Running Two Books on Sale in Tandem on KDP Select

The first two Relic Worlds books went on sale today on Kindle, and they'll be on sale through the end of the week.  I made the first one free, and the second one on sale for 99 cents.  The idea is to entice readers with the first, and since the second is just a buck, hopefully the audience will just go ahead and buy it.

I'm going to monitor its progress and report how it goes, continuing to try to figure out how this self-promotion thing goes.

Here's how I prepared this time.

Two weeks before the sale, I applied for the big guys.  That's Bookbub, Ereader News Today, and Digital Book Today.  As usual, Bookbub and Ereader turned me down, but Digital Book took it.

One week before the sale, I went tot he paid sites that seemed to do pretty well before.  This includes Book Butterfly, Free Booksy, Book Sends, and Ebooks Habit.  I also posted it for free in Awesomegang, Indie Book of the Day, Ignite Your Book, and OHFB, and for $3 at Free Ebooks Daily.  In every case I chose one of teh books to post except for one of the sites, Ebooks Habit.  They were low price enough that I posted both.  The hope is that someone will see one, then the other, and realize they can get a couple books in the series for a deal.

Throughout the week before the sale I was very active in Facebook groups that I belong to which involve sci fi books and Kindle reads.  This was to sort of prime the pump, and for people not to think I'm just going to post my book and am not interested in what they had to say.  I didn't just post on these sites, I reacted to what other people said.  I made my presence known as much as I could.

The day it started, I registered for any site that only takes submissions on the day, such as Facebook groups that do free Kindle promotions.  Most importantly, though, I posted the announcement to Relic Worlds' Facebook page and I shared that with other groups.  The first step is very important; to post in my own page first and share it.  When I post in other groups, it links back to me.  But when I share from my page, it links back to the page, which is the series I want them to get into.

So that's where we are right now.  It's 4:30 and I'm at 635 free downloads of book 1, but 0 purchases of book 2.  Strangely, there have been a couple downloads of my other books, but that might be just coincidence.  I'mhoping the actual sales pick up.  I'll let you know as it continues.

For now, here are the links to the books on sale:

Relic Worlds, Book 1:
https://www.amazon.com/Relic-Worlds-Lancaster-Search-Promised-ebook/dp/B00JSW7EBY?ie=UTF8&keywords=Relic%20Worlds&qid=1465240389&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Relic Worlds, Book 2:
http://www.amazon.com/Relic-Worlds-Lancaster-Secret-Padrone/dp/1530464692/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1465240389&sr=8-2&keywords=Relic+Worlds

The Secret to Independent Publishing... Series! Part 2

Last week I talked about my journey through independent publishing learning what was working and what was not.  I had started with writing non-fiction and one-off novels, and found that the promoting of them was very difficult, particularly because, once I had promoted them, I was done.  There was no series which I could build over time.

What I’ve done with this blog post, in splitting it up, is illustrate part of what works.  If you can generate some interest and say the story will continue, that draws an audience in.  It also helps because it’s spread over two areas.  Some of you will undoubtedly see this post first, and go back to the last one to see where I began while many of you will have seen that first, and come here.  This is called casting a wider net.  If I had another one come out next week, some people would undoubtedly see that and trace it back to see where it all began.  And when people make sure to read all the way through, that counts as three views to my blog per person rather than just one.

In short, having a series builds an audience over time, something independent authors desperately need.  The more reasons you have to post about your series, the more opportunities others have to find it.  And by having multiple books come out, you can have something new to talk about regarding your series as time goes along.  It’s especially helpful when you have short stories that take place throughout as well, as you can post and talk about those for free, and they’re tiny amounts of your story that people can digest without a huge investment of time.

In my case, I’ve chosen to do my series Relic Worlds, about an anthropologist searching for ancient artifacts in the ruins of distant planets to learn what happened to alien civilizations in the galaxy.  Sort of Indiana Jones in space, if you will.  This series has a novel once a year, and a bunch of short stories in between each novel.  There are also games, choose your own adventures, and other interactive materials that come out for it all the time.

By having so many different elements, I’m able to talk about what’s happening in the series on an ongoing basis.  This is a huge departure from my other books where the only update I could give was, “book’s still out on Amazon and waiting for you to buy.”  As an ongoing tale, I can keep everyone up to date on the latest products and stories in the ongoing adventure.  And I can bring everyone along for the ride like they’re involved.

I bring them along by being a part of their discussions on Facebook, Twitter, forums, etc.  Being sci fi and adventure, those are the groups I belong to; and I enjoy the discussions.  I can get involved in what they’re saying about other sci fi and adventure stories, and I build trust and engagement with them.  So when I say, hey guys, something else has come out from Relic Worlds, I’m not just appearing out of nowhere and trying to sell them something.  Hell, I’m not even selling to them, I’m giving away most of what I’m talking about for free.

Speaking of which, it’s best to make the first book free as well.  This pulls people into the story as they’re likely to get the first book for free just to see what it is, then they’ll get curious where the characters go from there.  I made sure to end the first book by giving a sense of where everyone was going, but leaving it open-ended enough to make everyone curious.  With my one-off books, when I gave them away for free, that was it.  They had the product and didn’t need to buy anything else.

And then there’s the conventions.  While it was difficult for me to find conventions to sell my other books, with sci fi, there are plenty of conventions dedicated to just that, or to the “popular arts,” which generally includes sci fi and fantasy along with comic books.  Now, at these conventions you’ll generally spend a lot of money getting a booth and decorating it, but then you’ll hardly have any sales.  So why are they worth it?  Because that’s where you build your following.  They may not want to spend money at your booth because they’re spending it all on Batman and Star Wars paraphernalia.  But since they met you, they’ll go home and look at your stuff, and possibly buy it later.  They’re also pretty willing to join your mailing list.

This mailing list, I’ve learned, is perhaps the most important element.  By having it, I can contact them directly to remind them I exist rather than counting on people to look up my page and start following along.  Again, with a one-off book, all I can do is tell them what’s in the book and hope they buy it, or maybe tell them about new books I’m writing, which may or may not be of a genre they’re interested in.  But by having an ongoing sci fi series, they will stay connected, and follow the story that matches their interest.

So, the plan for Relic Worlds going forward is basically in two parts: online and at conventions.

Online I interact with others in their groups and on my pages, twitter, blog, etc.  I tell them what’s new in the world of Relic Worlds while interacting with them about other subjects in sci fi and adventure.  (Even throwing in a lot about real science and archaeology.)  This is all centered on the newsletter that I send out once a month to the people on the email list.

Meanwhile, I go to whatever conventions I can get to and afford, and I build my email list, as well as give out flyers to get people involved in the series.  So far it’s done well to generate some interest.  Few sales have come from it, but I’ve just started, so hopefully this will work.  I’ll post later about how it continues.

My First Booth at Wondercon

I ran my first booth ever at Wondercon this weekend, and I learned quite a bit.

First I must explain that I have been studying this for quite a while; how to best use a convention to sell my products.  I first went to Comic Con in 2007 and have been trying to utilize that convention and others in the best way possible.  Mostly, I tried to do it on the cheap, handing out flyers in the front, and running events that didn't involve getting a table myself.  One example was the treasure hunt I ran, where I gave out flyers full of clues that led attendees to several booths until they got to the last one where they got a prize relating to my series.  (The flyer, of course, also said the name of the series on it.)

All of these attempts failed to have much of an impact.  The treasure hunt, first of all, was too difficult to accomplish, and few people got to the end.  But the biggest problem was that I was, ultimately, outside of the convention.  To really be taken seriously, I had to go all the way and get a booth.  So that is a must.

I became impressed with Wondercon when it first moved to Anaheim.  The first year was rough; but overall it had the feel of a more independent minded convention that remembered its sci fi and fantasy roots.  It wasn't quite so owned by the corporations.  I knew that when I got a booth, it would be here.

My booth was way in the back, which made it easy to load, but harder for attendees to find.  Luckily, it was right next to the food court, so a lot of people saw it during lunch.

I ran the treasure hunt again, but this time it was simple to do.  And at the end, people who wanted to claim their prize had to give their name and email address to enter the drawing.  The grand prize was a trip to Disneyland, so there were a lot of people who wanted to do it.  This left me with an extended email list.  However, it was not as long as it could have been since people had to do the treasure hunt first, and some didn't want to bother.

The table was filled with the flyers on the right, the books in the middle, and a large volcano model I made on the left.  The Relic Worlds sign hung from the table int he front, and vertical signs of the two books hung behind me.  I found this to be a really good layout, though I might have overdone it on the number of different flyers and different books.  What I really needed was a flyer with the treasure hunt, a flyer with the books, and a flyer with a free short story.  Maybe adding the bookmark was a good idea as well, because it was easy to get people to take a bookmark after they had bought other books.

The way the days worked seems to be the same for every convention.  Friday is the day when people trickle in and look at what there is to offer.  It's best to give them previews of what I have as well as get them on the treasure hunts.  At night there was gaming in a different building.  I thought this would be super important as it would be a whole new audience that extended into the evening.  However, this year the gaming area was far away from the convention center, so hardly anyone was there.  Also, people tend to break off into cliques at these gaming events, so its effectiveness was limited.

Saturday was the big day.  It was the day to push both the free fliers and the books, as well as attract everyone with the volcano, and put on a game that utilized the volcano.  This was more effective than the night gaming as it was in full view of other attendees, who looked on at the setup with amazement.  (I spend hundreds of dollars making it.)  I did find, though, that it would be better to have a separate person run the game, as I needed to be at the booth.  I also had two models dressed as a couple of the characters posing for the cameras out front where the cosplayers hang out, and give out flyers.  This was one of the best and most effective things to do as we got TONS of people photographing them along with the books.  I could not have arranged this, however, if I hadn't had two wonderful volunteers at the booth selling books while I was dealing with the models.

Sunday is known as the dead day.  However, it's also the day people are usually more apt to buy.  They've spent the last couple days looking over everything, and on the last day they go through buying what they've decided to get.  It's also the best day to network with other booths as they're less busy.

In the end, I learned that conventions are essentially the second half of the equation to sell books.  The other half is online, which I'll get to in another post.  Conventions are where you spread the word in person.  You can't really expect to make any money at them; you're going to spend more money than you make creating an effective platform.  However, this platform should be used to create something that the attendees go back and tell others about.  The experience should be something they want to photograph either at your booth, or in the cosplay area.  (I had both with the volcano at the booth and the two models in the cosplay area.)  It's also a great way to get people to learn about your website and any deals you have going, such as a free book deal or a sale.

But what it's best for is what I've recently learned is the most important thing in independent book selling: building the email list.  I never thought of this as such an important step, but it is.  Having a website and Facebook page is important for people to go see, but the general public will forget about you unless you actively remind them of your existence, and sending short stories and/or updates is the best way to do it.  So an email list is what you need.  And there's no better way to build this than at a convention.  When people meet you face to face, they get interested in what you're doing.  They're usually not ready to buy anything because they want to keep checking you out.  So they're willing to give you their email address for you to tell them.  I made the mistake of tying it to the treasure hunt.  While the hunt was fun and unique and best of all, made me stand out, it limited the number of people who signed up on the list; and many who would want to hear more later on never came back.

So the bottom line is it's best to find a way to have the attendees join your mailing list by doing something there at the booth that's fun and memorable, but they need to give you their name and email to do it.

The Various Jobs of an Independent Author

The book is now out and the pre-release promotions are all done.  (Well, they can't be done anymore.  There were a few things I didn't do that I wanted to, but I ran out of time.)  I had intended on keeping this journal active as I went through the process so you could see it, but I learned that the only way I could really accurately do it would have been to have someone else with a camera taping me as I did it.  The process took so much freakin' time that I had no time left over to talk about it.  This is why major publishing houses have multiple people doing the various jobs.  As an independent author, you have to be writer, publisher, and promoter, and each of these jobs has sub-categories.

The writer of course has to also be a researcher, and has to learn to edit his/her own work.  He/she also has to go on tour and talk to people about the book and give signings.

A publisher has to learn all of the different formats, such as hardcover, paperback, e-book, etc., and he/she has to know how to upload them and make them look right.  He/she also has to learn which platforms work best for printing and releasing the work.  This leads to another job I forgot to mention...

Distributor.  You must learn how to distribute the work, and part of that job combines with the publisher responsibilities, as you have to print from places that will be accepted by the selling platforms.  For instance, bookstores will not take your book unless it's printed from a place that will do returns.  Thus, you must make the book available through Ingram Spark, or you have to have a distribution warehouse that can handle all of that.

Finally, you must also be the promoter, because your book can be all over the place, but if no one knows about it, no one will buy it.  This involves going to radio and TV stations, newspapers, podcasts, magazines, etc., etc.  It's one of the most time consuming, difficult, and discouraging jobs, as most of your efforts go unanswered.

At a major publishing house, these aren't just various positions, they're entire departments.  So as an independent author, you have to not only put on different hats, you have to wear various feathers in that hat.  Running this blog is supposed to be part of promotion, but sometimes you have to just accept what's likely to work and what isn't.  I also want this blog to help future independent authors and publishers, but so far very few people have been reading it, so it's been a lower priority.

So that's a bit about what I do.  I'll go on to more topics throughout this week, as many as I can get done.

Bloggers Who Have Forgotten Their Roots

As I’ve tried to get my books spoken about and reviewed by bloggers, I’ve come across the same problem so many times:  Signs on the blogging websites that say they will not take any self-published books.  They review or write only about traditionally published books.

I’ve got a little piece of news for all you bloggers who say that.  YOU ARE SELF PUBLISHED!!!!

Yes, that’s right.  As you’re sitting there behind your keyboard all holier than thou, taking only the “legitimately” published books, you are forgetting that one basic fact.  You are not in a magazine, a periodical, or any other “legitimate,” or “traditionally” published manuscript.  You are SELF-FUCKING-PUBLISHED!!!

I have been rejected by magazines, radio stations, and television stations.  While I’m disappointed, I’m not surprised and I don’t hold it against them.  They have a world of their own, and they want to stick to it.  I hope they’ll open themselves up to us independents, (and some of them have,) but if they don’t, they’re merely sticking to their kind.

You bloggers who won’t talk about or review self-published works are downright hypocrites.

If we have to be traditionally published to be good enough for you, why shouldn’t you have to be traditionally published in a magazine in order to be good enough for us?

I have made a determination, and I call on everyone to do the same.  Whenever I look at blogs, even if I’m not in any way considering sending my books to them, I take a look at their submission policy.  If the blogger refuses to have anything to do with self-published works, either for stories, reviews, or whatever, I tag that blog and never return.  I also make it a point to tell people not to go to that blog.

Now, to be clear, this is not the same as being personally rejected by a blog.  If there’s a blog which rejects me, but they take independently published works, I’ll strive to rise to their level and hope they’ll accept me in the future.  I’ll even recommend the site.

But if you reject self-published, independently published books and you’re a blogger, then I’m sorry, but I only read traditionally published magazines.

A Big Decision to Make

After a couple weeks of not posting, this week I’m going to post something similar to what I wrote a while ago.  The reason for this is less laziness, (though I am a bit lazy right now,) and more because it’s a very serious decision I need to make.

After approaching more than 50 agents to try to get an upcoming book published through a traditional publisher, I had finally given up and was willing to accept that this book would be published independently as well.  I had been wanting to do this one traditionally so that I could connect with a lot of places that I couldn’t connect with on my own.  But now it was looking like it would be added to my collection of independently published books, and was making plans.

Then one single agent wrote to me and showed some interest.  I’m not sure how interested they are, as their emails have seemed pretty indifferent, but they’ve at least been wanting to take a look at more and more of the book.  So I’ve been sending it to them bit by bit.  I have meanwhile been making plans to independently publish it, so now I’m left with a dilemma.  If they say they want to represent me, should I accept it and go with them, or should I go independently anyway.  Here are the pluses and minuses of each.

Traditional Publishing:

Positives – There are two basic positives to publishing traditionally.  First, the publishers provide promotions.  Second, they get your book into places you can’t get them; namely bookstores.  They have connections at all of these places and send out regular catalogues from which materials are ordered.  These are too numerous for us to do on our own, and when we do contact them, they usually turns us down because we’re not traditional publishers.  This is true both of bookstores and promotional places, such as television and radio stations.

Negatives – To get to a publisher, you have to first sign with an agent.  While you do research on an agent and try to get one you can trust, it’s difficult to know for certain until you’ve already signed with them whether they’re going to do right by you, and by that time it’s too late to turn around and do it yourself.  There’s also no guarantee they’ll actually send it to publishers.  They could just sit on your book because it competed with one of their other books, and they didn’t want it out there in the market, or they might change their mind and not do anything with it for whatever reason.  Then there’s the possibility that even though they do pitch it to publishers, the publishers decide they don’t want it, and then you’re completely stuck, because the agent still has exclusive rights of the book, but it’s not getting published.  And in the end, either the agent or the publisher could decide that you need to revise it in ways you don’t want to revise it, and if you don’t, they still have the rights to it, and you’re not getting published.  And then, even if it is published, it could take two years or more to actually get onto the shelves.

Independent Publishing:

                Positives – Full control.  This is especially important with this piece because it’s about a family that really wants to make sure their ancestor is well represented.  Also, there are multiple places that might want to make this into a movie, and if I get it published soon, they might be serious about that.  If I wait too long, they might lose interest.

                Negatives – A lot of people close their doors to independent publishing.  It’s not right, but they do it.  Many bookstores won’t carry it; even independent bookstores, (go figure.)  As for promotions, many, many radio and TV stations won’t cover you.  Even many blogs, which are independently published themselves, won’t cover your book.  And even those radio and TV stations that criticize corporations and claim to support independent artists, (like the Colbert Report,) won’t even consider independently published books.

So there you go.  That’s my dilemma.  I don’t know which direction I’m going to go.

The Real Independent video and Film Revolution

Yesterday I had the wonderful privilege of working with Geek & Sundry on their Tabletop Day Special.  It was a huge honor for me as a gamer, but more importantly, as an independent artist.  Even though this blog is intended to be about independent publishing, I’m going to talk today about independent videos on the web because it’s an important element to freelance writers, and more importantly, an important ingredient to independent publications and publicity.

When I first got into film, I wanted to be an independent artist.  I was excited about the whole idea of film festivals and private investors to make heartfelt movies by real artists.  What I found in my 20 years in the film industry was that none of this was true.  The festivals were, at best, “independent” with the word in quotation marks because, first, you couldn’t even get your movie accepted unless you had a celebrity in it, (and you could only get those celebrities in your film if you were part of the Hollywood system,) and aspiring filmmakers who tried to get into the activities of these festivals usually found themselves blocked out by red velvet ropes that separated them from the VIPs.  I found the whole process hypocritical.  There was very little difference between the “independent” scene and the studios.

There was a first internet revolution in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s.  Several production companies popped up and there was a central location for videos called iFilm.  At first, these were made up of independent artists excited about pressing the reset button to create a true independent video scene.  Unfortunately, the mentality of many of these places were the same as the studios and “independent” film places.  Some of these companies were even run by the same people.  iFilm itself put up their own red velvet rope by deciding to stop accepting videos they deemed “unworthy” and even kicked a lot of videos off.  One of my own, a short version of The Forgotten Grave, was one of them that was kicked off, even though it had won a competition within iFilm’s own company.

What really killed the first internet revolution was when major movie companies tried to create internet content.  They saw real independent work being done, and they wanted to control it, the way they had bought all the “independent” production studios in 1999 when they swept the Academy Awards.  The result of this attempted take-over was that content became stale, and the larger companies found that there wasn’t enough money in it for them.  What should have been a place for young artists to grow was hijacked by people who wanted lots of money, who then threw it away because there wasn’t enough money in it for them.  The content itself was so much like regular television that people went, why should I watch this when I have TV at a higher quality level.  (In those days, watching on the internet meant you were watching a 2 inch screen that was often jumpy and couldn’t play more than five minutes at a time.)

The second internet revolution has, of course, taken hold.  High internet speeds are given the credit, and to be fair, that is a big part of it.  No one has to watch tiny screens and there’s no time limit.  But the main credit should go to Youtube, who doesn’t believe in the red velvet rope.  Companies like iFilm screwed it up for themselves by trying to follow the studio and film festival models and being exclusionary.  Everything had to be of a certain “quality level” or have celebrities involved.  This destroys innovation and experimentation, but more importantly, it takes the power away from the audience, who should really be deciding what plays and what does not.

This has given rise to some of the greatest entertainment ever to be put on screens.  Individuals from all over the world can now innovate, and others can decide for themselves what they want to watch rather than having some stuffy executive or pertinacious film student deciding what’s “worthy.”  The concept of capitalism itself was based on the idea of competition, and that has made entertainment on the web better.

It has also made other mediums better.  The rise in quality of television shows for programs like Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and Game of Thrones is due in many ways to this rise in quality in internet entertainment.  Why?  Because the competition is rising, and television executives are realizing they now have to compete with the rest of the world, not just their fellow executives.

What this means to writers is that many more opportunities are arising for work on projects that are more artistic, experimental, and innovative.  Whether searching for work with other companies, or to create product independently, the world of visual entertainment has grown, and in favor of trying new things.  It also aids book authors as video content is always a good way to get people to look at their books.  And with programs like Hit Record, people are sharing content that can then be used to support other artists in every medium, including books, blogs, etc.

So meeting Wil Wheaton yesterday was the equivalent to me of meeting a favorite author.  His show Tabletop, though it’s about gaming and not about writing, is helping every artistic community through being innovative, independent, experimental, and supportive.  Wheaton himself would be considered a “has been” by Hollywood, but rather than letting that get him down and believing what the system says, he took his interest, something most people would consider to be unimportant, and brought it to the forefront.  He shows through his passion and sheer joy how gaming brings people together.  He shows off games by both mainstream and small companies.  Most importantly, rather than being aloof from his community, he becomes a part of it through social media.  He helps others be seen through his Tumblr page, he vlogs to people that catch his attention online, and he treats people he meets on the same level as anyone rather than acting like he’s somehow above them.  Yes, he has celebrity status, but he’s using it to shine spotlights on subjects and people around him rather than demanding million dollar paychecks and entitlements the way most people do.

The new celebrities of the internet are mostly that way.  Some of them were celebrities in film and television, such as George Takei and Joseph Gorden Levitt, but I have to give them credit as well, as they could have just stayed in the more established film and television world, but they have been willing to make less money on the internet in order to be part of this true independent revolution.  As for non-celebrities, you have people like the Green brothers and Jay and Mike at Red Letter Media who are all from the Midwest and would be overlooked in traditional medias, and you have the fantastic comedians at Screen Junkies, How it Should Have Ended, and College Humor.  And if you want gaming, there are channels that have opened up that are very much like sports, such as Tabletop, The Prince of Macedon, World of Tanks, and my own Command Combat Battle Reports.

This democratization has opened up more venues than ever for writers and artists of every genre.  I’m at last satisfied with the independent television and movie scene.

Here are a few of the shows I recommend:

https://www.youtube.com/user/geekandsundry

http://redlettermedia.com/

http://hitplayrecords.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers

https://www.youtube.com/user/HISHEdotcom

https://www.youtube.com/user/screenjunkies

https://www.youtube.com/user/Commandcombat

https://www.youtube.com/user/WorldOfTanksCom

https://www.youtube.com/user/nigahiga

https://www.youtube.com/user/WorldScienceU

https://www.youtube.com/user/PrinceofMacedon

https://www.youtube.com/user/collegehumor