all in. NaNo-WriMo is an organized national event where writers find support and camaraderie in their commitment to write 50,000 words during the month of November. Conceivably, this could mean someone would be able to complete a first draft of a full length novel in thirty days. Just ask our very own Casey Wyatt, who completed a manuscript last year which then became published!

 When broken down into a daily word-count, it means writing about 1660 words per day—a very doable task for determined and self-disciplined writers. For me, that’s about a chapter a day or five to six pages. But one of the reasons I haven’t participated in the past is that…and don’t tell anyone…I don’t write every day. That’s right; sometimes days go by and I haven’t written a word. Life, work, and family might require my undivided attention, or maybe I’m processing my plot, dialogue, or how my next scene will move the story forward. Other days, I may write for six or eight hours, producing as many as twenty pages or two or three chapters. Up until recently, I wasn’t even paying very close attention to my word count. I gave myself a certain number of months to write my first draft and figured out how many pages a week I needed to write, but never felt the need to focus on the actual word count. 

That is until Susannah Hardy challenged the CTRWA members to start doing “sprints” on FaceBook. A sprint is when a bunch of people agree to spend a few hours at night writing their little hearts out to make a predetermined word-count goal. Ironically, the average writer is able to put out a thousand or fifteen hundred words in that period of time. Some more and some less, but the actual goal isn’t important. The sprints (and NaNo-WriMo) are successful because it gets everyone working toward their individual goal and is a way for this isolated work to feel much less lonely. It also holds us accountable to a group of people (nothing like peer pressure or the threat of public humiliation to get the muse musing). A little competition and some recognition for a job well done can’t hurt. Not to mention that you may just write the novel of your heart in a mere month—something that takes some writers a lifetime to accomplish. I figure I have nothing to lose by trying. Even if I don’t finish, I’ll be a heck of a lot further along than if I hadn’t tried.

This is where I’ll be in November

Here’s my challenge to myself. (I’ll share it with all of you since I’m highly motivated by accountability and the threat of public humiliation.) I’ve recently started my new work in progress (WIP), Book Two in The Chronicles of Lily Carmichael trilogy. Since the book is set to finish at about 70,000 words, I figure I’ll get a jump on NaNo-WriMo and try to have 20,000 words written by November 1st so I can plan for the other 50k and finish my first draft in a month. I’ve only managed a sixty-thousand words in six weeks pace one other time and that was when I wrote Savage Cinderella back in 2009. I may still not be able to write every day during November, but I’ll set my weekly goal for 10-12,000 words which is about 30-40 pages a week. That’s a pretty aggressive pace, but with the help and support of my writing family, I’m going to give it my best shot.

How about you? Are you going to participate in NaNo? Do you have a daily word-count goal? Do you write daily or have a weekly page count? I’m curious.