There's a better way to beat the ebook pirates

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

And that is your problem in a nutshell: no one's noticed until now.

In fact, it’s not even close. Most published authors derive only incidental income from their writing...

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

Yup. I've heard the same from a few other sci-fi and fantasy writers I like - that most people can't make an income on writing full time.

Originally Posted by hidari

Writing for a living is a luxury not a right. And people expecting to make a semi-living or living off of it are delusional....

You sure have a way in instilling confidence in a guy, you know that?...

There are a few of the marketing attempts mentioned elsewhere that I haven't tried... usually because too much money was involved (hey, sorry, I got bills). Most of them have been tried, and garnered little or no sales. I'll look at this fresh list, to see if there's anything else I can try.

Originally Posted by Cyberman tM

But the message that comes across - at least how I see it - is basically "You all are pirates and condone mass pirating of all books and everything! It's YOUR fault I don't earn any money!"

I think "how you see" my statements is a bit... skewed. At least that's how I see it.

Edit: I think we can conclude this sub-thread here. I've had mention of some marketing things I can try, a number I've already tried, and enough criticism and statements of the obvious to encourage me to pick up some fresh razor blades from the market. We'll see where things go from here.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by intheendofdays

I know you are referring to the US but just to remind people that in the UK the law is pretty clear, breaking DRM even for personal back-up is illegal (except on software). Although I don't think this law has been tested in court. That's my understanding anyway.

Hey if thats true then we are fine in the UK (ebooks ARE software - ask the taxman)

[cfrizz]

The other factor to "making it" as an author is prolificy. J.K. Rowling produced a new book every year from 1997-2000, since then once every 2 years. Fern Michaels has written over sixty books, many of them New York Times bestsellers since the 1970s, that's basically 1 or more books every year since she started! I just looked at a "selected" bunch of books from Harold Robbins. It has 35 books in it starting in 1948. That woman who just got a contract from St. Martins Press who became famous for self publishing put out something like 8 books in a year on Amazon!

If you want to be noticed & make money, it's clear that you have to write prolifically (with a subject that people want to read) & stay in the public eye.

If you think you are going to make it with one book every 6 years, or whatever, then you are going to get a real harsh reality check.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

The other factor to "making it" as an author is prolificy...

I have 6 books and 4 free short story sets on my website at the moment. Altogether I've written over a dozen novels, the rest of which have not been added to the new site until I give them a fresh proofing pass (if I get round to it). How's that?

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

I have 6 books and 4 free short story sets on my website at the moment. Altogether I've written over a dozen novels, the rest of which have not been added to the new site until I give them a fresh proofing pass (if I get round to it). How's that?

Steven, out of curiosity, have you ever tried to publish in paper?

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Pablo

Steven, out of curiosity, have you ever tried to publish in paper?

Don't want to. We need trees more than we need paper.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

There are a few of the marketing attempts mentioned elsewhere that I haven't tried... usually because too much money was involved (hey, sorry, I got bills). Most of them have been tried, and garnered little or no sales. I'll look at this fresh list, to see if there's anything else I can try.

.

I'm not sure if it's on the list or not, but I'm thinking of using a text to speech program to "read" something and then turn that into a Youtube video. Pirate sites are also a good free way of reaching readers that you wouldn't otherwise reach. You must have something you don't really care if people read for free? There's also similar free ebook sites for non-pirates, but you would be better off targetting both types of consumer.

You would probably do better reducing some of your prices on Amazon too, they are quite high for an unknown writer. I don't read SF anymore, but if I did you would be competing with people I've heard of and charging more than they do isn't the best way to do that.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

You would probably do better reducing some of your prices on Amazon too, they are quite high for an unknown writer. I don't read SF anymore, but if I did you would be competing with people I've heard of and charging more than they do isn't the best way to do that.

I wouldn't call $3 "quite high," even for an unknown writer.

[Anke Wehner]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

I have 6 books and 4 free short story sets on my website at the moment.

If you aren't planning to add a pricetag to the short stories, I'd recommend making them available at other sites where people look for free reads. (I saw one of of those at Smashwords, but not the others... they might be useful to draw people to you added shortly after a novel for sale, if you go back to submitting books there.)
Mr ploppy started a thread in the authors section of the forum to collect such websites: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=129753

There are plenty of people who look for free books (including short stories), and if someone comes across a free read by you (with a website link at the end and/or on the copyright page), they might go and buy the novels you offer for sale. It's more or less how four indie authors got me to follow their work.

It also seems like you have one series of three books. Reducing the price of the first only to 99 cents might be worth a try. 99 cents is very much an impulse buy, and might work as a hook to pull in readers, hoping they'll buy the rest of the series. (It's the pricing strategy I've seen used on Amanda Hocking's books, for example. Just to show I'm not pulling it out of thin air. )

[Tome Keeper]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Don't want to. We need trees more than we need paper.

Steven, is it possible that your getting as many readers as an unknown SF writer can get?

In the main SF is not a hugely popular genre with many folks and often readers will stick to a sub-genre, as I'm sure you know, and whilst I am a SF fan none of your books appealed to me.

The only things I can suggest for making your books more marketable is possibly offer a few copy to some dedicated SF bloggers, magazines ect. in exchange for a review, and maybe improve your covers slightly, this can be done yourself, as some people do strongly go off the cover and your big blue strip and name down the side looks a bit unprofessional.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by sabredog

..... I had decided after that fracas .....

Fracas? There was a fracas?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Anke Wehner

It also seems like you have one series of three books. Reducing the price of the first only to 99 cents might be worth a try. 99 cents is very much an impulse buy, and might work as a hook to pull in readers hoping they'll buy the rest of the series. (It's the pricing strategy I've seen used on Amanda Hocking's books, for example. Just to show I'm not pulling it out of thin air. )

I agree. Making the first book in a series free, or extra cheap, has hooked me several times already, and in fact, books obtained like that have filled my reading time for the past weeks, within the SF genre alone.

The Hal Spacejock series was that way for bit, as is The Softwire, and also many of the series represented in the Baen free library.
Free is of course wonderful, and I'm willing to spend a bit more on subsequent books if I enjoyed a 'free gift', but 99 cents seems to be the magic "why-the-heck-not" price.

You might want to try it, even if only for a limited promotional time.
You say you're making nothing on them now, what have you got to lose?

I'd buy one.

ApK

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Fracas? There was a fracas?

You must of missed it!

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

I wouldn't call $3 "quite high," even for an unknown writer.

They're £2.20 on Amazon UK, whereas a lot of writers I am already familiar with are £1.71. I know it's not much of a difference, but new writers are always a gamble. Reducing the price of one of them might bring in new people and become an advert for the others. (I'm assuming you have sample chapters of each book at the end of them?)

Or you could find other writers in the same genre and put out a free short story collection, then you would all be sharing each others' readers.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I've created a new thread for this sub-topic: Here. I'll try to move these last comments over there, so they can be continued.