How many here are self-publishing?

[ellenoc]

I am totally self-published. I did pursue the traditional route for some time, and in those years my book won the mystery division of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Annual Colorado Gold Contest. The editor who judged the finals was interested in it, but of course by the time the book was ready to submit, that small pub was out of business. An agent was interested, but almost the first thing she said was my title had to be changed to something with "Murder" or "Death" in it to identify it as a mystery. Also I couldn't say that my protag "tugged" on a dog's collar because that smacked of abuse. That kind of experience gave me pause. Then I was fortunate to belong to a very good critique group for several years. In that time 2 of the group got traditional publishing deals. Watching them and what was involved, I realized I'd rather never be published than go through that. The successful one of the two (at least he's now got several more books pubbed - Troy Cook), spent more than his advance on a p.r. person. Called book stores all over the country asking them to stock his book, traveled a lot to book conferences, smoozed people there, did book signings, etc. I absolutely am not going to do that kind of stuff and I know it, so I stopped writing for several years and just forgot about it.

I got a Kindle 2 years ago, joined some Kindle specific lists and began to see posts about Amazon's DTP and indie publishing. So that's what I did, and as I said I'm very happy. The only marketing I've done is right from home via the Internet.

My guess is how happy you are with indie pubbing depends a lot on how realistic your expectations are. I went to enough writers' conferences, etc., to know that very few authors make much even when traditionally pubbed. If my book were to continue to sell the way it has for the first 7 weeks for a year, it would earn as much as I'd probably have gotten as an advance from a traditional publisher, and I'd be more than happy with that.

Dreams - When I first got my book up on Smashwords, a post on the Kindle forums said exactly what you did, that there are a lot of people who look on Smashwords but then buy on Amazon. My guess is that's what happened to me, because the first day or so there were 8 free downloads of my books on Smashwords, and I had 8 more sales than usual on Amazon.

[DaringNovelist]

Originally Posted by ellenoc

My guess is how happy you are with indie pubbing depends a lot on how realistic your expectations are. I went to enough writers' conferences, etc., to know that very few authors make much even when traditionally pubbed. If my book were to continue to sell the way it has for the first 7 weeks for a year, it would earn as much as I'd probably have gotten as an advance from a traditional publisher, and I'd be more than happy with that.

Considering how little mystery writers in particular seem to make, I was wondering about that. It sounds like your level of experience is somewhere around mine. I am so very curious as to how this will go.

Another thing that is very important, if you are happy with just one book out, that's an especially good sign, because additional books tend to really support each other. (At least if they are in similar genres.)

I am currently making last editing pass on the manuscript and will be converting and copyrighting by the end of the week. I need to run some tests of catalog copy and cover by my writer's groups, and update my woefully out of date main author website. Then I plan to publish by Easter.

EDIT: how are you doing with the paperback version you have available on Amazon? I assume it isn't selling as well as the ebook, but is it worth the effort?

[ellenoc]

<how are you doing with the paperback version you have available on Amazon? I assume it isn't selling as well as the ebook, but is it worth the effort?>

The paperback isn't doing well enough to justify itself, and I don't plan on doing a paperback again. I gave figures on a thread on the Kindle forums and am willing to do it here. (I was very grateful to Konrath for the figures he put out when I was investigating all this.) My Kindle sales averaged just over 8 per day for the 3 weeks the book was out in February and are averaging 10 per day so far in March, so 416 so far. Paperback sales are at 15, and Smashwords 4. There are indie authors who are selling many times that per day and of course some selling fewer. Price is certainly a factor. After much agonizing, I priced my book at $1.99 for the Kindle. More people are willing to take a chance on an unknown at that price, but I have one review that admits they almost passed it over in the belief nothing that cheap could be worthwhile.

The only reason I did a paperback this time is that my particular book, as you can see, is called "Rottweiler Rescue," and is a dog mystery that features Rotties. The Rottweiler National Specialty Show is coming here to Colorado next month. The local rescue group will have a booth at the show and will sell copies of my book as a fund raiser, and I am donating a dozen or so copies that will be given to people who bring dogs they have adopted and participate in the rescue parade they have at the show. The paperback was much more difficult to format properly and put out (you are basically trying to typeset using word processing software unless you have access to some of the more expensive programs designed for that) and unlike the Amazon DTP, there is some expense involved.

Again, I think all this is very individual, but knowing some people are doing well enough to be encouraged is certainly something to be factored in to anyone's decision. I don't know that I would have done this if I still had any notions at all of wanting a traditional publishing deal, but now I'm sitting here thinking - if only I had half a dozen of these ready to go . . . .

[DaringNovelist]

That is very cool. Your book seems like a decent test too. While you don't have an obviously mystery title, online that matters less because people search by subject. But it also has niche appeal - likely to attract a small but devoted audience of Dog Mystery people.

I do have desktop publishing experience, and the tools at hand, but I don't think I'd do paper unless I had some special event like you had.

Well in about ten days, we'll see what happens with my stats.

[Batman Jr.]

Originally Posted by DaringNovelist

I'm curious about how many writers here are publishing works themselves through Smashwords or Kindle. Also of those who are doing some self-publishing, how many are established writers publishing their backlist or odd titles that they couldn't find a place for in traditional publishing, and how many are publishing strictly on their own.

I have had quite a lot of short fiction published, and I'm sticking to traditional publishing for most of my fiction, but I have a few things I wrote over the years with the idea of playing with web publishing. I never got around to doing anything with them, but now I'm going to experiment with some ebook publishing.

I know this is growing too fast for there to be a norm, but I am curious about what to expect.

Len Edgerly's guest on his The Reading Edge podcast tonight might be someone you'd be interested in looking into:

http://www.phenixpublicity.com/

His name is Rusty Shelton of Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists, and it sounds like they may have some useful information for someone in your position with an established record of publishing accomplishments looking to branch out into a new medium. Good luck!

[DaringNovelist]

Batman Jr: Thanks! Not interested in a publicist right now, but it's good to have the link.

Ellen: You're a Morgan person! I used to have Morgans. The perfect horse. I'll definitely be looking forward to your next book.

[Simon Wood]

Originally Posted by DaringNovelist

I'm curious about how many writers here are publishing works themselves through Smashwords or Kindle. Also of those who are doing some self-publishing, how many are established writers publishing their backlist or odd titles that they couldn't find a place for in traditional publishing, and how many are publishing strictly on their own.

I'm currently published through a NY publisher, but I'm currently self-publishing my backlist with Kindle and Smashwords. I tested the water with a couple of out of print titles, but I'm also looking to publish some ebook exclusives for some works that don't meet traditional publishing's needs when it comes to word length, etc.

Personally, I see ebooks as another branch of publishing endeavors, but the technology has made it easy for me to control this aspect myself without the need of a 3rd party.

[WAPatterson]

I pursued the traditional route and tried to get a publisher or an agent - but never got any nibbles. After 4 years I figured I might as well self-publish and did so on Smashwords. So far I've only sold 20 copies of the book and had quite a few downloads. Waiting for distro to amazon and sony now as well as the others as it's in the "premium catalog."
I'm happy that 20 or so people have been interested enough to download the book and pay me for it. It beats the total number of readers for the previous 4 years!

I don't self-publish to be successful but to be read and now it's out there.
I have been marketing my book slowly and getting more and more responses as time goes by My traffic is steady but it is there at the site and they let me track that. Sample downloads are increasing daily and eventually some will turn into sales.

I think anyone who self-publishes to make money needs to work this like a business to get anything out of it and work it like a full-time job to be successful.
I sold more than one copy and I am more successful at publishing and writing than I have ever been before so I'm happy and consider the experiment a sucess as I haven't spent a dime to use smashwords and I got read!

[DaringNovelist]

Well I uploaded to Smashwords last night and I have one sale today. (Whoo hoo!) I'm going to do Kindle directly on Amazon and not through Smashwords. I hope to get that done tonight or tomorrow.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/11786

As you say WAPatterson, the really cool thing is to be available. That's what I like about ebooks. Self-publishing on paper has the trouble of getting the books before the readers. With ebooks, they're just there.

[David Derrico]

I have self-published my books, and I try to make them available in as many places as possible. My own website, Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, and soon the iBook store. Since they're all non-exclusive, anything that gives my readers options and allows them to find it in the format they want is a win-win. Some people prefer specific retailers (or prefer Amazon to my own website), and that's fine with me. Even though the vast majority of my sales are through Amazon, each additional channel is just gravy, and might be preferable to certain readers for whatever reason. I think it's always better to give readers options and make things as easy as possible for them (no DRM, multiple formats, etc.).

[WAPatterson]

Hey ! congrats on the first book sale at Smashwords! I'm glad you re experimenting with such a genre-bending book. It seems perfect for the medium.

Make sure as you run your experiment, try a few things that the founder set out in the marketing guide. It doesn't really cost anything but time and I've been slowly building it up for a month now. I can tell from the traffic reports when something works better than others. I am pretty sure I'm going to have to read this just for the sheer curiosity value of the blurb- really well done!

[DaringNovelist]

Originally Posted by WAPatterson

Hey ! congrats on the first book sale at Smashwords! I'm glad you re experimenting with such a genre-bending book. It seems perfect for the medium.

Make sure as you run your experiment, try a few things that the founder set out in the marketing guide. It doesn't really cost anything but time and I've been slowly building it up for a month now. I can tell from the traffic reports when something works better than others. I am pretty sure I'm going to have to read this just for the sheer curiosity value of the blurb- really well done!

Thanks, WA.

Yeah, I've been doing a lot of online promotion for other things for a while. At the moment, what I am concentrating on what I consider the "foundation" elements of promotion and marketing. The semi-passive stuff. Website, blog, title, cover. (Also having other titles to support it.)

Once the foundation is solid (especially the website) then it's much easier to promote, because a lot of the work is already done. You can just do natural networking.

Also, I want to establish a baseline for the book in this passive marketing. It has a provocative title, which can get attention by itself (or turn people away by itself). So before I start the promotions, what does it do without the promotion? Then what happens when I try this or that? I hope to have one or two more titles up this summer, too.