# How's your January going?



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

I haven't seen any of these threads pop up yet, and I don't feel like writing right now, so...

Are y'all seeing any post-holiday bounce? Did you recover from the Great Sales Blackout of '13?


----------



## KMatthew (Mar 21, 2012)

I am actually seeing a post-holiday decline. December was awesome though.


----------



## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

I am DOMINATING the category of most frequent cover changes.

Sales are ... meh, compared to expectations. I'm recalibrating, though. I am remembering what it was like 14 months ago, when a single sale made my day. 

I'm trying to appreciate the little tiny slice of pie I am getting, and the freedom I have because I live in a time and a society where I'm allowed to write the things I do and, as a bonus, have the technology to publish them.


----------



## Bruce Blake (Feb 15, 2011)

January has been great! Slowing down a little over the last few days, but still well above my Nov/Dec average.


----------



## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

It's been a picaresque romp!


----------



## KimFaulks (Jul 8, 2012)

January is a little slower than December for me, but seeing as though it has 4 weekends in this month I am hoping it will pick up.


----------



## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

Presently on track to outpace December, which was the best month I've had yet. .com sales are slipping, it seems like, along with my sales ranks, but things are going super well on .uk, Nook and even Apple, more than making up for the downturn on the main Amazon store.


----------



## KMatthew (Mar 21, 2012)

RobertJCrane said:


> Presently on track to outpace December, which was the best month I've had yet. .com sales are slipping, it seems like, along with my sales ranks, but things are going super well on .uk, Nook and even Apple, more than making up for the downturn on the main Amazon store.


How difficult is it to go direct with Apple? My sales through Smashwords with them have been amazing, but the slow reporting is about to drive me crazy.


----------



## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

MarlaB said:


> How difficult is it to go direct with Apple? My sales through Smashwords with them have been amazing, but the slow reporting is about to drive me crazy.


You need to either use a Mac or macincloud.com or some form of Mac OS to upload direct to them. If you've got that, their upload program is a little unwieldy, but I was doing direct uploads in about five minutes per book once I had it down.

As a side note, you do need an ISBN to upload direct to Apple. I'm thinking about buying a thousand for my publishing company if anyone wants like 100 ISBNs for $100. Kinda seems like the best deal.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Generally speaking not the worst of months, but the last days have been very slow. Sold some in France though.
Methinks some Amazonian tinkering hath been done.


----------



## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

My Amazon stuff is looking about identical from December to January. Up just a little, thanks to a permafree book in the UK.

BN's identical to my December, too. Kobo is down lots because no promotions over there this month, frowny-face. Apple has become a wasteland since January 1, but I am hoping the permafree series novella I just put out will finally have something to say about that.

I'm pretty stoked to hold steady with a new release slotted for next month. Reminding myself these are the boom times of the year and I could suffer another October at any moment.


----------



## ChristopherDavidPetersen (Mar 24, 2011)

My Atlantis series is doing phonemically well. I'm WAY up from December's numbers and am only today seeing a slight slowdown. Unfortunately, my other books aren't selling nearly as well, but still doing well enough to feel positive about them. Yah Christmas!


----------



## MJWare (Jun 25, 2010)

smreine said:


> I haven't seen any of these threads pop up yet, and I don't feel like writing right now, so...
> 
> Are y'all seeing any post-holiday bounce? Did you recover from the Great Sales Blackout of '13?


The blackout wiped me out. Sale are down about 70%. But I've seen this before...Amazon giveth and Amazon taketh away. Really, I can't complain I had one book ranked under 3k for almost a month, that great for a kids book.

Oh, and I vote we officially adopt the name, _*The Great Sales Blackout of '13*_.


----------



## Carry Lada (Oct 30, 2012)

*crickets*


----------



## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

In all seriousness, Amazon.com is slightly up, UK is slightly up, iTunes is the same, BN is about the same too, Kobo is slightly up.


----------



## the quiet one (Aug 13, 2012)

First ten days or so were superb. Was on pace to beat December -- my previous best sales month -- by 30-40%.

Since? Meh.


----------



## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

I missed something. What's the great sales blackout?


----------



## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

On Amazon, I'm on pace to do somewhat better than I did in last month. It's not a huge improvement, but anything is welcome after the dismal doldrums of December.

Meanwhile, I'm on pace to do my best month on B&N since September. I'm doing very well on ARe, but that's a new market for me, so my sales there may not last. Still, I'm pleased with my sales there so far. I have lots of new books up on iTunes, but since I go through Smashwords only time will tell as to how my sales are there.

Overall, I feel like my personal trend is going to be upward this month *crosses fingers*.


----------



## ChristopherDavidPetersen (Mar 24, 2011)

MJAWare said:


> But I've seen this before...Amazon giveth and Amazon taketh away.


This brings up a touchy subject for me. My best seller, Tear in Time, was doing very well just before last summer. Then, Amazon deleted a couple reviews (legit by my standard, not theirs...grrr). Almost immediately, they removed my book from the great-selling "also bought" level, to a not-so-great level that basically striped away seventy-five percent of my sales.

My theory: they probably felt my book was elevated to the higher level under false pretenses. So, I'm guessing they penalized it and moved it to a less visible level.

Anyone else see this happen to their books?


----------



## MJWare (Jun 25, 2010)

Lisa Scott said:


> I missed something. What's the great sales blackout?


Earlier in the week (can't recall what day), the sales reports were down for most of the day--lots of missing sales. When the reports came back up there was lots of weirdness (like book, author, and sales numbers not matching up) and some (but not everyone) saw a big and sudden drop in sales.

So far no one whose sales dropped, that I know of, has recovered.


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

It's going fairly well. B&N is up, iTunes is up, Kobo is flat, and Amazon is up slightly.


----------



## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

MJAWare said:


> Earlier in the week (can't recall what day), the sales reports were down for most of the day--lots of missing sales. When the reports came back on there was lots of weirdness (like book, author, and sales numbers not matching up) and some (but not everyone) saw a big and sudden drop in sales.
> 
> So far no one whose sales dropped, that I know of, has recovered.


Ah. Thanks! I hope things turn around for everyone. My first ten days or so were great, then slowed down. However, every month it seems like that. Not sure why.


----------



## sarracannon (Apr 19, 2011)

I think I somehow managed to avoid the blackout issues and now I'm thinking sacrificing that goat over the holidays must have paid off.

My sales are doing pretty well, but I just had a new release toward the end of December. I'm definitely starting to see the decline now and I'm almost to the 30 day mark. I'm expecting sales to continue to keep going down from here until I get another new release out. I'm just praying that will be sooner rather than later!


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

ChristopherDavidPetersen said:


> This brings up a touchy subject for me. My best seller, Tear in Time, was doing very well just before last summer. Then, Amazon deleted a couple reviews (legit by my standard, not theirs...grrr). Almost immediately, they removed my book from the great-selling "also bought" level, to a not-so-great level that basically striped away seventy-five percent of my sales.
> 
> My theory: they probably felt my book was elevated to the higher level under false pretenses. So, I'm guessing they penalized it and moved it to a less visible level.
> 
> Anyone else see this happen to their books?


I think so, though not as drastically. Every time Amazon does an algo-adjustment my books seem to drop a level. When they've almost crawled back, the powers that be deem the time right for another upheaval.

I was almost exclusive to Amazon until last summer, but this erratic behavior has made me very nervous indeed. I'm with several vendors now, and I'm looking for ways, like a Newsletter, to build a reader base of my own. All these things have been recommended by others about a million times in these threads. What can I say? I'm not very bright and a slow learner as well.


----------



## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

About 35% better than Dec, but have noticed accelerating sales over the past several days, so this might end up being slightly higher. My month over month increase since May '11 has been everywhere from -46% to +290% and is averaging about 75%, so I'm actually seeing a slow down since the summer months, and since my per book royalties have actually increased from about $1 to $3, I'm seeing an even slower rate of increase in units sold.

Having said that, I can't complain. Can always wish it were more, but pleased nonetheless.


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

Bummer for those seeing a drop.  But I'm glad to hear that people distributing widely are seeing an increase at other vendors!

Seems like nobody's really having a repeat of January 2012, though.


----------



## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

My Kobo sales are ZOMG
My B&N sales are OMG

Both combined will make my best month ever. Compared to some of you, I'm not a huge seller, but well into the hundreds so far for this month.

My Amazon sales: 3 books.

Seriously, WTF? I've sold more on Sony this month.

I don't get it. I don't get it. I don't get it.


----------



## HeidiHall (Sep 5, 2010)

smreine said:


> Bummer for those seeing a drop.  But I'm glad to hear that people distributing widely are seeing an increase at other vendors!
> 
> Seems like nobody's really having a repeat of January 2012, though.


January 2013 is definitely not a repeat of 2012. Last year I actually made more money in one month than I had in the entire previous year! But I'm not gonna complain. Making any money from doing something I love is wonderful.

An interesting observation: I am seeing a serious decline since the GSB of 2013 and then noticed the tag section on my product page has disappeared. I have to wonder if there is a correlation. Anyone else missing their tags?


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Flat. I don't get it, either.
Dropped from somewhere around 10-20 sales per day for ONE book to 5-10 for two. Today I'm up to a phenomenal 2. One sale, one borrow.
Ranks are awful.

If this is because Amazon is messing with the indies, people are going to leave Select in droves.


----------



## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

smreine said:


> Seems like nobody's really having a repeat of January 2012, though.


In fairness, I'm really not seeing any more slip than is natural from me letting Alone slide down the .com charts without any effort to reverse its course. Entropy! Wheeeeee!

I'm holding off until I get this next book out the door, then I'm gonna try and push it back into the top 100 free for a bit.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Quiss said:


> Flat. I don't get it, either.
> Dropped from somewhere around 10-20 sales per day for ONE book to 5-10 for two. Today I'm up to a phenomenal 2. One sale, one borrow.
> Ranks are awful.
> 
> If this is because Amazon is messing with the indies, people are going to leave Select in droves.


What I do know is that I'm diversifying and that my promotion efforts (such as they are) will now be spread over several outlets. If a lot of indies start doing this it can't be good for the Zon. Or, maybe we're not even a blip on their radar.


----------



## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Guess it's time for some Amazon conspiracies!

1. Amazon ebook sales are doomed. Kobo, B&N and Sony will steal all their sales
2. I dropped out of select with my last book in December and they're punishing me
3. Amazon is trying to put the squeeze on self-publishers in favour of big publishers who bribe and give them money!


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Andrew Ashling said:


> Or, maybe we're not even a blip on their radar.


This. Why would Amazon give up all sorts of server space for an endless array of freebies and low-priced books if they can sell a bazillion ebooks at "full" price?


----------



## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

My new book out last month made Dec phenomenal. The sales for said book have dropped significantly . Fortunately, my Select promo for another book has been making up for the drop in sales, so I guess I'm running about even right now, but I'm trying to think of some promo to get more sales for the new book. The Evil Blackout of Doom affected me too; the rankings have gone down.


----------



## Hugh Howey (Feb 11, 2012)

smreine said:


> Are y'all seeing any post-holiday bounce? Did you recover from the Great Sales Blackout of '13?


Is a "bounce" when your sales decline? I'm seeing a bounce!


----------



## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Quiss said:


> This. Why would Amazon give up all sorts of server space for an endless array of freebies and low-priced books if they can sell a bazillion ebooks at "full" price?


I've been charging "full" prices for many of my books. Works very well on B&N and Kobo. Not so much on Amazon (yet). On the other hand, the business of selling is cyclical, and there will be a time that sales are reversed (I just don't know when that will happen).


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

I'm jealous of people who have their income spread across multiple vendors. I wish I could do that. I'm just...so lazy. And impatient. All of my audience is at Amazon, and I would take a pretty big hit from borrows/visibility while I wait to catch on elsewhere.

I'm going to do it, though. I swear. I'm making a break from Select as soon as Apple approves one of my zillions of applications to directly publish with them. SOMEDAY.


----------



## AJCooper (Sep 9, 2012)

By my standards, absolutely wonderful. By the standards of most here, abysmal. But I'm happy! And the other vendors have started picking up.


----------



## A.A (Mar 30, 2012)

My sales dropped since December, but I'm ok with that. My books are selling/being borrowed every day, and hey, that's enough to make me smile  . Overall, I'm too busy with all kinds of projects to worry....


----------



## Rayna Corday (Dec 4, 2012)

December - 190

January - 1446

So nearly an order of magnitude increase in sales. I mainly credit a change in pricing strategy for the boost. Well... that and being lucky enough to find and target a _voracious market_ in an untapped niche.


----------



## AshMP (Dec 30, 2009)

This has been my 3rd best month ever in terms of sales and borrows. They stop, they start again, they seem consistent and it's never _really_ been that way before -- more often, in the past, it's more like a flash in the pan. Sometimes, I sell as many books in one hour that, in the past, I sold in an entire month. I've also consistently been on the top sellers in Women's Fiction in the UK (that's never happened before) -- I'm currently #30, which blows me away -- while, sales wise that doesn't necessarily translate to _a whole lot_ -- gosh is it fun to hang out on a list "high enough up" to get visibility and actually get paid for it.

Over all, I'm pleased ... but I know, what I'm doing right now, it's a drop in the bucket for most of you.


----------



## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

I have an outside chance of selling 1000 on Kobo this month. I don't think I'll make it, but I'll come close. 

Leaving Select was scary, but for some reason I never raked in the borrows, so it wasn't *that* hard to cut the cord.


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

Monique said:


> I have an outside chance of selling 1000 on Kobo this month. I don't think I'll make it, but I'll come close.


o_o

Holy s***flakes.


----------



## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Monique said:


> I have an outside chance of selling 1000 on Kobo this month. I don't think I'll make it, but I'll come close.
> 
> Leaving Select was scary, but for some reason I never raked in the borrows, so it wasn't *that* hard to cut the cord.


Have your Amazon sales nosedived since you left Select, too?


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

Looking at her rankings, I'd say...no. Monique is a machine.

I blame it on Sighmon.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Monique said:


> I have an outside chance of selling 1000 on Kobo this month. I don't think I'll make it, but I'll come close.
> 
> Leaving Select was scary, but for some reason I never raked in the borrows, so it wasn't *that* hard to cut the cord.


Wow.

Any special secrets how to get traction on Kobo?


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Because of my B&N sales, I'm on target to have my highest sales month ever this January. It will be close though, and I have one more book now than I did last time I sold this much. For me, B&N is up about 30%.


----------



## LilianaHart (Jun 20, 2011)

January is Awesome!


----------



## Onedayatatime (Oct 14, 2012)

This is a good month for me. On pace to outsell December and December was epic for me.

Though sales have been slowing down in the last week! 

I also took some titles out of select and put them on Barnes & Noble and they are doing decently. I cannot complain at all!


----------



## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

smreine said:


> Looking at her rankings, I'd say...no. Monique is a machine.
> 
> I blame it on Sighmon.


You're a machine. I'm more like a rubber band propelled airplane.

My Amazon sales are about the same as when I left.

Sighmon!



Andrew Ashling said:


> Wow.
> 
> Any special secrets how to get traction on Kobo?


I wish I knew. I think someone there must have read and liked one of my books or something. I was lucky enough to get on one of their lists somehow and it just kept going. I'm sure things will cool, but I'm enjoying the ride while it lasts. It probably doesn't hurt to fill out their author survey thing. It's in the Learning Centre, I think.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Monique said:


> I wish I knew. I think someone there must have read and liked one of my books or something. I was lucky enough to get on one of their lists somehow and it just kept going. I'm sure things will cool, but I'm enjoying the ride while it lasts. It probably doesn't hurt to fill out their author survey thing. It's in the Learning Centre, I think.


Aha! Thanks.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

RobertJCrane said:


> You need to either use a Mac or macincloud.com or some form of Mac OS to upload direct to them. If you've got that, their upload program is a little unwieldy, but I was doing direct uploads in about five minutes per book once I had it down.
> 
> As a side note, you do need an ISBN to upload direct to Apple. I'm thinking about buying a thousand for my publishing company if anyone wants like 100 ISBNs for $100. Kinda seems like the best deal.


I'd buy 10 ISBNs for $10...


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Caitie Quinn said:


> Closing out today
> 
> My last sale was right before Amazon went dark. Since then I've had a total of... Hold on, let me grab a calculator.... zero.


Amazon went dark? That sounds ominous.
Hey, I made it up to four for today. Thank you to whoever just borrowed my book


----------



## Al Dente (Sep 3, 2012)

January started off quite well but has declined since last week. I have made roughly 82 sales so far this month, which is lower than I anticipated. The good news is that there have been no refunds, and I am making decent progress on "pantsing" the first installment of an epic fantasy series. I tried outlining that sucker, but my brain was having none of it.


----------



## Laci (Jan 15, 2013)

Better than I would have hoped!


----------



## sarracannon (Apr 19, 2011)

HeidiHall said:


> But I'm not gonna complain. Making any money from doing something I love is wonderful.


This. Declines can be scary and are never fun if you're trying to provide for your family, but at the same time, I'm always trying to keep it in perspective. I could be doing a job I hate, but instead I get to do something I love with all my heart. That's definitely a win.


----------



## trublue (Jul 7, 2012)

January is a dream. I did about 1550 in sales in Dec. 
best ever. I thought it would stop at exactly midnight of the new year.
But it's even better. I hope this doesn't sound like bragging
Because I could not have done it without you guys giving me advice.

I also went outside of Amazon. And although most of my sales are from amazon, it's nice to make 
A few dozen sales on other sites. And man, I want to hug every single
reader in the UK! 

Now, if only I could press a button and be done with book 5
Oh well, can't have everything.


----------



## FrankFields (Nov 5, 2012)

Started out pretty good, but it's been a total collapse since the blackout earlier this week.


----------



## BrianKittrell (Jan 8, 2011)

Threatening $10k, if daily averages remain the same or increase. Will probably end up somewhere around $9k.


----------



## Guest (Jan 20, 2013)

I just moved into a basement with one bedroom and three bronies.  Rent is $195, which is pretty low for the States, but it's almost four times more than what I was paying in the Republic of Georgia.

Wait, what was the question?


----------



## Nathalie Hamidi (Jul 9, 2011)

Dalya said:


> I am DOMINATING the category of most frequent cover changes.
> 
> Sales are ... meh, compared to expectations. I'm recalibrating, though. I am remembering what it was like 14 months ago, when a single sale made my day.
> 
> I'm trying to appreciate the little tiny slice of pie I am getting, and the freedom I have because I live in a time and a society where I'm allowed to write the things I do and, as a bonus, have the technology to publish them.


And I am DOMINATING the ratio covers/unpublished works with 17 covers and 1 book published at the moment.


----------



## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

Nathalie Hamidi said:


> And I am DOMINATING the ratio covers/unpublished works with 17 covers and 1 book published at the moment.


Hey, you found your niche!

THIS JUST IN! I got an email from a literary agent offering her consulting services. OH HO HO HO HO. I hit reply, typed some words, then swatted my hand away from the keyboard. I quickly deleted the email and sat on my hands.

I can't even begin to imagine the level of Crazy that woman is going to get if she sent it out to everyone who's queried her.

The agent is Mary Kole, and she seems really great, btw. She runs a very helpful kidlit.com website, and she did request a manuscript from me, back in the day. Rejected, of course, and I went on to sell 4700 copies of said book, but you just don't know with these things. I think they're probably as stunned about what picks up and what doesn't as we are.


----------



## Hildred (Sep 9, 2012)

Things could be better, but overall no complaints. Sales continue to go up month to month. This month will be my first averaging at least one sale a day. Also, I had my very first borrow today! So that was cool.


----------



## elalond (May 11, 2011)

Bad as always on Amazon, but this January B&N really pleasantly surprised me. It's not that much, but I'm hoping it will last.


----------



## Hugh Howey (Feb 11, 2012)

smreine said:


> I'm jealous of people who have their income spread across multiple vendors. I wish I could do that. I'm just...so lazy. And impatient. All of my audience is at Amazon, and I would take a pretty big hit from borrows/visibility while I wait to catch on elsewhere.
> 
> I'm going to do it, though. I swear. I'm making a break from Select as soon as Apple approves one of my zillions of applications to directly publish with them. SOMEDAY.


Just my experience, but Apple is the smallest portion of my non-Amazon sales. You can get your works on B&N and Kobo quite easily. Not sure how you're doing with Select's borrows, but it might pay to branch out. I put it off for a long time because of all the non-writing work involved, and then wished I'd done it sooner.


----------



## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

I'm doing much better this month than I had in December or actually since about September. Coincidentally, that was also the last time I did a freebie with No Good Deed. December was the worst month for since Nov 2011. Very scary considering I had two more books out this December than I had in Nov. 2011.    

This is not one of my best months ever, but it's good. I would be happy if every month sold the same as this one. My sales dipped for a day or so after the Blackout, but recovered yesterday a bit. Not much overnight though, except I sold an Omnibus and that always makes me happy.


----------



## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

Kindle is up 30% over December.
Nook has already tripled December - best month since last April
Paperback sales are about the same.


----------



## The 13th Doctor (May 31, 2012)

I think I'm doing okay. Three sales on Kobo already this month (only managed two sales in total, on Kobo, last year).

Also made a couple of sales through B&N and Amazon.


----------



## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

The coincidence of a movie with the same title and in the same genre has made my year-and-a-half old horror novel shoot up the charts. This is my best month ever. I am hoping the also-boughts and Amazon's algorithms will make the book take off on its own even after the movie has faded. So far, it's only in the US store, I also hope it will spread to other english-language countries.


----------



## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

December was my best month ever, and January is down from that, but it's still on pace to probably be my second-best month, so I can't complain. I'm releasing the sequel to my perma-free title at the end of the month, and I'm hoping that might give February a bit of a boost. 

Sales are still pretty flat on the other outlets, though...I seem to have a tough time getting traction there.


----------



## sarracannon (Apr 19, 2011)

Dalya said:


> THIS JUST IN! I got an email from a literary agent offering her consulting services. OH HO HO HO HO. I hit reply, typed some words, then swatted my hand away from the keyboard. I quickly deleted the email and sat on my hands.


I imagine this kind of thing is only going to happen more and more. I am sure finding the right agent would be incredibly valuable for selling subsidiary rights and maybe even print rights (which kind of feels subsidiary these days), but the trick is knowing who is the right agent. I've considered querying a few times, but then done exactly what you did. Deleted, then walked away, lol.


----------



## Cege Smith (Dec 11, 2011)

For the last three weeks, my KDP "Prior Six Weeks Royalties" report has gone up by about $20 every week. I take that as a win.


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

sarracannon said:


> I imagine this kind of thing is only going to happen more and more. I am sure finding the right agent would be incredibly valuable for selling subsidiary rights and maybe even print rights (which kind of feels subsidiary these days), but the trick is knowing who is the right agent. I've considered querying a few times, but then done exactly what you did. Deleted, then walked away, lol.


I butt-pinched an agent to see if I could get him to do subsidiary rights for me, but they really want the whole shebang. I think the money to time investment ratio on hunting down subsidiary rights deals just isn't worth it for most of them.


----------



## Beatriz (Feb 22, 2011)

smreine said:


> I haven't seen any of these threads pop up yet, and I don't feel like writing right now, so...
> 
> Are y'all seeing any post-holiday bounce? Did you recover from the Great Sales Blackout of '13?


My January sales have stopped all together, but I had a good year so I'm not worrying about it too much. Also I'll be releasing a brand new book soon (my first fiction) so I'm real excited about that. By the way, Happy New Year to everyone.


----------



## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

Dalya said:


> Hey, you found your niche!
> 
> THIS JUST IN! I got an email from a literary agent offering her consulting services. OH HO HO HO HO. I hit reply, typed some words, then swatted my hand away from the keyboard. I quickly deleted the email and sat on my hands.
> 
> ...


Oh dear. My kidlit alter ego queried her a while back. *checks email* Yup, there it is in my spam box from last Tuesday. Kidlit, especially picturebooks, have for the most part been buffered from digital's tidal movement, but as book apps get better and ereaders/tablets become more ubiquitous, I think this will change too.

There's a whole cadre of agents and editors feeling the ground shifting under their feet and they're scrambling to find a way to stay relevant as the old supply chain experiences a massive upheaval.


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

smreine said:


> I butt-pinched an agent to see if I could get him to do subsidiary rights for me, but they really want the whole shebang. I think the money to time investment ratio on hunting down subsidiary rights deals just isn't worth it for most of them.


I didn't exactly butt-pinch any, but I asked a few as well and got the same response. I since decided not to worry about it for now.


----------



## Hugh Howey (Feb 11, 2012)

smreine said:


> I butt-pinched an agent to see if I could get him to do subsidiary rights for me, but they really want the whole shebang. I think the money to time investment ratio on hunting down subsidiary rights deals just isn't worth it for most of them.


They wanted 15% of your _existing_ digital sales? Yeah. No thanks.

Maybe a niche will arise for agents who want to concentrate on foreign rights for indies. They could be their own co-agent and pocket 20%, which might still be worth it for a busy writer who doesn't want to negotiate their own foreign deals.


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Hugh Howey said:


> They wanted 15% of your _existing_ digital sales? Yeah. No thanks.
> 
> Maybe a niche will arise for agents who want to concentrate on foreign rights for indies. They could be their own co-agent and pocket 20%, which might still be worth it for a busy writer who doesn't want to negotiate their own foreign deals.


The few I talked to said they only worked on foreign rights for books for existing clients. In other words, if I wasn't looking for someone to rep my book (s) as a whole, they weren't interested in doing only subsidy rights. So I'm not sure they were saying they wanted 15% of my existing sales, but if they couldn't shop it for a traditional publisher states side, they weren't interested. And since I have no intention of giving up erights and print only deals are still very rare, the conversations didn't go anywhere.


----------



## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

Hugh Howey said:


> They wanted 15% of your _existing_ digital sales? Yeah. No thanks.
> 
> Maybe a niche will arise for agents who want to concentrate on foreign rights for indies. They could be their own co-agent and pocket 20%, which might still be worth it for a busy writer who doesn't want to negotiate their own foreign deals.


I might consider such a deal even with the higher percentage, since I lack the knowledge to tread in those markets presently and they're not beating down my door with offers because I'm still basically a nobody. I'm okay with being a nobody, though, so long as I keep getting paid like I am...


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

Hugh Howey said:


> They wanted 15% of your _existing_ digital sales? Yeah. No thanks.


No, he just didn't want to do subsidiary rights alone.

There is no chance in hell anyone could pry 15% of my ebook sales from my slimy, bacon-greased fingers.


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

Deanna Chase said:


> The few I talked to said they only worked on foreign rights for books for existing clients. In other words, if I wasn't looking for someone to rep my book (s) as a whole, they weren't interested in doing only subsidy rights. So I'm not sure they were saying they wanted 15% of my existing sales, but if they couldn't shop it for a traditional publisher states side, they weren't interested. And since I have no intention of giving up erights and print only deals are still very rare, the conversations didn't go anywhere.


Right, what she said. Except much more coherently.


----------



## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

smreine said:


> There is no chance in hell anyone could pry 15% of my ebook sales from my slimy, bacon-greased fingers.


All these bacon references are not helping me with my weight-loss plans.


----------



## Hugh Howey (Feb 11, 2012)

smreine said:


> There is no chance in hell anyone could pry 15% of my ebook sales from my slimy, bacon-greased fingers.


Good to hear. If everyone holds that line, it will no longer come up. The problem is expecting unpublished hopefuls who aren't making money off their manuscripts to ask for better terms. They're happy to get whatever they can.

Signs from DBW hint that things are changing. I had several people ask me if I knew of any writers to watch out for. I told them to prowl KB's Writers' Cafe to find the indies who are taking their careers seriously. And to expect a lot of rejection letters if they attempt to wrangle any of them. 

Another observation from NY last week: I met with Simon and Schuster, and they seem bewildered by my work ethic. When they send me something to do, I hand it back in well before their deadline. I learned that they build procrastination into those deadlines. They fully expect to have to nudge writers several times before getting what they need.

It occurred to me, listening to this, that publishers are in for a wild time as they take on more and more indies. They aren't used to people with a lot of drive and motivation, and the indies I know have these attributes in spades. I'm one of the laziest writers around these parts (looking at everyone's sigs with their words published and expanding line of cover art). When their machine learns to crank out print books written at the indie pace, that's going to be something. Provided they learn to offer deals that will sway people over, that is.


----------



## That one girl (Apr 12, 2011)

I got the same email from Mary Kole and I, too, had to keep myself from committing digital sin.

Sales have been pretty good this month, thanks mostly to the first book in my series going perma-free. I've already tripled December's sales, which were double November's. I'm hoping it will hold steady for a while because my next book won't be released until March 1st.

Sarah: I actually sell more at Apple than B&N, so if I were you I'd definitely get on both of those quick.


----------



## Lefty (Apr 7, 2011)

RobertJCrane said:


> All these bacon references are not helping me with my weight-loss plans.


I had six slices yesterday and scrambled eggs drenched with queso. The downside is I couldn't have the tortillas. Life isn't as much fun without large amounts of carbs. I'd give Lance Armstrong's left one for big bag of Reese's pieces and a chocolate shake IV drip.

Re my January, I sold three on Nook, but I bought those myself. I did sell one on Kobo in New Zealand that I didn't buy.


----------



## Ruth Harris (Dec 26, 2010)

> I met with Simon and Schuster, and they seem bewildered by my work ethic. When they send me something to do, I hand it back in well before their deadline. I learned that they build procrastination into those deadlines. They fully expect to have to nudge writers several times before getting what they need.


Back in the day, if you handed in something _before_ deadline, they'd lose it. Ask me how I know. lol


----------



## thesmallprint (May 25, 2012)

We're 150% up on December - all down to a Bookbub promo on Jan 4th.

Good luck
Joe


----------



## sarracannon (Apr 19, 2011)

Hugh Howey said:


> Good to hear. If everyone holds that line, it will no longer come up.


Yes! I really hope many authors that find this kind of success will be able to resist the 7 figure deals that come up asking for all rights and a huge price hike. If more and more indies with the power to do so can hold out for that print-only deal, I think we'll see a major shift in thinking. I only pray that someday I'll be one of those indies who gets the chance to do it!


----------



## Ruth Harris (Dec 26, 2010)

> We're 150% up on December - all down to a Bookbub promo on Jan 4th.


Joe, what Bookbub promo did you sign up for?

I lovelovelove your covers. Brilliant!


----------



## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

Monique said:


> It's been a picaresque romp!


Glad people are updating and letting us know how things are going. I didn't know Monique had the next book out yet. Congratulations! Totally addicted and bought it.

That's the one thing. I've found that I now read a lot of Indie book series. It's like a whole new world.

Here's my update as well:
I'm in the final process of getting my third book in my Crystal Keeper Chronicles done. I've set up with the publisher what package to use, getting a coordinator assigned, and have the artist in the final stages of the cover art. I've worked with a wonderful editor that I met on the board here: Shelley Holloway. She helped iron out some of those rough spots in the manuscript.

So, within the next month, it should be coming out. I'm already checking out awards and review sights to get things rolling soon for reviews. Got a local Indie bookshop interested in a book signing event.

So, 2013 is looking like it will be an exciting time. It took me almost 3 years to get the third book done. I know I don't whip out the books like other Indies, but the day job does take up a lot of time. (I am an elementary teacher by day. Whips cape back under sweater.) Not to mention the committees, trainings, meetings. Really, the day job is a job for a superhero. Ohhh, story idea.

Anyway, hope everyone is off to an exciting, positive start to the year. I think this is a year for the Indie book. Last year, it was the rise of the Indie Authors. I think now, people are going to read Indie more and not worry about who published. Really seeing the signs of it now.


----------



## thesmallprint (May 25, 2012)

Ruth Harris said:


> Joe, what Bookbub promo did you sign up for?
> 
> I lovelovelove your covers. Brilliant!


Thanks Ruth. Our designer produced exactly what we'd had in mind from a fairly vague brief so credit to him.

We signed for the Mystery & Thriller section with Bookbub and paid $185 for running a free promo of Warned Off - within 6 hours of the start of the promo WO was number 1 in M&T genre - it stayed there for two days. The cost was recovered through other sales in the series in 24 hours.

Joe


----------



## kellymcclymer (Apr 22, 2010)

Hugh Howey said:


> that publishers are in for a wild time as they take on more and more indies. They aren't used to people with a lot of drive and motivation, and the indies I know have these attributes in spades. I'm one of the laziest writers around these parts (looking at everyone's sigs with their words published and expanding line of cover art). When their machine learns to crank out print books written at the indie pace, that's going to be something. Provided they learn to offer deals that will sway people over, that is.


Publishers know how to put books out quickly for fast authors (some writers I know have done 3-4 books a year for decades). They do that happily for very high selling authors willing to work at that pace (sometimes they required a pseudonym for a different genre, as they did for Nora Roberts SF written as J.D. Robb). The problem for them comes in knowing whether they will make the profit they want to make if they do the same for every rapid writing author in their stable. Publishers are starting to shake off the realities of the print model (there is only so much shelf space) and recognize that they can sign authors who want to publish often (usually these authors get very limited or no print runs, along with POD and ebook distribution). However, they are hampered, still, by not being fully up to speed on long tail marketing.

Traditional publishers will always give the best deals to proven bestsellers, no matter how they find them...as long as those proven bestsellers negotiate hard and professionally and don't let themselves get into a deal they'll regret down the line.


----------



## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Hi Tiffany! Yay!  I hope you enjoy it. 

Have fun at the book signing. I'm too chicken to do one.


----------



## Ruth Harris (Dec 26, 2010)

> We signed for the Mystery & Thriller section with Bookbub and paid $185 for running a free promo of Warned Off - within 6 hours of the start of the promo WO was number 1 in M&T genre - it stayed there for two days. The cost was recovered through other sales in the series in 24 hours.


Joe, thanks for the info. Much appreciated!


----------



## Natasha Holme (May 26, 2012)

I'm aiming not to look at my sales figures till the last day of the month. So far so good. ...


----------



## Missy B (Aug 20, 2012)

For the past few days I've been looking at my numbers in despair. Then a moment of clarity hit me. I stopped comparing January with December. I looked at November then January. October then January, etc. Dude, my numbers are awesome. Depending on how things shake out from everywhere, I can crack 1k sales for the month. Next month will mark one year as a self publisher. I made about 22 sales. This month is going good.

Perspective. I went and got some.


----------



## David Thayer (Sep 7, 2012)

My books began to sell last week for the first time since September. I'm just on B&N and Kobo for a few days;
the rest is Amazon U.S.


----------



## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

Just a bug in the ear of some of you whose sales are tanking. Many of you ran promos about this time last month. Many of you made a lot of sales at a low price and then increased your list price. The blackout is likely not what stalled sales. The Cliff + higher price is what likely stalled them for most folk seeing a lackluster January compared to December.

What did you do mid-January to boost those flagging sales before they went over The Cliff? If the answer to that is _nothing_, then you know where to look for the slowdown - and it's not at Ammy from under a tinfoil hat .

Steel Magnolia had 2 new releases (box sets of backlist titles) last week. For a bit, we had 2 titles in the Top 100 paid (a new release and another box set). Just waiting for alsobots and poplist placement to kick in to see if the one that fell out of the Top 100 can't crawl back up. We also put a toe in over at BN with the 2 releases, and we just fell out of the Top 100 with that one title there too. Sell-through to the second new release at BN has been better there than on Amazon. Too early to say if BN will be better than Select, though. We've had over 1000 borrows on our Top 100 title so far this month, so those titles need to sell pretty well outside of Amazon to make up for the loss.

We just came off a promo meant to give us a little boost before our titles cliffed after our December pushes. We had 12,200 sales MTD on Dec 19. That's the day before our Christmas promos kicked in. For Jan 19, we had 28,600 MTD. With luck and algos that don't change for the worse, we should end the month about 25% ahead of December.

But I'm not focused on month end. I'm focused on what to do mid-Feb to keep momentum going yet again...


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> We just came off a promo meant to give us a little boost before our titles cliffed after our December pushes. We had 12,200 sales MTD on Dec 19. That's the day before our Christmas promos kicked in. For Jan 19, we had 28,600 MTD. With luck and algos that don't change for the worse, we should end the month about 25% ahead of December.


*bow*

I noticed Jennifer Blake hangs out pretty steadily in the top 100 Amazon authors. Pretty fantastic.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> What did you do mid-January to boost those flagging sales before they went over The Cliff? If the answer to that is _nothing_, then you know where to look for the slowdown - and it's not at Ammy from under a tinfoil hat .


Nope. I ran a promo Jan 4-5. Got picked up by POI and had a decent number of downloads.
Had a week of 20-25 per day for two titles.
ONE WEEK later my sales tanked to 5-10 per day for those two. Now I'm looking at 1-5

Riddle me that.


----------



## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

We were selling 200+/day in mid-December, but since then it has been a slow, steady decline for both titles. Pretty sure sales were linked closely between the two because their rise and fall have been synchronized. Lots of click-throughs from the link at the end of the sample chapter. 

We also don't have the benefit of a series. Not to derail this thread, but anyone have success NOT writing series?

Excited to see what happens when we release #3 as soon as it's back from final proofreading.


----------



## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

January is going...poorly.

But then again that seems to be the norm


----------



## RuthNestvold (Jan 4, 2012)

I've tried a couple of ads and promos to revive my flagging sales, but I'm at about half what I had this time last month. It's frustrating, but it's good to know I'm not alone.


----------



## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

> I noticed Jennifer Blake hangs out pretty steadily in the top 100 Amazon authors. Pretty fantastic.


Jennifer Blake is... Jennifer Blake. I'm glad to hear Steel Magnolia is doing so well, but I do try not to compare my own sales to legends of the genre. Maybe in thirty years.


----------



## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

smreine said:


> I noticed Jennifer Blake hangs out pretty steadily in the top 100 Amazon authors. Pretty fantastic.


Yeah, I saw her keeping company up there with someone named SM Reine a couple of weeks ago. Seems like a nice crowd to hang with.



Quiss said:


> Nope. I ran a promo Jan 4-5. Got picked up by POI and had a decent number of downloads.
> Had a week of 20-25 per day for two titles.
> ONE WEEK later my sales tanked to 5-10 per day for those two. Now I'm looking at 1-5
> 
> Riddle me that.


Chris, that's not really enough data to go on. The Catalyst would have fallen out of its 30-day new release status, and so would have lost its freshness bonus. Book 1 would have lost its oomph from your Nov and Dec promos. Was one book doing the majority of the heavy lifting to sell-through to the other? Any changes made to the titles as far as price, category, blurb, reviews, etc. All of that has to be looked at holistically. Maintenance day was the 17th. It looks like Only Human began cliffing on January 12. I see a small rise between the 4th and the 12th for Human, so it seems it was riding the other book's coattails. That would mean a change to the sequel would have an adverse affect on Human, too.

Plus, you know, qualified my comment with "many" and "most." I'm stalking a lot of books. Most seeing downward trending in January simply hit The Cliff. Nothing that hasn't been noted and discussed on KB before...Now, Amazon may well be adjusting its algos to compress the time to The Cliff. Maybe Ammy wants more churn right now. But Human began cliffing well before the Blackout. Just sayin'.

So what's YOUR theory about what's happening?


----------



## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

Wow.

Phoenix is a super genius.

<bows> WE'RE NOT WORTHY! WE'RE NOT WORTHY!


----------



## ChrisRachael (May 21, 2012)

Quiss said:


> Nope. I ran a promo Jan 4-5. Got picked up by POI and had a decent number of downloads.
> Had a week of 20-25 per day for two titles.
> ONE WEEK later my sales tanked to 5-10 per day for those two. Now I'm looking at 1-5
> 
> Riddle me that.


I'm reassured to see I'm not alone. I've had good reviews from assorted blogs, had a 4 day freebie run Jan 9-12 where my book made it to #9 on the overall top 100, and one week later, am seeing 2-5 sales a day plus an equal number of borrows. I'm perplexed.


----------



## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

I never had a 30-day thing, not even with my most successful freebies. I got some sales, but my most successful Select promos were when I gave away fewer copies. I had one of those in December (my last Select promo), but my Amazon numbers have collapsed to nothing since then.

Independently, the books I had across all platforms started taking off on other platforms in September. I'm not in the US, I go to B&N via Smashwords and I am completely at a loss why my books sell there. But they do in increasing numbers. B&N is self-pub friendly because their algorithms are very sticky. Once a book has attained a certain ranking, it takes ages for it to go back down if no sales happen. If sales do happen, it boosts the book higher.

I do have some feeling why my books started to sell well at Kobo. I have a feeling that being put on the recommended fantasy list had something to do with initial sales, and I feel I was put there because the brand new director of the brand new Kobo Australia was scouring Twitter for Australian self-published writers to promote at the time I mentioned something on Twitter about Kobo.

But I check into Kobo and B&N every morning and I'm just blown away that people buy my books there every day.


----------



## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

MegHarris said:


> Jennifer Blake is... Jennifer Blake. I'm glad to hear Steel Magnolia is doing so well, but I do try not to compare my own sales to legends of the genre. Maybe in thirty years.


I'm not going to go all Konrath and say having a "name" doesn't help. It does. But only once the titles are visible. Since this is backlist we're mainly pubbing out, it's not like she has eager fans just waiting for them. I can only use the same tactics everyone else does to get them noticed in the first place.

And trust me, if I continually compared how MY titles are doing against hers, I'd likely hang it all up. The advantage I have is that I have raw numbers to work with across a whole spectrum of titles, ranks and promotions. Hopefully I can apply that knowledge to better promote our non-legend authors too -- as well as better understand the trends in buying behavior and the changes in store algorithms along the way.


----------



## Rusty Bigfoot (Jul 6, 2011)

My sales are doing better than December.

But then I lowered all my prices, so I'm probably making the same amount.


----------



## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

RobertJCrane said:


> Wow.
> Phoenix is a super genius.
> <bows> WE'RE NOT WORTHY! WE'RE NOT WORTHY!


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

I continue to be convinced that there's a two week mini cliff, and then a 28-day wall.


----------



## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

For me, January was limping along until the Big Blackout, and then it just gave up and rolled over.

But I'm now running a Select promo on Volcano and things are looking up. Like Joe, I shelled out for a Bookbub ad (although in the less pricey cat of action/adventure), and that really helped. No telling how post-promo sales will go but I've gotten over 350 sales of Badwater as a spin-off in the past couple of days. Once again, Select free saves my bacon.

And now I want a BLT.

Plus, I try to steal the techniques of super-genius (TM) Phoenix whenever I can.


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Caitie Quinn said:


> To be honest, I'm not sure I believe this 30-day thing really does anything any more. *glances at numbers* Nope.
> 
> Also, still seeing wacky ranking jumps and drops and nothing to make it happen.


Have you done any significant promo that has had a radical change in your sales numbers? Because if no, then there really isn't a 30 day cliff. What you have is just a normal sales of ebb and flow. The 30 day cliff comes from having a boost in sales and popularity such as a free run or some sort of significant boost in sales (like a feature on one of the book blogs). After 30 days of that event, your Amazon numbers "reset" in popularity unless you are still bringing in that higher number of sales comparable to the "sales event".

Let's look at an example. Let's say I buy a paid ad on BookBub and I sell 1000 copies on Jan 1st. After that I'm likely to have a boost in popularity and rankings bringing more eyes to the book. Great. Let's say after the promo, I'm selling 50 books a day. After 30 days on January 30th, I've sold 2450 in the last 30 days, but on the 31st I've sold 1500 in the last thirty days. Suddenly, because my 30 day sales number is lower my book slips in popularity and ranking. That is the 30 day Cliff.

At least that's the way I understand it.


----------



## 48209 (Jul 4, 2011)

Yup, Deanna.

I did free promo immediately followed by a new release. My 30 days is tomorrow on the new release (God help me, I'm going to have negative numbers is the only way it can get worse) and in the day after that is the 30 after the end of my free promo.

It's not like there's anything I can do about it so... *shrugs* but, I heard all this 30-day bump (oh, I also joined select) and I saw zilch of a bump from anything. I had a 1 day bump of like 9 "extra" sales the day after my freebie ended.

So, I'm either the exception to the rule (altho, we're hearing several people say this now) or the rules have changed somehow again.


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Caitie Quinn said:


> Yup, Deanna.
> 
> I did free promo immediately followed by a new release. My 30 days is tomorrow on the new release (God help me, I'm going to have negative numbers is the only way it can get worse) and in the day after that is the 30 after the end of my free promo.
> 
> ...


Ah. I see. That's a bummer. Sounds like there wasn't enough downloads on the free run to get you more visible on the popularity lists. Thus the 30 day cliff doesn't really come into play.


----------



## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

Doing pretty well, by my modest standards. Had some spillover from an ENT sponsorship in December and then had an ENT bargain books mention in January, so both months were in the low three-figures, better than my normal low two-figures as a result.


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Caitie Quinn said:


> Actually, I was #1 in 2 sub-genres and 1 main genre and hit like 148 on the freebie list so... I feel like this sounds like complaining written out. It isn't. I'm just saying that I don't think that "magic 30 days" really exists any more.


It doesn't sound like complaining. I certainly would have expected some sort of bounce after those results. It's quite possible the alogos are changing. I don't use Select, so I don't have any hard numbers to go off of. I do pay attention to what other people say and your information is certainly useful.


----------



## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

Here I was, thinking the Cliff you were all talking about was the Fiscal Cliff . . . (and then, somehow, no mention of Boehner, Obama, etc. . . . I began to suspect my assumption.)

My January started great, plunged in mid-Jan, but seems to be trending slightly above December, which was better than August-November. On the whole an improvement.

Inspiring to hear of your awesome success stories.

And congrats especially, Christopher (David Petersen): you really deserve your success.


----------



## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

I forgot to add in my Jan update earlier that BN sales, which is usually under $100 for me, have gone up over $200 thus far.    I guess the new book is finally getting Nook owners' attention.

I learn so much from you guys (esp. Super Genius (TM) Phoenix). Tech-wise, I'm pretty slow, but hopefully, one day, I'll be super-good at that part of self-publishing too! Obviously, I also need to eat magic bacon so I can write faster.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> So what's YOUR theory about what's happening?


Hmm, what's happening is that I'm a bit creeped out that you know about my numbers, to be honest.

But, more generally speaking, what's happening is that the freebie promo isn't doing anything to boost a book up any more, likely because of the thousands of freebies flooding the market and spoiling the effectiveness of it.

I do believe that Amazon could not care less about indies and is doing something to keep us in the basement unless we find some other way to stay on top. There are just too many writers reporting sudden poor numbers for this to be merely coincidence.

I don't really mind if there is an "ebb and flow" to sales - I can certainly live with that. The problem is that once you've ebbed yourself into the bottom of the rankings there is little hope of seeing the light of day again. Just really wish there were a way to promote books without throwing ten thousand free ones out in there in the hopes of selling a handful.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Quiss said:


> Hmm, what's happening is that I'm a bit creeped out that you know about my numbers, to be honest.
> 
> But, more generally speaking, what's happening is that the freebie promo isn't doing anything to boost a book up any more, likely because of the thousands of freebies flooding the market and spoiling the effectiveness of it.
> 
> ...


I've never been very enthusiastic about Select. Mainly because I have explicit scenes in my books, which makes POI and ENT won't touch them. Without their support it seems very difficult to generate enough downloads to make a difference.

I could be totally wrong, and I know next to nothing of the underlying mechanisms, but it seems that those who jumped on the bandwagon in the early days have made a killing. Nowadays, Select appears more to be a quick fix.



> Just really wish there were a way to promote books without throwing ten thousand free ones out in there in the hopes of selling a handful.


I think we will have to come up with long term, sustainable strategies that will work over a plethora of outlets.

I wish I knew how, but collecting a readership, fanbase even, that is willing to be contacted by you seems one of the key-points.


----------



## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Selling without giving away thousands of books?

This one works for me:

1. Write a book with interesting characters and clear plot, without errors
2. Put up on all platforms, price according to what you want to get (probably $4.99 or higher)
3. Write a sequel, put that up as well
4. Stop fretting over sales peaks or valleys, rankings or reviews
5. Write the next book

Sure, there are no crazy spikes like with Select, but there is also no realisation, a few days later, that all those sales were artificial. They might lead to some people buying your other books, but mostly there tends to be little loyalty in this group. But because of the above strategy, my overall sales are steadily growing, even though my Amazon sales have completely bombed. There will be other times when Amazon is doing great and the other platforms are not.


----------



## Aya Ling (Nov 21, 2012)

I just surpassed December sales today with a whopping 23 sales   

Series DO sell--I have people buying my 3-book flashcard sets in France and Germany. And weirdly, on Kobo, someone from South Africa went ahead and bought book 1 & 3, which tells me I'd better get book 2 out of Select ASAP!


----------



## MJWare (Jun 25, 2010)

Quiss said:


> I do believe that Amazon could not care less about indies and is doing something to keep us in the basement unless we find some other way to stay on top. There are just too many writers reporting sudden poor numbers for this to be merely coincidence.


Those of us who have been around long enough have seen this so many time that it really does seem like an ebb and flow. Yes, Amazon may have changed something (I think they did, but it took effect around the 10th for some and later for others), but it wasn't designed to hurt indies, it never is. We just get caught in the crossfire.
Somehow, in the long run, we all manage to keep selling books--just hang in there!


----------



## TJHudson (Jul 9, 2012)

Pretty awful. In November and December I was starting to see some promising progress. I was just about to start getting into the realm beyond coffee (I Mean tea) money. However, January has come to a crashing halt, like I've taken a step half a year backwards to when I started.
Oh well, I'm still going to continue and carry on refining and improving my craft and trying to be more prolific.

As a bit of a side question; is there anyone here who has been self published for over a year, constantly produced regular new material but has had only pitiful sales that don't even come close to minimum wage?

I can understand that if someone, for example, only publishes one or two books over a two year period, then chances are (on average, etc etc) they are not going to see much success. 
I don't expect to be a best selling author, what I want to do is make a living from something I love doing.


----------



## Routhwick (Apr 1, 2012)

I'm getting along finely on G+ these days. And have you met my new profile pic there?

So far this month, _Gadsby_'s sales have reached the total garnered in its first calendar month--12. And that scan of the original Wetzel edition's coming to an end tomorrow!

Right now, I'm occupied with transcribing James Barnes' _A Princetonian_ onto Wikisource. Barnes was the author of 1934's _From Then Till Now_, a portion of which I'm using as reference material for the revised _Skipping Fifth_ essay. (What's more, I'm scanning that tomorrow too!)


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

My sales — nothing much to begin with — had slowed down, though not to a grinding halt, but it seems they're already picking up again.
Strange.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Andrew Ashling said:


> My sales - nothing much to begin with - had slowed down, though not to a grinding halt, but it seems they're already picking up again.
> Strange.


There is something I'm seriously not getting. It's about visibility, right? I'm assuming that, if you're off the "new" lists and your ranks are, let's say, below 50k or so, it's not very likely that your books will be found except perhaps through a lucky keyword search.
I've seen folks here mentioning sales picking up, or not doing marketing at all yet still seeing ups and down or even steady increases.

How does this happen? More goat sacrifices? Also-boughts? Or does it basically come down to having several books and readers go on to read others (which then of course improves ranks and also-boughts)

I'm asking for two reasons: One, I'm hoping to quit obsessing over ranks (like Patty suggests!)  and, two, if there is a way to pinpoint up-and-down sales, maybe there is a way to work on that.


----------



## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

TJHudson said:


> I can understand that if someone, for example, only publishes one or two books over a two year period, then chances are (on average, etc etc) they are not going to see much success.


Oh, well maybe THAT explains it.
I'm a slow writer and putting out a book a year is about the best I can do.
Of course it doesn't help that I'm completely hopeless at promotion.


----------



## Writerly Writer (Jul 19, 2012)

TJHudson said:


> As a bit of a side question; is there anyone here who has been self published for over a year, constantly produced regular new material but has had only pitiful sales that don't even come close to minimum wage?


Sounds like you're looking for an explanation. It seems all writers do


----------



## Dan Harris (May 18, 2012)

January's pretty slow, but I was expecting that. I've only got one book out, and only since the end of October. I sold about 60 copies in Nov and Dec, I think mainly to 'early adopters'; friends, family, blog followers. But I think all of those folks have bought it now, so I've only had 8 sales in January across all formats.

I've got a LibraryThing giveaway coming due today, though, so I'll be giving away 61 (of an offered 100) copies of the book, with a polite request for a review. If I get 8-10 (decent) reviews from that I should have enough that Bookbub will accept me for an ad, and then I'll see what bump that gives me. 

I'll be waiting until after I publish my second book in April before I do Bookbub, though, to give folks something else to buy for full-price afterwards


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Quiss said:


> There is something I'm seriously not getting. It's about visibility, right? I'm assuming that, if you're off the "new" lists and your ranks are, let's say, below 50k or so, it's not very likely that your books will be found except perhaps through a lucky keyword search.
> I've seen folks here mentioning sales picking up, or not doing marketing at all yet still seeing ups and down or even steady increases.
> 
> How does this happen? More goat sacrifices? Also-boughts? Or does it basically come down to having several books and readers go on to read others (which then of course improves ranks and also-boughts)
> ...


In my case I _think_ it is because I'm writing in a niche.
People tend to actively seek out books written in a specific genre. There are just not too many of them in my niche. Anyway that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. 
And, of course, there's life outside Amazon.


----------



## the quiet one (Aug 13, 2012)

Quiss said:


> I do believe that Amazon could not care less about indies and is doing something to keep us in the basement unless we find some other way to stay on top. There are just too many writers reporting sudden poor numbers for this to be merely coincidence.


I'd modify this to say that Amazon does not concern itself with individual writers, whether indie or trad-pubbed. They are looking to move as many books (non-free!) as possible and derive the greatest possible revenue from it. An algo change that chops my sales in half but drives overall sales and profits up 10% for Amazon is a perfectly acceptable outcome in their mind. The trick is to figure out what Amazon's data revealed that drove the change, and try to take advantage of it.


----------



## TJHudson (Jul 9, 2012)

Amy Corwin said:


> Oh, well maybe THAT explains it.
> I'm a slow writer and putting out a book a year is about the best I can do.
> Of course it doesn't help that I'm completely hopeless at promotion.


I was being very very general and basing my assumptions. I know in reality there is a massive spectrum of variables, but from the outside it does appear that being consistently prolific is a route to decent success for self published authors. Hence the question I asked.



KJCOLT said:


> Sounds like you're looking for an explanation. It seems all writers do


I've got a fairly good idea why I'm not selling that well at the moment. I hope to address those problems in the coming months.
I was asking more out of a morbid curiosity, that if there's anyone who has _'done everything right'_ for a somewhat decent amount of time and not seen any good results.


----------



## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

Quiss said:


> Hmm, what's happening is that I'm a bit creeped out that you know about my numbers, to be honest.


 

Well, once you've hacked into Amazon's server farm it's amazing what sorts of analytics are revealed.

Or, it could just be I used this plus a little creative 2+2'ing:










That's from KND's Tracker tool: http://tracker.kindlenationdaily.com Highly, highly recommended for stalking detective work!


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> Well, once you've hacked into Amazon's server farm it's amazing what sorts of analytics are revealed.


Dear stalker:

I see what you mean. That's a nifty tool. It does underscore that the 2-day promo did nothing more than boost things for one week. It no longer seems to be a very useful tool for _sales_ in terms of an after-promo bump.

However, it did get my book into a list of potential readers of the second book and a number of reviews for the new title.


----------



## the quiet one (Aug 13, 2012)

Andrew Ashling said:


> I've never been very enthusiastic about Select. Mainly because I have explicit scenes in my books, which makes POI and ENT won't touch them. Without their support it seems very difficult to generate enough downloads to make a difference.


I'm surprised sites don't come up with a means to enable this, because there's certainly a market. Perhaps let website visitors filter books with explicit scenes (or covers?) in or out, and default the display to out (non-explicit)? Then provide the same options to email list subscribers. If a site figures out how to do this, there would certainly be a list of authors ready to sign up.


----------



## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

Monique said:


> Hi Tiffany! Yay!  I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> Have fun at the book signing. I'm too chicken to do one.


I think you'd have a great book signing. I think the key is going local. When I put up that I was doing a book signing at Borders, a local blogger picked it up. I put up flyers at all the coffee shops, etc. I also flyered my school. But there is the fact that your area has to have a lot of people that might come out. And you just tell everyone. 
Besides, you're book is paranormal romance. That genre has got a great following right now.

January is a great time to start planning a book signing, esp. with your new book.  You've got to give a little time for the book store to order books, but I brought in my own books to sell. That made it a lot faster in planning since there was no wait time to receive the books.

There is also another saying, you never know until you try.


----------



## Alondo (Aug 30, 2011)

A bit of a downward slide since December - not catastrophic, but not what I wanted to see either. The post Xmas bump simply hasn't happened this year - well not yet, anyway. I'm not sure why, although I'm sure conspiracy theories will abound.


----------



## Sharebear (Sep 25, 2011)

December was my best month thus far, but January has slid pretty far down on Amazon. I'm worried because the final book in that series doesn't come out for another six weeks at least. 
On the other hand B&N is killing it and I'm thankful for it.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

genevieveaclark said:


> I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. You bemoan your lack of understanding about how things work, then when someone who actually puts the work in to provide rational analysis of hard data - data that is freely available on most books, data that takes about a second to look up if you care to - to give you the answers you claim you want, you tell them it's creepy?


You need to laugh, mainly. Didn't mean for you to get so distraught by my post. 
I didn't know about that service and was glad that Phoenix posted the link. In my line of work, numbers such as these are very confidential info and I hadn't realized that they were so freely available.



genevieveaclark said:


> If you only want to hear what you want to hear, don't come to a public board where there are people who actually know what they're talking about and ask for help. You might actually get it.


Yes, indeedy. Good thing I posted at a public board then, which is probably why I got the link to the tracker. See how that works?

And I'm not "bemoaning". Yes, I'm not happy with the downturn and I'm not the only one moaning. My questions are posted so that I can understand why, given that my reviews have been excellent.

Try to calm down, please.


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

Quiss said:


> My questions are posted so that I can understand why, given that my reviews have been excellent.


Unfortunately, reviews (and general quality of book, by extension) has very little to do with how well a book will sell--unless we're talking about 100+ reviews averaging 4+ stars. It would be nice if quality naturally rose, but it's not the case. Your books, like most, are just seeing a natural slide.

I try to remind myself that my books are just as good when they're ranked at 60k+ in the store as when they're ranked at <2k, but it really doesn't make me feel any better.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

smreine said:


> Unfortunately, reviews (and general quality of book, by extension) has very little to do with how well a book will sell--unless we're talking about 100+ reviews averaging 4+ stars. It would be nice if quality naturally rose, but it's not the case. Your books, like most, are just seeing a natural slide.
> 
> I try to remind myself that my books are just as good when they're ranked at 60k+ in the store as when they're ranked at <2k, but it really doesn't make me feel any better.


yeah. 
I need to find a way to quit obsessing about ranks while still working on finding ways to promote my books. 
I need to quit looking at Robert or Hugh's numbers and try to catch up with someone closer, like A.J. who's shellacking my butt, given that he started close to when I did!


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

Quiss said:


> yeah.
> I need to find a way to quit obsessing about ranks while still working on finding ways to promote my books.
> I need to quit looking at Robert or Hugh's numbers and try to catch up with someone closer, like A.J. who's shellacking my butt, given that he started close to when I did!


I know I'm always harping on this, but I still think there's no replacement for building a mailing list and putting out another book in your series. Are you collecting emails so you can notify readers of the first two books when a third becomes available? It's a passive way to promote your books, and requires a lot less sweat and angst than blog tours and whatnot.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

smreine said:


> I know I'm always harping on this, but I still think there's no replacement for building a mailing list and putting out another book in your series. Are you collecting emails so you can notify readers of the first two books when a third becomes available? It's a passive way to promote your books, and requires a lot less sweat and angst than blog tours and whatnot.


I am writing the third book in the series, which is going well.

Totally late with the email thing! 
In the back of my books I invite people to visit my facebook page so that they'll see when I announce a new release but Facebook has sort of closed that avenue now with their "promotions".

Currently, I'm building a static web page (not blog) which will have a mail list sign up. So I think I will try to get more serious about that. 
I always hesitate to sign up for other people's mail lists for fear of spam so I didn't think that would work all that well. However, given by what people here are saying, I'm increasingly convinced that's the way to go.

I'm also looking forward to the spec-fic promo at the end of the month for my first title and will be running some ads right here on KB. And every few days I'm begging asking a few more "accredited" reviewers to take a look at my books  My current goal is to get listed on Awesome Indies!


----------



## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

Quiss said:


> I need to quit looking at Robert or Hugh's numbers and try to catch up with someone closer, like A.J. who's shellacking my butt, given that he started close to when I did!


Hugh Howey destroys my numbers, of that I'm fairly confident. So does Liliana Hart, Joe Nobody, Bella Andre, Dannika Dark and a host of others. Take heart from this; there are so many indies who trounce the hell outta me that if you keep working, there's a good chance you can join them, or at least make a good living. More releases be the answer, oh, and:



smreine said:


> I know I'm always harping on this, but I still think there's no replacement for building a mailing list and putting out another book in your series. Are you collecting emails so you can notify readers of the first two books when a third becomes available? It's a passive way to promote your books, and requires a lot less sweat and angst than blog tours and whatnot.


Ever try and herd animals into a barnyard they don't want to go into? What about when the gate at the opposite end of the yard is open? This is what it's like to promote yourself without a mailing list. People read your work, they like your work, they're excited about your work, but then life gets in the way and they forget about your work. Having a mailing list they can sign up for gently closes that gate at the other side of the barnyard, and allows you to feed them what they want - more of your work, as it becomes available.

Sorry for any readers that object to this analogy. I don't think of you as animals. Well, maybe a few of you.


----------



## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

This January is actually my best month of sales ever. I'm currently at over 560 sales for the month. My second best month was in February of last year when I sold 480 books. Of course, I have four books out now though.


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

smreine said:


> I know I'm always harping on this, but I still think there's no replacement for building a mailing list and putting out another book in your series. Are you collecting emails so you can notify readers of the first two books when a third becomes available? It's a passive way to promote your books, and requires a lot less sweat and angst than blog tours and whatnot.


What she said. In my opinion the most important tool in an author's box is the mailing list. Besides, of course, you know, good books. After that, a static website where readers can go find your other books and all your outlets.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Deanna Chase said:


> What she said. In my opinion the most important tool in an author's box is the mailing list. Besides, of course, you know, good books. After that, a static website where readers can go find your other books and all your outlets.


K. Done that, far too late, but now I have a list in place thanks to you and smreine's advice.

Strangely enough, now I face a new problem: how do I promote my list?

Any do's and don'ts?


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

Quiss said:


> Currently, I'm building a static web page (not blog) which will have a mail list sign up. So I think I will try to get more serious about that.
> I always hesitate to sign up for other people's mail lists for fear of spam so I didn't think that would work all that well. However, given by what people here are saying, I'm increasingly convinced that's the way to go.


I only sign up for an author's mailing list when I'm seeing if I can help them improve their signup rate, personally (heheh), but many people see it as a service. They WANT to know when the next book with the characters they love will be available. Just make sure to be really overt about the fact that it exists: put it on the front page of your website, stick a link in your author bio so it's on every book page, and encourage signups in your backmatter. People need to know it's there. As long as you treat the list kindly and only poke them when you have a new book out, folks will love hearing from you.


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Andrew Ashling said:


> K. Done that, far too late, but now I have a list in place thanks to you and smreine's advice.
> 
> Strangely enough, now I face a new problem: how do I promote my list?
> 
> Any do's and don'ts?


All the places to put the link:
Front page of website so it's the first thing people see.
Email signature
Facebook page
End of each book with an invitation to sign up
Author Bio
Amazon Author page

Do's: Send a newsletter when you have a new release.
Make sure there is an opt out link (Any professional newsletter service will already have this).
Don'ts: Never sign someone up with out their permission
Don't send chatty nothing letters. People will stop reading and send you to spam

That's all I got.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Deanna Chase said:


> All the places to put the link:
> Front page of website so it's the first thing people see.
> Email signature
> Facebook page
> ...


Thanks. 

Front page of website so it's the first thing people see. ✔ (actually third item in the sidebar - first is free download, second list of vendor-links)
Email signature ✔
End of each book with an invitation to sign up ✔
Author Bio ✔
Amazon Author page ✔
Each and every Amazon book page ✔

To do: Facebook

I'm just too impatient. My list is barely two weeks old. Transferred my old list , got a few new ones. But, well, the books can't have kicked in yet.


----------



## the quiet one (Aug 13, 2012)

Quiss said:


> yeah.
> I need to find a way to quit obsessing about ranks while still working on finding ways to promote my books.
> I need to quit looking at Robert or Hugh's numbers and try to catch up with someone closer, like A.J. who's shellacking my butt, given that he started close to when I did!


I have to remind myself that "AJ" is me. 

I obsess too. It's tough not to do so. What I try to do is look at those who have accomplished what I'd love to accomplish and see what they've done differently than me, and then try to model that. Robert and Hugh and Sara, to use three examples, have at least two different series out. I have 1. I should develop another series. They have 10+ titles out. I have 3. I should write another book, and then another, and then another. Sara has mentioned many times that her mailing list is key. I have 12 people on mine, and I'm guessing many are family. I need to figure out how to get more readers to sign up. Oh, and they've all been at this for several years. I've been published for 4 months. So I need to be patient.

If I do all of that, am I going to wake up tomorrow, or even next year, with triple-digit sales every day? No. But those types of activities will improve the (very very) long odds against it. And they give me less time to obsess over daily fluctuations.


----------



## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

I actually don't have ten titles out, not even counting my two short stories that barely sell. I have seven novels. Hoping it's seventeen by the end of the year, though.


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Andrew Ashling said:


> Thanks.
> 
> Front page of website so it's the first thing people see. ✔ (actually third item in the sidebar - first is free download, second list of vendor-links)
> Email signature ✔
> ...


I have a button as the first thing people see. I don't know if that is better or worse than a link in the sidebar, but I really want it in their face.
http://deannachase.com/
Facebook I used an app: http://apps.facebook.com/involver_wmzssnae/ You can see the widget right next to the Goodreads widget: http://www.facebook.com/DeannaChaseAuthor


----------



## the quiet one (Aug 13, 2012)

RobertJCrane said:


> I actually don't have ten titles out, not even counting my two short stories that barely sell. I have seven novels. Hoping it's seventeen by the end of the year, though.


You'd think I'd notice that since it's the helpful chart in your sig. So... "at least double the number of titles out that I have" would be the correct statement.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Deanna Chase said:


> I have a button as the first thing people see. I don't know if that is better or worse than a link in the sidebar, but I really want it in their face.
> http://deannachase.com/
> Facebook I used an app: http://apps.facebook.com/involver_wmzssnae/ You can see the widget right next to the Goodreads widget: http://www.facebook.com/DeannaChaseAuthor


Yep, I see what you mean. It _is_ in your face.  The procedure is the same though: a click brings you to the form. Hm&#8230; I'll be a-pondering.
Thanks for the Facebook app link. Checked it out and liked your page while I was there.

If I might trouble you some more.

I have a personal profile (http://www.facebook.com/andrew.ashling). You have an author's _page_. Why?


----------



## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

ajalbrinck said:


> You'd think I'd notice that since it's the helpful chart in your sig.


I just assumed that by now my signature pretty much fades into the background for the regulars.


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Andrew Ashling said:


> I have a personal profile (http://www.facebook.com/andrew.ashling). You have an author's _page_. Why?


I have both. Here is my personal profile: http://www.facebook.com/CDLampwork

Why do I have both? Well, I wanted my author page to be just about my books so my non-reader friends weren't inundated with book talk all the time. My personal page is my social playground. When I have new releases I post it both places. Also the author page lets people just like my page without having to become my friend if they aren't comfortable with that. Though I pretty much accept anyone as long as they aren't creepy scammy dudes.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Deanna Chase said:


> I have both. Here is my personal profile: http://www.facebook.com/CDLampwork
> 
> Why do I have both? Well, I wanted my author page to be just about my books so my non-reader friends weren't inundated with book talk all the time. My personal page is my social playground. When I have new releases I post it both places. Also the author page lets people just like my page without having to become my friend if they aren't comfortable with that. Though I pretty much accept anyone as long as they aren't creepy scammy dudes.


Thanks. Lots to think about. (Which is a good thing)



> Though I pretty much accept anyone as long as they aren't creepy scammy dudes.


That's me ruled out then.


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Andrew Ashling said:


> Thanks. Lots to think about. (Which is a good thing)
> 
> That's me ruled out then.


lol! Well, I'd make an exception this once.


----------



## MJWare (Jun 25, 2010)

I'm seeing some of my sales starting to come back.
My best selling free book was around #150, then fell to 400--now it's back to 201.
My best selling regular book was staying strong at #2,500 then sank close to 5,000. Now it's climbed back to 3,838. However, I did drop the price back down to 99 cents and also schools are out today. I imagine there's lots of mothers who would be glad to spend 99 cents if it will keep the kids out of their hair for a few hours, making an ebook a no-brainer.


----------



## sarracannon (Apr 19, 2011)

Just wanted to say thanks to Deanna for posting about the facebook app for the mailing list. I am going to go put that on my page too! 

I started late with my mailing list and it took me a long while to build it up. I haven't sent out much mail at all except my two releases last year. Today I decided to post about my birthday week celebration and giveaway blog post since I'm giving away tshirts, but I had 3 people unsubscribe. It made me sad.   I'm thinking maybe just new release mailings from now on and not sending the giveaway ones anymore. Anyone else have advice on that? (Sorry to hijack the thread. Maybe if I add in that I'm hoping to improve my January sales by talking about mailing lists....?)


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

sarracannon said:


> Just wanted to say thanks to Deanna for posting about the facebook app for the mailing list. I am going to go put that on my page too!
> 
> I started late with my mailing list and it took me a long while to build it up. I haven't sent out much mail at all except my two releases last year. Today I decided to post about my birthday week celebration and giveaway blog post since I'm giving away tshirts, but I had 3 people unsubscribe. It made me sad.  I'm thinking maybe just new release mailings from now on and not sending the giveaway ones anymore. Anyone else have advice on that? (Sorry to hijack the thread. Maybe if I add in that I'm hoping to improve my January sales by talking about mailing lists....?)


If I wanted to do something like that I think I'd just make another dedicated list, and explain the difference _very_ clearly.


----------



## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

Agree, I'm installing that FB app thingy too...



sarracannon said:


> Today I decided to post about my birthday week celebration and giveaway blog post since I'm giving away tshirts, but I had 3 people unsubscribe.


People are weird. I've had them unsubscribe before when I sent out a new release newsletter. Like...WTF did you think you were going to get from me? Traffic reports from the Atlanta Metroplex?



sarracannon said:


> (Sorry to hijack the thread. Maybe if I add in that I'm hoping to improve my January sales by talking about mailing lists....?)


Please. Most of us have hijacked more threads than Winona Ryder.


----------



## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

RobertJCrane said:


> People are weird. I've had them unsubscribe before when I sent out a new release newsletter. Like...WTF did you think you were going to get from me? Traffic reports from the Atlanta Metroplex?


I figure that just means that they forgot who I am, so it's probably better if they're not on my mailing list eating up space anyway.


----------



## ChristopherDavidPetersen (Mar 24, 2011)

Deanna Chase said:


> I have a button as the first thing people see. I don't know if that is better or worse than a link in the sidebar, but I really want it in their face.
> http://deannachase.com/
> Facebook I used an app: http://apps.facebook.com/involver_wmzssnae/ You can see the widget right next to the Goodreads widget: http://www.facebook.com/DeannaChaseAuthor


Wow, am I ever doing it wrong...

Just checked out your sites, Deanna. I'm really impressed. Guess what I'll be working on starting this weekend? 
Also, thanks SO much for being so helpful.


----------



## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

If you use MailChimp for your newsletters, you can embed the form right onto a FB page.

http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/how-do-i-integrate-facebook-with-mailchimp

You can see mine (Email Signup) here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Monique-Martin-Author/132268193491541


----------



## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

That facebook app is nifty. It gave me some fits at first, but then I figured out what I was doing wrong.  (Missing darned tag. Html can be so frustrating.) Anyway, thanks for the tip!!


----------



## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

I keep hearing about mailing lists, but I don't know how to get one. No one has sent me fan mail yet. I wouldn't know where to send a newsletter or announcement.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Monique said:


> If you use MailChimp for your newsletters, you can embed the form right onto a FB page.
> 
> http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/how-do-i-integrate-facebook-with-mailchimp
> 
> You can see mine (Email Signup) here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Monique-Martin-Author/132268193491541


NICE!
Thank you. I just signed up with them. Would have taken me a while to come across this.


----------



## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

Just as a reminder, a previous thread on the topic mentioned that when people sign up they will get your address. It's best to use a P.O. Box.


----------



## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Awesome, Monique. A while ago I got a different link to add a signup form to FB, but it was so complicated and I couldn't get it to work. This one worked and I now have a form on my FB page!


----------



## sarracannon (Apr 19, 2011)

RobertJCrane said:


> Please. Most of us have hijacked more threads than Winona Ryder.


This made my day right here. Thank you Robert.


----------



## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

sarracannon said:


> This made my day right here. Thank you Robert.


Thank goodness someone found it amusing. Sometimes I feel like that stand-up comic that's playing to an empty room. "Wrecked 'em? Damn near killed 'em!" Da dum dum! Ah, I never get tired of that joke...


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

RobertJCrane said:


> Agree, I'm installing that FB app thingy too...
> 
> Please. Most of us have hijacked more threads than Winona Ryder.


lol! Good one.

I'm glad the Facebook app was helpful. Since I don't use MailChimp, I had to hunt around to figure out how to get my newsletter on FB. I'm happy to pass on the info.


----------



## HeidiHall (Sep 5, 2010)

Monique said:


> If you use MailChimp for your newsletters, you can embed the form right onto a FB page.
> 
> http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/how-do-i-integrate-facebook-with-mailchimp
> 
> You can see mine (Email Signup) here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Monique-Martin-Author/132268193491541


Thank you so much for posting this, Monique! Hugely helpful.


----------

