Depression is...

[MrPLD]

Having nearly 500 fans and when your book hits the market only 5 buy it

Aah, it was a wonderful book release

[desertgrandma]

What kind of time period are we talking here?

Within a day? a week?

Patience.

[MrPLD]

Two months :\

[Donnageddon]

Maybe I am missing something. How are you measuring the fan base?

[MrPLD]

The numbers on our Facebook page

To be fair, I'd say 95% of them have no idea that the book has actually been released. It was a bit of a mistake of ours to gather fans there because right now you cannot reliably make contact with them in a way that is apparent, due to the change in rules. You have to just hope they notice it on their news feed or they go digging into the 'quiet' area of their inbox.

Paul.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by MrPLD

The numbers on our Facebook page

To be fair, I'd say 95% of them have no idea that the book has actually been released. It was a bit of a mistake of ours to gather fans there because right now you cannot reliably make contact with them in a way that is apparent, due to the change in rules. You have to just hope they notice it on their news feed or they go digging into the 'quiet' area of their inbox.
Paul.

I can imagine Elita's and your disappointment.

To invest that much time and effort, not to mention blood sweat and tears, and not have an immediate success must be wearing.

I can only say..........hang in there, she wrote a beautiful story and success will come.

[Donnageddon]

Yeah, I have facebook account, but I haven't visited it in over a year.

The ebook price seems about right, but the pbook price is a bit much.

I am not a fan of fantasy, so I will likely pass, but I wish you and Elita great good fortune! I hope sales take off soon.

[MrPLD]

Donnageddon,

Yes, the US-Amazon price tag is out of control, I already submitted a revised price ($14.99 USD) to them but have to wait a bit before it actually migrates through the various processes. Until then we'll just have to push the eBook version. I'm also having grief though with that as Amazon seems to be posting $5.77 on some pages but $3.77 on others - very confusing.

What's interesting is that here in Australia, that price ($24 AUD) is considered the 'norm' for a 120,000 word novel, however as the USD/AUD exchange rate has shifted from 0.7 -> 1 it's meant that everything has now gone out of shape, part of the joy of multiple currency pricing.

Soon the local (AU) pricing will also be able to drop as well because Lightning Source is opening up a printing service within Australia, so shipping will be vastly cheaper.

Desertgrandma,

I really was a bit of a bombshell when things just didn't pan out. To add salt to the wound it was something that was used against us by some others trying to wedge their way into our operations (sad thing is, this said person's own attempt at campaigning only resulted in 20 hits). I do have to say though, since throwing away the cold-sale/shotgun sales approach and reverting to my strength (forum participation) things have looked a LOT nicer.

Attached is a shot from Google's analytics page - I'll let you determine about where in the graph I started infesting forums again



Paul

[Donnageddon]

Well, I would highly encourage forum infestation. You have interested parties, and the ability to respond quickly to questions, confusion and fan response.

Especially this forum. Except for the arguments about taxes, evolution, religion, politics and format wars, it is all books books books!

Good luck!

[MrPLD]

Ah but the debates about tax/science/religion/politics is where you really get to learn about people.

Infesting forums has always been my strength - makes sense that I stick with it.

Paul.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by MrPLD

The numbers on our Facebook page

To be fair, I'd say 95% of them have no idea that the book has actually been released. It was a bit of a mistake of ours to gather fans there because right now you cannot reliably make contact with them in a way that is apparent, due to the change in rules. You have to just hope they notice it on their news feed or they go digging into the 'quiet' area of their inbox.

Paul.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I know when I "Like" things on Facebook, I'm usually just bookmarking it for later so I can remember the name of that person or book or website. Or sometimes I want to share it with my friends to let them know it's out there. It's not an indicator of "I'm going to rush out and buy your book right away".

So I guess I'm saying that you shouldn't really be concerned by the apparent disparity.

[Valmore Daniels]

If you're on facebook, you could join Kindle Authors group and make a small announcement there. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116345088387761

You are also permitted to make one announcement per week on Amazon's Kindle page here: http://www.facebook.com/kindle?v=wall

[Valmore Daniels]

Indie publishing is almost the reverse of traditional publishing. In traditional publishing, they have a very short fixed time in which to sell thousands of copies, and then they quickly move on to the next title. In indie publishing, you have months, years, decades to get the word out. Your books are never removed from the "virtual" shelves, so you can slowly build your readership one at a time. For indies, it's a marathon rather than a 100-meter dash.

Also, is your ebook available on Smashwords? I can't find it there. Many people outside the US will purchase there because there isn't a $2 surcharge.

[P.A.Woodburn]

I am on Facebook and have friends, but I'm not sure that I understand the process it's like Twitter everyone is writing about their own thing, and seldom does anyone actually answer or take notice of anyone else. I feel it's a waste of time.
Ann